about

Contact: haven.ongoco.ritt@gmail.com | Instagram: @ginger.splice

haven (they/them/elle/siya)

white filipinx, trans-GNC, queer human with persistent pain & mental maladies

i am a

care network builder

trans crisis hotline responder

budding tattoo artist

forever athlete

seeker of understanding

shape-shifter

relationship anarchist

sensual mover

oogi parent

i am a former biomedical engineer divested from capitalism and the medical industrial complex.

i am a collegiate athlete (soccer) estranged from the athletics industrial complex.

i am centering abolitionism, decolonization, and transformative justice.

i am a conduit, connector, and collector of stories.

i am community made.

i am my ancestor's wildest dreams (really though, they're probs like 'wtf is an oogi').

Thanks to the efforts of revolutionaries and community members past and present, I am beginning to have the words and practices to fully embody and practice the values my soul has been craving all along. I reject hierarchies in all relationships - I am not an expert, leader, nor teacher. I strive to use my resilience and privilege offered to me by my whiteness, higher socioeconomic upbringing, and education, to help manifest the visions of the most oppressed.

My journey in 'social justice' began in college where I created organizations at the intersections of mental health, athletics, and LGBTQIA+ identities. I've facilitated panels, trainings, and workshops, and collaborated with and learned from other orgs and practitioners. I've catalyzed change in all 'professional' spaces i've been apart of - from simple things like pronouns in workplace emails to adoptions of trans sports inclusion policy in entire college regions. I am currently a crisis hotline operator for a grassroots trans org and meetup guide for a QTBIPOC-centered outdoors group.

I like to dance, make art, surf, skateboard (I can finally ollie hehe), connect over food, explore and respect nature. Estoy aprendiendo a espanol y nag-aaral ako ng tagalog (I am learning spanish (3rd yr) and am learning tagalog (veryy fresh/community taught)). I LOVE to read anything from 'academic' texts to scifi, zines, poetry, and anything that stretches my imagination and dismantles the constructs I've internalized. I am figuring out how to engage in voguing, waacking, and ballroom while being COVID-conscious and am currently stoked on Rupaul's Drag Race Philippines (Mabuheyy!), Lengendary re-runs, OTA clips, and Dragula TITANS.

i am figuring out how to bloom where planted

a lot of me wants to escape

this is where i was raised, settler on stolen lands

this is where i was complicit in and subjected to violence under westernization, capitalism, colonialism, cis-hetero-patriarchy, and white supremacy

this is where i was conditioned to believe that being a biomedical engineer would help people live a life worth living

this is where i was lied to and denied access to my true self

this is where i pursued gender affirming care and receive medical and legal trauma

this is where i have harmed folks and fumbled into accountability

this is where i have been harmed and assaulted by members of my own "community"

this is where i feel lost and isolated and unable to fully receive though surrounded by queer and trans folks

this is where i choose to stay

to put down roots

to receive nourishment from the soil

to immerse myself in symbiotic relationships with the land and others

to stop striving 'for' and begin breathing, existing, struggling, decolonizing, living, imagining 'with'

i dream of building a pod and a chosen family rooted in transformative, loving, and healing justice

i dream of generative connections exchanging care and creativity and vulnerability

i dream of supporting the development of crisis intervention, safety, and justice practices outside of the state

i dream of using my privileges and experiences to create spaces where others can unleash their authenticity and uplift collective liberation

what dreams keep you where you are planted?

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