… but sometimes politics will tell you that some people just never learn.

My week was nothing less than eventful with House Bill 36 being passed which just creates more room for discrimination against LGBTQ+ individuals. Since a lot of the work that I do at Equality Ohio revolves around keeping laws in favor of LGBTQ+ people, this was a pretty big blow. To make matters even worse, right after we left the Statehouse – it was announced that Justice Kennedy plans to retire.

There’s a silver lining, right? Ruth Bader Ginsburg, please tell me there is. 

Sometimes it can be difficult to stay so mobilized when it feels like the waves are working against you and it’s just one loss after another. However, I know I need to remain optimistic because there are people out there who need me to continue fighting just as those before me fought for LGBTQ+ rights. The battle isn’t suppose to be easy, and that’s why it’s a battle.

In happier news, I got to teach the LGBTQ+ sensitivity training I created to a local drop-in center. If you haven’t heard of these training’s, they basically teach businesses or organizations the right language and practices to use so that they can be as inclusive as possible in the work environment. To be given such a great responsibility was really quite an honor and it was even more interesting being able to answer questions from the audience. Growing up as a kid in the LGBTQ+ community, I always had to bite my tongue at jobs or in school when people would use discriminatory language because I felt like I didn’t have a way to defend myself. To see so many businesses and organizations starting to really care about how inclusive they are truly means the world to me. When I leave the office at the end of every day, I just keep hoping to be the advocate that I needed when I was younger.

This is a card I found at Springfield Pride (with Equality Ohio), and as a trans person it made me happy.