Thursday, October 1, 2026
Continuing a month-long series of interviews with influential area women in honor of Women’s History Month. Juli Grey-Owens is founder and executive director of Gender Equality New York, a nonprofit that advocates for transgender, gender non-binary, and intersex New Yorkers.
Q: Tell me about yourself.
A: I am a senior trans women who does advocacy work for our community.
I grew up in northwestern New Jersey, had a relatively normal childhood. I knew something was different around three or four. In my preteen years I experimented, but didn’t know what was up because this was the 1960s.
I went to high school and was a good student. I was a decent athlete, co-captain of my football team. Met a girl in eighth grade, and we were friends until we started going out in junior year. My experimentation stopped during high school because I was busy with school, sports, I had a girlfriend. I graduated with high honors and applied to engineering schools.
Then my parents had a tough divorce and I had no money. College was a mess, trying to work multiple jobs and school. I felt a lot of pressure and began experimenting again.
I was recruited to a fortune 500 company out of college, started work, paid off my bills, and then I went to a counselor to see if I could get rid of this ‘thing.’
The counselor was really terrific, and he said to me, ‘You're not gonna get rid of it. You have to decide how you're gonna deal with it.’
I decided to blend this into my life. I continued as a cisgender man, but on weekends I would maybe go to a party or something, just to try to figure out the community and how I fit in it.
In 1981 a work opportunity brought my fiancé and I to Long Island. I got my MBA, I married that girl from junior year, and at 35 we had a child. As I got older, I felt stifled because between career and family, there was no time to go out.
A real turning point was when my father passed away just before 70. I was 47 at the time and I started looking at my life, as you do when your parent passes away, and I decided I needed to be more authentic. I started going to trans events in 2003 and it progressed from there.
My wife and I separated in 2007 and then in 2008 I met my second wife. We have been together for 16 years and married for 13.
Q: What do you do? Why?
A: I’m founder and executive director of Gender Equality New York, a nonprofit that advocates for transgender, gender non-binary, and intersex New Yorkers. The work we do is largely educational, we provide information to agencies, legislators. I provide training to the Nassau and Suffolk police academies. I also provide training at Northwell Health and Memorial Sloan-Kettering.
Q: What has challenged you in your career so far, and what keeps you going/inspires you?
A: The public has a very poor idea of our community, and we suffer as a result. There's a lot of bad information out there, outright lies in some cases. For example eight-year-olds are not getting surgery and school nurses are not giving out hormones. If we don't get information out, if we don't start making people aware of our communities, these lies will continue.
We currently have a federal government that’s attacking our community and trying to make us disappear. So the work has to be done to normalize our community and make people aware of the conditions we live under.
Q: What has been the proudest moment in your life?
A: Getting the transgender civil rights bill passed in 2019. Prior to January 2019, a transgender person could be discriminated against in employment, housing, and public services.
In 2003, lesbians, gays and bisexuals were able to pass a bill called the Sexual Orientation Non-Discrimination Act in New York State, granting them their civil rights, and specifically excluded the transgender community. It was 16 years before the trans community got their civil rights.
In 2019, the Gender Expression Non-Discrimination Act was signed into law and we have had civil rights protections in New York State since then. There are no federal protections, so if we leave there are no guaranteed protections.
Q: What advice do you have to offer? What work is left to be done?
A: Trying to get federal protections for our community is a big thing, but right now, we’re just trying to get our community to survive the next four years.
And to some of our younger members, who might still be in school, or living under their family's rule, and are unable to come out and be themselves. Be patient. Be safe. Make sure you have a roof over your head, that you’re fed and taken care of, get your high school diploma, if you're able to, get to college. Usually you're able to be more authentically yourself in college.
It does get better once we get older, but once you're out as an adult, anything you can do to help move the community forward is important and necessary.
For more information, visit genderequalityny.org or follow @genderequalityny on Instagram and Facebook.
