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Meet the Board: Mollie

Mollie Aleshire (she/her/hers)

Mollie is from a rural town in Virginia with a population of less than 5,000 and has resided in Berea and Lexington in Kentucky, Greensboro, North Carolina, and most recently Louisville, Kentucky. She believes her experiences as a sexual minority living in both rural and urban settings gives her a unique perspective and ability to relate to others whose life experiences have included both rural and urban experiences and influences. As a nurse for more than 20 years, within the healthcare system as well as other systems, Mollie continues to witness the reality of health inequities and has a particular passion for this as well as the intersectionality of health and other disparities in the Louisville community. Her background as a healthcare provider and health disparities researcher helps her to consider how we can best formulate partnerships among communities, organizations, and systems to inform and lead meaningful change that includes interventions at multiple socio-ecological levels to ensure equity for sexual and gender minorities. Previously, Mollie was nominated to serve on the Lexington Fayette County Kentucky Urban Government Board of Health and the Guildford County North Carolina Health and Human Services Advisory Board.

We are so grateful to have Mollie on the Board of Directors at the Louisville Pride Foundation!

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Kentucky LGBTQ Historic Context Narrative

The Kentucky lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) heritage context provides a broad historical overview of LGBTQ people and history in Kentucky and offers guidance in identifying historic sites and sources.

The report includes a discussion about the role of race, religion, rurality/regionalism, and privacy in studying LGBTQ history. It provides a slice of Kentucky’s rich LGBTQ history, looking at several specific people, places, and events as part of the larger story. It spans the years from the pre-contact era through colonization and into the late twentieth century, focusing on the years after World War II.

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Louisville’s LGBTQ+ History

In 2016, A research team under the Kentucky LGBT+ Heritage Initiative published a 125-page report on Kentucky’s LGBT+ history.

An article from the Courier Journal uses pieces of that report to highlight some of Louisville’s LGBT+ history.

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Faith Community Spotlight: Congregation Adath Israel Brith Shalom

The Temple: Congregation Adath Israel Brith Shalom

Daniel Denhart-Lillard

The Temple Congregation Adath Israel Brith Shalom, located at the intersection of Brownsboro Road (US Highway 42) and Lime Kiln Lane in the heart of Louisville’s residential East End is Kentucky’s oldest and largest Jewish congregation. Located on a beautiful, wooded, 10-acre lot, The Temple Campus consists of a main building, auditorium, chapel, library, an administrative wing, archives, a religious school and a preschool. An additional two-story building houses a kitchen, fireplace, and room for meetings and activities.

A founding member of what is now Union for Reform Judaism, by 1873 The Temple was the largest congregation in the movement. The Temple strives to provide “essential values of our Jewish faith, the deeper understanding of our heritage and our future, and the involvement of our people toward the betterment of our community as a whole,” according to their website.

The congregation has long been active in civil rights and in working for fair treatment of all people, including LGBTQ+ individuals. Temple Rabbis are involved with the Fairness Campaign and have performed same-sex marriage rites since 1996, including the first same-sex marriage in the state of Israel. The congregation is welcoming and promotes acceptance and inclusion of LGBTQ+ individuals. This year The Temple was the only Jewish congregation in the Commonwealth that commemorated Pride month with a special Shabbat Service entitled “Creating a Welcoming Community.”

You can find out more about The Temple by visiting their website at https://www.thetemplelouky.org. Or, if you’d like to contact a Rabbi about a confidential matter, please email [email protected].