This Pride, Keep OUT Moving

Dear friends,

Before the parades, the rainbow merch, and the parties, Pride was protest. Pride was resistance. Pride was political activism. The roots of Pride stem from our community refusing to be forced into the shadows and refusing to accept a world where our safety, dignity, and freedom were treated as optional. 

That history feels especially poignant right now. Across the country, LGBTQ+ people and organizations are facing an unrelenting combination of political attacks, real violence, shrinking resources, and growing pressure to do more with less. Many companies and institutions that once showed up loudly for Pride are pulling back. At the same time, the need for real community, real care, and real spaces of belonging has grown exponentially. 

That is the reality OUT is facing this Pride Month. For 15 years, The OUT Foundation has been there for LGBTQ+ people on their health and wellness journeys. We have helped people move, connect, heal, grow, and belong. Through OUTAthlete, we’ve helped hundreds of LGBTQ+ people access affirming fitness spaces, nutrition coaching, mental health support, education, and community. Through OUTAIM and our Inclusive Fitness Finder, we have built an ecosystem of more than 400 fitness and wellness spaces working to become safer and more inclusive - and right now, that work is at risk.

I don’t say that lightly. I also don’t say it to scare you. I say it because our community deserves honesty. OUT is navigating one of the most pivotal financial moments in our history. We have a plan, and our board and staff are working with focus, care, and urgency. We are strengthening partnerships, prioritizing the work that has the greatest impact, and making responsible decisions about what it will take to carry OUT into its next chapter. But a plan only works if people move with us.

OUT does not exist in a vacuum. LGBTQ+ organizations, Pride celebrations, and community nonprofits across the country are being asked to meet a moment of tremendous need with fewer resources and less certainty. At the same time, LGBTQ+ people, especially trans, nonbinary, and young people, are being forced to carry the weight of public debate and political attacks. This is exactly the moment when affirming spaces matter most.

This Pride, I am asking plainly and from the heart: please do not tune out. Please do not assume someone else will step in. Please do not let Pride become something we celebrate in June and forget in July.

Your support right now matters. A gift of any size helps us keep OUT moving. It helps an OUTAthlete stay connected to care and community. It helps another gym join our ecosystem of inclusion. It helps another LGBTQ+ person find a space where they can breathe, move, heal, and belong with purpose. 

If you can give, please give. If you can start a fundraiser, please start one. If you can introduce us to someone who should know OUT, please make that connection. If you can share our message with one friend, please do it.

Fifteen years of OUT exists because this community showed up. The next chapter will exist for the same reason.

Together in Pride, 

Paul Salvador (he/him)

Executive Director