Growing up in a devout Catholic family, Cole struggled to come to terms with her lesbian identity. But she now runs GAYTX, a company working to empower the community with pride and introduce a new LGBTQ sizing system.
As a young queer person, Dean worried that it would be hard to get a job where he could be out. But it turns out his queerness and passion for RuPaul’s Drag Race is what helped land him his first job.
Rachel grew up in a large family on a tight budget, and socks were hard to come by. When she wanted a way to supplement her teaching income, she started Pride Socks to empower anyone — but especially the LGBTQ+ community — to cultivate a sense of pride.
As a gay man who spent most of his career in show business, Rev. Dr. Knight didn’t think being a minister was in the cards. But he eventually took the leap, and the openly gay pastor now leads an extraordinarily LGBTQ-friendly church in San Antonio.
When Michelle and Kelly each moved to Austin to start over, they didn’t know other gay women. They met and decided to start hosting events to build a community for LGBTQ women, and the newly-engaged couple is now hosting Austin Pride’s official women’s events.
Rolla Selbak’s family fled war in the Middle East and immigrated to America when she was a teenager. When she later came out as queer, she was kicked out of her home. Now a filmmaker, her latest film focuses on the intersectionality of being a queer Muslim immigrant.
Gay couple Ben and Matt have embarked on a year-long trip around the world together. They’re documenting their journey to provide advice and resources to other LGBTQ travelers, and they have hopes of creating gay-friendly travel guides in the future. This is their story.
Growing up in an Iranian family, Omid was terrified to come out as gay, so he stayed in the closet until his late twenties. He’s now creating a pop-up book to make the coming out process easier for others and provide the resource he wishes he’d had when he was younger.
Zane was assigned female at birth, and despite wishing he was a boy from a young age, he thought he was a lesbian. He joined the Army and later realized he was a transgender man, but the trans service ban was still in place. Once it was lifted, he was able to serve authentically as himself.
When Fiona Dawson came out as gay, she became a major LGBTQ advocate, but after several years, she realized she was actually bisexual. She now advocates for the bi community, and through her work as a filmmaker, she also shares the stories of trans military members and fights for their right to serve.
