 Pack the roots of this violence. It's insidious forms and what we can all do to promote the rights and safety of trans and gender expansive community members. Before we start the discussion, we will first hear briefly from Saloni set the first deputy commissioner of the mayor's office to end domestic and gender based violence. Thanks Melanie. So hi everyone is Melanie said I'm Saloni set the I use your they pronounce them the first deputy commissioner of the mayor's office to end domestic and gender based violence or NGPV. So NGPV's role is really coordinating the city's response to domestic and gender based violence through policy and program development. We do both sort of intervention programs for stuff that happens, you know, programs that that work after violence has happened as well as prevention programs that try to prevent violence in the first place. Some of the services that we provide through community based partnerships with community based organizations and through our family justice centers include counseling case management, civil legal services like family and immigration services. And support with system navigation and advocacy broadly, right, which includes support navigating housing, housing access and housing systems or shelter systems, public benefits, school systems, criminal legal systems, really all of the above. That we really can offer connections to make sure that you have people that will support you through these processes, which can be challenging and harmful to so many folks right, especially folks that are trans and gender expansive. So I think for this group what I'd really want people to say and to know and what I really want to say to you all is that when our office thinks of gender based violence. This is sort of a more recent change for us we expanded in 2018 to really take on all issues of gender based violence. We really are taking a broad approach that looks at violence as a spectrum. Right one that begins with dehumanization and discrimination and escalates from there to include things like harassment and abuse. So anyone that has experienced any form of violence or harm based on gender identity or gender expression may be eligible for our supports. So I think I really want to encourage you as we think of have this conversation and think about solutions and think about our office and think about how we can be there to help you, either with your individual challenges and issues or kind of with broader policy and systemic changes. And thank you all so much for being here to have this this talk today. Thank you so much. So, so we are joined today by four panelists with deep knowledge and expertise on these issues. First we have Amara Jones, she her hers pronouns, the founder and CEO of Translash Media and a CG commissioner. Translash Media is a nonprofit journalism and narrative organization working to shift the current culture of hostility towards transgender people in the US. Her work has won me and Peabody Awards and in 2020 she was featured on the cover of time magazine. So I'm are you can go ahead and turn your camera on. We also have with us today Jasmine Lopez Phelan, she her hers pronouns, who is the TGNC and be health project coordinator at the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, where she supports the division of disease controls efforts to promote the health of TGNC and be New Yorkers. She has dedicated her career to uplifting and advancing the needs of New York City's LGBTQ plus community in the areas of HIV prevention support, economic empowerment and justice capacity building and TGNC and be health research. And Jasmine, you can go ahead and turn on your video. We are also joined today by Chiara St. James, she her hers pronouns, the founder and executive director of the New York Transgender Advocacy Group, or NITAG and a CGE commissioner. NITAG is a grassroots trans led nonprofit organization intent on creating new opportunities for the trans community. Chiara is a long time organizer and has led the fight for affirming policies like New York's gender law preventing discrimination based on gender identity and educated many about the experiences of trans folks and other communities historically pushed to the margins. And you can go ahead and turn on your video. And then we also have Brent Whitfield, he him his pronouns, the director of LGBTQI affairs at the New York City Department of Social Services, where he works to increase awareness and visibility of LGBTQI issues across the agencies, including Department of Homeless Services and the Human Resources Administration, and he works to identify obstacles to accessing services and programs working directly with program participants, community and advocates to improve policy and procedures. Thank you all so much for being here. So, we're going to get started right now into our first question, which is that we know that transgender and gender expansive individuals face high rates of gender based violence, and that trans women of color face even higher rates of gender based violence. According to the human rights campaign, 63% of victims of fatal violence against trans and gender expansive people are black trans women. What are some of the root causes of gender based violence against transgender and gender expansive communities. And why is it important for us to look at this issue through an intersectional lens. I'd like to maybe ask Kiara to start us off with that question. Yes. Thank you so much Melanie, and I'm so proud to be a my summer steam panelists today. I definitely, you know, I'm always reflecting upon New York City and how people always like to see New York City as a hub of progress, which we are to many degrees, but also, I have to remind folks that since 2020, we have lost 12 trans 12 trans women of color, nine black trans women and three trans Latina in New York City. And there was really not not enough coverage or any coverage of these, these murders in New York City so we still continue to seek visibility when it comes to finding the perpetrators of these crimes. I definitely feel like one of the things I feel it's important for all of us to do is to decolonize our minds and how we see the trans community, gender non conforming and gender non binary people. It's really important. I love history. So one of the things I always try to, you know, establish some type of historical content of how did we get here. You know, when you look at the global world in before it was colonized, there were always indigenous trans, not, not having the name trans, of course, I think like if you look at India, South Asia. The hydras, the toys in Thailand on the fa fa themes in the Polynesian culture that still exists like in Hawaii in Africa, they have