(Into the Light Walk) An Average Day – A Wild Boar, Bad Singing and Where Will I Sleep?

(Into the Light Walk) Transgender Day of Remembrance Vigil from a Shed in Hasty, CO!

by Alan Bounville
Into the Light Walker


November 20 is the annual Transgender Day of Remembrance. Vigils and events take place each year on this day to raise awareness for full civil rights and social equality for the living, while remembering the hundreds of trans folks who are murdered and the countless others who take their own lives. Until we are fully equal under the laws, our neighbors will continue to treat us like shit. Yearn for FULL EQUALITY – then – FIGHT FOR FULL EQUALITY!

RIP our dear family members who we’ve lost because people don’t understand the beauty – and natural existence of folks who are transgender.

(Into the Light Walk) Where will you be on November 20th?

Alan and OUTview Trans Contributors (Lincoln and Nikki)

by Alan Bounville

Nov. 20th is the international Transgender Day of Remembrance. Please plan or be part of an event in your area remembering those who we’ve lost due to perceived or actual gender identity or gender expression hate.

www.transgenderdor.org has a list of events already planned. If you don’t see an event in your area already, plan one! Check out the website first. But if you do plan one, the site directs you to email Ethan St. Pierre at transgenderdor@gmail.com.
On November 20th, somewhere in the panhandle of Texas, I will be holding a vigil remembering all of those trans folk we’ve lost this year (and overall) due to hate. I may be alone in a rural area while I hold the vigil. I may be in a town. It all depends on how far I can walk between now and then.
Join me – remember – fight – DEMAND!

(Into the Light Walk) He Walks For YOU!

by Alan Bounville

Though I’ve been posting videos, some photos and text posts over the past few months, one thing I haven’t done is a photo and caption post like I have periodically been doing. So, here we go – photos and captions documenting the past few months of the Into the Light Walk.

For more photos that others have uploaded, please go to the walk’s Facebook photo page: https://www.facebook.com/IntoLightWalk?sk=photos. There are lots of photos there as well.
PS Some of these photos are not in chronological order. Between my computer crashing and a glitch uploading photos to the website, it has been a challenge to get back online to do a post like this.

South of Declo, ID, on a dirt road, Equality Cart got tired and fell over! The wheel came off. It was an easy fix.

(Into the Light Walk) Matthew Shepard Vigil in Field Where He was Murdered!

David Andreason and I went into the field where Matthew Shepard was murdered for being gay.

(Into the Light Walk) It Gets Better – Calling Mom from the Continental Divide!

by Alan Bounville
Into the Light Walker

I decided to make an It Gets Better video, calling my birth mother from the Continental Divide in Colorado, as I walk across the country for gender and sexual orientation equality. In 2008, my mother, step-father and other family members in Florida voted against LGBT civil rights by voting for Amendment 2 (Florida’s Proposition 8). A year later I stopped talking with them because of this divide between us. This is the first conversation my mother and I have had in two years.

Does it get better? At times like these I wonder. Watch the video of the phone call below.



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(Into the Light Walk) In this Place…

by Alan Bounville
Into the Light Walk

In this place…
The people I’ve met. The stories I’ve been told. The lives they lead. The strength they have. What I’ve seen with my eyes…

There they go, on their bikes, crisp white shirts. Everyone waving. Nametags everywhere. Even on little girls at street fairs while they make their rainbow bracelets at the church that is not their church’s booth. Nice people, giving people, who just so happen to indoctrinate their kids with the idea that a heterosexual lifestyle is best. No matter how you shake it, that’s heterosexism.

In the South Visitor Center at Temple Square sits an interactive display. Kids can have fun with the video screens, touch them and learn about the ideal family. Even if their family isn’t this one view of family, they can learn what the best families are all about.

There they go again, on their bikes, black ties. Happy faces. Young. Ready to share their truth.
Door to door to door.

Click Here for More!

(Into the Light Walk) Three Idaho Walkers and the First 1,000 Miles!

by Alan Bounville

We would like to thank all the people I met during the first 1,000 miles, including OUTview's Nikki Lee Taylor and Lincoln Rose. 

(Into the Light Walk) Anger is One Letter Short of Danger!

by Alan Bounville

Into the Light

On Saturday morning the Equality Cart and I are in the bathroom at an RV Park in Prineville, Oregon, where I camped last. I am at the sink finishing up getting ready for the day when a man comes out of one of the showers behind me, sees Equality Cart, scrunches his face a bit and asks me what the cart is for. I share with him, as I do to several people each day that I am walking across the country for gender and sexual orientation equality. He shares with me that his niece ‘decided’ she was gay and left her husband and children and in doing so created a lot of grief for the family. Now her children are being raised by her ex-husband and his new wife. He then opens the door and walks out of the restroom. The only response I can say before the door shuts behind him is, ‘I’m not doing that.’ Maybe he hears me as he takes off. Maybe not. Maybe him expressing himself is simply a reinforcement of his belief that people ‘decide’ to be gay, straight, bisexual or transgender. 

(Into the Light Walk) Update: June 22 – July 7!

by Alan Bounville

What a past few weeks! It really is getting harder and harder to crystallize the myriad experiences that happen each day into posts that capture the true essence of a walk like this. I say each day because literally each day something to remember takes places. Each day I am walking my body, mind and spirit experience extreme highs and lows. Each day someone inspiring comes into my life. Each day I learn how important it is to get our messages out there to all people with whom we come into contact. Below are two vigils along with photos and descriptions of just a few of the moments that define this journey. PS – there are three more Portland area vigils I’m finishing up, so those videos will be uploaded soon.

