Lana Leonard

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Roz Keith, Ally-Founder of Michigan-Based “Stand with Trans,” Kicks-Off Transgender Empowerment Month by Going “Beyond the Binary”

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Stand with Trans, founded in 2015 by Roz Keith, is a nonprofit based in Farmington, Michigan helping trans youth “build resilience, gain confidence and find hope for a future filled with joy.”

Keith launched the organization when she was in search of resources for her own child who, in 2013, came out as transgender. 

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, virtual programming with a blend of in-person programming has helped to maximize their reach and potential as an organization. As a result, the group has expanded accessibility to be a global force for transgender empowerment and erase stigma surrounding trans identities, all while equipping and supporting families of all backgrounds, shapes and sizes.  Each year, Keith and her staff pick a new theme for Transgender Week of Empowerment. This year the conference’s 2024 theme is “Beyond the Binary.” 

This theme introduces important topics from autonomy in healthcare, Democracy, reproductive health, parenting, substance use, sports, sibling, parent, and grandparent ally panels, media representation talks and so much more.  

“I have loved being in touch with so many folks from the trans community and our allies while putting the programming together. Everyone I’ve spoken with is excited and motivated to support trans and nonbinary youth,” Dubbs Weinblatt, Transgender Empowerment Month program coordinator, told GLAAD. 

Raving over the words of Sen. Sarah McBride and others at the launch party, Keith said the start of this year’s event is amazing so far. Scheduled speakers include RuPaul Drag Race Alum, Peppermint, Equality Michigan’s Emme Zannotti, and former Muslim Youth Leadership Council (MYLC) member, Ameera Khan, and so many more.

“We really want to explore the diversity of gender, the intersectionality of different identities, and provide an opportunity for young people to feel like they can connect,” Keith said about this year’s theme, “where they can be inspired, they can have models of possibility for adult caregivers. It’s a place for them to come and learn, and get that education in a credible space.”

In the first year, the Transgender Empowerment Month conference was made up of 45 young people, all trans identified. Keith said many youth were nervous about what to expect, but each year since 2015 the conference has only grown, outsized venues, and broadened the community, says Keith.  

The importance of the conference then and now is to allow transgender youth to have a space that’s organized for them to experience. 

Logann Finkel met Roz in 2018. “I was transitioning and I was looking for support getting to and from my doctor’s appointments, and somebody had mentioned [that] there is this group, and you could reach out,” Finkel told GLAAD. 

That group was Stand With Trans. From Michigan, Keith found someone in New Jersey that could help take Finkel to and from their transgender healthcare appointments.

Since they met, Finkel has been presenting at Transgender Empowerment Month, but this year, they’re excited to be an observer and a participant. 

Like Keith, Finkel praised the launch of Transgender Empowerment Month 2024 and the programming ahead. Programming was paused between Oct. 2 and Oct. 4 for Rosh Hashanah observance, and resumed on Oct. 6 in the Jewish New Year with an open mic night. 

“The guest speakers [on Oct. 1] were fantastic. It was done in a way that built so much excitement and interest in what we’re about to embark on over this month,” Finkel said. “I would just say I’m really excited.”

There will be more than 30 panels, workshops, and programming strewn throughout the entire month, and people can register at any point in October here.

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LGBTQ and Racial Justice Advocacy Groups in Florida Tell GLAAD the Tide is Shifting in Face of State-Endorsed Hate and Disinformation

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In the face of hate and opposition to equality in Florida, LGBTQ activists and members of the community across the Sunshine State came together for an annual four-part event at the Center for Health Equity called, “Pride Amplified: Navigating LGBTQIAA+ Spaces” in St. Petersburg Florida.

Rocky Butler, founder and executive director of 9 Colors Initiative, and Joshua Bean, innovation officer of Foundation for a Healthy St. Petersburg, collaborated to convened activists for an “enlightened” and “impactful” event. This year, The GLAAD Media Institute – GLAAD’s research, training, and education leg – was invited to help participants  “hone [their] media skills to amplify [their] voice for LGBTQIAA+ representation and advocacy.” GMI’s presentation came alongside others on DEI inclusivity, nonprofit development resources, and a BIPOC LGBTQ–led panel titled “Let’s Talk About It Part Two.”

