Alex, my citizen action project partner, and I went to the People’s March on January 18th. This march was a march for the rights of all people. It was created by the same people who made the Women’s March, on January 21st, 2017, and it had the same purpose; protest for the rights that will be taken over by Donald Trump.

When we first got there, I could see the “stage” where the speeches would take place, and I could see a crowd slowly start to form. We were within the first 100 or so people to arrive at first, but as soon as the speeches started, many people came and watched. All of the speeches came from a “representative” of most minorities, and they would talk about their experience being who they are. Many of them also talked about their worries and fears about what Trump will do, but if they spoke their fears, they also spoke their hopes and dreams. Some speeches were more “kid friendly” then others, but each one made it’s own impact on the crowd. As a viewer, I felt especially empowered from hearing how all of the people who went up on the stage were just regular people who had opinions that they wanted to share. I had a dream, that I would be able to be up on that stage, talking about my own life, and how fucked up this world is, but what each individual person can do to make it just a little bit better; how each person who showed up for that march put just a little bit of hope into the air.

When we started walking, everyone was super cold and motivated, so it moved at a quick, steady pace. We walked and walked, and it felt like it was going on for so long, but it felt incredible and powerful. People started chants and we just kept on walking. A big part of the march for me was when we got to the intersection of 6th avenue and West Broadway, and we stopped. Me and my dad were sure that we’d go right, down West Broadway, because of how busy 6th avenue is, but nope, instead, we kept on marching, straight down 6th avenue. The cars honked their horns and the people yelled, but we kept walking. It felt so good to be acknowledged, even if it was negative, and I loved how we got to create traffic. I wasn’t worried that the cars would keep driving, because we were all united, but if we got split up, or there weren’t as many people, it would’ve been much less safe. This speaks to the fact that we’re always safer if we stick together. That was one of the main points of the march; even though all of the minorities don’t have much in common, we are all being targeted by one common enemy; Donald Trump. So we all have to stand united, together, to fight back.

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Alex, my citizen action project partner, and I wanted to have a safe space for trans individuals to go and talk. We knew that it would be impossible to create an actual affinity group, so we thought the next best thing would be a lunch period once a week. To be able to start a club, you need the permission and help of a teacher, so we went to Suzanne and Mo, the GSA teachers, and told them about our idea. They both seemed very excited about it, and we discussed the idea here and there, until we came up with a plan. Since there are no openly trans faculty that work at the school, we had to get a teacher that we felt comfortable enough with being in the room. We chose both Suzanne and Mo to facilitate the meetings. On Monday the 6th, they made an announcement during middle school meeting, telling everyone that the meeting would take place at 11:30 every Monday and that anyone who identifies as trans can come.

Later that day, we had the first meeting, and when people started to show up, we talked a bit about our relationship with being trans. The group’s purpose is to, not only have a safe space, but to just be able to hang out with other people who have similar experiences to you. The next week, on the 13th, we had another meeting, and it was more about just hanging out and feeling comfortable.

I hope that other schools can be able to create trans affinity groups to help support the student at the school, who don’t feel comfortable talking with cis people about their trans experience.

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Alex, my citizen action project partner, and I interviewed Paul Silverman, a queer therapist. I got in contact with him from my dad. He facilitates the parent group of a teenage trans group therapy that I got to once a month. The program that he works for is called Gender Family Project, GFP for short, and that is part of the Ackerman Institute. As well as that group, he also has a private practice where he sees clients individually.

Alex and I decided that it would be better for us to set up for the interview ahead of time, so we didn’t have to rush and mess up. We went up into the learning lab at 9:40 to be prepared for the 10:00 meeting. As we logged on to the zoom meeting, I noticed that it was a bit glitchy, but I didn’t think too much of it, and when Paul finally showed up, he was too glitchy. We had to move into the other room of the learning lab to get help from Susannah and Mala. Susannah quickly gave us her computer to log in with so that it would work better, and right away, it stops glitching. When we got settled in, we restarted the meeting and calmed down.

The first few questions we asked Paul about were more focused on how he got into being a therapist. He told us that he always knew he wanted to help people in that way and that he was super passionate about it. He said that he specifically works with trans people because, as a gay person, he felt like his journey was very much so connected to other queer people, including trans people. We talked about the ways he can help his clients other than mental health support and he talked about how he can send letters to doctors, give recommendations to his clients for other types of therapy, and he can talk to parents. He told us about his opinion on how gender affirming care will be affected by the past election, and ways that he wants to help his clients with those new challenges. We also asked him if he had any people he knew that lived outside of NY and how gender affirming care would be different there then here; he told us that most of the people he knew in other states, moved or are planning on moving to NY for better support.

By the end of the meeting, we had learned many things, including how to not panic when put in a stressful situation, and we felt very accomplished.

Finally, Alex and I thanked Paul and said goodbye.

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Alex, my Citizen Action Project partner, and I interviewed Ava Dawson, the current high school nurse of LREI. At first I was very anxious about messing up and asking the wrong questions, but after we started, Ava showed that she was very easygoing and caring. As I started to stop worrying, we continued on in the interview.

We first asked her about her own experience with gender affirming care, and she told us that she has a transgender sister who had gotten gender affirming care. Ava said that she had helped support her sister with her transition. She also told us that, before she came to LREI, she had worked at a very run down public school. The issues at the school were much worse compared to LREI and she said that there were many bullying instances. As the nurse, many people came to her for helpo and she tried to help them to her fullest extent. The main gender issues there were that all of the bathrooms were gendered and most of the trans kids that went to her said that they felt physically unsafe using them. She helped them by giving them a key to the teacher restroom, but even that didn’t fully solve the problems because some teachers would question the kids and ask them why they were using their restroom.

When Ava came to LREI, she said that the whole school felt much more inclusive and supportive. We asked her if she, specifically, had helped anyone get care, and she said that, because it’s fully up to the parent(s), the only thing she could do was talk to them. If the parent(s) were in full support, she would talk with the student and their parent(s) about options and solutions. if the parent(s) were not in support, she and Ty, the school councilor, would have a very thorough and informational conversation with just the parent(s) and tell them why it’s important to help their child and support them through their journey.

Finally, Ava referred Alex and I to a few more resources and said goodbye.

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