The Democratic National Convention on Tuesday featured a panelist who identifies as a “nonbinary/gender transcendent mermaid Queen-King” and who called for the abolition of the police, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and prisons.
According to the panelist’s Wake Forest University bio, J Mai is a “Black-Vietnamese, transgender nonbinary/gender transcendent mermaid Queen-King,” who recently became a “licensed minister in the Progressive National Baptist Church.”
J. Mai made the extreme comments during a DNC LGBTQ caucus meeting.
“Why can’t folks imagine a world without the cops? Why can’t folks imagine a world without prisons? Why can’t people expand their imaginations to include community care, to include an abolitionist future?” the self-avowed “mermaid Queen-King” said.
J Mai stressed that she was talking about real abolition, not a watered-down version.
“We’re talking about abolishing the police, we’re talking about abolishing ICE, we’re talking about abolishing prisons,” J Mai said.
J Mai works at the LGBTQ Center at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C.
According to her bio, “J Mai (they/them) is a Black-Vietnamese, transgender nonbinary/gender transcendent mermaid Queen-King currently living out their ever-evolving truths in Winston-Salem, NC. A recently licensed minister in the Progressive National Baptist Church, J received their Bachelors in Sociology and Women, Gender, Sexuality Studies at Wake Forest University and is currently working towards a Masters in Divinity at Wake Forest University School of Divinity.”