JAC is a member of the Ohio Advocates.

Love Where You Live

I was born and raised in Cincinnati, Ohio, a city that in the words of Mark Twain is “always twenty years behind the times.” Activist work here is daunting, demanding, and slow-moving because activists frequently leave the state for more progressive places. Instead of leaving for a place where I would like to live, I would rather make the place where I am living into a place that I love to live in.

I got involved with activism as a junior high school student. My interest strengthened in 2001 after Cincinnati’s race-riots which brought out the reality of the racial unrest and social injustice that was all around me. In 2003, I was one of the founding members of The Peace Village Project, an activist group which promotes racial equality and community justice.  I was also involved in Global, a radical, anti-globalization and social injustice conference where I served as secretary and co-chair.

When I came out in 2006, I realized the desperate state of the queer movement in the city and on my college campus. I couldn’t find my community, so I made it so that my community could find me. I founded a radical grassroots activist group called GenderBloc, which works specifically for gender-variant identity inclusion in university policy and serves as a support group for genderqueer and queer students. Immediately following this, I resurrected an initiative for the creation of a LGBTQ Student Center on campus with full-time staff person. I became the queer representative on the campus Women’s Center Student Advisory Board, which I remained as for two years. I became involved with the campus Women’s Center’s sexual assault prevention program as a Peer Educator and a Peer Advocate. I also started working with the Gay Lesbian Straight Education Network (GLSEN) on a new high school GSA mentoring program. This past year, I was also the Queer Community Representative in the student government presidential campaign.

Another avenue that has allowed me to be active in the community is my involvement with the drag scene. In 2006, I joined the just-forming professional drag troupe, The Black Mondays. The troupe has been responsible for a new wave of gender performance that has swept through the city. This past fall, the International Drag King Extravaganza named the Black Mondays as one of the top genderqueer performance groups on the world’s scene today. By working with The Black Mondays I have been able to promote positive queer visibility, and help several charitable organizations. I also hope that my involvement has helped create a positive visibility for the mostly invisible genderqueer community of Cincinnati.

My most current project, the GenderQueer Coalition of Cincinnati, was created to unite and serve Cincinnati and Ohio’s genderqueer and transgender community. The final goal is for the Coalition to establish a non-profit facility that offers non-oppressive social and medical support to the queer and genderqueer community, as well as provide educational resources to the city of Cincinnati.
I believe that promoting and facilitating education is a significant part of activism. It is because of this I founded the Queer Peer Education Program (QPEP), a community outreach program about gender and sexuality. I also focus on sexuality and gender identity in my academic pursuits. In 2008, I received a B.A. in psychology, with a minor in sexuality studies and plan on pursuing a graduate degree in sexology and gender studies. I hope to use my education to help others understand both the variation of human existence and the importance of education related to it.

I love working with the Ohio Youth Leadership Council and Advocates for Youth because of their dedication to education and their inclusivity of all communities. I want to work for a comprehensive, sex-positive education system because it is directly related to how we all grow to know ourselves and each other. I want to create awareness, not just about queer issues, but all symptoms of oppression that restrain personal growth and happiness. And I want everyone to be able to find their communities of support without having to go looking because it will be all around them. Change is possible if you’re willing to work for it, and I’m willing to work for it.