About Us
Meet the Board Members
Belong: Fox Valley is a grassroots organization working to make inclusive and affirming spaces that celebrate the diverse sexual orientations, gender identities, and gender expressions of our community members. Our board members range in age, occupation, and identity, but all have a passion for the LGBTQ community and the work we do here at Belong.
​A message from the Belong: Fox Valley Board
Recently, a number of political actions on federal, state, and local levels have threatened the rights of our queer community. While Belong: Fox Valley, as a 501c3 nonprofit charitable organization, cannot support or denounce political parties or candidates, we will always support any bills, laws, court rulings, and other political actions that benefit LGBTQIA+ people of every variety, and oppose those that threaten us.
In these times, many organizers are stepping up to provide all-important leadership in political actions to defend our rights. This is the sort of “good trouble,” to quote Rep. John Lewis, that often requires its participants to put justice above personal safety and comfort. We commend these leaders on their hard work and courage, which are giving hope to us all.
Belong’s primary mission is to provide safe and inclusive spaces for queer people.
Our events often draw participants seeking community free from scrutiny, harassment, and concern over personal well-being. If we feel that involvement in any particular action will threaten our ability to provide that, we may opt as an organization to stay on the sidelines of that action. We know that the spaces we create are vital to many of our community members, and we owe it to them to do everything in our power to avoid putting those under threat.
At the same time, we are happy to direct you to other local avenues for political involvement, and if you decide to hit the protests, you are likely to see members of Belong’s leadership there representing themselves! We’d like to thank all those who contribute to our queer community in whatever ways, whether loud and proud or subversive and secret, are right for your situations.
We promise to stand strong in our mission to give you the places to gather, and to belong, that you deserve.
