Jay Very
Jay Very holds a Bachelors in Fine Art, Masters in Art Therapy and is currently pursuing a Doctorate in Human Sexuality. Jay is Co-Founder and Director of Tongue in Chic Gallery, a fiscally sponsored project that empowers transgender artistic entrepreneurs. It’s Jay’s dream to work full-time funding the creative endeavors of the very brilliant and talented transgender community. As an artist, Jay uses film, self-portraiture, sculpture, installation, performance and musical composition to reflect on societal constructs around gender, kink and sexuality. Jay composed and recently produced, WildcardxFaust the rock opera, with the help of Apaulo Hart, Fabienne Delacroix and over 20 queer-identified cast and crew. His story, Wildcard, is an uplifting narrative whose hero features a transmasculine sex worker. His intent on producing Wildcard was to instill a sense of solidarity and hopefulness in an audience that desires anti-racist, sex-positive entertainment produced by and for the diverse transgender community.
Victoria is a transwoman from Hermosillo, Mexico, raised in Phoenix, Arizona since the age of 3. In 2010, after her father’s deportation, she returned to Mexico with her mother, determined to keep their family together. As she readjusted to life in Hermosillo, Victoria began to realize that she would not be able to live an authentic life in Mexico. Determined, she presented herself at the US border to request asylum. She was detained and held in all-male ICE detention centers for 3 1/2 months, during which time she organized other trans and queer migrants in a hunger strike to protest the abysmal conditions in detention. Since her release, she has worked tirelessly towards the liberation of all trans and queer migrants from the detention and deportation system. She is the founder of Transcend Arizona, an organization working to dismantle the systems that oppress trans and queer communities.
Victoria Villalba LaSaia is a 27 year old Trans woman of color who graduated from middle Tennessee State University with a BBA bachelors in business administration. She has worked for many different organizations such as the TPOCC and many more. She is now Executive Director of the TNTJ Tennessee Trans Journey Project where she deals with economic justice, creates jobs, and uses funding to open doors for all Trans folk in the state of Tennessee.
LaSaia Wade
Bonn Wade
Bonn Wade, LCSW has 19 years’ experience designing, directing, and providing services within housing and supportive service programs for LGBTQA youth using trauma informed frameworks. From Miami to Chicago, they have worked with dynamic young folks and allies to create thoughtful space where community members can heal. In addition, Bonn is the co-founder and former associate director of UCAN’s LGBTQ Host Home Program, an appointee on Cyndi Lauper’s Forty To None Project advisory board, and a current board member at the LYTE Collective and TaskForce Prevention and Community Services. Day to day, they work with youth and adult allies to provide consultation at the local and national around LGBTQ youth issues, trauma informed care, positive youth development, youth / adult partnerships, housing models and hold the vision that every youth deserves a safe home with caring allies and family.