“Ok, I did it. I accepted myself, I’ve told a couple friends, I’ve started to tell those closest to me and my family . . . now what?”

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Even though Michael knew he had an accepting family and friend group when he came out, the big challenge was coming out to himself. Because he had been raised with an open mindset of acceptance and love, it gave him the courage to be honest with himself and reach out to others who were interested in making safe spaces for queer folk. This served him well when he got to D.C. and found opportunities to connect with successful organizers of communities that he wanted to model his mentorship platform after. He found like-minded bosses to work for, companies to learn from, and eventually the courage to start his own non-profit after seeing how hard the pandemic hit the queer community during social isolation.

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“So many queer individuals want to give back because they know what it feels like to have no one.”

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Worthy Mentoring is focused on bringing support and community to the coming out journey. It’s about bringing friendship, guidance and support to those who are struggling to come out. The biggest thing that they help with is coming out and being out. It’s one thing to be living in a progressive, diverse, queer hub like LA, SF, or DC. But it’s another to be living in a small town or city that has only known you as a straight person. Worthy Mentoring’s app lets people sign up for being either a mentor or mentee. Each mentor is vetted and verified with a background check before being posted on the platform so that mentees can search for a potential mentor that fits their own specific lifestyle, professional or cultural profile. There aren’t photos, imagery, or anything in the matching process that makes it feel like a dating app. Instead, the focus is on connecting with whatever level of anonymity someone needs to feel comfortable receiving mentorship.

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As the reported size of the LGBTQ+ community grows, the need for acceptance, love, and the knowledge that closeted queer people aren’t alone are growing as well. Because of the ability through apps to express yourself without permission, the awareness of the LGBTQ+ community is expanding, but that doesn’t mean it’s easier to out yourself or know what to do next. The hyper sexualization and social culture of the queer community doesn’t make it feel safe or accessible to many people who are looking to come out and not dive into those identities at the same time. The focus on companionship for many other queer apps is different than what Worthy Mentoring is offering. Instead, when searching for a mentor, a mentee can look at a person’s background and base their compatibility from a place of experience rather than appearance.

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One of the biggest learning curves for Michael and the team at Worthy has been learning the importance of language and inclusivity in every part of the app design. As a cisgender male, it hadn’t occurred to Michael how asking someone’s name during a profile sign up process can be a challenging question if someone has recently transitioned gender. As the team is getting feedback from their community and advisors from consulting accelerators, they are learning that it’s not about making an app the most beautiful or engaging, but about making it the most helpful to their target users. They are also learning how to work with corporate partners who are genuinely interested in doing more to serve their LGBTQ+ community members. By offering the Worthy app as a health and wellness benefit, a corporation can provide an effective tool for the whole family of an employee. Whether those families use it for their children, spouses, or extended family, it is being seen as a valuable resource for corporations to meet a need that is already being asked for.

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“I want people to say, ‘I’m struggling to come out and Worthy Mentoring is the place for me to find that authentic mentorship.’”

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