Dr. Leo Taylor’s story

Gender: transman, man, genderqueer

Sexuality: Queer AF

Pronouns: he/him/his

Current home:  Columbus, Ohio

Grew up in:  Muncie, Indiana

Cultural background/identity: I was raised on the very small side of a small Indiana town, in a working-class, white evangelical Pentecostal household where girls weren’t allowed to wear pants or cut their hair.  The cult-like religion I was born into imposed rigid gender roles that began impacting my mental health by age 8. At 16, after reaching a point of exhaustion with my assigned gender and a failed exorcism meant to cast out the “demon of homosexuality,” I attempted suicide. Thankfully, I got help and left the church at 17, beginning the long process of healing and reimagining who I could be.

Interests: People-garden alchemist tending radical imaginations. Mentoring humans through gender storms and identity blooms. Learning from bugs, spiders, and other oft-misunderstood creatures. Writing and creating art that challenges the rules. Fostering and building a decolonized future through my DEI education and consulting business. Always cultivating something—whether it’s tomatoes, new perspectives, or endless possibilities.

Surprise! Gender Isn’t a Destination 

When I began my transition from female to male more than 25 years ago, I thought I knew exactly what gender was—and where I was going. I didn’t feel like a girl, and the version of “woman” that was handed to me was unbearably narrow. So, through a process of elimination, I transitioned—medically and socially—into the only other option I thought was available: “man.” At the time, that felt like clarity. But clarity, I’ve come to realize, can be a seductive trap when it masquerades as certainty.

In 2023, something shifted: I had lived 24 years as a “girl” and 24 as a “man.” That strange symmetry cracked something open. I saw, maybe for the first time, that my experience of gender had never really been binary. My masculinity had been shifting for years—bold patterns, feminine jewelry, clothing coded “female” that still read masculine on me (I love jeggings! Who knew?).

Moving away from traditional “male” clothing, I started wearing thrifted “women’s” pants and blazers in bright, colorful, contrasting patterns—and something clicked. I felt vibrant. I felt alive. Having unwittingly let go of the binary I found myself inhabiting a masculinity that allowed me to breathe and live in a radically authentic way.

Now I identify as masculine, but not as a “man” in the way I once thought I had to. I’ve come to understand gender as a fluid, evolving experience—not a fixed identity, and it most certainly does not need to be defended.

If the world had offered me more expansive possibilities in the 90s, I don’t know if I would’ve transitioned in the same way. What I do know is this: I transitioned because the binary box I was placed in felt unbearable. What I needed then—and what I celebrate now—is not an opposite box, but the freedom to unbox altogether.

PHOTOGRAPHER’S NOTE:   Leo’s photo session marks a special milestone as the 100th person I photographed for the All the Genders Photo Project.  It’s also been awhile since I sat down with Leo last summer – for hours of fun and thoughtful conversation and shooting photos in his meticulously tended to gardens.  There’s no finish line or fixed path when it comes to gender, and Leo offers a moving reminder of how expansive and liberating our identities can be when we step outside the boxes we’re handed.   Leo, thank you for taking the time to grapple with, and celebrate, this part of who you are once again.  

Check out Dr Leo Taylor’s important work as a DEI Educator and Consultant.