The Future of NYC Ep 8: The Future of TGNCNB & Black Trans Visibility in NYC with Kiara St. James

Episode Description: The Rev. Matthew Heyd closes this season with Kiara St. James, Executive Director of the The New York Transgender Advocacy Group. Kiara shares her powerful story as a black woman of trans experience growing up in Heidelberg, Germany and  coming to New York. A born organizer, Kiara talks about her role advocating for transgender, gender non-conforming and non binary people on the margins and her role with GENDA, the Gender Expression Non Discrimination Act, passed in 2019, and the urgent role faith communities can play in affirming all identities. https://www.nytag.org/ 

About Kiara St. James: Kiara St. James is the founder and Executive Director of the New York Transgender Advocacy Group. She has been featured in a number of publications, notably PBS, the New York Public Library Oral History project, and PBS, among many others.She has been a community organizer and public speaker for over 20 years. She has been instrumental in changing discriminatory shelter policies that affected the Trans community, and has presented workshops concerning marginalized communities at the International AIDS Conference in Vienna, Austria and the United Nations, as well as many other conferences. She was instrumental in the passage of GENDA (Gender Expression Non-Discrimination Act) in 2019.  

Produced by Lucy Breidenthal; Edited by Jillian Jameson