About Us

History

Out & Sober Minnesota began in the late 1980s and early 1990s as an informal association of LGBTQ+ people in recovery from drugs and alcohol in the Twin Cities.

At the time, 12-step recovery programs struggled with how to—or if they even should—welcome and regard lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer members of the fellowship. Up to that point, strict adherents to Alcoholics Anonymous regarded sexuality outside of straight and gender identity outside of cisgender as being “constitutionally incapable of being honest with themselves.”

The transphobia and homophobia of the time led straight and cisgender members of the fellowship to impose outdated beliefs of sexuality and gender onto LGBTQ people in recovery, making recovery a one-dimensional reality. Most groups regarded LGBTQ identity as an “outside issue” that had no bearing on substance use or recovery.

We know that as LGBTQ human beings—that is simply not true—we are formed and healed by our experiences as queer people.

GLBT in Recovery (as it was known at the time) was an affiliation of 12-step members who came together annually for a community meal that eventually evolved into a two-day conference called MinneSober.

After community input and discussion in 2015, Out & Sober Minnesota was incorporated as a 501(c)3 nonprofit with a board of directors comprised of community members in recovery and in the LGBTQ communities. We are dedicated to connecting LGBTQ+ people in recovery with other sober queer, sober folks in the community. Our board is all-volunteer and we fundraise from our community’s generosity to provide social programming.

PROGRAMMING NEED

Minnesota often leads the nation in recovery resources with world-renowned facilities like Pride Institute, Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation, NuWay Alliance, among countless others. The state also has numerous sober housing facilities that help people in recovery transition back into daily living outside of a facility.

Out & Sober Minnesota exists to bridge the gap between crucial stages of development for LGBTQ+ people in recovery.

We offer monthly programming that help build (or rebuild) and reinforce important social networks for queer, sober people. Having opportunities to make new friends outside of a treatment setting can be daunting, so too can building a routine outside of daily or weekly recovery meetings. This is why our programming is vital to rounding out the developmental victories for LGBTQ+ people in recovery. To see a listing of our programming offerings, visit https://outsobermn.wordpress.com/blog.