Arizona

Meet the First Trans Woman to Be a Rhodes Scholar

Hera Jay Brown grew up in Corryton, Tennessee

A scholar who was inspired to study forced migration and asylum after losing her own home as a teen due to her gender identity is the first transgender woman to receive a Rhodes Scholarship in the program’s 117-year history, according to the Rhodes Trust.

Hera Jay Brown grew up in Corryton, Tennessee, but moved to Arizona after she came out to her family at 17. She said Arizona was the “closest place” she could find housing and work, NBC News reported.

This move, she added, informed her desire to understand her experience as it relates to others who had also lost a home.

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