Evan Greer (born May 18, 1985) is an American activist, writer, and musician from

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

, Massachusetts. They are the deputy director of the nonprofit advocacy group

Fight for the Future Fight for the Future (often abbreviated fightfortheftr or FFTF) is a nonprofit advocacy group in the area of digital rights founded in 2011. The group aims to promote causes related to copyright legislation, as well as online privacy and censor ...

. Greer identifies as

nonbinary Non-binary and genderqueer are umbrella terms for gender identities that are not solely male or femaleidentities that are outside the gender binary. Non-binary identities fall under the transgender umbrella, since non-binary people typicall ...

Writing and activism

Greer is the deputy director of

, having previously served as the organization's campaign director. They have written on a range of topics including Internet freedom,

LGBT ' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity. The LGBT term ...

issues, surveillance, big tech, and human rights for outlets including ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'', ''Wired'',

NBC News NBC News is the news division of the American broadcast television network NBC. The division operates under NBCUniversal Television and Streaming, a division of NBCUniversal, which is, in turn, a subsidiary of Comcast. The news division's var ...

, ''Time'', and ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

''. While in high school, Greer helped organize a protest against the

Iraq War {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Iraq War {{Nobold, {{lang, ar, حرب العراق (Arabic) {{Nobold, {{lang, ku, شەڕی عێراق ( Kurdish) , partof = the Iraq conflict and the War on terror , image ...

in 2003. They attended Swarthmore College, but dropped out to pursue music full time. In 2014 Greer helped organize the

Internet Slowdown Day Internet Slowdown Day, part of the "Battle for the Net" initiative, was a series of coordinated protests organized to promote net neutrality and regulations for the equal treatment of Internet traffic, occurring on September 10, 2014. The official ...

, an online protest in favor

net neutrality Network neutrality, often referred to as net neutrality, is the principle that Internet service providers (ISPs) must treat all Internet communications equally, offering users and online content providers consistent rates irrespective of co ...

. In 2017, ''

Fast Company ''Fast Company'' is a monthly American business magazine published in print and online that focuses on technology, business, and design. It publishes six print issues per year. History ''Fast Company'' was launched in November 1995 by Alan Web ...

'' called Greer "the woman leading the fight for net neutrality." Through their work with

, Greer befriended

Chelsea Manning Chelsea Elizabeth Manning (born Bradley Edward Manning; December 17, 1987) is an American activist and whistleblower. She is a former United States Army soldier who was convicted by court-martial in July 2013 of violations of the Espionage A ...

and helped organize campaigns demanding Manning's release from prison. Upon Manning's release in 2017, Greer organized a benefit album to raise funds for her living expenses, with artists including Against Me!,

Thurston Moore Thurston Joseph Moore (born July 25, 1958) is an American musician best known as a member of Sonic Youth. He has also participated in many solo and group collaborations outside Sonic Youth, as well as running the Ecstatic Peace! record label. Mo ...

Graham Nash Graham William Nash (born 2 February 1942) is an English musician, singer, songwriter, photographer, and activist. He is known for his light tenor voice and for his contributions as a member of the Hollies and the supergroups Crosby, Stills ...

, and Amanda Palmer. In 2019, Greer penned an op-ed in '' BuzzFeed News'' with

Rage Against the Machine Rage Against the Machine (often abbreviated as RATM or shortened to simply Rage) is an American rock band from Los Angeles, California. Formed in 1991, the group consists of vocalist Zack de la Rocha, bassist and backing vocalist Tim Commer ...

guitarist

Tom Morello Thomas Baptist Morello (born May 30, 1964) is an American guitarist, singer, songwriter, and political activist. He is best known for his tenure with the rock band Rage Against the Machine and then with Audioslave. Between 2016 and 2019, More ...

about a campaign that prompted major music festivals like SXSW,

Coachella Coachella may refer to: * Coachella, California * Coachella Canal, in California * Coachella (festival), an annual music and arts festival in California * "Coachella – Woodstock in My Mind", a 2017 song by Lana del Rey See also

* Coachell ...

, and

Bonnaroo The Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival is an American annual four-day music festival developed and founded by Superfly Presents and AC Entertainment. Since its first year in 2002, it has been held at what is now Great Stage Park on a farm in M ...

to say they will not use facial recognition surveillance at their events. Greer regards

surveillance capitalism Surveillance capitalism is a concept in political economics which denotes the widespread collection and commodification of personal data by corporations. This phenomenon is distinct from government surveillance, though the two can reinforce each o ...

as "fundamentally incompatible with basic human rights and democracy."

Music career

In 2009, Greer released the album ''Never Surrender''. In 2016 they recorded a cover of the

Anne Feeney Anne Feeney (July 1, 1951 – February 3, 2021) was an American folk music, folk musician, singer-songwriter, political activist and attorney. She began her career in 1969 as a student activist playing a Phil Ochs song at a Vietnam War protest, o ...

song "You Will Answer" with the band Anti-Flag for a benefit album after Feeney was diagnosed with cancer. Greer and Feeney were longtime friends and touring partners. In 2019, Greer released the album ''She/Her/They/Them'', which '' Billboard'' described as an "at-times folky, sometimes punk rock album". ''

Vice A vice is a practice, behaviour, or habit generally considered immoral, sinful, criminal, rude, taboo, depraved, degrading, deviant or perverted in the associated society. In more minor usage, vice can refer to a fault, a negative character t ...

'' characterized the album as "an eclectic mix of folk punk". In 2021, they released the album ''Spotify is Surveillance''. According to Greer, the album was "very much a product of the coronavirus quarantines", and called it "an open letter to transphobes." Greer noted in an interview with ''

'' that the album was also intended to raise awareness of the control of corporations such as

Spotify Spotify (; ) is a proprietary Swedish audio streaming and media services provider founded on 23 April 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. It is one of the largest music streaming service providers, with over 456 million monthly active us ...

over popular culture. The album features audio samples from

and

Ursula K. Le Guin Ursula Kroeber Le Guin (; October 21, 1929 – January 22, 2018) was an American author best known for her works of speculative fiction, including science fiction works set in her Hainish universe, and the '' Earthsea'' fantasy series. She was ...

. A review of the singles "Back Row" and "The Tyranny of Either/Or", noted that the songs "further show off her capacity for anthemic energy". ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first known for its ...

'' magazine described the latter as "a pop-punk anthem that could fit in with Green Day's nineties hits." A ''

Pitchfork A pitchfork (also a hay fork) is an agricultural tool with a long handle and two to five tines used to lift and pitch or throw loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves. The term is also applied colloquially, but inaccurately, to ...

'' review of the album gave it a score of 6.7 out of 10.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Greer, Evan American folk singers Living people American transgender writers 1985 births Transgender singers Non-binary musicians LGBT people from Massachusetts Transgender non-binary people Non-binary writers Non-binary activists Don Giovanni Records artists