Marian Edmonds Allen

When she first participated in Circling the Wagons, Marian Edmonds Allen was Executive Director of OUTreach Resource Centers, a network of drop-in centers for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender youth in the state of Utah. At the center they receive food and supplies, classes, and access to counseling. OUTreach is also the parent organization of Safe and Sound -an LGBT youth host home program that helps families in crisis, places eminently homeless LGBT youth in host homes and works towards reunifying families. Now, Marian serves as National Project Director for the Family Acceptance Project, a research, intervention, education and policy initiative that works to prevent health and mental health risks for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) children and youth, including suicide, homelessness and HIV – in the context of their families. They use a research-based, culturally grounded approach to help ethnically, socially and religiously diverse families to support their LGBT children. Marian received a Master of Divinity from Eden Theological Seminary, married her partner Tori Allen in New York in 2013, and is the mother of four children.