Pride 2021 spotlights: The full collection

Throughout the month of June, we ran a special series highlighting organizations and initiatives advocating for greater LGBTQ+ access in the outdoor and healthy living spaces. We profiled community groups, national event organizers, nonprofits, summer camp operators, professional mentoring organizations, and many more to show how much is being done—and how much remains to be done—in making healthy living and outdoor participation more equitable for all.

We invite you to revisit the 30 groups we profiled last month to see what they’re all about and how you can get involved if you want to support this important work.

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Athlete Ally

For many in the LGBTQ+ community, access to sports isn’t guaranteed. Thirty-two states have passed or introduced legislation that bans participation. Elsewhere, hostile coaches and locker room environments turn away LGBTQ+ athletes, denying them the opportunity to enjoy the sports they love and benefit from the fitness, community, and other benefits inherent in an active lifestyle.

Athlete Ally is the leading voice for LGBTQ+ folx in sports. Its initiatives include organizing training for coaches and teams on how to create safe spaces for LGBTQ+ athletes; commissioning studies to understand the unique barriers LGBTQ+ people in sports face; and rallying the sports community to fight back against discriminatory bills that would restrict access and limit participation.

Join the Athlete Ally community by signing its Equality Pledge: “To lead your athletic community to respect and welcome all persons, regardless of their perceived or actual sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression.”

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Pride 5k

Founded by nonbinary runner Nikki Hiltz, the Pride 5k is a virtual event to raise money for the Trevor Project. Hiltz is a six-time All-American collegiate athlete who came out as a lesbian in 2014 and non-binary this past March.

All proceeds of the virtual race, which attracted thousands of runners last year, are donated to the Trevor Project. Founded in 1998, The Trevor Project provides essential resources to the LBGTQ+ community, including guides on coming out and suicide prevention. The organization conducts important research and advocacy that is essential to saving the lives of those in the LBGTQ+ community.

A recent Trevor Project study found that 42 percent of LGBTQ+ youth seriously considered attempting suicide in the past year, including more than half of transgender and nonbinary youth. Often this is due to harassment and bullying, as well as discriminatory policies and laws that target LGBTQ+ youth.

Sign up here for the Pride 5k, which takes place on July 17. Or donate directly to the Trevor Project here.

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Pride Rides VT

Rock gardens, babyheads, downed logs…mountain biking is a really tough sport for a newbie to master. Now imagine riding your first singletrack while also being the only queer rider in the crew. It can be a big challenge, especially in a rural community where support systems don’t exist.

That’s why organizations like Pride Rides VT are so important. They create space for under-represented communities to network, learn from one another, gain strength, and—yes—endo together. And this is essential in driving participation within the sports we love.

Founded by professional bike mechanic and trail advocate Kris Hunt, Pride Rides serves as a safe and welcoming opportunity for members of the LGBTQ+ community and allies to ride mountain bikes together. In addition to monthly meet-ups, Pride Rides VT leads critical mass rides in the state capital, sponsors an entry-level race team, and hosts skills clinics in partnership with Stowe Mountain Bike Academy to help queer riders progress.

Pride Rides VT is currently seeking $15,000 in donations to build a fleet of mountain bikes to help get more new riders into the sport. You can contribute here.

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Human Rights Campaign

If you’re looking to become an ally of the LGBTQ+ community, a great place to start is the Human Rights Campaign (HRC). Founded in 1980 and boasting more than 3 million members, HRC is one of the nation’s leading advocacy organizations for queer Americans. Throughout its history, HRC has played a major role in combatting “don’t ask, don’t tell” policies; making marriage equality the law of the land; and other initiatives.

Even in 2021, federal law still does not protect people from discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity. Many of our favorite places to recreate operate under state and local policies that proactively discriminate against members of the LGBTQ+ community, reducing access and belonging.

Right now, advocates in Congress are working to pass the the Equality Act to ensure that LGBTQ+ folx are legally protected from discrimination in the workplace, housing, financing, education, and even in sports. Unfortunately, the bill is currently stalled in the Senate. Here are four easy actions you can take right now to help get it passed.

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Brave Trails

There is a special magic that comes with traveling as a young person. It gives you the space to truly discover, explore, and find yourself—and to learn from others from different backgrounds. For many of us, that first away-from-home experience is summer camp. And now LGBTQ+ teens have an option to enjoy a transformational experience in the great outdoors with other queer kids and counselors, thanks to Brave Trails’ summer camp.

