The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
LGBTQ+ student blazes own path
Agender 17-year-old earns award and is redefining nonprofit.
Anika Miller is the first agender student to be honored by Girls Inc. of the Island City with its annual award, Women Who Dare, and is redefining the organization in the process.
Among other things, the nonprofit Girls Inc. provides youth with classes outside of regular schooling. Miller, who has been attending the program since middle school, is being recognized as its standout participant this year because of personal growth, LGBTQ+ activism and engagement with STEM classes.
Miller, 17, identifies as agender and uses they/them pronouns.
“If we were ever outdated at some point with how inclusive we’re being, teens like Anika are really helping pave the way to a new meaning to Girls Inc.,” Maria Tijerino-lew, director of teen programs at Girls Inc. of the Island City, calling Miller a trailblazer because of their gender identity.
Girls Inc. has classes in several fields, but Miller focused on STEM, a career path the teen hopes to follow. The Girls Inc. classes have allowed Miller to meet both professionals in the STEM field and instructors from the College of Alameda.
“It was a great place to be, honestly, as someone who was interested in science and was kind of shy and wanted to meet new people who were also interested in math and science,” Miller said.
The teen, a senior at Alameda High School, was accepted to several universities before committing to the College of Engineering at Oregon State University beginning in the fall.
“What really stood out to me is just the growth that they’ve had in the program,” Tijerino-lew said of Miller. “I feel like they have recently blossomed into their full potential … being very confident in who they are.”
Along with success in schooling, Miller also has had a red-letter couple of years when it comes to discovering parts of their identity.
The teen, who looks up to their mother, transgender activists Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera and Princess Diana, recently began identifying as asexual, along with agender. “Asexual” refers to someone who does not feel sexual attraction to others.
Miller credits the pandemic with helping them realize they were queer, an experience they say is shared by many people around them.
“There was something about the social isolation,” Miller said. “It allowed people to be very separate from what was expected of them and how they felt they needed to perform in front of other people, which in turn helped a lot of people realize that maybe they didn’t really want to dress a certain way or act a certain way, maybe they didn’t really feel attracted to the people that they were expected to [be attracted to].”
Miller has been involved the past few years with the Gender Sexuality Alliance at Alameda High, currently serving as the president. The group is planning a Day of Silence, in which participating students and staff will not speak for an entire school day, communicating only in gestures and writing, to draw attention to the historical and ongoing silencing of the LGBTQ+ community. Day of Silence is a national program started by the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network.
Miller also takes part in the school district’s LGBTQ+ roundtable, which is the go-to committee for people who are interested in queer issues, according to the teenager. The roundtable is working on an “Everyone Belongs Here” poster and poetry contest to celebrate people’s varied identities, including queer identity and how that intersects with other parts of a person, such as gender and ethnicity.
Miller notes that the pandemic, though it helped many queer people come to terms with who they are, also was isolating for those who do not see themselves reflected in their immediate family, which led to feeling separated from the people around them. A study done by Canadian firm KLB Research found that those who identify as LGBTQ+ were 10% more likely to experience Ptsd-related symptoms related to the pandemic and 9% more likely to score higher on a scale measuring depression, anxiety and stress than others.
But in Miller’s case, the teen says they actually feel supported by their community in the work they do surrounding LGBTQ+ activism.
“We’ve been very fortunate that our communities have been very, very respectful and understanding, and staff [at the school] has jumped to be able to help us,” Miller said.