On Monday, November 23,
the White House will recognize nine individuals from across the country
as “White House LGBT Artists Champions of Change.” These individuals
were selected by the White House for their artistry in advocating for
the LGBT community. The program will feature remarks by Senior Advisor
to the President Valerie Jarrett and Secretary for the United States
Department of Housing and Urban Development Julián
Castro, and screenings of the show Transparent from Amazon Studios and the Focus Features film The Danish Girl. The event also marks an important day in the LGBT community, Transgender Day of Remembrance, observed on November 20.
The Champions
of Change program
was created as an opportunity for the White House to feature
individuals doing extraordinary things to empower and inspire members of
their communities. The event
will be live streamed on the White House website. To watch this event
live, visit >www.whitehouse.gov/live</ on
Monday, November 23, at 1:00 PM ET. To learn more about the White House Champions of Change program, visit>www.whitehouse.gov/champions<.
Follow the conversation at #LGBTChamps.
Marco Castro-Bojorquez—Los Angeles, California
Marco
Castro-Bojorquez is the Community Educator in Lambda Legal’s Western
Regional Office in Los Angeles, California. Marco is responsible for the
coordination
and implementation of Lambda Legal’s various educational and advocacy
efforts. He has produced and directed several short films and
documentaries, including the award- winning documentary Tres Gotas de Agua(Three Drops of Water, 2013), a short film
about Latina immigrant mothers and the impact of their children’s coming out process. In 2015, he premiered El Canto del Colibrí (The Hummingbird’s Song), a documentary about Latino immigrant fathers and their LGBT children as they come out of the closet.
Fiona Dawson—Silver Spring, Maryland
Fiona
Dawson established TransMilitary to promote transgender equality
through media that educates, entertains and inspires. The project
intimately shares
the lives of U.S. transgender military personnel who served under the
threat of discharge. Having co-directed and produced the short opinion
documentary Transgender, at War and in Love, commissioned by the New York Times,
she is now working on
the feature length version of the film. An American immigrant, Fiona
lived in Houston, Texas, for more than ten years working in the
nonprofit sector and was voted the city’s Female Grand Marshal for the
2010 LGBT Pride Parade. She is a proud member of the
bisexual community and has served on the National Board of Directors of
the Human Rights Campaign (HRC). Fiona is currently on the Board of
Directors for the National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association
(NLGJA).
Jess Dugan—St. Louis, Missouri
Jess
Dugan is an artist whose work explores issues of gender, sexuality,
identity, and community. She has been photographing within LGBT
communities for the past decade and is deeply committed
to the transformative power of photographic portraiture. Her work is
regularly exhibited internationally and is in the permanent collections
of several major museums. Her current project, To Survive on this Shore, combines
photographs of transgender
and gender-variant older adults with interviews about their life
experiences in regards to gender, identity, age, and sexuality, and
provides a nuanced view into the complexities of aging as a transgender
person in the United States.
Joanna Hoffman —Brooklyn, New York
Joanna Hoffman is a 12-year veteran of slam poetry. Her full-length book of poetry Running for Trap Doors was
nominated for a Lambda Literary Award and featured in the American
Library Association's list of recommended LGBT reading for 2014. She
has performed her one-woman poetry show, The Personal is Political:
These Simple Truths, on topics of bullying, homophobia, racism and
mental health, and conducted poetry workshops with youth
at LGBTQ community centers, performance venues, high schools and
colleges across the country. She works at the nonprofit organization
Peace is Loud.
AJ King -- Washington, District of Columbia
AJ
King serves as the Founder of Breaking Ground. Formerly known as
“Brother 2 Brother,” this program targets men and trans youth of color
in Washington, D.C., to tell their life
stories through musical theatre, and identify non-violent conflict
resolution. The program began as a fellowship project and blossomed into
a full program presented at the national HIV/AIDS conference, NAESM.
This program incorporates social justice trainings,
leadership development, and a safe space for the participants to
disclose their life stories and then present those stories onstage. This
program concluded its last cycle with two sold-out shows at the
Anacostia Arts Center in October 2014.
Pidgeon Pagonis—Chicago, Illinois
Pidgeon
Pagonis, M.A., is an intersex activist. They are the former
Communications & Operations Manager and Youth Leadership Coordinator
for Inter/Act, an intersex youth project,
at Advocates for Informed Choice--an organization that fights for the
legal rights of intersex children and their families. Since 2006, they
have made an effort to expand the visibility of issues related to the
intersex community by facilitating workshops
and presentations around the world.
Lee Levingston Perine -- Washington, District of Columbia
Lee
Levingston Perine is the Founder of Makers Lab in Washington, D.C.
Through Makers Lab, Lee has built and supported queer communities by
creating spaces that celebrate life,
art, and queer culture. Since launching in August 2015, the Lab has
produced and been a collaborator in the production of 35 cultural events
in the region. The Lab recently received a grant for the Last Night
Project, a story-collecting project that explores
Black queer space in Washington, D.C. Previously, Lee founded and ran
Lovebus Events & Design, a boutique event planning company that
specialized in wedding planning for LGBTQ couples.
LJ Roberts—Joshua Tree, New York
LJ
Roberts is a visual artist who creates large-scale knitted
installations, detailed embroideries, screen prints and collages. Their
work investigates overlaps of queer and trans
politics, activism, protest, craft and the ongoing AIDS epidemic
through an intersectional feminist lens. Among their upcoming projects
are a collaboration with Visual AIDS to create a sex-positive
woman-centered safer sex kit as part of the forthcoming show Agitprop! at
The Brooklyn Museum .
Steven Romeo—Birmingham, Alabama
Steven
Romeo is the founder, executive director and primary artist for The
Change Project based in Birmingham, AL. The Change Project is an arts
and storytelling organization that
seeks to transforming discrimination against all LGBTQ (Lesbian, Gay
Bisexual, Transgender, Queer) people into acceptance through the art of
photography, social media campaigns, educational resources and
partnerships with social justice organizations. Steven’s
first fine art installation is “Our Bodies. Our Lives,” which engages
viewers to consider what LGBTQ people want to be called versus the
labels that society places on them. Steven currently studies at The
University of Alabama at Birmingham, working towards
his master’s degree in Public Administration with a focus in non-profit
management.
