LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The Kentuckiana Pride Festival will kick off this weekend, and many groups are ready to share their message of love and acceptance for the LGBTQ+ community.
The LGBT Center at the University of Louisville is hoping to raise awareness on mental health during their participation in Saturday's parade. Lisa Gunterman, the director at the center, will be wearing four bracelets with the name of four community members who are no longer with us.
"They're all LGBTQ young people who have died," Gunterman said. "Two died in the past month and the other two died in the past two years."
One of those names is trans rights activist Henry Berg-Brousseau who took his life in December 2022.
"This climate of hatred and bigotry is killing our youth," Gunterman said. "So again regardless of how people feel about another person each one of us can do something to build a better world. And make sure they know that the world is better with them in it."
WHAS11 asked Berg-Brousseau's mother Sen. Karen Berg, D-Louisville, about her thoughts on the organization's efforts to honor her son.
"That the fight continues," Berg said. "The work continues. The work of making this world a better place. That's my whole job. That was Henry's whole job. Just to leave this world a little better than when you found it. And that strength that power, that will is not forgotten."
Talking about her son's advocacy still touches the senator's heart and fills her eyes with tears. Berg said since her son came out as a teenager, he would always look out for others before thinking about himself.
"Friday afternoons they would literally go and cook, and then they would go serve the homeless encampments around where he lived," Berg said. "And people said not only did he feed them but he knew them. My child really cared about how other people felt."
Berg-Brousseau brought awareness to the community through his work with the Human Rights Campaign. After his death, President Joe Biden recognized Berg-Brousseau's work in advocating for the LGBTQ+ community.
The last thing he did was send a press release warning that trans rights were under attack across the country.
Since the death of her son, Berg has fought legislation like 2023's Senate Bill 150 which restricts medical care for trans youth. It was vetoed by Governor Andy Beshear, but the legislation was eventually overturned by lawmakers.
During protest in Frankfort in March of 2023, Berg spoke a message for other transgender youth in front of her peers at the state capital. Telling the community to not give up hope, don't hurt yourself or hurt anyone else over this legislation.
"Fighting... I don't know fighting or praying," Berg said. "I mean right now unless we were to reverse SB 150 our only recourse is to wait for the courts."
The loss of young people who identify as transgender to suicide is a pattern Gunterman and the center have been taking notice of.
"For the first time in my professional career I've known too many young people who have died by suicide," Gunterman said.
The groups call to action is to increase mental health among the community as they remember Berg-Brousseau and others in Saturday's pride parade.
If you're struggling with mental health and have thoughts of suicide please call the National Suicide and Crisis Hotline. That number is 988.
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