Southern Queer Newsroom
This interview was recorded on August 22, 2025, at the official opening of the Kennesaw Pride Center, an independent resource center for queer KSU students created after the administration rolled back many DEI programs. The transcript has been edited slightly for readability.
On October 27, 2025, Mari took her own life. A piece properly covering her will published some time in the next couple weeks, as I am freshly hurting from it. Rest in power.
Brittany Rook: Alright, I am here for an interview today with Marisol Payero, Kennesaw Pride Alliance president. It is August 22, 2025, my name is Brittany Rook for the Southern Queer Newsroom.
Marisol Payero: Well, I'm happy to be here.
BR: Absolutely. So, just some background information about who you are, how long you've been at Kennesaw State University, your major, things like that?
MP: Well, I am an Argentine American. I've been in Georgia since 2008. I grew up in Gwinnett County, city of Norcross. I've been there ever since. I came to Kennesaw State in 2020 – what a great year that was.
BR: Oh yeah.
MP: Mhm. I took up the major of history education, although I also have two minors in Native American Studies and Classical Studies.
BR: Ooh, that's interesting. The classical studies, specifically – is that the old Greek stuff or is that literature or...?
MP: It focuses on ancient Greek and Roman history. This is also the minor where you would learn Latin.
BR: What made you interested in Kennesaw State in the first place?
MP: I wasn't, actually. Sometimes I think back and I'm like, "Wow. Did you mess up or what?" No, I didn't. It's a good university, minus a lot of things. But, it wasn't any of my options. I went here because my sibling went here. Well, I say I "went" here. In reality, I was sent here, like my sibling was sent here. I, in reality, wanted to go to Argentina and go to the University of Buenos Aires. But, y'know I make do. And I won't lie, I've been enjoying my time here.
BR: Is Buenos Aires as a university pretty prestigious university in Latin America?
MP: It is! If I remember correctly, it may be one of the most prestigious in Latin America.
BR: That is impressive! So, despite wanting to go to Buenos Aires, you got selected to come here. How would you describe your experience at KSU as a queer person?
MP: Well, at the beginning, I thought it was...y'know, it was very nice. It was a breath of fresh air, really, when I came here. I had always been open about who I was. But just because I was open about it didn't mean people actually understood and appreciated what I was saying. Y'know, everybody hears it, "it's a phase!" It was not, in fact, a phase. But, in those early years—2020, 2021, late 2022—I really did feel happy. I wrote my name as how I wanted it. I never changed it, I always went by Mari after a while. But I was able to dress how I wanted to away from the environment that didn't foster my identity.
BR: I know for many queer people, that's a very freeing and liberating experience. Would you same for yourself?
MP: I would! Before that, I was a very sad and I'd say mentally unstable individual. Even though I rely focused a lot on my academics, that's what really kept me going was my focus on academics, because then I wouldn't have to think of anything else. But, when I got here, I was able to start figuring out who I was as a person, and, yeah. I would say like everyone else, it was liberating.
BR: So that was like, in the first couple of years you were here. After the university's decision to close down the LGBTQ Resource Center and Black Resource Center and other identity based organizations that served marginalized communities, how did you respond to that?
MP: I didn't, actually. My original idea was to hunker down and do nothing. Clearly, that's not what I went with, and that's thanks to Amelia. She's actually the one who found me and asked me to come and help, and so I brought back the KPA, and here we are. I reacted...poorly, I'd say, to Global Village and the LGBT Center and CARC [Cultural Awareness and Resources Center] being shut down. In particular, Global Village, because it felt like a double whammy, really.
BR: Yeah, because your identity as a queer person and as an Argentine American gets attacked at the same time.
MP: Mhm.
BR: Because of these attacks, has that environment made things better or worse for you? Personally or among students or?
MP: I'd say it's made it much worse. There's something heavy in the air here now, at least amongst the queer community. Particularly because the Stonewall Housing is going to be shut down at the end of the semester. So Spring 2026, there will no longer be Stonewall Housing. And a lot of queer students really relied on that. Some of the friends I know and who attened the event today rely on that housing to not be homeless, one, and two, to be away from toxic situations that stem from the being queer.
BR: So, what is Stonewall Housing, for those unfamiliar with the campus?
