justiceleague:“Being a Black non-binary person in and of itself was the hardest thing, especia

justiceleague:“Being a Black non-binary person in and of itself was the hardest thing, especially growing up in Virginia where it’s like, ‘Oh, I’m too Black for this group, [but] I’m too white for this group. Or I’m too punk for this group or I don’t like this type of music hard enough to be in this group.’ So, it was constantly ebbing and flowing between who I was at the time and what I felt comfortable with,” they reflect. “When I moved to New York, I honestly didn’t even know that people like me existed or people who felt the way that I felt even openly discussed it because in Virginia it’s just taboo. So, I think the people I was surrounded with in New York kind of lent [me] that strength and that ferocity, just by being who they are,” they say. “For me at least, as soon as I found out who I was, I wanted to retain that and hold on to that because it seemed like the most solidified thing in my life that I had discovered and felt. So I was like, ‘I don’t want to make this contrived and I don’t want to lose it because of a job or because of an opportunity. That’s gonna be forever.’” They continue: “It’s tough [in] the industry, but I think at the same time, there wasn’t a large past of [openly] non-binary or trans people until Laverne Cox. I think as soon as I started coming in a year or two ago, there was a massive influx of trans directors and actors and everything like that, so it’s not necessarily an anomaly at this point. It’s like, ‘We exist!’”QUINTESSA SWINDELLinterview by Observer.com (September 2020)photography by Yvette Aisburo -- source link

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