Caitlin's Story

Caitlin began volunteering with Pride Foundation’s Montana efforts in 2006 and came on staff in 2011. She has a master’s degree in journalism from the University of Montana. Caitlin was the first openly LGBTQ person elected to the Missoula City Council in November 2011. She enjoys hiking, skiing, and riding her bike 100 miles or more for good causes. She can be reached at Caitlin@pridefoundation.org or 406.546.7017

Growing up in Nampa, Idaho, I didn’t know any out lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender people. I finished high school in 2000 and attended the College of Idaho, which had a student body population of about 850. There was no gay-straight alliance at my high school and if there was at my college, I didn’t know about it. Besides, I was in a relationship with a guy I’d dated off and on since 8^th grade.  It wasn’t until I ended that relationship and came to Missoula to attend graduate school at the University of Montana that I felt I could truly come out.

I’ve thought back as to why Missoula, Montana, felt so much safer than home. My immediate family is not religious, and my mom is an alternative high school teacher turned college professor and very liberal. Even so, being LGBTQ was never talked about in my family, and I grew up stereotypically thinking that lesbians were women who looked like men or at least liked to play with trucks when they were little. I loved theater and was on the dance team in high school and college, so even though I’d felt same-sex attraction since I was 9 or 10, I didn’t think I could actually be gay. But in Missoula, there were lots of LGBTQ people, especially, it seemed to me, women. A lot of them held leadership positions in the nonprofit and business world.  There were also a lot of straight people with gay friends. It was normal, even acceptable, here. 

I think I began to see that coming out didn’t doom me to some sort of unsafe, horrible, or at least invisible life. I began volunteering with the Western Montana Gay & Lesbian Community Center (www.gaymontana.org) to edit their newsletter, which morphed into the statewide publication, Out Words. I helped review grants and scholarships for Pride Foundation (www.pridefoundation.org). As a master’s degree student at the School of Journalism, my professors knew about and generally supported my activism. By the time I finished my degree in 2007, I knew I wanted to be an activist more than a journalist, so I applied my writing skills to my first “adult” job doing marketing and communications for the YWCA Missoula (www.ywcamissoula.org). Working for the YWCA was life-changing. I developed strong relationships women (some LGBTQ) mentors and my self-confidence, something I’d always struggled with, grew immensely. If not for the YWCA, I would never have had the courage to run for political office and become the first openly LGBTQ member of the Missoula City Council.

Today, in addition to City Council, I work full time for Pride Foundation, the world’s largest LGBTQ community foundation serving Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Washington. Part of my job is to inspire a culture of generosity that can connect, strengthen, and develop the LGBTQ leaders of the future. Pride Foundation is the largest provider of LGBTQ scholarships in the nation, and last year we awarded nearly $20,000 to Montana students. These scholarships are crucial to students, many of whom grew up in a town similar to mine, where they had no role models.

Universities give students the chance to be exposed to all the beautiful diversity that exists in our world, and for them to discover who they are and how to live their values. In a day and age where LGBTQ youth are still four times more likely to commit suicide than their heterosexual peers, universities should serve as a light at the end of the dark tunnel that too often represents adolescence for members of our community. I ask the Montana Board of Regents to include sexual orientation and gender identity to its non-discrimination policy to show that our universities value all students, faculty, staff, and alumni, regardless of who they are or who they love. 

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Special thanks to Caitlin for her honesty, time, and willingness to share her experience with us.

If you are a Montana University System LGBTQAI or Ally student, staff,  Alumnus, or faculty, we want to share your story, too! Email us at 703equality@gmail.com