Speaker 1: Good morning, peeps, and welcome to WOKP Daily with me
Speaker 1: your girl Daniel Moody recording pre recording from the home Bunker. Folks,
Speaker 1: I'm taking a few days off for my birthday and
Speaker 1: with that, I'm leaving you with some amazing pre recorded
Speaker 1: conversations with some of my faves new and old to
Speaker 1: the show. And so first Step today, I am very
Speaker 1: happy to welcome back to wok F Daily the executive
Speaker 1: director of Glisten, Melanie Willingham Jaggers and Glisten is an
Speaker 1: organization that has been near and dear to my heart
Speaker 1: for quite some time because, as a former educator in
Speaker 1: the school system, Glisten creates curriculums and puts together their
Speaker 1: instruction for schools, administrations and students who are LGBTQ and
Speaker 1: their allies. And at a time when there is an
Speaker 1: unsafe environment that has been created for LGBTQ kids, particularly
Speaker 1: our trans youth, Glisten's work is more important than ever.
Speaker 1: And so in this two part kind of back to
Speaker 1: back episodes where first Step, we're going to talk to
Speaker 1: Melanie and then we're going to talk to the chair
Speaker 1: of the Glisten board, actor and friend of mine, Wilson
Speaker 1: Cruz tomorrow. So first step listen to this conversation with
Speaker 1: Melanie about what Glisten has been doing during this time
Speaker 1: of great strife, grief, anxiety and pain for our LGBTQ
Speaker 1: youth with her work at Glisten. Folks, I am very excited,
Speaker 1: I believe to welcome back after a very long time,
Speaker 1: I think, Melanie, I'm thinking that we have not spoken
Speaker 1: since you got the job.
Speaker 2: At right, Yep, that's right.
Speaker 1: Very happy to the back to wok as Melanie Willingham Jaggers,
Speaker 1: who is the executive director of Glisten.
Speaker 3: You all know about Glisten.
Speaker 1: They are a lgbt Q organization that provides so much
Speaker 1: content curriculum that is affirming for LGBTQ young people and
Speaker 1: really helps, you know, all students right be able to
Speaker 1: access their empathy, their compassion and their understanding of the community. Melanie,
Speaker 1: I mean, let's just start with this. You know, since
Speaker 1: you took the helm in twenty nineteen of Glisten, now
Speaker 1: your lack a veteran is it has been trial by
Speaker 1: fire in a life of ways. Because I don't think
Speaker 1: that we've seen the type of attacks on schools that
Speaker 1: you have been presiding over probably since the late nineteen sixties.
Speaker 1: So how have you been doing and what like what
Speaker 1: have you been experiencing as you've taken over this role
Speaker 1: the last few years.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I appreciate the question. Thanks for having me back on.
Speaker 2: Always good to be in conversation with you and in
Speaker 2: these forums. So, yeah, you know, it's just been going down.
Speaker 2: Things have been things have been happening. And here's the
Speaker 2: I think here's the top line, and then then also
Speaker 2: maybe it's the bottom line as well, is that schools
Speaker 2: are the education as a process is the cornerstone of
Speaker 2: a democracy, right, And if we are to ever have democracy,
Speaker 2: if we ever have a country that delivers on the
Speaker 2: promises right that we are all kind of operating under,
Speaker 2: education is that cornerstone. We have to have people who
Speaker 2: come into participation in our democracy who have education about
Speaker 2: the reality of the world around them. That's like true history,
Speaker 2: true science, a realistic understanding of the world right with
Speaker 2: the phenomena are in the world, so they can come
Speaker 2: into their full citizenship and participate. Right. So that's you know,
Speaker 2: we may have forgotten that Bill Hooks told us, John
Speaker 2: Dewey told us, Right, education democracy has to be born
Speaker 2: anew every generation, and education is its midwife. Right, So
Speaker 2: we know that, but turns out the ops do too, right,
Speaker 2: And so part of what we the way that I
Speaker 2: want to encourage us all to understand this moment, is
Speaker 2: that the attacks on education, the ways in which classrooms
Speaker 2: have become frontlines for the assaults on democracy, the way
Speaker 2: that teachers right are being pit against parents for the future,
Speaker 2: like really around who is educating? Who is their children?
