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Rio Antone - An award winning artist and educator whose story will inspire you
10 Plays1 month ago
In this episode of Trans HeartBeat, Rio Antone shares their journey from surviving being un-housed in Las Vegas to activating queer voices through GLAAD. This conversation is about gender freedom, courage and the radical joy of living in your truth. Hosted by Michelle Matlock, Trans Heartbeat celebrates and affirms trans existence, empowers responses to the rising tide of transphobic rhetoric in our country, and showcases the power of trans artistic expression. Keep listening! Keep creating! Keep shining your light!
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Transcript
Introduction and Guest Overview
00:00:05
Speaker
Hello and welcome to Trans Heartbeat, where we amplify the voices, stories and power of our trans and gender nonconforming communities. I'm your host, Michelle Matlock, and I encourage the use of all pronouns.
00:00:19
Speaker
Today's guest is a radiant force of nature. I'm so very excited to welcome Rio Antone, an award-winning artist, educator, and activist based in Las Vegas, Nevada.
00:00:30
Speaker
From overcoming homelessness to becoming the first non-binary recipient of the MGM Grand Spirit of the Lion Award and Mixed Las Vegas Trans Pride, Rio's story is one of bold survival, creative power, and fierce love for community.
00:00:48
Speaker
They've also partnered with organizations like GLAAD and the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada to ensure our voices are heard, especially at the ballot box.
Activism and Identity
00:01:00
Speaker
RIO leads Gender Translations at the LGBTQ Center of Southern Nevada, a peer-led space offering support, resources, and community for trans and non-binary folks navigating their journeys.
00:01:14
Speaker
Today's conversation is about gender freedom, political fire, and the beauty of building a life with nothing but a dream and determination. this is Trans Heartbeat. Trans Heartbeat.
00:01:30
Speaker
Rio, it is truly an honor to have you here on Trans Heartbeat. It is an honor to be here. It's an honor to be seen. Oh my goodness. I love seeing you. Let's start with just throw your pronouns out there.
00:01:43
Speaker
and I said your name correctly, Rio Antone, right? Yes. Rio Antone is in the house of Trans Heartbeat. What pronouns do you prefer? So I utilize universal pronouns, which to me means that any pronoun that you see or you perceive is okay.
Conference Impact and Roles
00:02:00
Speaker
Now, the most famously and popular use is she, her. he, him, they, them. And as I love to say, bad bitch. So any of those is fine interchangeably. i love that. And we'll get back to that a little bit later. But first i want to give our listeners, our viewers a little context about why I'm having you on. i met you earlier this year at the Creating Change Conference, which was in Las Vegas, which is where you reside. it was my first time going to a Creating Change Conference.
00:02:32
Speaker
And I went to a beginning orientation session right at the beginning and it was cool. The room was full. The energy was great. But when you walked in the energy in the room palpably changed.
00:02:45
Speaker
You lifted the room. You made me sit up in my seat. And I was like, my goodness, I have to meet this person And, and I did. So that's where we met was at the creating change.
00:02:56
Speaker
I had to restrain myself because I, every time I saw you, I wanted to run up and be like, Hey girl, oh my goodness. happy But I did catch you in a corner some point. And I did a little interview with you. And that was at the beginnings of when we were doing this, starting this podcast and this series.
00:03:18
Speaker
And so we still have that footage. I'm hoping maybe my producer will like show a little bit of that as we're talking. But during that small interview, you listed a whole bunch of things that you were doing at Creating Change. You wore so many hats at that conference.
00:03:33
Speaker
I am here at Creating Change 2025, which is taking place in Las Vegas, Nevada. I am literally so happy to be here. My involvement here is that I am working as an ambassador. I am working as a community cohort leader, and I also am operating as a volunteer and one of the stage performers and presenters. So I'm all over the place, and want Tell me a little bit just about Creating Change in Vegas and how you felt about it, what you were doing, and we'll capture that here.
00:04:07
Speaker
First of all I want to say thank you so much. I do absolutely remember when we first met and it was is amazing. At Creating Change, it was honestly fantastic. was my third year doing Creating Change.
