 Zachary Henningson. I use he, him, seventh grade. My name is Julia Cacerca. I use she, her pronouns, and I am in eighth grade. My name is Sophia Flora. I use Steve as a nickname. I use she, her pronouns, and I'm in seventh grade. Welcome to All Things LGBTQ Plus Youth Edition. Today is January 22, 2018. Welcome to the show. So we're just going to go, I'm gonna ask questions, all of us, and about, more stuff about us, and just so we can get a better knowledge and a better understanding of how it is in our school, what we do. Yeah, so I'm gonna ask you Julia. Yes. What are some things that we work towards in GSA? Well, our GSA is the Gender Sexuality Alliance for Main Street Middle School, and what we mostly just work towards is trying to make the school a more inclusive place for LGBTQ Plus students and people, and just make it a more comforting community for everyone. Yeah. So Steve, what are some things that we are working on right now? Well, we're working on getting all of the bathrooms in our school to all gender bathrooms and getting like stall doors for like the urinals and things, so everyone can feel comfortable no matter what they identify as, or if they identify at all, and we are kind of trying to make our school community a more accepting place for all, and yeah. Yeah, so I'm gonna ask myself this question, because it's important, but yeah, I'm gonna ask all you two both. So sexuality. I prefer the term gay as a descriptive, but if you want to be technical, the term is andro-sexual. It's attraction to masculine identified and gender-neutral people and by gender people like that. And what about you? Um, so I suppose you could call my sexuality pansexual. I for a long time I identified as bisexual, but then that was before I knew about all these different kinds of genders. So what I identify now is just queer, because I've tried to call myself pansexual for a while, and it just didn't feel right if that made sense. It also kind of sounded like I was attracted to pans, so people get confused when I said I was pansexual. So I just stick with queer, but I'm attracted to all genders and every human thing. I kind of have the same thing, I'm not gonna say problem, because it's not a problem, but I find anyone, like all genders can be attractive, and I don't believe you have to have a gender either, so that's not something I look for when I'm looking at people. They're trying to the person, not the gender. Okay, so again, it's another question that we're all gonna go around. Some school-related things that we do, like after school activities that aren't hobbies. What have you answered, Zach? Besides GSA, I don't really do anything school-related. Yeah, I just want to escape. You pick it's like a prison. So I am a part of our school's drama club. That means every Tuesday and Thursday. I also am a tender of open art, which is just run by our teacher who will open it after school for anyone, and I go at regularly, so that's kind of what I do, because I can't go home until five o'clock, because obviously I'm at the mercy of my parents driving me. I mean, yeah, I'm great. I mean, I'm in the GSA, which is pretty cool. Yeah, I do play school sports, which is okay, and I do a lot of things outside of school, so we don't need to get into that right now, but sports do you play? I play soccer, basketball, and others. And then, oh wait, we also have music programs through school, part of that too, so yeah. Where are the instruments? I don't need to share those, but okay. Violin, cello, and piano, and yes, okay. Next question, please. Okay. Just hobbies that aren't school-related. I'm gonna think Steve's gonna start this one. Oh, okay, Steve. Okay. Okay, I am actually going to be directing a movie. I am in the process of that, looking for actors and finger-goods. I am a dancer. I really like to read books. I like to, I'm like to consider myself an activist, so I'm always like reading articles on how to make things better and trying to strive to make things better, but I mean, you know, I guess, I guess. Okay, so I don't do much outside of school. Most of my things that I do are school-related or GSA-related, which is a school thing, so I don't know why I said that, but I guess I draw and read a lot. I am also currently working on multiple different stories that I like to write, none of them are very good, but I like to write them, so. I have too many hobbies. It's almost a problem. It's probably why I'm broke. Okay, I draw. I like to do makeup and special effects makeup. I do musical theater and hip-hop. I I'm starting a new theater program. It's not musical theater, so that should be fun. I'm directing a movie kind of, too, but it's school-related, so I don't know if it counts. Oh, you are, yes. I attempt singing, and I mean, you're great at singing. I attempt singing, and that's pretty much all I do, because I hear these finger guns, you guys. That's how I hide my anxiety. Okay, so what are other things that we do in the queer community? So I work with outright a little bit. I'm part of the youth leadership council that I think we meet monthly. I'm part of the social committee section of that, where it's just, we have a work, we're social. I don't really know what else to say. That's about it. What about you, Steve? I like to go to a lot of protests and marches and anything regarding something I'm interested in or something I want to fight for or I, you know, that classification of things. I'm actually working on a project right now with Julia and other members. We are hosting a rally to kind of get some awareness out for LGBTQ youth and in general and values and