Speaker 2: Who is who are educ who is educating the children
Speaker 2: of our country? This is a you know, the nice
Speaker 2: way to put it and the euphemistic way to put
Speaker 2: it is a culture war, right, But what this really
Speaker 2: is is an anti democratic attack on the future, on
Speaker 2: our collective future, right, because they are insisting on miseducating
Speaker 2: our children. So that's like part one of it, right,
Speaker 2: And what we know is that what authoritarians do, what
Speaker 2: fascists do, what Christian nationalists do, what white supremacists do,
Speaker 2: come after people of color, They come after queer and
Speaker 2: gender diverse people, and they come after children. Right, That's
Speaker 2: a primary technique, right of this project, which is colonial
Speaker 2: and genocidal in nature. And so we have to understand
Speaker 2: actually that the attacks on classrooms, teachers, students, schools is
Speaker 2: really about an anti democratic vision of the future for
Speaker 2: our country, and their power is consolidating, right, and we
Speaker 2: as advocates for young people, advocates for education, advocates for trans, queer,
Speaker 2: non binary kids, it's our work that is right at
Speaker 2: the center of their bulls eye of what it will
Speaker 2: take who to undermine in order to advance their vision
Speaker 2: without any without any resistance, or with less resistance and
Speaker 2: less friction. So you know, we just out here fighting
Speaker 2: for democracy, fighting for the future that we all deserve,
Speaker 2: and for the future that our country has long promised.
Speaker 1: You know, I think I'm a former educator. I went
Speaker 1: to you know, I taught first and second grade, and
Speaker 1: then I went into education policy for many years following
Speaker 1: that work, when I lived in Washington, d C.
Speaker 3: And worked on the hill.
Speaker 1: And you know, it's almost as if, and this is
Speaker 1: a question for you, it's almost as if democrats and progressives,
Speaker 1: following the desegregation of schools, forgot that schools.
Speaker 3: Are the battleground for democracy.
Speaker 1: Right. It was like we desegregated schools with brown you know,
Speaker 1: things got a bit better. Then, it was like fast forward.
Speaker 1: We all care about kids, and now we're teaching to
Speaker 1: the test. But I feel like the foundation of us
Speaker 1: understanding that a democracy requires an educated citizenship seems to
Speaker 1: be something that we lost. And I'm just curious if
Speaker 1: you think the same way, Like now, it's as if
Speaker 1: we're behind the curve trying to catch up to where
Speaker 1: the opposition has always seen education. I mean, you can
Speaker 1: look at Moms for Liberty and their quote of Hitler
Speaker 1: that they put up on their chapter page talking about
Speaker 1: if you own the children, you own the future. Right,
Speaker 1: So why is it Why does it seem as if
Speaker 1: we're playing catch up to something that we knew back
Speaker 1: in the fifties was so important.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a good question. You know. I'm not gonna
Speaker 2: give you my comrade mel answer. We could do that offline,
Speaker 2: but here's what i'd say. Here's what i'd say for
Speaker 2: the pod. You know, I was in a conversation last
Speaker 2: week at the White House and someone really smart in
Speaker 2: that room said that what we need right now is
Speaker 2: kind of in terms of education, where we need to
Speaker 2: be thinking about is what is the next step after reform.
Speaker 2: We've been in an education reform moment for a long time,
Speaker 2: and I think that what education reform did and does
Speaker 2: is put the deficit, put the onus on the child,
Speaker 2: on the learner. Right. What we have to understand actually
Speaker 2: is our education system is deeply broken. So just to go,
Speaker 2: you know, talking to a fellow policy nerd, just ago
Speaker 2: nerd for a second. We often think about school boards
Speaker 2: right in school districts, and we often think about the
Speaker 2: school system. But similarly to like when before marriage equality
Speaker 2: was the law of the land, right when you could
Speaker 2: be married in Massachusetts but not married in Pennsylvania, even
Speaker 2: though you're the same two people crossing state lines. Similarly
Speaker 2: with our and we have fifty states, right, Similarly with
Speaker 2: our kids policies, they're basic rules of the road, right
Speaker 2: that are federal requirements, guidelines, et cetera. And then there's
Speaker 2: so much that is handed to localities for them to control.
Speaker 2: And so what we don't have is an education system.
