Upcoming Event
Stride for Pride 2025
Across the country, LGBTQ+ young people — especially our trans youth — are under attack. The very resources that protect their lives, their identities, and their futures are being stripped away.
At Ruth Ellis Center, we won’t back down.
Every mile walked, dollar earned, and team built fuels our mission this Stride for Pride season. Our life-changing support, compassionate care, and empowering opportunities make a real difference in the lives of LGBTQ+ youth experiencing homelessness and instability.
This is the moment: our chance to see the transformative power of community and serve the LGBTQ+ youth in need
Join our movement to support life-saving services, gender-affirming care, and welcoming spaces for our next generation
Whether you’re striding solo or rallying your crew, your support makes an impact.
1. Start or join a team — Rally your crew and walk with purpose.
2. Make a donation — Every gift brings us closer to safety and care for our youth.
3. Spread the word — Share the mission. Amplify the movement.
Thank you for believing in our youth and building a future with them.
With gratitude and pride,
The Ruth Ellis Center Team
Upcoming Event
July’s Reading Room Selection: This Book Is Gay
This Book Is Gay is a 2014 young adult self-help book written by Juno Dawson to help teenagers understand the world of LGBTQ+ identities. Dawson is a prolific author, writing both fiction and nonfiction for a young-adult audience. This Book Is Gay also addresses parents and cisgender heterosexual teenagers with LGBTQ+ friends and loved ones, providing support with a variety of resources. The book faced censorship in Alaska in 2015 for its sexual education material. Dawson came out as a transgender woman in 2015 and wrote a follow-up book about her experiences as a transgender woman. This book is titled What’s the T? and serves as a companion piece to This Book Is Gay that explores gender identity.
Dawson uses humor in This Book Is Gay to communicate complex and stigmatized ideas to people who don’t fully understand what it means to be LGBTQ+. Illustrations by Spike Gerrell convey complex information through infographics and support Dawson’s humorous tone. Each chapter is interspersed with survey responses from LGBTQ+ people across the globe; these anecdotes and testimony give a wider view into each topic than one person could achieve on their own.
Dawson stresses self-acceptance as a key factor in coming of age as an LGBTQ+ person. Dawson uses anatomical illustrations and anecdotes to educate and give transparency to topics that are often hidden from adolescents. Her goal is to help future generations protect their sexual health and combat stigma by providing resources that older generations of LGBTQ+ people did not have at a young age.
Content Warning: This Book Is Gay addresses the following topics: anti-LGBTQ+ biases, anti-LGBTQ+ slurs, rape, suicide, self-harm, drug use, and racism.
