Out Here

12/23/2024

Congratulations to our new Pride board members!
We can't wait to see what 2025 brings!

Thank you to everyone who joined us for the 2025 Chattanooga Pride Board elections! Your participation helps ensure that our Pride organization continues to grow and thrive as a reflection of our incredible community.

We’re thrilled to introduce your new Pride Board:

Danielle Stubbs – President
Jessica Brown – Vice President
Kale Hickey – Treasurer
Adam McElhaney– Community Liaison
Dillon Finnell – Secretary

The positions of President and Community Liaison had multiple nominees, and the results of those elections are attached for your review.

Congratulations to all of our board members! We’re excited to see the great work they will do in 2025 to make Chattanooga Pride stronger than ever. Thank you again for your support and engagement!

12/20/2024

🌈✨ The *Special Edition* for the Pride Board Election is here! 🗳️

If you're not signed up for the *Out Here* newsletter, you're missing out on all the good stuff:
📰 Exclusive articles
🎉 Event roundups
📣 Community updates ..and so much more!

Stay in the know and join the conversation. Sign up now and never miss a beat! 💌➡️ LINK IN COMMENTS

12/18/2024

🎉CELEBRATE🎉
1 Year of OUTCHATT!

Founder, Danielle Quesenberry was honored to join the inaugural team coordinating OUTChatt, Chattanooga's LGBTQ+ Networking Group!

We're looking for committee members to join us in 2025.

Could that be you?

Feel free to DM us or email at [email protected] if interested!

12/09/2024

OUTChatt cordially invites you to our last meet up of the year. Graciously hosted by our friends at ArtsBuild, we’ll be meeting in their amazing space for coffee and baked goods. We’ll mix and mingle, with a little jingle for the first hour. Then, Jamie Engelhardt of Wild & will be providing us the opportunity to do a brand workshop.

Wild &’s workshop focuses on refining who you are through your brand - and we couldn’t be more excited to have this amazing workshop to get us prepared for the new year.

🌟 Exciting Speaker Announcement! 🌈

We’re thrilled to introduce the dynamic Jamie Engelhardt of Wild Ampersand as our featured guest for OUTChatt’s upcoming Brand Workshop🎤✨ !

🎨 About Jamie
🏳️‍🌈 Passionate LGBTQ+ advocate
💼 Branding expert with 10 years of experience
📈 Known for transforming personal stories into unforgettable brands

Get ready to:
🌟 Unlock the secrets to authentic branding
✍️ Craft your story to stand out in any market
🤝 Build connections that reflect your unique identity

Let’s come together to learn, grow, and celebrate the vibrant creativity of our community! Don’t miss out! 💕

11/26/2024

URGENT: Mutual Aid Need!

Keep Audrey Safe!

A local trans community member needs our help. Please give what you can at her go fund me link below:

https://www.gofundme.com/f/keep-audrey-safe-donate-for-a-used-car?attribution_id=sl:8b568af5-572f-42a5-b1fd-fd9ff2328a2e&utm_campaign=man_ss_icons&utm_medium=customer&utm_source=copy_link

“Everybody loves Audrey. A tireless figure in q***r Chattanooga, she is always busy with the trans support group at Seed Theatre, helping folks move, campaigning for a brighter tomorrow, or tutoring our community’s kids in math. She is a veteran, a sister, a cat rescuer, and a friend.

Audrey also doesn’t have a car. While we are fans of mass transit, it is sometimes difficult to access in Chattanooga, and often limits her abilities to do the work she needs to do. Also important to note - it is becoming increasingly more dangerous for trans folks on public transportation. She comes home nearly every day with another story of being harassed on her way to her stop, at her stop, on the bus, on her way back... This is only getting worse in the current political climate.

Help us raise funds to get Audrey a used car and keep her safe!”

11/21/2024

For Transgender Day of Remembrance, our editor, Marcus Patrick Ellsworth gathered with many to mourn the unnecessary and tragic loss of our trans siblings over this past year.

Read his thoughts in the article posted in the comments below.

We hold space for the grief; and also call our community to action for the future.

With love and solidarity,

The Team of Out Here

11/15/2024

Happy Transgender Awareness Week.
We're celebrating by reading and sharing stories by trans folx!

What about you?

🏳️‍⚧️

11/13/2024

Love from our friends at Soft Animal.

We 💖 you.

11/08/2024

Join us for SONG’s New Member Orientation on Wednesday, November 14th, from 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM EST / 5:00 PM - 7:00 PM CST!

We'd love to welcome you to join us as we visit the history of our co-founders and the methods in which we organize in the South and provide an orientation to the infrastructure of this organization.

We are excited to get in formation with you & lean on one another to kindle the flame toward abolition.

This is the space to bring questions, curiosity, time, talents, and visions that focus on how we organize together.

Register today at songsouth.info/NovemberNMO

11/07/2024

URGENT. PLEASE SHARE.

On November 13th from 6-8pm Central time, Invisible Histories will be running a "hackathon" via zoom to preserve LGBTQ digital records like websites, articles, and other online sources that are controlled or influenced by federal or state governments in the South.

We need all hands on deck for this event. We will be able to provide very little tech support during the event so please make sure you have the skills below. If you don't have those skills, don't worry we will have more opportunities for action soon!

In order to participate, you should have a firm understanding of:
navigating the internet,
using google docs/folders/sheets,
and how to download/save/upload items from/to websites.

Please do not use a state or federal email address to register.

Zoom link will be sent out the day of.

Register at link below or visit our profile.

https://bit.ly/IHhack24

Capitalization matters in the link above.

11/06/2024

11/06/2024

Today, we come to you with heavy hearts. We sit in space with you to grieve.

But as poet Marcus Patrick Ellsworth reminds us, "there is tomorrow."

In challenging times like these, his poem written for Out Here brings us comfort and resilience. You can read his moving poem here: There Is tomorrow
(https://www.outherechatt.com/post/there-is-tomorrow).

Below, we’ve gathered a list of Southern organizations that continue to fight for justice, equity, and progress. They need our support now more than ever.

Despite today's results, we're still *out here*. We’re not going anywhere.

We invite you to share resources, thoughts, or just be part of this community in the comments. And most importantly, please take care of yourselves today.

With love and solidarity,
The Out Here Team 🏳️‍🌈