Tyler Benda is grateful for the sense of connection and support he receives from his union siblings at the Town of Chili local 3179 and uses his own experiences to speak up for the people around him.

Tyler works for the Town of Chili parks department as a Grounds Equipment Operator (GEO). His department takes care of all the town parks. Work is ever changing and weather dependent. This very physical work includes mowing, weed eating, plowing, supporting events, installing playgrounds and laying mulch. He really enjoys that the job is “always different” and offers “fresh air” and “great exercise.” One of his favorite parts of the job is that he “really likes all of the people” he works with and “for the first time feels completely supported.”

It has taken time and a lot of personal work for Tyler to feel like he can be completely himself with the people around him. He is originally from Ohio. Due to drugs in his home environment, at about the age of 4, Tyler was removed and placed in foster care. He was moved around to three different foster homes and is truly thankful to the Black single women who supported him during this painful, scary period in his life.

Then the Benda family, who he met briefly on a visit to an aquarium, wanted to adopt Tyler. Tyler describes the adoption process as “fascinating.” Tyler says “they ask you multiple times if this is what you want to do. I just knew that it was someone treating me kindly. I knew I had to go somewhere.” Even at age 9 he “worried about getting older and being placed in a group home.”

Subsequently, he was adopted by Audrey and Steve Benda. His mother Audrey was also adopted and wanted to provide a loving home like she had been given. So, at the age of 9, Tyler left Ohio unsure of what he would encounter with his new family in his new home in New York. Tyler acknowledges that he came to his new home with a “deep pocket of life experiences and trauma.”

Tyler moved from a majority Black community in Ohio to living with a white family in a majority rural white area of New York.  As a light skinned biracial person, he generally felt accepted at school. However, he struggled to find his place in the world. His school offered little about Black history. Tyler says he didn’t experience outwardly “hateful” behavior but did hear “passive” racist jokes from classmates. “You think it’s a funny joke. This is how we interact. I’d try to mentally justify it just to get through and survive.”  As he got older, he thought to himself. “Where do I belong in this world? Where do I come from? What am I doing here with my time?” He credits his mom with the “impossible job” of making sure he was safe.

After high school, his mom encouraged him to attend the Lagom Landing work program. This one-year program was transformative for Tyler. During the program he learned to work with his hands and performed activities with wood working and maple tree tapping in a “gorgeous” wooded environment.

After the Lagom program, Tyler started working at Walmart. During his time at Walmart he started discovering his queer and racial identity, He realized that the survival skill he learned early in his childhood was “being a chameleon by always thinking of other people and doing things for other people.” He realized he was “playing a character for other people just to get through the day and often made himself something he was not.”

It is here that Tyler met his future wife Amanda. Amanda secured a good union job at the Post Office that she still holds today and encouraged Tyler to find a career.

Tyler applied for a highway job at the Town of Chili and when he didn’t get it thought he would never hear from the town again. Six months later he was offered the job he’s now held for 3 years. Tyler says it was “very validating” to get the call back. It is in this current role that he feels totally accepted. “I can just be myself. I can say that I’m gay and have really productive conversations about gender and race.” “It’s the first time I can finally have real conversations with people. We have our differences, but we work together through those differences.” Tyler says, “we’re all just trying to work together and get home and enjoy our families.”

It was last July, that Kevin Lynch, his union president encouraged Tyler to participate in the labor contingent of the Pride Parade organized by Pride at Work. Up until that point, Tyler had never been to a Pride event. He went to the event feeling the “largest amount of impostor syndrome” and thought to himself “I don’t belong here.” He spent years avoiding conflict and now he was publicly announcing who he was to the world. Tyler says just existing by being authentically yourself is making a statement. “Being queer is political. Being Black is political.”  It was while marching in the parade that he saw a friend in the crowd and their words had a profound impact on him. According to Tyler, his friend told him “You got this! You are welcomed here. You are loved.” Those words continue to resonate with him to this day.

Tyler is now an active member of Pride at Work, a labor affinity group focused on building worker power for the LGBTQIA community. Through Pride at Work, Tyler is now connected with and learns from LGBTQIA labor legends like Bess Watts.

Tyler feels it’s important to have representation in the workplace. “It all starts with the union.” “It’s important for marginalized people to feel safe and comfortable. When you’re not feeling safe you’re likelier to absorb homophobia and the words of superiors who say terrible things. Unions are trying to make things safer for people to speak up while providing better working conditions”

Tyler has found his voice and has become a courageous, powerful voice for struggling people. “I want to fulfill a purpose, I’m here to be who I am and I’m here to help. I want to make sure everyone around me is ok. It’s hard to be in this world and to be who you are.  Struggling people need support. It’s hard to be who you are when you don’t know who you are.  I’m biracial. I’m queer. There are people out there like me who never feel like they belong. In a union environment you can speak up and say what you need to say. Unions make sure everyone’s voice is heard.”