About Shannon, R2T2's Creator: A Passionate Advocate & Activist

I've been out under varying labels since 1993: bisexual, dyke/lesbian, queer, and genderqueer/non-binary. My pronouns are "they/them/theirs," which i switched to in the mid-2010s after trying "ze/hir/hirs" without much success for around 15 years.

My identity has grown as i've matured and as queer communities have expanded with the wonderful alphabet of identities that we claim as our own.

I grew up in the suburbs of St. Louis, MO; went to college in Poughkeepsie, NY; and lived and worked in the Washington, DC, area for 26 years. In 2021, i moved to the West Coast.

While in DC, i got my masters degree in Women's Studies in 2001, for which i wrote my thesis on the relationships between trans and genderqueer high schoolers and their cisgender peers. I tried for many years to get the thesis published as a book. My lack of success in that endeavor remains one of my big disappointments in life. However, i did manage to eke out one article, " 'This was my hell': the violence experienced by gender non-conforming youth in US high schools" (PDF). Something's better than nothing, right?

I started volunteering with children when i was around 15 years old and have either volunteered or worked with them for most of the ensuing 35-plus years. That included 13 amazing years with the Gender Development Program of Children's National Hospital in DC, where i was privileged to help facilitate a playgroup for TGNC children and tweens.

My commitment to social justice touches many aspects of my life, with a particular emphasis on LGBTQA+/SGL liberation, anti-racism, trans-positive feminism, and advocating for the rights for children and youth. Other struggles with which i have affinity are those against classism, ableism, and xenophobia. And, really, so very many others.

Bodily Integrity and Personal Autonomy: Working for Transgender Liberation and Reproductive Justice (2019, webinar)
Community Conversation panel highlights city's inclusivity; says more can be done (2017, interviewed for newspaper article)
From Good Intentions to Concrete Action: Creating Trans Affirming Services & Grant Initiatives (2017, webinar)
My Two Cents: Hyattsville should protect Muslims (2017, opinion piece)
PGCPS adopts resolution to protect trans, immigrant, Muslim students (2017, newspaper article)
We must fight Trump's Muslim registry (2017, opinion piece)
What the Transgender Community Needs Grantmakers to Know (Conference panel, 2017 AIDS Philanthropy Summit)
Council supports application for medical marijuana dispensary (2016, interviewed for newspaper article)
Council discusses voting age, may look to voters; public hearing scheduled for Jan. 5 (2014, quoted in article)
Residents bring Ferguson conversation home (2014, interviewed for, quoted in article)
Crisis, Acceptance, and Advocacy: A Supportive Guide for Parents of Trans and Gender-Nonconforming Youth: A Review of The Transgender Child (2012, journal article)
New series at Busboys and Poets (2012, mentioned at the end as an organizer of the series)
Queery: Shannon Wyss (2012, profiled in the Washington Blade)
From a Volunteer who Works with Children (2009, a response to trans-antagonistic radio personalities)

You can also see a more professionally-focused page on LinkedIn.

And below, more photos. Because photos are yet another way of getting to know someone. You can find two other sets of photos of me on Reflecting Rainbow Tweens & Teens:

For all of them, hover your mouse over any of the visible pictures and you'll find left/right arrows about halfway down the photo "boxes," on the far left side. And at below the pictures, you'll see a "Play slideshow" button, which will scroll slowly through the images.

On May 28, 1995, at 22, i graduated from Vassar College with a BA in International Studies and a minor in French. Unlike high school, i dearly adored my time in college (stress aside) and was very sad to be leaving. The freedom rings around my neck were very, very popular in the 1990s.
A couple days in 1995 after my college graduation, on our way back to St. Louis from Poughkeepsie, NY, we stopped in New York City. I required, of course, a stop at Stonewall. It wasn't national landmark then and was all locked up. But i still wanted to go there to honor those who came before, especially those who fought back here in 1969. (Thanks for yet another picture, Mom.)
For 13 years, i sang with DC's now-defunct Bread & Roses Feminist Singers. During that time, we attended several choral festivals, including GALA Festival 2000 in San Jose, CA.

