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 making the community even more accepting for everyone, regardless of race, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion or other label meant to divide us. In this first of at least two posts I'll really just talk about
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 siblings on and off from the ages 1 to 12-years-old. There was just a point when there’s a little too much safety and protection when you have a bishop as a grandfather, missionary for a grandmother, and your uncles and aunts a