Speaker 2: We have sixteen thousand education systems. So you know, like
Speaker 2: the school around the corner from me up here in Harlem,
Speaker 2: New York, is different from it's the same school system.
Speaker 2: It's the same school system, right, but it's different in
Speaker 2: the teachers that are teaching kind of in the policies
Speaker 2: et cetera, than the school up the street and around
Speaker 2: the corner of Frederick Douglass Academy. Right, So there's a
Speaker 2: way in which our kids don't actually have a promise
Speaker 2: of consistent education across the board. And that's even within
Speaker 2: one district. Now, God help us that we have sixteen
Speaker 2: thousand districts, many some of whom are run by folks
Speaker 2: who are progressive, who have their you know, have their
Speaker 2: eye on the prize, who know that learners need to
Speaker 2: be safe in their minds and their hearts and in
Speaker 2: their bodies in order to learn. And they are building
Speaker 2: these incredible school leaders, are building education systems to teach
Speaker 2: the babies right. And then in other districts, right, fools
Speaker 2: of fools are in charge right where they are limiting
Speaker 2: history and you know, denying science and you know, making
Speaker 2: the world smaller and smaller, so that the kids that
Speaker 2: come out of those districts are less and less prepared
Speaker 2: to deal with the world as it is right to
Speaker 2: navigate it successfully. And so I think that where we
Speaker 2: are at is that to your point, we absolutely have
Speaker 2: taken our ball, our eye off the ball around education's core. Uh.
Speaker 2: Education is a core component of democracy. We've lost the
Speaker 2: We've lost the thread there and long have because we
Speaker 2: for so long, for about thirty years, right, have been
Speaker 2: putting the onus on kids, saying, oh, these kids are behind.
Speaker 2: Oh these kids lost lost some learning over the summer.
Speaker 2: Oh we'll be cutting funding and we'll be breaking teachers unions,
Speaker 2: and we'll be privatizing public responsibility and privatizing public wealth
Speaker 2: in the form of private schools, et cetera. But it's
Speaker 2: the kids who are really the problem. Right, So what
Speaker 2: we are in need of now is a new and
Speaker 2: refreshed understanding for this moment. That's really about not taking
Speaker 2: our eye off the ball when it comes to building
Speaker 2: a democracy for the future. And you know, here's the thing.
Speaker 2: Sometimes you realize things too late. Right, our democracy is
Speaker 2: under attack, and it's been under attack for a long time.
Speaker 2: And so you know is are we are? We in
Speaker 2: a position where we have the local will and the
Speaker 2: runway right to write the ship. And that's what So
Speaker 2: that's what me and so many other folks are are
Speaker 2: both fighting to turn the ship but also fighting to
Speaker 2: beat the cloud.
Speaker 1: You know. One of the things that I have been
Speaker 1: finding over the last couple of years too, and maybe
Speaker 1: this is just by virtue of like reading and also
Speaker 1: just being exhausted with the fight. The way that it
Speaker 1: has been, which is that resistance is in and of itself,
Speaker 1: is not enough. Right, the way that we have been resisting,
Speaker 1: the way that we have continually been fighting inch by
Speaker 1: inch by inch and then getting pushed back, you know,
Speaker 1: several feet every every generation, every few years. And I
Speaker 1: wonder in your thinking, in the way that we have
Speaker 1: had schools be the battleground that we know what the
Speaker 1: opposition is doing, how do you see resistance and the
Speaker 1: way that we've been resisting different or how we need
Speaker 1: to change, you know, our thinking, because I just don't
Speaker 1: think that trying to block a thing is enough. It's
Speaker 1: what are we creating? Right that I don't think that
Speaker 1: just and this is again me, I don't think that
Speaker 1: just screaming at the opposition is enough. I think that
Speaker 1: it is what are we dreaming about?
Speaker 3: How are we.
