Charlotte’s LGBTQ+ community is growing, evolving and finding new ways to create change. From artists and educators to health advocates, organizers and digital creators, a new generation of leaders is helping shape what that future looks like. Some are building community through storytelling and creativity. Others are expanding access to healthcare, challenging stigma or creating spaces where people can feel seen and supported. Together, they represent the diversity, talent and vision that continue to strengthen LGBTQ+ life across the Charlotte region. Meet some of the people making an impact today and helping build what comes next.
Casey Mesaeh
For Casey Mesaeh, education is more than information. It’s a tool that helps people make decisions about their lives, health and future.
A 2023 public health graduate of UNC Charlotte, Mesaeh joined Charlotte Trans Health as the organization’s first intern before advancing through several roles, eventually serving as educational programs manager. Along the way, they developed health education resources, launched a blog, led community and clinician trainings and helped expand access to information for transgender and gender-diverse people.
Much of Mesaeh’s work has focused on addressing gaps in health education that many transgender people encounter. From gender-affirming care to cancer screenings and long-term wellness, they have worked to create resources that help people better understand and advocate for their own health.
One of the accomplishments they are most proud of is Charlotte Trans Health’s annual health education symposium, which brings together community members and healthcare providers for conversations about transgender health and well-being.
Mesaeh believes meaningful change begins with knowledge.
“Folks can’t act better if they don’t know better,” they said.
As they prepare for their next chapter, including plans to pursue graduate studies in public health, Mesaeh remains committed to helping people access the information they need to care for themselves and their communities. – Liz Schob
Chris Washington
Chris Washington is a peer prevention navigator providing support for incoming clients at RAIN. Along with other volunteers, he focuses on sexual health and HIV advocacy through a peer-to-peer group within RAIN. Outside of his work with RAIN, he is a model and exotic dancer. In North Carolina’s ballroom scene, he walks the runway as the sex siren and body of house Balmain.
Originally from Smithfield, North Carolina, the now 29-year old lost his mom at the age of 13. After her passing, he went through counseling and developed a passion for HIV and sexual health advocacy.
His interests led him to facilitating a peer-to-peer group that serves as a navigational research study in Charlotte. Designed to bring people together to help create and achieve various goals, among them are college applications, free and confidential testing and access to housing. The group has partnered with Johnson C. Smith University for informative and educational pop-ups and homecoming cultural events.
Washington also works in outreach for RAIN. “[We go out] into our community to various events. Whether it’s an afterparty or a brunch; we are there testing and educating our general audience.” The group teaches 18-45 year olds about HIV and other preventive methods.
“One of the positives I’ve experienced working with RAIN is being able to see the fruits of our nonprofit labor.” – Jaylen Jones
Dakota Wright
What started as a spontaneous TikTok video at Cook Out has grown into a platform reaching millions, but Dakota Wright says he never expected any of it.
The Huntersville-based content creator first gained attention during the pandemic when a simple food video unexpectedly went viral. Since then, Wright has built a large online following through food reviews, lifestyle content and glimpses into everyday life with his husband Jackson.
But what keeps people coming back, he believes, is authenticity.
Wright openly discusses his experiences with anorexia, binge eating disorder and mental health, topics he considers an important part of his story. He also isn’t afraid to speak his mind, even when it means pushing back against trolls or risking followers who disagree with him. For Wright, staying true to himself matters more than maintaining a carefully curated image.
As an openly gay Southerner, Wright takes pride in showing that LGBTQ+ people can thrive in North Carolina. Through his content, he regularly hears from LGBTQ+ young people, parents and grandparents looking for guidance, reassurance or simply someone they can relate to.
“I feel like my mere presence of being online and in the South is being a part of change,” he said.
For Wright, the goal has never been to create a persona. It’s simply to show up as himself and encourage others to do the same. – Liz Schob
Devin Cokley
When Devin Cokley talks about his work, he often comes back to one word: purpose.
A graduate of Howard University with a degree in business management, Cokley spent years building a career in the corporate world. After being diagnosed with HIV in 2018, he found what he now calls his “purpose work” through RAIN and its mission to support people living with HIV.
Today, Cokley serves as program manager of The Drop, a RAIN program that combines HIV prevention and testing with services ranging from workforce development and support groups to food assistance and housing resources.
He helped build the program from the beginning and has overseen its growth over the past four years.
Cokley is particularly passionate about reducing the stigma that still surrounds HIV. Through outreach, education and community engagement, he works to help people better understand prevention, treatment and care.
What keeps him motivated are the people he serves. Whether helping someone secure stable housing, connecting a client with resources or watching members of the community reach new milestones, Cokley sees each success as a shared victory.
“I love seeing people grow,” he said. “Just seeing them get to the best that they could be.”
