Tynan Power

Tynan Power was born in 1970 in Washington, D.C., to Carol Cargill{{cite web|title=Carol Cargill Obituary|url=https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/providence/name/carol-cargill-obituary?id=17123220 |website=www.legacy.com |publisher=Legacy|access-date=4 May 2023}} and James Power.{{cite web|title=James Power Obituary|url=https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/washingtonpost/name/james-power-obituary?id=6030789 |website=www.legacy.com |publisher=Legacy|access-date=4 May 2023}} His mother was an applied linguistics professor and his father was a federal mediator and, previously, a Catholic priest. The couple divorced when Power was a baby.{{cite book |editor-last1=Gillespie|editor-first1=Peggy|date=2 May 2023|title=Authentic Selves: Celebrating Trans and Nonbinary People and Their Families|publisher=Skinner House Books

|page=240|isbn=978-1558968967}}

Power spent most of his life in Tampa, Florida, before moving to Massachusetts in 1999.{{citation needed|date=November 2021}} He was raised Catholic, but converted to Islam in 1985 at age fourteen.{{citation needed|date=November 2021}} Although he was designated female at birth, he recognized that he identified as male at an early age and transitioned from female to male as an adult.{{cite web|url=https://digital.nepr.net/news/2012/03/08/transgender-muslim-honored-human-rights-activism/|title=Transgender Muslim Honored for Human Rights Activism|author=Karen Brown|work=News|access-date=2 November 2021}}

Power attended the University of South Florida in Tampa briefly in 1987, but moved to Morocco partway through his undergraduate education. After moving back to the United States, he returned to the University of South Florida and received his Bachelor of Arts in English in 1995. In 2000, at the University of South Florida in St. Petersburg, he received his Master of Arts in Mass Communication-Journalism.{{citation needed|date=November 2021}}

Power was a founding member of the Muslim Alliance for Sexual and Gender Diversity (MASGD), which works to support and connect LGBTQ+ Muslims.{{cite web |title=The MASGD - Our Mission |url=https://www.themasgd.org/ |publisher=The Muslim Alliance for Sexual and Gender Diversity |access-date=November 2, 2021}} He served as a program coordinator at MASGD's Trans Wellness Conference from 2012 to 2014.{{cite news |last1=Bryant |first1=Jess |title=Trans-run nonprofit explores spirituality at upcoming conference |url=https://epgn.com/2019/07/18/trans-run-nonprofit-explores-spirituality-at-upcoming-conference/ |work=Philadelphia Gay News |date=July 19, 2019}}{{cite news |last1=Ring |first1=Trudy |title=LGBT Muslims Make Progress on the Path to Acceptance |url=https://www.advocate.com/politics/religion/2013/09/23/lgbt-muslims-make-progress-path-acceptance |work=The Advocate |date=September 23, 2013 |language=en}} Power also served as co-chair for MASGD's retreat for two years and served on the retreat planning team for five.{{citation needed|date=November 2021}} Before his work with MASGD, Power was an early member of Al-Fatiha Foundation, a similar organization that disbanded in 2005, and served on its or advisory council.{{citation needed|date=November 2021}}

In July 2015, Power was an invited speaker at the National Interfaith Service held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, as part of the LGBT 50th celebration. He joined Bishop Gene Robinson, Rev. Jeffrey H. Jordan-Pickett, Rabbi Linda Holtzman, Rabbi Margot Stein, Rev. Timothy Safford, Rev. Susan Richardson and singer Jonathan Allen at the event.{{cite web|url=http://lgbt50.org/national-interfaith-service-sermon-bishop-gene-robinson-includes-transgender-muslim-faith-leader|title=National Interfaith Service With Sermon By Bishop Gene Robinson Includes Transgender Muslim Faith Leader|author=Cathy Renna|work=Press Release|access-date=12 July 2015}}

Power previously worked as the Muslim coordinator with Transfaith, which is a nonprofit based in Philadelphia that supports transgender individuals in religious communities. Power works for Smith College School for Social Work as a communications specialist. He also gives speeches about transgender and Islam, LGBT Muslims, and progressive Muslims.{{citation needed|date=November 2021}}

• Progressive Muslim Identities: Personal Stories from the U.S. and Canada. Eds. Zahra Ayubi, Sara Farooqi, Vanessa Karam, Tynan Power, Olivia Samad & Ani Zonneveld. Oracle Releasing, 2011. {{ISBN|0983716102}}{{cite web|url=http://mpvusa.org/progressive-muslim-identities/|title=Progressive Muslim Identities|work=MPV|access-date=7 December 2014|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141127180706/http://mpvusa.org/progressive-muslim-identities/|archive-date=27 November 2014}}
• Margaret Price with Leah (Phinnia) Meredith, Cal Montgomery, and Tynan Power. "In/ter/dependent Scholarship" in Mad at School: Rhetorics of Mental Disability and Academic Life"'. University of Michigan Press, 2011. {{ISBN|9780472071388}}{{cite book|last1=Price|first1=Margaret|title=Mad at School: Rhetorics of Mental Disability and Academic Life|date=2011|publisher=University of Michigan Press|isbn=978-0-472-07138-8|url=http://www.press.umich.edu/1612837/mad_at_school|access-date=8 December 2014}}

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Category:1970 births

Category:Living people

Category:American human rights activists

Category:American educators

Category:Muslims from Florida

Category:Converts to Islam from Catholicism

Category:American LGBTQ rights activists

Category:People from Northampton, Massachusetts

Category:People from Tampa, Florida

Category:Religious leaders from Washington, D.C.

Category:Transgender rights activists

Category:Transgender academics

Category:Transgender Muslims

Category:University of South Florida alumni

Category:21st-century American LGBTQ people

Category:21st-century American writers

Category:LGBTQ people from Washington, D.C.