'Being Danielle has been one of the most amazing things ': LGBTQ+ New Yorkers on Pride

storytelling

WNYC is marking Pride Month by highlighting the voices of LGBTQ+ New Yorkers. Our Community Partnerships Desk recently spent some time at the Brooklyn Community Pride Center in Crown Heights to have conversations with people about what it means to navigate today's world as LGBTQ plus individuals and the significance of finding community. Brooklyn resident Danielle Eunice Young shares her story.

The transcript of Danielle Eunice Young's story has been lightly edited for clarity.

Danielle Eunice Young:

I'm 24 years old. I use she, her, hers pronouns, and I identify as a Black intersex woman. In my senior year of college, I realized I was intersex in my dorm room. I cried a lot about it. I like to actually attribute my intersexuality to, like, mutants on X-Men and stuff like that.

Because some mutants in certain issues, they get captured and they get experimented on. "What makes you special?" "Why are your genes like that?" And to me, it kind of mirrors the surgeries that intersex kids get at birth. To make them quote-unquote "normal." I oftentimes just say that I'm trans because that's more socially acceptable to talk about. Even within my own community, it can be hard to talk about more nuanced identities under the trans umbrella, like being intersex, because it's not something that's widely accepted. I guess more things can be said to advocate for intersex people, especially intersex children, because imagine how great and beautiful it would be if I was just untouched, and I could have figured it out naturally. I used to wish it could be different, but I just love how it is now. And I've owned up to it completely. I actually love this vessel. If I get reincarnated, I might be sad. I used to want to say when I reincarnate, I just want to be a cis woman this time. Yeah. But like, I would miss this vessel because being Danielle has been one of the most amazing things. I love how I am tenacious, and I always just keep getting up and going forward. Even when I fail, even when I lag behind, I used to always say I always win. That's what they used to say. It was like, "Oh, she always wins."