@bowie
Bowie Rowan
@bowie · 0:42

#TransAtWork | Talking with non-binary freelance writer & barista K.G. Strayer (they/them)

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Kiji Strayer is a nonbinary poet and textile artist from Michigan. They received their MSA and poetry from the University of Pittsburgh in 2017, where I had the great fortune of meeting them and experiencing some of their beautiful poems. Kg, I am so happy to have you here unswell as part of my Trans at Work series, where we talk about all things trans and gender nonconforming and queer within the workplace. Thank you so much. I'm really looking forward to this conversation

#transatwork #queeratwork #authorinterview #writingadvice #workadvice #writinglife #poetry #worklife #lgbtqia

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@bowie
Bowie Rowan
@bowie · 0:39

Work history & coming out

I would love to start out by hearing a bit just about your work story. When you think about your working life, when did it began and where did you start to where you are now and how has your experience of your gender and identity been at all upon part of that journey? Have you come out at work or is it something that is still not known to most of your colleagues and peers at this point in your working life?
@bowie
Bowie Rowan
@bowie · 2:02

Being trans at work

I often see things that may be a slightly different angle or I can pinpoint things that are kind of taken for granted or maybe just seen as part of the status quo and not being considered and that has definitely allowed me to be a more valuable team member. It's also for sure put me in situations where I know I'm being experienced as a pain in the a** by some people, which I am totally fine with at this point in my life. I'm curious for you
@bowie
Bowie Rowan
@bowie · 1:20

The future for trans people at work

I know that just from my own personal experience in the past and also from being in queer and trans support groups where some people are in situations where it really would be unsafe or they just do not feel ready, or like they have the support at work in order to be able to do that. I'm curious for you and from your perspective, what would you like to see for the future of trans people at work?
@bowie
Bowie Rowan
@bowie · 0:36

#whyimobsessed

And lastly, I love Tessa's question just because I'm curious and it's fun. What is something that you are currently obsessed with? It can be anything. It can be a book you just read, a food you just tried, a time in history that is really captivating your imagination. Anything that your heart and mind is preoccupied with around whenever you respond to this recording, we would absolutely love to hear about it and to probably check it out ourselves, to be totally honest
@kgstrayer
K.G. Strayer
@kgstrayer · 4:32

@bowie

They've been very much a conflation of self and job. So ultimately though, I think my work life as I see it, begins with the local coffee shop that I ended up landing at when I graduated college and I was sort of excommunicated from my Bio family for the first time for what was at the time an illegible and unspecified queerness. So that place really, despite management and ownership, being kind of a disaster
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@kgstrayer
K.G. Strayer
@kgstrayer · 3:34

@bowie

Even when things were going well at work, it just never felt like a reflection of what I wanted for myself or what I was capable of or being of service to the world in a way that I had always wanted to be. So something that I'm experiencing now is that actually I was very much holding myself back from my career, both as a writer and as a coffee professional, because I wasn't being myself, because I wasn't allowing myself I wasn't allowing myself to invest in myself
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@kgstrayer
K.G. Strayer
@kgstrayer · 4:06

@bowie

I think ultimately I have to start this question saying that I believe in access to healthcare, I believe in access to housing and just I believe that financial stability is a human right, you know, in part because this is is capitalism. It's a made up system. We made it up and we can fix it, I hope, or completely dismantle it and change it. That's my hope for the future of trans people at work
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@kgstrayer
K.G. Strayer
@kgstrayer · 3:08

@bowie

He also kind of mentioned this surge of popularity that's happening with horror novels and horror as a genre kind of being brought into the fold, the literary fold, in part because of people like Jordan Peele kind of propelling the genre forward. I was a huge fan of Stephen King when I was way too young to be reading Stephen King
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@bowie
Bowie Rowan
@bowie · 2:49

@kgstrayer

And I loved how you pointed out what is possible, how things start to happen or emerge or open up when we are able to fully embrace ourselves and be openly ourselves and out in all kinds of spaces. I also loved hearing specifically about the things that you feel frame your gender. And that also your view and understanding of why transness and being gender non conforming can feel so threatening to certain points of view and ways
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