Each month, we profile someone connected to CBRC, featuring them in The Update, our monthly newsletter. Check out the March 2026 newsletter here.
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RJ Jones (he/they) is the Two-Spirit Health Program Coordinator at CBRC. A seasoned facilitator and educator, he has been working in nonprofit organizations for the past decade, particularly in the realms of Indigenous health and wellbeing and sexual and reproductive health. Some of his past experience includes Planned Parenthood Ottawa and the Native Youth Sexual Health Network. He is also a full-spectrum doula.
“Over my career, I've worked in a lot of non-Indigenous spaces around queer and trans issues, as well as in Indigenous spaces that were not focused on queer and trans issues,” RJ says. These experiences — and living at the intersection of being trans and Indigenous — made him feel that there was little conversation happening about queer and trans sexual health among Indigenous people, and vice versa. “Being part of CBRC’s Two-Spirit Program team is the first time I’ve been in a space with other Two-Spirit people, and that’s been nothing but a gift.”
RJ is also a regular streamer on Twitch, an online platform most commonly used for livestreaming gaming. He is part of various Indigenous groups who use Twitch “to empower and uplift other Native streamers,” he says. Along with his friend and fellow Twitch streamer Angee Noel, RJ will be bringing together his work and his hobby for this year’s upcoming Two-Spirit and Indigenous LGBTQQIA+ Celebration and Awareness Day. RJ and Angee are teaming up to do a livestream on Twitch to talk about experiences of queerness, Two-Spiritedness, and Indigeneity. (You can join the livestream on March 20 at 11am ET.)
Many online platforms popular with gamers — like the broadcast-focused Twitch or the private servers of Discord — are also where 2S/LGBTQIA+ community-building is taking place. “Queer and trans people from different backgrounds are coming together and are wanting to consistently spend time together,” RJ explains. “It goes back to the fact that a lot of us are being impacted by the current political landscape of the US and Canada and anti-LGBTQ+ sentiments happening right now.”
Outside of work and livestreaming, RJ enjoys making art (spray-painting, watercolour, and digital art are his mediums of choice) and spending time with his online and offline friends, his fiance (who he met on Twitch!), and his cat Niibi.
Photo: RJ Jones
“Sometimes people are lonely, or don’t have many community connections, and just want a space where they can feel like themselves. Oftentimes, streaming on Twitch is just hanging out, gaming, and joking around, but also having engaging conversations with other queer and trans Indigenous folks.”
