This Out Adventurer Traveled for Three Years Before Realizing There’s No Place Like Home
Out Traveler. “In October 2018, REI hired me to be part of an ad campaign, and we discovered it was the first time in the history of the outdoor recreation industry in America that an openly gay man was in an ad.
In 2018.” Reflecting on his experiences to the Mpls.St.Paul Magazine, Meyer said, “I’ve heard from tens of thousands of LGBTQ+ people who don’t feel safe or wanted in outdoor spaces.
Notably, queer people of color feel even more left out.”In response, Meyer founded the Outside Safe Space program and ran 200 miles across Minnesota to raise funds and awareness about the need for more openness and allyship in outdoors culture.
That marathon run ended on the steps of the state capitol in St. Paul. Then the activist returned to Minneapolis, where Meyer says he moved because “Minneapolis had the cleanest and most vibrant downtown of all the places I visited, with a true mix of people living, working, and recreating there.” The city made famous in The Mary Tyler Moore Show also offers a healthy dose of nature nearby.“It has a national park running right through the downtown center [the Mississippi National River & Recreation Area].