Brave Trails is the epitome of a safe space. With two locations in the forests of California and Maryland, this residential camp hosts kids for one week with hand-picked volunteer staff who are there to be mentors and provide leadership opportunities for LGBTQ+ youth. Empowering independence and celebrating identities, Brave Trails is an LGBTQ+ centered space, where pronouns are respected and facilities are genderless.

Brave Trails also aims to provide financial assistance to campers in need, which is where your support can be felt. You can donate here. Or, if you know a young person who may want to attend, they can join the waitlist for any last minute summer 2021 slots that open up.

Looking for other outdoorsy summer camps for LGBTQ+ youth? Check out Camp Outright (VT), Camp Aranu’tiq (NH), Camp Ten Trees (WA), Camp OUTdoors (AZ), and Camp Lilac (OH).

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Stamina Racing Collective

Founded in 2020, in Minneapolis, Minn., Stamina Racing Collective is a non-profit FTW (Femme, Trans, Women) race team in the sports of road, gravel, cyclocross, and mountain biking.

Currently, just 15 percent of USA Cycling registered competitors are those in women’s fields, and even less across all BIPOC groups with estimates in the 8 to 10 percent range. To address this, Stamina Racing Collective brings a three-tiered approach of mentorship, accessibility, and community development to break down barriers that often lead to the exclusion of these groups.

Actions can include everything from covering startup costs of racing, with a specific focus on BIPOC and LGBTQ+ communities, to publishing reports on factors that limit participation from under-represented communities, to consulting with race promoters to implement more inclusive policies at their events. Through their efforts they have become a leading advocate for systemic change in biking racing.

To support their efforts both on and off the course, consider donating to the cause.

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PFLAG

Are you a parent, friend, or co-worker of a gay hiker, cyclist, yoga teacher, or fitness instructor? Have you heard their stories of feeling marginalized, excluded, or worse in settings that should be open and welcoming to all? Then PFLAG is for you.

Allyship is essential to making all sports and outdoor spaces welcoming and inclusive. The first and largest organization of its kind, PFLAG was founded to serve LGBTQ+ folx along with their parents, families, and friends. It doesn’t operate exclusively in the outdoor space, but it does offer a ton of incredible resources for people who are looking to be allies, as well as resources for those looking to come out of the closet.

Being an ally isn’t about being political, but it is about creating a space that is safe and welcoming for identities that may be different than yours. Allies take the burden off of under-represented communities to advocate for themselves, which is important whether you’re at the trailhead, in a yoga studio, or working an outdoor industry trade show. In spaces such as these, creating an environment where LGBTQ+ people can feel comfortable being their authentic selves will lift up the whole community and experience.

Start your ally journey, or learn new ways that you can be an even more effective ally here.

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Transathlete.com

Launched by groundbreaking athlete Chris Mosier, Transathlete.com is a one-stop shop for information on trans inclusion in sports. A trans man and accomplished triathlete, Mosier has broken down many barriers. He was a primary driver of change in the IOC standards regarding inclusivity in competition, and in 2015 he became the first trans man to compete against cis men in a world championship race. He’s the first known transgender athlete to compete in the Olympic trials, and he’s even graced the pages of ESPN The Magazine‘s Body Issue.

When not competing, Chris is an outspoken advocate for trans inclusion in sports. His website offers everything from a glossary of terms to know to a state-by-state breakdown of policies for trans participation in sports.

Looking to take action? Visit the site’s action page to view the status of discriminatory legislation across the country and what you can do to help defeat these bills.

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Venture Out Project

No guide to outdoor-oriented LGBTQ+ resources and organizations is complete without the Venture Out Project. Founded by Perry Cohen in 2014, Venture Out is a true pioneer in creating safe spaces for queer folx in the outdoors.

Venture Out has a twofold mission. First, it offers experiences for LGBTQ+ outdoor enthusiasts, ranging from day hikes to wilderness backpacking, whitewater rafting, and service-oriented trips in national parks. Second, it works directly with organizations, businesses, and schools on workshops that build welcoming and identity-affirming environments for LGBTQ+ individuals in outdoor settings. Venture Out has led training sessions with industry leaders such as REI, Eddie Bauer, and Marmot.

You can get involved by attending one of their day hikes, signing up for one of their trips, or working with them on leading a workshop at your place of work.

