Jack Whisenant
He/They
I am trans and I am a museum minion.//
I am a scientific illustrator and educator who adores natural history museums and everything involved with collections work from specimen preparation and exhibit design to databasing and label generation.
I understood that I was trans masculine back in high school, so upon graduation I cut my hair and dressed how I wanted to, but didn’t approach a more comprehensive social transition until later in life when I went back for graduate studies. There, I found a rock-solid set of friends in both the zoological museum where I worked and in the entomological community where I studied. These wonderful folks as well as my family made my slow and careful approach to transitioning very affirming, and I am so glad to have them in my life.
There is such incredibly variety and wonder in our world, and we are part of that. There are so many scientists who truly connect with that philosophy, and we are drawn to those communities that strengthen and uplift us. Even better, we can pay it forward in kind.