Host and "Movement Meteorologist" Ejeris Dixon welcomes Shelby Chestnut, the Executive Director of the Transgender Law Center.
In this episode of The Fascism Barometer, host Ejeris Dixon welcomes Shelby Chestnut, the Executive Director of the Transgender Law Center (TLC) and the first Native Trans leader to head a national LGBTQ organization. They dive into the current landscape of anti-trans legislation, and how Trans communities are organizing in the face of fascist tactics. Shelby shares how TLC is responding through litigation, safety planning, communications strategy, and sharing resources, while highlighting the strength, resilience, and solidarity at the heart of the fight for Trans liberation. This conversation is both a sobering reality check and a call to collective action.
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Ejeris: [00:00:00] I am so excited to welcome Shelby Chestnut to the Fascism Barometer. Shelby is CBO from the Fort Peck tribe in Montana and is the executive of the Transgender Law Center, the largest national trans led organization advocating for a world where all people can define themselves and their futures.
They have over 20 years of community organizing, policy, advocacy, and leadership experience in the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer and anti-violence movements. Shelby is the first native trans executive director of TLC and one of the first native trans leaders to head a national LGBT organization.
Now Shelby and I have a long history together. From our time in anti-violence movements. Shelby makes collaboration in solidarity in art form, and has always been exceptional at bringing multiple communities to the table. For our shared liberation, Shelby's led initiatives, recognizing the shared struggles between trans and reproductive justice groups, [00:01:00] connects the shared fates of trans communities, Palestinian communities, black, indigenous, and people of color communities, immigrants and disabled communities.
Welcome friend.
Shelby: Thanks so much for having me.
Ejeris: So I really like to start with just how do you define fascism and why does it matter to you and the communities that you're from at this time?
Shelby: I think for me, the ways that I would define fascism to, my neighbors, to my family, I preface this by saying my family is a super down family and always had my back.
So I think they get it at a fundamental way. But that we're living in a moment where most people's rights are restricted. And I think, people are fearing for their safety in ways that not everyone had to in their lifetime. you know, I'll give a an example for me. Um, I moved to Western Pennsylvania and I had to set up medical care as a trans person during covid, which, you know, setting medical [00:02:00] care during covid jokes on anyone who had to do that.
But then there was the, like my insurance has one thing, my identity documents say another thing and how I looks as another thing. And you know, I spent the last, four months before this election not even knowing what the outcome would be, scrubbing my medical records. So it doesn't say that I'm trans.
So I think for me, I share that as like a, that's where we're at, but that's like the, what it feels like to be navigating fascism, not so much the definition.
Ejeris: No, I think that that makes so much sense because one of the reasons I started this podcast was that there was information about defending democracy. There was information about fascism authoritarianism, but there wasn't enough out there from all of us who are like squarely in the targets of the fascists.
And so I think there's this piece around how do we measure the safety and needs of the most targeted [00:03:00] communities, what people are doing to organize and how do we talk to each other about the threats? So I, I really think that those are the perfect answers. I can't imagine everything that you're holding right now.
I can't imagine what it's like to lead the transgender law center in these times. And I probably have some insight of the kind of safety planning and the advocacy work and the legal work that you all are doing. It feels like Trump and MAGA have been deeply scapegoating trans communities for quite some time, and I'm wondering if you'd give us a lay of the land of some of the executive orders and the anti-trans laws that you all are focusing on and, and fighting against.
Shelby: Yeah, I'd be happy to. And for me, just the seeing the ways that you've, curated this season and, you know, different communities represented, I'm just so glad that, I could be part of this and that TLC can sort of highlight some of how we've been meeting this moment. 'cause I will [00:04:00] preface the doom and gloom with.
I think that we are meeting this moment like we never have before, so I'm just so proud of all of us. So, I wanna take us back to 2016. And, you know, you might remember that, North Carolina introduced its first anti-trans bathroom bill and, you know, it was that moment where Loretta Lynch was on national television saying like, trans people, we see you we're here for you.
