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| Faith Cheltenham, July 2017 |
Faith Cheltenham
activist/writer/speaker
There are so many different aspects of Faith Cheltenham’s life and career––writer, community organizer, advocate, activist, lecturer, poet, social media expert, digital strategist––that she is currently working to develop a single unifying “theory of Faith.” (It might be easier if you keep in mind Faith lives with hyperthymesia, or the inability to forget her own memories.) Then you too might be able to “keep thefayth” and learn to live in a future where gender and sexuality quite easily bend and every single Black life matters.
Faith got her start in LGBT advocacy as a Human Rights Campaign intern on the Gore 2000 campaign, and in 2002, she co-founded UCLA’s BlaQue for LGBT/SGL students of African descent. In 2006, she appeared in the Emmy winning reality series on race in America, “Black. White.” produced by Ice Cube.
After spending time working in corporate America doing digital strategy for Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York and co-creating and launching tor.com for Macmillan Books, she began to focus full-time on bisexual advocacy.
In 2012, she was named one of The Advocate’s "Forty Under 40" and was appointed to the University of California's LGBT Task Force. In 2013, Faith was the Co-organizer of the first Bisexual Community Issues Roundtable at the White House & in 2014, was honored to be a stage participant alongside President Obama as he signed the Executive Order protecting LGBT employees of federal contractors from discrimination.
Between 2015 and 2016, Faith co-organized four meetings with the Obama White House including the first livestreamed Bisexual Community Briefing at the White House in 2016. Every year, together with GLAAD, BiNet USA co-sponsors Bisexual Awareness Week (#biweek), a social media experience seen by millions that Faith co-created in 2014.
As a lecturer, Faith has spoken at locations as varied as San Diego Comic Con, Netroots Nation, Case Western University, UCLA & Yale University, on topics like the histories of pre-colonial African sexuality and bisexual intersectionality.
An award winning journalist and writer who has had her poetry featured on Genius, Faith won her first writing acknowledgment from Parade Magazine for her musings on the racism she experienced as a Black Star Wars cosplaying kid in her native San Luis Obispo, California.
Faith has been published widely in Washington Blade, South Florida Gay News, Advocate, Huffington Post, and her personal blog, thefayth.net. She has also been featured in various publications and outlets, including CNN’s Headline News, LA Times and New York Magazine.
Faith identifies herself as a “Black bisexual intersex queer woman of color who came up transracial.”
She is also the proud mom of a gender expansive child, Storm (age 5).
Like my Facebook Page for more weight loss gifs!
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| Faith Cheltenham, July 2014 with President Barack Obama in the White House prior to witnessing President Obama sign an executive order protecting LGBT federal contractors from discrimination and enshrining transgender protections at the same time for same workers, 'cause that's the kinda President that he was. |
2017 CREDITS
Makeup by Hannah Cha / StyleBee.com
Hair by Kiara Tobin / Candyland Beauty Bar
Photography by ChloeJackman.com
2014 CREDITS
This photograph is provided by THE WHITE HOUSE as a courtesy and may be printed by the subject(s) in the photograph for personal use only. The photograph may not be manipulated in any way and may not otherwise be reproduced, disseminated or broadcast, without the written permission of the White House Photo Office. This photograph may not be used in any commercial or political materials, advertisements, emails, products, promotions that in any way suggests approval or endorsement of the President, the First Family, or the White House.
#thefayth
