The Puget Sound Business Journal celebrated the region’s Queer leaders, advocates, and changemakers during its 11th annual Business of Pride Awards on June 2 at Chateau Ste. Michelle Winery, bringing together business, nonprofit. and community leaders for an evening centered on visibility, inclusion, and resilience.
The lively reception honored the 2026 Outstanding Voices: Danni Askini, Hanifah Bellaluz McGovern, Christopher Brown, Paul and Matthew Castle, Jenny Harding, B Harper, Patti Hearn, Domonique Juleon, Joshua Kennedy, Alex Morgan, Yohar Renaud, and Lindsay Serbousek. Longtime activist Marsha Botzer received the evening’s Lifetime Achievement Award.
Supported by Signature Sponsor Alaska Airlines’; Community Sponsors BECU, EvergreenHealth, and Perkins Coie; and Venue Sponsor Chateau Ste. Michelle Winery, the event celebrated the individuals and organizations helping shape a more equitable future for LGBTQIA+ communities across the Pacific Northwest.
Throughout the evening, honorees reflected on the power of community, advocacy, and leadership at a time when many Queer rights remain under attack nationwide.
Building community and creating opportunity
Among the evening’s most notable speakers was Danni Askini, founder of Trans Pride Seattle, who credited Lifetime Achievement honoree Marsha Botzer with helping pave the way for her work.
"I want to thank Marsha Botzer, who has always been behind me and helped open the heart," Askini said.
She reflected on the remarkable growth of Trans Pride Seattle since its launch in 2013. "That first year we had over 500 people. This year we’re going to have 30,000 people," she said. "It’s the second largest Trans event in the country."
Askini emphasized that the event has evolved beyond a celebration into a vital community resource, helping connect Transgender people to services and support. Those efforts eventually led to the creation of one of the nation’s only domestic violence organizations specifically serving Transgender survivors.
"We every day work with dozens of Trans people surviving violence all over the country — in 29 states now," Askini said. "We started small but we’ve really grown."
She also acknowledged growing political challenges facing Transgender communities, while praising Washington state’s continued commitment to inclusion.
"While a lot of people are shrinking in other parts of the country, we’re standing for what we believe in, which is inclusion," she said. "We’re just making sure everybody has a home here."
Christopher Brown highlighted the importance of economic empowerment and mentorship in LGBTQIA+ communities. Brown spoke about creating opportunities for Queer entrepreneurs through community-centered spaces that provide everything from coworking facilities to food banks and clothing resources.
"The more that we can have Queer dollars circulating within the Queer community, the better off we all are," Brown said.
Brown noted that since launching the initiative in October, the organization has helped connect Queer entrepreneurs with more than $1 million in funding.
Visibility through storytelling
Social media creators and authors Paul and Matthew Castle were recognized for using their platform to advocate for LGBTQIA+ families, disability awareness, and representation.
Paul Castle, a legally blind writer and content creator, spoke about the impact of authentic storytelling online.
"People don’t just watch," he said. "They write and say thank you for giving me the courage to come out, or thank you for giving me hope for my four-year-old who’s just been diagnosed with a degenerative disease."
He described Seattle as a source of inspiration and support for their work, calling the LGBTQIA+ community "resilient, creative, and fiercely kind."
Matthew Castle reflected on the challenges they have faced as public advocates, including online harassment and efforts to ban books featuring Queer families.
"We have faced trolls online. We have been the target of book bans that have targeted books like Paul’s books that say Queer families exist and they are beautiful," he said. "But every time we’ve tried to raise our voice, our community has showed up louder."
Accepting the award on behalf of LGBTQIA+ creators, the pair dedicated the recognition to young people searching for representation and hope.
Values reflected through action
Patti Hearn of Seattle Pride focused her remarks on the importance of sustained support for LGBTQIA+ communities, especially during periods of social and political pressure.
"Our budgets reveal our values," Hearn said. "They show what we actually believe, not what we say."
She praised the businesses and organizations that continue investing in LGBTQIA+ and particularly Transgender communities beyond Pride Month.
"When I look at the companies and organizations here who step up [for] the Queer and Trans community, especially when there are pressures to pull back, I see organizations whose values and belonging are worth defending," she said.
Hearn emphasized that meaningful allyship requires ongoing commitment.
"Not just in June, and not just when it’s easy, but with sustained and material support," she said.
A lifetime of advocacy
The evening concluded with remarks from Marsha Botzer, whose decades of advocacy have helped shape the landscape of LGBTQIA+ and especially Transgender rights in Washington state and beyond.
Reflecting on her journey from the 1960s through today’s renewed challenges, Botzer underscored the collective nature of social progress.
"The great message of our Queer and Trans work together has always been that no success falls from the starry firmament, but that we make it ourselves," she said.
Botzer recognized the many business leaders who have worked alongside advocates to create more welcoming workplaces, often in the face of significant opposition.
"They’ve done so sometimes under the most awful, hideous attacks from the opposition," she said. "We see that rising again."
Her message remained rooted in unity and optimism: "My friends, not singly but together we win. Together we prosper."
As she accepted the award, Botzer made clear that her advocacy work is far from over.
"I’m not going to go anywhere. Not yet," she told the audience with a smile.
She closed by sharing a quote from Robert Ingersoll that has guided her work for years: "The time to be happy is now, the place to be happy is here, and the way to be happy is to help make others so."
The evening’s celebrations served as both a recognition of past achievements and a reminder of the work that remains ahead, with honorees repeatedly returning to themes of visibility, community investment, and collective action as the foundation for continued progress.
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