rights that are necessary for well-being. Um, I don't really, I don't know, I don't really do that much just because there's not that many things, I guess, to do here. You're part of youth leadership. I do work with outright. I am part of youth leadership. I'm also in the social committee. I went to the march that was two days ago. Um, that was fun. I do go to like marches and stuff if I find them, and I go to outright's trans group. I don't know, maybe Friday night group, but that's pretty much all I do. Steve. Hi. What is our school like for LGBTQ plus people? I mean, overall it's pretty accepting, but there is incidents and things that have happened and things will not just like LGBTQ problems, but like sexism and like not-okay issues to have. We are trying to end this and I mean, I think we're doing okay. The teachers are, most of them, at least I think they're all allies, which is good, at least and so we're trying to just make sure it's a safe place for everyone and that everyone can feel accepted and Since I'm not good at- Since I'm not good at like remembering events that well, it is there having some incidents that I can't remember just because I'm scarred by them. I think you're gonna have to describe one of those to you. Okay. And it's pretty good, like the allies are, the teachers are allies and some, most of the students are, there's not that many people who are like. Here's one incident though we have. Sorry, I have to. There was one day a bit of a situation, we'll just say, where a person decided to take their shirt off in the middle of the hallway and this person was not aware that it is apparently, that it is not acceptable to do that just anywhere. Like this is a school property. There's places for you to go and change if you need to and you have all the time in the world. I mean, come on. And but another peer was walking by and she was, I mean, like this is not okay. So she felt it was okay to let him know that and he kind of came back with a kind of a crude response. A sexual comment towards that. Yeah. And he just said, he's like, well, it's the same thing. So why don't you take your shirt off? And we can't have this in our school. So we need to kind of, I don't know what we can do right now at this point, but this can't be a thing in our school. This is not okay to have. Our school, it does have dress codes. We do have dress codes in our school. They're pretty lenient dress codes, especially more lenient towards people who identify as male. There aren't as many reinforcements for dress codes. So perhaps the student felt it was okay because they were of the male gender to take off their top, which it doesn't matter what gender you are or where you are, you keep your clothes on. Because no one wants to see that. Sorry. I'm walking down the hall to my class. I don't want to see you shirtless, anyone shirtless for that matter. I prefer to see you with clothes on. Thank you very much. And then after that, he refused to take any disciplinary actions afterwards. He refused to go talk to anyone. He didn't seem to notice it was wrong. You said how you don't, you prefer to see them with clothes on? Well, I think if they make that comment, I don't prefer to see them at all. Yes, that I can agree on. That's not a socially acceptable term to use or phrase. I have also had incidents more related to gender as not just male or female, like other genders where I was at recess one day and somehow we got on the topic of genders and I was like, well, yeah, you cannot identify as anything, male, female, non-binary, anything. And people did not agree with me for this fact. People who I did not realize felt this way. People who I am friends with and I'm still friends with to this day. But we got into an argument about how many genders there were and then from across the playground, I'm going to use some not nice language right now. From across the playground, a peer of mine yelled to me, it was very loud and everyone heard it. They screamed at me, you are a retarded dumbass. From across the playground, because I believed in more than two genders. And that's your opinion, doesn't have to be theirs. Yeah, you do not have to agree with me in any way about this. You can believe in as many genders as you want to. But I don't feel as though I should be attacked for believing in more genders than just two. And the fact that he, who was not a part of my conversation, yelled it across the playground. And teachers, I guarantee you heard it. We have people on the playground who were meant to intervene when it comes to these kind of things. They heard him call me, brood insults, and they did nothing about it. And then I went back the next day, and I was still talking to these people because I am still friends with them. And students and peers of mine kept making jabs about my beliefs in multiple genders. More than two, let's do it multiple, but they kept making jabs. And first off, they weren't good jabs. They were not good comebacks. They were just, if I had as many eyes as there were genders, I would look the same. Which is not a good comeback. If you're gonna fight with me, do it better. I'll fight with you, but you gotta at least come on. I had someone tell me, if I had as many pennies as there were genders, I would still have to, or I'd still be broke. And it's like, okay, got it. I don't care. And people are allowed to believe whatever they want. And people don't have to agree. People do not have to agree. But do not call me names. Do not call anyone else names for what they believe in. Especially terms, I hate the words that I had to use a little while ago. I hate