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Speaker 1: Hey, this is Anny and Samantha and Woking stuff when

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Speaker 1: Never told You production by her radio.

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Speaker 2: And we are excited to start off a Pride Month

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Speaker 2: by celebrating the works and the accomplishments of the first black,

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Speaker 2: openly trans woman to be elected into public office in

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Speaker 2: the United States, Andrea Jenkins. And that is our activists

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Speaker 2: around the world. If you didn't know what this segment

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Speaker 2: was also happy Pride, Yes, Happy Pride. So Jenkins made

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Speaker 2: history in twenty seventeen with her decision to run for

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Speaker 2: city Council in Minneapolis's eighth ward. She is very familiar

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Speaker 2: in the political realm. She started her career in two

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Speaker 2: thousand and one. Jenkins worked on the campaign for Robert

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Speaker 2: Lilligren and went on to become one of his staffers.

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Speaker 2: And later she was hired as an aid for council

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Speaker 2: member Elizabeth Goodden. And it was during this time that

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Speaker 2: she was awarded the twenty eleven Bush Fellowship, which helped

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Speaker 2: her establish the Trans Issues Work Group. So she continued

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Speaker 2: in her work establishing other groups and organizations. So this

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Speaker 2: is from Women'sistory dot org quote. Jenkins won the twenty

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Speaker 2: eleven Bush Fellowship dedicated to transgender Issues, helped establish the

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Speaker 2: Transgender Issues Workgroup and organized the City Council Summit on

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Speaker 2: Transgender Equality and the Problems facing the transgender community in Minnesota.

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Speaker 2: Both In twenty fourteen, after twelve years as a council aid,

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Speaker 2: Jenkins began curating the Transgender Oral History Project at the

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Speaker 2: University of Minnesota's John Nicholas Trader Collection in Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual,

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Speaker 2: and Transgender Studies. A primary focus of our curation is

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Speaker 2: to grow the collection of trans narratives by recording oral histories.

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Speaker 2: And we know we've talked about the importance of recording

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Speaker 2: oral histories and how often we don't enough of that

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Speaker 2: because we've lost so much in the erasure. So that

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Speaker 2: work is so amazing. And after getting's decision in not

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Speaker 2: running for reelection as well as the new twenty sixteen

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Speaker 2: presidential administration, you know, you know, Jingins decided to run

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Speaker 2: for the city council seat again. From that women's Systreet

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Speaker 2: dot org article, Jingins won her twenty seventeen election to

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Speaker 2: represent Ward eight with seventy three percent of the vote.

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Speaker 2: She was one of a few transgender candidates who won

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Speaker 2: their elections during that cycle. Her colleagues in the city

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Speaker 2: council then elected her vice president of the council and

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Speaker 2: we're still there. But that's okay. So in a twenty

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Speaker 2: nineteen interview with Essence dot Com, she talks about her

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Speaker 2: decision to run, and she says, quote, I got to

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Speaker 2: step into the fray. I can't leave this to the craziest,

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Speaker 2: Jingens says of her reaction to the election of TV

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Speaker 2: personality Donald Trump with a country at risk, the openly

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Speaker 2: trans progressive says, she put her well founded fears to

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Speaker 2: the side and listened to the swelling coors of community

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Speaker 2: members who chanted run Andrea run. The rare opportunity to

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Speaker 2: take over position that had no incumbent made the role

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Speaker 2: even more engaging. And having served for years at the

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Speaker 2: local level, Jenkins understood the significance of city politics. Cities

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Speaker 2: had already been at the forefront of making change in America.

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Speaker 2: Jenkin unfirms cities are leading on climate change, cities are

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Speaker 2: leading on a fifteen dollars minimum wage. Cities are really

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Speaker 2: tackling bell reform and all of these issues that our

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Speaker 2: federal government is sort of just cooking down. And I

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Speaker 2: knew I needed to get engaged and in her a

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Speaker 2: re election in twenty twenty two, she was made president

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Speaker 2: of the council and she has used her time to

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Speaker 2: create change within her community. So in her time in office,

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Speaker 2: she has had to face many culturally and politically changing

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Speaker 2: events and tragedies, including the murder of George Floyd, who

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Speaker 2: was a resident of her district. She has had many

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Speaker 2: may controversial moments within this tumultuous times and has had

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Speaker 2: to face the severity and complications of that tragedy. There

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Speaker 2: was an incident apparently where she was blocked while she

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Speaker 2: was driving by activists trying to get her to see

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Speaker 2: the devoid of views, including reform for police brutality, maybe

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Speaker 2: even the funding of police. So there was a lot

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Speaker 2: of stuff going on. But here's another quote from the

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Speaker 2: Women'shistory dot org. In the wake of Floyd's murder, Jenkins

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Speaker 2: insisted racism was a public health crisis and played a

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Speaker 2: central role in re examining the funding and structure of

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Speaker 2: Minneapolis's police department. In twenty twenty two, Jingins won reelection

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Speaker 2: to the Minneapolis City Council with eighty six percent of

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Speaker 2: the vote. Her colleagues then unanimously made her President of

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Speaker 2: the council. Another historic first for the openly transgender person.

