Evolving Man Project

Welcome to the Evolving Man Project’s ‘Evolved Man of the Week’ profiles. Each week we will highlight an individual that embodies what it means to be an evolved man, famous and non-famous men alike. The world needs to know their stories and deeds. This week’s honor goes to the trans activist, standout NCAA Division I basketball player, star of The T Word documentary, author, and producer, Kye Allums.

Kye Allums was born on October 23, 1989. As a college basketball player, Allums was the first openly trans NCAA Division I athlete and is a gender inclusion specialist, artist, coach, and Black queer fluid transgender person of color committed to LGBTQ activism.

Today, he travels the country letting students ask questions about what it means to be transgender and is one of the stars in Laverne Cox’s 2015 documentary The T Word, an exploration of what it’s like to be a young transgender person.

In 2011, Kye spoke candidly about his mental health struggles and attempted suicide, here is Kye in their own words:

“Suicide is so prevalent in the trans community… “Forty-one percent of people in the trans community have attempted suicide—I was one of them. That was all because of someone who didn’t take the time to listen to what I said—who didn’t care, who didn’t value me as a person and who just saw me as, ‘Oh, you’re just this story…I never intended to be the person kids would come to when they felt suicidal. But somehow, somewhere along the line, that’s exactly what happened,”

Kye Allums produced a project called “I Am Enough,” which encourages other LGBTQ individuals to come out and talk about their experiences. The project allows individuals to submit their stories, thereby showing people who share the same issues that they are not alone. Mr. Allums published a book called Who am I, which features poems and letters he wrote about his parents and himself. In 2015, he was inducted into the National Gay and Lesbian Sports Hall of Fame

Today we honor Kye Allums as our Evolved Man of the Week.

 

 

 

 

 

‘