Elijah Oyenuga Creating More Than Safe Schools
LGBTQIA+ Awareness & Inclusion Consulting Services
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LGBTQIA+ Awareness & Inclusion Consulting Services
Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.
No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.
- Nelson Mandela
As a Black, Nigerian, transgender man, Elijah knows all too well the harms of prejudice, discrimination, and bias based bullying as he has experienced it in many forms since he set foot on American soil. As a result of his experiences, Elijah became interested in understanding the mechanisms of oppression both on the systemic and individual level so he could learn how to disrupt them, especially when it came to the LGBTQIA+ community. His desire to create social change lead him to acquiring a position as a peer leader at Boston Gay Lesbian Adolescent Social Services (GLASS) at the age of 17. It was there that he was given the opportunity to utilize his voice through their community education program. While given the opportunity to apply his own knowledge, he was trained to provide LGBTQIA+ cultural competency trainings to students at Boston Public Schools to combat bias based bullying against LGBTQIA+ students. It was through his experiences providing cultural competency trainings as a peer leader that Elijah witnessed the power of education to pave the way for the humanization, love, and acceptance of LGBTQIA+ people.
He learned that education was a powerful tool that could inspire the change we needed to build a more equitable world for those of us who have been unfairly marginalized. It was this realization that inspired Elijah to pursue advocacy through education. Elijah continued on to earn his B.A in psychology to better understand the psychology of bias, prejudice, discrimination, and its adverse affects on human development. Today, Elijah continues to utilize his lived experience and knowledge to pursue his passion for advocating for LGBTQIA+ rights, particularly within the education system. In collaboration with Massachusetts' Safe Schools Program and other LGBTQIA+ organizations, Elijah strives to educate teachers and community leaders in Massachusetts by providing LGBTQIA+ cultural responsiveness training and other consulting services to shape equitable, safe, and supportive environments for LGBTQIA+ youth.