leah juliett
Leah Juliett is a non-binary and queer writer, speaker, organizer, advocate. and nonprofit leader from Connecticut.
Leah is the Founder and Executive Director of March Against Revenge Porn and currently serves as Miss Greater Rockville 2020/21 in the Miss America Organization. Leah is one of the first non-binary titleholders to hold a role in the Miss America Organization. Previously, Leah served as Social Media Associate for Lesbians Who Tech & Allies, Writer for Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and the Senate Democratic Caucus, and the Youth Engagement Coordinator for GLAAD.
In 2018, Leah testified before the Sentencing Commission and the Trafficking in Persons Council of the Connecticut General Assembly to present sentencing recommendations for Connecticut’s Unlawful Decimation of an Intimate Image statute. The statute was later amended based on Leah’s recommendations and testimony.
Leah is the first gender non-conforming winner of L’Oreal Paris Women of Worth, Glamour Magazine College Woman of the Year, a GLAAD Rising Star Award recipient, the winner of the Delta Airlines Accelerating Acceptance Grant, and the recipient of the Excellence in Student Journalism honor from the National Association of LGBTQ+ Journalists.
Leah is a graduate from Western Connecticut State University where they graduated with honors from the Kathwari Honors Program. Leah has a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science with a Minor in Conflict Resolution and a concentration in Gender Studies and Justice and Law Administration. While attending Western Connecticut State University, Leah actively worked on the university’s transgender housing and bathroom policy, and spearheaded an independent study entitled “Concepts of Transgender Rights in America”. The findings of the study were presented at the Northeastern Political Science Conference. Leah’s senior thesis was entitled “Redefining Revenge: A Mixed-Method Analysis of State Revenge Porn Legislation and Comprehensive Federal Legislation for Modern America” and detailed a national and international analysis of sexual cyber harassment legislation. Leah’s honors research practicum was entitled “The True Transgender Tipping Point” which examined the legibility and visibility of transgender bodies in media and beyond.
Leah is currently pursuing their Masters in Social Justice and Community Organizing from Prescott College (expected 2021).
Leah has received numerous scholarships for their work including the Rosa Parks Award for Global Activism and the Rosien Political Science Award from Western Connecticut State University, the David Knapp Scholarship from the New Haven Pride Center and the Dena M. Castricone Scholarship from the Connecticut Gay and Lesbian Bar Association.
Leah has been featured on major media outlets like CNN, BuzzFeed, BBC, MTV, and in Teen Vogue, The Huffington Post, The Hollywood Reporter, and PopSugar.
Leah is a member of the National Association of LGBTQ+ Journalists (NLGJA) and a recipient of the 2018 Excellence in Student Journalism Award for their work exposing the intersection of LGBTQ+ identity and cyber sexual violence. Leah’s political essays and poems have been featured in numerous journals and publications, including Seventeen Magazine, Glamour Magazine, Happiful Magazine, Palm Springs Pride Magazine, GLAAD, Grok Nation, MTV News, and OutRight Action International. National poetry journals include Death in the Afternoon (Cornell University), The Manifest-Station, and The Body Back Project. Leah is an alumni of the Brave New Voices International Slam Poetry Festival, and has performed at notable locations including Busboys and Poets, The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, and The Bushnell Theater of the Performing Arts.
In 2017, Leah received funding to found the National LGBTQ+ Youth Town Hall, a social media campaign and town hall event empowering LGBTQ+ youth voters for the 2018 Midterm Elections. Leah served as Executive Director of the National LGBTQ+ Town Hall campaign and hosted the official town hall event in October 2018.
In 2018, Leah served as District Intern to United States Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut. While interning for Senator Murphy, Leah issued a staff training presentation on transgender civil rights issues and worked aiding constituents and staff on a variety of state and national issues. Previously, Leah has served as Senior Policy Intern at the Connecticut Coalition Against Domestic Violence under Representative Jillian Gilchrist. During this time, Leah worked investigating the close relationship between revenge porn and human sex trafficking, and presented this research to the Trafficking in Persons Council at the Connecticut General Assembly. In 2017, Leah served as District Intern to United States Congresswoman Elizabeth Esty. During this time, Leah created an accessible database of district-wide LGBTQ+ resources for administrative use. In the Fall of 2016, Leah completed an internship in Communications with OutRight Action International, the only LGBTIQ organization with affiliation with the United Nations. During the internship, Leah utilized both communication and activism skills to analyze global human rights abuses- and had the opportunity to attend the highest level meeting on LGBTQ+ issues in the history of the United Nations.
From 2016-2019, Leah was involved as an advocate and representative of GLAAD, the nation’s largest LGBTQ+ media organization. In 2018, Leah served as Youth Engagement Coordinator, where they worked Implementing youth perspectives and engagement in multi-faceted campaigns across all GLAAD programmatic areas. Leah is a Founding member of GLAAD’s Campus Ambassador Program, and served on GLAAD’s Junior Editorial Team. Through GLAAD, Leah can be seen in viral social media campaigns accelerating acceptance nationwide. In January 2018, Leah authored an open letter to Congress on gun violence prevention and reform, which was signed by over 100 college representatives. Leah was featured in GLAAD"s "#Say the 7 Campaign in the Huffington Post, Spirit Day Campaign in Teen Vogue, and their viral Seventeen Magazine LGBTQ video campaign. In May 2017, Leah joined GLAAD to present on activism in the digital age at the Human Rights Campaign "Time to Thrive" Conference in Washington, D.C, and has joined GLAAD at the National Equality March and the New York City Pride March.
Leah has received leadership training by the Hugh O’Brien Youth Leadership Conference (2013) and the GLAAD Media Institute (2017).
In 2019, Leah delivered a TED talk entitled “How I Survived Revenge Porn”.
Their debut chapbook and accompanying spoken word album NAKED IN PUBLIC is set to come out in 2021/22.