About Katy Jon Went

I am a writer, commentator, educator, keynote and conference speaker, and activist, on social justice, equality, diversity & inclusion (JEDI or DEI), intersectionality, politics & culture, language, literature, theatre & the arts, history & social sciences, religion & philosophy, LGBTIQ+, sex and gender, mental health and wellbeing, human rights, DASV, photography, and many more things besides, ie I’m a multipotentialite who has studied and worked in many fields and sees the bigger picture, I hope, and the intersectionality of ideas and causes.

I very much believe in all the smarts – IQ, EQ, SQ and a dozen more, and believe in life-long learning. I love to teach what I know but more importantly to share how to discover it for yourself. I’m a part of the Pick My Brain team and have a profile there if you are thinking I really want to “pick your brain” about pretty much anything!

I am passionate about learning, change and humanity’s potential. I am somewhere between a realist and an optimist, whilst I warn about negative outcomes, I like to believe we will avoid them. I love reading about dystopias in order to imagine a better utopia, so long as it is a varied and diverse one, and not a dull uniform one. I was inspired by 60s-70s Sci-Fi to believe in a future where interracial kisses, genderless worlds, and alien bars were the norm. AKA I’m a TV & movie addict from Star Trek to Star Wars, Mandalorian to Marvel & DC nerd. Though why does it always rain and the sun never come out in Gotham?

Many people feel a need to keep their professional and personal, public and private, separate. I’ve decided to throw caution to the wind in the name of transparency and authenticity, and the pointlessness of privacy options when Google can find anything these days except my car keys and glasses. (Edit: with Smart tags it can find them too now!)

As a result, I’m very visible around mental health, gender or sexuality, political views, but more than that I endeavour to listen to varied points of view. I read 3-5 newspapers and multiple online media daily, across the political spectrum to ensure I’m not in some kind of echo chamber of only my preferred beliefs. I prefer to discover people’s whys as well as their whats. I’m as interested in “to what end” and how something is said, as in what is said itself.

My Name, Gender, Pronouns, Identity

I am non-binary transgender (but hold all these labels loosely preferring person or human) with a medical history of atypical physical gender, height and puberty development (due to a hormone deficiency). You may find me on the Internet as my former name Jonathan Went (e.g. articles and papers online from the 1990s), under which I used to write and teach. I prefer simply Katy or Katy Jon when interviewed, but can also be found under bylines as Katy-Jon, Katy Jon Went, KatyJon or just KJ.

As to pronouns, I’m fine with ‘she’, but feel technically more aligned with non-binary ‘they’; I’m not keen on ‘he’, though I tolerate it to avoid explaining myself a dozen times a day, as my indefinable gender does send out mixed messages in our stereotyped binary world. My name, pronouns and gender, are less important to me than being respected as a human being of value, first and foremost, even though the courtesy of respecting self-identification is a part of that.

My sexuality continues to evolve but seems to have arrived at asexual with a splash of pansensual and polyflirty. I somewhat tongue-in-cheek say that I have been or am each and every letter of LGBTIQAP, you can you use your imagination to work out how or when, or discuss with me privately.

If you want to know more then read my potted Bio (sounds like something that should go in the greenhouse!).

Also check out my: Talks, Quotes, Writing, Film and Comedy pages, and introductory post on here about trying to bring everything together in one place.

In addition, feel free to follow or send me a friend request on the various social media channels below or book a free call on Pick My Brain to get to know me.

Web Sites & Social Media Profiles

You can also find me at:

• • • Art Exhibitions UK – calendar & events site for artist & gallery shows driven by my love of art and need to organise all the PVs I go to, sometimes 2-3 in a night.
    • Biblical Hebrew Made Easy (teach yourself an ancient language)
    • Blogger – KJ’s Rants & Musings (older blog posts on politics, economics, social commentary)
    • BMSoftware (translation, office & graphics software, SEO, SMM, WordPress)
    • Facebook – Personal (friend requests welcomed)
    • Facebook – Writing & Speaking
    • Facebook – UK Art Exhibitions
    • Facebook – Biblical Hebrew
    • Facebook – BMSoftware
    • Facebook – GenderAgenda
    • Facebook – Logophilia
    • Facebook – Professional Pedants
    • Fifty Shades of Gender – project consultant & co-founder
    • Food and Wine Reviews – Who doesn’t love to eat and drink, and in our case write about it!
    • GenderAgenda – trans, gender, intersex awareness talks & training
    • Google+ (soon to be discontinued by Google)
    • Human Library – involved as the UK coordinator & current Zoom magician
    • Instagram – Food, Cats, Art, and Docs pics mainly!
    • LinkedIn 
    • Norwich Arts Centre – Board member and chair of A Respectful Conversation series of engagements around difficult topics
    • Paint Out – majorly involved since 2014 in this fabulous art & plein air painting project
    • Pick My Brain – advising around diversity, culture, and confidence on this start-up platform – you can book me for a talk or chat there.
    • Professional Pedants (proofing, editing, correcting, writing)
    • Quora (a Q&A site where I tend to answer questions on motivation, mental health & wellbeing)
    • Soundcloud – Audio recordings of talks and podcasts
    • Storify (fabulous site for collating web & social media trending topics – my first was on neuroscience and gender)
    • Tumblr – KatyJon
    • Twitter – Personal (instant immediate news & views gratification)
    • Twitter – Art Exhibition UK 
    • Twitter – BMSoftware (tweets on translation, social media, SEO & tech advances like 3D printing)
    • Twitter – GenderAgenda (beginning to diversify my personal a/c into a separate gender/trans/intersex/sexuality feed)
    • Twitter – GAS Group (Gender & Sexuality studies & discussion)
    • Vimeo (where the film “What Katy Did” can be found)
    • WordPress – Transgendering (older blog posts on gender/trans/intersex/sexuality)
    • YouTube