different tribes for feminine men are trans trans women. Once again, we didn't have to turn trans back in. And what happened was when white men colonize the world to them, all this was queer to them was strange, right, it was strange to them. And so what they created was a pathology, and they created the criminalize those who were different gender variants. And so we have to understand that our first fight is to really decolonize how we look and see ourselves. Even as trans people, we have to decolonize our minds because, you know, you can be trans and transphobic as well, right, just like you can be black and anti black. So it's really important for us to decolonize our minds and educate know that history, know that important history that is not being taught in our school system for a reason. The other thing that I think it's really important and it's connected to history is making sure that we do, we touch bases with faith based leaders, getting them involved in this conversation, getting them involved in uplifting and affirming the TGNC community. That's really essential. As I said, we've lost 12 trans women of color in New York City, and the silence was deafening. And so it's the responsibility of all of us to make sure that when we hear or see any type of form of this transphobia that we speak out. And there's several like hotlines you can reach out and I'll have that later on, you know, like trans hotline to report any type of transphobia that you've witnessed. But I really feel that it's important for all of us to understand that we have to reimagine how we want to move forward in 2023 moving forward 2024 10 years 20 years from now. How do we want to move forward? And the best way to move forward is to be inclusive and affirming of all genders. Thank you so much. Kira, that was very powerful. I'd love to open it up to the rest of the panel. Does anyone else want to speak to Kira's comments or, you know, the need to look at this issue intersectionally. Please go ahead, Brent. Yes. You know, affirming everything that Kira stated, but also, I think that when we look at gender norms and that rigid idea of what gender is supposed to look like. Women are supposed to look a certain way, which not just affects trans and gender expressive, inexpensive individuals, but also cisgender black individuals, particularly black women. You know, we have black women that have been assaulted or killed, because people assumed they were trans. And, you know, and while trans women are certainly disproportionately affected by the violence, trans men are sort of invisible. And so when you go into the communities and you see, if you don't sort of quote unquote look masculine enough or pass enough, trans men are attacked. And but we don't have those, we don't have the statistics to that. And people aren't looking at that you have. So I think that it's those rigid ideas of what a person is supposed to look like, regardless of what a person's actual gender identity is. So people believe how you're supposed to look, how you're supposed to dress, how you're supposed to walk, how you're supposed to talk. And I think we really need to break this down and understand how this causes so much harm, not just for trans individuals or trans expensive individuals, but for cisgender individuals. Absolutely. Thank you so much. Like the issue of rigid gender norms definitely affects, affects everyone, no matter how they identify Jasmine or Imara. Sure, I'm happy to jump in Melanie that was an amazing question and to affirm, you know, my fellow peers and leaders Chiara and Brent. I wanted to look at the social determinants of health, right, which include like the social and community context, you know, the neighborhood and built environment within our, you know, where our community members live, healthcare access, education access and quality, and also economic stability. I think that the social and community context is really one of the root causes of gender based violence and violence toward our communities, because that really informs, you know, what are our experiences and how folks experience safety and lack of safety in different environments, it, you know, really affects how folks access, you know, quality healthcare or affirming healthcare, and even their experiences within the educational system, you know, really beginning from elementary school, all the way, you know, through college and university, and it also really impacts economic stability, you know, you know, because that social and community context can affect, you know, where folks are concerned if they're even hired at all, you know, whether or not they have to go into alternative or survival economies which then create this other context like on both an individual level and a community level right it helps, unfortunately create stereotypes, it perpetuates those stereotypes and then those then lead to like different forms of violence for our community. Thank you, Jasmine. Amara, do you want to add anything? Yeah, I think that for me, I think we have to understand that kind of as everyone has touched upon violence is something that we choose to expose people to or not. And that we do that through the policies that we enact. We know from research, I wrote a piece about this a couple of years ago, we know from research that the more exposed economically you are the more marginalized you are, the more likely you are to be exposed to violence, which means that if we want to end violence, we have to ensure economic security, we have to ensure housing security, we have to ensure educational opportunities, and we have to ensure, as Jasmine said, health opportunities, right, and that's not esoteric. There are not only things about changing the social frame in which we see gender, those are all policy choices within the power of decision makers. So I think that we need to make sure that we underscore that there is something that we can do about the violence against trans people and that's to essentially demarginize trans people in some pretty powerful and substantial ways through policy and through the choices of decision makers. I also think that it's also really important that we underscore that one of the intersections for not taking trans lives seriously. As Chiara kind of led us off in, is the fact that people don't believe that violence against us is actually counts as violence. And I think that another thing that can be communicated is that trans lives specifically in the context that we're talking about in New York and violence that black and brown trans lives are equal to others right and that violence against our community is something that is taken very seriously as it is across all communities. So, again, I think that it's just important