"Me being out and visible means that some black queer kid somewhere in the South sees someone that looks like them talking about issues that affect them," Kendra R. Johnson, Executive Director of Equality North Carolina, tells GO. "Working in a mainstream equality organization but talking about Black and Brown unity, incarcerated folks, resource-poor people, sex workers, trans and GNC liberation, and undocumented people means changing the narrative that the only thing that matters is marriage equality and bathrooms." It's this commitment to creating a more equitable South through diversity, safe schools, inclusive institutions, and welcoming communities that fuels Johnson's passion, and it's what has always made her a social changemaker, from her college days at Spelman — where she started their first lesbian and bisexual support group in the '90s — to volunteering communications services for Brazil's first historically Black college.
