In this episode of The Spectrum (Episode 32, recorded November 20th, 2025), we sit down with Evelyn BruMar, the Executive Director of the Casa BruMar Foundation. Find out how this **Latina-led LGBTQ organization** serves as a crucial home and resource hub across the **whole Commonwealth of Virginia**. Evelyn, a first-generation American of Mexican and Chumash descent, shares her deeply personal motivation for this extensive advocacy work, including her experience living on the streets after being disowned as a minor. Her commitment solidified in Virginia when the state barred her and her wife from adopting a foster child. **What does Casa BruMar Foundation do?** The mission of Casa BruMar is built on providing protections and access to resources that were historically absent in Virginia before 2020, when it was legal to discriminate against LGBTQ people. They work tirelessly to "cut through red tape" and navigate local laws (from school board policies to foster care). Core services include: * Connecting people, including those displaced or struggling with affordable housing, to existing county programs. * Helping young people obtain a **GED or high school diploma**. * Ensuring the **elderly population** is not discriminated against in faith-based hospice facilities. * Operating the **Rise Up Scholarship**, named after a friend named Marja, which helps LGBTQ young adults (ages 18-25). **Facing the 2025 Crisis** Evelyn confirms a significant **uptick in people reaching out for help in 2025**, including LGBTQIA+ individuals, as well as straight or cisgender people who face hate for how their children identify or how they are perceived. **Innovative Solutions & Advocacy** Learn about Evelyn's creative solution for same-sex couples before marriage equality was legal: **forming a business (an LLC)** to protect assets and ensure rights. Evelyn and her wife, Heidi, adopted the name "BruMar," legally established themselves as a business, and protected their assets by putting them into the company's bank account. Furthermore, Evelyn details the life-saving **crisis intervention training** Casa BruMar provides to **first responders and law enforcement** in Manassas and Prince William County. This training is designed to foster empathy and provide officers with the appropriate language needed to engage safely with people experiencing trauma, including non-binary and trans youth who are often misgendered or dead named. **Support the Future of Advocacy in Virginia** Looking ahead to 2026, the foundation is focused on closing the housing gap and advocating for simple but crucial policy changes, such as mandatory single-stall, private bathrooms in public facilities and schools, which Evelyn argues protects all children, especially the most vulnerable. The foundation is planning to open a new **community center in Woodbridge, Prince William County** in 2026, which Evelyn believes will be the first community center in Virginia with an attached **pride clinic and pharmacy**, alongside social services. To support this vital work or inquire about resources, visit **CasaBrumarFoundation.org**.
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