By this point, i'd shaved my head and loved it. But, as shown here, that lead to a lot of bandana wearing to protect my scalp from sunburn.
In 2001, at 28 years old, after 4 years of working full-time and going to school part-time, i earned my Masters degree in Women's Studies from George Washington University, with a concentration in Sociology. Some friends and i met to celebrate one afternoon in DC's National Arboretum.
My first cats ever at age 31: CJ on the left and Lovebug on the right. I'd grown up with dogs but got to really appreciate cats doing what so many 20-somethings do: petsitting. CJ and Lovebug were about 10 months old here. I used this photo for a framed "grandcats" picture for my mom in December 2003. (My dad had died the year before, at 57.)
New Year's Day 2004 on the beach in Ocean Park, PR, where we'd traveled for a friend's marriage. (It wasn't a destination wedding; she and her husband are Puerto Rican.) It's the first time i'd been there, and i loved it.

(Ignore the random date stamp along the left side of the photo. The camera of the friend who took this was off by a whopping 5.5 years.)
For multiple years when i worked at AIDS United, i co-managed its AmeriCorps program. That included planning the orientation and post-service meetings each year. Part of "pre-service" always involved team-building activities, since it was a team-based program. And while AU staff weren't on any AmeriCorps teams, we were always welcome to participate.

Here i am, at 35, working with my fear of heights on a high ropes challenge. When i successfully completed this, with one of the team leaders helping me out and cheering me on (you can see his arm there), i was on a high for WEEKS afterwards.
When i was 37 in 2010, it was the winter of "Snowmageddon" in the Washington, DC, area. As a snow-lover, it was fantastic.

Also fantastic: the wrinkles visible around my eyes and on my nose and forehead. Aging is an amazing process.
Doing a reading at my best friend's wedding to her now-wife in California in 2010. This was the first wedding/commitment ceremony i remember (this likely being the operative word) attending where people *laughed*. I've been a fan of intentionally injecting humor into these sorts of things ever since. Life is too short to take everything too seriously, people!
When your sweet gum tree drops a limb in your back yard, you get out your saw and start breaking it down. This is where i learned exactly how HEAVY green wood is. It was the summer of 2011, and i was 38 years old.

However, let me not leave the impression that i regularly did or do this kind of work. I was following the direction of my then-partner so she wouldn't have to do all of the hard work herself.

Also, don't ever plant a sweet gum tree. They are gorgeous in the fall. But no amount of beauty makes up for those terrible "gum balls" they drop all winter long. Raking isn't just for autumn if you have one of these in your yard.
Here i am at 40 years old in 2013, with the second of four beagles i've had in my life. Bella was the senior dog my former partner and i adopted. We adored her. A sweeter, more placid dog we'd never had.

I'm a huge proponent of pet adoption, and that includes intentionally adopting senior animals. If you don't know about Petfinder, go check them out right away. I've found all of my pets there (4 dogs and 9 cats so far).

#AdoptDontShop
At at 42 in 2015, i'm dressed up for a "sneakers gala" for one of my grantees at the funder i worked for at the time (the DC Trust, closed by DC Mayor Muriel Bowser 1 year later).
You will not be surprised to learn that i was really, really upset at Donald Trump's election in 2016. Here i am at 44 years old in 2017, at the end of the Women's March outside the White House, where many people had left their signs.
It's the day of DC's Pride Parade in 2017. I'm 44 years old and sweating because it's summer. I know Stonewall started in June. But we really should move Pride to the late spring or early fall -- and this will only get increasingly clear as the planet continues to warm.
In the fall of 2020, i was 48. We did what a lot of people did during that first year of covid: enjoyed time outside. My former partner and i went to Harpers Ferry, WV, one afternoon to hike a very short, but very beautiful, part of the Appalachian Trail.
At 50 years old in 2023, i was working on replacing the laundry room floor. Similar to me and the sweet gum tree (further up this page), i was working at the tutelage of my new partner in Washington state. No way had a i used a Dremel before this situation arose. Removing old vinyl flooring is not for the faint-of-heart! I'm not exaggerating to say that it took us hours in a room that's maybe 6' x 8'.
I'm 50 years old in 2023, at the reception for the wedding of my partner's sister and her now-wife. I'm with their very sweet (and now very much bigger) young Aussiedoodle.