And I thought, well, shit, this government has our back. We're gonna be okay. you know, and at the time TLC sort of saw what was gonna happen and convened national leaders from across the country to say like, we're worried this is gonna keep happening. It's going to increase. our movement, allies aren't really clocking this.
We don't have the funding, we don't have the resources we need, so let's figure out what we should do. And. Out of that came what we have. and we call our trans agenda for [00:05:00] liberation. And it's both sort of, an active campaign that anyone can participate in and it's got pillars around areas of work that we wanna focus on.
And we've now also expanded to have our narrative lab, which, is deploying, um, message research and message guidance to the field. Um, and we're testing different communities to see how they wanna talk about these issues. And we're also asking that like, what you might talk about where you live is different than what I might talk about where I live to get people to understand the impacts that trans communities having.
So that's sort of how we got started in this moment. And since then at the state level, we've just seen an onslaught of attacks and sandwiched between that has been, Two terms of a Trump presidency, that it's almost been a campaign promise to target our communities. So the first Trump administration, we saw a lot of [00:06:00] successes in the courts, and I think we're seeing it right now with the ways that we're blocking things. But I think we also need to be realistic that what's happening is very extreme. And it's also like we can't block some of this stuff in courts because even when we are blocking it, you know, when you're seeing it with the detention of migrants and, deporting them to places like El Salvador, that even when there is sort of judicial rulings on things, you have an administration that's not listening to the law.
So the case that we're litigating right now, um, is a super important one. And we saw an early win. Um, folks might have seen that the Trump administration issued an administrative action saying that, transgender people would not be housed, according to the gender that they identified as in, bureau of Prisons and like sort of federal [00:07:00] prisons, um, throughout the country, which was going against law that we had fought for, for many years.
And you know, I want to preface by saying the goal is to end anyone's detention period. But we also have to account for people's safety when they are in prison and when they are detained and when their humanity is sort of taken away from them. And so, national Center for Lesbian Rights and, Gay lesbian advocates and defenders.
they, litigated that, that first case as that came out and they have what is right now a temporary injunction that applies to the plaintiffs in the case. So I think there's about 15 to 17 plaintiffs in that case. So those 15 to 17 people are currently being housed with the gender that they identify as, not their sex assigned at birth, but what we're doing with A CLU National is litigating for a universal injunction to say like, we actually need us one, to enforce the law that's been there for a long time.
But [00:08:00] two, we need this to apply to all people, that are incarcerated who are LGBT. IE Trans.
So, you know, we're waiting to see the outcome of that case, but I think for me, we have to really prioritize the most vulnerable and the most, marginalized in our communities. And understanding that the criminalization cycle for trans people is just so high that many of us in our lifetimes will experience some interaction with the criminal legal system and, you know, face jail time, face prison time, and often just for, Surviving as a trans person. So that's a case that we're working on, but there has been over 10 executive orders since Donald Trump took office that target explicitly or implicitly transgender people. And that's pretty extreme if I'm being honest with you. Um, the level that we're having to work at is quite high, but [00:09:00] he's also taking advantage of the fact that majority of Americans polled, say they support transgender people.
But then you ask like additional follow up questions like. Do you support people's right to access to have healthcare or kids to play in sports? And they don't have an answer. So it's not that they're opposed to it, but they don't understand it. So he's taking, I think, full advantage of what they don't understand to create a very violent and, harmful both narrative, but then legal actions that he's trying to take.
And the thing that we've spent a lot of time really conveying to our community in the last, I don't know how many weeks it's been, 12 weeks, is that these actions and orders are not law. So we can't preemptively comply with them and we need to fight, and one tool in our toolbox is in the courts. so that's kind of some of [00:10:00] where we're at.
I'm happy to go into more detail about specific cases, but it's, it's pretty brutal right now.
