Pride 2021 spotlight: Diversify Outdoors
This group of storytellers, athletes, activists, and entrepreneurs works to make the outdoors more accessible for everyone.
Get access to everything we publish when you sign up for Outside+.
Throughout the month of June, we’re highlighting organizations and initiatives that advocate for greater outdoor access among the LGBTQ+ community. Today’s feature is Diversify Outdoors, a collective of storytellers, athletes, activists, and entrepreneurs dedicated to promoting diversity in the outdoors.
If you know the history of Pride, you know that the first Pride occurred in June 1969, when protesters fought the police invasion of the Stonewall Inn, a prominent gay bar in New York City. At the time it was illegal for people to wear clothes traditionally assigned to the opposite gender, so trans and gender non-conforming members of the community where heavily targeted by the police.
Many credit the start of the Stonewall Inn riot to a Black trans woman, Marsha P. Johnson. Without her, Pride as we know it might not exist today. This means we can’t talk about Pride without talking about all under-represented communities. This is where Diversify Outdoors comes in.
Founded by Danielle Williams, who also started the influential Melanin Basecamp publication, Diversify Outdoors is a collective of storytellers, athletes, activists, and entrepreneurs dedicated to promoting diversity in the outdoors where BIPOC, LGBTQ+, and under-represented communities have traditionally been marginalized. They accomplish this through education, advocacy, and the amplification of under-represented stories.
Actions you can take today to make the outdoors a more diverse and inclusive space include visiting Diversity Outdoors’ resource page to educate yourself on allyship, diversifying your feed by following community leaders listed on their connect page, and signing up for their newsletter to get regular updates and resources.