for us to make sure that we understand that through a series of choices that we make is why trans people are more exposed to violence. Absolutely. Thank you all so much and you know this next question touches on something we've evolved mentioned already which is the power of policy to affect people's lives and the degree to which they experienced violence. So, this next question that I wanted to ask has to do with structural and institutional forms of violence so as we've seen there have been so many anti LGBTQ plus bills across the country this year. In addition to legislation. What are some other ways that structures and institutions can target and harm trans and gender expansive communities so that we can all be more aware and work to address these issues and Jasmine you touched on this a little bit already but I'd love to turn to you to hear a little bit more. Yes, thank you Melanie on excellent question again. I can focus to begin like on to kind of forms of institutional violence, particularly around health care restrictions. I know that there have been, there has been a lot of legislation, you know, working to, you know, strongly limit or severely limit the access that TGNC and be young people, right have to gender affirming care and also these different ramifications for providers that facilitate gender affirming care and that really is one of the ways that this institutional violence is perpetuated because it not only, you know, makes it hard for our community members to access care but it also punishes those who are, you know, kind of honoring the oath right to do no harm to be able to provide, you know, to our community members and it also breaks down the health infrastructure of the community as a whole because if you punish providers for facilitating care that you potentially can create these sort of like deserts of health care where other than the whole community is affected because now if you have one provider in a region and they're no longer able to practice because you know they were facilitating gender affirming care. Now everyone in that region potentially is facing a health care disparity, you know, another form of institutional violence includes like the legal recognition of gender identity, there are a lot of, you know, places in our country who are very resistant to affirming, you know, our community members, you know, through their identity documents through, you know, their work, you know, their educational spaces, and that really affects how people can show up in these different spaces and are able to thrive and that can, you know, contribute to like the limiting of them being able to like have a sustainable life to be able to have economic stability and to also be able to, you know, excel in life in all of the different areas that we know our community members can. Absolutely. Does anyone else want to jump in? Certainly. I think that, you know, that there's also when you look at housing that particularly when you put the intersectionality of being black and trans black trans people are four times as likely to be unemployed five times as likely to experience homelessness. We are all assigned a sex and gender at birth. And I think that locks individuals and so as individuals grow and become adults that when you look at applying for jobs, applying for housing, applying for school, a lot of those institutions don't allow individuals to self identify. They don't allow individuals. So that really creates an issue. So if I, you know, just touching on what Jasmine said about health care, if I don't have a job, I don't have health care. And then when I go to these systems to apply for health care, state Medicaid, they are locking me in to an identity that is not my mind. And I don't have the documentation to actually be able. So we're really creating barriers where barriers shouldn't exist. And, and those are policy choices. Those are policy choices. It's not something that has to be there. And so if we remove that. And those are, you know, remove all those barriers, we can actually create a system or work within the system to be until we can. Well, let me not just say get rid of the system, but I don't want to say that. But we can actually create a system that is actually more affirming and allow individuals to self identify, affirm individuals where people don't feel afraid to be able to go. You know, I have a cousin that's in Alabama, they can't get there what they need due to policy and that shouldn't be they were going to their primary care position to get hormone replacement therapy. And, and had never been to the doctors that they should go to. And that honestly is a is really a policy issue. It is really giving access. And those are the things that we need to really be looking at. How are we allowing individuals to safely access health care to safely access housing safely go to their jobs. And those are things that we really need to look at I mean that their policies that we put into place that sort of make things unsafe. Thank you so much, Brent. Kyara sounds like you want to add something. Yeah, no thank you. The word I was thinking when you was talking Brent is we want to repurpose the system we want to, you know, have it work in our favor. I'm going to also this a person that something that happened to me personally in the late 90s is I found myself in homeless with some other black and brown queer folks. We went to Salvation Army because we heard that they were going to give out clothes and coats, as well as feed us. And when we were we was in a line. The line was like all the way all the way around the corner. So we're in a line a long time. So by the time we got to the entrance of the door to get our ticket to go inside. We were told that they could not serve us right because our tire. And so we're like what do you mean our tire like this is how we dress every day. You know, so it became a thing where people's personal bias prevented me and my friends from having access to a meal that day, having access to a coat. Right. And I think about that still to this day when I when I passed Salvation Army is like yeah they they discriminated against me. But the other thing that comes to mind is we just did a prep panel a few weeks ago at the center. And there was a person on the panel who talked about wanting to get on prep and get other affirming services. And so she was sent to a church. Right. She was sent to a church in order to qualify for prep and affirming services in Atlanta, Georgia. And so it still speaks to how people's personal biases gets gets in the way of them helping people who are really in need. You know, in this case, trans folks. And so there still needs to that's why I'm really, I always try to stress, we have to educate our