Supple, sculpted lips purse nervously as she stands under the illumination of weak streetlights, the yellow tungsten lights spreading across the canvas of the cement boulevard. Jana Juniper Kapri -- known as Jay to her friends, and Jordan Anthony to her family -- ruffles her ash-blond pixie cut, rearranging the wavy curls to frame her face just so. Dressed in a black hoodie and combat boots, she blends into the midnight urban scene- an oddity for one so queer. Weird is not the right word to describe her, previously labeled he. Labels are terrible things, especially to a free spirit such as Jana, whose very existence contradicts societal folkways. Jana would label herself as tenacious, rebellious, smart, and curious; no longer will she use informal terms of the American social strata, only simple characteristics are allowed.
She's quick to correct those who misidentify her pronouns. Her adult pronouns were won through hours of personal discovery and the experience of domestic violence, at the hands of her biological family, their smiles cryptic, a façade of hope and help that was exactly that. As a marginalized member of society, she experiences hell rather often, not even allowed the illusion of believing in a great country of opportunity and "freedom." Plus, she can't drink coffee, because the caffeine content is high enough to put her hormone treatments out of whack. What kind of hell is that?
Through all of this compounded trauma, Jana was able to find the light. The light that was shared with her by her people, the fringes of society that understand love and hate as social constructs of shame and oppression. The family that taught her not to mourn the broken windows at home, but to mourn for the broken necks of those that came before her. Intuition and imagination were the building blocks of her transition, and after picking up the scraps of her childhood, Jana found hope in founding a LGBT youth organization. She is the organizer and teacher of the next generation of broken light bulbs, who would break out of the closet. Ever since, this vision and thrive for true life became her goal, and as she stood underneath these streetlights, Jana was proud of what she had become. Of the way in which she saw the world, and understood that she had to be bold in order to be heard. Through extreme tragedies and extreme miracles, she had found herself. As a marginalized person, she had nothing to lose but her chains.
