Defending Democracy: LGBTQ Activism and Power in 2024 Panel | SXSW 2024

- We don't only mean physical violence, but we mean policy violence. We mean cultural violence, we mean political violence. And so what we do is we center the humanity of trans people as an antidote to the ignorance that is being used as a factor to attack trans people. And I think increasingly from the time that I started TransLash in 2018, and now to the team that we have, every single year that I've done the work, the importance of the work to me becomes clearer and clearer. And that's becaus

e the attacks on trans people are not only being used as a vector to undermine the humanity of trans people, but it is also being used to undermine our democracy and some really key ways. And that those key ways include one, having to have an issue, especially in light of the Dobbs decision that is to keep their core voters involved, right? And we're specifically talking about white male rural voters who vote at, who are actually super voters because they show up almost in every single election.

They are. They show up in 90% of elections. And it's because of a way in which they are constantly fed a story about their centrality and importance. The other thing that's really important about these attacks is the way in which they are a test run for how you can put together a series of laws that exclude an entire group of people. And that once you see what that successful mix is in one place, you begin to apply in a series of others and expand who it applies to. This is essentially how we g

ot gen crow laws in the South. There were experimentations in various states about how you are going to push African Americans out of public life. Once that kind of cocktail clause became crystallized, you then saw them replicated across the south. And I think that it's really hard that if you're not trans to dismiss and to not pay attention to or to not believe that what is happening to trans people is important or could impact you. But if I were to blindfold you all and teleport you to a count

ry and say, in this country, in this space, schools don't have to be safe for children in this space. People can be denied 'cause of who they are. And, and in this space, children can be separated from their parents solely because their parents love 'em. If I were telling you that you would assume that we were essentially talking about either Stalins Russia in the 1930s, or we were talking about 1933, I wish we could put on the, but I'm talking about the United States of America in 2024. That is

the country that you are living in. And roughly 18 states have passed some combination of laws that target trans people and trans kids. And one of the things that you're going to hear from this incredible panel of people who have been dealing with this for years, who've been sounding the alarms for years who have been kind of in their own way having various experience with this, is to understand that this is just the beginning. We're just kind of on this voyage together. And so what we want to

do is to link for you in ways that you can understand the connections here between what's happening to L-G-B-T-Q people and everybody else, and why it matters and why we matter, and why no matter where you are in this moment, why you should care deeply. Because I've never read about an authoritarian movement that starts with one group of people and just stops there. That's not how our authoritarian is and works, right? So responds to a societal change and meaning to systematically reconfigure po

wer in that society so that those people who feel threatened maintain that power. It's just true every, I mean, look at Putin, it's like a classic example. It's not that hard. And one of the first places that stu, that Putin started was an attack on LGBTQ people. It's also why, for example, and almost every single speech that Putin gives to the country, he has an attack on trans people specifically. You would think that he had bigger fish Tory than that, but he makes it a central talking point.

But we don't want that to happen. So we're gonna hear from everyone on this panel about how Matt to, to make it happen, coming from a variety of backgrounds and spaces and my phone, like, I have to hear my mask. It's, it's, it's amazing that way. So first up is they also, I also asked them one they for how they wanted me to introduce them, so I have to go to that page. Okay, so first we Havedo Martinez, who is the CEO of Equality? Texas, the statewide organiz. Yeah, you A statewide organization

that is devoted to survey the rights and the community of all people in the state of Texas who will have a lot to say about how some of these big trends that I discussed are actually playing out in the space where you are in the city, where you are in the city where you're, which I think is really essential. The next is Charlotte Heimer, who is the editor in chief of Charlotte's Web, her glad nominated blog, which is now on Substack that you could all find there. And Sheila has a really extensiv

e background, not only as a writer and a journalist, but also on the front lines of some of these issues serving in rapid response capacities at HRC, which was not the easiest place to be over the past, whatever, whatever it is. Almost eight years. And I'm gonna, I'm gonna test to see if I can get this, this, the organization, the university, right. Last one. My niece is Robin Merrill, who is professor at Willams University and also works in HSC on policy. So please give them a round of applause

