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Four Black LGBTQ People to Know in Houston

Honoring Black LGBTQ individuals who uplift marginalized communities and inspire hope.

Black History Month can be a difficult time for the LGBTQ community. Usually, we have to consider either of our intersections that cause oppression, and we often experience a lack of support from either of our separated marginal identities. During Black History Month, as the larger queer community is already anticipating a difficult four years ahead, the Black LGBTQ community is feeling especially apprehensive.

Transgender stigma proliferated through the airwaves as Donald Trump was inaugurated on the same day that we observed Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Historically, Black transgender women are most represented among the deaths believed to be related to this stigma. And now, we are likely moving into a space where funding for HIV prevention and treatment will be cut. Black people—mainly Black queer people—are consistently more impacted by HIV (particularly in the South), even with the availability of successful biomedical interventions. Social drivers undoubtedly make the future challenging for those who sit at both intersections.

As we celebrate Black History Month, OutSmart is honoring four local Black people who represent these intersections while bringing a wealth of knowledge, hope, and promise to our collective community at large. As they focus on uplifting the most marginalized among us, these influential Black LGBTQ individuals increase our visibility, reach across multiple aisles, and create opportunities that give us hope for the future of the LGBTQ community. Their resilience, magic, and power—despite the difficulties that all of their intersections present—reveal why they should be considered royalty.

Aria Sa’id (Photo by GOOCH)

Aria Sa’id (she/her/hers)

Strategist, civic activist, and proud transwoman

Aria Sa’id is a Houston transplant from San Francisco who leads the consulting firm Aria Sa’id & Associates. Living in San Francisco for 17 years, she created the world’s first municipal transgender district. This legally recognized cultural district continues to provide resources and cultural preservation both locally and nationally. Describing herself as an unorthodox leader, while in San Francisco she also helped to launch a first-of-its-kind guaranteed-income pilot project and the Entrepreneurship Accelerator Program for people of transgender experience. Since moving to Houston a year ago, she has been working with organizations locally and nationwide to deepen their fundraising efforts, including strategic communications for capital campaigns, event planning for leadership conferences, and convening and planning galas.

Doing this comes with a cost, though. “I don’t think people realize the emotional and physical toll that leadership in the nonprofit, grassroots sector can have on you and your body, and it’s something we don’t talk about enough as activists and leaders in nonprofit spaces,” she says. “I think of Erica Garner often, and how her commitment to demanding justice for her father—and the many other Black people who have been systematically impacted by violence and harm from police and government—literally killed her.”

Sa’id has twice suffered a diabetic coma as the constant complexities of her position as executive director caused a rift between what was necessary and what her body could handle. As she has done since the day she started the consulting firm, she continues to reimagine liberation while remaining proud to have created a legacy. She is even prouder that she is doing work that allows her to also focus on self-care. “We, as leaders, work day and night to manifest possibilities. That takes a massive toll on our bodies. I’m proud of the work I’ve done in the past, but I am also proud that I raised my consciousness on how to better care for myself.”

Moving to Texas, the home of Juneteenth, and coming from a city where significant strides in HIV care originated, she knows what it is like not just to fight but to bear witness to victory. As a newly dubbed Southern woman, she is experiencing Houston’s tight-knit local community. She has begun opening her home to Black women of transgender experience for dinner and conversation, where she can observe firsthand how different the equity movement is in the South and how the women here continue to press forward among seemingly impossible odds.

‘We will always be here; we will always fight for justice,” Sa’id says. “Seeing how it’s in our DNA is what inspires me. It’s not fair that we have to fight, but we do it anyway!”

Her inspiration comes from a long list of people who came before her. One of Sa’id’s heroes is Sharyn Grayson, a Black woman of transgender experience who is the founder and chief executive officer of the Nonprofit and Consumer Services Network (NPCSN). As a teen, Sa’id looked up to Grayson, as she had never before seen a possibility model so connected to her own identity. As a result, Sa’id has modeled her advocacy and career trajectory after the elegance, beauty, and grace that Grayson leads with. “I wish more people gave her flowers for all the incredible contributions she’s made so that we could have the realities we have now,” says Sa’id.

