AJ Mazaris
LGBTQ Center Director | Wake Forest University
Winston-Salem, NC, UNITED STATES
They provide education, advocacy and support to the LGBTQ community and puts into perspective gender identity and sexual orientation issues.
Biography
Mazaris is the founding director of the LGBTQ Center at Wake Forest University, where they also teach in the Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies program. They provide education, advocacy, and support to the campus community around issues of gender identity and sexual orientation and serves on Wake Forest’s diversity and inclusion leadership team. Since the passage of North Carolina House Bill 2 (HB2), they have provided expert commentary for a wide range of national and regional media outlets including Fox News, Charlotte Observer, WFDD, The Advocate and the Winston-Salem Journal.
Mazaris’ teaching and research focus on LGBTQ history, queer theory, public history, and gender studies. While at Brown, they held a Jacob Javits Fellowship from the U.S. Department of Education and served as the first Coordinator of the LGBTQ Resource Center. Before coming to Wake Forest, Mazaris served as a Presidential Management Fellow at the Internal Revenue Service and the National Park Service, where they developed agency-wide inclusion and diversity initiatives and prepared policy recommendations. At the IRS, the oversaw a special emphasis program for LGBTQ issues – a first for the agency.
Areas of Expertise (13)
HB2
LGBTQ Rights
Gay Marriage
Gay Rights
LGBTQ History
Queer Theory
Public History
Gender Studies
Transgender Issues
All Gender Restrooms
Bathroom Bill
Diversity and Inclusion
Lgbtq Issues
Media
Publications:
Documents:
Videos:
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Education (2)
Brown University: Ph.D., American Studies
Vassar College: B.A., English
Media Appearances (6)
North Carolina’s bathroom bill repeal fails the LGBTQ community
Fortune
2017-03-30
"For the past year, North Carolina has worn the Public Facilities Privacy & Security Act—more commonly known as House Bill 2 or HB2—like a national badge of shame. This so-called bathroom bill, passed with no advance notice by special legislative session in March 2016 and signed into law by former Republican Gov. Pat McCrory, specifically targeted the state’s transgender population, making it a crime for people to use restrooms in public facilities that don’t match the sex marked on their birth certificate," wrote Mazaris.
McCrory sues Feds over HB2; U.S. attorney general plans ‘enforcement action’
The Charlotte Observer (picked up nationally by McClatchy outlets)
2016-05-09
Angela Mazaris, director of Wake Forest University’s LGBTQ Center, accused McCrory of election year politics in defying the federal government. “This is not a safety issue, it’s a civil rights issue,” Mazaris said in a statement released by the university.
Special Report with Bret Baier
Fox News
2016-05-05
“In addition to putting millions of federal education funding at risk, we’ve already seen a $500 million economic impact to our state – everything from a cancelled expansion of PayPal facilities in Charlotte to the cancellation of Bruce Springsteen.”
Op-ed: Bathroom battle sends LGBTQ rights down the tubes
Winston-Salem Journal
2016-03-28
“Research shows zero evidence of a rise in crime or sexual assault as a result of passing non-discrimination ordinances that protect transgender people. Instead, lawmakers preyed upon fears and misconceptions to pass a sweeping discriminatory measure. States across the nation need to mobilize the networks of activists, politicians and supporters who were so critical in securing marriage equality and now work toward the goal that perhaps we should have been pursuing from the get-go: full protections under the law for all people, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity.”
Legal expert: North Carolina's law is the most anti-gay in the country
Winston-Salem Journal
2016-03-25
On Thursday, 200 students, faculty and staff members, and others gathered at Wait Chapel at Wake Forest University to protest the new law. Angela Mazaris, the founding director of Wake Forest University’s LGBTQ Center, helped organize the protest. They said the new law hurts gays, lesbians and transgender people, and also jeopardizes the ability of businesses to recruit.
Through Non-Conformity, David Bowie Boosted LGBTQ Community
WFDD
2016-01-11
People around the world are celebrating the life of David Bowie after the superstar died on Sunday at age 69. He touched nearly every corner of popular culture, and according to one expert, he had a special impact on many in the LGBTQ community. WFDD’s Sean Bueter sat down with Wake Forest LGBTQ Center director Angela Mazaris to talk about Bowie’s legacy beyond his art.
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