music 0:00
[Andy strumming guitar & Baylee's voice singing: "Oh let's build, let's build a place we can go”]
Narrator 0:09
Thank you for tuning in to kin•dom campfire chats, a podcast of kin•dom community. This podcast features the voices of LGBTQIA+ persons, both youth participants and adult staff who attended kin•dom camp in Texas in the summer of 2023. We asked the camp participants to think of a question that they wish someone would ask them about their life journey with a friend. And in their own words, the campers tell their stories of struggle, love, support, and a community found, we invite you to listen with an open mind and an open heart.
music 0:57
[Andy strumming guitar & Baylee's voice singing: "This is the place”]
speaker 1 1:22
What is the LGBTQIA atmosphere like in your education?
speaker 2 1:40
Uhm, so luckily I go to a school that is very accepting of it. There– especially the teachers, like they started at the beginning of the school year name & pronouns, a lot of teachers will post their pronouns. My forensice teacher doesn't know much about the community, but is our GSA sponsor, wanting to learn. We have had problems in the past though where after testing, all the classes have lunch at the same time, and so the freshman class my freshman year was targeted. The whole group of LGBTQ kids were all sitting together eating and a group of boys came over to harass us. And we felt that needed to be handled in a different way than they did, so me and some of the higher ups of our GSA council went to our principal and APs and counselors to talk about it, since it really hurt a lot of people. And while we didn't feel like they had done enough, finding out that they had actually gone and talked to the kids at least, was really helpful. And then our new principal is very welcoming with it. And there's a lot of support. I know some of the– our members of the GSA are also in sports, and we've had harassment during club rush from sports kids where– and they've gone to the coaches, and the coaches have made those kids run laps. And that's really encouraging to hear. Especially considering I live in Texas. And the city I live in has– I go to a school outside of my city because of zoning and I– the city I live in, I've gone to those schools for middle school, and they're not accepting. Like you could never be out without a lot of lash back.
speaker 1 2:57
There's a similar situation where I live.
speaker 2 3:00
Okay, so. So if you talk about how I was telling me,
speaker 1 3:06
Can I talk a little bit about that?
speaker 2 3:08
Yeah.
speaker 1 3:10
So there's been lots of inst– I have a friend who went to who's LGBT, she's queer. And she went to a school outside of the district for like you said, zoning issues. And she said, people would, like, put bugs in her milk because she was openly like, out at school, and she like, dresses, more like alternative and like, gothy
speaker 2 3:35
That's terrible
speaker 1 3:36
And she had to switch schools, because of how people were treating her at her old school.
speaker 2 3:42
That's awful
speaker 1 3:43
And like, sometimes I'll be like, there are ignorant people wherever you go, and one of those places is school. And like, whenever I like, feel, because– whenever there are bad situations at school, I just remember how it can be worse in other places and how it can be improved in others. But yeah,
speaker 2 4:06
wow. Yeah, that is awful.
speaker 1 4:09
There was a situation where in the 2022 school year in advisory that I was in we wanted to put pride flags up in the hall.
speaker 2 4:20
Oh, yeah.
speaker 1 4:21
And which was a really fun idea. But they were pulled down
speaker 2 4:25
Oh,
speaker 1 4:27
the boys at our school and we kept on putting it up but they just kept on getting pulled down over and over and over again.
speaker 2 4:32
We for homecoming wanted to– our theme was music. So we were putting LGBTQ friendly artists for ours and like pride flags, all of that. Very colorful. We had to put ours next to the counselor's office and beforehand talk to the APs to make sure there would be consequences if they did get taken down - like had to be in front of cameras. Luckily, nothing did get taken down. But we had to put those steps in place just because we were worried about it.
speaker 1 4:59
Yeah. That's, that's terrible.
speaker 2 5:01
Like we put a lot of effort, a lot of it was hand painted, like it was effort and it would be heartbreaking if someone decided, well, I'm not okay with this, which–
speaker 1 5:15
There were no consequences for the kids that tore those pride flags down.