faith based leaders, because so many of our community members are very spiritual or still very caught up in their faith. Especially if they're black or Latina. So it's really important for us to work with faith based leaders so that they can see us as human beings. You know, but I do feel like, as folks were saying earlier, the best way that we have we shouldn't be moving forward is to address this by making sure that we have affirming policies in New York City and New York State. And I know that, I think within 2015 New York City has a penalty for people who intentionally misgenders on trans folks agenda and performing folks. And so those are the best ways that we're going to be able to fight back because people may not care about the laws, but they do care about how it impacts their pockets, their bottom line. And so one of the things we're going to have to do is really educate our community and these things are happening to you. Here are the recourse. These are the recourse that you can take, and making sure that you that you are not discriminated against. Yeah, I mean, I think that I mean, the ways that the systems can harm are pretty apparent, I think, and I think that the key way that they harm is by not taking the needs of trans people seriously when you're formulating policy and policy decisions and communicating that. That's automatic harm. Because if a group is marginalized and they're not considered to be a part of what you are already executing or solving for your compounding marginalization and doing harm and committing violence. Right, it's, it's pretty, it's a very straightforward kind of formulation. I think on the flip side though if you want to look at what are the things that organizations and policymakers could do. I think we need some pretty radical thinking about how to help transform the lives of trans people. I think that we're going to talk about this later. I know that Chiara has thoughts about this and has worked with policymakers on pushing this idea forward but you know a UVI would be tremendously transformative for the lives of trans people we need to think about radical ways to center trans people in the hiring of the city and state agencies which is massive and really important. Also thinking about how to center trans people and some of the trans, I'm sorry, into some of the small business incubators that the city has and the grant making that the city does. There are lots of ways that we can move forward. It's just a matter of focus and of will. And I think that that's actually the missing ingredient here, right. And I think that one of the things that we think of in New York City is that as long as we're not doing, as long as our government isn't doing active harm that somehow we are tremendously better than other places. And I think that that's the wrong bar. I think that the bar has to be that unless and until you know the city is taking strong positive actions to reverse the compounded harm, then we're not doing enough, and we shouldn't be so self congratulatory. And of course, you know, where trans people are accepted or have opportunities is highly dependent upon where they live in the city, right. And not to mention New York State overall. So I think that, you know, we have a lot of work to do. And the, we shouldn't be too self congratulatory that because there's an active arm that because, you know, Chiara, and I, for example, and one of the members of the commission are all on the commission on gender equity and other commissions across the city that we are, we are doing what we can. That's that's just not the case. I'm really glad you brought that up tomorrow because it does bring us to our next question. And some folks have already mentioned places like Alabama or Atlanta. They're all here in New York City and, and like you said, there's still a lot more that we can do tomorrow but I do want to take a moment to talk a little bit about what New York City is doing and talk about some of the policies and programs that do currently exist to support and support trans and gender expansive communities, which include specialized housing services capacity building grants for translate organizations and gender affirming care at public hospitals and clinics. And, you know, first I want to turn to my city colleagues, Brent and Jasmine, and ask them to talk a little bit about the work that they are doing. So Brent, why don't we hear from you first. Certainly. So, at the New York City Department of Homeless Services, there is an understanding that the space homeless services was not a safe space for trans individuals. And trans people were actually deciding to sleep in staircases sleep on the subways and the parks. They were trading sex for safe place to sleep rather than go into our shelters, which is horrific. And we, you know, Administrator Carter had been looking at this for a very long time. But it was accelerated by a lawsuit Lopez v New York, where we had previously created one space for we had a provider that created a, what we call trans carve out a TGNC NBI carve out, which are spaces within our stand alone shelters. Because our shelters weren't built, were built to be sort of binary. People weren't thinking about trans and trans expansive individuals. So our first shelter was in the Bronx. It's was in a standalone men's shelter that came about in late 2019, early 2020. And then we created for more spaces. These spaces are for our TGNC NBI individuals who self identify. So individuals don't have to show documentation individuals. No one can question whether or not someone how they identify. And these spaces are either co located on a floor with other individuals, but on a separate wing. They have either the bathrooms are located inside the units, or the bathroom is specific for TGNC NBI individuals because a lot of the violence that happens to trans individuals while in shelter, whether it be from shelter residents or staff or. So I want to be clear that even our staff members can be transphobic and attacks that our trans clients. So that what we did was we said, Hey, these bathrooms are specific. So our trans clients feel comfortable TGNC NBI individuals should feel comfortable in our shelters. They should feel safe. So we have those shelter spaces. Also, we have expedited placement individuals who go in. They go in. They have to go to the medical. They have to give all their information. And then they do not have to wait for assessment. They don't have to go to the men's or the women's assessment. They can go directly to their placement and the placement and the shelter will do the assessment from there. Also creating so safety. Also, if say right now. Due to capacity, all of our TGNC beds are filled. So we have low, we, we