August 2026 Listening Session Response Letter

Thank you so much to everyone who attended the August 2026 listening session or sent their comments - we really appreciate your feedback and engagement. Here is the full text of our response letter:

What We Heard, What We’re Doing, and Where We Need You

From the SJIPride Foundation Executive Board to the SJI 2SLGBTQIA+ Community

Hi everyone,

First, thank you.

Thank you to everyone who came to our August 22 Listening Session, and to the people who weren’t able to attend but took the time to send written comments, questions, concerns, and ideas. About a dozen queer community members joined us, and nearly everyone who attended shared something with the group. We heard a lot—and some of it was hard to hear, but we deeply appreciate people sharing their thoughts with us.

A few days later, the Board met specifically to talk through what we heard and, more importantly, what we are going to do about it.

We want to start by saying this plainly:

We heard you. And we understand that saying that isn’t enough.

We know we have work to do to rebuild trust.

One of the clearest messages we heard was that people have asked us for things, raised concerns, offered ideas, and sometimes offered to help—and too often did not receive a clear response or see meaningful action afterward.

That has damaged trust in the Foundation and the Board.

We take responsibility for that.

We don’t want to make excuses for why things didn’t happen. We want to change how we operate so that when community members bring something to us, there is a response, there is follow-through, and there is communication about what happened—even when the answer is “not right now” or “we can’t do that.”

Going forward, our goal is to create a more consistent system for responding to community input, communicating what we are doing, and following through on commitments.

And we want to do that with the community, not just for the community.

Transparency: You Should Be Able to See What We’re Doing

We heard a lot of questions about how the Foundation operates and requests for greater transparency.

We agree.

Here is what we are committing to:

Publish our bylaws on our website.
Publish Board meeting agendas and minutes on our website.
Make Board meetings open to community attendance whenever possible. We will only move into closed executive session when a matter genuinely requires privacy, such as discussion of an individual Board member, employee, contractor, or other confidential matter.
Share financial information more clearly. Our minutes will include the Treasurer’s report, and community members can ask for additional financial information. We will also work toward providing an annual budget overview.
Create and share an annual report that includes our financial picture, major accomplishments, past actions, current work, strategic priorities, and plans for the future.
Share grant deliverables and other relevant community-facing information when appropriate.
Do a better job of telling you what we have done, what we are doing, and what we plan to do next.

You shouldn’t have to wonder what the Foundation is doing, what decisions are being made, or what happened to an idea or concern you brought forward.

Our Structure: What Does the Community Actually Want?

We heard interest in the Foundation becoming more of a membership organization, rather than primarily being a Board-led organization.

We are open to exploring that.

There could be real benefits to creating more ways for people to participate, have a voice, contribute financially if they want to, and help shape the direction of the Foundation.

But there is also a serious concern we need to consider: privacy and safety.

Given the current political climate, we are concerned about creating a list of queer people on the Island that could potentially be subpoenaed, exposed, or otherwise used against members of our community.

So we’re thinking creatively about what membership could look like without requiring us to maintain a traditional membership list.

We are also considering options such as individual sustaining sponsorships and different levels of participation or support—but we do not want money to become an access issue.

This is something we don’t believe we should decide in a Board meeting by ourselves.

We need your input.

Here is what we are committing to:

We’ll be asking the community what you would want from membership, what benefits would actually be useful, what concerns you have, and whether you think membership is the right direction for the Foundation at all. Please let us know what you want and how you think we should move forward.

About Palestine, Genocide, and Speaking Up

This was one of the most difficult and emotionally charged areas of our Listening Session.

We heard strong requests for the Foundation to make a statement regarding Palestine and the ongoing violence and suffering there. We also heard requests for a broader statement against genocide, violence, oppression, and the political erasure of marginalized people around the world.

At the same time, we heard concerns that a statement from the Foundation could be performative if it isn’t connected to meaningful action. We also heard concerns from members of our community about language surrounding Palestine and Israel, including concerns about antisemitism and the impact that certain language can have on Jewish members of our community.

We heard the frustration behind the request for the Foundation to speak up.

We also heard the concern that simply putting words on a website or social media post isn’t enough.

The Board does not believe they can honestly claim to speak for the entire SJI 2SLGBTQIA+ community on an issue this complex and deeply personal.

So we’re asking you to create the statement.

Here is what we are committing to:

We will host a community conversation, facilitated by our Administrative Director, by September 30, 2026, specifically for the purpose of discussing these issues and working toward a collective community statement that the Foundation can share with the community.

This won’t be about everyone having to agree on every word.

It will be about creating space for honest conversation, listening to one another, acknowledging the complexity and intersectionality within our community, and figuring out what we can collectively stand for—and what meaningful action could look like.

If you care deeply about this issue, we need you in that conversation. Please attend the meeting.

We Don’t Want to Be Apathetic, Apolitical, or Alienating

We heard these words used to describe the Foundation and the Board.

They hurt. But we also think they’re important for us to sit with.

Our community told us that being queer is inherently political, particularly when laws, policies, public institutions, housing, employment, healthcare, schools, and basic rights affect our ability to live safely and openly.

We heard that people want the Foundation to do more than organize Pride parties.

We agree.

This means we need to be more willing to educate, speak up, connect people to resources, and support opportunities for action when our community’s rights and wellbeing are threatened.

Here is what we are committing to:

Sharing information on the upcoming ballot initiatives on the ballot in November that will impact queer communities
Hosting a candidate forum for local candidates for office where you can ask the candidates your questions directly
Creating connections with organizations working on housing, food security, healthcare, employment, etc. via the new Administrative Director attending local nonprofit networking calls and Chamber of Commerce meetings to ensure our queer community is represented
Hosting event(s) to bring service providers to the queer community to connect us to services we need

We also want to explore whether forming a Political Action Committee within the Foundation makes sense and what that could look like.

