Boise Pride Pages

About Boise Pride Pages
and a bit about me, the
person behind the page.

Creating www.BoisePridePages.com is my way of saying, “Hey, we got this," to the LGBTQ+ community! It’s a virtual hug, a high-five, and a nod to the people moving back, new to the community, natives, and the late bloomers like me who found their voice a little later in the game.

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Hi, I am Meda Thompson, the face behind www.BoisePridePages.com, and I am excited to share with you a little bit about why I started this website and some things about me. 

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I didn’t come out until I moved away from Idaho. Yes, I moved away, and yes, I actually moved back. As for coming out, I was fashionably late to the party, you could say.

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I graduated from Bonners Ferry High School, in Bonners Ferry, Idaho. I was very traditional for North Idaho, and was a very conservative Christian as a young adult. Coming out was nowhere on the horizon back then. I got married young, had three children, was very involved in church, raised my kids in the traditional sense, and even worked in the school district alongside my children, all in Sandpoint, Idaho.  When the kids were teenagers, I went through a divorce, and we all moved away to Oregon.

When I finally did come out, no one was surprised, including my teenage children, whose biggest response was “It’s about time you figured it out mom!”

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As a person with foundations in tradition, I sought out some new traditions and followed the old cliché of the traditional ‘U-Haul lesbian’ move and made my way to Palm Springs for about a 10 year stint.

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Fast forward to when I was even older, we won’t mention my age, and I made my way back here to the Gem State, even though I swore I would never move back. Never say never. It was a bit intimidating and honestly, the only reason I was moving back was Amy, a Boise Native, and I happen to fall in love with her.  I had heard all the political unrest, and uproars about Idaho, I found out that I was losing some of my rights, including equal housing, and you can say it was a little scary moving back here.

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After I got here, I was trying to find some resources, and I realized that our LGBTQ+ community, including me, needed more than the occasional annual Pride event.   We needed a steady place to call our own where we could find resources, safe spaces to be, and feel at home. Guess what? I couldn’t find it. I thought I found a website once, that claimed these resources, but it had only 3 businesses listed, and the links were broken, but one link worked, however, that business was no longer in operation! It felt like finding a gay needle in a very straight haystack.

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That is when the lightbulb went on, and I took action, and www.BoisePridePages.com came to life! Voila!

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This website isn’t just about places and business listings, it is about creating a safe and welcoming space right here in the heart of Idaho. I get it, coming back home can be a bit scary, but know what is even scarier? The idea of not having a community to lean on.

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This is a project of passion born out of my own personal journey. Let’s turn www.BoisePridePages.com into that safe space we were looking for – a place where everyone, no matter where they are on their journey, can feel safe, seen, heard, and valued.

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Find your safe spaces and business to support, that support you. Check out a podcast, or read a blog post.

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Celebrate Boise Pride Pages and build a community that is as diverse as it is awesome!

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Cheers,

Meda