Dragonsani "Drago" Renteria is a deaf Chicano transgender man, CEO of DeafVision, founder and executive director of Deaf Queer Resource Center (DQRC) and long-time resident of San Francisco.
He is an LGBTQ/social justice activist, community leader, educator, editor, historian, and artist. He spearheaded many DeafQueer advocacy efforts and took charge, in various capacities, of several Deaf LGBTQ organizations.
Early life and education
Renteria was born in El Paso, Texas. He is of Mexican and Italian heritages and grew up in the Chicano culture. Growing up, his first language was Spanish. He contracted spinal meningitis when he was 11 and, after two days of high fever, became deaf.
He came out as a lesbian in the late 1970s when he was 12 and transitioned from female to male in the late 1990s, one of the first deaf people known to have done so.
He attended Gallaudet University for two years (1986 to 1988) where he was president of the student LGBTQ group, the Lambda Society of Gallaudet University, Chief Justice of the Student Body Government, occupied various positions with the Buff & Blue, the school newspaper, and involved with Hispanos Unidos en Gallaudet, before transferring to the University of California at Berkeley (UCB) and graduating with a bachelor's degree in 1993. He studied at the City College of San Francisco and received certificates in photojournalism and professional portrait photography.
Career
Social justice activism
At, Gallaudet Renteria first discovered and "understood the power of organizing." He has since then been involved in causes related to anti-gentrification and housing rights, particularly those affecting Latinos and other people of color. He has served on the boards of FTM International as president, Transgender Law Center as Disability Advisory Board, Youth Gender Project, Rainbow Alliance of the Deaf, California Center for Law and the Deaf, and The Telecommunications Access for the Deaf and Disabled Administrative Committee as Deaf Community Seat (TADDAC). He has given workshops, presentations and keynote speeches across the country including Asterisk Trans* Conference, Transgender Leadership Summit at the University of California, Berkeley, Deaf Gays and Lesbians of the West Conference, Creating Change Conference, and National Association of the Deaf Conference.
Early Entrepreneurship
In 1997, Renteria became CEO of DeafVision, one of the first deaf-owned Internet companies. DeafVision, Inc. is a Deaf minority owned and operated web hosting and development company based in San Francisco, California. Many deaf LGBTQ organizations online have their websites hosted on DeafVision, including Trans Ally, Buckeye Rainbow Association of the Deaf, and the Youth Gender Project. He also created the first websites not just for deaf LGBTQ people, but also the very first website for deaf women (Deaf Women Resources), the deaf leather community (Deaf Leather Dungeon), and the deaf Latinx community (Deaf Aztlan).
While working as director of the Deaf Gay and Lesbian Center (DGLC) from 1992 to 1995, a now-defunct outreach program of Deaf Counseling, Advocacy and Referral Agency (DCARA) that had served only deaf LGBTQ in the San Francisco Bay Area, he has mentioned in an interview that his stint there has made him come to a realization that "the people who needed support the very most were deaf LGBTs who did not reside in big cities like San Francisco."He is also founder and coordinator of the National Deaf LGBTQ Archives from 1993 to present, editor of DCARA News from 1995 to 1996, director of Deaf Gay & Lesbian Center (DGLC) from 1992 to 1995, and founder, publisher and editor of Coming Together Newsletter (CTN) from 1991 to 1995.
Deaf Queer Resource Center
Renteria spearheaded several deaf, especially deaf LGBTQIA, representation efforts online. In 1995, Renteria became and founder and executive director of Deaf Queer Resource Center (DQRC), one of the first Deaf-related websites on the web. While working at the local DGLC in San Francisco, he envisioned the need for a similar organization that operated on a national level to serve deaf LGBTQIA people in different states. The DQRC was launched on September 1, 1995, and was the first website for the Deaf community focused on LGBTQ. Since then, the DQRC has become a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that provides "peer support, support groups, information and referrals, educational workshops, work to increase visibility, educate on accessibility and we also work to preserve Deaf LGBTQ history"