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Speaker 2: With her new mandate, Jingins wants to bridge gaps in

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Speaker 2: her community, fight for the accountability within the city's police department,

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Speaker 2: and expand access to affordable housing, healthcare, and living wages.

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Speaker 2: She hopes her public service quote serves as an inspiration

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Speaker 2: for other trands and gender non conforming people. Again, there's

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Speaker 2: a lot of hiccups when it comes to the politics

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Speaker 2: that happened during that time, and it just felt like

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Speaker 2: there was no movement forward in politics in itself. But

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Speaker 2: I know again, she definitely had to face a lot

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Speaker 2: of controversies and issues within those realms, so with her

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Speaker 2: works in politics. She, like many of our other activists,

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Speaker 2: has many titles under her belt, including being a writer

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Speaker 2: and a poet. In an article written in into more

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Speaker 2: dot com, they quote her saying this about poetry and politics,

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Speaker 2: I really hope that my role in public life provides

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Speaker 2: some inspiration for others to see trans and gender nonconforming

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Speaker 2: people in a more positive light. She explains. As a

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Speaker 2: creative Jenkins is determined to do so by bringing art

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Speaker 2: and have it soaked into policy changes. Every poem is

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Speaker 2: a love poem, she can says, and I think we

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Speaker 2: have to inject more love and poetry into our public discourse.

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Speaker 2: And in her campaign she spoke often about how love

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Speaker 2: is a part of her platform, and in twenty fifteen,

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Speaker 2: she released her poetry book The Tea Is Not Silent,

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Speaker 2: which is still available does here's the summary from Amazon quote.

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Speaker 2: The title The Tea Is Not Silent was derived from

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Speaker 2: a quote by Janet mak She and now we're both

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Speaker 2: at a convening hosted by the Arcus Foundation, where she

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Speaker 2: is on the board. We were doing our introduction. There

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Speaker 2: were transgender activists from all across the country in the room,

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Speaker 2: and she said, the tea is no longer going to

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Speaker 2: be silent, and I immediately thought, that's going to be

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Speaker 2: the title of my next book. Visibility in the trades

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Speaker 2: community is increasing dramatically. Ultimately, this book is an effort

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Speaker 2: to create an understanding and awareness of marginalized community. A

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Speaker 2: community that is invisible to most and vilified by some.

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Speaker 2: A community that is traumatized by the constant threat of violence,

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Speaker 2: as well as unemployment, housing, instability, and discrimination in multiple

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Speaker 2: areas of social and economic life. A community that is

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Speaker 2: also creative, beautiful, and resilient and yeah, so she's actually

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Speaker 2: not going to be coming in for reelection this year

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Speaker 2: from what I understand, so hopefully we'll see more amazing

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Speaker 2: poetry from her I'm sure is coming soon. If you

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Speaker 2: want to check out her words, there are more of

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Speaker 2: her stuff on video where she's reading off her own works,

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Speaker 2: which is gorgeous and you should take a listen. Like

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Speaker 2: I said, I'm sure we'll be hearing more from her

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Speaker 2: as well as we need to constantly be able to

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Speaker 2: uplift these change makers as we know the administrations try

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Speaker 2: to erase them.

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Speaker 1: Yes, and you also know we always love poetry, so

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Speaker 1: that's exciting. Well, listeners. If you have any recommendations for

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Speaker 1: us or any other thoughts you'd like to share, you

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Speaker 1: can email us at Hello at stuff Wenever Told You

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Speaker 1: dot com. You can also find us on blue Sky

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Speaker 1: at mom on Stuff podcasts, or on Instagram and TikTok

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Speaker 1: at stuff We Never Told You for us on YouTube.

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Speaker 1: We have a tea public story. We have a book

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Speaker 1: you can get wherever you get your books. Thanks as

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Speaker 1: always to our super producer Christina or executiroducer May and

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Speaker 1: archetract for Joey. Thank you, and thanks to you for listening.

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