The Loudoun Pride Foundation goes by many names.  Our official legal name is Cheerful Spaces, a non-profit organization that promotes inclusivity and the general welfare of the queer community through engagement, events, and advocacy. We operate as the Loudoun Pride Foundation (our official DBA), but people also call us the Loudoun Pride Festival and sometimes just Loudoun Pride. The organization was started by Jenny and Candice, the founders and directors of the Loudoun Pride Festival since it's inception. They formerly served as the Community Director and President, respectively, for Equality Loudoun (no longer associated) and have been creating safe queer spaces since 2019.

We are an official, independent 501(c)4 organization as of December 2023. Our EIN number is 33-2215492. 


Our Guiding Principles​​
"What you do says more about you than what you wish to be."

WE BELIEVE IN ACTION
Our work resolves around the simple philosophy that action is more important than intent. When we began this journey, we sat down and asked ourselves what do we want to be and what philosophies will guide us? This is what we came up with. 

INTENTIONALITY
This community has been through enough and to truly serve we cannot simply echo every call and scream into every room. The LGBTQ+ community is at risk, right now. Failing to acknowledge that and address the impacts that 24/7 activism calls for puts people in more harms way. We will do our best to contextualize every step we make, every voice we elevate, and every opportunity we seize to ensure that you understand what impact it can have. We will not heed every call to action, petition, email, or rally. We will not use AI to generate any messages that are meant to impact lives. Some parts of advocacy are performative, but you should never have to sacrifice for meaningless action. You deserve to rest. Your existence is what needs protected and we intend to do so with intentionality.

ADVOCACY
We've sat in enough rooms to know that advocacy can mean whatever you want it to. But rather than squabbling over definitions, here is what advocacy means to us- do what needs done to respond to this moment. Sometimes advocacy calls for us to step into spaces with decision makers and represent this community. Sometimes it means trying to change the culture by engaging with people and places that are hostile. Sometimes it means creating spaces where queer people can exist safely and other times it means refusing to quit until every space is safe. To answer the call of this moment is our advocacy.

INTERSECTIONALITY
We start this work by acknowledging what we are and what we are not. Our organization is represented by middle-aged white people who are a mixture of LGBTQ+ identities, with individual histories of dealing with discrimination, poverty, homelessness, abuse, and exclusion. What we are not is people of color, young people, immigrants, indigienous, or persecuted religious minorities. We are here to learn, listen, and gather the stories, perspectives, and first-hand lived experiences of all members of this community. We do so to build unique spaces and advocacy that serve different communities by acknowledging intersectionality.

VISIBILITY
The queer community is all about diversity. We encompass every race, religion, background, and identity on Earth and have done so since humanity first thought. We want to change culture to be better at acknowledging differences, needs, and intentional spaces by elevating the visibility of different groups as part of the whole community. These are the lives of real people and we need to work to elevate those whose stories aren't heard. For trans adults, for queer people of color, for LGBTQ+ religious minorities, and for members of the LGBTQ+ community and everyone else who's identities are trivialized and marginalized. We see you. With us, you will always have visibility.

BELONGING
While we want to change the world, we start small and build our way up. Not every space is meant for every person, but by creating or affirming safe spaces that serve each person and their unique wants, needs, and identities, we can start the work. We believe that too much effort is spent making every space meet every need, invalidating our needs as unique individuals. Belonging should rise above passive events and generate positive ripples in the community. The queer community does this by extending opportunities to each person and asking what we can do in return. You are part of our team, whether you know it yet or not. Let's work together to make the world a better place where every conversation starts by asking how we can make this a place of belonging.