A search for acceptance; Sandpoint man looks to start new nonprofit

SANDPOINT — A Sandpoint man is on a mission to bring love and acceptance to North Idaho.

At 21-years-old, Leo Hunsaker knows first-hand the struggle to find that love and acceptance, and hopes to help others find peace within themselves.

“Growing up as a homosexual male in Sandpoint was very hard for me — with family, with school, with church — it was one of those things where I didn’t feel like I really had an outlet or a safe place I could go to just to express myself and find the meaning in who I was,” Hunsaker said.

While it is not yet official, Hunsaker has submitted paperwork to start a nonprofit Sandpoint Pride Festival, in which the festival itself will take place in the summer of 2017 in Sandpoint.

The purpose of the event is to bring the community together to celebrate the soon-to-be organization’s movement, which is equal rights for everyone, Hunsaker said, with an emphasis on the LGBTQ community. Hunsaker hopes that community members from Kootenai County and other surrounding areas will join in as well.

“We are growing as a society, and as we grow as a community here in Sandpoint, there are a lot us who identify as part to that community and there is not really a voice up here for them,” Hunsaker said. “There is not really safe places for the to go where they can freely express themselves, where they can interact with people who have gone through the same stuff they are going through.”

The first day of the four-day event will be an opening ceremony with motivational speakers and speakers from the LGBTQ community. The second evening will be an adult night where 21 and over can have a fun-filled night with things like drag karaoke and bingo. The third day will be a family day focused around youth and their families, and the final day will be the actual festival with a parade, food, performers and a family dance in the evening.

He said anyone who feels compelled to get involved will be able to contact him through his Sandpoint Pride Festival Facebook page. He not only needs sponsorship and donations, but has several positions that will need to be filled as his vision of the organization comes to fruition. The positions open are vice president, secretary and four marketing positions.

Hunsaker is involved with PFLAG, a national organization aimed at advancing equality and uniting the LGBTQ community. He moved to Boise for short time, moving back at the beginning of this year. Although he is involved with other members of the LGBTQ community through PFLAG, he said coming back to Sandpoint was the “same thing” for him. He didn’t know where to go, where to find the acceptance he needed to find the love and confidence within himself, he said.

He wants everyone to know there is others who have the same struggles; they could be doctors, lawyers, bankers or others in the community and it is time to bring that community together.

Hunsaker said he began to feel like he was different, like he didn’t quite fit in, when he was 8 years old, shortly after he was Baptized at his family’s church.

“I didn’t feel like my life was what everybody else wanted it to be,” Hunsaker said. “I did believe that I was given, and I do believe that being LGBTQ is a gift because you are truth seekers.

“You go through so much intuition and introverted thinking about who you are that you don’t just walk down the bakery and take the first cookie you see. You know there is one way better out there and you know that there is someone better than who you are today. So seek that truth and when you find that truth, the feeling is just — unfathomable.”

When that truth is discovered, Hunsaker said, there is a feeling of freedom and while there might be rain storms along the way, there is life after the rain.

He said anyone who feels compelled to get involved through sponsorship, donations, to serve on the board, or just join in on the conversation, can contact him through his Sandpoint Pride Festival Facebook page at www.facebook.com/groups/172231043184115.