The 9 Colors Initiative works towards equity within the lesbian, gay, trans, queer, intersex, androgynous and asexual (LGBTQIAA+) and allied communities, by eradicating biases through education, fighting against LGBTQ oppression, and fighting for equity. Together with the GLAAD Media Institute (GMI) and GMI alumni, The 9 Colors Initiative, and the Foundation for a Healthy St. Petersburg, gave participants of the Pride Amplified community event the tools and resources needed to activate effectively during Pride month. 

“This year we [introduced] a new facet to Pride, and we are bringing Caribbean culture, which is a part of my life,” Butler told the audience. Butler believes it’s necessary and needed to celebrate the cultural diversity of LGBTQ people at St. Petersburg Pride. Otherwise known as the largest Pride in the state of Florida, according to St. Pete’s Pride. For Butler his work with 9 Colors Initiative is about building that inclusivity through action.

“I create spaces or work with organizations to create spaces [for] 14-year-old me, 18-year-old me, 22-year-old me, 23-year-old me, 24-year-old me to go past what 50-year-old me would,” said Butler. 

As pride events continue to roll on through the end of June, good news is unfurling in Florida. A federal judge on Tuesday called the 2023 Florida law that banned transgender, nonbinary, two-spirit, and gender nonconforming healthcare for minors, and severely restricted such treatment for adults unconstitutional. The law is no longer in the state of Florida, and as of March, Floridian students and teachers can discuss LGBTQ topics in schools. 

“Transgender opponents are of course free to hold their beliefs. But they’re not free to discriminate against transgender individuals just for being transgender,” Senior Judge Robert Hinkle said in his 105-page decision. The judge also said that “[s]ome transgender opponents invoke religion to support their position, just as some once invoked religion to support their racism or misogyny.”

Outside of the state legislature, discrimination persists. Joshua Bean told the crowd that it’s imperative to fight that discrimination through education and action. 

“As we approach Pride Month, it is time to celebrate all LGBTQIA+ folks in St. Petersburg,” said Bean whose organization works to achieve racially equitable health outcomes and improve the determinants that shape them. The organizer continued saying that “while instituted discrimination exists for the entire LGBTQIA+ community, we must take a deeper look for the intersection of race and more accurately examine those who continue to feel the greatest burden of nationwide discriminatory efforts.”

The event held space for numerous LGBTQ trailblazers in Florida, including Sam(ira) Obeid the founder and CEO of Poetry is Activism. Obeid is an internationally renowned spoken word poet. Additionally, she is a reputed educator on intersectionality, systemic discrimination and resistance, and a local activist.

The poet describes herself as a masculine, Indian lesbian raised Hindu on her mother’s side and Muslim on her father’s side. When Sam moved to the U.S. in 2007 she earned her second and third masters degree in Multimedia Journalism and Women’s & Gender Studies.

“Like my bio said, I am Indian born and raised. I’m currently an immigrant. If you have ever been through or know anyone that has been through the immigration process, you know it is very broken, very flawed, or maybe it is perfectly created to make you feel that way,” Obeid said as Pres. Biden’s recent unlawful executive order denies most asylum claims. Obeid then went into her next poem. 

“There is compulsory misogyny 

“that comes with this identity that feels so blinding 

“you completely missed the point

“so quick to label me in your own image

“all of the sudden I am not woman enough to understand.” 

Obeid passionately enunciated. 

The poet continued to read poems while talking to the crowd. She told the crowd that she moves through this world by combining her greatest passions: spoken word and anti-discrimination education.

Before joining Obeid, and others in the “Let’s Talk About It Part Two” Panel, Butler honored J. Carl DeVine with the Lifetime Achievement Award. 

DeVine is an 80-year-old AIDS/HIV LGBTQ activist living in St. Petersburg. As a student, he partook in non-violent civil rights sit-in demonstrations.  DeVine also organized Kwanza and Juneteeth celebrations, and is said to have gotten arrested with Martin Luther King, Jr.

“1993 Juneteenth Original Committee.”

“Carl’s journey is one of inspiration and achievement,” said Butler. “Through his work, he has touched countless lives, always striving to make a difference and improve the world around him.”

