Molly Pearson’s work centers sex, identity, aging, illness, community, and the risks we take to survive and make life worth living.

Pearson has been deeply involved in local and state-based efforts toward queer liberation, HIV and sex work decriminalization, and queer aging advocacy. As a freelance consultant and educator, she has coached emerging sex work advocates, provided technical assistance to ensure Missouri’s State Plan on Aging is inclusive of the needs of LGBTQ older adults, and has trained hundreds of aging care providers on the provisions required under New Jersey’s LGBTQ Senior Bill of Rights. She has also developed original training content for a variety of organizations on a range of topics, including how to support the sexual pleasure of older adults living with HIV, harm reduction principles and the social work code of ethics, how to affirm the offspring of LGBTQ parents and caretakers, and more. Prior to her freelance practice, she led the aging advocacy and training program for PROMO, Missouri’s statewide LGBTQ advocacy organization, and was the Lead Organizer for the Missouri HIV Justice Coalition.

Pearson is a member of the What Would an HIV Doula Do? (WWHIVDD) collective, a community of people joined in response to the ongoing AIDS crisis. Through WWHIVDD, Pearson has collaborated across disciplines to cultivate written, in-person, and digital community engagement experiences with the The Griot Museum of Black History, the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, The Luminary, Visual AIDS, MoMA PS1, Squeaky Wheel Film & Media Art Center, and more. Her writing can be found at Catapult, TheBody, Out in STL, The New Territory, and elsewhere.