TIA N. WILLIAMS
Listening to an inspirational speaker on campus is a highlight of any college experience, but as a student at the University of Georgia, Tia N. Williams didn´t see a lot of speakers who looked like her or shared her orientation. So she decided to start her own speaking agency called The Buddha In Me Management. That alone would be enough to land her on our list, but Williams also manages to make time for two other fabulous jobs: academic services coordinator at Emory University and staff writer for the African-American LBT magazine Elixher-plus, she was the production manager on the 2013 documentary Al Nisa: Black Muslim Women in Atlanta´s Gay Mecca. And while today Williams is out and proud, she struggled, like so many other young queer women do, with revealing her sexuality. “When I told her [my best friend from college] I was attracted to and interested in women, her response was, ´I hope you didn´t think this would make me love you any less.´ After that, I officially told a few other people, but it made me realize I was doing it more for them and not me because nothing in my life had really changed. I was just more accepting of myself and a lot happier. I no longer sought anyone else´s approval of who I was as a person.” -GH
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