We’re working to build a South where LGBTQ people are equal in every sphere of life.

In 2011, we launched our work from a church basement in the mountains of North Carolina. 

In the first chapter of our work, CSE was on the frontlines of efforts to win marriage equality in the South. 

We led the WE DO Campaign, which involved LGBTQ couples requesting – and being denied – marriage licenses in their Southern hometowns. 

More than 200 couples took action, with thousands of friends, family members and neighbors standing in support of them.

We were part of lawsuits that struck down marriage bans in North Carolina and Mississippi and a lawsuit that ended the adoption ban for LGBTQ parents in Mississippi. 

In these start up years, we also ran more than 100 free legal clinics across the South helping people meet immediate needs.

Traveling the South for years, we met thousands of incredible people who were ready to organize in their hometowns. 

Over the years our work has grown and our team has too – we now work from Asheville and Durham, NC, and Piedmont, SC. 

We use a range of tools in including direct services, direct action, litigation, grant-making, and long-term organizing strategies to respond to immediate community needs, support a new generation of LGBTQ leaders and build political power over the long term.

From the start our work has been based on equity and empathy. We are committed to equity in race, class and gender. 

Because our work is rooted in the ethic of empathic resistance, we are called to resist oppressive laws and systems while expressing empathy toward those who oppose our rights.

Campaign for Southern Equality

Youth Outright Wnc Inc is a nonprofit organization focused on human and civil rights. It is based in Asheville, NC. It received its nonprofit status in 2009.

Youth Outright Wnc Inc

We believe that pets and their people deserve a safe and healthy community in which to live and thrive...together!

Asheville Humane Society is dedicated to helping our community's pets and their people thrive together. We are going beyond no-kill to ensure that each animal has the quality of life they deserve - a life worth living.

Asheville Humane Society

An organization focused on housing and shelters. It received its nonprofit status in 2019.

JohnMark Conklin

Campaign for Southern Equality

Beloved Asheville

Youth Outright Wnc Inc

Asheville Humane Society