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Capital Climbers

Starting a new sport like climbing can be intimidating, what with all the new gear, terminology, and skills. On top of that, there’s also the social anxiety of finding and meeting new climbing partners. For many in the LGBTQ+ community, it’s intimidating to walk into that climbing gym or up to the local crag for the first time, which is why a support network like Capital Climbers is so valuable.

Serving the greater DC metro area, Capital Climbers works to foster community and provide mentorship to new and veteran climbers alike. They offer gym meet-ups at Earth Treks in Arlington, Va., and Rockville, Md., as well as Sport Rock in Alexandria, Va. They also organize meet-ups at crags across the Mid-Atlantic for all ability levels.

You can join the Capital Climbers community on Facebook to see where they will be climbing next. And if you’re not in the DC area, check out these other similar groups: QuICK Climb in Boston, Mass., Queer Crush at Touchstone locations in California, CRUX Climbing in New York, and LGBTQ+ Climbing Nights at Petra Cliffs in Burlington, Vt. Many in-person events at these organizations were on pause for COVID, but are restarting as states begin to safely ease restrictions.

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Diversify 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.

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OUTrun

Since the first jogger laced up the first pair of Nikes, there have been three consistent barriers that keep people from running: weather, safety, and lack of community. Denver-based OUTrun can’t make the sun shine, but it is working hard at solving the other two issues by creating running meet-ups where LGBTQ+ runners feel welcome, safe, and supported as they find their way into the sport.

OUTrun was co-founded by professional runners and LGBTQ+ couple Addie Bracy and Corey Conner, who found confidence in their own identities through running. They were inspired to create the organization to provide other queer runners this same empowering space. A growing national network of ambassadors serves as community organizers, coordinating group runs and serving as a resource for fellow LGBTQ+ athletes.

The group’s website inspires direct outreach from runner to runner, as well as connections to the individual ambassadors. You can also get involved by reaching out directly to info@outrunning.org.

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RIDE

Founded by trans athlete and longtime cycling industry pro Molly Cameron, Riders Inspiring Diversity and Equality (RIDE) is a newly formed organization that aims to become a leading resource for the cycling industry to build a more inclusive culture for the LGBTQ+ community.

In addition to Cameron, RIDE’s team includes lawyer and DEI expert Christine Kalkschmid, professor and ethics expert Dr. Cara Gillis, and organizer/policy expert Vivian Satterfield. Drawing from their collective expertise, RIDE will interface with the outdoor sports industry to break down barriers for LGBTQ+ athletes through education, training, assessments, and the development and implementation of strategic action plans.

Right now, RIDE is seeking funds to get the organization up and running for long-term success.

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OUTVentures

Started by Ed Ferguson in 1994 to meet a need for adventure programming unique to queer outdoor folx, OUTVentures is one of the pioneers in the LGBTQ+ outdoor world.

Its mission is to “promote a positive attitude, exemplary values, service, health, and social equality through outdoor recreation.” By creating a safe space for like-minded and queer-identifying enthusiasts, OUTVentures hopes to inspire people to set out into the wild world as their authentic selves.

With trips ranging across the Pacific Northwest, OUTVentures leads everything from day hikes to camping trips to whitewater rafting. The adventures are free or low-cost to members.

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LGBTQ+ Outdoors

Offering a wide range of services—everything from outdoor instructional videos to a comprehensive LGBTQ+ campground guide—the resource center called LGBTQ+ Outdoors is a great tool for planning your next road trip or adventure. If there’s an event or festival you don’t want to miss, you’ll find it here.

Case in point: According to LGBTQ+ Outdoors, this September, the largest LGBTQ+ campground in Texas, the Rainbow Ranch, will host an event called LGBTQ+ Outdoorfest. The festival packs all the fun of a summer camp for adults into one weekend, offering workshops on everything from nature photography and fly fishing to birding and archery. Other events include family dinners, bonfires, yoga, and fireside chats with guides and instructors.

Throughout the rest of the year, LGBTQ+ Outdoors is a treasure trove of content for members of the queer community looking to get outside.

To join the community and receive notifications about new stories and events, consider signing up for the organization’s newsletter.

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Wild Diversity

Making the outdoors a more welcoming place for queer adventurers is critically important, but to create real and lasting change we also need to develop a generation of leaders and teachers who represent a broader slice of the trail-going world. Wild Diversity is working to create opportunities for BIPOC and LGBTQ+ enthusiasts to step into leadership by hosting outdoor adventures and educational workshops that build knowledge, confidence, and stewardship skills.

