Kiara St. James

Photo by Kiara St. James.

Kiara St. James recognizes that being out — although liberating — isn’t easy. “It hasn’t always been a pleasant journey for me, because for years it made me a target,” she tells GO. “[However,] being thrown into the flames and coming out on the other end has made me realize my purpose, and that is to pour knowledge and love into all the communities I am part of.” She’s living her purpose as the founder and current executive director of the New York Transgender Advocacy Group (NYTAG), a trans-led nonprofit organization that advocates rights and opportunities for transgender, non-binary, and gender-nonconforming individuals. Her efforts, along with those of her fellow advocates, led to the New York State conversion therapy ban and the 2019 passage of the Gender Expression Non-Discrimination Act — both were legislation Kiara had promoted for nearly 20 years. Although her aim is to create a positive, safe, and inclusive space for transgender and non-conforming people, she knows more needs to be done thanks to her own struggle with gender identity. “Even today, I have to decide when and where it is safe to come out as a Trans black woman,” she tells GO. But still, she persists, to help us imagine a better world for all persons, regardless of their identity. “We have a duty to dismantle [the system] and create it in our own image.” Presently, as the world faces its greatest medical crisis in over a century, Kiara is hard at work on a Covid-19 relief fund for transgender and non-conforming individuals. —RK

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