Meet Alexis Grady: The Queer Non-Binary Student-Activist Who Is Ensuring LGBTQ+ Student Representation At Howard University
Student-activist Alexis Grady. Photo via Twitter.
By Jaimee A. Swift
Student-activist Alexis Grady (they/them/theirs) is relentless when it comes to ensuring LGBTQ+ student representation, visibility, and rights are seen, heard, felt, and integrated at Howard University.
Alexis Grady is a busy person. Not only is the 21 year-old a senior at Howard University, whose majoring in Political Science and minoring in Economics with a pre-law concentration, they are laying the groundwork to ensure that LGBTQ+ visibility, representation, and rights are integrated into the structural fabric of the University –– long after they graduate. A Cheltenham, Pennsylvania native, Grady is a Black queer non-binary student-activist and leader who is unrelentless when it comes to transforming the institutional and cultural fabric of Howard, a historically Black university in Washington, D.C., when it comes to is recognition of its vibrant LGBTQ+ student body.
Grady is the president of CASCADE, which is an acronym for the Coalition of Activist Students Celebrating the Acceptance of Diversity and Equality), which is Howard’s premier LGBTQ+ undergraduate organization. Formerly known as BLAGOSAH (the Bisexual, Lesbian, Allied, and Gay Organization of Students at Howard University) and Lambda Student Alliance, CASCADE celebrates and increases the acceptance of LGBTQ+ students, all while reinforcing that the university is “Queer as it is Black.” Moreover, as the chair of Howard University’s Student Association (HUSA) Senate, which is the legislative branch of Howard’s student government. Composed of senators from all undergraduate and graduate colleges, the HUSA Senate is integral to campus life on campus––as its primary function is to revise and amend the student handbook, as well as delegates and budgets funding to Howard’s recognized student organizations and collaborations.
Following in the footsteps of pioneering LGBTQ+ Howard alumni, faculty, and student and scholar activists such as Pauli Murray, Lucy Diggs Slowe, and Alain Locke, Grady is most certainly a name that should be etched into Howard’s history for their activism. I talked to Grady about their activism on Howard’s campus; the importance of creating infrastructural transformation and change when it comes to LGBTQ+ inclusion at historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs); and what being a Black non-binary radical means to them.
JS: You have done so much in terms of creating a culture of inclusivity at Howard University in regards to the LGBTQ+ student community. In what ways has it been difficult and rewarding to be a Black queer non-binary student at a historically Black university?
AG: “It has been difficult in that so much of the framework is not laid down. When we are looking out into the world and we see how progressive Washington, D.C. is becoming in regards to LGBTQ+ inclusivity and when we come to campus, so much of that framework to even do the work is not there. Howard does not have a full-time LGBTQ+ focus staff person; we don’t have a LGBTQ+ resource center; and we do not have gender-inclusive housing or LGBTQ+ education for the professors all the time. It is difficult to go in and want to do the work and then realize you have to take five steps backwards to start building something completely from scratch. However, I will also say the building of an infrastructure is what is the most rewarding. Building an infrastructure and making structural changes that are a long time coming, is really rewarding knowing that I am about to graduate and there are things in the works that will benefit students like myself long after I leave Howard.”
JS: What are some of the projects, initiatives, and activism you have done in regards to creating this culture of LGBTQ+ inclusivity at Howard University?
AG: “Last year, as a student senator, I introduced a bill to our Constitutional Convention entitled the “LGBTQ Fund”, which was the first piece of legislation that provides a consistent source of financial revenue to LGBTQ+ students. It was also the first time LGBTQ+ students were mentioned in the Constitution at all. The legislation is historic in that it is acknowledging LGBTQ+ students are here and they are a group that needs to be supported because they have not been supported in the past. The legislation did end up passing in spring of this year. Now, there will always be an account where LGBTQ+ students can go to fund their initiatives. Hopefully, in the long term, it will grow and be able to support all types of initiatives that we have imagined and wanted at Howard for a long time.”
“It was also the first time LGBTQ+ students were mentioned in the Constitution at all. The legislation is historic in that it is acknowledging LGBTQ+ students are here and they are a group that needs to be supported because they have not been supported in the past.”
“I was elected CASCADE president in May of this year and I officially started my tenure in August. Something big we are focusing on right now is gender inclusive housing. Howard does have gender inclusive housing but it is very sporadic the way people are placed. I would say the vast majority of people who even applied for gender-inclusive housing, do not get a response back. It is treated as if it were a special privilege and not a basic thing where trans people should be placed where they are comfortable––especially since we have gendered freshman dorms. This is a big issue. This week we launched a survey on gender inclusive housing and it is the first step in changing the process all together. We are aiming for 500 or more data points about students who have applied or would be interested in gender-inclusive housing. We hope we can compile the data to help to create a narrative on why it is important to have gender-inclusive housing at Howard.”
