Hailing from Los Angeles, Kai Kiser lives in Iowa City with their fiancee and three animals. As a trans, pansexual, polyamorous person, they are an active member of the Iowa queer community.
Kai works as a youth development specialist at United Action for Youth (UAY), where they have a hand in UAY’s art workshops, writing clubs, music lessons, clothing drive, MLK day event, and more. They are on the board of directors for Girls Rock Iowa City, Pride Rock Iowa City, and QCamp–UAY’s inaugural camp for LGBTQIA+ youth. They were the head organizer for PrideCon, a local conference for queer youth. Before all of this, however, Kai volunteered for five years with The Trevor Project, working in crisis intervention for LGBTQIA+ youth.
Outside of their work as an activist, Kai is a writer and has a passion for fiction and editing. They have a decade of experience in music–including their studies at The Musician’s Institute in LA–and is currently working to improve themself as an artist.
Kai joined the One Iowa LGBTQ Leadership Institute in the hopes of learning how to navigate bureaucratic systems to help marginalized members of the community. They also hope to learn more about creating events and programs for LGBTQIA+ people in Iowa. Everyone deserves a voice, and Kai wants to wield their privilege in an effort to help people find that voice.