"We make assumptions every day about other people's genders without ever seeing their birth certificates, their chromosomes, their genitals, their reproductive systems, their childhood socialization, or their legal sex. There is no such thing as a 'real' gender-there is only the gender we experience ourselves as and the gender we perceive others to be."
-Julia Serano

In my darkest moments as an LGBTQ person, I found community in an unexpected place. In April, one of my closest friends, also a part of the LGBTQ community, passed away. At that point, I truly felt alone. I did have many friends who were allies, but I no longer had anyone that I knew who was LGBTQ. Four days after I found out about my friend’s passing, I spoke at a Trans Solidarity Rally and met someone who changed my life forever. Wooten Gough, the general manager at North Star LGBT Center, invited me to come speak at this event and introduced me to the Center.

After speaking about my friend and how he helped me, I found it easier to come out to a rally (full of strangers). I finally found a community of people who supported me. It was at this rally that I found out about North Star LGBT Center. The center has helped me become more comfortable about coming out to others, helped me find the courage to start hormones, and has given me something to believe in. Since the rally, with the support of my community, I have been doing a lot of work surrounding HB2 and trying to get this discriminatory bill removed.

The work surrounding HB2 would not have been possible without this community that I have found. Since finding out about North Star, I have not hesitated to invite LGBT folks who have been struggling like I once was. Many of them have thanked me for helping them find their community. Once establishing my sense of community at North Star, I decide to begin volunteering there to give back to the place that has given me a sense of community and something to believe in.

Since volunteering at North Star, I have found community during a time when I needed it most. I have also been able to interact with folks who have similar experiences to mine, as well as experiences that are very different from what I have experienced in my life. This is my first summer in Winston-Salem, and I do not know how I would survive without the center. The North Star LGBT Center has given me hope for my future in a time when I was hopeless and felt like I had nothing left.