When DeVine joined Butler on stage he said “this is quite an honor.” 

People throughout the city of Tampa honored DeVine’s more than 50-year-long dedication.

Before this award, Mayor Ken Welch ordered a proclamation of Oct. 19 as J. Carl DeVine Day in the City of St. Petersburg. A younger generation of LGBTQ people awarded DeVine. That younger generation, looks up to DeVine for his legacy in building equity, LGBTQ equality, and racial justice. 

“I do it because it needs to be done,” DeVine told the audience of GLAAD Media Institute alumni. “You stated that I have done something special, but I am just being a good neighbor.”

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Wisconsin Activists Say Significant Barriers Remain on Access to LGBTQ Community, Resources, Healthcare

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Kat Klawes had no choice but to fight for transgender rights as a teen growing up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. 

A young Klawes often fought for the world to believe one of her mothers is a transgender woman. 

Klawes grew up knowing one of her mothers was trans, often fighting for the world to know it as well. But for years, she tells GLAAD, she had to pretend her mother didn’t exist, with adults in her life repeatedly telling her that she had fabricated the story of her mother and her mother’s transness.

Fast forward to present day, Klawes is taking back the narrative, owning her story and correcting the record. In January, she joined fellow Wisconisites and local LGBTQ activists at the Milwaukee LGBT Community Center in a gathering with local leaders convened by the GLAAD Media Institute. Like her, many of the LGBTQ advocates said that they struggle with access to LGBTQ community, extracurriculars, medical care, and basic needs in Wisconsin.

“We didn’t talk about trans people,” Klawes told GLAAD. 

“I remember on the playground one day in second grade, I told one of my friends about my other mother. She then ran and told the teacher who came up to me and made me apologize for ‘lying.’” 

This broke Klawes’ heart. She had lost access to her family in the ways many LGBTQ youth are today with “Don’t Say Gay or Trans” laws, history, sports, and book bans, and trans healthcare bans. “As a child, I looked to my local libraries for resources,” she shared. “In middle school I read the book Luna by Julie Anne Peters. It was the first time in my life that I didn’t feel alone.” She said the public library book helped her to “better understand her queerness” and her mother. 

Last year, there were 3,362 school book bans nationwide, including 43 in Wisconsin, according to the nonprofit PEN America. While Wisconsin is not in legislative session in 2024, the state will have elections. 

Voters know Wisconsin for its tight elections. In 2024 there will be elections for State Senate and State Assembly. The general election is on November 5. A primary is August 13, and the filing deadline is June 3.

“Wisconsin is quite rural,” said Alaina Landi, the communications and marketing director of the Milwaukee Gay Football Club. “Milwaukee and Madison, I’d say, are really safe havens for the LGBTQ community and most people with a marginalized identity.”

Landi is fighting to make community gatherings – in particular with a focus on sports. Already, 23 states have anti-trans sports bans, according to the Movement Advancement Project. Meanwhile, Wisconsin’s anti-LGBTQ politicians hope to be the twenty-fourth.

Back in October, the Wisconsin State Assembly passed “new restrictions on who can play sports” for public schools, private schools in the parental choice program, UW System schools and technical colleges.

“We’re going to veto every single one of them (the bills),” said pro-LGBTQ Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers in a hearing regarding the bills.

Nonetheless, the possibility of anti-LGBTQ laws passing alone has an impact on LGBTQ populations throughout the state. 

Erik Czech-Swanson, founder of LGBT Waukesha, said he relates to the isolation Landi and Klawes discussed with GLAAD. The GLAAD Media institute alum drove about 40 minutes to meet with Wisconsin advocates. 

Just west of Milwaukee, Waukesha County is quite rural, making it difficult for LGBTQ people to find each other to organize as a community. 

“LGBT Waukesha was founded out of a need for more visibility for the LGBTQIA+ community in Waukesha County,” said Czech-Swanson. “Around me, still, we feel very disconnected in the community where I am at.”

With LGBT Waukesha, Czech-Swanson hopes to change that. 

“As we head into the new year, be there for each other,” said Czech-Swanson. “There is so much going on specifically targeting LGBTQ youth and it’s been really disheartening for a lot of them to hear the [anti-LGBTQ] messages going around. It’s really important for us to make sure that they understand that they are welcome and that they have a future.”

