GIVING BACK
Making a difference in the lives of others Story told through the lens and in the words of Sam Interrante, portrait photographer.
Karen Foley
Licensed Professional Counselor, MA, LPC Founder, Lancaster LGBTQ+ Coalition K AREN’S PHOTOSHOOT at Hingework was our first introduction. We shook hands and immediately I felt at ease. She has a disarming charisma about her. I asked about her life as I began photographing her, but she was more interested in the initiatives of the Lancaster LGBTQ+ Coalition than in herself. She’s got that underdog spirit; someone that you want in your corner. A Chicago native, Karen moved to Lancaster a decade ago and immediately got to work. “You can’t be from Chicago and not grind all the time,’’ she said as she merely laughed, describing the frenzied nature of her day-today. In college, it was “hard to find a program that will focus on both psychology and the body so I kind of was able to go to a school in Chicago that let me self-lead. I created my own course; the subjects I took, the classes I took, the books I read.” Karen isn’t only a pioneering advocate for the LGBTQ+ community; she’s also a therapist, trained yoga instructor and does massage and healing work with trauma in the body.
“I’m just dedicated to creating safe, dignified spaces for connection in the LGBTQ+ community and advancing equity so that people can freely love who they love.” Karen’s love and empathy for marginalized people to know that they have room in this world quickly made itself apparent to me. It showed itself not only in her passion and the many testimonials she shared, but in the strategic power of the Lancaster LGBTQ+ Coalition’s efforts, who are training and working with local hospitals, public schools and youth, retirement communities, and crisis shelters. Simply put, “every issue is an LGBTQ+ issue”. Story Portrait by Sam Interrante @sam_interrante
LEARN MORE AT LGBTL ANCASTER.ORG
67