. Okay, Ricardo, I'm wondering if you can tell us about how you see authoritarianism playing out in Texas. What are the things that most concern you about that, and what can we learn about the way in which organizations like yours in Texas are responding? What can be applied to other states who face similar forces as those hearing in Texas? Can y'all hear me? We're good. Okay. So I'm often not the they of good news because I just tell people the reality of what the landscape feels like, what it,

what it is for LGBTQ people, especially here in Texas. So I want you to look at this picture and remember that regardless of what I tell you, the resistance in Texas is strong. 1 23, during the height of the legislative session, there were thousands of people that constantly showed up to the capitol to defend humanity and the rights of LGBTQ people. This is thousands of people marching towards the capitol, and it's something that happened last year. So I, I know that especially for those of you

who are not residents of Texas, it might, it might not internalize that there are people here who are fighting constantly because we're often counted out, right? Texas is counted out so, so, so frequently. But the, the reality is that there are thousands of people who are working to protect our democracy. So if it gets heavy, if you are listening to what we're saying, there is hope. There is always hope, and this hold onto this, okay? But the reality is authoritarianism shows up in this way. An

d I wanted to show you a, an image because I think it's incredibly important to show you just the mark increase in terms of the attack that LGBTQ people facing here in Texas. So if you look at the chart in 2015, there were only 12 anti LGBTQ that were filed here in Texas. I don't wanna say that that's normal because we SDC always, right? You see that it increases just a little bit of 2017. And then there's a regrouping period between 2017 and 2019 where the bathroom, the bathroom bill failed her

e in Texas in 2017. And our opposition had to regroup to figure out what is the best anti LGBTQ message that we can proliferate across the country to attack and to erode the, the progress that has been made over the course of the last 50 years. Then after an election year, that was incredibly difficult in 2019, we see the, the result right in 2021, where 76 anti LGBTQ bills were five year in Texas. And at the time, in 2021, that was accomplished over one regular session and three specialists ses

sion in Texas. That was a record in 2021 for the most anti LGBTQ bills file for any state legislature in the history of the United States in 2021. We then set the record again in 2023 where there were over 140 LGBTQ bills filed. But this wasn't done across three special sessions in a regular session. This was done in one regular session, which meant that from, and I think I remembered this correctly, February 16, through the end of March, there was a hearing an anti LGBTQ bill at almost every si

ngle day. That type of increased market increase against us is one of the many ways that we are experiencing the, the hostile landscape that has developed here in Texas. But that's not the only way. The legislative attack is just one of the very many ways that we're experiencing oppression here in Texas. The weaponization of state agencies is another way. One of the things that started here in Texas, it began to proliferate across it across the country, notably in Florida, if you remember back i

n 2022, the Attorney General released a letter stating that caring for your trans child and providing with the necessary healthcare that they need thrive was consider child abuse. The governor then mandated the Department of Family and Protective Services to investigate loving parents of trans kids as child abusers to disrupt their lives and really terrorize it. It's not the only time that the attorney general or the governor has shown a clear an enemies against lt, LGBTQ Texans. It has been rep

licated more than 50 times since 2019. The infiltration of our safe space. When you have all of this misinformation, when you involvement people to believe that it's okay to tackle LGBTQ people, when you start seeing the infiltration of our safe spaces, right? So we often see people showing up to drag brunches to our pride events armed. And we're talking about white supremacists, Nazis who are armed and who intend to do it as harm. You're seeing vigilantism and intimidation. We're talking, we ex

ist everywhere, right? Number one, the rural, suburban, urban and Texas, we're everywhere. We're country and we're city, right? But those who are practicing courage in local communities are being intimidated by folks who are harassing 'em and discriminating against them all across the state. That's another way that it shows up. Radicalized parent groups is another way. Oftentimes the fight is not only in the legislature, it really comes down to a hyperlocal context, which is through school board

s. And you're seeing parents show up, you know, championing LGBTQ policies, mostly in finance policies that make conditions for LTQ, young people that attend K to 12 public schools, really, really dangerous. And this is all facilitated 'cause of this disinformation campaign, right? And this is one of the, the formulas that they use that has worked time and time again, both over the course of the last 50 years. They take something about our community that the majority of Americans wouldn't necess

arily understand. Insert direct, they take that knowledge gap and they insert disinformation and misinformation, right? In hopes that that misinformation and misinformation causes hysteria. And wouldn't they achieve that hysteria? They use that hysteria as a reason to legislate against us, and then the discrimination happens in perpetuating. But one of the things that I wanna underscore that I think Mars said really well is that these are recycling tactics that have been used time and time again