individuals come in. We look for low capacity. So we're not placing individuals in large spaces. Because it's single adults. We do it is a co look, you know, it is a large sort of dorms for some individual for some spaces. So we want to ensure that people feel safe. They feel secure and we place them on a waiting list so individuals can go to the spaces they feel most secure and also all of our staff. Every staff member that has access to clients, regardless to whether they're TGNC, they self identified as TGNC or not. All of our staff have to be trained in a TGNC NBI training. This includes security. Anyone who supervises someone who is has access to clients. This includes if you, you know, the kitchen staff who also interact and individuals at DHS also have to sign a non discrimination form. And we look at that. So if your staff assigned is not discrimination form and the union said, okay, good. Now we can now look at next steps, because as we know policy is all and procedures only as good as like we have, you know, there's the carrot and then there's the stick. So now we also have to look at what happens if individuals intentionally continue to do the thing that we're asking them not to do. And so these are the things that we're going at. And also what I have done is I have offered my services. I'm a one man shop, but I've offered my services. I am going in. I am working and speaking with actually next week in the next two weeks, speaking with our TGNC clients and the car routes to see how these car routes are actually working. What is good. What is bad. What do we need to change and working with the staff so that staff understand what how to effectively and work with our clients and be affirming. So, because for my thing is, I don't want TGNC clients to be seen as different. I want individuals to understand that we are we're not a minority. We're not sort of in other we are part of the population and we need to be treated fairly and equally. And what we're providing right now is equity, because that's not what was happening. So that's what we have. And then right now I'm working with HRA for the DV shelters to affirm that system. What does it look like? Why are people being sent away? And how and really working with individuals who identify TGNC and BI who are impacted by intimate partner violence and domestic violence. And how are we helping them? And are we really being truly being affirming as a system? So that's what that's where we at right now. Thank you so much, Brent that that's so much and I appreciate that you're a one man shop doing all of this. Jasmine, can we hear a little bit about the work that you're doing at the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene? Yeah, absolutely. And Brent, I'm so excited about all of the work that you're doing. I would. I would like to explore opportunities for collaboration. But with that being said, yeah, so here at the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. I mean, obviously we, you know, our overall mission is to promote the health of all New Yorkers and, you know, obviously TGNC and BI New Yorkers, you know, are part of our community. And as part of the LGBTQ health projects team, you know, we operate operation eyes that in a couple of ways. So we have our transgender gender non conforming and non binary community advisory board. So, you know, the purpose of that board is to provide, you know, guidance and feedback specifically to the division of disease control on different programs, you know, initiatives, different campaigns that are meant, you know, to directly benefit RTG and CMB New Yorkers. I also want to talk about a little bit about the impact that, you know, the different pieces of programming has on both our work and the community at large. So, you know, community members that are part of RTG and CMB advisory board. You know, it's really an empowering experience because TG and CMB community members are able to participate in conversations with government right around community health promotion and really how can we leverage that how can we elevate that and really make it the best that we can. You know, we also have, you know, community health information bulletins, which, you know, specifically are meant to provide guidance right to providers. You know, that's the RTG and CMB patients, but you know, the impact of that is also to make sure that any provider in the city is well equipped right and has the knowledge to provide TG and CMB, you know, gender farming care so that gender doesn't have to live in just kind of very specific pockets or specific agencies. You know, we have a specific TG and CMB, you know, community, you know, city health information bulletin. But we also have, you know, an MSM one, a WSW one, because we also know that TG and CMB community members make part of those communities as well. You know, we have employee resource groups, you know, I'm part of the LGBTQ employee resource group, and I'm also the chair of our TG and CMB workplace inclusion committee. And, you know, that in itself, like it provides not only opportunities for leadership like TG and CMB, you know, for TG and CMB people like myself, but it also brings in other, you know, administrative staff, leadership staff to be able to have conversations on how to make our workplace, you know, safe and affirming and create an environment that allows TG and CMB staff members to thrive and to be able to resource share among one another. To be able to demystify, you know, certain policies that might, you know, inadvertently, you know, oppress our community members so that, you know, folks can feel better about adhering to those policies or navigating those policies. We have our TG and CMB health web pages, you know, for example, that also provide, you know, affirming, you know, health information and resources. We have this is the part that I'm actually most excited about. We have our new TG and CMB healthcare booklet, you know, it's called Pride in Care. And, you know, it's available in multiple languages. It's currently available, you know, on our TG and CMB webpage. It will be available, you know, in hard copy but it's also another resource that we can provide community. It's something that is easy, you know, it's digestible, it's applicable, you know, to many community members across the gender affirmation journey. And it's also fun in the sense that, you know, we use illustrations because we want to have as many TG and CMB community members, you know, be able to see themselves right in health information products as well. It's really important to us. You know, we also have our LGBTQ healthcare bill of rights, which, you know, it's a it's a very powerful document in the sense that it allows people to