The Wild Wanderer Spotlight Series highlights the stories of queer adventurers in their own words. We hope that by sharing these underrepresented voices, true diversity and inclusion will begin to make their way into the mainstream.
Wild Wanderer Spotlight: Tori
“Show our faces year round in advertisements. Hire us in your companies. Recruit us to be ambassadors for your labels. Host classes/workshops geared towards diversity year round.” – Tori
What are your pronouns?
He/Him
How do you identify?
Trans FTM
What outdoor activities are you involved in?
Fly Fishing #1!!! Also, Backpacking. Packrafting. XC skiing. Mushroom foraging. Gardening. Biking.
Tell us about a favorite/memorable outdoor adventure you’ve had:
Too many! Last summer I backpacked off trails cross country to a high alpine lake in the north cascades to stock the lake with tiny fingerling westslope cutthroat trout. That night we fished the lake with mouse patterns at dusk, and the 20” trout explosively took our flys with splashy enthusiasm! All fish were gently released to see another day.
In your opinion, what are the most important challenges/issues facing queer people outside?
LGBTQ/BIPOC people are under represented in all outdoor programs which creates a list of problems. Personal safety is always the highest priority, and one thing that would help increase safety is more representation of LGBTQ/BIPOC people in the advertisements/staff/ambassadors of all of the major and minor labels/brands in the outdoor industry. It would allow for straight cis white people to become more familiar with seeing us in outdoor sports/places. Plus it would encourage more LGBTQ/BIPOC people to join these sports/environments which would not only increase safety, but increase the level of fun, not to mention that it would increase revenue for these businesses too. I would love to go fishing with more LBGTQ/BIPOC anglers!
As an LGBTQ+ person, if you could change one thing about the outdoor industry, what would it be?
More representation of LGBTQ/BIPOC people! Show our faces year round in advertisements. Hire us in your companies. Recruit us to be ambassadors for your labels. Host classes/workshops geared towards diversity year round.
Do you have anything else to add?
Calling all LGBTQ/BIPOC people, let’s go outside! Let’s go fishing!
Connect with Tori
Follow Tori on Instagram.
See more Wild Wanderer Spotlights. You can follow Wild Wanderer on the organization’s website, Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.
This article is part of our Trailblazer program.
Backpackers.com Affiliate Policy: This article may contain affiliate links, which help fund our website. When you click on the links to purchase the gear, we get a commission, and this goes a long way to creating guides, gear reviews, and other excellent content.