. So we compare, it is one of my favorite Instagram handle. So if you don't follow them, you should, because it simply shows you that the 1970 homophobia language is the same language as being used to uplift 2020 transphobia. So I just want folks to remember that this is recycled, it is effective, and there are ways that we can push back, right? But all of this combined, the seven bills that passed last year of the 141 that were introduced, they create conditions that make access and healthcare

marketing for this navigate every life more dangerous. But there are things that we can do as far as equality of Texas. We are, we know that we don't have institutional power, right? We don't have the governorship, we don't have a lieutenant governor who is, is supportive of our issues. We don't have minority in the house or the Senate, but we do have the people, 75% of Texans believe that discrimination against LGTQ people are, is wrong. But we're fighting apathy at the same time that we are fi

ghting what's happening at the capitol. People aren't feeling this as urgently as they need to, right? And what you can do is, number one, stop racism. Stop homophobia, stop transphobia in your daily lives, right? Number two, you get to plug into the work when and if you can and when, and if you have time, I know that advocacy is a journey and we're all in very different spaces within that journey, right? Education is incredibly important. So you don't necessarily know much about the issues and

what we're fighting, education is where you begin following organizations like ours, the Transgender Education Network of Texas, the Texas Freedom Network, A CLU of Texas, HRC and Legal, all those organizations that are championing LGBTQ equality here is important. And then following their actions, right? And encouraging folks to really pay attention and to vote. Because it matters. It matters because the attention here is to shrink civic engagement spaces so that people feel so they don't feel

empowered where they stay home and do nothing and continue to perpetuate the sense of inertia that really allows them their overall intent to really actualize. So mobilize, educate, engage, stop there. One of the things that I, I wanted to ask the audience before going to Charlotte next is fire raise. Raise your hands at the following numbers. How many of you think that we're just trans people? How many of you think trans people are 10% of the population? How many people think that trans people

are 5% population in one person? 2, 3, 4. How many people think trans people are 1% population? Okay. How many people think that trans people are less than 1%? So on a good day, a really, really high counting day, trans people are almost 1% either 0.8 or one population. But you see the number of bills in the number in, in Texas alone dealing with this relatively small group of people. And nationwide it is 400 bills. It was seem to be that we need 400 bills on clean water, we need 400 bills on ho

using. Like there are a lot of other things that impact people, but I think it is the reason why you could, like Ricardo, is framing this as an attack is because you place this much energy into a small number of people. It can't be other than that, there's no problem that you're actually solving for. And the volume kind of tells you. I think the other really important thing is that we know what Ricardo's saying, that they, they do this, they do that. The, they the, they actually have a name and

we actually know who they are, right? It's actually not a mystery. One of the things that we have at Trans Labs is an investigative unit that produces an a podcast called the Anti-Trans Hate Machine Applied against Equality, which looked into the people, the money, the organizations, the politicians, the media network that's driving this. And the thing that you should know is that none of this is an accident. None of this is the conversation that we're having about trans people and LGBTQ people

is designed to look as if it is organic, but it's anything. But it is a structured campaign that is a result of years of focus group testing and planning on their part to set up the time and the conversation in a way that it's happening. So when we say the they, it's not, you know how people say, well, they're putting tolls on roads. Who's the they? The they, the invisible they, the they we use as a plural in this case because we actually know who they are. And there are a lot of 'em. Charlotte,

