Trian Alexander isn't really someone who lives for the now.
"Something that someone told me a while ago is that everything is a moment in time. Like the good and the bad, nothing ever truly stays very long, and I think that's kind of important," said Alexander, a member of the Chicago LGBT community and a recent Windy City Times 30 Under 30 honoree. "If you tend to get caught up in being really cynical about how bad things can be, you should try to move forward. Even if things are going really well, everything changes."
Alexander has constantly used their previous experiences to move forward. While they were raised in Chicago, they attended college on the East coast, where they focused their studies on film and performance art.
"I used that art to make a voice for my issues but also to bring awareness to the issues of trans, like non-binary people," Alexander said.
Alexander took their college experience and used it to help them find a place where they would be supported and accepted: working on the Trans Oral History Project.
"I was really looking for community and other trans groups, but also I wanted to be involved in a social justice type of environment. So I got involved mostly for support and to be able to give to the community," Alexander said.
The Trans Oral History Project is "a community-driven effort to collect and share a diverse range of stories from within the transgender and gender variant communities," according to the project's website.
Alexander was mainly a videographer for the project, but also would interview people and do some of the film editing.
"The Trans Oral History Project gives resources to people in areas where they might not have access, so I think it's important that it fills that role. I went to college in a rural area so there weren't really any other trans people, so I think having the project and the resources available is really useful, both in helping trans people to not feel alone and in educating people who don't know much about trans people, trans people of color, non-binary trans people and what non-binary means, things like that, " Alexander said.
"They give a chance for younger trans people to interview older trans people, and so that information will get put on the website for people in other areas to see and just have a little bit of a sense of being part of the community. It's also to give a chance for people who don't know much about the trans community to see those stories and use it sort of as an education toolkit."
Alexander continues to give to the community by interning for Affinity Community Services, an organization that provides numerous resources and support groups for members of the Black community, the LGBT community and beyond.
"Affinity Community Services is a lot of things. They initially started off as a women's group, then a Black lesbian religious group. Their purpose right now is to work on wellness, issues of public policy, and a couple of other things in the Black community," Alexander said. "While I think the LGBT community is supportive of my trans-ness, seeing as I'm Black, I don't know that the Chicago trans community covers all areas of who I am. I think that speaks for most LGBT communities, they just kind of gloss the surface of a greater part of your identity. It's like finding a needle in a haystack. It's difficult to find someone who identifies the exact same way that you do."
While they are enjoying their time at Affinity, Alexander is always looking to the future, never forgetting that everything is a moment in time.
"I hope that I can be, in the future, an educator of trans issues, and supportive of youth and wellness," Alexander said. "The only thing I'm trying to do right now is survive."
