Editor’s Note: This is a non-exhaustive, ever-evolving, community-driven list updated periodically. To suggest additional groups to add, email us at hello @ fieldmag dot com. Thank you!
While we all would like to believe that nature is the great equalizer, the reality is, the outdoors is not always a safe space for everyone. Though progress is being made, slowly, for many outdoorists, it can still be difficult to find acceptance on the trail and elsewhere in nature. Even still, a ray of positivity can be found in the many outdoor groups, collectives, and nonprofits created for and by LGBTQ+ communities currently operating around the US and beyond.
We at Field Mag are firm believers that we must all be active and purposeful in our efforts to make the outdoors a place where all can find the respite and rejuvenation so many of us seek to find among the natural world. Similar to our ongoing features highlighting prominent Black, Indigenous, and people of color in the outdoor world, as well as BIPOC outdoor organizations and groups to support, we have crowdsourced the following list of LGBTQ+ nonprofits, collectives, and groups.
This is a non-exhaustive, ever-evolving, community-driven list created as a resource for all seeking safe spaces to be themselves within the great outdoors. In this effort to collect and share our research, we hope to expand your knowledge and our own of the many important outdoor groups and organizations bringing much needed increased representation and diversity to nature. After all, nobody is free until we are all free to be ourselves, everywhere we wish to be.
To suggest additional groups to add, email us at hello @ fieldmag dot com. Thank you.*
22 National LGBTQIA+ Outdoor Organizations to Support
LGBTQ+ Outdoors
Location: National
Mission: This multi-chapter, community-led advocacy group aims to create inclusive spaces for LGBTQIA+ folks to recreate. The network includes chapters in 26 states and an extensive ambassador program. It also runs adventure trips each year, hosts an annual festival, and broadcasts the LGBTQ Outdoors Podcast.
Structure: Nonprofit
Instagram: @lgbtoutdoors
Donate: www.lgbtoutdoors.com/donate
The Venture Out Project
Location: New England and Pacific Northwest
Mission: The Venture Out Project leads backpacking and wilderness trips and adventures for members of the LGBTQ+, queer, and trans communities. Open to all experience levels, their goal is to create a safe space for connection and growth in the great outdoors. They also offer transgender inclusion workshops.
Instagram: @ventureoutproject
