Deaf Queer Resource Center
Dragonsani "Drago" Renteria is a Deaf Chicano/Italian FTM who currently serves as president and CEO of DeafVision, Inc. (www.deafvision.net), a new media company that specializes in professional Web development and hosting. He is a seasoned activist, and prior to DeafVision, Drago served as Director of San Francisco’s Deaf Gay and Lesbian Center (1992-1995) where he brought much awareness and visibility to the Deaf LGBT Community with such ground breaking projects as Deaf LGBT Awareness Week.
As a long-time activist, his contributions to the community are countless. In 1991, he published the first magazine by, for and about the Deaf LGBT Community as a way to unite the community and provide a national voice. In 1995 he founded the national Deaf Queer Resource Center (www.deafqueer.org), an online information and resource Web site which has touched the lives of many Deaf LGBTs who live in remote areas and do not have access to resources and support.
Drago is actively involved with the national Rainbow Alliance of the Deaf and recently completed two board terms of two years each with the organization. He continues to volunteer his time as the organization’s historian. Additionally, he is also involved with FTM International and is on the Board of the Youth Gender Project. Drago also finds time to manage a number of mailing lists and resource sites for the general Deaf, Deaf Latino and FTM Communities.
In addition to his activism and community service work, Drago is passionate about preserving the history of the Deaf LGBT Community, which is often overlooked and missing from most LGBT and deaf history books. In 1994, he founded the National Deaf Queer Archives, which he continues to maintain and coordinate on a volunteer basis.
After dedicating most of his life to the non-profit sector, he now works full-time at a for-profit company, Drago continues to strive to make a difference in all aspects of his life. Under his direction, DeafVision donates a great deal each year to helping a number of nonprofit LGBT, Deaf, Deaf Queer and Trans organizations establish a presence online.
Drago is a graduate of the University of California at Berkeley and has lived in the San Francisco Bay Area since 1989. He is originally from El Paso, Texas.
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