have, you know, their rights on hand because we do offer it like in big posters and also wallet cards. But it really provides folks the tools like hey, these are your rights and it can also be a really great tool to encourage like self advocacy in different, you know, healthcare settings when accessing different services. Yeah, it's so, you know, I'm really proud of the work that we do. And most recently, you know, we've really upped our commemoration of Trans Day of Remembrance. So we had an inaugural, you know, Trans Day of Remembrance event where folks were able, well, staff members at the agency were able to, you know, provide, you know, like loving messages of support and affirmation, you know, to the folks that we have lost so far, unfortunately, in 2023. So it's really creating this culture of, you know, we're only, we're only as good. Our support to our community is only as good as the support that we offer our staff and all of those that are doing the work with us. You know, being able to increase the knowledge and awareness of the work that our team does to like say to have other staff members be able to say, you know what, this is a really great program. This is a really great initiative and I want to be part of it and support it. So that's in a nutshell, what, you know, the health department is doing. Well, thank you so much for sharing that and we're certainly going to be sure to share with all the people watching today some of those resources so that people can take advantage of, of some of those programs and services that already exist. And I know Amar spoke a little bit already about, you know, what else the city should be trying to do to make a positive impact in the lives of trans and gender expansive New Yorkers. So I'm just going to ask you, Kyra, maybe if you want to speak very briefly about what are some other things that the city should think about doing. So yeah, I definitely am a strong believer in that we have to address the root causes of transphobia, the root causes of poverty that so many black and brown TGC folks are facing. I've been in conversations with quite a few policymakers as well as elected officials in, in regards to how we change these programs for like welfare section eight to where if folks are on, if folks are receiving welfare, they can be penalized. If it's found out that they are saving money. But the reality is we should be encouraging our community to save money so that they can move out of shelters residential houses into more permanent houses, maybe not in New York City maybe in the suburbs. And so that is one of the things I'm going to be pushing for next year in conversation is we must change the policies, this perpetuation of that black and brown folks are irresponsible. And that's why we're always in poverty is not true. It's the system that is in place, and we must dismantle that system and create it in a way that it affirms all of us, and that so that all of us are have the opportunity to improve our quality of life. Along with changing those type of requirements in regards to welfare and things of that nature. I really feel that it's important for us to really do more work and getting educated in our community as well as elected officials around universal basic income as Amara I talked about a little bit earlier, because the reality is that we are going to see that a lot of the jobs traditional jobs that that we had are that I had when I was a kid when I was a teenager working at McDonald's and working at Jack in the Box, I'm from Texas. And that those things are going to be more automated now. And so we need to really reimagine how we want to improve TG and see folks life in a way that is sustainable. So universal basic income is one of those ways that we, we can do that, where folks are able to really be able to have have access to housing, because as we know housing is a foundation. For you to really start deciding what you want to do with your life. You know, you can't really think about going to school, or, you know, certain type of medications it requires you to be permanently housed. So we have to think of ways to, to invest in equity equitable programs. The mayor created the unity project, which came out of a conversation that I and several other black and brown trans women trans women and men have with him at City Hall, when he came into office, where, you know, I talked about, we in the black and brown community are tired of being tethered to white queer spaces where we only get crumbs from the table. And so the reality is, equity equity is what we must be fighting for more. I think it's great that he created the unity pride equity fund. But as we know this is New York City, that simply is not going to be enough. But one of the things that I can say that we also have in our favor. Thanks to a lot of other trans activists such as Alisa Crespo is our Lorena Borjas Wellness and Equity Fund. That's, that is, that makes New York, the second state after California to have legislation that is specific to the trans community of New York today, not just New York City, but New York State. And I believe currently we were going to be looking at $4 million in funding in that particular path. So, one of the things I just cannot stress enough is equity equity equity we must continue to fight for that. Absolutely. Thank you so much and I think we're going to talk a little bit later about you know some of the policy, some of the actions that people can take to support this work, but I want to switch gears a little bit and we've talked a lot about policy and and institutional structures. I want to talk a little bit about rhetoric. So pervasive anti trans rhetoric and disinformation has has really been prevalent across the US and we know it plays a role in systemic gender based violence, particularly against trans and gender expansive communities. I'd love to ask, how do you think gender based violence is perpetuated through disinformation and what can we do to combat disinformation and anti trans rhetoric. And I think Amara you're the, the perfect person to maybe lead on on talking about this issue. Yes, this is what I get paid to do. So, um, one of the things I think that we have to understand is that there's nothing that when it comes to the way that we are talking about trans people and specifically trans youth at this moment, that is an accident. There's nothing about that conversation that is currently organic. So that when you hear questions, or people that you know around you, who normally would be, you know, left leaning or consider themselves progressive say things like, I support trans trans adults are fine but you know I really don't know about trans kids, or can they really be making decisions or you know