CHRISTIAN WALKER
Educators
The 2025 Out100: Cesar Toledo
These are the LGBTQ+ people making the world bolder and brighter in 2025.
Cesar Toledo is the executive director of the Wanda Alston Foundation, which provides housing and support to unhoused LGBTQ+ young people in Washington, D.C. With steep cuts to corporate DEI funding, FEMA food and shelter grants, and the federal workforce, it’s been a tough year.
But Toledo — a Latino gay activist who helped launch Out for Harris-Walz, an LGBTQ+ outreach initiative that engaged over 2 million voters in the 2024 presidential election — was up for the challenge. He created new programs like Slay & Sauté, a culinary training program for residents, with help from Wegmans and DC Front Runners. The sweet smell of success was creating “delicious air fryer chicken wings and laughter over stories about burning rice,” he recalls. “It was about more than learning to cook; it was about joy, confidence, and community.”
Toledo’s only begun to slay. “The next chapter of my work is about transformation,” he says. “Not just shelter, but belonging. Queer youth deserve more than just survival. They deserve the opportunity to flourish, to dream boldly, and to live without fear. I’m building toward that future. And I’m just getting started.” @wandaalstonfoundation
Daniel Reynolds
Daniel Reynolds is the editor-in-chief of Out and an award-winning journalist who focuses on the intersection between entertainment and politics. This Jersey boy has now lived in Los Angeles for more than a decade.
Daniel Reynolds is the editor-in-chief of Out and an award-winning journalist who focuses on the intersection between entertainment and politics. This Jersey boy has now lived in Los Angeles for more than a decade.
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Trudy RingTrudy Ring is The Advocate's senior politics editor and copy chief. She has been a reporter and editor for daily newspapers and LGBTQ+ weeklies/monthlies, trade magazines, and reference books. She is a political junkie who thinks even the wonkiest details are fascinating, and she always loves to see political candidates who are groundbreaking in some way. She enjoys writing about other topics as well, including religion (she's interested in what people believe and why), literature, theater, and film. Trudy is a proud "old movie weirdo" and loves the Hollywood films of the 1930s and '40s above all others. Other interests include classic rock music (Bruce Springsteen rules!) and history. Oh, and she was a Jeopardy! contestant back in 1998 and won two games. Not up there with Amy Schneider, but Trudy still takes pride in this achievement.
Trudy Ring is The Advocate's senior politics editor and copy chief. She has been a reporter and editor for daily newspapers and LGBTQ+ weeklies/monthlies, trade magazines, and reference books. She is a political junkie who thinks even the wonkiest details are fascinating, and she always loves to see political candidates who are groundbreaking in some way. She enjoys writing about other topics as well, including religion (she's interested in what people believe and why), literature, theater, and film. Trudy is a proud "old movie weirdo" and loves the Hollywood films of the 1930s and '40s above all others. Other interests include classic rock music (Bruce Springsteen rules!) and history. Oh, and she was a Jeopardy! contestant back in 1998 and won two games. Not up there with Amy Schneider, but Trudy still takes pride in this achievement.
Trudy Ring is The Advocate's senior politics editor and copy chief. She has been a reporter and editor for daily newspapers and LGBTQ+ weeklies/monthlies, trade magazines, and reference books. She is a political junkie who thinks even the wonkiest details are fascinating, and she always loves to see political candidates who are groundbreaking in some way. She enjoys writing about other topics as well, including religion (she's interested in what people believe and why), literature, theater, and film. Trudy is a proud "old movie weirdo" and loves the Hollywood films of the 1930s and '40s above all others. Other interests include classic rock music (Bruce Springsteen rules!) and history. Oh, and she was a Jeopardy! contestant back in 1998 and won two games. Not up there with Amy Schneider, but Trudy still takes pride in this achievement.
The 2025 Out100: Ian L. Haddock
These are the LGBTQ+ people making the world bolder and brighter in 2025.
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Founder and executive director of the Normal Anomaly Initiative Ian L. Haddock says his work is based on a quote from Bayard Rustin: “The only weapon we have is our bodies, and we need to tuck them in places so wheels don’t turn.” Haddock’s Texas-based organization is “dedicated to eliminating barriers and creating new norms centering the Black LGBTQ+ community throughout the South,” he says.
Something that made him proud in 2025 was that a youth who is like family to him, on turning 17, came out to him as transgender. “It has been my honor and privilege to be there to support them and empower them to be their authentic self,” says Haddock, a Black queer man.
His biggest challenge was losing half the group’s budget after January 20, which brought on a mental health crisis, but he found ways to deal with it. In the coming year, the Normal Anomaly will focus on a new transitional housing initiative.
The message he sends is “to act courageously” and “be bravely visible.” @ianlhaddock