Local trans woman featured in Glamour magazine
Yuman Leah McKeogh shares her life’s journey in September issue
Leah McKeogh of Yuma is representing Arizona in an article about women’s self-esteem and hopes for the future in the September issue of Glamour magazine, and her hope is to translate that into more local awareness of the particular journey she and others are taking toward that goal.
As a trans woman, she has been undergoing hormone treatments and other procedures for the last couple of years in Yuma, where even the medical community hasn’t had much experience with it.
“I’m teaching my doctor how to take care of me,” she said.
She was selected to be featured in the magazine after a friend she knows through the local PFLAG chapter suggested McKeogh respond to a June Facebook post seeking input from women across the country. Even when she got a response from the magazine, she had no idea she would be presented as the face of her state.
“I didn’t realize,” she said. “I was like ‘sure, I’ll be in it,’ and then to be selected to represent Arizona and the LGBT community, they had a pretty good variety in there, so I thought that was pretty neat.”
McKeogh ended up filling out the questionnaire for the article while in Washington D.C. for the June 11 Equality March, and sent her responses back along with photos taken of her at the event.
Through several back-and-forth communications with the writer, her responses were “boiled down” and a photo chosen. She said the quote appearing by her photo in the print edition was heavily edited from her original response, but still accurate: “I believe in myself and my ability to live authentically as a trans woman.”
More of her responses can be found online, where she speaks about overcoming the fears that have accompanied her transition, plus the inequalities she’s experiencing on a firsthand basis now.
Her response to the prompt “My America is...”: “controlled by politicians, who shape and police policies affecting my access to health care, restroom usage and legal protections. Equality in my America does not exist.”
She said that’s one reason why she went to the Equality March, but “I try to do more than march, so I try to be active in my community.”
McKeogh, 44, is a Yuma native, and works as creative director for Arizona Western College’s publications. Her work has won several awards, both at AWC and the Yuma Sun advertising department, where she worked from 2000-05.
She is the campus adviser for AWC’s chapter of GSA, an organization formerly known as Gay-Straight Alliance, and is on the board of the just-chartered Yuma chapter of GLSEN, a national organization that promotes anti-bullying education in K-12 schools, particularly LGBTQ harassment.
Yuma’s is the 40th chapter nationwide, and while it’s still in the planning stages, most of the current members are already active in other ways.
“We’re pretty involved in the community, it just hasn’t got out there yet. But we’re working on it. But you’ll probably be hearing about us a lot in the next couple of years. Probably sooner. We are out and about, working with different organizations.”
Her wife, Jessica McKeogh, is also on the GLSEN board and is the adviser for the GSA club at San Luis High School, where she teaches English.
“We have our support for each other but we also do what we can in the community,” she said.
She has two children from a previous marriage, who moved with their mother to the Las Vegas area a year ago. The kids have been accepting of her transition, she said, but relations are strained with the rest of her family.
She officially switched to the name Leah at work in May 2016, using the middle initial S as a tie to her former first name, Scott. Her transition has been better-received by some people than others, and at 6-foot-3, it’s harder not to be noticed as she moves throughout the community.
Anything negative she has to say about the experience has to do with the response from some family, friends and acquaintances.
“The process in itself is very much positive, but more about the social situation or within the community. My work (environment) has been fine, they’ve been really supportive, and most people I know have been supportive, not everyone. You get some good ones and you get some bad ones. It’s probably no different from anybody else.”
But staying visible and available to those who are transgender, and those don’t understand those who are, is how she can make a difference, she said.
“Visibility and education are key for change. Unapologetically living my life,” she said.