they're just giving out like, you know hormones left and right at school to anyone who says that they're trans, like all of those types of ideas and conversation starters are actually the result of very sophisticated disinformation campaign that is coordinated by the Christian nationalist movement. That all of those messages of questioning the validity of trans kids, which then make it much easier to question the validity of trans people is an approach that they poll tested about eight or nine years ago, and workshop and refined, and then have worked really to succeed kind of those questions across the internet in ways that seem to be organic, but they're not. And those messages are then picked up by right wing media and then ultimately as well by mainstream sources like the New York Times which is increasingly monitoring those ideas. So I think that we have to understand that the very way that we talk about trans people and have that understanding right now is the result of disinformation. And so I tell people that the minute you hear someone say something that's questioning the validity of trans kids or, or whether or not we should be affirming them with respect to gender. I immediately let people know that even that question is the result of disinformation and what makes disinformation extremely effective is that it doesn't seem like it's disinformation. It presents itself as legitimate questions, or it presents itself as skepticism, or it presents itself as as just trying to learn more. That doesn't mean that those are legitimate aren't legitimate things but is the way that they're applied to trans people right now that's the result of disinformation. What that conversation has done that they've created is that it's then legitimized the undermining of rights for both trans kids and trans people overall. It creates the rationale to ban gender affirming care. It, it creates the rationale to prevent people from as a new law by Senator or a new bill sponsored by Senator Ted Cruz at the federal level would prevent people from using the program that is aligned with their gender and insist on them using the pronoun that's assigned at birth, for example. And so this is the way that the disinformation campaign this rhetoric campaign works in tandem with a legislative and policy agenda, and that's why you can't divorce them right you have to see them as being a part of a unitary effort. I think that we have to understand that. And the reason why is because they understand that this conversation allows them to speak to people that they would never be in conversation with. It allows them to speak to suburban parents. It allows them to speak to, you know, intellectuals who see themselves as Democrats right it allows them to create these conversations with people that they would never ever have access to by using skepticism and questioning of gender and gender identity around that. So we have to understand how the language that we're using the policies that are being put forth are the result of a very intelligent. And I say that without judgment but a very intelligent on political project and in the country and the way that I know all of this is that I spent the last three years of my life, working very hard to understand how these movements work, and you can listen to what is it nine hours of more of what I have to say about this across a podcast that we have called the anti trans machine applied against equality. But I think that we have to understand that right now the very rhetoric that we're using is is poison. It also allows them to create dialogue, for example, with black churches that they would never again have the same amount of access to. So I think that we have to understand that there's a very sophisticated political operation that is designed to undermine democratic politics and then small D democracy by creating a disinformation campaign that is fueling the way that we talk about trans people and that's what the policy responses. Thank you so much for enlightening us as to those issues in Mara. I'm very mindful of time so I do want to move to our last question. Which is, I think a great segue to what you were just talking about which is what should allies be doing to combat gender based violence against trans and gender expansive communities. What resources are available for allies to learn more and become more involved in advocating for transgender rights and safety. I know that Mara you just mentioned the podcast but and I'll give everyone an opportunity to share. Maybe we can start with with Kiara and sort of going around Robin. Yeah, so I definitely I like using the word accomplice. And I really feel that and it's kind of touching upon what Mara said as well that we have to understand how the opposition work is they plan 50 years in advance right they plan for the next 50 years, where we, you know the progressive, we tend to be more reactionary. So we have to do a better job of having a strategy to to really have that counter narrative already established when they come at us with their transphobic rhetoric. And some of the things that I feel that accomplices should be doing is, you know, there's a lot of translate organizations in New York City black and brown specifically black and brown translate organizations. So one of the best things you can do as an accomplice is donate donate donate as I said before, equity like the work that we do. It requires for us to have funding to do it. And so when we get concerned citizens involved in donating volunteering their time, we're able to really mobilize our community a lot better. I think also just really important for our accomplices to really educate yourself enough to where you're in these spaces where we are not, because we are not a large you know where people might think we're everywhere but we're really not right we're just in people's mind have a fixation with the trans community for some reason. And so it's a responsibility of our accomplices to educate them educate them on why we have a right to exist, why we have a right to take care of our family. And so those are ways that our accomplices can really be in solidarity with us is just being able to uplift a positive message about the trans community, even when we're not there. Thank you so much. Does anyone have anything else they want to add. Yeah, I can, I can jump in Melanie. I think that in terms of allyship. I think what allies can do really is recognizing that allyship is honestly like a lifelong process, especially if you're committed to being an ally. I'm just recognizing that it's a very dynamic evolving process, and that it can really manifest in different ways you know allyship can mean you know, standing up for someone, whether or not someone is