 Hello, have Friday! Welcome to Perspectives on Global Justice Think Tech Hawaii program. This is your host, Beatrice Cantelmo. This month, we celebrate LGBTQIA Pride Month, even though our current president refuses to acknowledge June as LGBTQI Pride Month. Yes, we do celebrate it, and we will continue to celebrate our LGBTQIA Ohana, because love is always a good reason to celebrate. After all, being yourself and being able to love who you love are two of the most fundamental human rights that we hold as individuals. This is still a country where rainbow flags can be proudly displayed on lanais and storefronts. Couples can walk, holding hands without fear. That is how it should be. We still have memories of June of 2015, when the White House was leading rainbow colors following the Supreme Court decision to advance marriage equality for the LGBT community in the US. We must not forget that such decision was the result of hard work of many generations of people who worked very hard for equal rights to marry. In recent years, we have seen record numbers of anti-algebra bills introduced in state legislatures across the country. Many of them failed, and many unfortunately have passed, and we are now faced with new laws that run contrary to our values as a nation. Many of these laws claim to be about religious liberty, but in truth, they are about discrimination because they are laws that restrict the ability of local government to protect LGBT residents. Laws that target transgender people and laws that taxically allow school programs such as conversional therapy. We are seeing the passage of discriminatory US state laws denying transgender schools children the simple dignity of using restrooms in peace, and laws allowing state-funded agencies to pass same-sex couples from providing loving homes to children in need of family. Globally, LGBT rights are also increasingly under attack. In the last month, two men of Akta province in Indonesia were publicly flogged 83 times for having sex. Days before, 141 men were arrested in Indonesia for attending what the police called a gay sex party. A similar incident took place in Blangadash, which is one of the 72 countries in the world where homosexuality is still illegal and where an LGBTQ blogger was killed last year. We must not forget the gay men in Chachnya, whose government denies their very existence. Gay men wore and continued to be kidnapped, tortured and killed in Chachan prisons. We have long ways to go and must continue to stand out for equality and speak out against hate speech, violence and discrimination against the LGBTQIA community. We do this through mobilization, education, advocacy work and active civic engagement. And yes, we do this by our ability to come together in the spirit of resiliency and willingness to continue to fight for equal rights. Today, we have a very special guest, Caroline Goulou. She is a Master of Social Work and the founder of Rainbow Family, Ada Waite. Welcome back to our program, my darling. Well, thank you, dear. And thank you for having me on your wonderful show here. Well, how wonderful it is to have a beef founder of Rainbow Family, Ada Waite here on Friday, the month to talk about what's going on locally, domestically and globally. So before we jump right in, Caroline, let's talk about how did you get this lovely family started here in Hawaii? Well, it's only, it's going to be four years in December that we started. It was right at the, right the day before marriage became legal in Hawaii. December 1st was 2013. So we have come a long way, but we have a long way to go. And we started because we wanted to reach out to the community, not only the LGBT community, but also all of the community, the homeless youth, because we realized that that is the most at-risk group of young people in our state. And our state is sadly not one that recognizes any help for them. So actually, I was quite appalled that not too long ago, the bills that were introduced to have budget included to support runaway youth. And I think like 40% of them in the state of Hawaii actually LGBTQ. That's right. And the budget was not approved. No, no. Our budget this last year has been terribly lacking in social justice for a myriad of people. But our gay, our homeless youth are the ones that for years, they've been there, you know, and they just continue. They look the other way. They go around the bills. And it makes it makes it hard for everyone, because it's, you know, they have the, oh, well, they're only gay. Well, excuse me, not only they are LGBT, IQ, and all the other alphabets that anyone can insert in there. But we have to look at the whole of the homeless youth, because every homeless youth matters. And we have to make sure that they have a safe haven, a place over their head, and food to eat, and clothing. And when it rains, they need to be out of the out of the wind in the rain. Yes. And unfortunately, just to thrive also. It is so hard to be homeless. Actually, Hawaii is the state that has the most homeless children per capita in the nation. That's right. Isn't that a shame first for us, you know, and it goes against everything that we stand for. It goes against our aloha spirit. It goes against our ohana and our keiki matter. And we put our keiki first. We don't, unfortunately, here in Hawaii. And unfortunately, that's an area that needs a lot of improvement. And when I first moved to Hawaii in 2014, I came across Yo, and I was quite moved by the work that was being provided to the youth, because being homeless in itself is very hard, but having a place where you can come on for the part of the day and launch, two things that we normally take it for granted, like having a oatmeal, take a shower, having clean clothes, backpack with a few belongings that you can go around and the ability to continue to go to school or to find remedial ways to finish your school through DED, a lot of the health services, the counseling, but a sense of community. That was very, you know, important to see it happening and to see that level of work threatened by budget cuts. It really is heartbreaking. And so the one and only place that the youth have is Yo Youth Outreach Waikiki, and everyone, all of us are just holding our breath to see what the budget cuts across the nation are going to do to them. You know, how many are they going to have to lay off staff? Are they going to have to, you know, and when they do that, then we're, you know, a lot of volunteers, but you have to have qualified trained people. You can't just take anyone in there because of all the issues that come with their needs. And there is also the need for continuity. I think that one of the strengths of being a nonprofit but also a double-sold edge is the part of having volunteers. Yes, volunteers can help to a certain extent, but you do have to