00:04:20
Speaker
And this year was probably the most intentional and intense for me in a good way because I wound up working with them as one of their lead ambassadors since I was a resident here in Las Vegas and it was their first time here. So I was working a lot behind the scenes to help bring the conference together by bringing in a lot of the people that were talented and notables, a lot of photographers, a lot of the people who were working in a lot of different skill sessions,
00:04:48
Speaker
of people for the panels was, I was helping to kind of bring that together. while I was there, I also was trying to make sure that I gave my influence and an understanding of my lived experience and professional expertise into a lot of the different rooms. So I sat on a lot of different panels myself, um but I also for the past two years was working for the volunteer leadership cohort. So because of that, I would always help three to four months in advance before the conference starts.
00:05:15
Speaker
to help set up the volunteer leadership cohort. So I just had a couple of different hats on and I felt very, very happy to watch all of it come together. It was done so well, so beautifully as it was the first time that I ever went.
00:05:28
Speaker
And I think that that to me is the reason why I keep going. It is truly just, I've never met seen anything like it before,
Personal Journey and Growth
00:05:35
Speaker
to be honest. Yeah, it was my first time and I was just blown away. i was just blown away by the energy. It gave me hope because I was like, our people are on it, are strategizing, are calling the ancestors, the elders, the legendaries. i mean, I was just like, oh, I'm not, I just didn't feel happy.
00:05:56
Speaker
ah you know, defeated. I felt like, oh my God, we're going to make it through this because we have been making it through this. And that history that was just so there. So it was, it was super cool. So thank you for that. I hope that I get to go to more creating changes.
00:06:12
Speaker
I'm excited for that future. So, you know, ah there's so much that you are doing. I, you know, I just wrote down some Some phrases and words about you after doing a little research and a deep dive on you I wrote down powerhouse of vision, resilience, love and action. an award winning artist, activist, educator, and you are just doing your thing. So the questions I have, I feel like need a little bit of context.
00:06:40
Speaker
In order for our you know, for our, for our viewers to sort of understand our viewers and listeners. So I just want to begin, begin with your journey, your journey to Los Angeles, like where you were, where you're from, you know, a little background on, on how you, why and how you got to Vegas.
00:06:56
Speaker
And then we'll, we'll just take it, take it from there. Absolutely. um Well, I'm originally hailing from Flint, Michigan. And anybody who knows about Flint, Michigan, they know that is Motor City.
00:07:07
Speaker
A lot of times in um this ah current time frame, people see it connected to the water crisis. So um i definitely have grown up in some of the most um challenging conditions.
00:07:20
Speaker
And I think it was very, um it was presented to me very early on mentally that I was going to be at a space where I needed to leave fate Flint to basically grow and become the person that I wanted to be.
00:07:34
Speaker
i think that when I was trying to find my gender identity, and understand who I was I didn't even know that that's what I was doing and I knew that Flint had such a cap on what it looked like because the town was so small when it came to the thought patterns of how one could live their life and also um just the imagination of what I wanted to do so Vegas kept coming up into my frame um I see myself as a very spiritual person I'm not a religious person but a spiritual person overall even though I grew up very religious and i
00:08:06
Speaker
had this like voice that just kept coming to me time after time, showing me visions that Vegas was a place for me to be. my mom randomly told me that she was going to move to Vegas um maybe three months into ah this voice that I was hearing in my head about Vegas being a place for me.
00:08:24
Speaker
And she did not wind up moving until maybe two years later. So um that was when I was in high school. When she did finally move, I was 19 years old. I wound up staying in Flint for maybe a year and a half later.
00:08:36
Speaker
um learning how to adult. And then I finally did move. um But I moved with a close friend of mine. And when I moved with her, who lived here in Vegas, it was the precipice of change for me.
00:08:49
Speaker
And um a lot of tumultuous things happened that was unplanned. I wound up finding myself in a homeless situation. um was chronically homeless. So um after maybe like a month or so, I wound up moving and found about this program called Transitional Living,
00:09:03
Speaker
And it was for youth. And I stayed in that program for over two and a half years. And the reason why i stayed in that program was because they single handedly helped me understand how to navigate the proper way to adult transition. But in that timeframe, I learned a lot about myself and the people that I was surrounded by. These were all people connected to um different forms of of mental health. People were connected there because they were there for lawful reasons.