watching. Right, you know understanding that you know violence toward our community like doesn't just impact our community but it impacts everyone it really breaks down, you know the safety of a community, you know it creates trauma within the community but it also lights a fire. You know, you know for folks to really kind of commit to creating this sustainable change and creating these positive, you know, life experiences for our community. But also to recognize that allyship can also be the work that you do. You know, it can be how you show up in different spaces, the spaces that you create. You know, our team is creating, you know, a TG and CMB health summit, you know, for the spring to help bridge that divide between, you know, our community members and government because we know that it's there. You know, and we're always constantly trying to bridge it. So that's, that's something I'm really excited about. And I think it would be a really great demonstration of allyship so just understanding that it's not something that you are it's something that you do. Absolutely. I think I've heard you say before that, you know, to be an ally, but an ally is a verb and a down Brent or a Mara. Yeah, you know, I think that for me to be to normalize and humanize trans individuals that I think part of the disinformation is the dehumanization of trans people. So you never hear someone say, when they do the disinformation trans people, they just say transgender. And when you remove the people, you dehumanize individuals and you, you know, and I, it sort of makes me think back to looking at integration and how a lot of individuals had issues with integration, because they didn't want to normalize the fact that black people were human. And if their kids were around black people, then they will become normal. That would integration will become normal and black people will become human. And I think that's the same thing. When we look at trans individuals, when I do my trainings, and the bathroom is always a big issue. And I do ask that question. What should you do if you see someone in the bathroom that you personally believe shouldn't be there. And I actually had someone respond. I would drag them out. And I said, actually, you're committing a crime. I said, this is, you know, this is not what you do. And I said, well, if you saw me in the bathroom, would you drag me out? I'm a trans man. Would you drag me out? And they were like, and so I think what that does is humanizes trans individuals. Are you going to drag me out? I mean, like, I'm standing before you as a person. And they was like, no. And then at the end they came and said, I apologize. I honestly did not know. I thought that's what I was supposed to do, but that's part of the disinformation. This was a, and when I say this, this individual couldn't have been more than 21, 22 years old. Like, and so they're getting their information from the internet. And so what we have to do is as an ally, you know, if you have, if you're an ally, when you hear things like that. It's a confronted. You need to say, well, no, trans people are people. And we don't stop people from doing the things that everyone else does. And, and so that is where I think that sometimes allyship where people say, well, no, that's my friend. They don't mean it. That's my family. They don't mean it. That's my colleague. They don't mean it. But you can't be a full ally if you're not confronting it and saying, well, no, because now you've dehumanized an entire group of people. And so for me, that's what it is. Thank you, Brent. And then last but not least, Amara. Yeah, I would say really quickly, if you're talking about trans people or you are making policies or decisions that could affect trans people, and there are no trans people in the room or around the table. There's something fundamentally wrong. Right. And then I think that the degree to which we can fold trans people into the core of our decision making when there are considerations that are either directly or about or which could impact or affect trans people's lives that it would make a huge difference. Thank you so much, all of you. Each of you, Amara, Jasmine, Kiarra and Brent for taking the time to discuss these issues together and each of the important things that you all are working on or agitating for. I think this has been a very informative and inspiring conversation. I'm very mindful of time and unfortunately I don't think that we have time to do q amp a but I see a lot of people have been putting their questions in the chat and have been getting answers from our panelists who have been doing amazing work of double duty between answering these very thought provoking questions and also getting back to people but I also encourage people to email us at the commission on gender equity at gender equity at city hall. c.gov. If you have further questions or want to try to connect with some of our panelists today we are very happy to facilitate that and we very much appreciate you all joining us today for this event. Before we end, we did want to take a moment to share some relevant New York City government resources for trans and gender expansive New Yorkers, including gender affirming health services, LGBTQ plus specific resources and supports if you or someone you know has experienced gender based violence. The slide that's being shown now includes links to those resources and we will definitely be emailing this to all of the attendees via email afterwards so don't worry about trying to you know write all of this down. You can also learn more about the New York City 16 days of activism against gender based violence campaign and other upcoming events that are part of the campaign at www.nyc.gov slash 16 days. And you know I just want to say again one more time thank you so much to our panelists today for sharing their thoughts and perspectives. I think people have learned a lot I've seen a lot of engagement throughout the throughout the event of people you know clapping their hands and I think you've really taught us so much today about about, you know, thinking more critically about the world around us the institutions that we we use and the things that we hear and how we need to, as Kiarra said, you know, decolonize our minds and be very mindful about what people are saying to us and and recognizing that we each have a role to play in in addressing violence against trans and gender expansive communities because I think as so many of you have pointed out violence against those members of our community is violence against us all, and we all suffer. So thank you so much again, and really appreciate you all taking the time and being with us today. And for that, we'll end there thank you all so much again.