With that said, Czech-Swanson says to “be a voice for yourself,” and to “check in on everyone; make sure you’ve got your safety in numbers.”

You can check your voter registration at GLAAD.org/vote. 

Hear from other Wisconsin LGBTQ advocates Court Hellendrung, founder of CHOSEN, and Kristina Arnold, a transgender spokesperson for FORGE.

More on the GLAAD Media Institute: Using the best practices, tools, and techniques we’ve perfected over the past 30 years, the GLAAD Media Institute turns education into armor for today’s culture war—transforming individuals into compelling storytellers, media-savvy navigators, and mighty ambassadors whose voices break through the noise and incite real change.

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South Dakota’s First LGBTQ Ministry “Shepherd’s Table” Opens

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ev. Sawyer Vanden Heuvel hails from a small town where his church shunned him for being LGBTQ. However, when the pastor moved to South Dakota he became pastor in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). It didn’t take long for Vanden Heuvel’s faith to beckon him to lead, and thus, he founded “a place for all” called Shepherd’s Table; born at the only LGBTQ community center in the state called the Prism Center. 

This month, Shepherd’s Table became the first LGBTQ place of worship in South Dakota.

“Opening Shepherd’s Table has been a dream since I first connected with people while tabling with other Lutherans at a local Sioux Falls Pride event in 2021,” Vanden Heuvel said in an email to GLAAD. “There, I met so many LGBTQ+ folks in the area who had stories and experiences like that of many queer folk, including myself.”

The stories Vanden Heuvel heard were those of being kicked out of faith communities for coming out, stories of heartache, trauma, and survival; as well as stories of shame and isolation that come from being queer in the Midwest.

“The constant refrain I heard from people was how they longed for a community where both faith and queerness are not at odds with each other – a community where they truly could belong and experience the expansiveness of God’s love for all people,” said Vanden Heuvel.

That dream is now a reality. Two years ago Vanden Heuvel, also a 2020 GLAAD Media Institute Alum, had a “vision” for the ministry he founded. 

The new, inclusive, community in Sioux Falls, South Dakota seeks to be a place for all to gather. And also, a place where LGBTQ people can be “seen, heard, loved, welcomed, and fed at Christ’s table,” reads the Shepherd’s Table website. “The Gospel of Jesus Christ does not discriminate, but we know that in some faith communities, people have been shamed or discriminated against for being LGBTQIA+. We welcome all to the table to experience the expansiveness of God’s love for all people,” the site continues.

With this said, the inclusive ministry practices:  embracing LGBTQ people and their faith, and ensures the people are fed. 

“[T]o witness the Holy Spirit make dreams like this become realized for a public, unapologetic, unashamed ministry of the Church that is focused on supporting LGBTQ+ people and their families, moves me deeply because I know this, without a doubt, will become life-saving and vital work for many who call South Dakota home.” Vanden Heuvel said. 

Shepherd’s Table was founded on the call to remember Jesus as the “Good Shepherd.” The Good Shepherd who tends “to his flock and makes sure all are found in his fold.” The organizers also remember those fallen from violence against them. For instance, the community ensures Matthew Shepard’s memory always has a seat at Shepherd’s Table. Two anti-LGBTQ classmates murdered Shepard for being a gay man in 1998. Shepard was a Wyoming college student at the time, and he was 21-years-old. 

“We consider Matthew’s life to be remembered as a saint and martyr for all of our queer siblings,” the ministry’s website reads. 

St. Mark’s Lutheran Church in Sioux Falls recently called Vanden Heuvel to serve, and then he became the mission developer and pastor for the Shepherd’s Table faith community. He earned his Master of Divinity in 2023 from Luther Seminary in Saint Paul, Minnesota. In addition to earning his Bachelor of Arts in 2012 from Augustana University in Sioux Falls. Heuvel is passionate about building longer tables and creating spaces of belonging so that all may be fed, seen, heard, and loved at Christ’s table.

