Today we’d like to introduce you to Adrian Cardwell.
Hi Adrian, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
I spent nearly three decades in corporate leadership—leading national marketing and sales divisions, sitting on international committees, checking all the traditional boxes of success. Then the world went quiet in 2020, and so did I. For the first time in years, I had space to look inward.
What I saw was a Venn diagram where my work and my values lived in separate circles. I’d built a career that looked successful on paper, but it no longer reflected who I was or what I cared most about.
A couple of years later, I was walking coast to coast across northern England along Hadrian’s Wall—alone, limping on a broken toe, thinking about the rising hostility facing LGBTQ+ people back home. Somewhere on that trail, Harvey Milk’s question echoed in my head: “How can people change their minds about us if they don’t know who we are?”
That question became my compass. I’d spent my adult life collecting pieces of our history—artifacts that tell the truth of who we are. On that walk, I realized it was time to bring those stories to life.
That moment became Badge Of Pride—born from reflection, frustration, and love for a community that has always created its own light.
In Summer 2025, we opened “Badge Of Pride: From Silence…To Celebration!” at the Irving Archives & Museum—a landmark exhibition of LGBTQ+ history in Texas. Free. Bilingual. Unflinching. When corporate sponsors hesitated and public funding was out of reach, small businesses, faith groups, and grassroots donors carried us. Together, we built a museum-grade exhibition powered entirely by the people it was made for.
That journey taught me that courage doesn’t wait for permission. And that’s the heartbeat of Badge Of Pride—turning history into connection, belonging, and truth that lives in the present tense.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
It hasn’t been smooth. Building Badge Of Pride meant doing something that, in many ways, wasn’t supposed to be possible.
From the start, we were told it couldn’t or shouldn’t happen—not in Texas, not now, not with LGBTQ+ history at the center. Corporate partners who once courted my business stopped returning calls. Public funds were off the table. We were trying to tell a story many preferred to keep invisible.
Then I met Jenn Landry and the team at the Irving Archives & Museum. Jenn didn’t just open the doors—she built a space of trust and conviction. Together, we created something both artistically daring and historically exacting. There was scrutiny, political pressure, and long nights navigating what could be shown. But we never compromised our mission or integrity.
The hardest part wasn’t the lack of funding—it was the emotional weight of working in a climate where visibility itself is an act of defiance. There were moments I wondered if it was possible. And every time doubt crept in, someone reminded me why it mattered—a parent searching for hope for their queer child, an LGBTQ+ elder finally feeling seen, a teenager realizing they’re part of a larger story.
That’s what sustained me. Partnership and persistence. They proved that when courage aligns with community, even the roughest road can lead somewhere extraordinary.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Badge Of Pride is a nonprofit that activates LGBTQ+ history through artifacts, storytelling, and public engagement. Our mission is simple but powerful: to use history as a living force that informs, enriches, and engages the power of the contemporary Queer experience.
We treat history as something alive—not sealed behind glass or collecting dust. Every artifact, every story, every program we create asks: What does this history demand of us today?
Our work lives at the intersection of art, history, and activism. In 2025, we presented “Badge Of Pride: From Silence…To Celebration!” at the Irving Archives & Museum—the largest artifact-centered exhibition of LGBTQ+ history ever mounted in Texas. Free, bilingual, and entirely powered by the people it was made for. Thousands came from across the state, many seeing their stories reflected on a museum wall for the first time.
We built on that with “Say It Loud!,” a collaboration with The Writer’s Garret, where fourteen North Texas poets stepped into the exhibit and answered back—creating new work inspired by the artifacts. History sparked art, and art carried that history forward.
Next comes reformatting our exhibit for travel and launching “Deep in the Heart,” in 2026—a statewide oral history project capturing the voices of LGBTQ+ Texans in rural communities, whose stories too often go unheard. Beyond that, we’re developing collaborations that bring history to life through live performance, digital storytelling, and community art-making. And…we are already ideating our next original exhibit!
What sets Badge Of Pride apart is that we’re not looking down from the mountaintop. We’re a disruptor—community-led, grassroots-funded, grounded in lived experience. We’re rewriting what it means to steward history, creating new ways to ignite it, and making it a force for change.
Our tagline says it best: HISTORY. ACTION. CHANGE.
I’m most proud that Badge Of Pride feels human. It’s bold and unapologetic, but also deeply personal. Our look is sharp—black, white, and hot pink—but what defines us is our heart. We don’t collect objects. We collect truth, memory, and moments that still have something to say.
What matters most to you? Why?
What matters most to me is truth—and the courage it takes to tell it.
I’ve learned that history isn’t only about what happened; it’s about who gets to be remembered. Too often, LGBTQ+ stories have been erased, rewritten, or softened to make others comfortable. When we bring those stories back into view—honestly, fully, without apology—we don’t just honor the past. We empower the present.
That’s what drives me. Truth-telling isn’t passive. It’s defiant. It’s creative. It’s healing.
With Badge Of Pride, I want no young person to ever wonder if people like them existed, or if they mattered. Because we did. We do. We always will. We’re part of the American story.
I’m equally moved by the power of connection—seeing generations of our community in conversation with one another. It’s not only the young listening to the old. We’ve seen elders listen to and learn from today’s youth, finding both the differences and the deep echoes in their lived experiences. That exchange, that mutual recognition, is where healing happens.
When a queer teen hears a story from someone who marched in the early days of the movement and recognizes themselves in it—or when an elder sees their courage reflected through a new generation—that’s history doing its work. That’s what anchors me.
So, what matters most? Truth. Connection. And the belief that when we activate history, we move toward justice. That’s where I stand — in the messy, beautiful, and sometimes complicated intersection of all three.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.badgeofpride.org
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/badge_of_pride/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BadgeOfPride/
- Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/adrian-cardwell
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@BadgeOfPride
Image Credits
Photo of Adrian by JDT portraits Exhibit photos by Kali Rhe Creative