MP: For those unfamiliar on campus, Kennesaw had – still has, although it will soon be past tense – a dedicated group of dorms for LGBT students. There's no single dorms, but every dorm had four rooms inside. So we could fit a lot of people, and it was in very high demand, so much so that we needed to have a waitlist. And even then, some people would graduate without ever getting into the rooms. It's...it's not the best place, I will say. It's not ADA-compliant, either. I think that's because it was some of the oldest housing on campus. But it was ours, it was set aside for us. It was named after our history. And now we don't have it.
BR: Do you know what they're doing with Stonewall Housing then? Is it just the entire development's getting torn down? Or are they just opening it up to general population again?
MP: They're going to open it up to general population, if I recall. This does mean that all the students who were in there...I believe they may keep the room, but that means they will be placed in sex-based dorms, or they will try to assign people based off their sex.
BR: And of course, that opens up a lot of problems with trans people, nonbinary people, intersex people especially.
MP: Yes. This has actually already been a problem a campus. And elsewhere, there are studies that show that trans people are less prone to being attacked if they are placed in the proper dorms, and proper areas, and also restrooms. So violence against us goes down when we're accommodated for. And nothing changes for the university, however they still want to make this change.
BR: That is not...all of that is some pretty heavy stuff to talk about. What are some positive experiences you've had as a queer person on campus?
MP: Well, I think the most positive would have been...I think this year might be my most positive. The energy—despite, y'know, everything— the energy is very good. We're a very positive community. I really think us having good queer leaders is showing that we don't have to be silent, that we don't have to hide like I originally believed in April. And I've enjoyed my time being here as KPA president. This isn't my first time either. I had been co-president in 2022 to 2023 with the official president, Rena. But past that, I think positive things would have been the preferred names in particular being on student IDs. It mean that nobody – once you did the change, no one would know. No one could purposely try to – they could misgender you, sure, but they'd never know your legal name, or your dead name.
BR: Yeah, that was one of the things that surprised me reading about this was even that was taken away. Because on a campus that wasn't as big on the queer community and even just general community like Georgia Gwinnett College, I was still able to use my preferred name on Banner instead of go find my dead name everywhere, which really helped.
MP: Yeah. It would really help people's mental health if they reversed that policy. However, that's a University System of Georgia policy, so that would have to be a top-down change.
BR: Because of the University System of Georgia making a top-down change to how student IDs are handled, what do you want to see from school administration and elected officials in Georgia?
MP: Well, firstly, I want them to reverse these changes that are negatively affecting the queer community and that have no direct negative impact – well, I say direct, but direct or indirect effect on the non-queer community. Because us being ourselves doesn't affect them in any way. So, the benefits of doing it is just better well-being overall. Past that, I suppose, you said from legislators? The reinstatement of...well, I guess I could go on a list of reinstatement stuff. But, there needs to be a focus here on education. And I say, y'know, perhaps I'm biased, I'm an educator myself. But the real issue that they can reverse any of these number of changes, but it will always come back to the same root issue is that there is a lack of education about the queer community. If people knew about us, and knew why we are, instead of questioning why we should be, then we would have less issues. A well educated society tends to have better queer rights. And, Georgia being near bottom of the barrel in education does not help.
BR: Yeah, it does just make everything more difficult unfortunately. What do you want people to understand about living as a queer person in Georgia right now?
MP: It's...especially for those of us who quote-unquote "don't pass," it's extremely difficult. At the very least, depending on where you are, most people won't bat an eye, or they'll just ignore you. But there's just a lot of harassment, a lot of comments people will make, sometimes physical violence. And against queer people of color, that is extremely common, actually. I mean, I myself, haven't been spared from that. So I want people to know that it's dangerous. It's dangerous but we still do it, because what else are supposed to do? We can't live as something we're not.
BR: This is a more personal question: do you want to keep living in Georgia with everything that's been going on, both at the school administration and legislatively?
MP: Y'know, if you had asked me maybe six or seven months ago...
[Interruption removed.]
MP: If you had asked me several months ago before these changes started taking place, and the federal administration, which I know we haven't talked about but it's kind of the elephant in the room... We, I don't. I wanted to. Y'know, as a Georgian, I've been here. I consider myself a Georgian. I like to say I'm from Atlanta. It's the suburbs of Atlanta.
BR: Same.
MP: Although that one song will say I'm not Atlanta. And...now, I mean, it's just, I can't. Not in my current job. It's—technically, it's not legal for me to work at a school. But, if it's found out that I am, then I might just be kicked out. And that's because of a federal presidential decree, "Protecting Women from Radical Gender Ideology."