those words. And they were screamed, and nothing happened. No one intervened, and we can't swear in our school. Nothing happened. I just walked away because I was done. So there are a lot of people who are very accepting of LGBTQ, the LGBTQ community and the GSA. But there are people who are completely against it, and there are people who are for it. And then there's like this middle ground. Was it just kind of uneducated? And my personal goal, and I think the GSA's goal, is to educate those people and help them understand what it's like. I've had similar experiences, and I don't want to talk about most of them. But one that I think to myself is at least funny, and I think all of us were there. So in the hallway, it was GSA, and one of our members was passing three or four people. And they were just kind of talking. One of them wanted to go to GSA or something. They said that they, yeah, people want to go in, and I support it, but I would never walk in. Yeah, and then someone attempted to go in and make a joke about gay people, and Steve chased them down the hallway. Yeah, a group of people I also started running down the hallway chasing the person who tried to make that joke. Because I will chase you, and I will fight you. It's not okay, and people should know that. It's not, again, they don't have to agree with us, but they have to at least respect us and what we do. And there's some nasty stuff out there that we can't necessarily hide from, but it can't be at our school. It's not a good place for that anywhere, but especially on a school ground. Like, it just needs to come. So yeah, we did end up chasing that group of kids. I'm so confused. Like, why are you chasing people? I will chase people. Would you rather them be in our GSA making crew jokes? I won't. We can lock them out. Or we can chase them. Okay, anyways. Kind of relating to that, how is, what is it like for you to be LGBTQ+, like as a youth? Not specifically in school, but just in the community, like people community, or just like in the public. Can I say something that you think Steve suffered? What? Okay. I don't think I've experienced any direct homophobia or transphobia or anything, but I definitely have experienced panic. I don't really, like, okay, so I have this jacket with all these pins on it. I like to wear it a lot, and it's cold. It's winter. I like to wear it. And a lot of them are gay. One of them is giant, and it's just clear on it. And so I had to go to Walmart to get the stuff, and as I entered the store, I realized that I was wearing that jacket, and I don't know why, it just really stressed me out, because there's a lot of people that, yeah, Walmart. And I mean, we do, in Vermont, it is a pretty accepting place to live. Very quickly moving, Steve. It's okay. Yeah, but there are a lot of accepting people, and a lot of really good organizations. But as a youth who's a part of this community, I have dealt with multiple incidents where I felt instances, instances, instances. Yes, you know what I'm talking about. Where I felt as a younger human, I didn't have a voice, and I didn't have the ability to change the community, or how I didn't have the ability to speak out for what I believed in. And this can relate to just a few people who have silenced my voice, where they just overpower me when I'm trying to talk, because they believe that I'm just a child, and what do I know? As a youth, it's so hard to feel like you have the power to change anything, when it should be the exact opposite. Because when the adults right now are done learning this world, we're left to take care of it. So we should have a say in how they run it, and we should have a say in our community and how we want to live our lives in the future. But as a kid, you don't really have a say in anything. It's just the adults run your life for you. And this is why we're doing what we do. People are saying, this is the generation that's going to change things and make things right. Or make them worse. Yeah, but that's the goal. That's what I'm striving to do. That's what I want to do with my life. I want to make the world a better place. Even though I'm probably not going to make the world a better place, I want to help people out. And I think it was good that we went to the Women's March and the Youth March as kind of a combined effort there. And it was really inspiring to listen to some people and some youth that are doing some of the same things, or similar things, and it's really a really great experience that we had. They were like six-year-olds up in the podium and eleven-year-olds talking about their experience, and they were smarter than people running the world right now. And I was like, crap, we're screwed right now. We need to fix this. Well, yeah, but I think that just doing what we're doing every day, like standing up for people who are needing to be stood up for, or ending sexism and homophobia and racism and everything in our community, it's important and it's always going to be there, but we can shorten it a little bit, if that makes sense. But I'm just personally glad that this is what we're doing, and that we're the ones doing it, because we're a good group of people. I'm just going to say that. And we have been, like I was talking about how you can feel silenced. We also feel heard in a lot of places, which is great. We have been giving platforms to talk through our social media. We're able to share our views through this. We're able to share our views through the GSA. So there are outlets, but it's pretty hard to find those outlets, especially when you're still closeted to say, like, mm-hmm. You're not