In this interview, Claire discusses growing up in Long Beach, California, and coming out and getting involved with LGBTQ+ and Democratic Socialists of America organizing. She shares how she met her wife and moved to Virginia with her, where she worked at UVA and was a founding member of the UVA Pride group for faculty and staff. She discusses what it was like to be an out member of the faculty/staff at UVA in the 1990s and 2000s, as well as adopting her daughter and being a Jewish person in Charlottesville.