DTPHX Spotlight: one·n·ten CEO Nate Rhoton Thinks Queer Joy Uplifts Everyone
“There aren’t a lot of examples for people of transness or queerness. So there is an element of exploration, it’s okay to try out different things and feel what fits for you or what doesn’t. That’s not just in the queer community. In every community, curiosity is important,” says one·n·ten’s CEO Nate Rhoton.
one·n·ten has served as a steadfast and inclusive space for queer youth in Arizona since 1993. The organization was started by passionate volunteers in a two-car garage in Downtown Phoenix, with the primary mission to provide services and safety for young queer people experiencing homelessness.
From those humble beginnings, it has since grown into a wide-reaching organization. one·n·ten now has twenty-two satellites all over the state of Arizona, and offers summer camps, weekly meetups, and a large youth center in Downtown Phoenix.
“one·n·ten doesn’t have the power to make anybody anything, whether that is an orientation or gender. Our youth centers and camp just allow kids to meet other kids who are like them, and they realize that this is what is missing,” Rhoton says. “When they find community, it gives them the bravery to share who they are with their friends and family as they are able. But it is their own path and journey, we are just here to provide a safe space for that growth. We’ve expanded just as we’ve seen the umbrella of our community expand.”
Indeed, our world is more fluid than people may realize. According to a 2024 Gallup poll, 9.3 percent of American adults identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender, with the fastest-growing, yet least visibly represented group, being bisexual people. This nearly doubles the number of queer-identifying Americans from 2020.
According to the Human Rights Campaign and IPSOS, as of 2023, 1% of adults worldwide identify as transgender, with an additional 2% identifying as non-binary or genderfluid. In the United States, more than four in ten adults know someone who is trans, and more than one in five know someone who uses they/them non-binary pronouns.
In 2025, 63% of the youth served by one·n·ten identified as transgender, nonbinary or gender-expansive. Many travel from across Arizona and from out of state to find a safe space where they can grow and be their authentic selves. Rhoton believes that this nurturing environment should extend to the city outside the walls of one·n·ten.
“Downtown Phoenix has some places and spaces where people are free to be their creative selves, whatever that means,” Rhoton says. “It could be in their art form, the way they want to dress, the name or pronouns they want to use. At the same time, I’m reminded we are still a marginalized group. Particularly when you’re at a venue, and a sports game gets out, with large groups of men who are maybe a little intoxicated from the game. It can feel unsafe, and I think we still have work to do there.”
As a fifth-generation Arizonan, Rhoton has a personal history with Downtown Phoenix, which became a gritty yet beautiful urban backdrop for his own queer awakening.
“We have elements of arts and culture that are blooming in Downtown Phoenix, and that is heading in the right direction. When I went to ASU’s main campus in Tempe around 1996, I worked in the retail scene, and I really met my first queer friends. I had known I was different since my earliest memory; I just didn’t have the language for it. Growing up Mormon, I was not surrounded by queer community. There was not a single person in my high school who was out, though there are some I now know are gay, like me. At the time, it wasn’t safe.”
“Coming to Downtown Phoenix was my awakening. It’s where I first heard about and went to Crowbar. My first time there, the lighting, the music, seeing two men dance together, it felt so freeing.”
“Working for one·n·ten for over eleven years, I’ve seen Downtown Phoenix grow and evolve with us,” Rhoton says. “My grandmother was a real estate agent, and she’d always say to invest in queer neighborhoods. Because queer people take care of their spaces, they make it beautiful, all of a sudden cute little bars and cafes are opening, artists come flocking. The arts community and the queer community are synonymous in some ways and we really overlap. Not everyone who is an artist is queer, but we’ve all survived together in beautiful ways and protect what we know is important for both communities.”
This powerful message of inclusivity includes Indigenous communities as well, who recognized gender diversity as a natural part of life long before Colonization. In Arizona and the pre-colonized Americas, Indigenous nations such as the Navajo Diné, Omaha, Sioux, and Hidatsa peoples had their own special terms for what we now call Two Spirit peoples. Two Spirit is a modern term to describe gender-diverse Indigenous peoples who lived beyond a limited binary. These Two Spirit peoples were held in high regard in Indigenous communities, and seen as people able to more fully tap into all aspects of the human experience. They were celebrated as shamans, healers, warriors, and caregivers.
The vibrancy and diversity of current-day Downtown Phoenix is due in large part to the legacy of these Indigenous, Black, Latino, queer and artistic communities, who often struggled with few resources to create oases of community care and free expression. Rhoton believes that one·n·ten’s vital ongoing work, and queer joy can be an inspiration for everyone, regardless of identity. An important reminder to celebrate the authentic self, as well as the commonalities and differences that make us all human.
“We just opened our twenty-second satellite in Arizona. That way we still meet youth where they are,” Rhoton shares. “We invite our youths and their families from smaller towns where they may not have a large community to come to our center in Downtown Phoenix, and experience the city.”
“We take trips to all the arts and sports arenas. We’ve gone to Diamondbacks games, the Herberger Theater, and Phoenix Art Museum, so all these core elements of Downtown help open people’s eyes to what is right here in our city. For a young person growing up in Anthem, that could be really meaningful to see art in the Phoenix Art Museum for the first time.”
“This is a true lifeline for people figuring out: I am okay, there are other people just like me. That’s really empowering. We celebrate people’s differences, and it makes for a really magical place for young people to learn more about themselves and who they want to be.”
Royal Young (@theroyalyoung on Instagram) is a non-binary poet and author from downtown New York City, who now lives and creates in the desert. Their work has appeared in Interview Magazine, New York Times, The Rumpus, Phoenix Magazine, Phoenix New Times, LOOKOUT, and DTPHX, among others.