“When I was younger, I was apa­thet­ic about life. I did­n’t real­ly see a future for myself,” shared Keira Casey, a Nation­al Rain­bow Col­lege Fund (NRCF) schol­ar­ship recip­i­ent. Grow­ing up in Carls­bad, Cal­i­for­nia, she found her­self at odds with tra­di­tion­al expec­ta­tions. “The idea of hav­ing a hus­band and kids did­n’t con­nect with me. I was also start­ing to real­ize that ‘being fem­i­nine’ did­n’t appeal to me.”

As Keira began want­i­ng to express her­self in a more mas­cu­line way, she faced push­back at home, espe­cial­ly from her father. “I hid my skirts and dress­es. I was shamed for that,” she remem­bers. In a con­ser­v­a­tive house­hold where con­for­mi­ty was expect­ed, self-expres­sion felt dan­ger­ous.

But Keira found a refuge: art.

“Art was an accept­able way for me to express myself. Art was qui­et. It did­n’t con­flict with my dad and what parts of my fam­i­ly want­ed.” Her sketch­book became her sanctuary—a place where she could explore iden­ti­ty safe­ly, away from judg­ment.

Finding Her People

High school changed every­thing.  The­ater became a rev­e­la­tion. “It’s great from a Queer perspective—it allows you to be a dif­fer­ent per­son and to exper­i­ment with who you are as a human being,” Keira explains. “You get to rein­vent your­self.”

The pin­na­cle came through direct­ing her own pro­duc­tion of Shake­speare’s Twelfth Night. But even as Keira grew more con­fi­dent in who she was, home remained com­pli­cat­ed.

“My moth­er is com­plete­ly accept­ing, and I’m close with my sib­lings,” Keira reflects. “But I’m not com­plete­ly open with my dad about every­thing. He does­n’t love my hair or my style of dress.”

Her father con­tin­ues to strug­gle with her mas­cu­line pre­sen­ta­tion, though “he’s got­ten a lit­tle bet­ter.” Still, this ten­sion cre­at­ed a dif­fi­cult sit­u­a­tion: Keira need­ed her fam­i­ly’s finan­cial sup­port to pur­sue her dreams at UC Irvine, but that sup­port came with unspo­ken expec­ta­tions to hide parts of her­self.

Freedom To Be Your Authentic Self

That’s where Nation­al Rain­bow Col­lege Fund schol­ar­ship changed every­thing.

“This schol­ar­ship allows me to be less depen­dent on my dad, and this is a gift—especially while hav­ing to endure some non-accep­tance,” Keira says.

The impact goes far beyond tuition pay­ments. The schol­ar­ship gives Keira some­thing invalu­able: the free­dom to live authen­ti­cal­ly while pur­su­ing her edu­ca­tion. She can focus on her art stud­ies with­out con­stant­ly nav­i­gat­ing the painful trade-off between finan­cial sup­port and self-expres­sion.

Today, Keira’s pur­su­ing an art degree with dreams of becom­ing a chil­dren’s illus­tra­tor. Her visu­al art tack­les com­plex per­son­al territory—the inter­sec­tion of faith and iden­ti­ty, explor­ing her rela­tion­ship with the reli­gion of her upbring­ing.

“When I dis­cov­ered I was Queer and did­n’t align with the church, I became very opposed to the church,” she admits. “Since then, I’ve learned to under­stand the nuances of reli­gion, both pos­i­tive and neg­a­tive. I can explore that through my art.” This explo­ration has become a form of heal­ing. “Art is a form of for­give­ness,” she says.

“While I’m for­tu­nate to be rel­a­tive­ly open with my fam­i­ly, I rec­og­nize oth­ers aren’t as lucky,” she notes.  Her advice to allies reflects wis­dom gained from nav­i­gat­ing com­plex fam­i­ly dynam­ics: “If some­one in your life iden­ti­fies as Queer and comes out to you, know that they trust­ed you enough to share that infor­ma­tion with you. Even if you don’t com­plete­ly under­stand, what mat­ters most is that you put your best effort to learn and to respect this per­son. You don’t have to under­stand, but try to respect what they’re say­ing and who they are.”

“This schol­ar­ship does­n’t just pay for col­lege,” Keira reflects. “It gives LGBTQ+ stu­dents the free­dom to become who they’re meant to be.”

From a young per­son who once felt no con­nec­tion to her future, Keira has become some­one active­ly cre­at­ing futures—for her­self, for the audi­ences who will see her the­ater pro­duc­tions, and for the chil­dren who will one day see her illus­tra­tions.

Your sup­port makes sto­ries like Keira’s pos­si­ble. When you give to Nation­al Rain­bow Col­lege Fund, you’re not just invest­ing in education—you’re invest­ing in free­dom, authen­tic­i­ty, and the futures of LGBTQ+ stu­dents who deserve the chance to thrive.