have programmatically sound programs where you have staff that's paid, that they can be there and make a commitment to provide those services, which for the community that we're serving, it's very paramount because they have so many inconsistencies in their lives and being able to see a familiar face and have that reliability makes a big difference. That's right. The continuity is so important for them because they've lost all accountability and, you know, accommodations. Just the bear, that's I guess one of the reasons we had the Valentine Party for them to, you know, put lots of hearts and everything and I love views all over, you know, to know that people do care and we'll keep working, you know, however long it takes. So later this month there will be an event at Dave and Buster's. Do you want to talk a little bit about that and the fundraising that you are putting together? Well, that comes from the LGBT caucus within the Democratic Party. They're going to be celebrating marriage in the United States and so this will be, what is it, two years now that we've had? It's 2015. It's only two years but we worked for so long for it. It seems like, you know, and so we have to celebrate our victories. We really do and it brings people together and people, what were you doing on June 26 when the Supreme Court came down with it, you know, where were you, who were you with, you know, that type of thing and so it's a great time to get together and remember and make new memories too. New people move into the community, new couples move into the community and it's a welcoming. So and this helps because the LGBT caucus of the Democratic Party has been very gracious. Any fundraising they do goes back into the community. You know, they helped yo at the holidays with what was it, we needed rainbow, not rainbow, well they came out in rainbow colors but they weren't rainbow colored, they were rain pout ponchos and that's really needed in the wintertime here. And so that was only one of the things that the caucus did for the youth. So there's other people in the community, it just so happens my son, Michael Jr., is the chair of the LGBT caucus and he's quite diligent about that and very dedicated. Let's talk about the caucus and the role that they play in the state of Hawaii to advance the rights of the LGBTQIA community here. Well that caucus has been very instrumental in getting bills passed. Like we had a birth certificate bill passed for transgendered back in 2015. We weren't the first state in the nation but we were before Oregon and Oregon, you know, this is Pride Month so it's good to have things to be proud about and to celebrate and Oregon came through. And what Oregon did was they took all the rights for transgendered and wrote it into one bill. Here in Hawaii, we piece mailed it unfortunately. We did one, we did the public accommodations, which was very important, that transgendered could not be refused housing, you know, that they go to rent some place. They can't say, well, you can't, you can't live here. So we cleared that out and then we had to get the birth certificate bill passed so that transgendered can have their gender changed on that so that that helps them get jobs, that helps them on their driver's license. And that just, you know, it's like, what a shame we have to have all of these little, little things that most of us take for granted. Exactly. We take it for granted and yet some in our community and in the LGBTIQA community really have to struggle with, you know. And I shouldn't have to be the case that once you've had changed your gender, that you have to expend more money and take more time to have that reflected in your documents. So I'm happy that even though we had to do it piece by piece, that the LGBTQIA, Democratic Caucus, you know, have been walking very hard and diligently under the leadership of Mike, your beloved son, and an amazing border to make that possible. So we're going to take a quick break and then we'll be right back. Okay, good deal. Aloha, my name is Stephen Philip Katz. I'm a licensed marriage and family therapist and I'm the host of Shrink RAP Hawaii where I talk to other shrinks. Did you ever want to get your head shrunk? Well, this is the best place to come to pick one. I've been doing this. We must have 60 shows with a whole bunch of shrinks that you can look at. I'm here on Tuesdays at three o'clock every other Tuesday. I hope you are too. Aloha. Welcome back on Perspectives of Global Justice and this is your host Beatrice Contower and I'm back with Carolyn Goulou. Carolyn, so we were talking about the good things to celebrate. About Pride Month, not just in the United States, but also around the globe. Last month, it doesn't seem like it was too long ago. Women's March, Rainbow Family 808 and Amnesty International Hawaii chapter co-sponsored a candlelight vigil for the men of Chechnya who are happening to still be kidnapped and tortured and killed in Chechen prisons and it's been quite a problematic issue there and you want to share some good news about the war that the minister of Germany did this week. Just a little bit before that, while we were sending out our cards, our own Department of State Rex Tillerson was going to Russia to talk about oil and he also took with him a statement asking them to stop the persecution of gay men in Chechnya. We didn't know that, but we had some of our cards going there saying we need this to happen and the wonderful thing of it is that we weren't late because when you send those cards you have no idea when they're going to get there, but it serves as a reinforcement and a validation that what is trying to happen happened. So that was so good and then this week it was like thank goodness things have changed. The Minister of Foreign Affairs in Germany under the tullage of their Prime Minister Merkel, she's an absolutely wonderful woman who leads her country and you can see her handprint on this when they declared that Germany would open their borders to men LGBTQIA who are refugees of persecution and so at least and this is what I had found through the week was that all this was coming back, we have Oregon coming on, we have this going on and so it took me back and there is an LGBTIQA organization in Moscow and they had been working from within the country to promote the safety of their people and so one of the things that I read was I can't see her name or I'd ruin it, Slavanna is an activist and a mover and shaker over there and she encouraged people to whatever action they could do to help them promote the safety of the LGBTIQA community to do it. So we were doing our postcards and they were asking people to do it so we shouldn't stop, we can't stop. We can't, more than ever this is the time that not only we have to continue but we have to work as a coalition. That's right. Many