Ejeris: Yeah. it's terrible. And it's terrible because it's, it feels really clear that it's strategy, right? There's this way that one of the pillars of fascism is about promoting and enforcing strict gender roles and kind of, feels like the strategy to dehumanize and oppress, and find all of these ways to essentially like a, yeah, to criminalize trans people, to criminalize trans healthcare, to create all these laws is also to just create tremendous fear, right?
To create tremendous fear, to encourage violence and all of those pieces. I'm just wondering, like, how are you feeling and how are you all navigating this? Like the staff at TLC, all the organizations and families that you're supporting, how are you guys navigating. these onslaughts of attacks and, maintaining people's kind of, I don't know, [00:11:00] emotional resilience?
Shelby: so I think TLC is just such a unique and special organization, um, with so many of us that have had long careers in trans justice and I think have really seen the organization. Grow from, you know, like a 12 person staff. We're now at almost 60 staff all
Ejeris: Do it. Do it.
Shelby: which is, an incredible honor and privilege to be having that many people to meet this moment.
and so what we did is even before we knew the outcome of the election, we had been really sort of digging into ramp up our organizational safety planning, but also our individual staffing safety planning, and then saying, we actually have an obligation in this moment to engage our key partners. So our, the grassroots orgs around the country that are trans led, really at the front lines of this to ask them similar questions, like, what resource do you need?[00:12:00]
Do you have safety plans in place? and something that we did last year that launched right before the election was we launched in partnership with Emergent Fund, the Action for Transformation Fund. So we took a million of our own dollars and moved it to emergent funds so they could move it in rapid response grants to the field.
Ejeris: Okay.
Shelby: you know, for folks listening, I don't know if everyone understands the context of trans philanthropy, but, we get 4 cents of every $100 within LGBT philanthropy as trans movement. So
Ejeris: just like LGBT philanthropy, not the broader, not like
all of the, like the arts groups or all of these, kind of like the philanthropic industry.
Shelby: So I say that to say we've been very fortunate with our fundraising, so we actually felt honestly, a moral obligation to move money back to the field to meet this moment because we could see what was happening, whether there was a different [00:13:00] outcome with the federal presidential elections. We could see what was happening at the States and 10 years ago.
Folks would reach out to us and say, you know, I'm starting this group in my state. I want to, you know, take down these bills. I wanna organize trans people. Can you teach me how to do that? So we did a lot of learning about policy advocacy, learning about the basics of base building. Fast forward 10 years later, there's like a trans organization in every state now, sometimes multiple, mostly led by black indigenous people of color.
The thing that they said they need is they need resource and they need access to communication support. So we moved a million dollars to emergent fund. That entire million dollars had been given out by March of this year
Ejeris: Wow.
Shelby: to groups that, you know, we'd never even heard of as TLC. And then similarly with our narrative lab, we have this narrative lab and we've [00:14:00] moved subgrants to organizations across the country to allow them to hire communications staff.
Because the thing folks were saying was, Hey, we're a grassroots organization in Arkansas. We love that. Nationals wanna help us, but y'all don't know the messaging, you don't know the community, and we need to be driving the communications response here. So can you help us by just getting a staff to be able to meet this moment? So we will do like a large scale training with different cohort participants, but it allows them to adapt the messaging, to talk to lawmakers where they live that is specific to their needs and their community. Not what I am experiencing on a national level when trying to advocate for trans folks.
Ejeris:
it does feel like this kind of narrative and communications game that's I. The engine of this dehumanization that then kind of pushes these laws forward. So I'm curious around likewhat are some of the points that you all are [00:15:00] talking about or what are some of the points that you all are trying to, to get out there?
Shelby: I think for us, what has been really important is to articulate to a broader community, both trans and just anyone, is that this is a moment where all of our bodily autonomy is gonna be called into question and our rights will be restricted and they will come for the most vulnerable first. We saw that both with abortion, um, you know, and to be clear, it's like with abortion, it's like.
