Mentorship

On mentorship, identity, and holding space for everyone

I never really got the mentorship I needed early on. I knew it. And when you don’t have that guide, you learn to build the road yourself.

I did start a nonprofit in California. I was born in Oregon. Names and chapters shift — maiden, married, different cities — but I’m the same person through it all. I’m one of a kind, and I’ve had to anchor myself when no one else would.

What I’ve learned is this: I love people. I love gay people, I love everyone, and I try to love unconditionally because we need each other. We don’t move forward by splitting ourselves into camps. The radical edges on the right and left — the ones that thrive on fear and dehumanizing — don’t belong in Oregon, and they don’t belong anywhere in America.

Community isn’t built by who we exclude. It’s built by who we make room for. So I’m making room: for the person who never got mentored, for the person starting over with a new name, for the person who believes we’re better together.

If you didn’t get the mentorship you deserved, I’m sorry. Let’s be the kind of people now who don’t let that cycle continue