 My involvement in other people's involvement kind of serves to inspire one another. It's always been, how do we involve community? How do we be welcoming to all? I feel very strongly that what I'm doing is important. I feel like with the teachers and the administrators they've got my full support. Most of the people that I talk to I just naturally educate them about trans issues because a lot of people just don't know about trans issues. What is the GSA? Why do you add a Q to it? They are opening their minds to things they haven't thought about before. I am encountering a lot of people that I love dearly and they've become my peers and everybody else can either like it or lump it pretty much. What I think is really important for individuals and in turn for institutions is to use their time, their talent and their treasures for what they think is important. My school can show their support and create more events. Having a standard of language and talking about representation and gender stereotypes at an all-school level instead of just on a teacher-to-teacher basis or administrator-to-administrator basis. Support local GSA QSA rainbow alliances. Having a dedicated space for queer youth be it a room or a portable building or something that could be just for them. Trying to get come up with safe, loving, functional families that can provide a safe home to children. First being really open and honest about being an ally and what that means and never shying away from conversations or teachable moments where you're actually able to address an issue that might come up in class. In the classroom, in the bathroom, in the locker room, all across the campus that they are allowed to be themselves while they're on campus. When kids say the effort in a derogatory way to kids that aren't even gay, they throw it around so wastefully they just throw it at everyone and they don't know what they're saying and I really want kids to understand what they're saying because they don't keep queer youth on their radar. We're doing everything right right now, I feel and I think the important thing is that we continue to do those things and we never let ourselves feel comfortable or easier like we don't have a problem because it seems you let your guard down is when problems with bullying and hate speech come back up. I personally discovered my queer identity when I was about 12. 17. 23 years old. By the time one is 16 or 17 or 18 the question is not am I gay or am I not gay but when am I going to accept myself? I first started realizing my queer identity when I was in sixth grade in Britney Spears music video that hit me babe one more time came out and I had a massive crush on her and I was really embarrassed I didn't want to tell anyone not because I had a crush on a girl but because it was Britney Spears and not like Courtney Love or Joan Jett. In second grade we had to do a project where we drew what we wanted to be when we grew up and I drew a mermaid I think that was one of the early indicators I had an idea that I was different and I would hear people make comments for example you're a girl and I'm not really understanding that people would see me as a girl because I believed I was a girl and hearing that comment making me just puzzled what would they say when I am a girl? I came out in terms of knowing my own identity when I grew up as a little girl I didn't know but when I came out I came screaming out of the closet at right around the cusp of 1819 fell in love with a woman and have not looked back it's been great In seventh grade I heard an announcement for a club called GSA and I decided to go because I didn't know a lot about it and it changed my life because now I'm involved in all these activities and I have a bunch of cool friends and it was just a great idea My favorite movie is probably going to be the last one I saw which was Captain America Rocky Horror Picture Show The Breakfast Club The Princess Bride The Matrix The Goonies Dancer in the Dark Paragraph 175 My favorite movie I think is The Breakfast Club because the characters in there all start off hating each other for no reason and then towards the end of the movie they realize that they are so similar and they have so much in common and they're all just trying to make it in life My favorite movie I've got little kids at home so my favorite movie is Monsters University because they never get tired of it and Helen Mirren isn't it My favorite color probably has to be like a really nice royal blue Purple Turquoise Light Pink Blue Red is vibrant and energy My favorite color is that color that the surface of the ocean turns right at sunset My favorite color is Seafoam Green Purple Green I'm obsessed with green right now Magenta is sort of like dark purple Turquoise Blue Purple I would have to say the rainbow because it's not well known but there's not a lot of us left but I was one of the original rainbow flag volunteers I helped to make the two original rainbow flags in June of 1978 and so I have such fond memories so whenever anyone asks me about a favorite color I usually say rainbow because I remember so fondly working on those two huge flags they were 40 by 60 were raised at UN Plaza in San Francisco in June 1978 and they are the original rainbow flags so I would say rainbow is my favorite color