given your, given where you sit and the fact that you as a writer observe the big trends that are happening and at HRC were on the front lines, when the Trump administration began to weaponize many of these, many of these rules and policies, and even before then kind of the long tail fight, I'm wondering what strikes you about what you're seeing and the way in which it increasingly threatens democracy? That's a great question. You know, first of all, thank you all for being here for this sessio

n. I know you could be so many other places because this is such a great festival and conference. We're really happy that you're here to learn about Fight Ahead. I uhm from the Great Space Houses, I grew up here in Austin, and if you had told me when I was 14 that I'd be at South by Southwest talking such a illustrious company about LG equality, I, I'm not sure I would believe you. So it's really, really great that we, this conversation, Rob and I worked together for the better part of three yea

rs at the human rights campaign during the Trump administration. And I think the biggest difference is during that time, the Republican Party, Donald Trump, and really the, the conservative movement overall was a lot more reticent about their goals. They weren't so open about wanting to do what they did. And the big difference now is that they are very much saying the quiet part out loud, you know, just from the avalanche of legislation that's happening across the country to the Heritage Project

, our Heritage Foundation that just released 2025 project. Robin's gonna talk more about that, but it's, it's just really out being open and they're not being shy at all about what with what they wanna do. And what's frustrating is that so much of political media either seems exhausted or desensitized to the anti L-G-B-T-Q rhetoric that's coming from their party on day one. If, if Trump were to win on day one, the United Executive orders that would come down in our community are numerous. You kn

ow, first of all, the trans military band reinstated within the first hour after he takes the other office ing ed, every L-G-B-T-Q mention on every government website will be wiped away. That's what they did by the way, when he was first elected. They'll absolutely it the second time we're out. And that's not even close to make the worst part. We're going to see legislation that will probably, I would say, utilize diversion therapy and prevent it from being decriminalized anywhere in the country

. We'll definitely see efforts to ban trans people from using the restrooms of our choice spaces or being, having basic protections in the workplace despite Supreme Court's ruling board. And, and that's another thing too. And I I think this is really, really important to get across same-sex marriage as a momentous a moment. As it was as, as much it was a landmark in our history. It really obfuscated the overall struggle of BT Q people. There are two rights that we have at federal level marriage

and employment protections. Both of those are Supreme Court rulings and both of those were made under Supreme Court that was very different than it does now. There are votes on the court to overturn the sex marriage and, and you know, I, I think that there are some folks who disagree me on this respectfully and that's fine. I do believe citizen care will be overturned in the next five years. That is my personal opinion. I believe it's gonna happen. And when it does happen, what we're going to se

e is immediately we're going to see a lot of families whose lives are affected very directly. And what's worse is that this is not a theoretical thing. It's not a hypothetical. Republicans are saying they want to do this. Samuel Lito and Clarence Thomas and Supreme Morgan very open about the fact they sex parish and that they want to give away do away with non-discrimination protections across the board. I wanna end with this. I think this is really important. When you get a few drinks into some

progressives who are not L-G-B-T-Q and you really start talking to 'em, they will let on that they believe that at least we've made permanent progress. And what they mean by that is that essentially white gay suspend are now protected, right? White gay suspend are micro face discrimination. They've been assimilated into the larger society, right? Work folks don't want is safe. No one is safe. I don't care who it is. No one is safe. Your whiteness will not save you. Being a man will not save you

. Your checkbook will not save you. It might delay the inevitable, but it's not gonna save you. Being a military veteran and gay is not going to save you going to church. And I go to church myself every Sunday, it's not going to save you. Jesus might save you. No, but Jesus is not gonna save you from the policies of the Republican party. It's not gonna happen. So if you have relatives or friends or you yourself are a white case cis man and you believe that they're perfectly protected, you are su

rely mistaken. They're not stopping with trans people. They're not stopping with abortion, they're not stopping with anti-blackness, they're not stopping with anti-immigrant policies. They're not stopping with anti-Muslim policies. They're stopping with anti-Semitism. They're not stopping with any of these things. They're going after everyone who doesn't look like them, think like them, be like them. We have to understand that all of these things are linked together. This struggle is not going a

