TheVillager.com – Lawrence Lerner
Transgender activist Dee Perez is a study in transitions, not only morphing from male to female during her 28-year lifespan but rising from the projects and drug addiction to become a successful community activist and mentor to countless adults and students around issues of homophobia and marginalization. As founder of Gays and Lesbians of Bushwick Empowered (GLOBE), Perez has made it her life?s work to end discrimination against L.G.B.T. people, focusing her energies on Bushwick and other underserved sections of Brooklyn such as nearby Bedford-Stuyvesant and Ridgewood.
The fifth of eight Puerto Rican children raised by a single mother, Perez grew up known by her birth name, David, in the Hope Gardens projects in Bushwick, and as an effeminate child, knew firsthand the discrimination she now works to eradicate: Taunts of ?You faggot!? and bullying followed her through junior high school, becoming so debilitating that at age 14, Perez dropped out of Bushwick High School, three weeks into freshman year.
?It?s sad when you walk up to the door and literally be afraid for your life, and this is the place where you?re supposed to get your education so you can excel,? said Perez, who turned to heroin and crack cocaine shortly thereafter to assuage the pain, an addiction that lasted until age 20. ?Drugs became my body armor. They enabled me to walk down the street or take the train without fearing for my life.?
In 1998, Perez sought help from local priest and activist Father John Powis, who emboldened him to face his fears drug free. Powis then introduced him to two New York University law students who had recently started Make the Road by Walking, a social-service advocacy organization for low-income people of color in Bushwick. Perez, who considered himself gender-ambiguous at the time, had long seen the need for L.G.B.T. groups in Bushwick and the outer boroughs and proposed the idea. Shortly thereafter, GLOBE was born under Make the Road?s auspices, with Perez as its volunteer director.