National Leadership Program, Fall 2023
Hunter Trost
Hunter Trost (he/him) was an Entertainment and News Media Fellow in RespectAbility’s National Leadership Program for Fall 2023. RespectAbility is a nonprofit organization fighting stigmas and advancing opportunities so that people with disabilities can fully participate in all aspects of community.
Trost is a Tau Sigma National Honor Society member and a 2023 graduate from the University of California–Irvine with a Bachelor of Arts in Gender and Sexuality Studies. His experiences and studies in Gender and Sexuality have instilled in him a profound understanding of the intersections between different aspects of identity, including disability.
Trost is an autistic young adult and a proud member of the bisexual community. As an Autism/LGBTQ+ advocate, he recognized the parallels in the discrimination and stigma faced by both communities. His UCI Senior Seminar focused on the intersection of Autism and LGBTQ+ experiences (such as bullying, labeling, and marginalizing) and highlighted the need for greater awareness and acceptance for all individuals, regardless of their unique identities and abilities.
Aside from his academic pursuits, Trost has been a member of The Miracle Project since 2014 and is a founding artist of The Miracle Project Company, a fully inclusive performance group that includes neurodiverse and neurotypical actors who create and perform original musical theater productions that amplify the issues and voices of people with Autism and all abilities. Additionally, photographer Beth Dubber featured Trost in “Hollywood on the Spectrum,” a portrait series celebrating actors with autism to raise awareness and build support for neurodiverse casting in television and film.
Trost has two missions: to follow in the advocacy footsteps of his early mentors Elaine Hall (The Miracle Project) and Beth Dubber (Hollywood on the Spectrum) and to connect directly with people in the Autism/LGBTQ+ community through counseling and local advocacy. He is confident that the leadership training and mentorship he will gain as an Entertainment and News Media Fellow at RespectAbility will give him the skills he needs to inspire and influence the entertainment, news, and social media industries to create content and characters that reflect the intelligence, diversity, heart, and humanity of those with both visible and nonapparent disabilities.
You have a caring and compassionate heart, and we are so proud of how you use your voice to advocate and lift up others.