00:09:33
Speaker
and People who were there who were doing ex-sex work, people who were doing, who were youth sex workers. It was all kind of things that I was exposed to and them also being exposed to me that created a lot of nuanced personalities, understanding how we basically interconnect.
00:09:51
Speaker
And i left from there, then um working into social work.
Career Shift and Vision
00:09:56
Speaker
had gotten both paid, um fully paid scholarships for cosmetology and to work at phlebotomist.
00:10:03
Speaker
And I wound up doing neither of them and wound up jumping into social work because social work kind of just landed into my lap. And ah the journey with that was exponential. It was beautiful.
00:10:14
Speaker
And it wasn't until maybe three or four years in of me doing social work where I was working for a partner Nevada Partnership for Homeless Youth. And I was doing contracted work for them working for Department of Judenal Justice Services.
00:10:27
Speaker
And i was in this room full of people who were probably 20 plus years my seniors. And I was a fresh 24 bushy eyed, green, you know, just behind the airs type of person who just had all the faith in the world as a social worker.
00:10:43
Speaker
And i realized that I was the only one there of the age range that I was in and the only one at this location who was a specialist that understood how to navigate the spaces between LGBTQ and also the space between homeless and housing at risk youth.
00:11:01
Speaker
And a lot of times, it challenged me because I didn't fit the status quo visually. And I was still at this time trying to figure out my gender identity and how to convey that to the world. So I was stripping myself apart to fit the, the, the framework of what it takes to be in a capitalistic place that says, this is how you look in order to be successful. Right.
00:11:23
Speaker
And when I finally did come to the conclusion, it was at four o'clock in the morning. i had, Majorly achieved success of finance. I may majorly achieved success in realms of work, in realms of stability after being chronically homeless for those years.
00:11:40
Speaker
And everyone was proud of me. Everyone in my surrounding area was like, you did it. And at four in the morning, I woke up and it was after a vision that I had, clear as day. I don't know if you're familiar with like T.D. Jake's church, like the super church, but it looked like it was a convention center. Oh, yeah. And I was talking to people by the thousands. I don't know what I was saying, but people were laughing, clapping, smiling, crying.
00:12:04
Speaker
And when I woke up, the voice said, this is what you're supposed to be doing. And obviously what I was doing didn't look anything like that. Although the work I was doing was was beautiful, it was helpful to community.
00:12:17
Speaker
It was barely scratching the surface. of what I was designed to do. And it sounded crazy because I was going to leave. i knew I needed to leave. i was going to leave what felt comfortable to me to jump into something that was absolutely seemingly mad because of the passion that I felt that I needed to do it.
00:12:38
Speaker
So I did. i put my two weeks notice and I left my job. And when I left my job, it probably wasn't the smartest logistically thing because I had no form of income that I knew I was going to immediately get in.
00:12:52
Speaker
And I knew that I had a beautiful resume that I could jump into another job immediately. But Spirit told me that that's not what you're designed to do. i don't want you to jump into a job. i want you to figure out what you're about to do.
00:13:04
Speaker
And that forced me to take all of these little talents that I had, whether it was with makeup artistry, whether it was with performing, I would be asked to host for fundraisers while I was working in social work. I would do all these little extracurricular things that I was really good at, but I would psych myself out to be like, oh I'm not good at that. You know, not good enough to be paid for this.
00:13:23
Speaker
So let me just stick to what I know, the lakes and rivers that I'm used to. And something you inside me said, if you don't believe in you, how do you expect other people to? I've given you all of these abilities to know who you are you don't accept it.
00:13:39
Speaker
You are doing a disservice to yourself and everyone who need to hear you. And that's exactly what happened. So I literally leaned in and i also then found my gender identity through there because there was a passage time where I was living as a trans, full trans woman. And I felt like I left a cage where I was identifying um as a gay male, then to a trans woman and to another cage.