out, too. Yeah, so it's kind of hard to join those outlets and talk when you're still kind of uncomfortable with yourself. I don't, you are very inspirational, and I don't know. Yeah, so another question kind of relates, I don't know, I think, what are our families are like? Does anyone want to start? Why don't you take that one? My family is very accepting. They are really nice. They're uneducated in some places, but I try to educate them, and I'm out to them in every way, I think. You think? I think, I don't know. So it's easier for me to find outlets or ask to join them. Even then, I ask to join the GSA when I wasn't out, and I don't know how they thought about that, but I think it should be fine. Yeah, so anyone, yeah? Okay, mm-hmm. My family is very open to the topic of LGBTQ plus things. I've only told one person in my family that I identify or what my situation is, so hi. Yeah, a surprise. Yeah, but they seem to be interested when I talk about these things that I'm doing in GSA or what I'm like, marches and protests and things I'm doing and participating in, and it's really nice to be supported by that, even though they did not know that it's because I'm part of that community. So my family, my immediate family, they are very, very accepting of it. They don't know a lot of things, and I'm totally open to teaching them, even though I don't know a lot of things either about this community, because I'm fairly new to being a part of it. They're very accepting of it, but my less immediate family, like my grandparents, my grandparents identify as Catholic. And I went to a private Catholic school in kindergarten, and I think if I didn't, and I went to a public school and I was taught more about LGBTQ stuff, even though you didn't really talk about that in public school, I think I would have had an easier time through that questioning phase, but also coming out to my Catholic part of the family. It was interesting, because not even having anything to do with the fact that we are Catholic and they don't know a lot about LGBTQ, my family is very overwhelming at times. We are very loud and very aggressive at times. So when I tried to come out to my grandparents, I was at a family dinner with my mom, my dad, my grandparents, and my sister and me. And they asked me what I've been doing in school, and I was talking about the GSA, and then my mother decided to take over and explain what the GSA does. And then she got it wrong, because she doesn't know a lot about it because I don't share a lot. And then she decided to take it upon herself to explain my sexuality. She also got that wrong, because she said, and I quote, Julia is boy crazy. And in general, I'm not always seeking romance. I'm only 13, but I'm definitely not boy crazy. That's not the term I would use. And it's very hard to get a word in that family dinner. So I just kind of sat there and just like internally screamed because I could not speak out for myself, which also kind of goes back to having your voice taken away as a younger person. So I just sat there and like cringed so much because I was like, mom, no, no, that's not right. And then afterwards when we left, I just sat in the back of the car. And my dad, who knew more about my sexuality, looked over at me and he was like, hey, you know, it's like, oh, dear Lord, have mercy on my poor soul. It was so cringy. Other than that, though, my other, my, they have, the grandparents haven't really accepted it, and I think they're just kind of ignoring it until it goes away, because it's a phase, obviously. But other than that, my other family is very accepting of it, including like my cousins. I don't know, because I haven't come out yet, but I can talk to them about LGBTQ+, and they won't look at me like they're crazy, which is nice. Yes, that look. That's the gay. Yes, I am the gay. Um, okay. So I kind of talked about my family, but you said some things that made me want to think, yeah, so my like immediate family, extended family is, um, like, they're nice, and I had a similar experience with my mother. I love you, mother, and I know you're going to be watching this, and I'm sorry in advance. Um, there was a time where I identified as non-binary just because, what is my identity? That phase, we know that phase. We know that phase. And, um, I did and still have a lot of anxiety on, like, talking to people just because I can't really be serious about the topic because I try to cover my anxiety with puns and finger guns and jazz hands, and I do this a lot. So I asked her to explain it. I probably should have given her some guidelines, so it's probably my fault. I don't know exactly what she said, but she probably actually explained it well. I have no idea because I was upstairs kind of just screaming. Um, so the next day, my aunt, I love her, and she's just confused, and I can relate, but, um, she was like, if you're doing anything that makes you feel uncomfortable, you should stop. And that is, that is very true. I think the way that my mother explained it was, um, well, they're just, they're not feeling, like, they're feeling uncomfortable or whatever. Like, they identify as this and they feel uncomfortable identifying as this. And I mean, I don't know how my aunt understood that, and again, I don't know what my mother said, word for word. But, um, thanks aunt for giving me a reason to be gay. Um, I want to quickly add to that really quick. My grandmother at the family dinner, she looked over at me and she was like, I don't want you to feel like you're forced to be queer. What? Like, I don't want you to pigeonhole yourself into being queer. Or I don't want