way. We have to figure out how to work together and fight this behemoth that's coming our way. We can do it, we can do it, but we have to know the threat that's coming. We can't stick our heads in the sand and pretend that it's just gonna go away. We wish it away. So, you know, I'm really glad to be here and it's so great that y'all are here to, you know, learn more about this. But you know, when you go back home tonight or when you're at your next family gathering, you hear your family member w

ho bless their heart is a very misinformed moderate. It is your duty to have a hard to heart conversation with them, to let them know the Republican party coming after for all of us. And we need to recognize that threat and address it. I mean, I think two things are, are really important and it kind of sets up the question for Robin. One, I think the reality is, and this is a fact, this isn't, this isn't conjecture anymore. The Republican party is a Christian nationalist authoritarian party. The

re is no longer a right wing of the Republican party. The right are the party. And we have to disabuse ourselves that we're using a term that no longer represents a party that that most people and everyone in this room actually at some point grew up with and still they exist. That party is gone when you have the Speaker of the House who is a Christian nationalist and a dominionist, which is kind of an extreme view of Christianity and speaker. When you have a person who says that on J one, they'r

e gonna be a dictator whose policies have we guided by what we're gonna talk about Project 25 at the Heritage Foundation, which is an organization devoted to injecting Christian policy into the federal government. I think it's just really important for us to name that the Republican Party is a Christian nationalist authoritarian party in 2024. It's, it's just as, it's plain as day. I think the other thing that's really important here is that we saw in the Trump administration just how quickly an

d systematically were basically a two year period. They turned the entire federal government on trans people in through, through executive orders dealing with the military and health and education and housing because they didn't want there to be equal access to housing and successful lawsuit. And so things can change really quickly. And so within this, if you know the federal government is shaky, if the states are shaky, if the Congress is shaky, just this year we began to have votes in the Cong

ress that are anti-trans as a condition for her to support the new speaker. Marjorie Taylor Green demanded that anti-trans bills be on the floor and they were, and they were debated. And so if the states are kind of can be shaky and federal government, depending on who's there can be weaponized overnight night and the Congress the same thing that then leaves one last possible bull work against all of this. And that's the courts and Robin, you have experience in dealing with the analysis of the c

ourt system and how we have used it to advance or, or short rights. But then maybe there's some, some dangers of that as well. As well as speaking about what happened through, through Project 25, which would be a combination of these executive orders and laws and archive. Yeah, I think I share Charlotte's concern about the future trajectory of the board and it is not, this is not a place that I was at even three years ago. I'll project more. Can you hear me? Yeah. Okay. I have the talk of my han

d a lot. So this is why I have the, I think I now I'm more concerned about the status of the court and I think that the repeal of Roe v Wade is absolutely just to the start of what this court is willing to do and what they were brought on to do and what was part of, I think a very strategic plan for the past 30 years to remake the courts, to undo Ro v Wade, but also to incorporate these, the traditional family moral values that we saw come up with Reagan. Now in modern America, we are what we ar

e employing really outmoded methods of interpretation to 2024 problems. You know, we're citing founders from 1789 who incorporated slavery into the constitution, right? The constitution and the framers of 1789 were not a liberatory, did not have a liberatory idea and we're gonna have this same result when we apply that mentality to modern 2024 products. I think that with that there is so much power in naming what is happening. And I'm so glad you brought up the 1930s and I think for a long time

I hesitated to say the words authoritarian and fascist in the context of the United States. But we are there and I think looking at the way just across history, LGBT people, but gender non-conforming and women and immigrants and people of color have been really brutalized and used as scapegoats by authoritarian governments. And they use the same language. And this is why I wanted to have cliffs because the same language that we see in Germany in the 1930s around erosion of family values and the

degradation of society and all of this is linked to Phil Blank. They're using the same playbook. So let's see, I hope this was worth your, if it's not, you're gonna run upstream. No, I'm printing Danny and Tim Cook. There you go. So I can also do a dramatic reenactment. So what governor, and again, I'm from Oklahoma is saying, so this is him signing in an executive order designed to protect women in Oklahoma, right? And that's how it is being sold. But the language he's using is, but is it actua

