Today we’d like to introduce you to Jae Moyer.
Hi Jae, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
My name is Jae Moyer, and I openly identify as a member of the LGBTQ+ community. I am gay and gender non-conforming. I came out as gay when I was a middle schooler at Hocker Grove Middle School. It was the support of one friend who openly talked to me about the LGBTQ+ community that allowed me to begin opening up to my friends and family. I used my time at Shawnee Mission North high school to educate myself on the LGBTQ+ community, the language they use to identify themselves, and the struggles that they face.
When I was a senior in high school, I was elected as the president of the Equality Club at North. My time in high school also saw me actively involved in band (I played the tuba), choir (where I was a four-time member of the all-state choir), and theatre. These passions led me to AMDA in New York City, aka the American Musical and Dramatic Academy. While in New York, I studied musical theatre performance for four semesters, and also worked at Dear Evan Hansen on Broadway selling merchandise. I was also still politically engaged- I helped volunteer for the Women’s March and the March for Our Lives.
After graduating from the four-semester program at AMDA, I moved back to Johnson County, where the cost of living was slightly easier to manage. I started taking classes at Johnson County Community College in order to keep up with my studies in music and theatre, but my focus shifted when I became involved with an organization called Equality Kansas of Metro Kansas City, which is the local chapter of a state-wide group in Kansas dedicated to ending discrimination on the basis of sexuality and gender identity.
I went from city to city in Johnson County with the group, lobbying for the passage of non-discrimination ordinances, or “NDO’s”. I also spent my time volunteering for the local campaigns of political candidates around Johnson County whose goals included focusing on policy that would positively impact the LGBTQ+ community. It was at this time that I began educating myself on other political policies and ideas, and shifted my focus in school from music and theatre to political science and public administration.
I also started working for Indian Heights United Methodist Church near the end of 2019, an incredibly wonderful and inclusive congregation where I was able to use my musical talents to help educate our community about the issues facing the LGBTQ+ community in the global United Methodist Church.
In 2020, during the pandemic, things really started ramping up politically. Among some of the things I was the most proud of last year, I was working as an intern for Sharice Davids’ re-election campaign, and I was elected to serve as a Biden delegate to the Democratic National Convention (representing KS-03, which covers all of Wyandotte and Johnson Counties, and the northern tip of Miami County), and helped to push the party platform to be inclusive of all the voices it represents.
These experiences helped me decide to step up and run for a position this year that really feels like a way for me to make an incredible positive impact on our community. I filed to run back in November of last year, and I’ve been working hard to use my experience and my ideas to help my community be a more inclusive place. By running for the Board of Trustees for the college that I attend, I have unique and specialized perspectives that will not only help the institution, but move the needle in my community. You don’t see many 22-year-old LGBTQ+ students running for any type of office, but by doing so, whether I win or lose, I hope that I can be an example to other people. If elected, I would be the only current LGBTQ+ Trustee, and the first non-binary elected official in the state of Kansas, which is possible because of one person who gave me the power to come out 10 years ago, and the continued support of those in my life who have pushed me to do my best, and empowered me to live out and proud.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
To be fair, it’s typically never a smooth road. There are people who feel open to say some of the most nasty things you’ve ever heard. During the NDO discussions in Johnson County, you’d hear many people use religion and God to disenfranchise the LGBTQ+ community, arguing that our identities are in conflict with their religion and that we’re all going to burn in the fiery pits of hell. People will call me slurs or expect me to conform to their idea of what I should look like and who I should be, but if you should know one thing about me, it’s that I typically am not going to be the exact mold of what society expects from me. Living as an out LGBTQ+ person in Kansas is difficult, and I say this from personal experience.
When someone expects you to find a box to fit into, you have a decision to make. You could either cram yourself in the box, and hide bits of yourself that are meant to be seen and loved. Many people do this when it’s unsafe for them to come out, or they would lose basic resources, such as housing and access to food. Or, like in my case, you could ignore the box and be who you want, regardless of the consequences that may come with that decision. There have been both joys and pain for me in making that decision. I have had to face people who see me as a person with less value than them, or talk over me, trying to shut out my voice.
Last year, when I worked the election, my supervising judge kept saying that I was “too flamboyant”, and that I needed to “stop being so theatrical”. She would rarely let me interact with the voters, and everything I did seemed to be wrong in her eyes. This is a specific example of a way that many people react when they’re in a position of power over someone who’s not the exact mold of who they want them to be, but it’s extremely harmful. That experience left me, someone who has been out and proud for over 10 years, questioning myself and wondering if I really am “too theatrical”. One thing that I’m trying to help people understand is that we shouldn’t expect people to “let things roll of their backs” or “not let other people get to you”, but instead that people shouldn’t be saying or doing harmful things in the first place. THIS is a large part of the struggle that I have personally run into.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
My 40-hour a week job is as a leasing agent in Overland Park, but that’s not what I’m known for. I have a huge passion for human rights, and seeking justice for other people. I have had a history of having a strong voice in our community, which has led me to decide to run for office locally. The Johnson County Community College Board of Trustees is a unique position for me, because I am a student at the college, but a Trustee is someone who represents both the college and the community. If I win my election, it’ll be history made, and I will be able to represent my community in a more significant way than before. If I lose, I will be able to say that I changed ideas and expectations of who can represent Johnson County, and who is able to have a voice here.
What sets me apart from others isn’t the fact that I may seem to some like a celebrity or someone who has popularity- it’s the fact that I see that anyone who wanted to could be in my position. By running, and being a visible public figure, my goal is to empower other people who haven’t seen this type of representation before to do the same. I am most proud of the part of my personality that focuses on the positive aspects of people who are around me. I hope that’s what people know me for. I want people to know that I’m there for them, and that I’m working to lift them up and help create ways for them to be able to be their favorite version of themselves.
Let’s talk about our city – what do you love? What do you not love?
I think that there’s a lot to love about Kansas City and the surrounding metro, and I’m not just talking about the incredible barbeque and the talented art scene. When I graduated college the first time, I wanted to come back here primarily because of my family and friends. It’s the people here who love others so deeply and so passionately that make the place we call home so attractive. On the flipside, I think that we can tend to battle internally with ignorance and misinformation. I think that every single person (myself included) could work to be more sensitive when it comes to each other’s emotions. The key to building each other up is to allow ourselves to be vulnerable with each other, and truly listen to understand each other’s experiences.
Contact Info:
- Email: jaeforjccc@gmail.com
- Website: www.jaemoyer.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/blue.kansan
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/jaeforjccc
- Twitter: twitter.com/jaeforjccc
Image Credits
Jim Nimmo