Now, as she leads a more communal life in her new home in Houston with less stress, Sa’id is adamant about her self-care. She habitually goes to the gym, eats well, reads, runs in Memorial Park, and uses Sundays as “spa days.”

Keep up with Aria Sa’id on Instagram @AriaSaid.


Bishop Shon Stewart (Image courtesy)

Bishop Shon Stewart (he/him/his)

Servant leader, educator, lover of people

Shon Stewart, hailing from Orange, Texas, is the founder of Freedom Church, a ministry dedicated to impactful change, life transformation, and teaching the powerful message of freedom. This man knows the power of fighting for liberation as a faith leader, but also as an educator and, even more critically, as a survivor of Stage IV B-cell Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, undergoing two stem-cell transplants.

Stewart stays busy with a renewed passion for life and a deep understanding of the need to do what you must with your gifts in the present, as tomorrow is not promised. He comes from a long line of servant leaders, including his parents, Deacon Albert and Sister Margaret Stewart, who embodied community service without expectation, offering love and support to all. As a cancer survivor, he is also the proud founder of Free 2 Live, an organization that focuses on health education for underserved communities, while also managing two campuses of Freedom Church and transitioning them into the United Church of Christ, broadening his outreach beyond local boundaries to deliver a global message of freedom. “I have a deep commitment to never give up on individuals by creating spaces for grace, love, and healing; acknowledging that God never cuts anyone off; and striving to extend that same unconditional grace and understanding,” Stewart says.

In his multiple roles, Stewart is inspired by people like Rev. Dr. Sande Bailey-Gwinn, the pastor, founder, and executive director of Foundations for Living, which is based in Jefferson, Georgia. Bailey-Gwinn says of Stewart, “In this work that people say we shouldn’t do, I am committed because I realize that time is not mine, that God made one for us, and because I know that all lives are important. Bishop Stewart embodies that.”

Stewart understands that the road we are traveling over the next several years will not be easy, but he acknowledges that it is essential to stay vigilant and steadfast in his call. His faith is fortified daily. “By day, students and colleagues in special education teach resilience and remind you of the joy in service—even when tough love is needed. By night, my ministry team supports and motivates me during challenging times. In spirit, it recognizes that there is room for growth even in dysfunction, which fuels the mission to guide others toward betterment.”

One other talent—though it is sometimes hidden from the public—is Stewart’s reputation as a comedian in his close circle of friends. In his free time, you will find him spending quality and undisturbed time with his family and their 112-pound beloved dog companion, Gracie Francis. He is often in the kitchen cooking Sunday dinner with homemade desserts, or at the card table embracing the competitive, bonding tradition of spades. He says, with the dry humor he is known for, “Bring me your stomach to fill and your lack of spades skills to teach! It just ain’t right to play like that and not be, at a minimum, fed a good meal.”

Whether in public health, transgender rights, brave space creation, or education, we are honored to have possibility models in our community that allow us to continue to dream and have hope. The future will have many twists and turns, but having these examples of royalty within our community empowers us to know still that we will be all right.

Keep up with Bishop Shon Stewart on Instagram @Shon_D_Stewart.


Shelley Washington (Photo by Pisces310)

Shelley Washington (she/her/hers)

Faith leader, community advocate, and proud lesbian

Shelley Washington, a native of Galveston who now resides in Houston, is the campus pastor for Houston’s third-oldest church, St. Peter United, and bi-vocationally serves as the service director of The Normal Anomaly Initiative. In these roles, she can expand services from a social-justice perspective that addresses the disparities of economic opportunity and healthcare access in marginalized groups. And as a proud lesbian woman, she can also innovate and expand the presence of women in LGBTQ leadership and programming. This includes developing PrEPHer, a prevention program specifically for Black women that educates and equips them on sexual health, pleasure, and wellness. “The work that I do is grounded in passion for community care, justice, and holistic well-being,” she says. “Faith can inspire lasting change.”

