Trans or transgender is a type of gender identity within the LGBTQ+ community in which people’s gender identity differs from what is typically associated with the sex they were assigned at birth.
In part two of our Pride Month series, we list 9 creative and academic trans influencers who live with a disability and/or health condition.
1. Aaron Phillip
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Aaron Phillip (pronounced A-ron) is a 21-year-old model and LGBTQ+ and disability advocate from New York. Aaron was born with cerebral palsy and is a wheelchair user.
Back in November 2017, Aaron tweeted pictures posing in her wheelchair with bleached hair and a nose ring alongside the caption: “Honestly when I get scouted/discovered by a modelling agency it’s over for y’all! – By y’all I mean the world! It’s real inclusivity/diversity hours folks, get into it!”
The tweet went viral gaining more than 89,000 likes, 23,000 retweets and hundreds of supportive comments.
As a result, she was soon discovered and became the first black, transgender and physically disabled model to be represented by a modelling agency. She has since gone on to feature in photoshoots for publications and retailers including Paper Magazine and ASOS.
Aaron continues to share fashion, beauty, race, LGBTQ+ and disability content on her social media. She has 211,000 followers on Instagram and over 44,000 followers on Twitter.
Follow Aaron Phillip on Instagram and Twitter.
2. Chella Man
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Chella Man is a 22-year-old YouTuber, artist, actor and model from Brooklyn, New York City. He is also an LGBTQ+ and disability activist.
He is best known for sharing his experiences of being deaf, transgender, genderqueer and Jewish. His YouTube channel has alover 250,000 subscribers and he has 446,000 followers on Instagram.
In 2019, Chella was also cast as the role of mute superhero Jericho in the second series of the DC Universe series Titans, in which the character uses sign language to communicate with his teammates.
Follow Chella Man on Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.
3. Kay Ulanday Barrett
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Kay Ulanday Barrett is a poet, performer, educator, food writer and cultural strategist. They talk about living as a disabled Filipinx-American transgender queer person, intersectionality and how to approach and overcome challenges related to their chronic illness and hearing loss.
They’ve published two books, with their second book, More Than Organs (Sibling Rivalry Press, 2020) receiving a 2021 Stonewall Honor Book Award by the American Library Association and is a 2021 Lambda Literary Award Finalist. They have received residencies from Tin House as a 2022 Next Book Winner as well as MacDowell as a 2020 James Baldwin Fellow.
Other residencies include Drunken Boat, VONA Voices, Monson Arts, and The Lambda Literary Review. Kay is a three-time Pushcart Prize Nominee and two-time Best of the Net Nominee.
Their contributions are found in The New York Times, The Huffington Post, Poetry Magazine, them., Colorlines, Al Jazeera, NYLON, Vogue, and The Rumpus, to name a few.
You can find out more about Kay Ulanday Barrett by following them on Twitter, Instagram and TikTok.
4. Leo B. Allanach
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Leo B. Allanach is a filmmaker who seeks to “create art that changes the way people think, elevates marginalised voices and inspires others to action.”
Leo identifies as trans, bisexual and queer. He is neurodivergent and lives with a chronic illness known as postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (PoTS).
He turned to television and literature (especially sci-fi and fantasy) to cope with growing up in a hostile conservative environment.
Leo now uses these interests to drive his passion to create art based on disability justice. He is passionate about upending the profit-driven entertainment industry and creating spaces that amplify the perspectives of marginalised populations.
In June 2022, Leo was a guest on the podcast lABLEd where he discussed his childhood in Oregon and his thoughts on disability representation in television and film. He then returned as a guest host in May 2023 to discuss disability representation in the Netflix series Shadow and Bone.
Follow Leo B. Allanach on Instagram.
5. Julian Gavino
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Julian Gavino is an NYC-based writer, model and activist for the trans-disabled community. He came out as transgender in his early teens. Most of his written work speaks out about the many discriminations he has personally experienced online as a disabled person and transgender man.
Julian was born with Ehlers-Danlos syndrome. He uses a wheelchair, requires a feeding tube and is supported by an assistance dog.
Known as The Disabled Hippie on social media, with 65K followers alone on Instagram, Julian uses his platform to talk about the need for intersectional equality for both the trans and disabled communities.
Julian has also modelled for various fashion brands and has taken part in the runways of New York and Los Angeles Fashion Weeks.
Find out more about Julian Gavino by following him on Twitter, Instagram and TikTok.
6. Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha
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Based in Toronto and Oakland, California, Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha is a queer and trans writer, poet, performer and activist who has dedicated her work to bringing representation to LGBTQ+ people of colour, particularly through the Sri Lankan and South Asian experience.
Many of her writings and performances are inspired by her experience as an autistic person and shifting the narrative of what living with a disability truly means.
In Toronto, Leah co-created the Performance. Disability. Art collective (PDA) along with fellow activist, Syrus Marcus Ware.
You can find out more about Leah by visiting her website brownstargirl.org and following her on Twitter and Instagram.
7. Syrus Marcus Ware
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Syrus Marcus Ware is an award-winning visual artist, activist and educator. As well as co-founding the Performance. Disability. Art collective, he also founded Black Lives Matter – Canada and the Wildseed Centre for Art and Activism in Toronto.
Much of Syrus’ work has been featured in some of Canada’s most prestigious galleries and universities, for example, “How Disability Studies Stays White and What Kind of White it Stays”, as well as writing about disability, deaf culture and transgender experiences in Trans Bodies, Trans Selves.
It is not clear what disability and/or health condition Syrus lives with.
Follow Syrus Marcus Ware on Twitter and Instagram.
8. Corin Parsons
POV you’re my boyfriend and you’re taking a picture of me holding angelica syrup sodas in a hammock. pic.twitter.com/Q675L6ZtxS
— The Tweedy Mutant (@the_tweedy) May 15, 2023
Corin Parsons is a disabled, queer, trans man and academic. In addition to studying disability in higher education, the advocate is known for his social media presence, where he tweets about disability attitudes by non-disabled people.
His most noticeable tweets have been about the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic and the overturning of Roe v. Wade (US abortion laws), which specifically impacted people with disabilities.
Corin is believed to be a wheelchair user and has autism and ADHD. He is currently pursuing a PhD in Philosophy, researching Anglo-European constructions of gender and “felinity” through “anxious mythologies” of cat domestication and examining the broader implications thereof for social and species differences.
You can follow Corin Parsons on Twitter @the_tweedy.
9. Eliza
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Eliza is a UK-based disability activist and social media influencer from London. They post about ableism, hidden disabilities and breaking the stigma of disability aids.
Eliza makes short videos that explain the history of ableist words and posts about disability, being a wheelchair user and LGBTQ+ positivity. They have more than 80,000 followers on Instagram and 70,000 followers on TikTok.
Eliza was shortlisted for the Influencer of the Year award by the charity Sense for their work on raising awareness of ableism on social media.
Check out Eliza’s content on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube.
Do you have a disability or health condition and identify as transgender? Or do you know a disabled influencer from the trans community we should be following? Let us know in the comments box or on social media.
