Being fat, queer, and agender, Shayna has spent the better part of their adult life unlearning toxic messages about their body and self and coming to understand the systemic ways that bodies like theirs (and many others) are mistreated, abused, and denied care simply for existing. Their passion for dismantling these harmful systems and hierarchies and for social justice, body & fat liberation, and queer & trans liberation led to the creation of Lakeshore Liberation.
Lakeshore Liberation allows them to use their personal skills and the knowledge they have gained (and continue to gain) to help those around them feel empowered in their bodily autonomy, learn to advocate for themselves (in pregnancy and otherwise), and join the fight for body liberation for all.
Shayna is an avid book reader, podcast listener, and amateur knitter. They are a white settler that lives and works on the ancestral land of the Bodwéwadmi (Potawatomi), Oma͞eqnomenew-ahkew (Menominee), Myaamia (Miami), Hoocąk (Ho-Chunk), and Očhéthi Šakówiŋ (Sioux), also known as Sheboygan, Wisconsin. They are a co-ambassador for the Fat Girls Hiking Milwaukee Chapter and are involved in a variety of local organizations. They are an anarchist, which influences their community-building efforts and drives their desire to facilitate community-powered events. If you would like more information about anything mentioned above (or just want to say hi!), Shayna welcomes your email.
Shayna Medinger, CBE
Pronouns: they/them, vey/vem
About Shayna
Education, Certification and Trainings
Touchstone: Childbirth Education Facilitator Training, Cornerstone, 2021
FERTILITYAdvocate/PAILAdvocate, Quietly United in Loss Together, 2020
DTI Childbirth Educator Training, Doula Trainings International, 2019
Supporting Trans Birthers with Trystan Reese, Cornerstone Doula Trainings, 2019
Abortion Support Skills, Full-Spectrum Doula Circle, 2019
Intro to Childbirth and Birth Doula Training, Doulaing the Doula, 2017
About the Business
Lakeshore Liberation was created to encompass the many ventures that Shayna wanted to explore. After being trained as a birth doula in 2017, they realized that they were unable to start working as one until they were no longer working full-time at an office job, due to the exciting but unexpected nature of births. As they explored other areas of work, they found themselves wanting to do more -- and to give more back to their local and global community.
In late 2018, the previously named Every Body Birth was rebranded as Lakeshore Liberation as they started working towards a more expansive set of services and offerings. Currently, vey are working to begin offering a number of services and products, including:
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Gender-inclusive, size-inclusive, and social-justice-based childbirth education classes,
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Abortion support,
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Miscarriage support,
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Menstruation education,
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Sex & sexuality education,
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Medical accompaniment,
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Locally offered courses covering topics such as body & fat liberation,
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...and much more!
All of these services and products are created with marginalized identities in mind. They want their work to serve the needs of BIPGM (Black, Indigenous, and People of the Global Majority) communities, all genders, people of all sexualities and relationship structures, fat people, all ethnicities and nationalities, disabled people, low income people, and sex workers. Vey want to center the people who are most left out of and harmed by our current structures.
As each of these services become available, they will be announcing them on social media and start advertising in the community. As soon as the business is stable enough to support it, they will be including a built-in percentage of their profits to go to a variety of organizations that support marginalized communities and to support local and virtual free events. This will be done in as transparent of a way as possible to keep Lakeshore Liberation accountable to the community and draw attention to opportunities for others to donate.
Finally, Lakeshore Liberation has a monthly email newsletter to share news relating to social justice, donation/volunteer opportunities, upcoming offerings from Lakeshore Liberation itself, and more. You can find the sign-up for this and see previous issues by clicking the following link: Link to the Lighthouse Newsletter.
Shayna looks forward to serving veir community and facilitating education for those around vem. If you would like to chat, connect, work with Shayna, or have questions, please reach out to them by clicking "Contact" on the menu at the top of the page and choosing the best option for you.
Thank you for your support!
