The 2024 Out100: Avery Belyeu

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

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.

Erik Carter

Educators

Jaymes Black

Meet some of the artists, disruptors, educators, groundbreakers, innovators, and storytellers who all helped make the world a better place for LGBTQ+ people.

Erik Carter

The Trevor Project — a national suicide prevention and crisis intervention nonprofit supporting LGBTQ+ youth — tapped Jaymes Black this year to helm the group’s vital work.

Black (he/she/they) is Trevor’s first Black and first nonbinary CEO. A former CEO of Family Equality who grew up in the rural South, they bring both an impressive résumé and lived experience to tackling the daunting challenges faced by today’s queer and trans kids. “To be in this role, to be who I needed when I was [a] young queer Black awkward kid in Texas, is…another dream come true,” they say.

Bullies manifest on the playground and in the political world. But through it all, Black is inspired by how many young people live openly and proudly, a resilience that comes with being part of the LGBTQ+ community.

“The way that we view the world is very different. And because of that, I think we come with…this innate strength that others don’t understand,” they say. “We’ll never give up. We’ll never give up the fight. We’ll never give up fighting for equality. We’ll never give up being ourselves.” @thejaymesblack

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Avery Belyeu

Meet some of the artists, disruptors, educators, groundbreakers, innovators, and storytellers who all helped make the world a better place for LGBTQ+ people.

Daniel Reynolds

Daniel ReynoldsDaniel 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.

Jaymes Black

Meet some of the artists, disruptors, educators, groundbreakers, innovators, and storytellers who all helped make the world a better place for LGBTQ+ people.

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.