Vigil held for Brad Forkner and Christopher Rosevear, two men holding hands on the Hawthorne Bridge in Portland, Oregon on May 22, 2011 who where beaten on the bridge by a group of males.

(Into the Light) Bounville Meets Nikki Lee Taylor and Lincoln Rose and Tours Capitol Hill!

This Past Wednesday, MK followed Alan Bounville around Capitol Hill as he was getting to know the area, we made a point of stopping at Porchlight coffee to meet up with 2 of  OUTview Trans Contributors, Lincoln Rose and Nikki Lee Taylor. I believe Alan enjoyed meeting 2 different members of the Seattle Trans community. The next stop on the tour was the SGN offices on his way out of town to share the beliefs he hopes to spread across the nation during his journey.

Here is a portion of the finished article that appeared in this weeks Seattle Gay News:
'I want to inspire an open conversation about full civil rights,' Bounville said. During his walk, he will be focusing on raising the issue of LGBTQ equality and tackling society's fear of those who don't fit neatly into the male/female gender binary. 'We need a dream. That builds energy in a movement.'

Bounville hopes to bring attention to gender inequality by taking the issue out of insular Pride parades and bringing it into the streets. 'In an insulated environment, we're not tapping into the populace. & Walk down the street with a rainbow flag and talk about your issues. We're out, but we need to be out more. We talk about Pride parades and marches & but the media gets to manipulate that by just showing a guy in a thong or a drag queen,' he said.

(Into the Light) Begins NOW: A 6,000-Mile Walk to End Gender and LGBTQ Discrimination!

Today, Alan L. Bounville embarked upon a journey from Seattle, Washington, walking 6,000 miles to Washington DC. While he walks, Bounville will be highlighting the need for equality based on gender, gender identity, gender expression and sexual orientation. The walk will begin in the Capitol Hill area where a brief candle light vigil will mark the beginning of the walk.


In the United States of America we are required to declare a gender and that it 'match' archaic beliefs about maleness and femaleness. Our existing social and governmental structure expects that our declared gender align with the roles hegemonic forces believe we should embody in that gender. Because of this rigid binary, inequalities abound in employment, health care, voting rights, marriage, social services, religious practices, parenthood, public restrooms, housing and social respect. And worst of all, gender related discrimination leads to murder and suicide.

"A person's gender identity and gender expression should be decided not by predetermined expectations, but by each of us as individuals. Until that is the accepted norm, we will continue to live in an imbalanced world where people who are transgender are beaten, murdered and refused jobs, where women are paid less than men for the same amount of work, where men aggress against each other, where lesbian, gay, bisexual and all people are judged not on the quality of who they are as people, but on how 'masculine' or 'feminine' they are perceived to be - and that's just the beginning," says Bounville.

(NEW SERIES): Into the Light Walk: Step One: Decide to Be Active!

by Alan L. Bounville
intothelightwalk.com

I've been asked to write for this publication about the LGBTQ social movement and sub-movements and about social movements overall. I do a lot of freedom fighting as it appears. And because of that, the publishers feel I might have something to say. Truth is, I'm not sure what I should say. What is interesting to you, the reader? What is helpful? Why do I deserve this platform over the next person? We are all at different points along this journey, so it is foolish for me to think I know more than you about what it will take for us to live in the world of our dreams - and for queer people specifically, to be fully equal under the laws of our country and treated as such by our families and neighbors.

All I know is that I see myself as a person who actively engages in finding solutions through my own actions to the problems we face from day to day. So, maybe I'll start there. In regard to the LGBTQ movements, I am active because I believe the more I get involved in the fight for my rights or the rights of others, the sooner it will be when those rights are concretized in the law and the sooner it will be my family and neighbors will treat me as an equal. So, Be. Active.

Many would say my decision to be active makes me an activist. The word 'activist' I feel puts a label on people that separates us. We are all equally empowered to shape our world. So, titles in a peoples movement, I feel are counterproductive to empowering people to become active, which at my core is my ultimate goal. So, I only believe in the idea of active and passive people.

(NEW SERIES): Into the Light Walk: Step One: Decide to Be Active!

by Alan L. Bounville
intothelightwalk.com

I have been asked to write for this publication about the LGBTQ social movement and sub-movements and about social movements overall. I do a lot of freedom fighting as it appears. And because of that, the publishers feel I might have something to say. Truth is, I'm not sure what I should say. What is interesting to you, the reader? What is helpful? Why do I deserve this platform over the next person? We are all at different points along this journey, so it is foolish for me to think I know more than you about what it will take for us to live in the world of our dreams - and for queer people specifically, to be fully equal under the laws of our country and treated as such by our families and neighbors.

All I know is that I see myself as a person who actively engages in finding solutions through my own actions to the problems we face from day to day. So, maybe I'll start there. In regard to the LGBTQ movements, I am active because I believe the more I get involved in the fight for my rights or the rights of others, the sooner it will be when those rights are concretized in the law and the sooner it will be my family and neighbors will treat me as an equal. So, Be. Active.

Many would say my decision to be active makes me an activist. The word 'activist' I feel puts a label on people that separates us. We are all equally empowered to shape our world. So, titles in a peoples movement, I feel are counterproductive to empowering people to become active, which at my core is my ultimate goal. So, I only believe in the idea of active and passive people.