Hi everyone, my name is Riley, my pronouns are she/her and I am a transgender woman and a punk. First off, thank you for taking some time to check out this article and hopefully others down the road. Of course, thank you to the Mable Syndrome for giving me a platform to have a voice amongst all the other women doing awesome work in uniting and amplifying women’s voice in the punk scene. I can only hope my contributions help further discussions in the punk community, to keep

My life has always been a bit unique. As an obedient only child from a strict Pentecostal upbringing, to a free-thinking co-owner of a DIY punk rock venue in downtown Houston, Texas; I figured from a deeply impressionable mind, that there must be a way to break out into the person I have always meant to be. Unfortunately for me, that wasn’t always an easy journey. I lived in a two-story house in North East Houston with my mother, grandparents, and a few of my mother’s sibling