Over the last few years, with the rise of Content Creation, the LGBTQ+ community have found new ways to communicate and educate their peers.
However, LGBTQ+ education in schools is considerably lacking, with recent country policies, such as America’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill, restricting students from being able to have important conversations surrounding sexual orientation and identity.
In this article, we will shine a light on 7 Educational Creators who have paved the way for more inclusive LGBTQ+ education and policy reform.
Blair Imani (She/Her)
To kick the list of incredible people off, Blair Imani is a black, bisexual award-winning educator, historian, social activist, and the LA Times Bestselling Author of ‘Read This to Get Smarter’. Her authorial credits also include ‘Modern HERstory: Stories of Women and Nonbinary People Rewriting History’ (2018) and ‘Making Our Way Home: The Great Migration and the Black American Dream’ (2020). Imani educates and spreads awareness on her multiple social platforms, including her Instagram Reels series ‘Smarter In Seconds’, which breaks down complex socio-political and economic challenges in bite-size videos. Additionally, she has spoken at multiple top educational institutions and organisations around the world, including Oxford, Stanford, and Harvard. In 2014, Imani founded Equality for HER, a non-profit organisation that provides free educational resources and a forum to support and empower those who identify as women and nonbinary.
Matt Bernstein (He/They)
Matt Bernstein, also known as @mattxiv, is a popular American makeup artist, influencer, and educator. His vibrant yet powerful makeup looks and infographics typically include current socio-political messages related to sexuality, gender, religion, and other issues the LGBTQ+ community frequently experience. So far, Bernstein has been able to achieve an Instagram following of 1 million.
Eve Cornwell (She/Her)
Slightly different from the other creators mentioned in this article, Eve Cornwell is a British qualified solicitor turned product manager and is mostly known for her quirky, educational YouTube Channel documenting her ups and downs into Law and adulthood. For instance, her most viral video reacting to Kim Kardashian’s decision to pursue law has reached over 2 million views. However, Cornwell also uses her platform of 378,000 subscribers to openly share her journey of navigating a 'traditional corporate space' as a proud queer woman.
Ren Fernandez-Kim (She/They)
Ren Fernandez-Kim is a nonbinary Korean-Peruvian American artist, anthropologist, educator, and content creator. They are also an advisor for @Feminist, an Instagram page with 6.5 million followers and advocates for LGBTQ+ rights, Indigenous rights, body neutrality, and invisible illnesses. As an individual who’s always struggled with identity and felt there’s not enough representation for Asian Latinos, Fernandez-Kim creates educational content about their history and colonisation, in hopes to bridge that gap.
Az Franco (He/Him)
Known as @youcancallmeaz on Instagram, Az Franco is a British neurodivergent, trans-gender-queer artist, writer, and model. Another writer for the Instagram page @Feminist, Franco regularly posts educational LGBTQ+ content, raising the importance of topics such as gender identity, intersectionality, mental health, and inclusivity. His resume also includes publications in The Huffington Post and Impact, and modeling for Fujifilm, Getty Images, and Coppafeel. Az Franco has also given multiple talks, with his goal to break down stigma and promote a safer and healthier place for LGBTQ+ people to thrive.
Chella Man (He/Him)
One of the most influential up-coming personalities in the LGBTQ+ community, Chella Man is a deaf POC artist, activist, model, and actor (known for playing superhero Jericho in DC Titans). He has also made history as the first trans masculine face of YSL Beauty. Chella Man prides himself on sharing his personal experiences online and advocating for better representation of queer people, people of colour, and disabilities. He has previously mentioned his self-esteem and self-worth as a child suffered due to not having a public role model to relate to, and therefore has decided to be his own representation. Chella Man frequently vlogs his journey into transition to his YouTube Channel of over 250,000 subscribers.
"He has previously mentioned his self-esteem and self-worth as a child suffered due to not having a public role-model to relate to, and therefore has decided to be his own representation"
Damian Alexander (He/They)
Last but definitely not least, Damian Alexander’s platforms are filled with empowering illustrations, created to encourage LGBTQ+ voices within the community and more conversations to be had about the fluidity of identity. Alexander, an American cartoonist, and storyteller has created illustrations and short comics for The Trevor Project, Narratively, The Washington Post, Teen Vogue, and many more. His first graphic novel, ‘Other Boys’, is an award-winning memoir centered around his childhood experiences and highlights issues such as coming out, bullying, and gender norms, that LGBTQ+ youth typically face. He also encourages other diverse creators to break through the stereotype of comics being white, straight, and male.
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