For Washington, becoming an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ was no small feat. Licensed as a minister in the Baptist church in 2013, she faced a backlash from the church she attended that had decided women could not be ordained. In 2021, she left the Baptist church and became a United Church of Christ member. There, she felt a great deal of misogynoir, but was nonetheless ordained to ministry in July 2024.

Although challenging at times, she continues to show up to provide representation and support for a community riddled with injustice and oppression. “I have known that I was queer since I was 16,” says Washington, “but there was no representation or resources in my community that could offer me the assistance I needed. There are not enough of us who are out, proud, and loud. That keeps me going for our community.”

She is held up by her family members, both chosen and biological. They give her unwavering support, a sense of belonging, and accountability. Her family provides a space where she can be her most authentic self as they love and uplift her in both difficult and joyous moments. This especially includes her wife of six years, Latreva Herndon-Washington, who is her hero. “I have never said this out loud to anyone, but Latreva and I met at a time in my life when I did not believe that I could be free from others’ judgment and opinions, traditional ideologies, and spiritual ideologies. She was the one who helped get me to liberation.”

With such a strong support system and such expansive work to do, self-care is vital. Washington practices shutting out everything that requires decision-making as often as possible, and delves deep into simple joy practices like building Lego cars, spending a day at the spa, or just going off the grid. With all that is going on in the world, she says she lives by an Audre Lorde quote: “Self-care is ‘self-preservation, and an act of political warfare.’”

Keep up with Shelley Washington on Instagram @Shellez827.


Nathan Maxey (Photo by Ivy Wayne Photos)

Nathan Maxey (he/him/his)

Public health leader, gay activist, and person living with HIV

Nathan Maxey was born and raised in Houston and is proudly and openly a gay man. Raised in a single-parent household by his late mother, Deanna Maxey-Theus, with his queer sister Denisha Maxey-Estes, he has found great strength from being surrounded by robust and resilient women. Working in public health for over two decades, he currently serves as the HIV and hepatitis-C program manager at the Bureau of HIV/STI and Viral Hepatitis Prevention for the Houston Health Department. This work is personal to Maxey, as he has been living with HIV for 25 years. When he was first diagnosed, he never thought he would live to see his 50th birthday that’s coming up in two years. In his current role, he is honored to work in a leadership position that impacts thousands of people each year.

Maxey is a first-generation college graduate, having earned Bachelor of Social Work and Master of Public Administration degrees from Texas Southern University. “I didn’t start college until I was 25,” he explains. “Growing up, college never felt like something within reach for me. I had no role models to guide or push me toward that path, so it wasn’t even a thought. It took me six years to earn my bachelor’s degree while balancing life’s challenges, and it wasn’t easy. But that journey laid a foundation for me and my family.” His success became a model for his family, with his sister earning dual degrees, his niece pursuing her second degree, and his nephew also in college.

Indeed, family is very important to Maxey, and his son and twin nephews—all Black and LGBTQ—are a constant source of motivation. “They remind me every day why this fight matters. They inspire me to stay hopeful, and I see them as my legacy. Their resilience pushes me to continue advocating for our community and fighting for a better future where I have made a difference and where they can continue their journey.”

In addition to his family, Maxey’s support system includes members of the HIV community. This includes his unsung hero, Venita Ray. Venita has worked for over 40 years in policy, advocacy, and public health and is the executive director of Black South Rising. Her work in the fight for equity, racial justice, and the meaningful involvement of people living with HIV has transformed HIV care nationally and locally, as she led a citywide effort to end the HIV epidemic in Houston in 2016.

Maxey found Venita at a pivotal moment in his life. “There was a time when I felt I had lost my fight, but Venita reignited my passion for advocacy and service. Her tireless work inspires me, and I strive to honor her legacy by doing my part.”

As he continues this work with the hope of seeing the end of the HIV epidemic, he continues to find new fuel—including his self-care practices, which include therapy and music. All of this keeps him as a torch bearer who is carrying on his mother’s legacy.

Keep up with Nathan Maxey on Instagram @TheUndefinedOne.

Ian Haddock

Ian L. Haddock aspires to be a conduit of joy in all things activism and art. He is a published author and writer and leads a team of nontraditional activists at The Normal Anomaly Initiative, Inc.
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