Jay (he/him)

Hello! I am Jay and I am truly honoured and grateful to receive The Dentsu Scholarship through The Pinnacle Foundation. 

In 2023 I will be entering my fourth year of university in a Bachelor of Journalism / Bachelor of Arts (Film & TV Studies) at the University of Queensland St Lucia campus. I graduate in 2024 and then plan to complete honours in film studies in 2025. 

I have always been passionate about media – fiction & non-fiction – about trans and queer lives. I first realised that transitioning was possible after seeing a documentary about trans men on TV as a child. I did not understand why then, but the memory of those men remained vividly with me. Over the years, I have only become more aware of how important the voices of transgender people are in our newsrooms and our TV and film productions. 

I am a proud member of the ballroom scene, a dance community built by and for the lives of Black and Latina trans women in New York in the 1950s. The ballroom community in Meanjin (Brisbane) has given me a sense of purpose, taught me true self love, and facilitated my relentless activism for the queer community in my city. As a white trans man, I appreciate the privilege I have in the ballroom space, and everything I do I do with the intention to give back to the Indigenous and Pasifika trans women and queer men who have been with me through everything over the past few years. 

I am also part of community radio where I help amplify the voices of our queer and gender diverse siblings.