Speaker 1: Moving that dream further? And so I wonder for you,
Speaker 1: how has your understanding or idea a conceptualization of resistance
Speaker 1: changed over the last four years given what you've seen.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a great question. And also you you asked
Speaker 2: the question, and you gave the answer I was gonna offer, right,
Speaker 2: which is that which is that you know it is
Speaker 2: it's imperative for us to stop the bad stuff and
Speaker 2: or accept that that's actually not enough and never has been. Right,
Speaker 2: we have to have a vision, a positive vision for
Speaker 2: the future of what not only what we don't want,
Speaker 2: but actually what is the thing that's going to have
Speaker 2: to be present order for us to get the outcomes
Speaker 2: we want. And as I just said, right, we have
Speaker 2: to think we have to begin thinking beyond the kind
Speaker 2: of reform moment of education where young people, their parents,
Speaker 2: their poor communities, et cetera, and their poor broke schools
Speaker 2: quote unquote are the problems and understand that actually we
Speaker 2: have a collective responsibility to ensure that every kid in
Speaker 2: our country is educated and prepared to participate fully and
Speaker 2: build for the first time, by the way, a multi
Speaker 2: racial democracy that includes us. All Right, that's the vision,
Speaker 2: that's where we're going. And I think that, you know,
Speaker 2: here's what. Here's also another thing that I'll say, which
Speaker 2: is we're finally in a for a very long time
Speaker 2: since since desegregation, what has happened is that you know,
Speaker 2: black folks, women and felms, people who are poor, working
Speaker 2: class and low income have been decisions have been made
Speaker 2: about them and us without there and our voices at
Speaker 2: the table right, we've been kind of patted on the
Speaker 2: head and say, hey, you know, we appreciate your stories,
Speaker 2: but actually we know better and actually maybe you're the problem.
Speaker 2: And I think that in this moment, what we're seeing
Speaker 2: is both a deep and widespread transition of leadership where
Speaker 2: there are more people who are coming from impacted communities
Speaker 2: in decision making roles. And so we actually have a
Speaker 2: full understanding, not just the not just the brain smarts,
Speaker 2: the book smarts, but like the heart knowledge, the body knowledge,
Speaker 2: the fact that we have wherever we are right, we
Speaker 2: still have family and friends who are who are where
Speaker 2: we came from, right. And so there's a way which
Speaker 2: we have a holistic understanding of how these systems work,
Speaker 2: how these systems don't work, and what the fixes are
Speaker 2: for them. And so so yeah, that's what I would offer.
Speaker 2: Let me know if I if I answer your question.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, it does, it does, and I think that
Speaker 1: you know it is it's just important for us and
Speaker 1: I you know, I remember being younger and thinking to right,
Speaker 1: we all remember that you know where you know, consistently
Speaker 1: pounding against you know, the door, consistently pounding against the table.
Speaker 3: And I just I understand.
Speaker 1: Now as you knows, as elders were like, we need
Speaker 1: a different way, we need a we need a new
Speaker 1: way like you need. It's like you need the pounders,
Speaker 1: but you also need the thinkers, and you need the weavers,
Speaker 1: and you need the dreamers, and you need all of
Speaker 1: these different people in order to create this universe that
Speaker 1: we want for all kids. You know how I keep
Speaker 1: thinking about young queer people, queer students when Florida was
Speaker 1: taking down their rainbow stickers out of their classrooms, and
Speaker 1: their safe place, these safe place stickers out of their
Speaker 1: classrooms is you know, share with us some of the
Speaker 1: things that lgbt Q kids have been met with in
Speaker 1: their classrooms. And you know, for many school was a
Speaker 1: safe space, right Like maybe they're not accepted at home,
Speaker 1: but that teacher, that coach was the one that saw them,
Speaker 1: and now by seeing them can lose their jobs. So
Speaker 1: I just want you to be able for the audience
Speaker 1: to have some under real life understanding of the stories
Speaker 1: that you're hearing.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, listen, you know we all understand how important
Speaker 2: it is to have love and support, period, full stop, right, Like,
Speaker 2: kids succeed when you put love and support in their way.
Speaker 2: They fail when you put barriers and you with whole
Speaker 2: love and support from them. It's literally just how animals work,
Speaker 2: how human animals work, It's how life works. And so
Speaker 2: you know what we are seeing A couple of things
Speaker 2: would I would say here, One, it's a universal law
Speaker 2: that kids fail when you put barriers in front of them.
Speaker 2: Kids fail when you withdraw and remove and ban and
Speaker 2: outlaw support. And so what we're seeing is children failing
Speaker 2: right in terms of school attendance, in terms of mental
Speaker 2: health well being. Wh y'all come back to right in
Speaker 2: terms of in terms of grades, in terms of learning,
Speaker 2: we can't learn. We feel like we are in danger.
