Year Up Proud
by Janna Strain, Executive Assistant to the Chief Officer of Innovation & Scale
I began seriously advocating for the rights of the LGBTQIAA+ community in 2014. Decades after Stonewall and Compton’s Cafeteria, the election of Harvey Milk, and the AIDS crisis, I stood on the shoulders of activists who had protested, advocated, fought, and even died to make my fight for equal rights a little bit easier. As an intern, a contractor, and then a volunteer for a large LGBTQIAA+ rights organization, I coordinated demonstrations for queer people of faith, developed cultural competency trainings for straight and cisgender allies, and organized local community service projects all in the name of elevating the dignity of my community. On June 26th, 2015 I stood cheering in the Castro for a victory many of us expected to come much later — the SCOTUS decision to legalize marriage equality — thinking “what an incredible time to be alive!” while also wondering “there will be backlash next; how bad will it be?”
I now work for Year Up in San Francisco, a workforce development program with a mission to close the Opportunity Divide. When we speak about the Opportunity Divide with the students in our program, we discuss its drivers and how it impacts different communities. Living this mission has only augmented my perspective on the prejudices and policies that exclude many in the LGBTQIAA+ community from the economic mainstream. These injustices persist in the form of “bathroom bills” targeting the transgender community in states like North Carolina and Texas or legalized discrimination in housing and employment in 28 states (30 for gender diverse people). Sadder yet, discrimination often starts at home, resulting in LGBTQ people comprising 40% of homeless youth across the country. Despite a growing acceptance of LGBTQIAA+ people, systematic injustice continues to keep many on the wrong side of the Opportunity Divide.
This June, Year Up Bay Area (YUBA) celebrates the strength of LGBTQIAA+ people by highlighting strategies both activists of previous generations and activists of today have employed to empower those for whom they advocate.
Stay vigilant against exclusion and create space for community-driven and self-driven learning
We have come a long way since the first activists survived police beatings and jail time for the cause, but LGBTQIAA+ people cannot cease or silo themselves from the larger movement now; too many in the community are still excluded from opportunity. “Even within the community, there’s a tendency toward exclusion and misunderstanding,” YUBA staff member Iris Jong observes when asked about societal challenges. “This leads to intra-group discord and certainly doesn’t help combating discrimination from the outside.” Whether it be a “gold star” lesbian who won’t date bisexual women or a white transgender person posting racially charged comments on Tumblr, the LGBTQIAA+ community can sometimes be just as harmful to itself as opponents are on the outside. It can’t afford to be; queer people come from all countries, races, genders, physical abilities, religions, and socio-economic backgrounds. When we speak about empowering this community, we are actually speaking of empowering members of multiple communities with intersectional identities, unique experiences, and different needs. Only by standing in unity and embracing the intersectional nature of LGBTQIAA+ identities can the movement achieve equity for all.
At YUBA, we celebrated this intersectionality by intentionally creating spaces for staff and students to educate one another about each others’ unique identities and support one another in crossing the Opportunity Divide. Students and staff gathered to share common experiences and community resources over lunch. Others took part in workshops exploring the risks and realities of being “out” in the workplace. Meanwhile, some YUBA staff gather together regularly as members of the YUProud Staff Resource Group, building trust within the organization’s LGBTQIAA+ community and advancing workplace policies to support LGBTQIAA+ staff and students.
Recognize that changing public opinion happens — and matters
Support continues to grow in the United States for the LGBTQIAA+ community. In 2016, 61% of Americans believed same sex marriages should be legally recognized — up nearly ten percentage points from five years before. Additionally, a poll released in August found that 72% of Americans support federal nondiscrimination protections for sexual and gender minorities. Jong describes the shift in public opinion over that past few decades as “monumental”: “I often use the LGBTQIAA+ rights movement as evidence that media does affect public opinion, that public opinion can shift majorly over a short period of time, and that public opinion directly impacts policy. Change does happen.”
In fact, many LGBTQIAA+ people have reason to hope: “It makes me happy to see trans people/actors/actresses continue to speak about social issues on television, social media, and beyond,” YUBA student Laura Shannon explains. “It gives me hope to see others be their true selves and speak out against injustices.” This visibility of public figures and celebrities in mainstream media can often be the encouragement one needs to come out or, if that is still too dangerous, to begin seeking community.
Leverage digital platforms to build community and organize
No generation has been better equipped to form community across great distances than this one. “Because we have such wide access to information, queer folks who previously didn’t have a community can now go online and find a community and resources that support them,” staff member Rachel Kirkwood describes. “Our access to language has been steadily increasing because of online platforms. They’ve often been the mechanism to facilitate the creation of language around queer issues and identities. This, combined with the growing understanding of how the gender binary and heteronormativity has been historically imposed through violence, is a huge component of building solidarity and shifting the paradigm to understand the history of why people in the community are oppressed.” Digital community building is such a critical tool for activism in the Information Age that it is difficult to imagine what the LGBTQIAA+ rights movement (or other powerful movements like Black Lives Matter) would look like without the interconnectivity we live with today. The ability to mobilize massive groups of constituents at a moment’s notice gives today’s advocates power unprecedented just a few decades ago.
Every day I find reasons to be hopeful for the future of the LGBTQIAA+ community. A month ago, my belief in the ability of LGBTQIAA+ people to cross the Opportunity Divide was emboldened when I saw Salesforce release a video celebrating the intersectional humanity of its employees.
Last week, I was strengthened when watching the Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington confront anti-LGBTQIAA+ protesters with a resounding performance of “Make Them Hear You”. Yesterday, I celebrated as a friend in Washington D.C. completed the paperwork to change the gender on their driver’s license to “X — Unspecified/Other.” I have hope because reforms that felt decades away in 2014 are now the reality of 2017, and that what is real for some may soon become real for all. I have hope that in the face of opposition, LGBTQIAA+ people will continue to tell our stories — whether through legislation, demonstration, or song — and fight for the rights we deserve.
This post was prepared by Janna Strain in their personal capacity. The opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the views of Year Up Bay Area or Year Up.
