Vol. 10 Presenter: Maureo Fernandez
Presenting
Gender=Fluidity
Summary
Flow: to move or pass continuously from one place or person to another. We live in a culture that sees gender as fixed and resolved. But so much of our own humanity, creativity, and joy is limited when we work to create a never-changing vessel to hold all of the experiences, preferences, interests, and ways of being that we associate with gender. Maureo has been, and been seen as, many things: a young girl, a tom-boy, a gender rebel, a butch lesbian, an effeminate man, and whatever his body does next and what the world decides to do with it. Maureo hopes to share his experiences of gender as both someone who identifies as non-binary as well as someone who has medically transitioned but been unsatisfied with what accepting a fixed gendered position would mean for someone who sees gender as less like stone and more like water: the potential to be both fluid but encompassing, gentle or devastating, hard to hold onto but impossible to ignore.
Bio
Maureo Fernandez y Mora (they/he) is a non-binary trans masculine community organizer based in Boston, MA. Maureo frequently feels between worlds. As a multi-generational New Mexican who grew up in a working class Albuquerque neighborhood, the suburbs of Santa Fe, their grandparents homes and parents’ academic workplaces—and has now made a home in Massachusetts—Maureo sees themself as constantly transforming and adapting to the world around them, but never fully fitting in. This is a source of pain and strength for him. Maureo’s driving force is using their experiences of both pain and privilege to create a better world. Their advocacy work currently includes their roles as Associate State Director of Clean Water Action Massachusetts, board member of Greater Boston PFLAG (Parents, Friends, and Family of Lesbians and Gays), and member of the United World College Anti-Racism, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Steering Group. When he isn't working, he's probably cooking, playing music, or spending time with loved ones.