Serving the greater Portland, Ore., area, Wild Diversity was founded by Mercy M’fon Shammah, who brings 15 years of community-building and education experience to the group. Wild Diversity runs programs ranging from youth ecology classes to birding, paddling, and backpacking trips.

If you’d like to get involved, you can donate to the group help keep program costs low or free for participants.

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Unlikely Hikers

Unlikely Hikers is a group that exists to challenge the extremely narrow public perception of who is outdoorsy. An Instagram community in the virtual world with in-person group hikes, it defines itself as “a diverse, anti-racist, body-liberating outdoor community featuring the underrepresented outdoorsperson.”

Founded by Jenny Bruso, Unlikely Hikers does much more than just offer group hikes. With Bruso’s leadership and support from Gregory Packs, the group created the first-ever line of Plus Size Backpacks to ensure that all bodies can hike and enjoy the outdoors with the gear they need. Bruso has also been a vocal advocate for activewear that is both fashionable and available for all body sizes and types.

Unlikely Hikers also has a podcast that provides a platform from those often not heard from in the outdoor space. You can support the mission and/or join the group by following along on Instagram and donating.

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Get Out and Trek

Get Out and Trek started as a community group and advocacy organization that leads adventures for LGBTQ+ outdoor enthusiasts all over North America. Its members still do, but the group has also launched a unique and important initiative with its Outdoor Equality Index (OEI), which tracks how outdoor brands are engaging with the LGBTQ+ community.

The OEI is an annual survey that strives to provide “transparency on the outdoor industry’s engagement with the LGBTQ+ community,” with the aim that the industry will use this data to drive strategies around authentic engagement with the queer community—and not just because the LGBTQ+ community represents $1.3 trillion in spending power that has largely been overlooked.

The inaugural survey just closed in May, and findings will be released soon. Major brands such as REI and Patagonia participated, as did nonprofits like American Hiking Society.

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Queer Nature

Indigenous cultures have a long history of celebrating queer and gender non-conforming members of their communities. Such individuals were often looked to for their wisdom, offering perspectives from both masculine and feminine points of view and viewed as community leaders.

Queer Nature, founded by Pınar Sinopoulos-Lloyd, draws on this rich indigenous history of celebrating and uplifting queer voices to create “ecological awareness and place-based skills as vital and often overlooked parts of the healing and wholing of populations who have been marginalized and even represented as ‘unnatural.’”

The focus of this group is less on outdoor recreation, as these activities often are not safe spaces for LGBTQ+ individuals. Instead, the organization bases its curriculum on naturalist knowledge, wilderness and survival skills, natural crafts, and other nature-centered skills as a way to reclaim the outdoors for queer folx.

To help keep costs of their programs low, you can donate to support their efforts.

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The Out Foundation

Fairly or unfairly, many gyms and Crossfit studios have a reputation for competitive, macho-minded aggression. And that perception is keeping people from accessing resources that help them get healthy and find community. The Out Foundation aims to change that reality.

The foundation’s mission is to “remove the barriers that block LGBTQ+ individuals’ access and participation in fitness, health, and wellness, ensuring their success.” One of its most generous and notable programs is Out Athlete, which funds one year of Crossfit memberships for LGBTQ+ young people. The Out Foundation also provides aspiring fitness enthusiasts with weekly goals, nutrition counseling, and apparel discounts. Finally, the group’s Out Athletics program hosts inclusive workouts at fitness facilities around the globe. Every workout is designed to engage all participants, whether novice or professional.

To support the group, consider making a donation.

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Trans Yoga Teacher

Walking into a yoga studio for the first time can be very intimidating. You tend to see fit people in stylish yoga attire, and everybody seems to know the routine and lingo except you. An activity meant for relaxation and mindfulness can quickly become an anxiety-inducing experience. This is especially true for queer and trans folx.

Allé, a trans yogi, aims to change that with Trans Yoga Teacher, which offers body-positive and queer-friendly spaces in yoga. Classes are beginner-friendly and often focus on meditation for restoration and healing. Not only does the group teach classes in person and online, it also hosts trainings for working with yoga studios to foster trans-inclusive spaces.

Because many in the LGBTQ+ face additional financial hardships, whether from job discrimination or medical costs for gender-affirming care, Allé is rasing funds to underwrite participation in their classes.

