Cass DuVani just turned 27 years old. He is a brand ambassador and campaign model for Mediums Collective, one of Seattle's hottest high-end streetwear brands. He is one of the hardest-working hustlers out there: selling his own stickers and printed T-shirts while doing landscaping and landscape architecture to keep his household afloat during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, he is also one of the most interesting men I have ever met.

I first came to know DuVani through his fight for Black liberation here in the streets of Seattle. Through thick black smoke rising from heaps of burning trash spilling out of overturned dumpsters, he could be seen on the front lines of a long-simmering struggle against those seeking to preserve institutional racism and the instruments of our society that have historically fought to preserve it.

"I feel like I'm almost a triple threat: Black, Trans, and male," said DuVani, jokingly. "The first year, I was on the front line the entire time. Then, I kind of got burned out, and I switched my activism to mutual aid. We started coming back now. I'm curious to see how that's gonna play out."

"I try to be an activist for Transgender rights and Black lives and the houseless community. There's just so many things in this country. It's hard to not be an activist or engage in activism for something."

Like the thousands of people who took to the streets of Seattle, he was moved by the death of George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man who died at the hands of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin. A jury concluded that Chauvin, who was recorded kneeling on Floyd's neck for 9 minutes and 29 seconds, was guilty of his murder. Despite the conviction, DuVani believes little has changed.

"I think they used Derek Chauvin as an example. Just last week, Winston [Smith] was killed just 10 minutes away from where George Floyd was. It is not going to stop until we literally stop the system, tear it down, and move forward and create something new," he explained. "We haven't gotten justice. People are still dying. People are still getting murdered. Police brutality is still going on. That is not what I would consider justice... We are just going to keep fighting until abolition comes."

Family

The fight for racial equality is personal to DuVani, who describes himself as a "light-skinned" Black man and whose wife is white. "My mom is white. So, I'm half Black and half white," he said. "If you see my skin color, I can't really identify as white. To anyone in the system, I'm Black. I'm not white."

DuVani's dad was a professional soccer player, and he moved around a lot. He adds that his family was also subjected to racism, which he was too young to recognize at the time.

"As a kid, I spent time in San Diego, California. I spent a good amount of time growing up in Arizona, unfortunately. I've kind of just lived all over," he said. "Looking back, there were little remarks that I heard toward my dad and, even toward my mom [for] being with someone who is Black... I have definitely seen a difference in how each one of them was treated."

Besides dealing with issues of race, DuVani struggled to understand his gender identity and sexual orientation. He said there were few positive depictions of Queer people growing up, outside of what he saw on MTV.

"I didn't have any other Queer people in my family. It was just me," he said. "I kind of had to keep it to myself until I was 14 years old, when I came out. I had dated guys in middle school, because I thought it was the right thing to do. I was going into high school, so, I kind of came out.

"I was kind of pushed into a box of being Gay or, before I started transitioning, being a Lesbian. That never really felt right to me... I would not identify as straight and I wouldn't identify as Gay. I'm just here and Queer. I don't want to be in a little box."

Breakthrough

DuVani says he had a breakthrough regarding his gender identity after he met his wife, Joscelyn, seven years ago. She identifies as pansexual, according to DuVani, and has been super supportive of him during their three-year marriage.

"I had actually gotten super depressed before coming to terms with my identity and my gender. I was at a very low point," he said. "It wasn't until I started dating my partner and my wife that I was getting ideas to explore my identity more, my gender more."

DuVani began taking testosterone, a hormone that stimulates the development of male secondary sexual characteristics, three years ago and underwent a gender-affirming top surgery procedure about two years ago. Likewise, he finalized his legal name change earlier this month.

He says he knows it is rare to have a supportive family and feels very lucky. "Some of my family was really supportive from the beginning, such as my sister, close friends, and my wife, obviously," said DuVani. "My dad was supportive, and my mom is super supportive now. However, when I first told her, she said she was going to need time, almost like a grieving kind of thing."

The future

DuVani worked as chef before the pandemic for 10 years. Recently, he decided to enter a community college to pursue a career as a therapist, because "we don't have that great of a representation in that field."

The DuVanis were profiled in a story by KUOW as they delivered supplies to encampments across the city. Their mutual aid efforts mirror those of other Seattleites who have taken it upon themselves to meet the needs of their unhomed neighbors.

"We really try to do anything we can to help. There's a lot of holes to fill due to capitalism," he said. "We usually just get to different encampments... build community and bring the resources that they need."

DuVani says he and his wife, who have lived in Washington for the past four years, discuss welcoming a baby into their home one day, once he is further along with his degree program. "I'm hoping that we're building a better future now for our children to be able to live life in a more accepting world," he said.