Activist Spencer West delivered the keynote speech at Carleton’s 2019 SOAR Student Leadership Conference on Jan. 12.
At the age of five, West lost both legs from the pelvis down due to a genetic disorder. That’s never stopped him though—he summited Mount Kilimanjaro, the highest mountain in Africa—using his hands and a wheelchair to raise awareness of the East Africa drought in 2012.
The following year, he trekked from Edmonton to Calgary with WE Charity to fundraise for clean water.
The Charlatan sat down for an exclusive interview with West to discuss inspiration, identity, and disability.
The Charlatan (TC): You’ve mentioned in previous interviews that your 2008 trip to Kenya kickstarted your involvement with WE. What inspired you to embark on that trip?
Spencer West (SW): Before that trip, I was working in corporate America and I was unsatisfied with the direction my life was going.
It was a friend of mine who’d been building schools with WE that called and said, “Listen, we’re going to Kenya again and we would love for you to come.”
The trip ended up being life-changing. I saw the work that WE does and learned the power of my story and how I can use it to give back.
When I came back to North America, it seemed like an injustice to go back to my job and not do something about what I’d learned.
Poverty looks very different outside of North America, and I wanted to contribute to overseas initiatives to change that. So, I applied for a job at WE and ended up moving here to Canada to work for the charity.
TC: You went on to become an outspoken advocate for clean water. How did you discover your passion for that issue?
SW: It was an accident. When we decided to climb Mount Kilimanjaro, we wanted to raise money to build schools—I’d seen how education breaks the cycle of poverty.
That year, East Africa was hit with one of the worst droughts in 60 years. I saw what drought looks like firsthand and realized that it’s so much more than what I’d initially thought.
The communities we visited were home to subsistence farmers, so, because there was a lack of water, their crops didn’t grow and they lost their livelihood. Their kids had to stop going to school to stay home and help their family earn an alternative income to survive.
I thought, “We can’t even get to education yet—we have to start with water.”
TC: You climbed Mount Kilimanjaro and walked from Edmonton to Calgary to raise awareness of the global water crisis. What was the motivation behind those two projects?
SW: I did those two campaigns with my best friends, David and Alex. My friends and family always come first in my mind, so I wanted to be able to spend time with my friends.
I thought, “Why don’t we have an adventure where we can spend time together but also give back?”
As well, I’d met incredible women through WE who were doing amazing work with social justice, but I realized that you don’t always see the male perspective.
I wanted to show that three men cared about the world and that we wanted to give back. It was a cool juxtaposition—men should be sensitive and men should care about what’s happening in the world too.
As three men who also identify as feminists, it was important for us to support and lend our voice to the women in East Africa who have to travel daily to collect water.
TC: Speaking of breaking down barriers, you posted your coming-out video last year. What prompted you to share your story?
SW: There are two key aspects of my life. The first is my disability, which everyone sees right away. I came out when I was 21, a bit later in life.
But when I came out, it was to everyone— my family, my friends, and my co-workers.
Recently, I told my coming-out story and started addressing that piece of my life because it’s really important that I’m another visible person in the community.
People need to know that gay people exist everywhere, and some of us have disabilities. I wanted to be another face in the crowd to show them that.
TC: What is it like having a shared identity within the visibly disabled community and the LGBTQ+ community?
SW: Intersectionality is so important. I’m still figuring out how I fit in in both the disability and the LGBTQ+ community, how I can lend my platform and my voice.
When I first climbed Mount Kilimanjaro, I got a lot of constructive feedback. People told me that I was showing the world that anyone with disabilities could do anything, but that’s not true.
So I’m trying to find the balance by representing the disability community in a way that’s realistic and positive.
It’s the same with the LGBTQ+ community—I started by identifying myself as a member of the community and I’m slowly starting to integrate that piece into my storytelling.
TC: What does it mean to be an icon for LGBTQ+ youth and youth with disabilities?
SW: I remember growing up without anyone in mainstream media I could look up to—Will & Grace didn’t exist yet, and Ellen [DeGeneres] had just come out.
As I started to see LGBTQ+ figures in the media, I felt like I wasn’t alone. I felt there were other people out there that were like me and that I could identify with.
That’s why it was important to me to start by saying that I’m another face in the crowd, that most people know me for climbing Mount Kilimanjaro, but I’m also gay.
I wanted to tell people that it’s okay to be yourself, that you can do all these amazing things regardless of your identity.
Similarly, it took me a long time to have disability pride and to say that out loud with confidence.
It’s only in the last 10 years that I understood what it is to be an activist, to say that the people I rode the bus with were amazing, diverse, and incredible.
I’m really proud to say that I have a disability—I’m really proud to say that I’m a gay man.
TC: What advice do you have for students who want to create positive change in their community?
SW: Start looking at the things you love to do. I took my love of storytelling and my story and paired it with an organization that allows me to make a difference while doing something that I genuinely love.
That’s what people need to start looking at—what things they love to do, and how they can pair those with the communities they’re part of or that they’re passionate about and want to be an ally for.
It’s different for every person and you just have to figure out what it is.
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Photo by Camila Giudice