GLAAD Media Institute provides activist, spokesperson, and media engagement education, consultation and research for LGBTQ and allied community members, the media industry and advocacy organizations desiring to deepen their media impact

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#GLAADInstitute meets Kansas & Missouri advocates fighting anti-LGBTQ laws

When the GLAAD Media Institute (GMI) visited Kansas City, Missouri on Oct. 14 to facilitate a multimedia workshop called Telling Your Story: Messaging & Media Tools for Today’s Activist Justice Horn said something that had the room snapping in agreement.

“National organizations don’t visit cities like Kansas City or Tulsa, so for GLAAD to be here means a lot to the LGBTQ community of Missouri,” said Horn, the chair for the LGBTQ Commission of Kansas City. Horn said that because states like Missouri and Oklahoma are fully locked anti-LGBTQ states, they’re over looked. 

It’s true. The “Show-Me” state introduced the highest quantity of anti-equality laws (48) this year next to Texas (54), according to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).

“I think at the basis it’s ensuring that both youth to adult, members of our community, aren’t going to be bullied; that’s with slurs to legislation, to policy. What we are doing here in Kansas City is making an environment where none of that is welcome, that everyone is affirmed and accepted here in Kansas City,” Horn said. “I think this sets a tone of what’s important, and that’s ensuring everyone is welcome here in our community.”

However, no matter what’s at stake, Kansas City’s LGBTQ advocates and public officials will continue to organize for the LGBTQ people of their state and beyond. For instance, this May, Kansas City Council declared itself a “Sanctuary State” for transgender medical care, before the state’s trans medical ban for youth under 18 took effect in late August. The state also legalized discrimination against trans athletes’ participation in school sports.

Both laws would have directly affected GLAAD Media Institute Alum Atlas Mallams, a first-year Computer Science major at the University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC), if not for the city’s actions. He came to the media workshop to learn how to better tell xey story. 

“When I first came out as a transgender man, I didn’t really know that much about the LGBTQ community as a whole. I didn’t really know the strife, the things that they go through on a day-to-day basis, the things they have to watch out for when they are walking down the street,” said Mallams.  

Mallams says they were surprised when he first experienced discrimination for being trans, he did not expect it. That’s when they started to realize the lack of news coverage on the day-to-day harms that LGBTQ people experience.

“I wanted to gain the resources to know how to speak that and make sure I can make an impact, and put my view points out there and what I want to say out there, and what I want people to know about my own story out there in a way that’s going to help people understand,” Mallams continued. 

Other advocates, parents, teachers, and city officials expressed this concern about how the news media in Missouri amplify the discrimination against people in a time where stories like Atlas’ are important for other trans and queer youth. 

People said they look to local news stations like ABC 9 and KSHB, and alternative news like the Kansas City Beacon, Kansas Public Radio, Kansas Reflector, and Missouri Independent. 

“You can’t trust any of the media [in Missouri],” one participant could be heard saying in the back of the room. 

This statement about distrust in the media speaks to the concerns of Alvaro Ontiveros Aguilar – an advisor to the city on the LGBTQ Commission of Kansas City. 

“My biggest concern for LGBTQ equality in Kansas City and Missouri overall is having legislative protection for my community,” said Ontiveros Aguilar to GLAAD after the training.  “My first task on the commission has been to try and spearhead a movement to get a hate crime ordinance added on to our municipal codes. That is one of my biggest passions and largest concerns.”

Ontiveros Aguilar says the ordinance would define “hate crime” and “gives prosecutors the tools to enforce municipal law to protect victims of hate crimes,” reported KCTV CBS 5.

Overall, the more people shared their stories, the more they told GLAAD that they are doing what the state refuses to do, create safety and equality for not just the LGBTQ community, but the many communities that make up the LGBTQ community too. 

In the last six years alone, Kansas City’s City Council  has established practices and policies that keep people safe like banning conversion therapy (2019), establishing an LGBTQ employee resource group (2018), establishing an all-gender restroom policy for city buildings (2021), and so much more. 

More on the GLAAD Media Institute: Using the best practices, tools, and techniques we’ve perfected over the past 30 years, the GLAAD Media Institute turns education into armor for today’s culture war—transforming individuals into compelling storytellers, media-savvy navigators, and mighty ambassadors whose voices break through the noise and incite real change.