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Gay Games

The Olympics have a checkered history when it comes to welcoming and celebrating LGBTQ+ athletes. Some sports are inclusive and have been for decades; others remain closed. Some nations (think Sochi in 2014) are actively hostile, with anti-gay laws on the books that exclude and endanger athletes. And of course trans and gender non-conforming competitors continue to fight biased policies that exclude them.

The Gay Games was founded in 1982 by decathlete Dr. Tom Wadellis as an antidote. For 30 years, it has celebrated diversity and inclusion while conducting competition at a high international level.

Like the Olympics, the Gay Games occurs every four years and rotates locations. The inaugural games occurred in San Francisco and has since traveled the globe, landing in cities such as Paris, Sydney, and Vancouver. Past games have hosted more than 10,000 athletes from all over the world who compete in 36 sports ranging from swimming to track and field, trail running, soccer, rugby, racket sports, and sailing. In November 2022, the Gay Games will take place in Hong Kong. To support the event, allies can register, donate, or volunteer.

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Pull for Pride

New Zealand’s historic selection of Laurel Hubbard to compete in the Tokyo Olympic affirms the advocacy work that Pull for Pride is doing. That’s because Hubbard will become the first out trans woman to compete in the games when she participates in the powerlifting events. Her inclusion in the games is a watershed moment for trans inclusion in sports, not just because she’s competing at the highest amateur level, but also because she is representing and backed by an entire country.

Here in the United States, Pull for Pride has been fighting for this same level of inclusion in strength sports such as powerlifting. The organization came to life in response to the 2019 decision by USA Powerlifting (USAPL) to ban trans individuals from competing in the division consistent with their gender identity. Pull for Pride is working to rally athletes and state organizations to draft a policy that is consistent with current IOC standards. So far, USAPL has rejected this effort, which means that the Olympic opportunity available to New Zealand athletes is not provided to Americans.

Pull for Pride has also created the Share the Platform grant program, which directly funds gym memberships and gear for transgender, gender non-conforming, non-binary, and intersex athletes who need assistance to participate in strength sports. To get involved, consider contributing to the grant program.

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LGBT SportSafe

It’s no secret that the culture of sports at times can be hostile to LGBTQ+ athletes. In a recent report, LGBT SportSafe shared disturbing proof: The organization’s survey found that 85 percent of queer athletes have experienced slurs; 70 percent say that homophobia is worse in sports than society; and 84 percent say they have witnessed or experienced instances of homophobia. LGBT SportSafe is working to change that through education and by certifying institutions that provide and host sports teams.

LGBT SportSafe uses a unique “3-Peat” model, built around programming, policy, and public awareness to foster a sense of inclusion in organized sports. It builds inclusion goals around these three pillars, focusing on creating inclusive policies for athletes, training coaches, and administrators, and creating public-facing campaigns to promote public awareness around the experiences of LGBTQ+ athletes. These goals are then used as benchmarks to encourage organizations to implement inclusive strategies. Organizations then receive Bronze, Silver, or Gold Medallions highlighting their progress.

LGBT SportSafe works with a range of institutions from local youth organizations through Division-1 collegiate athletics. It currently has a number of well-known colleges and conferences participating in its program, including the University of Oregon and the University of Colorado. You can use the organization’s toolkit to encourage athletic organizations in your area to get certified.

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Front Runners

Founded in 1974, just five years after the Stonewall Riots, Front Runners became an important part of building community in the early days of the gay rights movement. From the first chapter, which started in San Francisco as a way to bring LGBTQ+ runners together, Front Runners has grown into a truly international community that now boasts local chapters across five continents with 56 in the United States alone. And it’s no longer just for runners. Many of the chapters welcome walkers, too.

You can join a local chapter by searching the international website for a Front Runner chapter near you. All chapters operate autonomously to best serve the unique needs of their communities, but a mainstay of the network is a calendar of regularly scheduled group runs. Some chapters also even organize large events, such as the San Diego Chapter’s Pride 5K, to raise money for local LGBTQ+ organizations. Don’t see a chapter in your area? Reach out to a Front Runner regional representative to talk about how you can start one.

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Yoga Forward

Yoga Forward is a Salt Lake City-based nonprofit that shares yoga practices with “people who experience vulnerability or trauma at different points of their lives.” This includes at-risk youth, LGBTQ+ folx, veterans, prisoners, and other under-served populations.

