In the basement of New Jersey’s Bell Works Complex (famously known as the location where Apple TV’s Severance is filmed), Garden State Equality held their annual Equality at Work Symposium.
Equality at Work 2025 brought together students, young professionals, educators, and business leaders who call New Jersey home to share space and gain skills essential to creating safe and affirming spaces for LGBTQ+ individuals.
I spent the day attending sessions in the young professional and educator tracks eager to take in the wisdom from organizations like the New Jersey Division on Civil Rights and the Queer BIPOC Network. Workshop presenters gave attendees the knowledge needed to file discrimination cases in the state of New Jersey as well as learn how to advocate for mentorship on their professional journey.
Students also had the opportunity to speak directly to the leaders in their state. Representatives from Garden State Equality’s network of youth champions attended both in-personal and virtually to lead a panel centering the lived experiences of LGBTQ+ New Jersey youth, providing them a platform to make calls to action and provide advice to educators on how to make their environments more inclusive for future generations of youth.
Sitting at lunch between students and community organizers who have been doing the work for decades I couldn’t help but feel deeply privileged. For me, as a young queer kid from Cleveland, finding community was a series of firsts. I can remember clearly being 16 and meeting my first elder who identified as gender nonconforming through SAGE programming. I remember being 17 and meeting another openly queer young African kid. Every first expanded my view of what could be possible for my future and gave me motivation to keep moving forward. In New Jersey, that hope shines brightly through Venus House advisory board members Jonovia Chase and Dominique Jackson who attended this year’s symposium to share information about the Venus Pellagatti Xtravaganza House.
Venus House celebrates the life and legacy of New Jersey native, and Paris is Burning star, Venus Pellagatti Xtravaganza. Through collaboration with Garden State Equality Education Fund, House Lives Matter, and the Hudson Pride Center — advocates accomplished making Venus’ childhood home into a historic landmark for the state in 2023. The hope is to not only provide a physical educational and community gathering spot, but also emergency housing for LGBTQ+ individuals in crisis. Venus House will additionally serve as a template to open other houses across the country.
Providing this space will not only serve as a physical location for young queer and trans people to learn, grow and thrive — but a symbolic message that their stories matter.
