NEWS

Change Agent: Giovonni Santiago helping LGBT youth 'feel valid with who they are'

Eric Marotta
Akron Beacon Journal
Giovonni Santiago talks about his organization, META Center Inc., which supports transgender and gender-nonconforming youth from ages 7 to 19 in Akron.

An Akron man says families with children as young as 5 have sought his help with their loved ones' struggles to deal with sexual identity.

Giovonni Santiago started META Center Inc., an Akron-based 501(3) organization, in 2016 to support transgender and gender-nonconforming youth from ages 7 to 19. The services he provides include housing coordination, legal advocacy, emotional support and community outreach. He's now gearing up to offer support to young people through their mid-20s.

"Through providing affirmation to one of society’s most vulnerable, META Center Inc. works to create social change and foster acceptance," Santiago states on his agency website. The name is an acronym for "Motivate, Educate, Transform and Advocate."

In addition to being the founder of META Center, Santiago is the Northeast Ohio organizer for Equality Ohio, an agency founded in 2005 in response to state voters' passage of a constitutional amendment prohibiting same-sex marriage and civil unions.

The law was struck down as unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2015.

Santiago said he wears many hats in addition to being the sole operator behind META Center. Besides his role with Equality Ohio, they include work as a professional public speaker and an LGBTQ community sports director.

Struggle for identity

Santiago said people generally seek his assistance by word of mouth. Parents come with hopes he can help their children.

"They just know that their child is expressing differently than society would say they should," he said. "A parent might say, 'Well, my daughter likes to play with trucks' ... and it's not just a one-time thing. It might be nothing, and it might be something.

"We don't have anyone come through the office without a parent, or without the consent of a parent," he added.

While he doesn't want to describe people as "strange" or "different," he says that "we want them to know that's not a bad thing. We want people to feel valid with who they are."

"Sometimes it's just the knowledge that there are other people out there who are like them can make a difference, but also, 'Here's some resources out there, where you can get assistance.'"

Providing support locally, nationally

Although based in Akron, Santiago says he does a lot of work throughout Northeast Ohio, as well as with people all across the country.

"It entails support groups, one-on-one peer support with myself, we send out care packages after individuals have gender-affirming surgery, we offer a clothing closet, so we send clothing to individuals who need clothes."

Santiago estimates he works with about 200 people per year, sometimes directly and sometimes through workshops at places including Hudson High School, the Cleveland Clinic, Akron Children's Hospital and elsewhere.

At Hudson High School, he said, about 90 students attend an annual workshop he presents.

"It's for their service learning program," he said. "I essentially talk about my life, my journey and how I came to do this work that I do, and then we break them off into groups. It might be some groups talk about unconscious bias, some talk about conscious bias, and some kids talk about their experience. Kids give topic ideas and then we go from there."

While Hudson is the only high school in the area he currently works with, he hosts other workshops for employees or the general public at various institutions, he said, "like how to make better health care for LGBTQ people, and other topics."

Not everyone he works with is in need of tangible assistance.

"Sometimes, it's just allowing people to have a place to go," he said. "It's like they don't need to have a conversation. They just need a safe place.

"I do this work because I want other people to live their life authentically," he said.

More: Ohio LGBTQ advocates push for non-discrimination law but say divisive politics are getting in the way

No longer secretive

Santiago grew up as one of 10 siblings, five of the others all adopted. He said his family remains close.

"As trans people, the journey is not just ours," he said. "It affects our families, it affects our friends. It affects everyone."

He entered the U.S. Air Force as a female military police officer, and eventually suffered a back injury that was exacerbated by continued training. Back then, it was the "don't ask, don't tell" era, when LGBTQ individuals were forced to hide their sexual orientation.

After leaving the military, he earned a degree in early childhood education and began teaching preschool.

Eventually, at age 27, he decided to seek medical assistance to transition into becoming more physically male.

Santiago started his transition at Louis Stokes Cleveland Veterans Affairs Medical Center in 2013 and says he was his doctor's first transgender patient. The medical center later formed what is called the GIVE Program, for Gender Identity Veteran Experience, which opened in 2015.

"I was born female, and knew that I belonged in a male body," he said. "So, I tell people that I've been transitioning, and I've been transitioning for eight years."

He notes there were no organizations to provide support back when he decided to make the change. It's something he hopes to provide now.

Equality Ohio says Santiago has become a trusted voice in the LGBTQ community and facilitates workshops  across the country at institutions including The Nature Conservancy, Cleveland Clinic, Philadelphia Trans Wellness Conference, Kent State University and more. 

In 2018, Cleveland Magazine named Santiago one of its Most Interesting People and NBC Out honored him on its #Pride30 list celebrating LGBTQ individuals making an impact across the country in that same year.

Hope for the future

In 2017, Santiago worked with Akron officials and community members to guide the city in establishing its first non-discrimination ordinance specifically protecting LGBTQ individuals.

He credits Akron Mayor Dan Horrigan as the driving force behind the new law.

"It was brought up by the mayor," he said. "Mayor Horrigan was one of the main people pushing for this super-inclusive legislation. For a couple of months, we were having community meetings. There were probably 10 to 20 of us."

The city of Akron and Summit County have since passed anti-discrimination ordinances, but no other towns in Summit County have followed suit, according to ACLU of Ohio. In Cuyahoga County, nine cities and the county have passed LGBTQ anti-discrimination legislation, but elsewhere in the state such protections are rare.

In Medina County, only the city of Medina has passed such legislation. In Portage County, only the city of Kent has done so.

Likewise, there is no statewide protection for people based on their sexual orientation or gender identity.

Santiago notes that in Ohio, it's legal to get married to a same-sex partner, but at the same time, one could be fired from their job because of that marriage.

"We've always been here, but we've had to live in fear," he said. "Even now in Ohio, there are zero protections for LGBTQ people.

"You can get married on Saturday, and fired from your job on Monday for being LGBTQ," he said. "That includes public accommodations as well."

He said that things are "a little bit" better than 15 years ago when he was in the service, but added the political climate of the last several years has made things worse than in prior years.

"Cleveland is No. 4 on the list for where Black trans women are murdered," he said.

Santiago can be contacted via the agency website at https://metacenterinc.org.

Change Agents

The Beacon Journal is highlighting emerging leaders from newer generations who are making a difference in Summit County neighborhoods, businesses, schools and organizations. Do you know a Change Agent we should feature? Tell us about that person at bjnews@thebeaconjournal.com. Please include “Change Agents” in the subject line and be sure to share contact information for the individual.