Month: September 2021

A Louisville native and graduate of Brown University, Augustus Seabrooke (he/they) is a transmasculine individual excited and honored to be on the Board of Louisville Pride Foundation. He is grateful for his upbringing in Louisville, as the eclectic community has given him an appreciation of vintage fashion pieces, a taste for various cuisines, a strong sense of hospitality, and a deeply embedded principle of valuing community.

You may find Augustus walking down Bardstown road from Prophecy Ink all the way to Purrfect Day Cat Cafe. (Don’t tell his kitten Samosa-she’d throw a fit knowing daddy passes by the Purrfect Day Cat Cafe every day.) He also loves lifting weights and cruising on his skateboard.

Augustus hopes his ability to communicate and connect with different individuals can “facilitate an environment where people can feel heard, understood, and respected.” Passionate about  helping LGBTQ+ individuals with substance issues that have been affecting other areas of their life, Augustus hopes to bring his experiences, both professional and unconventional, to provide a unique perspective for Louisville Pride Foundation and its celebration of diversity among the LGBTQ+ community.

Daniel Denhart-Lillard is a volunteer with the Louisville Pride Foundation. 

For the lead up to Give For Good Louisville, one of our Board Members, Kasen Meek, wrote a powerful op-ed in the Courier-Journal about the importance of the Louisville Pride Foundation. He writes, “As an openly transgender man, I know how important and healing the spaces LPF provides are to this community. In fact, I was literally moved to tears hugging a stranger at the Louisville Pride Festival. A man, standing in the crowd with a shirt that read “Free Dad Hugs,” opened his arms to me. I felt so loved and seen as we embraced one another that I wept. My experience is not unique. LGBTQ people have often suffered rejection and loss at the hands of those who swore unconditional love. LPF plays a vitally important role in the well-being of queer people in our community.”

Kasen says, “The need for an LGBTQ Community Center is long overdue. A city this size should have a central location where the queer community can gather, find resources, and solace.” Your contribution can help us open an LGBTQ+ Community Center in Louisville for the first time in 30 years.  Please make a donation for Give for Good to help us get across the finish line.

The Louisville Pride Festival is free, but we generally take in about $15,000 in donations. With this year’s cancellation, giving events like Give for Good become even more important!

It didn’t matter which search engine I used. One name kept popping up in the results. Dawn Wilson. This was the mid-1990s. There was no Google then. If you wanted to find anything on the newly developed World Wide Web you either used Lycos, AltaVista or Yahoo.  As someone who did not understand why I had conflicts regarding my gender identity I was scouring anything I could to understand the subject of being transgender and during those searches I would see Dawn Wilson come up repeatedly and it always showed her speaking out for some type of activism. 

Twenty-five years later, Dawn Wilson is still devoted to activism for Human Rights.  I have been very fortunate to work with Dawn on a few occasions and I recently managed to corner her for an interview to talk about her past and hear about projects she is involved in nowadays. If you ever have the opportunity sit and talk with her, you know you are in for a treat. This is not an easy feat considering her busy schedule. Dawn loves to share stories about the people she knows and friends she has worked with.  

Dawn is a wonderful and engaging Black transgender woman.  Dawn emerged into the world at age 27 after serving in the military in Desert Storm. During the 1990s, being a transgender person was not as understood and accepted as it is now. The challenges and barriers she faced were immense. She did not avoid or shy away from those hurdles, instead she attacked them head on with a passion for activism and compassion. Alongside her lifelong friend Monica Roberts, she fought the battle for trans rights at the top levels of government. In the late 1990s Dawn in a Senator’s office in Washington D.C. lobbying for the National Transgender Advocacy Coalition (NTAC) was not an unusual sight. Dawn told me ”back then you could walk right into their offices,” and walk right in she did. During that time Dawn was also instrumental in helping the Fairness Campaign in Louisville pass Kentucky’s first anti-discrimination Fairness Ordinance.  Since that time 20 other cities and counties in Kentucky have followed suit and passed Fairness ordinances that provide LGBTQ+ protections and equal rights.  

When I asked Dawn what her first job was she proudly told me that it was at the University of Kentucky and she lets it be known to everyone that she is a proud follower of the Big Blue and that’s how she bleeds. She also worked with Charter Communications in the early 2000s for almost 11 years  as a Special projects Manager and in 2010 joined the Louisville Metro Human Rights Commission. That was an appointed position and Dawn was appointed by Mayor Jerry Abramson.  Dawn is extremely proud (and rightfully so) that she was reappointed more than the maximum allowable times that you could be reappointed. Dawn recently stepped down just this past year from the HRC.

One of Dawn’s passions surprisingly came about as a result of being injured during a softball game. Dawn hurt her shoulder and was advised not to do anymore softball in fear that she may injure the shoulder permanently. By chance she picked up a copy of Velocity, a weekly free newspaper published by the Courier Journal, and happened to see an article on Fencing. Fast forward a few years. Dawn has won national championships and traveled the world in a sport she loves. Dawn also works with youth at the Louisville Fencing Center teaching them Fencing techniques and helping them to compete. You can hear the absolute passion she has for the sport when she starts talking about it and a true desire to help the youth that she coaches succeed.

There isn’t enough space to even begin to list all of Dawn’s accomplishments or what she has going on. She was involved in planning the Juneteenth activities for the city of Louisville and she is actively planning Transgender Day of Remembrance events which she is particularly passionate about just to mention a few.  When you do your searches on Google, don’t be surprised to see the name Dawn Wilson pop up.

Sarah McKinney is a leader in the Louisville transgender community. She is actively involved in the Kentuckiana Transgender Support Network, the Transgender Wellness Coalition, and the Louisville Pride Foundation.

The Louisville Bats have teamed up with Louisville Pride Foundation, Derby City Pride League & Queer Kentucky to host Pride Night at the ballpark! Fans can help support each organization by visiting the link below. By choosing to purchase tickets through this collaboration, a portion of each ticket purchased will help support the organization of your choice. In addition to to raising LGBTQ visibility, a portion of ticket sales benefits the Louisville Pride Foundation! Click here to buy your ticket.

The game starts at 6:30 PM on Thursday, September 9th. Click here for more info.