Who will be criminalized. It's not going to be the white upper class, you know, wealthy person who can pay to have a private medical doctor perform an abortion. It will be the low income, the disabled, the migrant, women of color. People of color who are accessing abortions, who will be criminalized.
And we see that too with trans healthcare. There is, you know, a targeted attack right now to dismantle youth accessing healthcare. I think what's next will be adult healthcare for trans people. But you [00:16:00] saw that they're trying to target Medicaid and Medicare, which, you know, as somebody who comes from a family that has, been on Medicare or Medicaid, like one, it's lifesaving insurance that you ordinarily wouldn't get otherwise.
And if you don't have that medical care, you're not gonna make it. But two, it's often people who are low or fixed income communities.
Ejeris: Yeah.
Shelby: So they aren't the people who can afford to go to private doctors or, or clinics, um, and travel long distances. So I'm very concerned that healthcare and health more broadly will be the thing that is targeted for all of us, not just trans community, but that's more visible to people right now, or at least to my community.
but within that, this like freedom to move, you know, and travel. We've seen a lot of states putting shield laws in to say, Hey, if you want to come to a place like Minnesota, like we'll protect you, you're welcome to get healthcare here. But what [00:17:00] happens when the states that they're traveling from put restrictions on their ability to travel outside the state for healthcare?
Ejeris: Yeah. Yeah. Can you talk to us a bit? 'cause this ability to travel also sounds like, um, it's connected to all of the issues that have been happening to trans folks around passports. And if you can talk a little bit about what that means to our folks.
Shelby: there's so much, and
passports was one of the first things that the Trump administration, issued guidance on. And they basically, now it says that there are two genders, male and female, and x gender marker is no longer valid, which we know is not true.
Um, non-binary identities have existed for centuries. They'll continue to exist, as it stands right now. anyone that renewed their passport and it's valid right now, it will stay valid.
Ejeris: Yeah.
Shelby: If you seek to or have to renew your passport because it expired and you had previously, whether it [00:18:00] was, a year ago, 10 years ago, 15 years ago, um, most people are getting their passports back with the gender that they, of the sex that they were assigned at birth back.
And this is people who legally changed their name and gender marker 15, 20 years ago that this is happening to. And so what we're advising, and I think Lambda Legal has some great resources out there, is that do not renew your passport unless you absolutely have to, because there is a almost 100% likelihood right now that you'll be given a gender on your passport That is not what you want it to be.
Ejeris: Yeah.
Shelby: With X. We're hearing that and we're seeing firsthand that people, who had to reapply, um, with X are given the gender of the sex that they were assigned at birth, um, on their passport. You know, and that's just very dehumanizing and terrible, and that's being litigated by groups.
And so [00:19:00] we'll await an outcome and there'll likely be a small window where people can make changes or reapply. And so pay attention to groups like, obviously Transgender Law Center, advocates for Trans Equality has some good guidance. And Lambda Legal has some really good guidance on passports right now.
But the thing we're saying too is if you have to consult with a lawyer before you file for your, renewal of passport. It's creating a lot of confusion because what you will have on your state ID is different than, than what you will have on your passport is different than perhaps what's on your health insurance.
So it's just, it's really dehumanizing and frankly, creating a major safety risk that people are unaware of, when they're doing these things and forcing these laws onto people. you know, similarly, it's just completely forcing this binary gender structure, which I think as our communities have worked so hard to move away from that.
Like [00:20:00] transgender is an umbrella of genders. and there's all kinds of genders within that and gender expression and, um, we shouldn't be limited to two gender markers on identity documents.
Ejeris: and communities haven't been right. And that's, that's part of the problem that there are many people who have gender markers that do not say male or female. There's also many people where, this whole process that Shelby is speaking to around criminalization, which really just means like to make something criminal.
So really what they're trying to do is, make it easier to arrest, trans people make it easier to put trans people in jail, but it makes it easier to arrest everyone and arrest anyone outside of who fascists believe. Are there kind of chosen people or chosen communities? Um, and so whether it's this piece around like now you have people who are calling the police on people who they feel are in the quote unquote [00:21:00] wrong bathroom.
