A Mock Brochure/Advertisement for a Queer History Exhibit

Published by lanaleonard

The Journalist I am a movement journalist. Like our surroundings, journalism, activism and education are one. To understand bias, I must understand intersectionality, the origins of activism, which journalism is. Without journalism how could we uncover truth, without activism we could not demand the truth, without education both are empty. Movement journalism or partisan journalism delivers truth to reality in a way that traditional journalism fails to. To understand the place of a journalist I must understand my own place in this world amid 8 billion people. Through the complex lens of intersectionality I am able to ask the important questions that create true, deep stories the world need to understand as a reality beyond their own ideologies. Little more in-depth about my experiences: I am a journalist, activist, and educator. My experience in the three should bounty a full awareness of the complexity of my professional nature. I write for Out in Jersey Magazine New Jersey’s only LGBTQIA+ oriented publication. From my original series, Voices in Solidarity to News, I uplift the voices of LGBTQIA+ folks, BIPOC folks, and those identities often left out of the mainstream media conversation. My activism is a core value of my journalism as well as the beginning of my work in education. A fundamental part of my adolescence, activism quickly weaved with education and journalism. I am a partial journalist that recognizes that objectivity is dead. I cannot turn away from the truths of, not only my reality, but the reality of so many beyond within the vastness of intersectionality. I became a communications chair board member for the Gay Lesbian Straight Education Network of Central New Jersey (GLSEN CNJ) when I was 17-years-old. Not only to write GLSEN CNJ’s newsletters but cover events like the annual GSA Forum and Trans* Youth Forum that would bring hundreds of queer and trans students/youth from all over the state to participate in workshops. I then began writing these workshops and still present them yearly. These workshops revolving around gender, stereotypes, queerness, drag king culture, etc. would eventually connect me with LGBTQIA+ organizations all over the state including Garden State Equality, the Bayard Rustin Center for Social Justice, and Project R.E.A.L. Educational activism began at the start of college with an organization called The Innovation Network (TIN). At TIN we proposed integrating student-led, project based active learning with global issues. As a co-project leader, I helped to co-profess an environmental science class. With two other co-project leaders we divided the class up into three groups. These groups would write proposals to implement environmentally consciousness at Brookdale Community College under our direction. The groups would have to present their proposals by the end of the semester as if presenting them to the college. TIN co-project leaders then worked with the class professor to grade each and every group. This work led to a teaching opportunity at a progressive private school to assist in middle school literacy and environmental science. Takin gate position, I introduced critical education of LGBTQIA+, sexism, misogyny, racism, and politics. I eventually was placed with preschoolers where a redeveloped perspective of the same intersecting practice. View more posts