GTRAP Team
*GTRAP team at Gender DynamiX Conference closing ceremony, Cape Town, South Africa 2014
Mx. Ignacio G. Rivera, M.A., Director of Training and Project Specialist
Mx. Ignacio G. Rivera, who prefers the gender-neutral pronoun “they,” is an activist, writer, educator, filmmaker and performance artist by way of New York City. Ignacio has over 20 years experience on multiple fronts including economic justice, anti-racist and anti-imperialist work, as well feminist and LGBTQ movements. Inspired by the lived experience of homelessness, poverty, and discrimination, Ignacio’s work is also driven by the strengths of identifying as transgender, Two-Spirit, Black- Boricua Taíno, and queer.
Ignacio's activist work began at that age of 20 when they moved out of the shelter systems of New York and to Massachusetts. On welfare, with toddler Amanda in tow, Ignacio was hit hard by welfare reform/ welfare to work programs. Ignacio, (identifying then, as a lesbian independent parent), attended college full time, had no reliable day care and was forced to work for meager welfare benefits. In search of employment that would allow Ignacio to bring up their daughter, they stopped by what they thought was a children's book store to apply. That was the day Ignacio's life changed. "Bernstein Bookstore" was not named after "The Bernstein Bears" but Leonard Bernstein, a Lawrence Massachusetts native and world famous gay composer. The bookstore was a storefront for performances, education and radical activism. It was founded by Jon Leavitt, long time activist and Lawrence resident. Upon meeting Ignacio, Jon took them under their wing and became a mentor, educator and chosen family.
Ignacio's activist, political life gained traction when they took over the defunct LGBT support group. They later spearheaded the 1st pride march in Lawrence that gained national attention. Jon and Ignacio worked closely together for several years, co-directing the Lawrence Grassroots Initiative, running the local farmers market, doing environmental work to shut down toxic incinerators and more. Ignacio went to school full time, non-stop for 6 years while working 3 jobs and growing their activism. Their experience with the poverty, homelessness and the welfare system kept them busy organizing around economic/ class issues. This mentorship and work experience in Ignacio's youth has been foundational to their understanding of the connectivities of oppression.
Ignacio has traveled worldwide as a speaker, educator and performer on race, gender and sexuality and was a founding board member of Queers for Economic Justice. They served as the Racial and Economic Justice Policy Analyst for the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. They worked as a school faculty and student trainer for GLSEN and the YES Program of the New York City Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Community Services Center. Ignacio has worked as a consultant for the Latino Commission on AIDS, CONNECT, an organization focusing on community response to domestic violence, as well as for the New York City Gay and Lesbian Anti-Violence Project.
Jack Harrison-Quintana, M.A., Director of Research
Jack Harrison-Quintana is a queer Jewish Mexican-American activist and researcher currently serving as the manager of the Policy Institute at the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force and the director of research for the Global Trans Research and Advocacy Project (GTRAP).
Jack identifies as gay, bi, and queer. His journey in gender-based activism began at his southern all-male Christian high school, where he was immersed in a particularly glorified masculinity. When he came out at fourteen, he was immediately ushered into a diverse community of LGBT people that included both trans women, trans men, and genderqueer-identified youth. This initiated his path two prioritizing activist goals that were inclusive of trans people and issues.
International solidarity and anti-imperialism has been a major component of Jack’s work his entire life. He has lived, studied, and worked outside the United States in Kagoshima, Japan; Seoul, South Korea; and, most recently, Phnom Penh, Cambodia, where he did a fellowship with the Cambodian women-led Cambodian women-serving trans-inclusive feminist organization, Khemara. In addition, he’s presented workshops in over thirty-five countries on all six inhabited continents. He locates the roots of his passion for working across cultural lines in his own multiracial family background.
Jack has worked on two major book projects: In 2010, he was a contributing author for Outing Age 2010: Public Policy Issues Affecting Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Elders, and in 2011, he was a co-author of Injustice at Every Turn: A Report of the National Transgender Discrimination Survey. Since then he has authored the publication series, Racial Justice/Trans Justice, as well as “A Gender Not Listed Here: Genderqueers, Gender Rebels, and OtherWise in the National Transgender Discrimination Survey,” “Still Serving in Silence: Transgender Service Members and Veterans in the National Transgender Discrimination Survey,” “Finding Genders: Transmasculine Crossdressers in the National Transgender Discrimination Survey,” and “ID Accurately Reflecting One’s Gender Identity Is a Human Right.” He is also a regular contributor to the Huffington Post, where he is written on trans depathologization and Honduran election fraud.
Jack’s other work has addressed issues of sexual liberation, the role of play in activism, intellectual property and remix culture, the free culture movement, and grassroots translations of non-English language graphic literature and speculative fiction.
Hailing from Signal Mountain, Tennessee, Jack earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Georgetown University where he still resides with his partner, Robby Diesu of DC Action Lab.
