The Department of Agriculture is set to pay $50,000 to encourage children and young adults who identify as transgender, lesbian, gay, or bisexual to go on wilderness conservation trips in the Pacific Northwest.
The grant, which started in 2022 and runs through 2026, was awarded to the Northwest Youth Corps, a conservation organization based in Eugene, Oregon, that works to “diversify the outdoors.” The grant funds “lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer inclusion and sound to summit crews,” in an apparent reference to two different programs.
The Northwest Youth Corps explains how it intends to “diversify the outdoors,” adding that “a key element of our commitment to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion is fielding single-identity affinity crews and internships to support communities historically under-served in the outdoor space.”
The group hosts LGBT-specific conservation groups for those as young as 16 years old. “Unlike some facets of identity, such as…