Donna Sue Johnson
Self described “Big Black Beautiful Bohemian Bougie Buddhist Butch”
Donna Sue Johnson was born on September 5, 1956 in Willingboro, New Jersey to her parents Donald Johnson and Sue Johnson. Raised in a family where education and professional achievements were celebrated, Donna Sue learned about the importance of academic success at an early age. She discussed the impact her grandmother, Dorothy (Mama Dot) Gibson, had on her, “My grandmother was an educator, but she was born in 1910 so for a Black woman to have been an educator was nontraditional, definitely nontraditional. So academic excellence wasn’t forced on me, it was celebrated. Of course you're gonna go to college, of course you’re gonna do the best.” Donna Sue also spoke about her grandfather, Charles Gibson, who was a physician closely affiliated with iconic figures like Thurgood Marshall and Langston Hughes. Throughout our conversation, it was clear to me that Donna Sue’s family had a profound impact on her, as evident in the way she spoke. She explained, “I love having fun with words, I love words, because my mother taught me to love words. She read the dictionary. It was on a pedestal in their house. My grandparents were intellectuals, they were educators.” She spoke proudly about her grandfather’s legacy as a well-respected Black figure in the medical field, noting that he inspired her to pursue higher education. During her high school years, Donna Sue was involved with the Jack and Jill Organization which was a network dedicated to fostering connections between the children of Black professionals. She mentioned that her membership in this club stemmed from her family’s standing in their community. She explained, “There [were] cultural, socio-economic, intellectual kinds of bougie magnificence going on in [our] family.” In 1974, Donna Sue graduated from high school and attended Virginia State University, an HBCU, where she majored in Special Education, a field that closely aligned with the professional career paths of her mother and grandmother. During her time at Virginia State, Donna Sue became a legacy member of the Delta Sigma Theta Sorority which held significant meaning for her. Following her graduation from Virginia State University, Donna Sue began exploring various career opportunities. It became apparent to her that teaching was not her desired path, so she decided to enlist as a military officer.
When sharing a photo of herself holding a baby, Donna Sue humorously referred to the child in it as her “nephew/son.” She then clarified the term by explaining that her brother donated sperm to her then-girlfriend, making her child both her nephew and son. Despite the breakup with her partner shortly after their son’s birth, she affectionately mentioned her son’s name, Will, who is now 26 years old.
Donna Sue’s Grandmother and Grandfather: “There [were] cultural, socio-economic, intellectual kinds of bougie magnificence going on in [our] family”
Donna Sue holding her ‘nephew/son,’ Will.
II. Professional Life/Work
Donna Sue started her work life in her 20s as a Food Service Officer and thanks the Air Force for affording her an opportunity with a lot of power at such a young age. Within this role, she was a part of the largest food operation in the Military Airlift Command (MAC), which is about support rather than war. In this role, she would feed, house, and bury soldiers. Later on, while training in San Antonio, TX, she was commissioned by VI to teach. However, she did not believe that this role in the Caribbean would encourage her to reach her unlimited potential, therefore, she stayed in the military. During this period, Donna Sue sadly experienced years and years of trauma and sexual abuse which unfortunately went unaddressed. Now as a 100% disabled vet, she struggles with PTSD, MST (military sexual trauma), and depression.
Donna Sue holding her teddy bear at ten months old.
Donna Sue pictured with smiling family members at her graduation: “I’m articulate, educated, smart, and funny as a whip"
Once she got out of the military, she trained in the mental health field which led her to a forty-year-long career as a social worker. She has worked in every level of care except for the prison systems and in nursing homes and has obtained the highest level qualification a social worker can have, the LCSW title. Currently, she serves as a ‘harm reductionist’ focusing on populations with co-occurring disorders of mental health and substance abuse issues. Her approach to this, which she finds caters more to the European perspective than the American, is “not to kick someone to the curb because they can’t stop using, but rather to teach them to use safely until they get to the point where they are ready.” This method puts less money towards penalizing and more money towards treatment, while there is no spike for usage but more people receiving treatment. Donna Sue currently works for SAGE, the Stonewall Community, the CDC Community, the Development Corporation, and at St. Mary’s Center doing consultant work. She is also working on a 501C3: OWLS United (Older, Wise, Lesbians) helping them “age in place, age with grace, age with intelligence, and age in community.”
Through this experience, Donna Sue leaves us with the following advice: “It takes a lot of treatment to get to the point of understanding that there are gifts through the pain, and one of the major gifts is your dreams. Your dreams come true because of the pain, the challenges you face, and the obstacles you overcome.”
Donna Sue’s maternal grandmother, Mama Dot, holding her mother, Sue Gibson, as an infant.
Donna Sue’s Printed Affirmations Hand Out
III. Spirituality
One of Donna Sue’s essential B’s signifies her Buddhism, a significant shaper of her spirituality and life’s philosophy. So profoundly woven into the fabric of her being, in fact, that she generously came with printed handouts in order to share and recite affirmations with us prior to our conversation together, reinforcing her strong belief that “whatever you put out into the universe is what happens.” Her utter embodiment and heuristic sharing of her spiritual beliefs, rooted in the Japanese Nichiren Daishonin branch of Buddhism, resonate with the emphasis she places on the value of cultural humility and cultural competence. When speaking of her sensei, Daisaku Ikeda, president of the SGI (Soka Gakkai International), who had recently passed and her experience at his memorial, she expresses deep admiration and gratitude, “And what I got out of all of it is, oh my god I lived during the time of Daisaku Ikeda; that is like saying I lived during the time of Dr. Martin Luther King, I lived during the time of whatever major person that you follow. It's a wonderful, wonderful feeling.” Though she’s been Buddhist for the past twenty-five years, values reminiscent of her Buddhism can be traced back to the outlook on life she grew up being taught, particularly by her grandmother, Dorothy Gibson, who always reiterated to her that everything happens for the best. Donna Sue introspectively tells us, “Some cultures, some families, or whatever, say everything happens for a reason. We say everything happens for the best and I've been disciplined to look at an obstacle and really delve into that and see what good is gonna come out of it.” She draws a parallel from this to her Buddhist beliefs pointing out, “we also look at obstacles as brilliantly disguised blessings.” Much of the value she draws from her Buddhism lies in this sanguine framing of life and the transformative work it offers for lived pain and hardship, experiences with which she is far from unfamiliar. She tenaciously speaks of crises as opportunities for rebirth and of pain as a grounding gift, “To me as I grow older, I'm learning that, to sharpen my skills, to sharpen who I am, my character, my problem-solving techniques, my clinical skills, whatever it is, I need something harder to sharpen that sword. I don't need a cotton ball. So when something comes up that's difficult, I rejoice.”