00:14:04
Speaker
Instead of me actually understanding that I was neither this or that, I was everything and more. And it just kind of like fireballed into um the things that you see now, which has exploded over time. But it took a lot of faith and a lot of sacrifice for me to for to give up the things that made me feel comfortable to get into the place where I knew that I needed to lean into my power.
00:14:29
Speaker
And now I get to share that with people. they get to They get to see the physical representation of what it looks like to sacrifice to get what you really deserve. instead of just always looking for the instant gratification of things and items and jobs in pet and titles.
00:14:46
Speaker
So I hope that that explains a little bit. Oh my goodness. Yes. Wow. I mean, who is so much packed in what you just shared with us.
00:14:58
Speaker
The thing that sticks out to me is just that you're a living example of what it means to listen, you know, whether you have faith, whether it's the universe, whether it's your instinct, whatever it is, to listen and have have that faith to be guided by that inner voice that's telling you and showing showing you exactly what to do, right? and And then also this idea that, because sometimes we're, you know, we're just doing things, right?
00:15:30
Speaker
That we're maybe not so happy in, but those things are actually preparing us for what we're supposed to do. Right. So when you talk about, you know, having these experiences and piecing all these things together and all these things are sort of preparing you for what your calling is.
00:15:45
Speaker
i mean, it' it's it's such a it's such a wonderful inspiration and example. When you think about it today, how what how you are and what you're doing today, how did your early beginnings in Vegas shape your sense of purpose?
00:16:00
Speaker
And how does that experience still influence the way that you show up for others? today Because, I mean, you, are for me, you are like the epitome of being in service to the community in terms of the way that you're explaining how you operate, the way you're calling, all of that.
00:16:19
Speaker
How does that begin? Because, I mean, there's a lot of young folks that that are that are out there that, that you know, Maybe trying to figure it out may have, you know, like you say, you showed up Vegas for $150 and just made it work.
00:16:33
Speaker
You know, anyway, how does that experience shape your, you know, still inform your purpose today, if it even does? Or is it, you know, or what? Oh, absolutely. First of all, I think that experiences to me are compiling into what creates the next opportunity or the next moment of ah enlightenment for me is what I feel like. So because I experienced a lot of moments that was shaping my reality of what I was able to but were able to do when I was homeless, there was a lot of times where my prejudgment of things like this or people who would enter into these spaces was that it was self-inflicted or that there was a moment where ah they're just not trying hard enough.
00:17:18
Speaker
And some of those hardships were, was because Spirit was like, well, let me show you what it looks like in order for you to understand how to have a heart that's actually going to help and heal people.
00:17:28
Speaker
Let me show you what it looks like to actually experience the people that you've had these preconceived notions about. Like I was saying earlier about when I was in the um homeless programming, it wasn't just a homeless
Empathy and Advocacy
00:17:39
Speaker
program. They received funding from multiple different things. So it was mental health. It was people who were there who was working um in tandem with the legal system. So they had a lot of people who who was juvenile youth who were there.
00:17:50
Speaker
And because I grew up in Flint, Michigan, and I have such a and um a loathing for the for the people who would always do things that was illegal because it caused a lot of conflict in my own personal everyday life, had a very biased opinion one if people were good or bad, it was very black and white. And um I'm pretty sure people had a lot of the same opinion about people who were queer.
00:18:14
Speaker
And the experiences that I was able to get from those two and a half years was some of the people became my best friends who were sex workers, who who were people who had done a lot of gang violence related situations, who were just simply just trying to learn how to change their life around, but didn't know how exactly what that looked like.
00:18:31
Speaker
It was amazing because it was so many unlikely people meeting in one space learning how to love each other for who we were outside of the the parameters that we created around our lives outside these doors.
00:18:46
Speaker
And took that because when I became social worker, it really helped me understand people on a more ethereal level, on a level that was far beyond the plans of, oh, this is who you are, this is your race, this is your color, this your identity.
00:19:00
Speaker
Those things stopped mattering to me and my early 20s. And it really helped me to understand the energy of oneness and how people are interconnected so vividly that we sometimes shoot our own selves in a foot because we don't allow ourselves to see the beauty that people come with through their differences, rather than only comparing our contrasts of like, oh, well, you don't have this and I got this.
