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Your Voice!

Your Power!

Different Ways to Amplify Your Voice

This GSA Club session was originally designed for Live Out Loud's School Program; a partnership with the New York City Department of Education in which Live Out Loud visits Gender and Sexuality Alliance clubs monthly.

The program teaches LGBTQ+ students and their allies about the significance of queer history and its connection to social change, while also supporting students' development as leaders and active members in their communities.

This session will generate achievable goals to guide a GSA club’s actions and activities during a school year by having the students create content for their actual social media accounts or theoretical social media accounts. For clubs that do not utilize social media and/or do not want to utilize social media, we will focus on how to have community outreach without utilizing an online platform; i.e. flyers within the school community & bulletin boards. The objective of this session is for the students to realize the true power of their voice and ability to cultivate community and connection.

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Introductions!

Name
Pronouns
Share a “Hooray!” → a piece of good news

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Identity Spotlight:

November is transgender awareness month!

Did you know?

In ancient Greece (between 200-300 B.C.), some gods were worshiped by priests who wore feminine attire, identified as women and have therefore been identified by scholars as early transgender figures.

Live Out Loud provides an identity spotlight every month to encourage students to learn about different identities within the LGBTQ+ community. This session we are highlighting the transgender identity.

Transgender = an umbrella term for all gender identities and expressions that involve moving from one gender expression to another. This includes transmen, transwomen, and can include nonbinary folk too - however, not every nonbinary individual will identify as trans.

Note specific trans holidays during the year:

-November: Trans awareness month

-November 20th: International Transgender Day of Remembrance

-March 31st: International Transgender Day of Visibility

For more information, visit:

https://www.glaad.org/transgender/transfaq

https://www.hrc.org/resources/seven-things-about-transgender-people-that-you-didnt-know

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BIPOC LGBTQ+ Pioneers

Lucy Hicks Anderson (1886-1954)

Black trans woman who was tried for perjury after marrying the man she loved.

Sir Lady Java (1943- )

1960s drag queen who worked with ACLU to repeal California’s Rule No. 9 law.

Nong Toom (1981- )

A Muay Thai champion kickboxer who utilized her winnings for gender re-affirming surgery.

History is not something we should learn on a particular day or month, but all year round. Continuing from our identity spotlight, this slide highlights three BIPOC trans individuals whose contributions to LGBTQ+ history should not be forgotten.

Lucy Hicks Anderson was a pioneer for marriage equality and transgender rights. During her lifetime, she married two men. She was accused of lying under oath for not disclosing during her marriages that she was assigned male at birth. She proudly stated in court, “I defy any doctor in the world to prove that I am not a woman. I have lived, dressed, acted just what I am, a woman.”

Sir Lady Java was a female impersonator & civil rights activist of the 1960s. Due to Los Angeles’ Rule No. 9 (which made cross-dressing illegal), her employer–Redd Foxx Club–cancelled her act. She fought alongside the ACLU to argue that Rule No. 9 was unconstitutional. Although her legal challenged failed, Java’s story received national attention, ultimately paving the way for such laws being repealed.

Nong Toom is a Muy Thai kickboxer who won 20 out of 22 matches during her career. She used her prize money to pay for her gender reaffirming surgery. At the time, Thai women were prohibited from participating in kickboxing; thus, Toom received national attention due to her gender. Despite the controversy, Toom persisted in the kickboxing world.

For more information about these amazing pioneers, visit this link!

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LGBTQ+ Content Creators: Ways to Use Your Voice!

Matt Bernstein

Uses pop culture references (memes, movies, etc.) as a means to promote LGBTQ+ education

Chella Man

Weekly livestreams on Instagram of his testosterone injections

Matt Bernstein (he/they) is a 23 years old influencer who gained a following by doing makeup content containing potent sociopolitical messages related to gender and sexuality. He has 1.1 million followers on instagram, and created a Youtube channel a year ago as another form of content producing. His content is based on the current political climate, and statistics. They uses a lot of numerical facts to engage their audience, along with pulling pop culture references to engage younger audiences. Not only does make posts that are text and statistic based, Matt also creates makeup content in a similar style to their statistic content. Matt uses makeup as a means to a conversation. Similar to their other posts, Matt will write out different statements in makeup and use that as a means to conversation.

