As an intersex male, DeMarco T. Lord has dedicated his life to championing the rights and well-being of marginalized communities. He is the passionate Founder and Executive Director of Advocates of the South Inc., where his leadership and unwavering commitment to activism shine.

DeMarco is an activist first and an advocate second, prioritizing impactful change over recognition. Formerly a chapter leader for Black Lives Matter in San Francisco, he has tirelessly worked on the front lines of social justice. Additionally, he has been a coordinator for Transforming Organization in Atlanta—one of the oldest Transmasculine groups around—demonstrating his dedication to intersectional advocacy.

Anthony (he/him) is a 48-year old transman who lives in Brooklyn, NY with his wife of 15 years and their 8-year old son. He has been part of the Queer community since the 90s. After questioning his gender identity for many years, he decided to begin his medical transition in 2013. Anthony is most proud of being a father and a husband and he enjoys cooking, horror movies and being a mentor to other transmen.

Dave is a 50 year old gay trans man who started identifying as openly queer in 1994 and as a trans man in 2001. He started his medical transition in early 2002 in Portland, OR with a few other “litter mates” but, after moving multiple times, lost that sense of connection and community with other trans men. In 2018 he joined Instagram hoping to find connections with other older trans men, and found inspiration, albeit virtually, to seek out more for himself. After being on HRT for 17 years, he finally had top surgery in 2019. Even so, he still suffered from crippling depression and alcoholism. After hitting the proverbial “rock bottom”, Dave made the choice to live in 2020. Sober ever since, Dave is now happily married and lives in his native NE Ohio. Dave works as an artist and gig worker, and is unapologetically codependent with their dog, Ruby.

Instagram pages:

   @davenorthcoast 

   @davesmurals     

Website:

     davesmurals.com

Shawn Demmons is a queer African American trans man committed to social and racial justice. Shawn has 10+ years of experience providing community health education training, capacity building, and technical assistance to increase provider knowledge and awareness about trans people and the best practices to engage transgender communities in health care. Shawn has developed training curricula, webinars, and interactive presentations for the staff and leadership of numerous health care organizations across the U.S. In addition, he coordinated the past three convenings of the National Transgender Health Summit and led the development of a Trans 101 eLearning course for the UCSF Center of Excellence for Transgender Health website. Currently, Shawn directs an HIV capacity-building program where he works to expand the number and ability of health care professionals to provide high quality HIV care and decrease inequities that includes programming on gender-affirming care. Shawn has an undergraduate degree in Black Studies and Masters in Public Health from San Francisco State University, and is the proud papa of a 10-year old chihuahua named Cooper.

Garrett is a 43 year old tranman who began his transition in Florida in the late 90’s. He has lived all over the United States and has held all kinds of jobs in youth advocacy, health care and a few odd ones as well. Garrett has had many titles but the ones that have brought him the most joy in the current years have been friend, brother, and uncle to the vibrant and beautiful trans and queer community that he has built over time. He currently resides in Washington State with his wife and their three dogs.