Since my 6th grade campaign to get a salad bar in my middle school cafeteria, activism and organizing has been profoundly central to my movement in the world.
Through high school and college I was honored to serve on the United Methodist Church’s denominational-level social action agency, where I worked to facilitate the passage of some of the most pro-LGBTQ denominational legislation in the history of the church.
After graduating college in 2009, I organized with and for trans youth in MN, planning events to celebrate our queerness, hosting open mics to share our art, and facilitating poetry workshops. In 2011, I joined up with prison abolitionist activists, queers, and trans folks across MN (and eventually, around the world) to support CeCe McDonald when she was charged with 2nd degree murder for defending her life in a racist and transmisogynist attack. A couple other media savvy folks and I spearheaded media strategizing, wrote press releases and articles, and generated mainstream and alternative press calling for an end to violence against trans women.
As a clinical psychologist today, I seek to be an ally to organizers. If I can be any help to any work you’re doing — if any of my connections, access to resources, experiences, or skills could be useful to you in any way, please don’t hesitate to contact me. Colleagues and I recently published an article on building community resilience among communities targeted by state-sanctioned violence, with an accompanying toolkit of strategies for building and maintaining resilience while resisting state-sanctioned violence. We are available to consult about strategies to build and maintain community resilience resources in the work toward liberation for those resisting state-sanctioned violence — contact me.
Kris Gebhard, PhD 