Guard Ian Avirtue
Board Member,
Mistress of Merchandising
What is your full Sister/Guard name?
Guard Ian Avirtue
Date you joined the order?
I declared my Aspirancy 4/19/2009. I was fully professed on April 17, 2011.
What is your lay occupation?
Director of a youth program at a large non-profit in Sonoma County.
Date of birth?
September 3
Home town?
Santa Rosa, CA
When did you discover your calling?
I had worked with Sister Scarlet Billows and Postulant Guard Den of Joy on the Sonoma County Pride Planning Committee. I was so excited that there were Guard personas, because I did not want to dress in drag, but I had long admired the Sisters. Then in April 2009 I attended a Bingo, and I was hooked! I had to be part of this marvelous group of people. The very next General Meeting, I declared my Aspirancy.
Big Sisters/Mother in the order?
My Big Sisters in the order were Sister Evelyn Carnate and Sister Katie Kizum, who have since moved to Seattle. Currently my Mother is Sister Coppah Feel, and Sister Claire Voyante and Sister Lena Genstme are my big Sisters. I unofficially look to all Sisters in the Order as my Big Sisters.
Why did you join?
I know I am very fortunate to be able to have a home, family, a job (that I love), enough food, and enough resources to obtain every thing I need, and most things I want. I also know that not everyone in our community is able to to have the same fortune. I feel passionate about giving back - I do this in my professional life, and I want to be able to do this in my personal life as well. Besides, it's a blast!
Religious beliefs (if any)?
I am very spiritual and perhaps even animistic, but abhor organized religions for myself.
Goals and aspirations?
Someday, every person in (at least) Sonoma County will have health care, a roof over their heads, enough food so they are not hungry, access to education, and a living wage job. I will visit my best friend who has been living and teaching English in China for 10 years. I will have a Harley by my 50th birthday. Oh, and a pony!
Rules by which I live ...
Treat others the way you would like to be treated. If you have extra, give some to someone who does not have enough.
Quotes ...
"How far you go in life depends on your being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving and tolerant of the weak and strong. Because someday in your life you will have been all of these."
George Washington Carver
"If all the rich and all of the church people should send their children to the public schools they would feel bound to concentrate their money on improving these schools until they met the highest ideals."
Susan B. Anthony
"A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual doom."
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
"All young people, regardless of sexual orientation or identity, deserve a safe and supportive environment in which to achieve their full potential."
Harvey Milk
"I think the importance of doing activist work is precisely because it allows you to give back and to consider yourself not as a single individual who may have achieved whatever but to be a part of an ongoing historical movement."
Angela Davis
"I'm tired of being treated like a second-class citizen."
Rosa Parks