In my skin: navigating dual identities

Purpose This study aims to explore how intersecting identities of race, gender, sexuality, and religion shape personal and professional experiences and to highlight the role of intersectionality in understanding marginalized identities. Design/methodology/approach This paper uses autoethnographic reflection. Findings The narrative reveals the tensions of navigating conflicting cultural expectations, queerness and professional identity. It emphasizes how intersectionality provides a framework for healing, self-understanding, and advocacy in educational and therapeutic spaces. Research limitations/implications This paper is an autoethnographic reflection and does not claim generalizability. Instead, it highlights how lived experience can illuminate the complexities of intersecting identities. While the narrative is grounded in a single perspective, it provides insight into how intersectionality can be applied as a framework in both educational and therapeutic settings. Future research might expand this work by including multiple narratives or comparative analyses across different communities to deepen understanding of how overlapping identities shape personal and professional life. Practical implications Educators, counselors and practitioners can use these reflections to better understand the layered challenges faced by individuals at the intersections of race, gender, sexuality and religion. The paper emphasizes the need for culturally responsive and non-pathologizing approaches that recognize how identity, faith and family expectations shape student and client experiences. It encourages professionals to create inclusive environments that validate complexity rather than demanding assimilation, offering language and frameworks that can help guide practice in both educational and clinical contexts. Social implications By centering a Black Latina lesbian perspective, this paper contributes to broader conversations about identity, equity and belonging. It underscores how cultural, religious and familial pressures often marginalize queer people of color and how intersectionality provides a lens for challenging such constraints. The narrative demonstrates how lived experience can inform more just and inclusive policies and practices in schools, universities and clinical spaces. Ultimately, it calls for social structures that embrace rather than erase the multiplicity of identities. Originality/value This paper offers a rare autoethnographic account from the perspective of a Black Latina lesbian navigating the intersections of race, sexuality, gender expression and religion. By situating personal narrative within the framework of intersectionality, it contributes to scholarship that bridges lived experience with critical theory. Its value lies in foregrounding voices often marginalized in both academic and professional spaces, providing insight into how identity complexity shapes personal growth, professional practice and advocacy. This contribution deepens understandings of identity in education and counseling and expands the possibilities for more inclusive frameworks.