Dr. Jaime M. Grant, Ph.D., Project Director
Dr. Jaime M. Grant is a US-based lesbian feminist writer/activist who has benefitted from the love and mentorship of many queer trailblazers including Barbara Smith, Joan E. Biren, John D’Emilio, Tina Teasley, Minnie Bruce Pratt, Leslie Feinberg, and Judith Arcana.
Having survived sexist violence and anti-lesbian purges in familial, educational and workplace settings for over 30 years, Grant has focused her energies on academic/activist collaborations that confront racism and gender-based violence while working to strengthen queer feminist movements for justice. Within this context, Grant founded the Global Trans Research and Advocacy Project (GTRAP) in 2012. Prior to founding GTRAP, Grant spearheaded a number of transformational activist projects including founding the lesbian network of the Pennsylvania Coalition Against Rape and offering the network’s first groups for lesbian survivors of sexual abuse (1987); founding a queer feminist addiction recovery group (1992); co-creating the Kitchen Table Women of Color Press Transition Coalition to preserve its radical legacy (1995); co-creating the Women and Organizing Documentation Project with the Center for Third World Organizing (1997); establishing a pilot program for global mental health advocates for the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (NAMI) (2000); centering movement-building perspectives at the Ford Foundation’s Leadership for a Changing World Program (2004-2007); and serving as principal investigator for the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force’s ground-breaking reports on aging, Outing Age 2010 and transgender discrimination, Injustice at Every Turn (2011). In 2013, she launched the Kalamazoo College Global Prize competition, a biennial $25,000 award for cutting-edge social justice praxis.
Grant’s critiques and autobiographical theorizings have appeared in popular queer anthologies including Leslea Newman’s groundbreaking The Femme Mystique and Rachel Epstein’s collection on queer parenting, Who’s Your Daddy? In the 90s, she was a contributor to Sojourner: The Women’s Forum, writing on racism, sexism and movement organizing. More recently, her articles on Queering the Census, trans employment rights, genderqueer identity, and social justice leadership have appeared in The Huffington Post. Her most recent work on white anti-racist activism, Emptying the White Knapsack, was published by the Praxis Center.
Dr. Grant pursues trans justice within the broader project of gender revolution. The Global Trans Research and Advocacy project’s work is steeped in a deep faith in the wisdom of grassroots trans activists and driven by the trans movement’s call for a trans-generated knowledge base to ground and fuel trans movements globally.
A high femme dyke and a feminist, a sex activist and a clean and sober mother of two, Jaime lives in Washington, DC in a multigenerational, multiracial queer village of gender outlaws and beloved thinker/activists.
Mx. Ignacio G. Rivera, M.A., Director of Training and Project Specialist
Mx. Ignacio G. Rivera, who prefers the gender-neutral pronoun “they,” is an activist, writer, educator, filmmaker and performance artist by way of New York City. Ignacio has over 20 years experience on multiple fronts including economic justice, anti-racist and anti-imperialist work, as well feminist and LGBTQ movements. Inspired by the lived experience of homelessness, poverty, and discrimination, Ignacio’s work is also driven by the strengths of identifying as transgender, Two-Spirit, Black- Boricua Taíno, and queer.
Ignacio's activist work began at that age of 20 when they moved out of the shelter systems of New York and to Massachusetts. On welfare, with toddler Amanda in tow, Ignacio was hit hard by welfare reform/ welfare to work programs. Ignacio, (identifying then, as a lesbian independent parent), attended college full time, had no reliable day care and was forced to work for meager welfare benefits. In search of employment that would allow Ignacio to bring up their daughter, they stopped by what they thought was a children's book store to apply. That was the day Ignacio's life changed. "Bernstein Bookstore" was not named after "The Bernstein Bears" but Leonard Bernstein, a Lawrence Massachusetts native and world famous gay composer. The bookstore was a storefront for performances, education and radical activism. It was founded by Jon Leavitt, long time activist and Lawrence resident. Upon meeting Ignacio, Jon took them under their wing and became a mentor, educator and chosen family.
Ignacio's activist, political life gained traction when they took over the defunct LGBT support group. They later spearheaded the 1st pride march in Lawrence that gained national attention. Jon and Ignacio worked closely together for several years, co-directing the Lawrence Grassroots Initiative, running the local farmers market, doing environmental work to shut down toxic incinerators and more. Ignacio went to school full time, non-stop for 6 years while working 3 jobs and growing their activism. Their experience with the poverty, homelessness and the welfare system kept them busy organizing around economic/ class issues. This mentorship and work experience in Ignacio's youth has been foundational to their understanding of the connectivities of oppression.
Ignacio has traveled worldwide as a speaker, educator and performer on race, gender and sexuality and was a founding board member of Queers for Economic Justice. They served as the Racial and Economic Justice Policy Analyst for the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. They worked as a school faculty and student trainer for GLSEN and the YES Program of the New York City Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Community Services Center. Ignacio has worked as a consultant for the Latino Commission on AIDS, CONNECT, an organization focusing on community response to domestic violence, as well as for the New York City Gay and Lesbian Anti-Violence Project.