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Anti-LGBTQ extremism is no match for Minnesota’s first trans lawmaker

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Minnesota state Rep. Leigh Finke was sworn into office on January 3, representing the Democrat-Farmer-Labor (DFL) Party. She joins 11 LGBTQ+ state legislators who won their elections in the midterms.

Finke won against challenger Dave Thomas with a 25% margin. She then won the November general election with a whopping 81% of the vote against opponent Trace Johnson. She is the first out trans lawmaker elected to the Land of 10,000 Lakes, and she’s ready to fight back.

Last year more than 300 anti-LGBTQ+ bills passed through state legislatures, and while only a handful made it into law, they have detrimental effects.

Already, a minimum of 58 anti-LGBTQ+ bills have been introduced into the US legislature, with about half in Texas alone, according to Alejandra Caraballo, a civil rights attorney and clinical instructor at Harvard Law Cyberlaw Clinic. In particular, a slew of anti-trans gender-affirming healthcare bans have been introduced in 11 states, according to PBS News Hour. This life-saving healthcare is already a felony in Alabama, Tennessee, and soon, Arizona (a ban goes into effect in March), while Texas and Oklahoma have attempted to restrict gender-affirming healthcare, according to the Movement Advancement Project (MAP).

Nevertheless, Finke remains confident. For the first time in a decade, Minnesota’s government is a trifecta for progress, says Finke. The state’s Democratic Party has a stronghold in the governor’s office, the state Senate and state House of Representatives. For Finke, this means moving LGBTQ+ protections forward with less than a pause.

“There’s excitement around the ability to get things done,” Finke told LGBTQ Nation.

The immediate focuses of the queer caucus chair are banning conversion therapy, creating abortion access, and passing the Trans Refuge Bill into law. The bill seeks to protect trans children and their families from anti-trans laws and violence. State Sen. Scott Dibble (D) joined 21 LGBTQ+ legislators in introducing the Trans Refuge Bill across 19 state legislatures, according to a press release from California state Sen. Scott Weiner’s (D) office.

“It is because we have the trifecta that we can push forward,” said Finke. “We can say: ‘This is a priority for our community and we want it to be heard with an expectation that it will follow through’… at least on the House side; I can’t speak for the Senate.”

For the LGBTQ Victory Fund candidate, running for public office sets a national precedent for securing a safe anti-racist future for LGBTQ+, Black, and Indigenous people in Minnesota. Finke’s action plan to ensure this future is congruent with teamwork and her life spent in the state.

“I was the first trans person I ever met,” she said.

Finke says Minnesota is home to a strong, vocal protest movement that has translated the understanding that the fight for trans lives is a fight for Black lives, a fight for Black trans lives, and a fight for Minnesota’s 11 Indigenous tribal nations.

“I think the success of the trans and LGBTQ movement over the last couple of years has very directly been linked to the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement and its power in Minnesota,” Finke said. “It’s about being able to recognize what we can do as a queer caucus, but also understanding that the queer caucus needs to be willing to be led by those who are representing those other movements as well.”

Along with Finke, the Minnesota legislature welcomed the first Black women state senators in its 164 years of statehood: Erin Maye Quade, Zaynab Mohamed, and Clare Oumou Verbeten, according to Sahan Journal. Additionally, the three legislators are joined by Indigenous rights activists; state Rep. Alicia Kozlowski of the Objwe tribe is the state’s first two-spirit, nonbinary lawmaker.

“We are mutually dependent on each other because our communities, at the end of the day, are one community,” said Finke.

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LGBTQ people are protesting in Harlem as Columbia University tries to buy their neighborhood

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Last Thursday activists, residents and students protested Columbia University’s aggressive expansion into Harlem in Manhattan, New York outside the university steps. The neighborhood is integral to the Black, Latinx, and LGBTQ culture we honor today. The protest, organized by The United Front Against Displacement (UFAD), a tenant organization fighting gentrification throughout US cities, criticized the university’s partnership with the city to continue the privatization of the New York Housing Authority (NYCHA) and the national war on housing in general.

NYC’s reality is common among the country’s 50 largest cities, which the U.S Department of Housing and Urban Development’s latest Annual Homeless Assessment Report states, make up more than half of all people experiencing sheltered homelessness in 2021.

