The Pride and Joy Foundation is very excited to introduce you to our recipients of the Leaders for Inclusive Change Grant, which was generously funded by the Gamma Mu Foundation. This six-week course will provide information, tools, and resources for anyone who wants to start a Gay Straight Alliance, Rainbow or other Diversity clubs at schools. 

After reviewing an exciting round of incredible applicants, the decision was not easy. Our Board of Directors has selected two LGBTQ+ educators, Ær Queen (they/them,fen/fens) and Nicholas Prosini (they/them), as facilitators of Leaders for Inclusive Change.  Ær (they/them,fen/fens) is a trans non-binary General Music teacher at Bradock Elementary School in Annandale, Virginia in Fairfax County Public Schools. They are a proud alumnx of Shenandoah Conservatory at Shenandoah University in Winchester, Virginia where they earned their Bachelor of Music in Music Education. Ær met Nicholas Prosini through...

Last year, Pride and Joy Publishing released its flagship publication, Thriving in Business: Strategies for the LGBTQ+ Entrepreneur. Within a week, the book hit #1 in Women in Business and #7 in Entrepreneurship. 

Although the titles and rankings are a good fit for many of the authors within the book, we quickly realized that there was something missing in the literary world. Although 6 out of the 14 authors in this book are either trans, non-binary or gender fluid, there was no existing category for them that perfectly fit the bill. Pride and Joy Publishing began digging into the titles/categories allotted and found that there were currently no “Nonbinary Authors” or “LGBTQ+ Business” categories in existence.  

Although this book is making waves in terms of visibility and direct guidance for LGBTQ+ business owners, the lack of these authorship categories is more than enough evidence that our literary and business worlds...

Legacy is a brain trust for women speakers and thought leaders, led by Alexia Vernon. This group of female entrepreneurs and thought leaders are committed to helping other purpose-driven female entrepreneurs.

The Legacy Fund came from a portion of each member’s investment, and the group is getting ready to make its first investments in women founders. Legacy aims for this grant to help women-identified entrepreneurs in scaling the revenue and impact of their businesses.

In its inaugural year, The Legacy Fund will award two, unrestricted grants of $1500 to women-identified founders who serve as business leaders of for-profit or nonprofit businesses.

Plus, each recipient will receive a complimentary ticket to Alexia’s 2-day, Las Vegas speaker training event in 2022 ($397 value). Women-identified applicants who also identify as BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, live with disabilities, chronic illness or survived trauma are particularly encouraged to apply.

Applications...

In the past few years, people are becoming more and more open and accepting towards the LGBTQ+ community. However, there is still a lot more to be done in order to achieve a safe and welcoming society for the community, especially in the corporate world.

Most companies nowadays have been making changes and "diversifying" their employee pool and welcoming LGBTQ+ workers since people are more eager and confident in fighting for equal rights. This is a huge step forward in the corporate world especially when there are still places in which simply not conforming to gender roles would already be considered "unprofessional" and "unethical".

But are these companies doing enough to provide the benefits that would most appeal to LGBTQ+ families? How are they measuring that?

Pride and Joy Foundation created a survey in order to guide the companies towards the first step in realizing how much of a positive impact they can have on the lives of LGBTQ+ families. This is about how these companies...

Pride and Joy Foundation is a proud Community Partner of ONE Community’s 5th annual Point of Pride LGBTQ Inclusive Summit. This year’s event runs June 21st-24th and begins with the up-to-the-moment State of LGBTQ+ Arizona presentation followed by three can’t miss panel discussions: LGBTQ+ Issues at the Capitol & Moving Forward, Building an Inclusive Workplace Culture, and Socially Responsible Business Advocacy

State of LGBTQ+ Arizona

The summit will kick off with a presentation on the importance of LGBTQ+ Workplace inclusion to attract and retain top talent to your organization, the current State of LGBTQ+ Arizona, and the path forward to a state that celebrates, respects, and protects us all presented by ONE Community President, Angela Hughey.

LBGTQ+ Issues at the Capitol & Moving Forward

The expert panelists Mesa Mayor John Giles, Regional COO of AMR/GMR and the Chair of the Mesa Chamber of Commerce, Glenn Kasprzyk, Glendale Chamber...

Do you remember your first "ah-ha" moment? The first time you ever encountered an openly LGBTQ+ person in the wild? Just an everyday human, passing by on the street, ordering a coffee, or walking their dog. 

For me, it was my manager at a steakhouse I worked at post-college. Growing up in Oklahoma, it never quite felt safe to admit my sexuality even to myself, let alone to let it show externally. 

And yet there she was. 

Openly queer, wife, baby on the way... living as confidently as can be. 

Working with her, I heard countless conversations about day-to-day life, how excited she and her partner were to pick out nursery room items, how she and her wife had met, career goals, etc. 

These conversations may have seemed insignificant to everyone else but to me, they were the evidence I didn't know I had been looking for. I realized if she could be herself, live a full and authentic life... so could I. 

So I came out. 

I stood...

One of the most beautiful things about the Pride and Joy Foundation is that it is “striving to build self-awareness within and safety for LGBTQ+ families and their allies.”  Let’s take a second to talk about how important allies are (hint: so freakin’ important!) to the LGBTQ+ community.  Let’s think about it this way - even if every member of a marginalized community banded together to fight for their cause, they would still be up against a majority, making change near impossible.  For any marginalized community, having strong ally support is integral in the fight for equality because allies allow for the community to show up in numbers and to prove that their cause isn’t only their own. 

But what does it mean to truly be an ally?  Queer sex educator and trauma specialist Jimanekia discussed in an Instagram video post her position on allies.  Though her post specifically references non-Black allyship within the Black...