Collections by Michelle Brown WSG Nathan William Brown

Collections by Michelle Brown

What does the A stand for in your LGBTQA community? For Nathan William Brown it can stand for Ability or Asexuality and Ally. Nathan is a peer mentor in the community mental health field. Being a peer mentor is a lot different than your typical caseworker/client relationship. Peer Mentors are advocates who have been through the system themselves and know what it is like. They work with the individual to help them learn how to advocate for themselves and become more independent. He recently organized LGBTQ Abilities to help serve the needs of LGBTQ people with disabilities. LGBTQ Abilities is an advocacy and support organization for LGBTQ individuals who are differently-abled and struggled to find real support for our communities. The purpose of LGBTQ Abilities is to bridge the gap between the LGBTQ communities and the disability communities. LGBTQ Abilities will provide advocacy to build networks to connect the LGBTQA and the Disability community, as well as helping create supports within the community while helping all communities be fully inclusive Nathan is on the autism spectrum and has struggled for years with his mental health, including battling severe depression and anxiety disorders. He also identifies as a Pan-romantic Grey-Asexual, which means he can be romantically attracted to people of all genders, but not sexually attracted to others. Many are just hearing about the Asexual community and because of lack of information or misinformation, individuals identifying as Asexual are stigmatized similar to those who are differently-abled. LGBTQ Abilities offers support group exclusively for LGBTQ individuals as well as a support group for these individuals’ partners, family, and allies.