Chella Man (he/him) is a 23 year old trans deaf artist. He is half Chinese and half Jewish, and talks about his identity in his work. Cly cretes paintings based on his trans experience, but has also branched out of one art form. Recently, he wrote a book titled “Continuum,” which a series focused on creating a space to discuss gender, sexuality, activism and intersectionality within the literary world. He started his career by making Youtube videos documenting his transition, experiences with gender dysphoria, along with navigating the world as a deaf trans person. In 2018, he presented a Ted Talk entitled “Becoming Him” where he talked about his transition and disabled LGBTQ+ youth. He signed with IMG models in 2018 as their first Deaf Jewish-Asian model. Nowadays, he hosts many art events around NYC centered for LGBTQ+ youth.

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LGBTQ+ Content Creators: Ways to Use Your Voice!

JoJo Siwa

Dancer/Entertainer whose audience is predominantly young children

Schuyler Bailar

Trans athlete who uses Instagram to educate & validate LGBTQ+ youth, with a focus on support for trans youth

JoJo Siwa (she/her) is a young adult, 19, childrens entertainer who got their start on reality television when they premiered on Dance Moms as a child. JoJo is known for her sparkly and bubbly personality, bedazzled looks and “good girl” persona; even at times being criticized for still acting “like a child” during their teenage years. After coming out via Instagram, JoJo has utilized her platform as a singer/dancer/entertainer to bring much needed LGBTQ+ representation to her younger audience. While on tour, she spoke to her audience, filled with families wearing her big, sparkly bows, on how being gay is okay & normal & how most importantly, love is love. She utilizes her social media platform to further showcase her pride and engages her audience on how LGBTQ+ representation is vital, even highlighting how the entertainment industry, especially young childrens entertainment, can be homophobic. After coming out and cutting her hair, thus presenting more queer, JoJo Siwa was not invited to the Nickelodeon Choice Awards; she utilized her Instagram to state to her fans how she does not know why she wasn’t invited to the childrens’ award show. Despite this, JoJo continues to shine and be an embodiment of Queer joy on social media, utilizing her over the top fashion and looks to bring representation and awareness to the LGBTQ+ community, even showcasing a Pride event on her Facebook Show: “JoJo Goes…”

Schuyler Bailar (he/him) is a 26 years old trans athlete who is the first openly transgender NCAA Division I swimmer. He is also the first publicly documented NCAA D1 transgender man to compete as a man in any sport. Bailar utilizes their social media to educate and validate LGBTQ+ youth, with a focus on trans youth; utilizing research and real facts to breakdown homophobia and transphobia. Bailar generates Queer educational content that educates the viewer on various queer topics. For example, when trans swimmer Lea Thomas was receiving an onslaught of negative press while competing during the 2021-2022 swim season, Bailar’s content broke down media comments and dispel misconceptions and transphobic lies about enabling trans athletes to play their respective sports. During the 2022 NYC Pride Parade, Bailar was one of the Grand Marshals because of this activist work. Futhermore, Bailar has taken their content a step further by utilizing their platform to cultivate a supportive community via online support groups, offering queer people a safe, affirming space to truly be. Moreover, Bailar has also created Lane Changer, an online learning series, with the goal of transforming gender literacy! By providing educational videos like “How in Biological Sex Non-Binary?” & “Is the Inclusion of Trans Girls in Girls’ Sport Fair?” Bailar is educating their audience to understand these complex issues in a full way, again dispelling the transphobic & homophobic rhetoric seen within these debated questions.

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LGBTQ+ Content Creators: Ways to Use Your Voice!