Some of the things we want to begin doing include:

Sharing information about local, state, and federal initiatives that affect queer people.
Helping people understand what’s on their ballots.
Encouraging people to vote and participate in civic life.
Sharing information about candidates and creating opportunities for community members to hear directly from them.
Hosting conversations and educational events around issues affecting our community.
Supporting opportunities for meaningful action.
Connecting queer people with organizations working on housing, food security, healthcare, employment, and other basic needs.
Building relationships with other local nonprofits and community organizations.
Creating more opportunities for queer people to communicate with one another, share information, and take action together.

Please reach out if you would like to be involved in a Political Action Committee.

More Queer Visibility on the Island

We also heard that the Foundation can sometimes feel “secretive” or invisible on the Island.

That’s not what we want.

We want queer people to be able to find us—and to see queer visibility in the community beyond a single Pride event.

We’re going to look for opportunities for more visible community presence, such as tabling at local events and local collaborations, such as working with the town and county to act in support of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community by creating things like non-gendered public restrooms, as well as and other ways to make it clear that queer people are part of the fabric of SJI.

We also want our communications to be easier to access.

Here is what we are committing to:

Clearer, easier-to-navigate information on our website and social media.
Translation of communications into languages other than English.
More educational content.
More consistent communication about upcoming events and opportunities.
Less formal communication when formal communication isn’t necessary.

Not every message from us needs to sound like it was written by a lawyer.

Sometimes we just need to say, “Hey, here’s what’s happening. Come join us.”

Let’s Make Room for More People

We heard that our events and activities need to better reflect the breadth of our community.

That means creating more opportunities that aren’t centered around alcohol or 21+ spaces.

We’re going to look at more all-ages, sober, youth-friendly, and community-centered programming, while still recognizing that adults may want opportunities to celebrate together in other ways.

We also want to do more to involve queer youth and support existing youth-led and student queer spaces in ways that are safe and sustainable.

And we want to make room for the many different identities, ages, experiences, and perspectives within our community.

Here is what we are committing to:

Hosting events where alcohol is not involved, frequency to be determined by community input and attendance
Providing financial support for queer youth led programming.
Asking the community what events you would like to see
Providing financial support for community led queer events.

We Need You

This is probably the most important part of this entire message.

The Foundation cannot become the organization our community is asking for if the Board is the only group doing the work.

We have heard repeatedly that people want to help.

And, honestly, we’ve sometimes been guilty of not accepting that help effectively.

That needs to change.

If you have an issue you care deeply about, we want you involved.

If you know how to organize people, write, translate, design graphics, plan events, educate, advocate, fundraise, build websites, connect nonprofits, work with youth, communicate with elected officials, or simply bring people together—we need you.

If you don’t have a particular skill but have an hour to give, we need you too.

And if what you have to offer right now is an idea, a question, a criticism, or a different perspective, that’s valuable too.

We also want to know how you want us to communicate with you.

Here is what we are committing to:

We’ll be putting together a short community communication survey to ask what works, what doesn’t, where you get your information, and how you’d prefer to hear from us.

Please take the survey when it comes out. It will help us do a better job of reaching people instead of assuming we know how people want to be reached.

Some Things Already Underway

A few concrete things are already moving:

Our bylaws will be made available online.
We are working toward publishing Board agendas and minutes.
We are working toward an annual report.
We will begin sharing more information about our strategic priorities and actions.
We are developing a community survey about communication and participation.
We will schedule the community conversation about Palestine, genocide, oppression, and collective action by September 30.
We are working on more Spanish-language communication and translation.
We will increase social media education around voting and upcoming elections.
We will explore opportunities for candidate conversations and community education.
We are connecting with local nonprofits working on housing, food, healthcare, basic needs, and other issues affecting queer people.
We are exploring ways to participate in county-wide Pride collaboration and other regional queer community efforts.

Some of these things will take time. Some will change as we learn more. And some will require more people to step up.

We’ll keep you informed as we move forward and we welcome your feedback as we go.

One More Thing About the Board

We also heard concerns about Board representation.

We know the current Board does not represent every part of our Island’s 2SLGBTQIA+ community. We don’t want to pretend otherwise.

At the same time, we also know that we cannot build a more representative Board without people from different parts of our community being willing to participate.

So if you’ve ever thought, “I wish someone like me were on that Board,” maybe the next question is:

Could that someone be you?

You don’t need to know everything about nonprofit governance. You don’t need to have been involved in Pride before. And you don’t need to have all the answers.

We’re interested in talking with people who want to help shape what SJIPride Foundation becomes.

We Won’t Get Everything Right

We want to end with something that may be obvious but is worth saying.

We are going to make mistakes.

We’re going to disagree.

We’re not going to be able to do everything at once.

And there will probably be times when you don’t agree with a decision we make.

What we can commit to is being more transparent about those decisions, responding when you raise concerns, explaining when we can’t do something, and following through when we say we will.

We don’t expect trust to come back because we wrote a letter.

Trust gets rebuilt by what we do next.

So please hold us accountable.

Ask us questions.

Come to a Board meeting.

Take the surveys.

Come to the community conversations.

Volunteer.

Tell us when we’re getting it right.

Tell us when we’re getting it wrong.

And, especially, help us do the work.

We want an SJI 2SLGBTQIA+ community where people feel more connected, visible, supported, informed, safe, and empowered to live their best lives.