“Last year I was the secretary of CASCADE and under the presidency of Justin Calhoun, we launched a very similar initiative in order to get the first Queer studies course on campus. We did tabling in Blackburn (the Armour J. Blackburn University Center) to push out the survey. We are still doing research to see if it is the first course at any HBCU but it is definitely at least one of the first Queer Studies Courses. That is really exciting to see. A lot of other universities in the D.C. area have a whole minor, a whole concentration, and or even a major in Queer Studies, so it is great to finally get this one course off the ground because of its implications for the future.”
Scholar-activist Alexis Grady. Photo via Twitter.
JS: So much of Black LGBTQ+ history has been overlooked at all colleges and universities but particularly HBCUs. What are some ways HBCUs can overcome this erasure? For example, Howard University has notable LGBTQ+ alumni and faculty, including Alain Locke, Lucy Diggs Slowe, and Pauli Murray, who are rarely discussed as Black LGBTQ+ pioneers and articulators of Black political thought and behavior and as leaders in Black Politics.
AG: “I think it is really important to even start by acknowledging our Black LGBTQ+ alumni and educators in small ways on campus. When students tour the campus and think about coming here, we talk all about the great accomplishments of people who our buildings are named after and it would be so simple to add a line or two about people like Alain Locke and Lucy Diggs Slowe who were queer. For example, people talk about Alain Locke and all the great accomplishments he did but his identity as a gay man is equally important. How he navigated the world as a Black and gay man is an important example for those who are Black and gay and seek to come to Howard. I also think having access to information is important. When we are trying to put together Black LGBTQ+ history on campus through CASCADE., we are really having to dig for these little pieces of information to piece together a story of what Black and gay life looked like before the 1970s. It is important for Howard to invest in those resources to bring in materials for us to learn about it.”
“When students tour the campus and think about coming here, we talk all about the great accomplishments of people who our buildings are named after and it would be so simple to add a line or two about people like Alain Locke and Lucy Diggs Slowe who were queer.”
JS: Who is a ‘Black Non-Binary Radical’ who inspires you?
AG: Oh, wow. That is a difficult one because I feel there is not one non-binary person I look up to because there are a lack of non-binary people who were not my peers. I think I looked to a lot of women who wrestled with gender or hinted at wrestling with their gender and expressed it in their work, especially lesbian women like Audre Lorde. Even Toni Morrison played with the idea of gender in her work. I really think it is the small reading between the lines that inspired me. There are a lot of people at Howard who are my peers and are my same age that inspire me. However, it is hard to look to one specific non-binary person that helped me shape my identity. Lesbian culture, the way that gender is and was expressed within the lesbian community, and the types of works I was reading was really what I relied on try to understand that I could step out outside the ideals of traditional understandings of gender.”
JS: Who are ‘Black Lesbian Radicals’ you admire?
AG: “Definitely Audre Lorde. Zora Neale Hurston as well––even though her sexuality has been debated, so I don’t know if I would put her directly in the category of Black lesbian women. But Audre Lorde is someone who I read when I was a freshman in college and even before then to even understand how I was fitting into the world.”
JS: What does a ‘Black Non-Binary Radical’ mean to you?
AG: “What it means to me is to feel the fear of what it looks like to step into your full identity and to advocate for people who share your identities and to do the thing anyway. I think being your full self in your queerness––especially in the Howard community but in the larger Black community––is radical. I also think the next step is stepping into that identity and being scared of what comes next and doing it anyways.”
“What it means to me is to feel the fear of what it looks like to step into your full identity and to advocate for people who share your identities and to do the thing anyway. I think being your full self in your queerness––especially in the Howard community but in the larger Black community––is radical.”
“I think a lot about fear and I think a lot about the idea that when we idolize these radical figures, we picture them, especially if they passed away, as these fearless individuals who didn’t feel the pressures of society and who didn’t care about what anyone thought. I think that is not a complete picture of what it means to be radical. I think it is to feel all those emotions and be able to push forward not only for yourself but for the sake of your community. It is really about being in community and taking risks––even though you really feel fear; you feel the societal pressures; and you do understand the societal consequences of taking those actions might be and you do it anyway.”
To support CASCADE, follow the organization on Twitter and Instagram.
To support HUSA Senate, follow the organization on Twitter and Instagram.