Maggie Hirshland, the Youth Engagement Coordinator at the LGBTQIA2S+ youth organization OUT Maine, is the recipient of the Maine Women’s Lobby (MWL) 2024 Volunteer Champion Award. This award is given to an individual volunteer who helps MWL meet its mission and is a changemaker going above and beyond to a more gender-equitable Maine.

“We believe you have exemplified the spirit of the award,” said Destie Hohman Sprague, MWL’s Executive Director in an email to Maggie, “and we are deeply grateful for all your contributions towards building gender justice in Maine, especially all you have done over the years to support our Girls Day programming and the youth who participate.”

Hirshland received the award at MWL’s annual event at Broadturn Farm on June 27.

As the Youth Engagement Coordinator at OUT Maine, Hirshland organizes and facilitates programs for LGBTQIA2S+ and allied youth of all ages and their families across the state. They also support other organizations' youth programs, such as the Maine Women’s Lobby Girls Day at the State House. Over the past 28 years, Girls Day at the State House has brought one hundred 8th-grade girls and gender expansive youth to the Maine State House to learn more about government, and inspire them to shape their communities over the past 28 years. Hirshland was excited to have served as a mentor and panelist at this year's event. 
 
LGBTQIA2S stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and questioning, intersex, and two-spirit. Allies are folks who do not identify as LGBTQIA2S but have camaraderie with the LGBTQIA2S community. Cis or cisgender means a person’s gender identity and sex-assigned-at-birth match. If gender identity and sex-assigned-at-birth do not match, a person may identify as transgender. For more definitions of LGBTQ+ terminology, visit www.outmaine.org/resources/terminology.

OUT Maine has an ambitious goal: to create more welcoming and affirming communities for Maine’s diverse queer youth in all their intersectional identities by changing the very systems that serve them. For more information, please visit www.outmaine.org.