George M. Johnson

Best-selling author of “All Boys Aren’t Blue,” a memoir-manifesto for Black queer youth

Dexter Mayfield

Dancer, plus-sized model, & judge on the dance competition show “Come Dance With Me”

George M. Johnson (they/them) is an LGBTQ+ activist, journalist, and award-winning author of the New York Times bestsellers “All Boys Aren’t Blue” and “We Are Not Broken.” Johnson’s coming-of-age memoirs cover topics such as gender identity, toxic masculinity, brotherhood, family, structural marginalization, consent, and Black joy. “All Boys Aren’t Blue” has been banned or challenged in at least 21 states. Despite this, Johnson continues to write about and for Black queer youth. In June 2022, they were named this year’s Honorary Chair of Banned Books Week (September 18-24). Upon receiving this honor, Johnson said, “The fight for books continues, one I will not give up on. We will win.”

Dexter Mayfield (he/him) is a dancer, plus-size model, & actor. He made his debut as a model in LA Fashion Week in 2015 walking for designer Marco Marco. From there, he has appeared on the covers of GAYTIMES, Hardy Magazine, and Out Magazine and has been featured in campaigns for Fenty Beauty & Quay Sunglasses. He appeared in Taylor Swift’s music video “You Need To Calm Down” and was featured in the Savage x Fenty Volume 2 Fashion Show. He is a judge on Paramount’s dance competition show, “Come Dance With Me.” He uses his platform to challenge beauty standards in the fashion industry. He encourages his audience to be unapologetically themselves, no matter what society says.

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Xavier Veloz

Founder of LGBTQ Leadership; a community outreach program that educates LGBTQ+ youth on current events, offering them access to resources to better help them navigate personal issues, in addition to creating change in their communities.

Since its launch in 2020, LGBTQ Leadership has had more than 1.4 million interactions across all social media accounts.

Utilizing social media platforms for social good/change can seem daunting & while we did show you various LGBTQ+ Content Creators, they have access to their large network of followers and/or are celebrities in their own right.

Thus, how can we, as normal teenagers, utilize our voice? Can we utilize our voice on the same level as the LGBTQ+ Content Creators we just learned about? Absolutely we can!

Within this slide, we look at Xavier Veloz, a teenager, just like the ones viewing this presentation, who was one of Live Out Loud’s Young Trailblazer Award recipients during the 2021-2022 School Year.

Xavier is a trailblazer through and because of their use of their social media platform. They cultivated community utilizing their online platform, without prior online presence and/or without a prior “fan base.”

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How do you want to use your voice?

If your club had an Instagram/Tiktok/etc. account, what would:

be your handle?
be your message?
your posts look like?

Using the template provided, create your ideal Instagram post for your club!

What colors would you use?
What would be the subject/focus of your post?
Would it be text or image based?
How would you best represent your club?

How would you elevate your voice if your club does not want to utilize social media?

Now that students have learned about different ways in which social media can be used, it is time to give them the opportunity to use their own voices! If your GSA has a social media presence, this is the time to funnel energy into that. As a group, what type of post would you create together? Take this time in your GSA session to outline a post, or complete a pre-existing post.

If your club does not have any social media platforms, this is a good opportunity to discuss starting one with your group. If you were to create an Instagram/Tiktok/etc. account for your GSA, what would you post? What would the focus be? You can spend time as a group discussing these details. Once you have a solid idea for your group, have students create their own imaginary Instagram posts using the print-out template attached to the facilitator’s guide. What type of posts do students want to create? They can use the empty template to draw/write out their ideal post, and the lines below it to write a caption. Students can do this individually, or together as a group.

If your club has no intention of using social media to elevate your voice, what other platforms/methods would you use? Flyers, posting around school, etc? Have your students discuss this as a group.

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How do you want to use your voice?

So you don’t use social media?

How do you want to make your voice heard? Take inspiration from the ideas below:

Flyers
Bulletin Board
Posters

What other ways could you advocate for your club?

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Presentation, Facilitator’s Guide, and Session Extension created by:

Marilena Rocco, Martine Bowman, and Christa Mullins

Live Out Loud

25 Broadway 12th Fl

New York, N.Y. 10004

www.liveoutloud.org

This session and its materials are sponsored by the New York City Department of Education and Department of Youth and Community Development