lly about transgender people and children, right? This is what this is about, right? It is about next benefit. And instead what he's saying is, this executive order is going to stop the erosion of our society and preserve the very essence of being a woman, right? And we're putting it into state policy, right? And I think the big part of this is that it is just as tomorrow is saying, this is based on fear. Whether that fear is real or manufacturers, right? And regardless of whether that fear is i

nsecurity around economics or just fear of the future and have change, what we have seen in the 1930s in Germany and we see now is that when rights are expanded, when opportunity and access to opportunity increases for people who have not traditionally had it, that is when the majority population starts to say, Ugh, right. I am afraid of this. And when you are afraid of someone, then the politicians can look at you and people become problems. And when people become problems, they become really c

onvenient responses to real problems like inflation and unemployment and war, right? And the failed war on drugs, picking on a trans kid in Oklahoma is a lot easier than responding to the fentanyl crime. Fentanyl crime, right? It's a lot easier. And it also from an individual community perspective pushes us and our lives further from the community as political life, right? We are distanced and we're alienated from actually being able to exercise our political power when we are over and over and

over dehumanized and push away. And I think what's important is that fascists are exploiting preexisting hate and bias. This isn't new in the United States, right? Trump didn't invent racism, he exploits it. And that is the problem because when you give them room to exploit pre-existing hate and bias and you validate it and you give, you get everyone together in a state and you say it's okay to say these things, in fact it is your patriotic duty and then everybody else becomes a threat to nation

al security and health. And then we can undermine reproductive, right? Then we can undermine affirmative, affirmative action, right? And we can undo same sex heritage, then we can pick on next benefit, right? Because we've given you space to do that. So I think as dark as it is and as darker as it might become, I think there are things that we can do both as a community and personally by just living. Because I think one of the things that I have sort of come to terms with is to the extent that w

hat the far right Republican party was, is conformity and an easy sort of populace to push around, right? One of the most radical things that you can do is to be your god damn self ready. That is an action that we can take every day. And for those folks, like in my home state of Oklahoma where it is not safe to come out, I think part of it is still holding on to what makes you you, even if it is not safe for you to come out, you can still maintain and say I'm worth it. And that can be an antifas

cist as well. So thank you. I'm sorry the video is work, but I quote that it was, I reenacted it and gave, One of the things that's important I think is that, you know, we can lose sight by talking about the trends that are happening and the various laws that are taking place, the way that institutions are responding. But I think that we always have to put in mind as well that like this is an issue of life that is actually difficult, right? The anti-trans climate due to legislation passed in Okl

ahoma and the ability to deny people healthcare that had clinics dealing with trans youth shut down, you know, substance, other things directly contributed to the murder next benefits. We know that in states where even where these laws are just discussed, that the cause to suicide headlines by trans and queer kids to shoot through the roof, that just the conversation can lead to violence in all its norms. And a South Carolina legislator who introduced an anti-trans bill in that state told me tha

t that is also part of a plan. That is to say that they know that the conversation itself can have an impact even if the bills don't pass. So they're very aware of this and they're very aware of this violence and all over, you know, here there are stories, there are people that I have talked to who have to decide what their families are going to do when these anti-trans laws are passed. You know, are they gonna have to move one case where they, I know where they split the family, it, they lived

in a, in a school district and a place where they had a child with special needs, great school for child for special needs. So one parent decided to stay with that kid, the other person decided to move to another state with their trans teenagers so that they can get gender affirming care. There are cases in Florida and people in Florida that I know where families have done the same thing where they've had to stay and the state because of work, but then transfer custody to the mother sister of a

16-year-old trans girl so that she could be in a place where she could get the healthcare that she needed and be safe. And this is America, this is not, this is not some, you know, speculative fiction fantasy. This is America right now. But I think as well in all the moving too, we have to give people hope before we ask, ask you all to wa with your thoughts and questions. And Robin, your advice was for people to live and to be and to confront authoritarianism just based upon who they are. Charlo

tte and Ricardo. I'm wondering what is your advice for how to respond positively in this moment and what, if anything, is giving you hope that the worst thing that happen? I wanna hear from Ricardo first. There's a lot of things that gave me hope. I, you know, oftentimes the, the scariest messages are the ones that proliferate, right? But there are are good things that are happening here in Texas. So for instance, one of the things that gave me a tremendous amount of hope recently was there's an