Housing prices and rent increases disproportionately affect BIPOC and LGBTQ people as they’re four times more likely to be in public housing. Housing access is related to deliberate policy choices and underfunding that’s persisted for decades, but has worsened since the Great Recession.

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UFAD protesters didn’t deliberately go into who is affected by homelessness, but they did set a list of demands for those partially responsible. Compliance with these demands, in particular inflation-matched pay for university employees, is a small step toward restoring these “gross injustices”, said the UFAD in an Instagram post.

Ryan Costello, UFAD organizer
Ryan Costello, UFAD organizer Lana Leonard

Ryan Costello, an organizer for UFAD, says that Harlem apartments are filled with asbestos, human feces, and broken elevators. Columbia University brags about how much money they’ve made, while they, along with NYCHA, neglect public housing, says Costello. The university raked in nearly $25 billion in net assets in 2021, exceding 2020’s profits by about 15%, despite a global pandemic and rising poverty rates.

“In the long term, my hope really is that we can do something collectively to amend this whole system of injustice. We have a whole series of injustice all together because the elite who are running this country—whether it be Republican or Democrat—have an agenda that is pretty similar in the sense of enriching the few at the expense of the many perpetuating various systems of oppression,” Costello said to LGBTQ Nation.

Nevertheless, Harlem reminds America of what resilience against adversity, homelessness, and injustice looks like. The 70s and 80s gave rise to the Ballroom scene as a new world for homeless trans and queer children to thrive in. The shared homes of royal house mothers and fathers informed culture, joy, and quality of life for all people despite the illegality of balls, drag, and living openly as an LGBTQ person in general.

Today, LGBTQ youth is estimated to be 40% of NYC’s homeless youth. For West Harlem City Councilwoman Kristin Richardson Jordan, an out lesbian, the housing crisis in Harlem threatens the safety of LGBTQ youth seeking homeless shelters as well as hundreds of multi-generational Black and Brown families that have lived in Harlem for decades.

“Developers are entering our community with no accountability for the existing surrounding areas or their socioeconomic impact,” the socialist democrat told LGBTQ Nation.

She adds that developers are doing the bare minimum of affordable units based on Area Median Income (AMI). AMI affects communities throughout the country by skewing the reality of income for most families once high incomes are integrated into the median income adjustment.

For example, when assessed, Harlem’s AMI is $93,400 per year. However, a majority of Harlem families actually make about $37,000 to $57,000, says Jordan. New Jersey uses a similar system. Yet, the state is one of the most expensive states to rent in.

Regardless, those that have maintained their homes in Harlem plan to keep them.

Activists protest outside Columbia University over the school's planned expansion into Harlem
Activists protest outside Columbia University over the school’s planned expansion into Harlem Lana Leonard

Veronica Hickman, a multi-generational West Harlem resident and UFAD organizer, sat on the university steps looking out onto the protest. She said she needed to rest after singing “We Shall Overcome” to protesters. She comes when she can because Costello comes out for Harlem.

“I feel like he’s supporting us, and you know what, if the money isn’t supporting you, you need to do your part. Even if it’s just showing up and doing a song or something, you know, that’s what I need to do,” she said.

The Harlem gentrification project is almost 20 years old. Renzo Piano, a famous Italian architect, announced his plans to former Columbia University President Lee Bollinger in 2003 to “revitalize” West Harlem with what is called The Manhattanville Project: a 17-acre expansion of the university’s business school overlooking the Hudson River. The ivy-league school owned 65% of the neighborhood at this time.

But Columbia University is one of many corporations buying American neighborhoods today. Thirty-three percent of all homes in America were purchased by investors by 2022, according to John Burns Real Estate Consulting. This leaves BIPOC and LGBTQ communities to compete against investors with a wage gap ranging 10-70% lower than the average non-LGBTQ worker, reported the Human Rights Campaign earlier this year.

Moving forward, Councilwoman Jordan has hope for Harlem and the wider world.

“I want to see the upcoming generation that has been raised here, like myself, given fair opportunities to obtain property and invest in the community they have grown up in,” said Jordan. “I aim to use my time in office to advocate for our neighbors; standing up for all the constituents in my district who have consistently been left behind by people who only seek to fill their pockets.”