Identifying as neither male nor female, Jacob Thomas has spent most of their adult life asking what gender really means. They explore the restrictions and harm of prescribed gender norms and why celebrating our personal differences is important. In an engaging and honest personal story, Thomas walks us into the often unheard experiences of gender diversity.

After living most of their life as male, Jacob Thomas came out as gender-queer in early 2014. Recognising within that they didn’t feel entirely comfortable being male or female, Thomas started exploring what gender really meant to them, what came with one’s own sense of gender identity, and how gender has been used to restrict us from living our truth. Through their work, Jacob has had the opportunity to be a consultant for big businesses and governments, a presenter at universities, and work with global bodies such as the Commonwealth Youth Gender Equality Network and the 2015 delegation of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Malta.

Jacob Thomas is a young gender equality activist, LGBTIQ rights advocate, social entrepreneur, performer, and disruptive public speaker from Melbourne, Australia. They wholeheartedly believe in the power of young people to create long-term, meaningful, and sustainable changes in the world, and can do so best when working from the heart


This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx