“I’ve been doing prevention training since way before I knew it was called that,” says Lexii Foxx, a Peer intern with Alliance for Positive Change. Lexii credits her intersectionality and personal journey with making her a strong ally for New Yorkers in need.
“Sometimes it’s just really hard for transwomen to feel they’re being understood. I’m black, queer, and trans, so that’s a lot of intersectionality,” Lexii says. Her identity makes her an authentic voice as she provides help to a plethora of New Yorkers. At Alliance, Lexii works with almost 30 people a week, while also helping co-facilitate women’s groups at Alliance.
Growing up in a conservative town in North Carolina, Lexii notes, “My family loved me, but was literally embarrassed to have me be around at family events.”
She knew she was a woman from a young age. She dropped out of high school to live in a small house with dozens of friends she met at a drag show. They called themselves the “Chanelles/Thug Misses,” and worked as escorts for survival.
Lexii lived in dozens of states in her teens and twenties, working as a model and a sex worker, all while teaching her friends about safer sex.
Transgender Awareness Week is a week when transgender people and their allies take action to bring attention to the community by educating the public about who transgender people are, sharing their stories and experiences, and advancing advocacy around the issues of prejudice, discrimination, and violence that affect the transgender community. For Lexii, this means “educating children on who LGBTQ+ people are, and breaking that generational stigma.”
“I believe you have to start at the root, which is our kids, and help young trans kids out, make them confident in their true selves. And if they want to transition young, make it easier for them.”
It also means decriminalizing sex work, which makes transgender women disproportionate targets of violence. 2021 is already the deadliest year on record for transgender people in America, with 45 reported murders, according to the Human Rights Campaign, disproportionately amongst Black and Latinx people.
Decriminalizing sex work is also a barrier to services. “Being a sex worker helped me reach out to other sex workers, helping them get tested, use condoms, and get access to counseling,” Lexii says.
Lexii was involved in helping people before she joined Alliance, but says that “Alliance is the best thing that has happened for me. I feel like I am a confident woman walking out the door to start every day because of Alliance.”
Lexii started working with Alliance when she was referred from the Peer program.
Lexii Foxx
“She’s amazing, and she’s going to do amazing work,” says Malika Minott, Prevention Assistant Manager at Alliance, and also a graduate of Alliance’s PATH to Jobs peer-training program. “Lexii opened herself up to our work and participated in workshops, trainings, and now, she does wellness checks, reminder calls, therapeutic check-ins, and really invests in people’s lives as a Peer.”
Working for leaders like Malika at Alliance has fueled and refreshed Lexii, and allowed her to be a shining star and public health educator. “I’ve noticed that everyone at Alliance goes the extra mile for their clients,” Lexii says. “I feel like I’ve found family here.”
Transgender awareness is essential to Lexii because people who don’t know openly trans people “are afraid of us, or have a stigma against us due to negative media, TV shows, and movies that make a mockery of us. The fact is, we are human and we deserve to coexist in life.”
To Lexii, it’s not just on members of the LGBTQ+ community to support transgender people. “Cisgender people who have platforms should offer them to us and help with job readiness. Help us have the same opportunities as anyone else,” she says.
Transgender Awareness Week takes place from November 13-19, leading up to the Transgender Day of Remembrance on November 20, a day to memorialize those who have been killed as a result of transphobia. Please join Alliance in our efforts to support and honor those lost on this day and throughout the year.