00:19:27
Speaker
But we never, it's like, we rarely say, Well, we actually got this in common. And I like that for us, you know? And when I learned to do that, I also then was like taking that tool that I learned there and wanted to switch it inward to be like, well, if I could change my perspective on how limiting I am on how I view people who are in different walking experience than me, can't I do that same thing for me and my personal lived experience for myself?
00:19:59
Speaker
And that journey, baby, it became crazy because it was a journey of discovery. And um it was so the answer was is so simple, yet so hard to find sometimes.
00:20:12
Speaker
But it's the simplest answer. And sometimes the simplest answer is really what people are scared of because right it can't be true. But I want to prove to people. and we're not Let correct myself. I want to show people every day what's very possible.
00:20:29
Speaker
Oh, my yes yes and that is so shine so brightly on your platforms that at least the ones that i've been following and seeing and just seeing you live in your truth live and such joy and invisibility.
00:20:49
Speaker
That just makes me think of like, what, what, what are you, what's happening right now? What, what are you, what are you doing right now? Whether it be socially, politically, social media, what, what is getting you excited? What work are you doing?
00:21:02
Speaker
you know, what's happening? Just give me a little overview of today. Well, I have been for the past two and a half years working ah deeply community community.
00:21:13
Speaker
um hosting and facilitating a community outreach group called Translations. It was in partnership with our local community center, the gay and lesbian community center, Southern Nevada. I recently decided to depart because I wanted to continue this work, but I wanted to expand it past specifically the trans community only.
00:21:31
Speaker
I wanted to break it down and bring and bring in more spaces because I noticed a lot of times in the room Trans identity was the last thing we needed to talk about. It was actually all the things surrounding our personal identity.
00:21:44
Speaker
And being trans was just a part of that. And i noticed that the power in the room came from the workshops that I would curate that was talking about who we were as an internal person.
00:21:57
Speaker
How do we perceive life and how do life perceive us back? And how do we take that and transmute it into power? And everything became about that, which made The group grow from, I want to say, starting at seven people, maybe every week to 40 plus people every single week. Wow. And continuously continue to grow. So I wanted to take that. So I am in partnership now with College of Southern Nevada.
00:22:20
Speaker
And I wanted to go ahead and create another group that was called Queer Talk because I wanted to show expansiveness and inclusiveness of this. Because I think all too often do we try to create safe spaces for community, but those safe spaces can become prisons.
00:22:33
Speaker
because we do not allow other people to understand our lived experiences with us and take the journey with us. And just like I told you earlier, i learned how to exist in spaces with people that I never would have done so from being in space where we had to be inclusive of each other.
00:22:51
Speaker
And it really changed my entire world. So I know the beauty of being uncomfortable for a second with people you've not been around and learning that this could become by somebody that could be your best friend, your best ally, somebody who could literally understand to champion for you in rooms that you could never be in. wow And I genuinely have now made that my priority.
00:23:11
Speaker
So I just started it. um We've been two sessions in. It's biweekly, every single Friday, and it is continuing
Global Aspirations and Community Empowerment
00:23:18
Speaker
on. And I am so very excited about what that looks like.
00:23:23
Speaker
On the flip side of that, I've had a couple of new understandings of what the direction I need to be going into. I have created and curated a workbook that is designed to teach people how to manifest the life of their destiny and their dreams.
00:23:38
Speaker
Because a lot of people, similar question to me every day is, how are you doing it? Because the visual, the visuals of me compared to what society says is normal.
00:23:49
Speaker
It doesn't fit. Like I shouldn't be able to walk into a room and not only not be laughed at, but be to be respected the way that I have been and look the way that I do or present the way that I do.
00:24:02
Speaker
And people are shocked and they want to know the secret sauce. And I'm telling them, I tell people all the time what it did is, but I think it's different for each person because they have to take that walk for themselves.
00:24:13
Speaker
So I said, how do I curate something that's going to help people understand what that looks like? And I did. I sat and I sat for um a little over a month to curate an in-depth six-tier workbook That anyone can do, whether it be online, whether they can do it in person, that allows them to understand exactly what it looks like to take control of their mentality, their life, their destiny.