Or you have people calling, um, the police on people who they think that their gender marker on their IDs don't match what they see. And, but it's all this process of to increase how many trans people are arrested and to some degree, disappear a community. And it creates a pathway for all of us who are against what fascists are talking about, where we can all, you know, it's, it's very classic.
First they came for, you know, that poem that everyone has, has heard of, um, recognizing that trans folks are such a small part of the population. what is this fascist obsession really about to you?
Shelby: I think it kind of links to the like gender essentialism that you've sort of talked about. And you know, and I'll say this, you could turn on Fox News anytime of the day and guarantee there will be a segment about transgender people. But on our side of more sort of progressive left movement based [00:22:00] sort of news and conversation outside of LGBT land, people are not talking about transgender people.
I think it's partly coming from a place that people don't understand trans people's identities. Um, they think that we are like a monolith and it's something that, is to be feared. So I think it's twofold. We need to work on our end and as, as communities that care about gender liberation for all of us, and bodily autonomy of centering transness, not as something that's other, but center to everything, you know?
And part of the, like, we don't know how many trans people exist, is because we've never been counted in any sort of census data, for example. So. I think there's this idea by the right that we are brainwashing children. They're becoming transgender because of it and it's their like moral obligation. But what's actually behind that is that Christian nationalist movements spent all types of money.
Um, so to me a call to [00:23:00] action is like in a moment where, yeah, we're a very small percentage of the population and we are like one of the top two targets right now.
Ejeris: Yeah.
Shelby: What are we doing to flank immigrants? And I think specifically in this instance, undocumented folks and students who are not from the United States here on visas and trans people.
Ejeris: Yeah.
Shelby: And I think within that, that's connected to black community, that's connected to disabled community, that's connected to poor people. You know, I mean, the list is sort of, it's like I need folks to understand that in the next three to five years, there is a high likelihood that all the trans people in your life will not be able to access healthcare.
And right now you could do something about it is kind of where I'm at.
I've been doing a lot of speaking gigs and I say everyone, you know, find a local trans org in your town, in your city, in your state. Sign up for their mailing list and volunteer because it's like that bad, like we're gonna have to be leaning into community [00:24:00] safety.
Ejeris: So this is a statistic that I like to put out there for people to understand the parallels of money in 2020. If you combined the top LGB organizations, their budgets total about 250 million compared to what Christian nationalist movements spent researching anti-trans legislation. That same year was about $310 million. So like we're not gonna outspend, but I also think we need to understand that this is like the buildup to something that's been well funded for many decades. To me it's kind of a pushback to like philanthropic movement. Like what is progressive philanthropy doing to actually meet the moment
Shelby: to the level that we need.
Because you know, earlier I was talking about how trans groups get four sense of every $100 within LGBT philanthropy. So like they're doing their research to know that we're a prime audience to sort of [00:25:00] pick off because people don't understand us. So I think for us it's been really, really important to yes, in a moment where we need to be getting to know your rights information out and we need to be getting litigation out the door to sue these people and hold them accountable to also to celebrate our communities.
Because the more people know of us, the more likely they will be to. Flank us to be our neighbors and like have our backs when something does go down. Because we're seeing, I mean, we are s seeing with student led movements, they're, literally disappearing people and we can't stop it. So what's to say that trans people or you know, really any community is not next?
Um,
Ejeris: Yeah,
Shelby: it's hard.
Ejeris: it's so hard I mean, we're already seeing the Trump administration ignore court orders. I know that you guys are going to, to keep suing, but I know you're doing a whole bunch of strategies simultaneously because we really don't know what's needed. And
the [00:26:00] fascism barometer.
Li Listenership really loves to get active. So how can folks support and what's really needed to support the safety and liberation of trans folks right now?