Jack Harrison-Quintana, M.A., Director of Research
Jack Harrison-Quintana is a queer Jewish Mexican-American activist and researcher currently serving as the manager of the Policy Institute at the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force and the director of research for the Global Trans Research and Advocacy Project (GTRAP).
Jack identifies as gay, bi, and queer. His journey in gender-based activism began at his southern all-male Christian high school, where he was immersed in a particularly glorified masculinity. When he came out at fourteen, he was immediately ushered into a diverse community of LGBT people that included both trans women, trans men, and genderqueer-identified youth. This initiated his path two prioritizing activist goals that were inclusive of trans people and issues.
International solidarity and anti-imperialism has been a major component of Jack’s work his entire life. He has lived, studied, and worked outside the United States in Kagoshima, Japan; Seoul, South Korea; and, most recently, Phnom Penh, Cambodia, where he did a fellowship with the Cambodian women-led Cambodian women-serving trans-inclusive feminist organization, Khemara. In addition, he’s presented workshops in over thirty-five countries on all six inhabited continents. He locates the roots of his passion for working across cultural lines in his own multiracial family background.
Jack has worked on two major book projects: In 2010, he was a contributing author for Outing Age 2010: Public Policy Issues Affecting Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Elders, and in 2011, he was a co-author of Injustice at Every Turn: A Report of the National Transgender Discrimination Survey. Since then he has authored the publication series, Racial Justice/Trans Justice, as well as “A Gender Not Listed Here: Genderqueers, Gender Rebels, and OtherWise in the National Transgender Discrimination Survey,” “Still Serving in Silence: Transgender Service Members and Veterans in the National Transgender Discrimination Survey,” “Finding Genders: Transmasculine Crossdressers in the National Transgender Discrimination Survey,” and “ID Accurately Reflecting One’s Gender Identity Is a Human Right.” He is also a regular contributor to the Huffington Post, where he is written on trans depathologization and Honduran election fraud.
Jack’s other work has addressed issues of sexual liberation, the role of play in activism, intellectual property and remix culture, the free culture movement, and grassroots translations of non-English language graphic literature and speculative fiction.
Hailing from Signal Mountain, Tennessee, Jack earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Georgetown University where he still resides with his partner, Robby Diesu of DC Action Lab.
Dr. Jaime M. Grant, Ph.D., Project Director
Dr. Jaime M. Grant is a US-based lesbian feminist writer/activist who has benefitted from the love and mentorship of many queer trailblazers including Barbara Smith, Joan E. Biren, John D’Emilio, Tina Teasley, Minnie Bruce Pratt, Leslie Feinberg, and Judith Arcana.
Having survived sexist violence and anti-lesbian purges in familial, educational and workplace settings for over 30 years, Grant has focused her energies on academic/activist collaborations that confront racism and gender-based violence while working to strengthen queer feminist movements for justice. Within this context, Grant founded the Global Trans Research and Advocacy Project (GTRAP) in 2012. Prior to founding GTRAP, Grant spearheaded a number of transformational activist projects including founding the lesbian network of the Pennsylvania Coalition Against Rape and offering the network’s first groups for lesbian survivors of sexual abuse (1987); founding a queer feminist addiction recovery group (1992); co-creating the Kitchen Table Women of Color Press Transition Coalition to preserve its radical legacy (1995); co-creating the Women and Organizing Documentation Project with the Center for Third World Organizing (1997); establishing a pilot program for global mental health advocates for the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (NAMI) (2000); centering movement-building perspectives at the Ford Foundation’s Leadership for a Changing World Program (2004-2007); and serving as principal investigator for the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force’s ground-breaking reports on aging, Outing Age 2010 and transgender discrimination, Injustice at Every Turn (2011). In 2013, she launched the Kalamazoo College Global Prize competition, a biennial $25,000 award for cutting-edge social justice praxis.
Grant’s critiques and autobiographical theorizings have appeared in popular queer anthologies including Leslea Newman’s groundbreaking The Femme Mystique and Rachel Epstein’s collection on queer parenting, Who’s Your Daddy? In the 90s, she was a contributor to Sojourner: The Women’s Forum, writing on racism, sexism and movement organizing. More recently, her articles on Queering the Census, trans employment rights, genderqueer identity, and social justice leadership have appeared in The Huffington Post. Her most recent work on white anti-racist activism, Emptying the White Knapsack, was published by the Praxis Center.
Dr. Grant pursues trans justice within the broader project of gender revolution. The Global Trans Research and Advocacy project’s work is steeped in a deep faith in the wisdom of grassroots trans activists and driven by the trans movement’s call for a trans-generated knowledge base to ground and fuel trans movements globally.
A high femme dyke and a feminist, a sex activist and a clean and sober mother of two, Jaime lives in Washington, DC in a multigenerational, multiracial queer village of gender outlaws and beloved thinker/activists.