For Cokley, the work is about more than services. It’s about helping people thrive. – Liz Schob
Jack Harness
Stage performer Jack Harness, known in daily life as Kell Rippy, became a drag king two years ago. Since that time they have found confidence and joy through performance with their involvement in the LGBTQ+ community. Rippy has sung with One Voice for five years and is a strategic operations manager for patient advising with Planned Parenthood.
In April 2024, the first performance as Harness came about from what they describe as healthy peer pressure. Rippy’s co-workers asked them to dress in drag and perform. “They knew…if anybody was going to do it, I would say yes.” Jack walked onto the stage and sang a song by David Bowie and fell in love with it.
After the show “Local Kings,” Will Charmer and Oso Channel came to him along with others surprised by his first performance and asked if he wanted to continue drag. “Absolutely yes!” Harness replied.
Harness was always interested in drag but could never find a way in. “You never know how to get into those things unless you’re already sorta plugged into them.” He had watched a couple of kings, but the diversity between kings and queens was stark. To help his community, Harness co-hosts and produces a quarterly open stage show called “Cosmos Open Stage Show.” The presentation gives the spotlight to drag, burlesque, singers and anyone with talent.
Harness explains, “[It’s a] way to get your feet wet. Get exposed to other people. That’s something that’s important to me because I didn’t know where to get started. If nobody had invited me to that amateur drag show I probably wouldn’t be doing it right now…” – Jaylen Jones
Luisa Donoso
Luisa Donoso likes to describe herself as “Colombian-born but Charlotte-raised.”
After moving to Charlotte from Colombia at age five, she grew up in East Charlotte and attended Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools before continuing her education at Central Piedmont Community College and UNC Charlotte. She proudly considers herself “publicly raised,” crediting Charlotte’s public institutions and communities with helping shape who she is today.
As a queer immigrant, Donoso said her experiences taught her to navigate multiple identities and perspectives at once.
Over time, she learned to move beyond what she describes as “white-centric expectations” of queer identity and embrace a path that felt authentic to her own experiences and community.
For much of her life, Donoso has found herself drawn to community spaces, from youth organizing and advocacy efforts to Charlotte’s storytelling community, where she discovered the power of personal narratives to connect people across different backgrounds and experiences.
Today, she continues to find hope in the people around her, whether through neighbors supporting one another, community responses during times of crisis or young people discovering their own passion for service and organizing.
Her advice is simple: learn from history, get to know your neighbors and don’t be afraid to be wrong.
“Those little things go a long way,” she said. – Liz Schob
Tammaka Staley
When she was in the tenth grade, poet and sex educator Tammaka Staley had the opportunity to shadow a sex health instructor known as Mrs. India White. While volunteering with White’s group for teen mothers, Staley realized she had found both an instructor and mentor in White. Staley also remembers the passion White shared with her students while teaching prevention and sexual health habits. Staley dreamed of doing the same thing one day.
“I wanna be somebody’s Mrs. India White…because…I grew up in a very small neighborhood in Columbia, [South Carolina]. People just don’t come to the hood and talk about stuff like that.” Staley explained.
After high school, Staley applied to various sexual education programs, leading her to an initial position as a sex educator at the organization Sewing Seeds in South Carolina’s Midlands area. The following year in 2020, Staley founded YASÉ, a queer and people of color focused sexual health organization that provides tools, services and space for everyone to learn healthy sex habits. By incorporating trauma recovery counseling and artivism (poetry and art that creates change), Staley hopes to rewire the way people think about physical consent and boundaries. Through her spoken word, Staley sees a future that shifts objectified rape culture to inalienable consent. – Jaylen Jones
Zulynette
Poet, visual artist and storyteller Zulynette believes art should do more than entertain. It should move people to imagine something better.
Originally from Connecticut, Zulynette moved to Charlotte several years ago and quickly became part of the city’s growing creative community. While she jokes that describing herself is difficult, she often returns to the same idea: she wants to do good things in the world, and she has chosen artistry as the way to do it.
Poetry first entered her life at age 11 during a difficult period when she began writing as a way to process her experiences. Years later, a spoken-word open mic changed everything. Watching poets share stories of love, grief, joy and rage, she knew she wanted to be part of that tradition.
Today, her work explores identity, authenticity, imagination and community. She describes poetry as “how I reflect the world back to itself,” believing artists have a responsibility not only to critique the world around them but also to help envision what comes next.
That commitment to authenticity has guided her journey both as an artist and as a queer person. While many see confidence when she takes the stage, she says it took years of bravery, vulnerability and self-discovery to become the person she is today.
More than anything, Zulynette hopes people leave her work inspired to act.
“I want you to experience it,” she said, “but I also want you to do something with it.” – Liz Schob