A key factor in the organization’s focus on LGBTQ+ young people is the heartbreaking rate of suicide in this population: It’s the single greatest cause of death for LGBTQ+ youth. In Yoga Forward’s home state of Utah alone, suicide rates for youth ages 11 to 17 have tripled in the last decade (according to the Utah State Health Department), and LGBTQ+ youth are 5 times as likely to have attempted suicide compared to their heterosexual and cisgender peers.

To address this, Yoga Forward tailors its programming, with its cornerstone 200-hour teacher training, as a way to diversify who leads classes and how the instruction can support first-time LGBTQ+ participants and young people finding their path. There’s also an Out Together yoga retreat designed to help closeted LGBTQ+ folx and their families navigate the coming out process in a safe environment.

Yoga Forward provides scholarships for these programs, which you support by donating here.

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Out Cycling Fearless Flyers

Bikes are a means of conveyance, but time and again they’ve also proven their values as tools for change. Building on this legacy is Fearless Flyers, a program run by Out Cycling, a popular LGBTQ+ social group in the greater New York City metro area. Fearless Flyers works to combat isolation and promote overall well-being via cycling for LGBTQ+ youth. Each group of young people (ages 16 to 25) participate in a 10-week training program designed to build cycling and leadership skills. There’s also a strong bike safety element in partnership with the New York Department of Transportation and Bike NY.

Program participants acquire the fitness and skills that help them advance from “never ever” to “let’s keep going”; the mentoring and community aspects also provide an important social support network to help combat isolation many LGBTQ+ youth feel.

Out Cycling also organizes group rides and events for adult LGBTQ+ cyclists. These events are categorized into easy rider, steady eddy, and speed freak, providing a space for all kinds of cyclists, and are central to raising funds to support Fearless Flyers.

You can join Out Cycling here or donate directly to the Fearless Flyers program here.

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Ski Buddies

Founded in 2001, Ski Buddies is a club for LGBTQ+ folx in the Northwest who enjoy snowsports. The group hosts regular community events and organizes get-togethers for all disciplines, including alpine, nordic, and backcountry skiing; snowboarding; and snowshoeing. Trips range from local one-day outings at Stevens Pass to international expeditions to the Alps; there are also social meet-ups and an online forum to share beta, talk about gear, and find partners for your next adventure.

Unlike some of the other LGBTQ+ clubs, Ski Buddies is free to join, reducing barriers to finding your community in the mountains.

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Basecamp Outdoor Jobs and More

Founded by longtime industry pro and former Outside magazine editor Ali Carr, Basecamp is an inclusive and welcoming Facebook group dedicated to being a resource for people currently working or seeking work in the outdoor community.

While not specifically targeted to LBGTQ+ communities, Basecamp takes inclusion seriously. Carr and her business partner, Jenna Celmer, have compiled a clear action plan and steps they take to foster an inclusive community and make sure that under-represented folx feel comfortable being visible. As a result, it’s common to see pride flags and emojis in photos and posts, with members openly discussing their identities. Queer voices are often celebrated and uplifted by Ali and Jenna directly.

Whether you’re just starting your career in the outdoor industry or a seasoned pro looking to expand your network, Basecamp is an incredible resource for you to celebrate not only your professional accomplishments but your authentic self. Join the Facebook community here. Not on Facebook? Sign up for the newsletter to stay plugged in.

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In Solidarity Project

Searching for a job as an out member of the LGBTQ+ community can be incredibly intimidating. Anxieties and questions linger about sharing your identity, Will it negatively impact your chances of getting the job? Will prospective teammates be accepting? This adds a whole new level of stress and anxiety to the tense process of finding your next job or breaking into a new industry.

In Solidarity Project was founded by DEI pioneer Teresa Baker and ally Chris Perkins to build a more inclusive and diverse outdoor industry. In Solidarity boldly declares that “We are the new outdoor industry,” and that now is the “time to elevate people of color and other marginalized identities.” Its work starts with the Outdoor CEO Diversity Pledge that outlines steps companies pledge to take to build more inclusive and equitable companies. The pledge partners companies with advocates and consultants who can help them achieve those goals.

For new job seekers, In Solidarity’s job board is for all under-represented job seekers looking for work in the outdoor and travel industries. Brands that are posting to this board are proactively seeking diverse candidates and many are doing the work to build inclusive company cultures.