(Editor's note: The following is the first piece in a weekly column by OL staffer Tehea Robie that highlights lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning and intersex issues and people in and around Oakland.)

Robbie Clark, of Causa Justa::Just Cause and Urban Congress 2010

Years ago - when the sun was in Pisces, the moon was in Sagittarius and Cancer was just ascending the horizon - an inquisitive, artistic, gender-queer defender of urban justice was born.

Last week, I got a glimpse of the inner space of Robbie Clark’s life, as it evolves on planet earth.

It’s the space where high ideals, pronouns, puking after church and push back against neoliberalism meets practical transformative action, steady-but-fluid confidence, nausea-free spiritual practice and successful ballot measures.

It’s a dreamy swim through the fire.

The more I write about queer issues, the more I learn that almost 20 years as an out lesbian hasn’t taught me a damn thing about our larger LGBTQQI struggle. For example, the interview was near complete before I learned that Clark doesn’t identify as male or female. My sheepish brain registered the fact that I must have uttered “gurrrrl” more than a few times during the exciting parts of our lively two-hour conversation. Then I started thinking ahead to this article. I needed to know if Clark preferred she or he.

“Neither. And either. Neither, because neither describes who I am. And either one, because of the language options that we have," Clark said. "I think that the definition of feminine and masculine are confining. It’s important to step back, for people to challenge themselves and realize that somebody isn’t male or female based on what they look like. People need to be more conscious about checking in.”

Clark works for Causa Justa::Just Cause, a multiracial, grassroots organization, which educates, assists and mobilizes tenants and working class homeowners. In her/his new position as Housing Rights Lead Organizer, s/he develops the organization’s campaign plans. CJJC is the result of a merger between St. Peter’s Housing Committee in San Francisco and Oakland's Just Cause.

 “When we merged, we were able to bring all that power together, Oakland and San Francisco together, black and Latino communities together, in the fight for housing rights,” Clark explained. "What does it look like to have real neighborhood community development that is community led and community driven? How do we bring resources into an area that has been without resources, without pushing people out, the people who have lived there for generations?"

This past June, at the United States Social Forum in Detroit, Clark facilitated Urban Congress - a workshop with speakers from various struggles, including United Auto Workers (Detroit), post-hurricane Katrina (New Orleans), public education (Providence, Rhode Island), Teachers Unite (New York) and immigration (Puente, Arizona). S/he asked participants to envision the city that they want to see.

“We’re really about increasing the amount of people who are involved and engaged in making decisions. There are a number of decisions that are made for us and so part of our work is about exercising more agency, in order to have more control over things that we don’t get to decide. That’s the real push back against neoliberalism - getting people to think about what’s going to be best for the common good.”

When Clark was 3, s/he could read. But school administrators wouldn’t let a child of that age enter kindergarten. Or so they said. When Clark got to kindergarten, s/he found a 3-year-old interracial (Asian and white) girl named Missy. S/he was outraged. “Racism,” her/his father said.

“My dad was retired from the army when I was born, so we hung out a lot," Clark said. "When I was little I would read the newspaper with him. He had a different world view than I did, but he was still interested in talking about it. It was fun to have someone to argue with, and I learned a lot.

"I also observed things going down around me," s/he continued. "Humans, by nature, aren’t like this, so what makes us act like this? My dad emphasized education. My parents sacrificed a lot for me to go to private schools. I went to Holy Names for high school. I got exposed to progressive teachers. That’s where I learned about Harvey Milk, Mumia Abu Jamal and Stephen Biko. I got to go on a service project to Mexico, and I learned about the impact that NAFTA was having in Mexico. It was a big moment for me, because I was like whoa ... it’s bigger than hip hop! It’s bigger than what happens in the U.S. There are no factory jobs in Oakland because they moved all the jobs down to Mexico, but this is what the U.S. is doing to people down here in Mexico.”

Many people see the inequity that Clark sees. But what made the activist? What made the individual who believed that s/he could actually do something about that inequity?

“I started to learn to speak up because I noticed that when I spoke up, at some point, something would change. Somebody would engage with me and things would change. In third grade I went to St. Jarlath in Fruitvale and they had altar boys. And I wasn’t Catholic, but I said that I didn’t think it was fair that only boys could do this. It didn’t make sense. I got a group of people to say that with me and they changed it.”

Clark’s work involves dealing with weighty situations and heavy issues. S/he stays up (keeps from getting down) with ebbs and flows of spirituality, physical health, work mode and clubbing. She MC’s and draws with color pencils and pastels.

“Robbie is a force to be reckoned with, in a karaoke bar and in the face of injustice,” said Oriana Bolden, a filmmaker who interviewed Clark on the importance of queer black space.

Clark has certainly changed my mind and challenged my assumptions about what is possible with pronouns. S/he’s reminded me of why I hella heart Oakland, and why it's possible to see through the flaming sea.

“There are so many of us that are suffering, in internal and external ways. We can choose to ignore it, we can choose to cover it up, we can put something nice and shiny on it, but so many of us are suffering," Clark said. "If all of us just decided that enough is enough ... this isn’t going to happen anymore. Then sh-- would have to change.

"There are more of us than there are of the people who are orchestrating this in a conscious way. There are more of us. Yeah, it’s a really big system. But we are a lot of people!”