The Nat is proud to work alongside many amazing LGBTQIA+ scientists, volunteers, staff, and community members, and we’re celebrating their contributions to science. November 18 is LGBTQIA+ in STEM day, which uplifts the work of LGBTQIA+ people in science, technology, engineering, and math, and highlights some of the barriers they may face in these fields.
Below are just a few of our amazing LGBTQIA+ staff who are a vital part of the Museum’s scientific efforts, and who do important work behind the scenes to further our mission.
Slipping down ravines, nearly stepping on rattlesnakes, trekking through the desert, and most recently, exploring a mine in Sierra de las Cacachilas in Baja California Sur to look for cave-dwelling arthropods are just a few exciting parts of Rachel’s work as a biologist at The Nat.
Rachel spends half of their time in the field collecting data and invertebrates, and the other half in the lab identifying and curating specimens to help us better understand invertebrates throughout our mission region. Having grown up in San Diego, Rachel finds it exciting to learn more about the environment they’re familiar with.
Growing up, she struggled a lot to figure out her identity, and STEM helped her find herself. She is inspired by nature and her passionate coworkers who have accepted her with open arms and are super knowledgeable in their fields.
“For me, [being LGBTQ+ in STEM] means being able to be my most authentic self. I've been more accepted by the scientific community than other areas of my life and it feels like I've found a place where I actually fit in. Most of the people I work with are also LGBTQ+, or are very open-minded, so they just kind of get me.”
Jonathan emphasizes that to protect nature, you must first know it. He works mostly with mammals within the BioServices department, checking the species diversity of rodents along San Diego County and the Baja California Peninsula. Jonathan also uses motion cameras to detect other mammal activity. He mentions that he’s following his childhood dreams by helping us better understand nature, species, and their relationship with the environment.
Jonathan shares that he is deeply grateful for such a welcoming community at The Nat, where he feels he can express his true self. He has learned that visibility and authenticity are powerful forms of change both personally and professionally, and in both society and science.
“Being part of the LGBTQ+ community in a STEM field, for me, is synonymous with courage,” Jonathan shared. “Being part of this community means standing up and showing who you are, paving the way for others to see that you don’t need to hide your true self to belong. It’s an act of resistance and pride.”
As an ornithologist in The Nat’s BioServices department, Ian loves his local bird neighbors and helps protect them by surveying and monitoring their populations in regions where construction is going to occur, or where these species may be threatened or endangered. He ventures into bird habitat to survey the areas, and his important work directly informs decisions that benefit these species.
Ian explains his familiarity with constantly anticipating other people’s reactions to his queerness as a form of self-protection and as a part of his daily life, even while working. He specifies the importance of queer and trans visibility in the world of STEM, a field where matters of identity are not always emphasized or considered, but where they very much exist and have an impact.
“Every field site and workplace, no matter how scientific, has its own culture, and so our visibility and the conversations we cultivate as scientists will help to ensure a culture that’s wholly welcoming to future queer and trans scientists,” Ian shares. “Always do what you can to support and uplift your trans friends and coworkers!”
Christopher has worked as a paleontologist at The Nat for 20 years in both the Paleontology department and in the PaleoServices department. You can find him working on fossil preparation in the lab housed in the Paleo Center within Amazement in the Basement (our newest exhibition).
Working in the visible lab is important to him, because he preaches that visibility is power. He proudly wears a transgender pin next to his nametag as a sign of support for the trans community struggle.
Christopher wants to inspire young formative individuals by being openly queer and hopes to evoke a love of natural history in them by communicating how important the Museum and collections are, all while showing that paleontology isn’t only about dinosaurs—it’s an important and expansive field. Discovery and collaboration are part of his everyday work, which help add new perspectives and points of view. He adds that each of us sees things in a different way, and no singular perspective is the correct one.
“The little boys and girls and theys and thems outside of that window can look in and see themselves in the future doing that type of work—being a paleontologist, being a scientist. There’s a kind of, ‘I can do that too.’”
As The Nat’s Science Communications Manager, Paula helps make environmental research and conservation accessible to the public through social media posts, articles, and other content creation. They reiterate that everyone deserves to have access to tools that can help them learn about the environment they live in. Paula helps bridge the gap between the scientific field and the community, to make sure everyone who has an interest in science and nature has the opportunity to learn.
As a queer, brown, and Mexican femme, Paula holds intersecting identities that aren’t always represented in the scientific field, and has worked hard to break through, make herself heard, earn a seat at the table, and is devoted to helping uplift others, too.
“Being queer helps me connect with a greater diversity of people and gives me a less rigid and more fluid perspective of nature and science. Oftentimes ecology and biology are seen as rigid disciplines that have strict rules, when the reality is that nature knows no boundaries and is very fluid and flexible. My queerness helps me understand that and connect it to the work I do!”
Their work helps community members become excited, ask questions, learn something impressive, and find new interests around local nature—a part of her role that continues to inspire her.
Posted by Janae Pabon.
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