Shelby: So much. And I think for me, I'm just incredibly grateful that you're having the kitchen table conversation in a way that like can be brought to different people's living rooms. 'cause I think to me, that's where it's at. And I'll share like a story. I moved to Western Pennsylvania, during Covid, I'd lived in a coastal elite city until then.
And you know, I will say like there's a little bit of a bubble when you spend a decade or more or your whole life in some of these coastal, elite cities.
No jab to anyone that lives there. It's just the truth.
Ejeris: Yeah.
Shelby: and it was a little bit of an eyeopener for me to kind of get back to the roots that I came from being born and raised in Montana, where, um, you know, at a time Montana was actively being sought as like a, place to advertise and [00:27:00] recruit this sort of white nationalist agenda.
Like come by property here, make it this like racial purity sort of place, you know? And as a native person, to think back of the changing demographics of those times, it's like both heartbreaking but also enraging that the state was so poor that it, that was its option, you
Ejeris: Yeah.
Shelby: and now it's a place where, Most people in my family can't afford to live there. Or if they wanted to go back, they couldn't, do that because of the cost of living. I
digress. But I think for me, I was doing um, like GOTV stuff ahead of the election and I was tasked with talking to a lot of registered Democrats who were voting Republican in this
last election. And I just got to talking to them. 'cause I'm like a small town kind of guy. I was like, you know, can I just ask like why? Why?
Ejeris: Yeah.
Shelby: And the number one thing was I'm sick of being poor and this other guy seems to have a better way to do that. And so to me, the question right now is like, who are the [00:28:00] communities that we need to be activating that weren't, because I don't know, I mean, I'm watching what little retirement I have just crumble
to the
Ejeris: drain. Be tariffed.
Shelby: know, you know, I'm thinking about like, like our parents' generation who are on fixed income, you know, like social security disability benefits that they can't afford the increase of groceries or rent.
Ejeris: Yeah.
Shelby: So like how do we get to those communities, and start to have the like, hey, you know, and I think Laverne Cox said something on the View recently that I actually really love.
She was just like, you know, everyone's like freaking out about trans people we're this tiny percentage of the population and we're actually not the reason that your cost of eggs has gone up so exponentially. And I think getting it down to those simple things where it's just like. We're all about to be really screwed.
So we need to start talking to the people that we've [00:29:00] never talked to that are just poor and don't want to be poor anymore. Which like, I understand that like I spent my whole life trying to escape poverty, and I have, so how do I start talking to the people that want that exact thing, who Trump sold them something better and it's about to crumble before all of us.
So I'm looking out of across the street at my very bizarre neighbor who has a framed picture of Donald Trump in a cowboy hat on the front of his house.
Ejeris: Ooh, goodness. Okay.
Shelby: And I'm like, maybe he's not the person I need to be talking to,
Ejeris: Or maybe not where you start, you know?
Shelby: but he is someone that I think, you know, he's across the street from me so I should get to know him because when shit goes down, that's the person I need to be talking to.
Ejeris: I think it's also this piece around there are so many F folks who have trans and non-binary people in their lives, whether they know it or not, and it's not. Just people on the left. It's [00:30:00] not just coastal elites, it's everyone and everywhere. but as long as they continue these divide and conquer tactics, like if people actually look at the percentage of trans people that are poor, they would see at incredibly high number compared to the general population.
So, the cost of eggs are high for trans folks too. And the issue is, is that the Republicans are scapegoating trans people to take away all of our lives, and the Democrats are fucking letting them. And so then the question is, what are our folks gonna do to show up? And so if you wanted to give people a couple of, like we, we give assignments here, we have learning guides, we have resources.
What's the assignment you wanna say to the Fascism Barometer community?
Shelby: I think to people in movement, and I'm saying that in quotations, you know, leading organizations, doing facilitation, all of that. [00:31:00] Even if that group does not work on trans issues, they need to be including trans people right now. Period. There's like literally no excuse. we don't have the resources, we don't have the organizational infrastructures that you all do.
