"Starting as a teenager, I came to think of queer health through of lens of social justice in many different ways. I started thinking about the world through a feminist lens in the 80s and I became involved in reproductive justice and abortion-rights. I grew up in a small town in Ohio where rich girls had birth control and poor girls had babies. No one wanted to have an abortion. I definitely was influenced from the very beginning by seeing issues of bodily autonomy, lack of access to healthcare information, and lack of access to something as simple as birth control and abortion rigged by class. All of this existed in a highly charged, political society with deep roots in sexism and race. And of course, we know now that sexuality and gender identity play large roles in that struggle. I understood the world of social justice and problems through the lens of how our physical bodies are impacted by the world’s conflicts.
Then in the late 80s and early 90s I became involved in HIV and AIDS activism. I moved to New York City where I attended Sarah Lawrence College. I worked at abortion clinics in Westchester County that were sites of bombing. Again, this idea of healthcare being under siege was very real to me. There was actual violence that was attached to accessing healthcare. I was not an active member of ACT UP, but I was involved in The Women's Health Action Mobilization that grew out of the ACT UP movement. I think back on these experiences now and recognize how much of an influence these experiences had on my involvement in LGBTQ healthcare advocacy today.”