Unzipping Stereotypes: Roxy at TEDxGreenville 2014

With a glance inside her life, her humor, and her heart, Roxy asks us to unmake our minds about stereotypes that restrict our ability to love our neighbors as ourselves. A buxom drag queen and native of Greenville, she performs for the first time in her home town. Dressed in a full length, provocative, hot-red robe that may have been chosen un-coincidentally to match the mighty TED Pantone 485 red, she lulls the audience into a calm, yet expectant, roll of laughter. Slowly moving to the serious, she brings us to an acronym, SAFE, meaning stereotypes, assumption, fear, and expectation. With a dramatic and highly professional stage flourish, Roxy removes the Pantone 485 dress revealing -- wait for it -- a man! Yes, a man named Clay Smith.

He tells us that it's time to ask questions. "You can be just as zipped up about not asking about someone else, as you can be about who you are." He leaves us with this thought: Be open to change your mind. You don't have to change your mind, but be open to change.

This talk was part of TEDxGreenville UNZIPPED, held April 11, 2014, at the Kroc Center in Greenville, South Carolina. For more information about Roxy and her co-presenters, please visit .

In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized.* (*Subject to certain rules and regulations)