Kenyon Farrow Named Executive Director of Queers for Economic Justice

December 8, 2009

Contact: Miriam Yeung, 917.306.4404, miriamwyeung@gmail.com

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Kenyon Farrow Named Executive Director

of Queers for Economic Justice

“Visionary Leadership for the Queer Left”

New York, NY – The Board of Directors of Queers for Economic Justice is pleased to announce the unanimous selection of Kenyon Farrow as the next Executive Director of Queers for Economic Justice (QEJ). QEJ is a progressive non-profit organization committed to promoting economic justice in a context of sexual and gender liberation.

“The QEJ family is thrilled to continue to have the dynamic leadership of Kenyon,” said Emily Davison, chair of the Board of QEJ. “His longstanding commitment to economic justice for poor lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people is a keystone to our growing organization.”

“Kenyon’s work on building a national progressive queer left movement that includes the lived experiences and expressed needs of queer people living in poverty is the exact tool we need to lift true queer liberation out of the usual back and forth of the mainstream gay culture war,” said Amber Hollibaugh, board member and a founder of QEJ.

Kenyon has served as the interim Executive Director of QEJ since the departure of Joseph DeFilippis in July of 2009, after joining the staff in 2008 as the National Public Education Director. Originally from Cleveland, OH, Kenyon has spent the last ten years working as an organizer, public education specialist, and communications expert around HIV/AIDS, prisons, policing, anti-queer violence, and racial and economic justice.

“I am thrilled to be working with QEJ as we move in new and exciting directions, says Farrow. “The current economic crisis has shifted the attention of the nation, and QEJ will continue organize low-income and working class queers who have been left out of the mainstream movement for a long time.” Farrow is no stranger to racial and economic justice work. Prior to joining the staff of QEJ, Kenyon worked at Community HIV/AIDS Mobilization Project (CHAMP), the New York State Black Gay Network and as the Southern Region Coordinator with Critical Resistance. He was one of the drafters of QEJ’s Beyond Marriage statement in 2006.

“It has been my great privilege to work with Kenyon for the past several years.  He is a smart, progressive, articulate and strategic leader in our community already, and he is exactly the leadership that QEJ needs now to continue to grow.  I am delighted that he is my successor” said Joseph N. DeFilippis, QEJ’s founding Executive Director.

Kenyon is also the co-editor of “Letters From Young Activists: Today’s Rebels Speak Out”  (Nation Books 2005) and the forthcoming “A New Queer Agenda (NYU Press).”  His work has appeared in publications such as Bilerico.com, theGrio.com, AfterElton.com, Black Commentator, Left Turn, POZ, The Indypendent, City Limits, and in the anthology, “Spirited: Affirming the Soul of Black Lesbian and Gay Identity (Red Bone Press 2006).” He has been honored as one of the “Movers and Shakers” in HIV/AIDS Activism in the African-American Community by The Body.com, and was named as one of Out Magazine’s Out 100 for 2008.

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