BR: Yeah, I believe that's Executive Order 14168?
MP: I believe so.
BR: Because there's been too many of these for me to keep track of.
MP: Yeah, I don't remember the numbers but I remember the names. And I remember what the content is. So, by making it so that you cannot discuss other genders within the classroom, either directly or indirectly, it's causing me problems because I am an indirect promotion of other genders, and that there isn't a binary. And so, the way that it's currently being done is that we're just not talking about it. But, if something is brought up at any point, I could lose my position. Or the school could lose funding, if they like me enough to try and do that.
BR: Is this still something you want to pursue after graduating, or is this something you're seeking to avoid or move out of state for?
MP: This as in education, or?
BR: Kinda the situation you described.
MP: Working in the school?
BR: Yeah.
MP: I mean, if I wanted to change my mind, it's a little too late now, less than a year from graduating. I still want to pursue education but I can't do it in the states. I'm probably going to have to go elsewhere. I have some ideas, but I feel that's also a sentiment a lot of other queer people feel as that they just can't live here. They want to live in the States, y'know, it's our country. But, they just can't live in the South anymore.
BR: I admit to having felt some of that myself, because it is pretty depressing to go up against.
MP: Yeah.
BR: What do you feel about queer resource centers like this and how important they are for people and for yourself?
MP: Let me just start by saying I didn't even know Kennesaw had an LGBT resource center. But the fact that it was there, and when I did find out about it, that I was able to utilize the resources that it offered, was very helpful to me. Although we did go through a few resource center coordinators, all of them have always been very helpful, and they always brought an air of positivity despite everything. And these resource center are important. There are unlimited resources for queer people that they might not even know exist. For example, the Stonewall Housing, you could only get into via the LGBT Center, because that was a resource to center offered. We're trying to see if we can imitate something like that, but housing is something where we probably aren't going to be able to offer.
MP: But they also offered mental health services. If they themselves couldn't do it, they would send us to associated groups, like queer telehealth, if I recall. They have some other...I knew they had some others. I never, personally, I never utilized any of them, because I didn't need them. But the people who did need them is why those resources exist in the first place. And by having them all together in one single place, it makes it as easy as possible. You don't have to go searching on the interwebs for something that may or may not exist.
BR: Yeah, because it's like right there, and it's like, people you know that connect you to it.
MP: And no only that, but when you put it right there, when a center puts it there, it's a small verification that these services are something that are safe and are affirming and that are something that are accessible to you.
BR: That's really important to hear. I didn't have any other questions, but if you're like to talk more on the topic, I'd absolutely be happy to...
MP: On the topic of resource centers?
BR: Just, anything we've discussed, anything you feel is important for people to hear.
MP: Mhm. I suppose then, the one thing I have to say is people cannot forget the intersectionality between queerness and race. There's a lot of things that queer people of color cannot avoid. We cannot avoid racism, unfortunately, and I've had my fair share. Past that, I think people just need to remember that being silent won't win us anything at the end of the day. But, if I recall correctly, at the end of one of my speeches I had said once, no matter how long and hard the day, the night will come. And I think that's everything I have to say.
BR: Thank you so much for agreeing to do this!
MP: Oh, no problem at all! Thank you for interviewing me. I don't know, do you have readers or do you have watchers?
BR: I will have readers eventually.
MP: Oh! Okay, well then, thank you readers for listening to my story. Even though you're not here to listen to it right now.
BR: Yeah!
MP: Or read it.
BR: Thank you so much for this.
MP: No problem. Also could you tell me the time, by chance?
BR: Just about 3 o'clock on the dot.
MP: Well then, let us get back into the event! Although I doubt there are too many people left.
BR: You'd be surprised.
MP: Yeah, I would be surprised. I hope they're utilizing our center. We put out all the tricks. We have what the resource center had plus more, in some regards, and much less on others.
The recording ends here, and we both went on to enjoy the rest of the opening celebration for the Kennesaw Pride Center. I didn't publish anything about it, but after Trump was elected, the University System of Georgia and KSU administration cracked down on "DEI" programs. KSU lost the Black Resource Center, Women's Resource Center, and LGBTQ+ Resource Center. Kennesaw Pride Alliance set about establishing an independent Kennesaw Pride Center at a church off campus in June and it officially opened in August, which is when I recorded this interview.
Rest in power, Mari.