, there's a Democratic House member in house district 1 46 who was running for reelection and she was primaried by a queer black woman. And this is a district in Houston. The incumbent was really anti LGBTQ in very many of her positions in 2023. And she came very close to losing her election with Lauren Ashley Simmons actually getting 49.5% of the vote and just narrowly, narrowly missing out on winning out right? And becoming the new state representative, right? And that takes a tremendous amoun

t of effort and commitment from community to unsee an incumbent who has been there for years. And I think that's the energy and the power that we often forget that we have in holding people accountable. Lauren actually submits is going to win. Yes she is. She's gonna win because she has so many people doing what they can in moments when they can to propel her to victory, right? Because she's depending on community, she's depending on small donors, she's depending on community organizations that

are aligned with her values of shared prosperity, right? Because we all have the right to live out our fullest potential. That gives me a tremendous amount of hope that in a place like that we can really galvanize a community to, to create some change. There are thousands of people that turned out in 2023, they set a record at the legislature. So at the height of SB 14, the anti-trans healthcare ban bill that ultimately ended up passing nearly 3000 people showed up to the capitol to drop a card,

which means to formally note your position against the bill. And that's the third most people that ever in the history of when the, the legislature has kept records the third most amount of people to ever show up against. But what ended up happening during that time was that their voice was suppressed, right? But despite their voice being suppressed, you can't change the history, you can't change the record, right? And we are, as we are living, right, that record or point back in history to say

that we did something right. And that the young queer kids that continue to show up and be vocal and unapologetic about who they're give me a tremendous amount of vocal TikTok. But they do. And what, what they're learning is how to use their platform for the good and using your platform for the common good and remembering that we all have to, even if we don't agree, recognize our humanity and do what is right by Texas, what is right by the us. It's watching so many people do that and commit to

doing that time and time again despite how hard it has been. That gives me a tremendous amount of, yeah, I, I'll be quick because I know we're about in here, but it, in the nature of my work, I'll sometimes meet a new colleague or a new client, usually always wonderful. I, I never have an issue with clients, but every now and then I'll be one who's significantly older and they have a, a child in high school or what have you. And I can tell that they're very excited. They don't say, I can just te

ll they're very excited to get home and, and tell their kid working with a trans woman. How about that? And it is very sweet in a way, it's very endearing. And I don't have the heart to tell them that their kid doesn't care. Their kid doesn't give a shit. You know, a Gen Z young person will tell you to your face that you are a new liberal sellout and they'll use your correct pronouns while they do. So that's the future. That is the future. You know, our generations are coming up. These kids are

better informed, more empathetic and more assertive in their fight for quality in any previous generation. Time is on our side, time is absolutely on our side. It's really bad right now. But the fight we're having is whether the quality's going to be achieved 20 years from now or it's gonna be achieved four years from now, or 60 years from now. But it's inevitable it's coming. We're just gonna go through a lot of pain struggle to get there. I you're right. I, I always say that like, you know, we

ll everyone, this is not an uncommon understanding but you know, the or universe bends towards justice. But I think its Ben, it doesn't on its own one's going to. It is. And everyone's interest for things continue the way they are. And the only way that it doesn't is if people make a change. You know, like you want to make sure that the kids that you all are talking about can have the world where they can be and make that change, but that responsibility falls on adults. That's not children's wor

k. It's not the work of kids. It's our job. It's our job for that in order to come happen to happen. But do we have some hope? We have some hope even even in the darkness. So can we just take maybe three questions from the audience? We're gonna go over a little bit because we trying to Yeah. Do you mind coming to Michael? You know, I can hear louder voice. Hello, my name's Zach. His, I have the great joy and pleasure of working with a lot of trans youth in Washington DC as part of the game. This

