Sometimes LGBT people forget to pay attention to how our identities and our experiences are woven through every aspect of who we are. Leadership is often about being able to grasp this complexity—and to act on it. This year’s PFund Power of One award winner is more than able to do that. Max Gries defines it.
Max Gries is known as a leader in many different arenas—within the transgender health communities, the bisexual community and the queer arts communities. What makes Max a leader is making connections between those different communities every moment of the day. This year’s PFund Power of One honoree is a cross-pollinator, always building connections between and among individuals and organizations.
Musically, Max is a pianist, working within music, music education, and music management to build community and to strengthen music practice, without leaving any aspect of self behind. Working with One Voices Mixed Chorus and TransVoices, Max helps support and educate for transgender vocalists on the complexities of gender and voice.
Max has also worked with the Minnesota Transgender Health Coalition as a volunteer, website manager and board member, to create an organization that has made a significant change in the health care of transgender individuals, while also helping build the skills and knowledge of health care providers. As a founding co-chair of the Transgender Commission at the University of Minnesota, Max has helped create institutional partnerships with a range of departments and communities, while drawing national attention to campus gender diversity and equity work.
And Max doesn’t assume that the depth of committed relationships stops when leaving the “organizing world” and going home. Max and partner have also served as hosts to a young transgender person through the GLBT Host Home Program.
This is leadership: Working across all aspects of one’s life to further support the social justice one is striving for. And this is also Max Gries, bringing people
together because it is the right thing to do and, along the way, changing the world. That's the Power of One.
