Guarding Your Joy

for Republicans. And the fact is is that in ACLU's post on social media about them preparing to sue the State of Louisiana, they said public schools are not religious schools. You don't get to put press your religion on other people. If you want your kids the only thing that you want them to be able to read is the Bible, and you want them to follow the ten Commandments, and that is the most important thing to you, then enroll them in a religious fucking school. That is your choice.

But if I'm sending a child to public school, I want them to get an education that prepares them to be global citizens, that prepares them to be critical thinkers in the workplace, that prepares them to be good people, that prepares them to ask questions right, not one where one kind of religion is pressed upon them. America is not a Christian nation. It is a nation that is filled with a lot of fucking people from all over the world. That used to be a point of pride,

it is now a point of contention. People used to flock to this country because of the opportunities that it afforded and the freedoms that it afforded people. And now I see more people in my comments section looking for other places to live, People being forced to move out of their home states in order to give birth, in order to educate their kids, in order for their kids to feel safe from bullying and harassing, not just from their own peers, but from the administration and from the

fucking governors of these red states. It's appalling, it's ridiculous. It's shit that was litigated back in the sixties and the seventies where we stopped allowing prayer in school because guess what if I'm an atheist or agnostic, or I'm Muslim or any myriad of religions, are you allowing me to pray the way that I want to pray in school? Are you dictating to me how I'm going to pray? If the Ten Commandments mean something to you, it doesn't

mean something to me. Again, you can do whatever it is that you want with your child, put them in schools or homeschool them in places that live up to your moral compass, but that is not the place for public education. It is about recognizing the needs of the public,

not one community, class group, or race. Coming up next on today's WOKF, I am in conversation with Melanie Willingham Jaggers, who is the CEO of Glisten, the only organization in the country that focuses on creating safe, stable, uplifting environments for LGBTQ youth in schools, and so Melanie and I get into a very rich conversation about the myriad of anti LGBTQ and anti trans bills that have come out and what the movement is up to next, folks, I am very happy to welcome back to WOKF Daily the

executive director of Glisten, Melanie Willingham Jaggers, to join us as we do our Pride coverage for the month and we get the low down on all things LGBTQ.

You at Glisten focus on creating educational environments that are safe, that are uplifting for our LGBTQ youth, and just recently, the Biden administration has put forth more guidance around doing what they can to support LGBTQ youth than there are six states that have said yeah, now We're good, We're okay. We don't care about them, Melanie, A happy pride to you. And what what do you even begin begin to take on the behemoth that is the attacks on LGBTQ plus a youth in our schools.

So you know, the fight continues. As I understand that folks are teeing up for a Supreme Court fight on Title nine on a shorter timeline than usual. And what we're being faced with is really I think we have the benefit of seeing exactly what the opposition wants to do. Right. They are not slow walking, they are not pretending, they're not writing in footnotes. They are putting everything they want

to do as a headline. They are being very clear, and I think that the job for folks on our side, and our side is the side that believes in democracy, believes that children should be able to go to school, both free from the encumbrances of discrimination, but also supported right by actual supports. What does it mean to see them as young people, to see them as people who are part of communities, who have histories, and who are vital and contributing members of our society now and in

the future. We at Lisson believe that education is the cornerstone of democracy. You said as much yourself, and I think our opposition understands that to be true as well, which is why they are attacking public education generally speaking, and using queer and trans kids as the boogeyman face to put on it, but are generally an overall attacking American democracy. And so when we have an educated populace, we are unfit for authoritarianism, We're unfit for fascism, and

they know that and we know that. So that's where the that's where we are right that's the battle that we're in right now at Glisten. We continue to work with the current administration in order to make sure that as much can be that can be done in this moment, can be done. And frankly, we've had four years to get a lot of stuff done, and I wish we

would have gotten more done. And you know, I hear the arguments that people are doing what they can and also you know, there is actually no excuse for not showing up for and not delivering the most you can for our young people. And glisten, you know, our work is both We do both policy advocacy, but really our bread and butter is working with young people, working with educators,

and working in communities. And so that has never stopped on our part, right whether it's five hundred and sixteen anti LGBTQ plus bills introduced this year across the country, we continue to understand that it is the people who have the power, and our work continues to be to connect with our folks to ensure that we are building safety with and for each other, and also pushing at every level of intervention in the education system to make sure that at every single level we are putting the

policies and practices in place to make sure that every young person's lived experience in schools is as good as it can be.

over the last year. So we hear, okay, it's bad, but we don't actually get a real, true, on the ground understanding of what it is like to, let's say, I don't know, be a middle schooler who is queer living in the Midwest in a hostile state, Like, what does it feel like to go to school and have no safe space and not only have young people your peers that are bullying you, but an entire administration that

has the ability to bully you. So can you kind of give us some context to the behind the scoop to the headlines that we see of real young people.

terrible bills coming in an avalanche of bad ideas number one. Two, Listen along with others in coalition, have defeated the vast majority of these bills. And three I just want us to and this is the official recommendation, right, which is to guard your joy. Right. One of what happens is that you know everybody's terrible idea, they can call into a news they understand. Let me say it this way. Our opposition are a bunch of stut queens, not in a good way, not in a good way, stuck queen.