Speaker 2: We can't learn. You feel like we are abandoned. We
Speaker 2: can't learn. We're hungry, right, we can't learn when we
Speaker 2: are hurting. And so and I'll come back to the
Speaker 2: hurting in a second. Right, But like if we understand
Speaker 2: and teachers do understand this, what is necessary for kids
Speaker 2: to succeed and for kids to learn, How absurd is
Speaker 2: it that actually parents whose job it is to love
Speaker 2: and support and raise whole human beings are being pitted
Speaker 2: against the folks in the only system in our society
Speaker 2: that is intended only for care education. Right, it's not
Speaker 2: intended for punishment, it's not intended for anything else. Right,
Speaker 2: is literally only supposed to teach and so poor children
Speaker 2: and somehow, right the holders of that system are being
Speaker 2: pitted against. And I think both in false opposition. But
Speaker 2: then also there are some deeply cynical and unloving and
Speaker 2: unfit parents that are actually coming at education and educators
Speaker 2: knowing full will. What they're doing, right, what they want
Speaker 2: to do is create a world that's smaller for their
Speaker 2: kids than the one that they live in as parents.
Speaker 2: That's like part one. Part two is the incredibly deep
Speaker 2: mental health crisis that we are in the middle of
Speaker 2: right now. And I say we, not young people. I
Speaker 2: say we as a collective, right, we can name the
Speaker 2: multiple crises that are happening right now that are stacking upon,
Speaker 2: interlocking between, right, compounding down on all of us. And
Speaker 2: we are adults. Right, We've got optimismy, We've got income, right,
Speaker 2: We've got discretionary income. If we're lucky, we can choose
Speaker 2: what to do with our time. For the most part,
Speaker 2: we can choose our coping mechanisms. Right, there's a way
Speaker 2: in which we have a level of autonomy and self
Speaker 2: direction in this moment, and even we aren't okay, And
Speaker 2: so what about a five year old? What about a
Speaker 2: ten year old? What about a thirteen year old? What
Speaker 2: about an eighteen year old? Right? And so what we
Speaker 2: And I'll just zoom in here for a moment to
Speaker 2: share this statistic that continues to break my heart every
Speaker 2: time I think about it. So, we've lost over a
Speaker 2: million people from the coronavirus pandemic right here in this country.
Speaker 2: And while the policy wise, government wise, business wise, the
Speaker 2: pandemic is over for those listening I'm doing air quotes,
Speaker 2: the pandemic is over of while that is, while that
Speaker 2: is true based on the policy realities and how everyone
Speaker 2: is acting, right, what is what we also know is
Speaker 2: that folks have been permanently marked by this pandemic. And
Speaker 2: so here's one here's one statistic as an example, which
Speaker 2: is seven out of ten children who lost a parent
Speaker 2: or caregiver during COVID. So, right, seven out of the
Speaker 2: ten kids whose parents or caregivers died during the coronavirus pandemic.
Speaker 2: Seven of those ten young people are Black, Indigenous and
Speaker 2: LATINX seventy And so forget everything else for a second, right,
Speaker 2: forget the deep economic trouble that folks are in that
Speaker 2: working people, you know, despite working one and two jobs,
Speaker 2: don't have enough money to like, you know, to make
Speaker 2: the ends meet. Forget for a second, you know, the
Speaker 2: deep insecurity and both and like the lack of safety
Speaker 2: that people feel moving through their communities and moving through
Speaker 2: moving through the streets. Just understand that seventy percent of
Speaker 2: the kids who lost their parents during COVID or black
Speaker 2: and brown, right, and like the deep heartbreak of that, right,
Speaker 2: the deep trauma, the deep sadness, and so what that
Speaker 2: looks like in the five and like what that looks
Speaker 2: like for me, right, for as a person who didn't
Speaker 2: lose a parent or caregiver, who's in my forties, who's
Speaker 2: lost dozens of people in this pandemic, dozens of people
Speaker 2: who I know and love to COVID. I'm I'm grown,
Speaker 2: I'm grown, and I'm carrying around a heavy backpack of sadness. Right. Yeah,
Speaker 2: So when we're talking about how are kids doing, not
Speaker 2: good because none of us are doing good, right, But
Speaker 2: the thing is is that we're also they're not. They're
Speaker 2: not doing good, and they don't have people who are
Speaker 2: listening to them and as a result, building systems and
Speaker 2: putting supports up and around them to help them be better.
