Growing up in rural Hollister, North Carolina, Trey Roberts dreamed of a bigger world. Now, the Panamanian and Haliwa-Saponi tribal member is creating the queer and Indigenous spaces he once had to imagine for himself.
Roberts is the founder of GAG!, a Raleigh-based queer event series that brings LGBTQ+ people together for a very important purpose: having a good time. And this year, one of Roberts’s biggest dreams came true. “When my party series GAG! was first created, I wanted to be the Susanne Bartsch of my community,” he says. “This year I got to work with her and Amanda Lepore not once, but twice.”
Through the Triangle Native American Society, Roberts created Raleigh’s Dix Park Inter-Tribal Pow Wow, bringing about 14,000 people together with tribes from across North Carolina. He’s also a founding member of Raleigh Pride and director of the Triangle Native American Film Festival.
Roberts knows how difficult it can be to dream beyond what you’ve seen, especially for queer people growing up in the South. “It’s hard to imagine something is possible that you never experienced,” he says. To queer Southerners in big cities and rural communities alike, his message is simple: “You have the freedom to dream big.” @imtreyroberts