Let me just say that I personally love a stuck queen, but these bulls are stunt queens in the worst way. Right.

What they understand is actually that when you can bombard people with terrible news, when you can lift up introduce a bill, even if you know there's not a snowballs chance in hell that it gets past what you are doing is making sure that people who are impacted by that proposed law feel the attack right on their spirit, on their mind, and their attention, and is added to a list of a thing of the things that we

all worry about, right, So that's number one. Like stunt queens on the other side, have a bunch of terrible ideas, they write them down, they get introduced, and then suddenly we have a media ecosystem that feels obligated to report on it, and as a result, we are overwhelmed by the bad news, even though the part that is not reported is that we are winning on so many of these levels. We are beating back so many of these

terrible bills. Any one bill that gets passed is a bill too many, and so I don't want to we are not winning. We're not batt in a thousand, but we're batten, but we're batten pretty close, right. And the other thing is that so many of these are copy and paste bills, and so what works in back states, right, just bashtrack it in another state. And that is I

think also their core of vulnerability. Right, once we figure out what actually is illegal or doesn't work or whatever in one bill, it really points toward the weakness and all of them, and a thing that is often not is a critical win that our movement has gotten in Florida right by gutting that don't say gay legislation, fundamentally gutting it. The core pieces have been struck down in court.

That is not getting a lot of news right. That also means there's significant vulnerabilities in these other copy and paste states right where people just are passing on bad ideas.

That's part one, right in terms of like what's happening with slatively, I think part two really is around like what's the effects on young people at this moment is having And again it's like, you know, not to use a big old word, but really thinking about the psychosphere, right, the economy of our attention and who is influencing it.

So you know, I'm going to go ahead and say the thing, which is to say that we've got a lot of terrible actors internally in our own country, and we also have folks who are over We are all washed over every single day with headlines some of which are true, some of which are not right. There's a way in which the fake news and the kind of and what terrible information is kind of coming at us in order to distract us, discourage us, get us to panic or freak out, or lose hope or stop trying.

We are in you know, several months out, a couple months out from the general election. We're in the hottest part of hell right now. When it comes to.

as much ability to you know, parse through what is true what is false. It's really important that we actually get in the business in our own networks and helping to fortify ourselves in each other, because one thing that will guarantee defeat and I don't mean and I don't mean kind of electorally, but I mean kind of in our hearts right where our movement is able to go

is if we think that we are losing. And let me just say to all the listeners, you don't fight this hard to destroy, to erase, to disempower a community that doesn't have any power, right, Why would you erase history that doesn't matter? Why would you ban books that aren't elaminating and liberating in their both in their existence

and their impact. And so the thing I want to make sure your listeners here is the I want to remind us of our own power and that yes, we have to act on it, and we have to be with others in our action on our path. But like,

let's just reset the frame for a second. You don't pass five hundred and sixteen bills, or you don't introduce five hundred and sixteen bills around someone's identity if you aren't afraid of who they are and actually what they do in community right and with power and with inclusion and in public life. So I want us to be grounded in our own power and the fact that we are actually turning the tide and winning.

need to safeguard yourself. But I also think that it is incredibly important to lift up the winds because what ends up happening, I think, Melanie, is that the media, corporate media, does a wonderful job at telling us all the terrible things that are happening, and then when there are fight backs or when there are losses that happen on the right side, somehow the media is nowhere to be found like they were all over Florida. Every single piece of legislation that DeSantis is pushing out is a

front story news. But what's not front story is who is pushing back against him and actually winning. And so I really appreciate you bringing that to the forefront because it's easy too, I think when you were inundated with this cycle of despair to become really hopeless and to say that I might as well not fight, I might as well not do the thing, because what does it matter?

And I think that you know, you tell me. But what I have recognized over the last you know, eight to nine years under Trumps and in particular, is how vital local elections are, how vital school boards are, whether or not you have a child that is in said school or not. That these people are looking out at every single touch point that they can have to move

their ball to their side. And I think that we have always been so laser focused on the federal level and don't pay attention to the power that has had at these local levels, where when these pieces of legislation are coming out in city councils, that folks are able to say not today, satan and knock it back, and so talk to us about the important ways that you all at Glisten and with coalition partners are seeding ground in places that we don't often pay attention to and

that we overlook, but we recognize that no impacts start small and then it spreads out.