speaker 2 5:19
That is– oh geeze. They need to do better
speaker 1 5:23
Yeah. Is it okay, if I kind of like piggyback off of that, into talking about how LGBTQ people are kind of like, alienated and demonized? Because I think I might have,
speaker 2 5:36
Yeah, go ahead.
speaker 1 5:38
Um, so like, a very common thing I've sensed is a lot of conservative people they like, know that queer people exist, but since they're not as surrounded by them, because they've made a community that's harmful to them, they think they're like some far off concept that is never going to apply to them, even though there are queer people everywhere. And I think it's a reason for a lot of issues that we have today. But my father works in a very male dominated industry, specifically, white men and,
speaker 2 6:13
What industry?
speaker 1 6:14
I am not going to say just for my own privacy, and my father's, but he had a picture of me on his desk, and one of his co workers was like, 'I am not impacted by gay people...' saying negative things about queer people. And then he pointed to the picture of me at his desk, and he said, 'My daughter's gay and that doesn't work for me or her.' And he was just like, absolutely shocked. Like he – I was talking my dad about this - people don't even take into consideration that queer people are people because when people that are close minded and ignorant look at people that aren't them, they just completely alienate it. I know, I've been using that word a lot. But
speaker 2 7:01
It's amazing that your dad stood up for you though, because I know my family is accepting, but I know there's a lot of family, people, children and adults who don't have that.
speaker 1 7:11
I'm very lucky to have an accepting family.
music 7:13
[Andy strumming guitar & Baylee's voice singing: "Oh let's build, let's build a place we can go”]
Narrator 7:23
Thank you for listening to kin•dom campfire chats. This podcast is a production of kin•dom community. You can find out more about kin•dom community by going to kindomcommunity.org or by searching kin•dom community on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.
Baylee 7:47
Hi y'all, it's Baylee. I'm the Creative Director of kin•dom community.
Andy 7:53
And I'm Andy, the Program Director of kin•dom community.
John 7:56
I'm John the Executive Director of kin•dom community.
Baylee 8:00
We wanted to talk a little bit more about kin•dom camp and how you can get involved.
Andy 8:04
kin•dom camp is an opportunity for LGBTQIA+ youth ages 12 to 17 to feel safe and free to show up as their full selves. Campers will have the chance to experience all the fun that camp has to offer in a week filled with affirmation community and celebration. This camp is intentionally created to be affirming space. It affirms all genders, sexualities, identities and varieties of belief. The only thing we expect is a commitment to welcoming and celebrating everyone where they are as they are.
Baylee 8:34
And this isn't just any summer camp - we're talking rainbows and glitter everywhere. kin•dom camp will include plenty of traditional camp activities and recreation, plus some specialized programming to incorporate activities and conversations around mental health, yoga, embodiment, and LGBTQIA+ history and culture. Now more than ever, LGBTQ youth are in need of unconditional love and acceptance. kin•dom camp is a space for just that.
John 9:04
We're always looking for fully affirming, welcoming and loving adults to help us make kin•dom campus success. This will be a wonderful opportunity to connect with, mentor, and learn from our youth. But most importantly, we ask that you are ready to celebrate everyone where they are as they are.
Andy 9:23
Both registration for campers and applications to be on camp staff are now open. You can find these links on our website kindomcommunity.org/camp. If you have any questions you can't find the answers to you can email me at Andy at kindomcommunity.org.
Baylee 9:38
Also, be sure to check us out on socials @kindomcommunity on Instagram and Facebook. We post all of our important announcements and fun camp moments so you'll want to follow along.
John 9:49
Thanks for listening to kin•dom camp fire chats. We are proud to be a safe space for these campers and we are even more proud of them for sharing their stories. We hope you'll keep gathering around the campfire with us because we celebrate all of the stories that make us this kin•dom community.
music 10:07
[Andy strumming guitar & Baylee's voice singing: “Oh let’s build”]
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
