Belle Townsend

Belle Townsend is a white, queer person from rural western Kentucky, where they grew up in a complicated, politically divisive community of folks who took care of one another no matter what. They left their small town to study Political Science and International Relations at Boston University, where they got involved in anti-imperialist research and organizing. Belle currently lives in Louisville, Kentucky, where they write for Queer Kentucky, the diverse LGBTQ+ run non-profit bolstering and enhancing queer culture and health through storytelling. They have worked on 8 election cycles, 7 in Kentucky and 1 in Massachusetts, in the departments of field, communications, strategy, and research. Belle was named in Teen Vogue as a queer organizer fighting for trans rights in the south, furthering Belle’s commitment to reshaping narratives within and about southern and rural communities. Belle is an alumnus of the New Leaders Council of Kentucky, and they now serve as a Co-Recruitment Chair for the NLC-KY Board of Directors. Belle is also a multi-published and awarded slam poet and writer, with two books, “Push and Pull” and “The Observer Effect.” They write about the relationship between the individual and the universal, capitalism and climate change, the pandemic and the scientific, and survival and girlhood. Belle loves to bake beautiful cakes and other treats, and they spend their free time cooking, being outside, eating, being and loving with friends, and getting through it all with their beloved feline co-schemers: Lovebug and Cowboy.