Speaker 2: Because actually, no one's doing good and no one is
Speaker 2: focused on being better. We're grinting our teeth right, we're
Speaker 2: girding our loins, and we're putting our head down and
Speaker 2: we're moving on for some reason without attending to the
Speaker 2: real heartbreak and sadness and trava that we've all experienced.
Speaker 2: So all this is say, kids aren't. No one's doing okay,
Speaker 2: and young people who have fewer tools and discretion and
Speaker 2: autonomy are doing less well. Now, put on top of
Speaker 2: all that, like you're queer right, or your gender expansive
Speaker 2: or your trands and again, great on you if you've
Speaker 2: got to, if you've got to support a parent. And
Speaker 2: there are parents out there who love their kids right,
Speaker 2: who understand it's their job to to love and support
Speaker 2: their child and to meet their kid anew at every
Speaker 2: single developmental age, and believe them, believe that right for
Speaker 2: who what they are told? What the kid chooses to
Speaker 2: tell them about themselves. Then there are other parents who
Speaker 2: who insist that actually it's better that my child not
Speaker 2: exists then then be different than what I tell them
Speaker 2: to be and so. And it's those parents, sadly, who
Speaker 2: are who are the ones who are taking over school boards.
Speaker 2: It's those parents who are taking who are challenging books
Speaker 2: quote unquote and getting books that would support their young person,
Speaker 2: support other young people seeing themselves or seeing people like
Speaker 2: their friends in literature and curriculum. It's those parents whould
Speaker 2: rather have a dead kid than a trans adult, right
Speaker 2: who are pushing this political agenda at the school, at
Speaker 2: the school board level.
Speaker 1: You know, last question for you, Melanie, because I appreciate
Speaker 1: so much you laying out just where things are and
Speaker 1: where we are and the fact that it is okay
Speaker 1: to recognize and acknowledge frankly that we are all not okay.
Speaker 1: I think that that is the first part of honestly
Speaker 1: getting to a place of healing is to understand that
Speaker 1: you are wounded to begin with. What I so appreciate
Speaker 1: about the work that you are doing is that the
Speaker 1: work has become dangerous, right like the work has become
Speaker 1: dangerous to be an advocate. To be out for a
Speaker 1: community that is targeted. Right to stand up for children
Speaker 1: has become dangerous. We've seen school board meetings turn violent, right,
Speaker 1: And so the last question for you is how can
Speaker 1: people that are listening find solace and even a balm
Speaker 1: in being able to support LGBTQ kids in this moment
Speaker 1: Because I often find that moving outside of myself in
Speaker 1: aid of others is one of the best avenues for healing.
Speaker 1: And so what opportunities can you provide for people who
Speaker 1: are listening to connect to Glisten and the work that
Speaker 1: you're doing.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I appreciate the question. So I've got two websites
Speaker 2: that I want to drop for your listeners to go to.
Speaker 2: The first one is glisten dot org slash rise Up.
Speaker 2: So Rise Up is our umbrella campaign right that understands
Speaker 2: that even as we fight in the classrooms, even as
Speaker 2: we fight make the rules and the policies work for
Speaker 2: our kids, there's a need to be in the streets.
