Shot on location at 814 Grove St. courtesy of Mike Finn

Director of Photography Dominick Hildebrand

Production Assistants Allie Stevens & Duane Quintana

VOICE OF THE NEW GENERATION

Levi Maxwell: Wise Beyond Their Years

■ INTERVIEW BY ALLIE STEVENS

Levi Maxwell works as an advocate for POC and queer youth in the Bay Area both on and off the clock. Luckily, their age allows for stamina and endurance to raise awareness against anti-black, anti-POC, and anti-queer culture. Older LGBTQs can easily assume that young queers have yet so much to experience. But upon getting to know Levi and their experiences, MXD finds out that the youth indeed has endured and conquered enough adversities to justify why they need to be heard.

What’s it like for a young queer POC to navigate around sex, romance, and friendship? To be honest, I don’t really navigate sex and romance all that much. The dating terrain here, as in most cities, is very limited for me and geared for certain kinds of people. However, as a young queer person who’s aware of their voice and backs that voice with action, I’ve met dozens of amazing people to work and collaborate with. It has been a major way to create and build friendships.

What of your experiences drove you to pursue your advocacies? My biggest obstacle has been moving beyond homelessness and creating resiliency in my life. Young queer and trans people of color are much more likely to face homelessness nationwide without the support systems, networks or organizations to support them in a culturally-informed and trauma-sensitive manner. My own challenges navigating various systems in San Francisco, New York, and Portland have been critical in me being able to provide my service to the youth that validates their experiences and honors their identities.

We chatted about the role of White People in our quest for racial equality. As QTPOCs, it’s necessary that we move beyond seeking the validation of gay and queer spaces that do not listen to our concerns, back our developing leaders, showcase our resiliency, or give us the positions with clout or coins to those of us who have been putting in the work. We do not need anyone else, but it is important to work with those who want to rectify the unequal systems they’ve benefited from individually and collectively. It is critical that any people who see themselves as allies do the internal work to challenge their racism, their anti-blackness, their classism, their transphobia. This is a task for everyone. I have experienced first hand anti-blackness from non-black POCs. I’ve experienced transphobia from cis gay men and cis lesbian women of all shades. Even I have engaged in behavior rooted in inequity. All of us have ability to grow.

  As QTPOC, it’s necessary that we move beyond seeking the validation of gay and queer spaces that do not listen to our concerns, back our developing leaders, showcase our resiliency, or give us the positions with clout or coins to those of us who have been putting in the work.

We are in an era of a gender revolution. Where do you see queer and non-gender-conforming people in the next 5 to 10 years? I don’t believe we’re in a particular gender revolution. There have always been transgender people and there have always been those who do not align with gender norms. What has changed is the idea of us. We are not the older late in life transgender women that most people associated with trans women for decades. Now, we have some trans women, men and non-binary folks in positions of power openly. I don’t think being on the covers of magazines, even ones like this, means much considering this White House has begun stripping the gains we’ve made for many undocumented, poor, rural, and/or disabled trans folks. I cannot say what will happen in 5 to 10 years. I don’t think any trans person can say for sure what will happen, either.

Where do you get your support from, considering the still existing hostilities within the LGBTQ community? My friends and community are a cross section. But my oldest and greatest friend Kelly Moore taught me so much about the internal and personal process of healing one’s truama. She’s basically the reason I can say I got out of homelessness, organize folks to support marginalized people or have frank and honest talks about race. Beyond that is a broad swarth of people in various queer cultural and creative scenes. They’ve been instrumental in putting my ideas into action and have supported me with critiques of my plans and showed up when action is needed. It’s because of all these folks that I am what I am and it’s because of them that I see being in a place of service as a spiritual act.