chorus, we have youth course on gen out. They're wonderful I, in those interactions that something that I often hear from them is that despite being part of a community that is affirming them at every given opportunity, they're still scared and they're still even more scared for the people that they know who are not out, who feel that they can't come out because it may not be safe at home or what have you. So I guess my question is twofold. One, what would the message be that you would give to

those kids who are too afraid to come out right now? 'cause they're noticing all of this that's going on in our society. And I guess my second part of that question would be what would you suggest that we do as just individual members of the community to make it so that those kids been more safe? What, I mean, I just think coming out as a right, like put myself in the shoes of a teenager who was just scared to come out like so was I, right. And I think it was finding my, my people feeling safe,

taking small steps and acknowledging that I wasn't ready just yet. And then just taking my time and not having a timeline for it until I was, I was ready to, to shadow through the roof right now here with Mr. Gay Texas. Something that I was part of my story when I was 16 years old, being from New York, right? And what can we do as individual community members? I think hold space for their braveness and courage when they are ready as much as we can, you know, following their read of looking their

message and fighting when you can if you can. And advocacy showing, yeah, there's, there's no right way out that doesn't exist. There is a runway to respond to someone coming out and that is to not ask them what they need that moment to make sure they have the resources they need, that they listen in ear. You know, there are bad days for folks that have just come out or there's bad days for all of us. But you know, especially for folks who have just come out because it's, you encounter things t

hat you didn't think you would encounter. Forms of discrimination, moments from violence that people, and what I personally, I think what what especially helps for youth is knowing they always passed someone they can talk to who's been there before, who can hold their hand in the roughest parts of that journey. I mean, I think really quickly, more than them coming out, we want them to stay alive. So yes, they need to come out when they can't do so safely. Yep. Period. Full stop. It's not even a

question. The second thing that I would say to them is that there are people working really hard to make sure that they can have that opportunity. And that's something to communicate as well, like that there are thousands of people who are marching in Texas for example, or in Florida to the state capitol. But there's a lot of work being done to make sure that they can. And I think what you can do is not only be supportive of people in this moment, but also think about what you can do to make whe

re you live and operate your community safe for these kids. So if there's every ever an anti-trans conversation that's gonna be at the school board, show up. If you, if there's going to be a debate locally in state legislature, you're not in dc you know, you make your voice heard, try to have, try to create a space for also kids who are queer to be able to come together because that's also a huge thing. They not only wanna do that online, but spaces. So there's lots of things that you can do imm

ediately where you are have, thank you. You got a question? Thank you. So we sort of taking the picture that they're using fear of us webinars that distracting things they can't solve or don't, what are the things that we can do other than just being ourselves invisible to that fear and refocus the conversation with stuff that we really need to fix. Frankly, I don't think any of lived, so what are your suggestions, terms of how we become president and actually defend that here and sort of in the

conversation? Yeah, I'll, I'll check that jump Paul. I mean, I think that one of the most underappreciated parts of the marriage community was the encouragement for people who are gay to talk to their families about marriage. There's a huge push to do that. And I think that in this moment, in this environment that in your families or friends or even workplace be reticent to talk about this. But that's literally one thing that you can do is to begin to have people interrogate their own thoughts

about this through conversation. Like you are, you personally do have that power, right? But, and then in that telling your own story and how the environment relates to you, that's something that you can do in a lot of places. And that's a really powerful thing. I also think that in general, as a part of that, people underestimate the power of making their voices heard. You know, one of the things that happened, you guys have done this really successfully, but in other states, one of the reasons

why they pass anti-trans laws is because they can be the consequence free that no one's gonna care. And so to the degree that you can engage people around you and also make your voice heard, that actually helps. I was just gonna say that I think that also going ahead and holding politicians in the media accountable when they take the bait and talk about non instead of the real issues, I think demanding that we spend time talking about and unemployment and call, calling out that this is a distra

ction that is exceedingly costly. I think it's, I think it's important. I think naming what's happening is really important. Well, I think that that's all that we have time for, sadly. There are other sessions that are gonna use this room and you all wanna know the other sessions. But thank you all so much.