00:24:36
Speaker
And it's not coming from a lens of if you just work five steps, it's more so doing the work. For anybody who understands shadow work, doing the trauma work, doing the work that heals who you are, because your life deserves that chance, right?
00:24:51
Speaker
So that is something that I am looking to launch within the next month or so. And I'm very excited. It's going to be an entire rollout for it. And aside from that, have a book that I am writing. The book does not release until sometime next year, but I have been writing an autobiography book.
00:25:06
Speaker
So I know just kind of chronicalizing the journey because I think a lot of people are interested in in understanding that's um what that looks like. That's beautiful. Congratulations on all of that.
00:25:17
Speaker
i love this idea of the workbook. And when will that be available? I am doing a rollout, so I am looking to launch it no later than November. Okay, that's great.
00:25:28
Speaker
Because I was going to ask you, you know, I know that you're based in Las Vegas and you're doing a lot of work there. When does it go national and global for you? Because I really see you as a national and global figure out there. i mean, i just saw a few weeks back this ah dynamic, ah amazing trip that you took New York and And I was like, that needs to be like in the cover of a magazine. That needs to be mean like out there, just the way you do New York. And I lived in New York for 15 years.
00:25:59
Speaker
And I, you know, I love New York, but I was like, damn. Thank you. So I just wonder if you think, if you're thinking globally. Absolutely.
00:26:10
Speaker
I think of it as very similar to a lot of people who are trailblazing in different forms or fashion, whether it was in music, whether it was in media, whether it was in acting or anything, when you are doing something where a lot of people, even if you are really good at it and a lot of people are trying to understand it, it also comes with some caveats of people trying to put red tape on how far you can go. Does that make sense?
00:26:38
Speaker
And it's not because you're not capable. It's not because this But it's really honestly sometimes because of people not being able to perceive that it's a safe place because they've not been able to understand and perceive your power fully.
00:26:50
Speaker
So that has caused a lot of conversations for me to understand what I needed to do in order to take back my power, in order to put myself into realms. Because what I have noticed in my career a lot of times is that people are very, very impressed by my talent, my gifts, my ability, but the access to what that comes with in other spaces sometimes can be limited because of one reason or another.
00:27:16
Speaker
i think we still live in a world where it can still be very rigid. So my job is to make sure that I show people how powerful we are despite the rigidness and still take your power despite of. So I agree with you. And i still feel very blessed in those ways because I have been reached out personally and have been able to collaborate with brands like GLAAD and the LGBTQ national task force continuously. And I am now, like you said, doing more on a national scale and global scale where I'm able to transfer my talents and gifts to other States and who are actually being like, we would love to have you come here. We would love to work with you there. And I want that to continue. Anyone who wants to work with me, I cannot stress it enough, less work. I am extremely dynamic.
00:27:58
Speaker
So I am very proud of what is curating, but I think what I'm doing now is going to help with the precipice of that. mike creating something instead of like passively waiting for something just for someone.
00:28:13
Speaker
And I think I've done that a lot was like, hopefully if I put all this plethora of work to showcase my, my work ethic, my talent, my desire, my love for what I do that people will see. And it does happen, but it won't be what I need unless I make it because I'm the one who have the understanding of what to do for what needs to be done.
00:28:35
Speaker
And so I got to do I got to
Final Thoughts and Connections
00:28:38
Speaker
do. So I'm putting my ah my big ladyboy pants on and I'm making some shit happen.
00:28:44
Speaker
I know that's right. the fact that you're taking action and and put planting the seeds and creating and having offers is is it. It's it. that's the And it's a great example for our trans community and non non-gender but ah conforming community.
00:29:02
Speaker
i mean, it's just a true blessing to have you, the mindset that you have and you're out there and you're sharing it with the world. That is the thing that I really, really love about you.
00:29:13
Speaker
Well, just to sort of wrap this up, I mean, I talk to you forever. I have so many more questions, but we you just gave us a lot to unpack, which I love.
00:29:25
Speaker
But I mean, I guess what what is the – I mean, this is kind of a deep question, but – love deep. What is your ideal for how you know how as a community we can – you know if there If it was an ideal future, what would it be? right like and i met there but you know What would it be for you? What you know what do you want to happen with what's happening now? Yes.