Speaker 2: There's a need to be visible and vocal in our
Speaker 2: support of these children, because kids come here and they
Speaker 2: believe they know nothing about planet Earth or this thing
Speaker 2: that we are calling society. I'm also air quoting for
Speaker 2: people who are just listening. They don't know anything about
Speaker 2: this place, and they learn everything they know from the
Speaker 2: people around them, from the adults around them. And whereas
Speaker 2: they might be hearing whether they're hearing supportive or not
Speaker 2: affirming things at home, whether they're in a school district,
Speaker 2: in a school classroom community and education community that affirms
Speaker 2: them or not. We want to make sure that they
Speaker 2: see that there are adults who see them, who celebrate them,
Speaker 2: who support them, and who are taking a stand to
Speaker 2: advocate and rise up for them. So if you go
Speaker 2: to glistendt org slash rise up, you can sign the
Speaker 2: pledge there. It says that you pledge to advocate for
Speaker 2: young people, for queer young people and a rise up
Speaker 2: against hateful anti LGBTQ plus bills and rhetoric, and that
Speaker 2: will put you kind of in our system. We'll be
Speaker 2: put you'll be kept up to date on action alerts,
Speaker 2: et cetera. If you scroll down to the bottom of
Speaker 2: the page, you'll see other people buy zip code who
Speaker 2: have taken the pledge, and so you'll actually understand how
Speaker 2: many people are out there just like you who are
Speaker 2: rising up for LGBTQ plus youth. So again glisten dot
Speaker 2: org slash rise up. The other thing I would offer is,
Speaker 2: you know, again back to my policy and data nerd bag,
Speaker 2: which is that we love a map, honey, we love it,
Speaker 2: interactive map, We love data. So listen is good for
Speaker 2: Listen is good for data and information. If you go
Speaker 2: to maps dot glisten dot org you can see our
Speaker 2: mini featured maps. There's to rise Up proclamation, so you
Speaker 2: as individual can take the pledge to rise up for
Speaker 2: LGBTQ plus youth. You can also we also have sample
Speaker 2: language where you can download it and give it to
Speaker 2: your representative. That's the city council, that's a school board,
Speaker 2: that's a mayor, it's a governor, it's anybody in your state.
Speaker 2: Let's slature to do the rise up proclamation to say
Speaker 2: that actually, we're going to govern with respect for the
Speaker 2: beauty and diversity of all of us and support LGBTQ
Speaker 2: plus young people. So there's a kind of a policy
Speaker 2: intervention there. And we also have other state level maps
Speaker 2: that give you various levels of information about like, hey,
Speaker 2: what does it look like for queer kids on the
Speaker 2: ground in this state? There are a couple of states
Speaker 2: that have you know, a perfect score seven out of seven.
Speaker 2: There are some states, and I'll let your imaginations run
Speaker 2: wild about which ones those are that have negative scores.
Speaker 2: Right if the maximum is positive seven, there are places
Speaker 2: that have a negative seven rating. Right for what it
Speaker 2: is to be an LGBTQ plus kid in schools based
Speaker 2: on experience, their own experiences as well as the policies
Speaker 2: that support them. And so I would say, get informed,
Speaker 2: Go to maps at glisten dot org, get involved, sign
Speaker 2: the Rise Up pledge and find people around you. We
Speaker 2: also have like super dope swag, we got a long signs,
Speaker 2: We've got bumper stick, We've got shirts. There's a whole
Speaker 2: merch line that's dropping in the fall, and so pick
Speaker 2: up your merch. If you got a yard, which I'm
Speaker 2: in New York City, nobody has a yard, but if
Speaker 2: a card, make sure to get a yard sign and
Speaker 2: put it out there and let everybody know, including young
Speaker 2: people who are who are always looking to us and
Speaker 2: to you for signals about who they can be. Are
Speaker 2: you safe? Can they be their full selves? Get loud
Speaker 2: and get vocal and get visible in your support for
Speaker 2: queer kids.
Speaker 1: Melanie I can't thank you enough for making the time
Speaker 1: to join WI k F. I can't thank you enough
Speaker 1: for the work that you and Glisten are doing. It
Speaker 1: gives me hope and sustains my mustard seed of safe
Speaker 1: that you know, there are good people that are doing
Speaker 1: good work to try and better our society.
Speaker 3: So I appreciate you, Thank.
Speaker 2: You so much, and thank you for having me on.
Speaker 2: I just really appreciate you as an individual, and also
Speaker 2: this space that you continue to hold where you continue
Speaker 2: to invite all of us into action and to dopeness
Speaker 2: and to depth and understanding that we all have a
Speaker 2: role to play. So just really appreciate you and the
Speaker 2: pod and also all the all the hats that you
Speaker 2: wear on and off the you know, I don't know,
Speaker 2: on and offline and on and off of the airwaves.
Speaker 3: Appreciate y'all.
Speaker 1: That is it for me today, Dear friends on Woke
Speaker 1: A app as always power to the people and to
Speaker 1: all the people.
Speaker 3: Power, get woke and stay woke as fuck.