You need to include us, period.
Ejeris: Yep.
Shelby: If I see like one more gender justice article that's like low key or high key sounding like you're not actually down for trans people, but centering trans people. 'cause you know, you'll get called out if you don't.
Ejeris: Yeah.
Shelby: The Scorpio and me will come out. Secondly, I think to anyone that just is seeing what you're seeing, like I am and scared, that like they're taking away parents' rights that are showing up for their kids who are trans, they're targeting trans kids'.
Ability to move freely in schools, to go to doctors. You know, I can't have identity documents that match who I am. and it's just gonna get worse. Look for the trans [00:32:00] organizations in your town, in your city, in your state. Donate to them, volunteer your time, sign up for their mailing lists. And I think similarly when you start to build like these smaller pods, which I think we're having to do in a moment, both in a covid time, but now in just this like heightened violence and extremism.
Start asking the questions as allies to be like, Hey, like are we thinking about like what it means to be in solidarity with black community, with trans community, with disabled community? And like, what are our pods that we're making to keep each other alive and, and really thriving in this moment, doing to center that, even if it isn't like an active part of our community, I'll share this and you might have like actual real thoughts around it, cause you're very smart on these things.
Just I'm, I'm like more surface level on a lot of things.
Ejeris: No.
Shelby: I was very confused when Covid happened and everyone was talking about mutual aid as like this like. [00:33:00] New thing. And you know, there's now been a lot of sort of writing on it and discussion and I know Dean Spade has done some amazing work on it, but I just was so confused.
'cause I came from rural America, poor America, indigenous communities, black and brown, queer and trans communities. And I was like, but that's how we've just always existed. That I
Ejeris: Yeah,
Shelby: how do we get people to buy into but understand that, that it's always been how we've survived.
Ejeris: yeah, yeah. And there's this piece around how we are going to take care of each other in this time, and how everyone is going to take care of trans communities and how we're gonna ensure that what they're trying to do, they're trying to erase a community. They're trying to disappear a community.
They're trying to find all these ways to, throw kids in jail, to prevent children from having access to healthcare, to challenge parents. Like it is all of our role and all of our job to keep trans communities safe, and it is directly connected to us. And so I [00:34:00] hope that one day, we have you back and you tell us the story of you and this, this neighbor and how things are going.
Um, I know that it's, I, I know it's a, I know it's a, it's a long-term project, but that's the project we're asking people to do right now. We're asking people to like build deeper community and to find ways that we're all like. What you're seeing right now, especially with what's happening in the economy and how that's gonna affect so many of us, and it's becoming really stark.
this is not a project like MAGA is not trying, to address poverty or to reduce the cost of living. Right? They are moving a political project that is seeking to eliminate and imprison communities and to make sure that only a certain group of people and very few of them actually will benefit.
So, Shelby, I am. In awe, I am in awe of you as, as usual, but I'm also, so in awe of the work that, [00:35:00] um, you're leading at the Transgender Law Center, and about all the communities around the country that you're supporting. And we are so excited we're gonna drop so many links, um, and our resources on both ways people can support, ways they can donate, who they can volunteer with, but also for trans folks who are also looking for how they can get connected to legal support and other types of help.
We'll also put those in there. And, um, I'm just so grateful that you took the time. I know you're holding a tremendous amount of work right now, and you're probably also supporting a lot of people who are incredibly scared. So thank you for taking the time to be here with us and letting our folks know, how we show up.
Well, for all the work that you're doing and all, and for trans communities.
Shelby: Thank you so much for having me.
Ejeris: If people want to connect with you and connect with the work, where can we find you?
Shelby: You can go to transgender law center.org. And if you wanna follow us on social media, our Instagram [00:36:00] handle is Trans Law Center.
Ejeris: Great.
Shelby: And if you wanna follow me, my uh, Instagram handle is Shelby mt.
Ejeris: All right, Shelby. So much respect and so much love to you. Thank you for everything you're doing.