00:29:49
Speaker
I think we live in a state of of fear constantly, especially in America, because of the divisiveness of conversations. Everything about my lived experience is complete opposite of what is happening in political spaces.
00:30:04
Speaker
especially right-wing political spaces. I think that a lot of times we created an entire reality based off of differences rather than likenesses. And it is by grand design for power, for capitalism, for control.
00:30:20
Speaker
And I understand these things on a very deep level. So what I would prefer and what I would enjoy for people to understand is that the person that you are saying is completely different to you because of their mindset or opinions is actually needing you and you need them because the reality of it is y'all are facing the same issues, whether it be political, whether it be sexual, whether it be class, whether it be about race, all of it. And i think that my goal overall in the perfect world is for people to understand that every single person you come in contact with is someone who is an extension of you, not someone who is a um opposite of you.
00:31:01
Speaker
And if there is anything that is opposite that you see in them, that is what is to be relished and to be enjoyed and to be loved on rather than to be to be twisted or pushed away or to be turned into something that makes you feel comfortable.
00:31:16
Speaker
If you felt comfortable in every room you walked in, um as far as like unchallenged, you would never grow as a person. And I think what makes what I would like for people to to know about the lived experience I have that I want them to be able to embody is that what people view of you is only comes from the little shallow minded viewpoints of what they've learned about people who are like you in whatever way that is.
00:31:46
Speaker
So don't internalize people's viewpoint of you, but take it and use it a tool to be able to create allyship or to create opportunity for a learning um tool.
00:31:59
Speaker
People bring ignorance when they don't understand that it's most times don't understand it's ignorant. And if they do understand it's ignorant, it is not your job to carry their pain and make it your own.
00:32:13
Speaker
And I think that that comes with a lot of ability to understand who you are. That comes with a lot of a ability to understand how to convey and advocate for who you are and for who other people are.
00:32:23
Speaker
And I want to teach those tools to people. I want to share with people how powerful it is to know who you are. Oh my God, that is so beautiful. i am just, wow.
00:32:37
Speaker
Thank you so much for being on the show here today. i want everybody to be sure to know where they can follow you, where they can find you, where you're going to be, where you want to be. Give us all the things, all the handles. Yeah.
00:32:54
Speaker
Well, you can find me at all handles at RioAntone, which is R-I-O-N-T-O-N-E. You can find me on all social media platforms from there. I am even on Facebook. I love all the apps and I am extremely active. I love to converse and and meet new people. And I love to hear stories about anyone who ah is having their own personal life impacted by things that's going on or just sharing what um new thing that they learned for themselves. I really love to build community online and offline. I also do a lot of work around community, not just here in Vegas, but around the country in different spaces. So if anyone is wanting to connect, whether that be through um doing panels, speaking, hosting, helping to create a project management for fundraising and anything other that, our expertise in those projects, I just truly want people to understand that
00:33:51
Speaker
uh, this is a one-stop shop. but yeah You need it, I got it. yeah We got to get you up here as battle. yeah ah I mean, and we didn't even get to your performance side of things. My gosh.
00:34:06
Speaker
Please um come back and join us. um I got to have you on again. just so There's just so much to discuss with you that we didn't get to in this session, but and this is just the entry level.
00:34:18
Speaker
Follow Rio Antone. Keep um keep doing what you're doing. keep Please, please keep spreading the word, spreading your love, your joy, you're you're you're manifesting ah beautiful, beautiful situation for you and others and anyone that comes in contact with you.
00:34:38
Speaker
So again, I thank you for being in on Trans Heartbeat today. Until next time. Rio, thank you so much for sharing your incredible journey, your wisdom, and your light with us today.
00:34:51
Speaker
Your story is a reminder that transformation is possible no matter where we start and that claiming our truth can change the world around us. To our listeners, thank you for tuning in Keep following Trans Heartbeat for more stories from the heart of the movement.
00:35:08
Speaker
Until next time, I'm Michelle Matlock. Stay loud, stay proud, and stay connected.