With a tradition of military service in his family, Chris Walker chose a university that many LGBTQ people would not have chosen: The California Maritime Academy—a campus of the California State University and one of the five US Merchant Marine academies. Chris created his own safe space by getting actively involved with student life; he
This year, Pride Foundation was saddened by the passing of Leonard Tritsch, a beloved member of the Northwest LGBTQ community. Len was a loyal Pride Foundation supporter who first connected with our work more than 20 years ago. He was a passionate advocate for health and athletics, and the dedication and tenacity that he brought
Ed Estes, a long-time Pride Foundation donor that recently passed away, worked his entire life to advance equality for the LGBTQ community. According to his good friend Jim Malatak, he was a shy, quiet guy most of the time—that is, until you got him talking politics. Working on the early campaigns of Cal Anderson and
Interviews like the one I recently conducted with 2015 Pride Foundation scholar, Ari Robbins, are important reminders to check my expectations at the door. Knowing that Ari would be starting law school in a few short weeks at the University of Washington, I made plans to engage them in a conversation about advocacy law and
It was over thirty years ago that the first case of HIV/AIDS was recorded in the United States, and the stories of how life felt for gay men at that time are beginning to fade. The facts recorded in history books and the disease trajectory described in medical journals do not adequately express the humanity
When people think of competitive athletes who identify as LGBTQ, many imagine that finding support amongst fellow teammates would be the hardest part of being the only gay team member. For Pride Foundation fundholders Jordan Goldwarg and Sam McVeety, however, it was more than that—not only did they feel different from their teammates, they also
Sounding slightly weary, Pride Foundation fundholder Carol Kerley answered the phone on a crisp fall day to talk with me about her life, her wife, and their plans for the future. Explaining that her basement was currently flooded, she nevertheless jumped head-first into her story—leaving her current problems at the door. Carol Kerley and Linda
With the afternoon Whidbey Island sun shining on her face, Heni Barnes stood up in the bright living room and shared a story about her mother threatening to disown her after finding out she was gay, and the period of housing instability that followed. We watched. We listened. We empathized, but didn’t know how to
“We always joke that the only Pride Parade in Lewistown is our family walking down the street,” says Pride Foundation scholar Michelle Knerr in regards to the LGBTQ presence in her rural Montana hometown. As someone who spent the majority of her childhood on a ranch where her closest neighbor was a mile and a
Tami Lubitsh, a 2014 Pride Foundation Scholar living in Alaska, has always been acutely aware of the suffering of other people. It is this awareness that eventually led her to become a psychologist and, despite being diagnosed with breast cancer in the spring of 2013, seek her doctorate in psychology from Alaska Pacific University. With