friends, many organizations together to support and promote and advance LGBTIQIA rights not only domestically but around the globe because unfortunately it's really just heartening, 2017 we have 75 countries around the globe where homosexuality is considered a crime and that's beyond me that you know I am on a lie, I'm very proud of you know to be on a lie about to think that someone who may love someone of the same sex cannot even show an display of affection in public or having to live in fear of persecution you know being killed for the simple crime of love because you love who you love, your heart belongs to what it feels and we shouldn't have to discriminate that and yet there are certain cultures where not only you know homosexuality is okay but it's celebrated and we have to work a little bit more here in our own United States when you have the Secretary of Education coming out within the last week or so saying that the Department of Education is not in the business of protecting our LGBT, well she couldn't even say LGBTIQIA community and when she said that that put a target on all students in education you know because now it's okay apparently to harass them, to beat them up, to do all kinds of horrible things that we know happen. Yeah and it happens but I don't think I mean she may not want to support our community but that's not her job, her job is to protect all students. Exactly and so we are seeing you know lawsuit in the near future and I do think that just like what happened with the Paris Accord agreement where Trump agreed you know that the United States was not going to be a part of that anymore there is a counter movement to say you know what we may not need someone at the federal level who ideally should set the tone properly to do what's right and proper so I believe in my hope and I think that one thing I've learned about the LGBTIQIA community is how well organized and stronger you know we are as a community and so to be able to continue to work with the schools, to be able to have policies at a state and county levels that says no we will not allow that kind of harassment and discrimination and to apply the law as it is because the constitution hasn't changed. No it hasn't changed and one of the things we have to be very aware of is we have to do it ourselves we have to this this whole month wear rainbow lace wear a pin that has a rainbow on it wear the rainbow state it's so it's so easy to be rainbow conscious here and it's very hard also to have difficult conversations I think that there are many layers of being an ally you know from befriending someone from the LGBTIQIA community to wearing proudly you know a rainbow garments gear that's right to actually taking part in a parade we're having one coming we have this weekend this Sunday it's the equality march and it's going to start at the capital just like the march started on January 21st for the women's march now and the women's march is supporting them and rainbow families supporting them and we're going to have a table out there in a tent so you can get out of the sun a little bit if you need to be and literature if people want to know what rainbow family is because we are rather new to the community I'm not you new to the community but the rainbow family is but we have to always be out there and a rainbow family will be sending a rainbow lay to governor Kate Brown because I'm so proud of her I've met her once and she's absolutely delightful and and she was you know I know she was instrumental you know she could have killed she didn't kill it and she signed it with much happiness I heard that Senator Brian Schatz is going to be on Sunday and you're learning more than I am I know I am just like so proud of our representatives and you know Brian Schatz particularly for his stand supporting the LGBTQI community and so you know thinking about the positive me I I don't want to smash you know the negatives I know that this month our White House and our current president did not acknowledge June as the pride month for our LGBTQIA community and that's not going to stop us of course not and you know we are here to stay and to continue to promote equality you know and and equity too which is very important and so we have a very few minutes left and I wanted to bring this program to a more personal tone because you know you're very supportive of the LGBTQI community you have a lovely son who is very proud and open the guy and her his straight sister is right there with us all the way and I wanted to ask you as a mother as an ally of someone who you know is blossoming who you know is fun and smart and and just a delight to be with what could you tell to a mother who has a son or daughter who's in that process of coming out or questioning their sexuality that would perhaps be empowering to that mother and to that child or that young adult because there's so much secrecy and so much shame and so many people don't tell that to it exactly for the fear of retaliation or disappointing them but for someone who did not seem to have had that issue or maybe you did my idea was before Michael came out was they don't bother me and I don't bother them everyone just lives just fine and then once he came out all of a sudden I remembered all the killings I'd read and whatnot and so when I talked to other mothers for the first time one of the things I tell them is to tell them to close their eyes and think back to the first time they held their baby and open up their blanket and look at their fingers and their toes and I remember with our first child and our second that that was the most wonderful moment in our lives to see those fingers that are moving and you know they say they're some people say they don't smile I say they smile at that age because they once they get to recognize your your voice you know they they they smile their whole continents change and I want parents to think back to those precious first moments and how much love they surrounded their children with and that's the same love the children haven't changed all that's happened is the children have shared something with them something really important to them and they need their families love more than ever so just go right back in that you know memory and it'll I can I don't even have to close my eyes anymore I just think about that and I remember just holding them and and they were so precious they're still precious and that is a wonderful message to end our lovely program that I can't believe came to an end I want to thank you again my darling well thank you for being so kind to have me and well this concludes our program for today thank you so much for spreading the love and keeping the love going supporting our LGBTQIA community and Pride Month which is not just June but it's every day of the year there it go and on that note who we hope