Ceyenne Doroshow is Black, Trans, Powerful and Forever

“Having an open heart came from a childhood of wanting to be accepted and wanting to be a part and never being a part,” says Ceyenne Doroshow.

Growing up in the 70’s, Ceyennne never played in the dirt or liked sports. She did not resonate with being gay, lesbian or with the word tranvestite. Though she was assigned “boy” at birth, Ceyenne knew that she was a young lady in the vein of her mother and grandmother - proud and stylish women known for fantastical church ensembles - even though they did not initially see Ceyenne for who she was. Refusing to erase herself, Ceyenne left home as a teen. She lived on the street, surviving as a sex worker while facing heinous acts of exclusion, arrests and stereotyping - all during a time where society didn’t yet have the words to describe who she was. Ceyenne’s only refuge was the eclectic melting pot of 70’s/80’s downtown NY, where she felt welcomed, nurtured and seen. This included one profound moment of understanding her identity: when a fellow Transgender woman asked Ceyenne to give her a hormone shot. Eventually Ceyenne’s journey led to her becoming a powerful matriarch of the Transgender society, taking in any and all who were marginalized like she was. Ceyenne has founded G.L.I.T.S (Gays and Lesbians Living in a Transgender Society), an agency that centers on harm reduction, health care, housing and education for the Trans community.

“Why [G.L.I.T.S]?” she says, “Because I said so. Because we have never been considered first...We are still a people behind. So I put us first.”

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