Charley Burton
Founder and Executive Director
Public Speaker, Mentor, Advocate for Trans Equality
Charley Burton is a native of Charlottesville VA.
Charley is the owner of Charley Speaks. He is often on the road offering speaking engagements and training where, through his story telling and inspirational conversation, involves his audience on what it is like to be a Black Transman living in the south.
Charley serves as Board Chair of Equality VA; the first transgender person to hold this role. He was appointed by Governor Northam as one of the members on the LGBTQ+ Advisory Board. He is the Founder of Diversity in Recovery, an organization designed to provide safe spaces for the LGBTQ/BIPOC community.
Charley is currently working on revising his mother’s cookbook that will have southern recipes and stories of black women in the kitchen and the stories behind her wonderful food creations. He is the founder of Black Transmen Can Cook featuring Black Transmen and their recipes and stories of being in the kitchen from pre transition to now.
Charley recently created the STEP - Supporting Trans Elders Project aimed to help and recognized the Black Transmen who are elders in our community live their older lives with support and resources.
Charley is the Founder and Executive Director of Transforming Futures an organization focused on hosting conferences all over the state of Virginia to enrich the Trans community and its Allies on how to be of support during these trying times.
Charley was honored in 2021 as an Outstanding Virginian by Equality VA, The Community Root award by Black Pride RVA, Caring for the Community for Above and Beyond Voice for Equity by United Way of Greater Charlotteville. He is certified as a Mental Health First Aid, Peer Support Specialist, Safe Space Trainer, and Trainer for Transgender 101.
Charley is currently enrolled at Morehouse College majoring in Business Management/Public Health.
Currently Charley has his life story on Amazon: The Boy Beneath My Skin is a story about surviving abuse, addiction, mental illness, and gender dysphoria that reveals one man’s indominable spirit to recover and live a rich life. This is just not one man’s story; in many ways it’s story about us all.
