>>> My issue is that no one is talking.
>>> My issue is disability justice.
>>> My issue is undocumented trans and queer youth.
>>> My issue is safe housing for youth.
>>> My issue is Sex Ed. in schools.
And my issue is that my trans queer young truth is
being told for me, but not by me.
>>> What's your issue?
>>> What's Your Issue? brings together LGBTQ and
gender expansive youth who have been for too long
sort of relegated to the margins, dismissed,
ignored and it puts them in the center. It asks,
what's your issue? What's important to you? What do
you care about? What do you want different in the
world? What would you do for young people like you,
you know, growing up ten, twenty years from now?
What's your life like and what ideas do you have to
make the world a better place?
>>> You can't tell the story unless you are the story.
How can you try to explain something to
someone or, you know, say that you know something
and you haven't even lived it or you haven't
experienced it or you know, you have nothing to tell.
You only can tell from watching others or
but it's one thing to actually live in that experience,
so that way you can have an actual factual and
meaningful story.
>>> I started working with the What’s Your Issue?
project two years ago. So I was 16 when I did that
and I was in the 11th grade. It kind of opened
up my eyes that my experiences were something
valuable but I lived that life. So, obviously I
always knew that these are things that happen to me
but the lens that the project put it on was that
my experiences were important and that these
were things that systematically were happening to me
and not necessarily something I could control.
>>> My issue is you putting me in a box.
I identify as gender neutral. She, her and hers,
he, him and his, and I'm not alone.
>>> It's not that LGBTQ youth don't fit into the boxes.
The boxes weren't made and aren't fit for us
and probably not for you. We have to expand the
possibilities to expand our understanding.
>>> I think that categories have been great,
for us to advocate for ourselves and to
understand our complex identities, but I also
feel like at the same time these categories have been
putting us in boxes in a way where it's hard to see
the intersectionalities of how these categories can
intermix with one another. For instance, I identify
as black, Asian, gender non-conforming, trans,
masculine off center, fluid in my sexuality.
And so especially when it comes to sexuality, you know,
if I'm thinking about categories and someone asked
me hey Jovan, uh, what's your sexuality?
I'm like, well, that's a great question.
>>> We can identify however we want to but we
shouldn't limit someone else's. And like also that
could go into like doctor forms like where we have
to go in there and like we have to identify as this
one thing like how about y'all just write a line there
and like let me fill in what I am instead of you now like
making me really uncomfortable in that also
discourages like a lot of us from going to the doctor.
>>> I've been pretty much taking care of myself
since I was about 15 years old. I grew up on the east
side of Detroit. It's a little bit rougher than the west side.
I spent most of my childhood in the system.
So I was in foster care up until I was seven and then
I spent most of my teenage years in and out of
the Juvenile Justice System.
>>> I had a lot of trauma in my childhood.
Also, I've experienced a lot of different kind, different
kinds of abuse and I think when I got older I started
to want to change the world and I also I mean,
it's mainly what I want to do most is to try to make
a change in the world or make an impact in
somebody's life. I wanted me personally I want to do
it through my music. I do a lot of it through the
community organizing. I get involved in a lot of
the organizations in my community. Planned
Parenthood, Alternatives for Girls, Michigan
United, AmeriCorps. I'm part of a group called
Detroit Represent! and we do a lot of campaigning
around justice and through social media and just in
our community as a whole and we try to provide
people with resources and coping skills.
>>> My activism, my advocacy is rooted in
Youth Empowerment. So I'm intentional about holding
space for young people and I think my words
specifically for them are, I hear you, I see you,
I support you. Together we are the change. Together
we will thrive. And to my younger self I would say
that I will survive and that I'm not going
anywhere. If I could tell my younger self that and
if young people can hear that, I think that it
would provide a sense of purpose, a sense of
comfort and knowing that you have purpose here,
that you are worthy, that you have potential and
that you are part of a movement.
>>> Well, my family, they love me dearly. I am like
(adored). Yeah, they adore me. You know, it's just
that they didn't know how to help. They were like,
you know, I don't want to sound mean but kind of
just dumbfounded about the whole LGBTQIA spectrum.
After I came out, I started getting the
resources and the help that I needed. I started
becoming the resources that I needed because I
wanted to get involved. I started doing trainings.
I started being a peer leader, doing all types of
conferences and going to different places to understand.
After I came out I felt like the whole family came out,
you know, because I was the first and I was bold
enough and I was I've always been a bold person.
I've always been I'm pro-me, I don't care.
I don't care what anyone has to say I'm
gonna be me and that's just that and I felt like
for my younger, you know cousins and you know,
everyone they were like, oh wow, like if D’mitry
can do it. I can do it, you know, so and I was
happy that I could be that role model to them because
I didn't have that growing up. I was just like,
I guess I have to set the example and that's how
I want them to be.
>>> You know, I want my younger, people who are
younger than me realize that you don't need-
you don't really need the okay from anyone. You can just
go ahead and do it yourself and find what
you need for yourself.