Minnesota’s first nonbinary legislator on what led them to public service

CATHY WURZER: All of this month as part of our Changemakers series, NPR has been profiling trans and non-binary leaders making a difference in Minnesota. Today, we'll hear more from DFL Representative Alicia Kozlowski, who made history last November as the first non-binary person elected to the Minnesota legislature. The 35-year-old Minnesotan represents their hometown of Duluth, where they live with their partner and 9-year-old daughter.

Kozlowski, who is non-binary and in Native culture two-spirit, previously worked as community relations officer under Duluth Mayor Emily Larson. They also helped form a community healing group in Duluth called KwePack, which is a group of women and gender expansive people who meet to run, mountain bike, and rock climb together. Reporter Nicole Ki spoke with Kozlowski about their life before becoming a lawmaker.

NICOLE KI: What drew you to a career in public service?

ALICIA KOZLOWSKI: Oh, I call myself a reluctant politician. At the heart of it was I think coming to this space with the identities that I have as well as the lived experience of having gone through homelessness and all of the disparities, right, health care, all of these things that we know that face Black and Brown folks are what I've gone through. And so I think having walked through that just gave me this sense of when we're talked about, when we are featured or not featured, it is often times through a deficit lens.

And so I was really drawn to respond to my community who asked me to run for office because it's not something that I would have jumped in and just thrown my hat in for the run, but also paired with I think I have the audacity to believe that the strengths and the identities and the experiences that I was bringing had something to offer Minnesota beyond just sort of being on the, quote, unquote, "right team to push the right button," but it's not just who leads, but how they lead. And doing that with and for our community was definitely what drove me here.

NICOLE KI: Who is a rising trans or non-binary leader in Minnesota that you can think of?

ALICIA KOZLOWSKI: There's so many to name. But I'll just say, actually, one of them would be Khayman Goodsky. So Khayman works with our young people, our young queer folks, is leading a lot of the work for cultural resurgence, and also in our storytelling through the Minnesota film industry that's growing in Duluth and Northern Minnesota, greater Minnesota is really showing us how we carve out that space for ourselves within predominantly white spaces and tell our own stories and not have stories told about us.

The other person that I can think of is actually Brianna Ellison, who has been a really good friend for a long time as a Black queer young leader in Duluth and doing a lot of work around how do we create communities that are truly safe and heal, addressing police accountability? How do we have government systems at all levels that actually truly meaningfully engage people of color and folks who have been historically excluded?

And so they're actually in the role that I had at the city as community relations officer and executive leadership. And so those are just two people that I think of that are working in predominantly white spaces and heteronormative spaces and changing it for the better.

NICOLE KI: Is there anything that you feel comfortable in this space to say or share that feels meaningful to you or that you haven't been able to talk about?

ALICIA KOZLOWSKI: Growing up, I always kind of felt like I was walking around in like this dark forest really struggling with who am I and where am I going. And once I was able to pair that identity of being an Ojibwe person, being a Mexican person, and being two-spirit, it was like this puzzle that I always felt like something was wrong with me. And I realized that there's nothing wrong. It's that everything-- the world needs to catch up with us.

And so I think that's a lot of the work that we're doing and that I think particularly Black and Indigenous people are positioned well to do to walk us back home to a world that always was. For two-spirit people, like I said, we've always had our practices. We never had to hide. One of the things my cousin said to me when I told her that, hey, I'm queer. And she was like, awesome. That's beautiful. You should never have to come out because there's no closets in the teepee or the wigwam.

And so being able to move us to that reality, whether it's making sure that people understand and there's language to articulate our identities through are pronouns that there's spaces and physical spaces, whether it be outdoor or libraries or restrooms or workplace places that affirm queer folks because we're not going anywhere.

CATHY WURZER: That was Duluth DFL Representative Alicia Kozlowski speaking with NPR's Nicole Ki. You can find our whole Changemaker series of interviews and photos at nprnews.org/changemakers. Changemakers.