My name is Anastazia. I use she and they pronouns. Homelessness affects many people. A community it affects strongly and most personally, for me, is the Trans and Gender Nonconforming communities. As someone who identifies as Trans and Gender Nonconforming and someone who was formerly homeless, it was difficult to navigate a system of binary shelters in the city. I would fear to sleep in men’s shelters as I did not feel safe, because I did not identify as male. In female adult shelters there were woman who did not understand what Trans or Gender Nonconforming meant. I was at a crossroads with people and the shelter system. My art piece reflects that there are many diverse and beautiful roads for us to take in our identities. Some of these roads and colors are unseen in our society and need to be seen! San Francisco adult shelters should more openly represent us Trans and Gender Nonconforming and make homelessness a little bit brighter for the LGBTQ community, especially Trans and Gender Nonconforming people.
