Name: Freya Sutter

Social Justice Group: Mental Health and Teens

Date of Fieldwork: March 2, 2021

Person (people) with whom you met and their title(s) & Name of Organization: Danushi Fernando

Type of Fieldwork: Interview

Reflection:

What I learned about Social Justice “work” and/or Civil and Human rights “work” from this fieldwork:

In this interview, I learned about how social media can be very beneficial for bringing awareness to the issue of LGBTQ teen mental health. Danushi Fernando explained that it can help people share their voice and it gives everyone a platform. She also explained how among the different social media platforms, TikTok in the past two years has been doing great work for LGBTQ teens. Tumblr has also been a great place for transgender teens. Fernando talked about how in many countries, it is illegal to be LGBTQ, and that is one of the reasons she was interested in becoming a mental health counselor and working with LGBTQ teens in particular. She discussed how it is important to have things like GSA at schools. Regarding religious schools that “can’t openly support” LGBTQ teens, they can still have ally support groups without directly labeling it as a GSA.