“In North Idaho, discrimination is alive and well,” says Juli Stratton, Executive Director of North Idaho Pride Alliance (NIPA) in Coeur D’Alene, a Pride Foundation Community Grantee. “We hear people in North Idaho say, ’We don’t have any LGBTQ people here.’ But we know that statement is not true. That mentality is changing, in part
Last year, Jesse, a 15 year-old trans man in Missoula, Montana, was looking for young people like himself. He found them at Youth Forward, EmpowerMT’s after school program for high school aged LGBTQ+ youth. “Before getting involved, Jesse didn’t have much information about LGBTQ+ issues or the community,” Claire Michelson, EmpowerMT’s Youth Programs Coordinator said.
“At the moment we won, it hit me—this wasn’t just a city or state win, this was national. It was for the whole world,” remembers MoHagani Magnetek, a leader in the fight against anti-trans Proposition 1 in Alaska. This spring, in what became a historic vote, Anchorage residents voted to uphold their local non-discrimination ordinance—making