And what is true is that the other side has succeeded in making every single classroom affront for this culture war that they have started and are waging without any remorse, right using our children as ponds in this foolishness, right that they're doing, which again, let me remind the folks who are listening, is actually not about queer kids. It's now anti democratic future. It's a vision of anti democratic

future for our country. And they figured out where coalitional solidarity is soft in this country is around queer and trans issues, particularly trans issues, and frankly, there are major publications in this country who holds significant responsibility for amplifying the lies and the faulty transphobic logic of this side, laundering it as a reasonable part of the public discourse when it has never been and it absolutely is not

and won't ever be. So I think that there's a lot of complexity here which is around how these extreme far right ideas around gender, as one example, have been laundered. Not only is the bad news amplified by corporate media, but it's also laundered in a way has been laundered over the last number of years, in a way that is truly disgusting, and that I think that folks will absolutely history will not look kindly on their actions and they will absolutely need to be held account before. So

that's I just want to say that. I mean, I think that the other piece here is that again Glisten, we are thirty four years old this year, Happy birthday. Right, I'll take being in my mid thirties again. You know, one thing that we understand at Glisten is the education system right in every single point of leverage they are in and where there are points of intervention, where there are points of leverage, and what pieces of leverage work

in those at those points. And so one thing I'm actually really excited about that's ongoing right now that's current, is that we have launched our National School Climate Survey, which is a survey of young people who are in schools in this country grades eight and above, so eight to twelve, to see what their experiences are. This goes back to your initial question, but I think leads in here as well, right, which is to say, both what is like, what is happening the good and the bad? Right?

What are you experiencing the bad and the good. And it's from this research that we have come up with our solutions over the last since nineteen ninety nine we started the survey. And so all this to say that the work to find solutions always starts with the people who are most impacted by the system, and so listens. Work in this way continues by capturing seeking to capture, hey, hey, kids, what's going on right grades eight and up? What are

you all experiencing? What could help and what needs to be different. So there's that that we're gathering data from young people because data is the language that systems speak, and so we speak to the systems and the language they understand, and that information comes directly from young people. The other piece of it is that we continue to work with educators, right, We've got educators all over the country. We had one point five million downloads this year alone

of our materials. So there's a way in which it's like our opposition is going hard. We have a level of relationships and credibility within the system that is so deeply resilient, and so our people continue to come to us for the latest and greatest. We continue to train folks all over this country in schools and school districts and institutions right and other associations on best practices for making sure that your classroom and also your school community

is safe and affirming for our kids. And so you know, they're going hard, but we're going harder. And the thing is is that there's actually more of us than there are of them. Right. They've got different levels of infrastructure on their side, and we've got more people on our side. So our work continues, and you know, Kate, stop won't stop.

all over the country. And one of the places I was at was Albuquerque and we marched with the contingent in their Pride parade, which you know, if you had to march in a Pride parade in June, I might not suggest being an Albuquerque because it is really hot in Abuquerque. Yeah, we all had to say that we marched. Our contingent was you know, one hundred people, right, I think that the thing that the thing about this moment is that all of us are so connected to everyone

all the time. We are inundated with information all the time. We are inundated by a individually right through a device on our phone that connects us to many other people right on the other side of that screen. My recommendation to guarding your joy, to kind of staying grounding, keeping

sane in this moment is to connect with people. So even though I'm tired and I got so much laundry to do right or is having had the time to be hot in the streets of Albuquerque, you know, and in conversation over a long weekend with folks there in a community with a lot of folks there, to say like, how are you doing, how is it going, what helped me? How we how can we support? And where are your wins?

Because there are wins happening. And I think that again, when we rely on someone else to tell us what's happening, what we hear is shaped by the filter of that source. And when various sources are have proven and continue to prove to be unreliable and not invested in us understanding our power, then we have to go to other sources, and my constant recommendation is to find your people. Always find your people. When you are feeling discouraged or down,

go find your people. Go find folks who are like you or who are different than you, who are facing the world in the same way that you are, and listen to what they are experiencing, but also also get with them to strategize around what could and should be different and find your joy. The revolution will continue on, and they better be dancing and they're better be glitter, right,

And there's also work in spreadsheets and emails. But if we don't feel like we are able to live our lives until we get out of the hottest part of hell, well, then the other side has already won, right We actually solid part of our liberation, part of our coalitional leadership and movement work is serious and it is fun and

it is everything in between. If we can only be in conflict and only be angry, they have already won because our understanding what is possible on the other side of this fight, on the other side of our victory is going to be limited right by the emotions that

we're feeling right now. And if we don't keep practicing our emotions of joy along with our emotions of outrage, along with our emotions of this can happen under on my watch, not in my name that too, But also you have to find joy and connection and love, you know, in this moment.