In 2024, Avery Belyeu became CEO of the Montrose Center, the fourth-largest LGBTQ+ center in the nation, serving Houston and the surrounding area. She is the first out trans woman to lead an LGBTQ+ center of this size and scale. “I am incredibly proud of what this milestone represents — not just for me but for all trans individuals who can now see another example of trans leadership in a prominent nonprofit dedicated to serving the entire LGBTQ+ community,” she says.
Belyeu has much experience in LGBTQ+ rights work, suicide prevention, and crisis intervention, previously serving at Lambda Legal and the Trevor Project, among other organizations. To build this career, she overcame “severe family and community rejection as a queer young adult,” she shares, having grown up in rural Florida in a family of Jehovah’s Witnesses. She triumphed because of “the incredible people I met along the way,” she notes. She hopes her experience inspires others.
“I believe our diverse and intersecting communities have something really special to teach the world about self-acceptance, courage, and creativity,” she says. @montrosecenter
Years before Stonewall, a cafeteria riot became a breakthrough for trans rights
All about the Compton's Cafeteria riot, when drag queens and trans women rose up against police at a diner in San Francisco.