By Joshua Magallanes

When we silence our own voice and we do not share out our story and authentic word, we are not only selling our family and coworkers short, but ultimately we are selling our own selves short.

I can remember the time in my life when I was silenced and unable to understand what that internal voice that was trying to surface was speaking. As a gay Latino male, was I silenced? Or, did I learn early on that in order to “make it” in the “white man’s” world I had to silence myself and not use my own perception to make it in this rat race?

That surfacing or silenced message was “Who am I?” and “How can I show up and be safe in every space, from work to my home to my community?” Did I need more safety?

So, as a faculty member at Highline College, I begin to wonder how I can transform my classroom into a living space of transformational leaders.

In today’s world with all that is going on — for example, on the good side, the Marriage Equality Act, and on the bad side, the North Carolina transgender law — it seems like we at Highline are in an especially good position to reach students who could be the change agents of the future, given our rich diversity of students and the inclusivity we strive for on campus. …

Read the rest of the article.

This article was originally published in the print edition of the Federal Way Mirror on October 7, 2016.