This Intersectional Feminist Magazine Appointed First Ever Trans Editor-In-Chief

Wear Your Voice, or WYV, an intersectional women's magazine has made history by appointing the first trans woman editor-in-chief,  Ashlee Marie Preston. 
With the new role, Preston, African American trans woman writer, and activist wants to change the mainstream heteronormative media landscape and make it more inclusive. 

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"My objective is to transform the traditional media landscape while redefining social norms and dispelling myths associated with feminism," said Preston in an interview. 

Preston said that she would like to bring more social topics including LGBTQIA rights, race, gender politics, and sex positivity into the mix. "Growing up I felt underrepresented in mainstream media. I knew that someday I was going to change that by holding space for those that felt as I did. As women, those of color, and LGBTQ people, we're often silenced while others speak as experts on our experiences."

No one can tell our stories better than we can. The work WYV is doing is revolutionary because we are reserving space for diverse communities to tell their own stories," said Preston. 

Preston’s appointment comes at a time when transgender people are being killed at alarming rates in the U.S. and on the 48th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, a key moment in the LGBTQ liberation movement where the transgender activists of color Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera along with LGBTQ protestors raised their voices against biases and police brutality. 

Ravneet Vohra, the founder of the magazine, is a survivor of childhood sexual abuse and domestic violence. Oakland-based Vohra started the publication in 2014 to empower herself and provide a space for women and marginalized people to tell their stories.  

“I didn't have to explain our mission to Ashlee Marie because she was already living it through her very existence," Vohra told Out magazine. 

Vohra says that she has faith in Preston that she will continue to Wear Your Voice’s mission of “digging for the non-gendered truth and amplifying the collective voices of today’s generation.”

“As a fierce advocate for people on the margins of society, Ashlee Marie's vision is going to inspire our audience and change lives," Vohra said.