to be queer. You don't want to feel like you have to be straight either. Yeah, but I was like, Grandma, this is literally the most accepting community you can be a part of. You're forcing me to be straight. Do you not realize this? I was like, not being uncomfortable. I was like, you're making me so uncomfortable by saying that. That, oh my God. Steve. Yeah. Oh, sorry. So, again, grandparents, I haven't come out to them. I haven't come out to my aunt about name change or pronouns or anything like that. I think I'm going to do it during the summer right before I see them. Oh, okay. I'm going to send them a letter. Oh, yeah. Because an email is not formal enough. Like, a business letter about your sexuality? Yes. Oh my God. It's a proposal. I have something to say about that. So, in my... Don't laugh at me. In my opinion, to me, I never feel, I never felt pressured to come out about my sexuality just because that's not a thing they need to know about me. I think I saw a Tumblr post that was funny and I want to do it now. So, basically what happened is it was like a double wedding. They were... So, it was... The people who were getting married were two... I saw those two girls. And they were at the very... Like, they were standing as if it was a straight wedding and at the very last minute, the people were like, wait, something's wrong and then they switched them. Yes. Is that how you're going to come out on your wedding and just switch around? Zachary. Yes, this is my plan. No. I'll be the other person in your wedding. So, yeah, I feel like... Someone help us. We're not qualified to do any of this. No, we are. I feel like gender is more of a pressing topic for me to come out to them. I'm probably not even going to say... There's weird Zachary. Go away. I'm not even going to say, like, I am the gay because I am, but, like, they'll be confused. They'll be like... Oh, I am gay. You can be both? The gay is my family. Oh, my God. You can be both? Both what? You can be gay and trans. What? Wouldn't it just be easier for you to be a straight woman? No. Yes. I feel like gender is a more pressing topic just with name and pronouns because those wrong of those can be painful. Yeah. We're basically just rambling at this point. Yep. Well, it's important to do this sometimes, especially for TV. What was that? And why? I'm cool. Okay, okay, stop. I'm really cool. We're just... I think we're going to stop it here because we're all... Losing our minds? No, I have... No, Steve has something to say. Oh, okay. Okay. One last thing we're going to discuss. We are going to discuss where we want to be as people and as people striving to do things in, say... Korea, I want to be in my home. Like where we want to be in terms of, like, progress with LGBTQ issues and racism, sex, all that great stuff. Not great. So goals then? Goals. Yes. In, like, say, five or ten years, somewhere around it. Okay. Why don't you start? Because you seem like you have a lot to say. I do. I could go on for hours. Don't go on for hours. I won't. We only have one hour. Go on for, like, a minute. We... Or not we... I... I, like I said before, I like to see people happy. And I also want people to feel accepted. I want people to always just feel comfortable going out in public. Being themselves. Being gay. Being trans. Being whatever they may be. Being female. Being male. All of that wonderful, yes. I just want... I think we need... I think it just has to happen that our world needs to just be accepting. And I'm going to help that happen. So, yeah. Julia or Zach, go. Okay. So, my goal for, like, five years, hopefully I'll be in high school. Probably be in high school. I don't know. My goal is kind of similar to Steve's. It's just to make... I know I'm not going to probably be able to do much as an adult or as a teenager on a worldwide scale, but I want to work with just Vermont. And I want to start working with other organizations as I get older to help LGBTQ kids and just kids in general who are part of minorities who aren't part of minority, just to make kids happy. That's always what I wanted to do. I want to be a teacher when I'm older. I want to work with kids because kids are hilarious. They're so fun to be around. Most of the time. Most of the time. The kids are so fun to be around. And my goal is... One other goal is just to be out to everyone and be able to be freely gay. And excited. Freely gay. And excited. Yes. In the community specifically, in five to ten years, I want to erase transphobia within the queer community or stuff like that. It upsets me. Yeah, it's a lot of that in the queer community. Okay. Trans-exclusionary radical feminists, TERFs. Trans-exclusionary radical feminists. Basically people who are like, trans women aren't women. You can't be in this women's space. Like that. Yeah. That's an example. It's a thing, Julia. I'm not denying it's a thing. I'm just saying it's a dumb thing. I just kind of want to erase stuff like that where people who claim to be activists are actually putting other people down. And not doing their job. Yeah. I noticed that too when I identified as bisexual. I saw a lot of things where it was like, are you half gay? And I was like, no. Well, are you half straight? Which one do you like better, men or women? And I'm like, bisexual is literally I like both. What do you mean? It doesn't have to be a percentage. And if you think of it as colors, purple is seeing its own color. It's not half blue, half red. It's just its own thing. We gotta wrap it up now. Okay. Thank you for watching All Things LGBTQ Youth Edition. And we'll see you next month. Hopefully. Hopefully.