WeExist.LGBT was conceptualized from the collaborative imagination of parents, activists, and academics working on topics of LGBTQ+ inclusion.

As parents and members of the community ourselves, we saw the needs of LGBTQ+ teens and wanted to support them without entering the spectrum of religion.

The answer was to form our own nonprofit organization. We picked two mission areas which are basic to the safety and well being of any group, but are frequently denied to LGBTQ+ community: making schools more welcoming to students and their families, and ending the practice of conversion therapy, designed to erase their very identity.

The organization has grown beyond a mostly progressive Mormon core to encompass people from diverse backgrounds. We have people from all faiths and no faith. Our members are Fedex drivers, psychotherapists, police officers, full-time moms, military, school teachers, entrepreneurs, writers, caterers... united by a common goal of improving the quality of life and personal safety of a group of people who have been marginalized, beaten, tortured, killed, denied medical care, and refused the right to marry and adopt children, because they don't fit the mold of some people's preconceived ideas of how life should be lived.

There will come a time in the not so distant future when our descendants will look back and not understand why people's gender and sexuality was a basis for excluding them from society. Just as women once had to fight for the right to vote, just as it was once acceptable to consider certain races of people as less than because of the color of their skin, LGBTQ+ people are a discriminated group who must be given full rights to live their lives in peace and love.

We also believe that we can make a difference. United and as individuals, we can work daily to make the world a safer and more inclusive place. This will lead to a better world for everyone.

Sincerely,

Christina Kassabian Schaefer, Board Member, WeExist.LGBT
Michael Adam Ferguson, Board Member, WeExist.LGBT