Brooklyn Owen

Brooklyn Owen (formerly Seth Owen ( years old)) is an American LGBTQ activist and student from Jacksonville, Florida. The fund was intended to just cover her tuition at Georgetown University. When it surpassed the goal, she used the surplus to create a scholarship fund organization to help other LGBTQ youth in “volatile home situations”. As of 2019, she is the youth ambassador for the Human Rights Campaign, an intern with Representative Stephanie Murphy (D-FL), and president at Unbroken Horizons Scholarship Foundation, Inc. In 2021, Owen announced that she was running for the Florida Senate, for the seat held by Audrey Gibson, who is term-limited.

Early life/education Brooklyn Owen's family is deeply religious, and are devout members of Pecan Park Baptist Church, on the north side of Jacksonville, Florida. Her whole family is involved in the church, with her dad being the church deacon, and her mom the church treasurer. She describes her childhood hometown as a "very conservative, very ultra-religious, restrictive Southern Baptist community." Her family would "disparage queer folks" going back to her earliest memories; her father would yell "faggot" at the television. When she was a sophomore her father, while spending hours going through Brooklyn's phone, found a photo of her kissing her first boyfriend, and her parents "questioned [her] all night" because she still presented as male and they thought she was gay. She did so to avoid dealing with her family, she felt their church was teaching them "painful, racist, and anti-LGBTQ+ hate." Her father said "He's allowed to live here as long as he worships the same way we worship." Brooklyn's appearance was nominated for a GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Variety or Talk Show Episode. In September 2018, at the annual Human Rights Campaign dinner, former Vice President and 2020 presidential candidate Joe Biden delivered a speech about Brooklyn, who was in the audience. Georgetown relented after the publicity and adjusted her financial aid.

Unbroken Horizons She used the extra funds to create Unbroken Horizons Scholarship Foundation, Inc., to help other LGBTQ students with their education. Brooklyn, and Unbroken's senior Vice President of communication and marketing Kaylee Petik, were given the Voice for Equality Award at the Equality Florida Greater Jacksonville Gala. Another GoFundMe campaign was started to kickstart the endowment to fund scholarships. For National Coming Out Day (October 11), her op-ed about her coming out after surviving conversion therapy—where she shared "the worst feeling is hiding who you really are"—was published in Out.