OUT4Mental Health

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  I’m David Wharton, Task Force Lead for #Out4MentalHealth. I joined the Task Force in 2017 and I'm excited about continuing our work for Cycle 2 (2020-2023).  I have been active as a volunteer and advocate for the LGBTQ+ and HIV communities since moving to 

Redding in 2003.  

I enjoy volunteering for LGBTQ+ activist causes, working with the HIV community by providing food support services, public speaking, collecting antiques, playing the piano, sewing, family, and spending time with my fur baby. I grew up in the California Central Valley and have lived in SF and LA before moving to Redding in 2003. 

  I am Lee Macey. I am retired from teaching Middle School and English as a Second Language. My family and I have lived in Shasta County since 1972. I have been active in human rights and social justice concerns for many years and became involved as a straight ally with LGBTQ+ issues after our friends Gary Matson and Winfield Mowder were murdered because they were gay. Through my activism, I have developed life-long friendships.  

 I’m Don Yost.  I am a retired teacher.  I taught young children, Kindergarten, First, and Second Grade.  In 1999, when my friends Gary Matson and Winfield Mowder were murdered in a homophobic crime, I realized that rights for the LGBTQ+ community were seriously lacking and that even as a cis straight man I could advocate for those rights.  I have been involved in that struggle since.

I like to run for recreation, having run a dozen marathons, although none recently. 

I’m Nate Fairchild, a former classroom science teacher and current director of Schreder Planetarium and Whiskeytown Environmental School for the Shasta County office of education, among other fun science education work. In my work I’ve been bitten by wild animals, conducted crawling cave tours, lived in the Sierra, blown up pumpkins, and led kids through tall redwoods at night in the rain. I’ve been fortunate for sure! I’m married to a superb woman, and we have two daughters, identical twins in 9th grade. I’ve been lucky to have known many LGBTQ people, from which I learned a great deal. When I had a good friend come out to me - the first person outside of his family - and he did so right before we were going camping together, I knew what it meant to be an ally. As a teacher and in my current role I strongly believe that as schools look at various student groups in school that the LGBTQ population is largely ignored or even rebuffed. I wish to be part of the change I wish to see in the world.