2SLGBTQI+ Mental Health and Allyship

The Falcon’s Nest Podcast

Before we begin, we would like to acknowledge that the Falcons Nest podcast is produced, recorded and distributed on treaty six territory, the traditional lands and many diverse first nations including Cree, Dene Nakota, Soto and Dakota, as well as the traditional homeland of the matey. The Falcons as podcast team pays their respects to the First Nations and Metis ancestors of this land and is committed to truly listening and learning as we work towards reconciliation together. If you're listening in a different location, please take the time to acknowledge the original stewards of the land you are currently on. Hey, listeners, I'm Liam McKay-Argyriou, and I'm here to let you know about the amazing prize we're offering in today's episode. The Falcon’s Nest podcast is offering a $50 Shoppers Drug Mart gift card to listeners. to enter wait until you hear the prize code which will be revealed later in the episode. Once you know the code, click on the Google Form link in the description and follow the instructions. Good luck. And now Harley and Sam. Hi, I'm Sam Kabatoff. And I'm Harley Follick. Welcome to the third episode of the Falcons Nests podcast where you will have an auditory experience about what it's like at Marion Graham Collegiate. To connect you to your community and school, you will be updated on upcoming events. Hear from a variety of students at our school and learn tips related to physical, mental and emotional health. In this episode, we are going to be talking about 2SLGBTQ+ plus mental health and allyship. But we must talk to our featured Falcon first, hi, Gage. Hello. How are you doing on this fine day? Okay, could be better. So what grade are you in? I'm in grade 10. So what's your second year here? Yeah, it is. What do you enjoy about the school classes, clubs, and extracurriculars?

ized the same year I was born: 2005

All right. Hi, Carmen. How are you today? I'm all right. How about y'all? Good work, good living, breathing existing. Maybe depending on the day really? For you. So what's it like being a drag queen? Honestly, it is. It is so much fun. It's perfect.

Rational Dress Up For the love of Criminy like I and the fact that I get paid for it even better. So I don't know, like it's, I've seen a lot of really fun things I've been able to do a lot of incredibly touching things in my lifetime in such a in and like in such a short period of time doing drag more than I've ever been able to do doing retail, so it's a blessing.

All right. Have you had any experiences of discrimination? If so, what was it like?

How about Yes, of course, every day of my life, so I won't destroy my whole day job but like I do work in retail. Yay, point of sale. We love that for me. But I face discrimination every single day at least probably like six or seven times a day. Oh yeah, I will have people glare at me to blatantly I have people constantly gawking at me. I mean, I'm pretty eccentric. So whether it's because I'm openly trans or the fact that I look like a circus clown either one. Well, both are a slay anyone when she does her best, but no, I have people blatantly gawk at me. I have people call me slurs, I will have people like blatantly like avoid me in a store and ask anybody else for help. Even though I most literally run the department I work in.

Just because that I am visibly trans. It is insane. I've had people throw things at me from a bike. I have had Oh, it is insane. Yeah, weather weather. And I mean, like, honestly, people shouting something at a car window is the kindest, yeah, yeah, that's

a kindness because at least they're going as fast as they came. So. Yeah. All right. When did you come out? Oh, my God. Okay, so I

o talkative. So I came out in: 2019

But I came I use drag as a means to kind of like, like, experiment with my gender expression. I was like, Maybe I'm just like an artist. You know what I mean? Like, if I was like, Okay, I'm an artist, and I'm trans like crazy.

came out to my mom in February, like right on her birthday, because it was the only time she would be in town to see me. I felt like a monster and I know she she she's angry at me for that.

But, yeah, party.

What was your high school experience? Like as a queer youth if you have any. Um, I will say I'm sure it was better than a lot of people's like I grew up in a very small town in Kindersley, Saskatchewan. So the population of high school was not that big, like, so what I experienced in comparison to people like let's say in here in like Saskatoon is probably a lot less I was, at the time, the only very visibly openly queer person in my entire high school like singular. There were people who we know were like, bisexual or that kind of stuff, but they were like, nobody really cared because they look very, like straight past. Yes, any sense. So like, I still get the odd thing, but I feel like I stood my ground enough that not a lot of people tried to mess with me. So that's nice. That's good. Is there any advice you would give to our listeners about how to be an ally to the LGBTQ-plus community? Honestly, my biggest piece of advice is just mind your business. Like, you don't have to like anything that goes on. And if you don't understand, you can take the time to educate in your own time, like, you see something you don't understand or even something that irritates you because you don't understand it. You are just, I don't know, you see someone you're like, your a twit.

Let that be because they're twit. Like, if they're let them do their own thing in their own time.

And that's about it. Like you don't have to say anything or do anything like just we're just people existing just like everybody else. If I'm doing my own thing, that's my own thing. And that's already not your business. So you focus on you and you'll survive pretty easily like and like any stress tips for Sorry, I have to restate that and you'll get by very easily we're not gonna we're not gonna get you you know.

Hello, any like stress tips for kids who are like feeling discriminated against because of their identity? Honestly, finding community is so important even if it's not people directly in front of you. I am we're so thankful to be in a generation of social media where we have things like tick tock and we have YouTube and all that where we can find other people like the US find relatable content. I know it's not everybody's first agenda in high school, but like counseling online counselling is a big thing especially and it sounds dumb but online counselling and not school counselling, it's not a no don't not go into your mom you can literally get their apps you can get there are like websites you can go on now to get like free counselling that you so you don't have to like jump through so many hoops and you can still be so it could still be private for you.

Um, if you don't want to seek out counselling,

like finding hobbies finding expression airy art for artworks, like if you paint if you

don't know if you so like finding something you can put your energy into and express yourself with, even if it's just day to day, the way you look is like, it does a lot for a person. Yeah. All right, thank you. So be an ally to your fellow peers and citizens who are in the LGBTQ community. You talked about tick tock and I first thought about the like, the stuff going on in the United States. Oh, my God, like they're trying to ban it or whatever. Oh, yeah. So there's a lot. I'll get into that a little bit. But so right now in places like Tennessee, and quite a lot of states right now are pushing anti-drag bills to begin with, but Oh, fully. I'm in Tennessee right now, it is actually illegal to perform a drag. Yes. So it is you can be if you are caught performing in drag up, like in front, like they say, especially in front of or in view of, that's the keyword in view of a minor. So that could be like, literally, you're passing by a storefront and they see you through a window. Like it's insane. Oh, it's insane. But you can be fined and put up into prison for almost three years for way, but because these laws are so vague, they incredibly target trans people like myself, because, for instance, like you could take, because it's so vague on what drag is, you could take me as a trans woman, if I were to go up on a karaoke night and sing, you could even take that someone could even say that's a drag performer, because you look eccentric or whatever. Well, not even just the extension hism. But because there's no there's presenting, presenting because I was assigned male at birth, and I present female, they anyone could say, oh, well, that's drag. And because I'm performing, you know, it's just it's the badness of the bills that make it so dangerous. And they're pushing a lot of anti-trans bills right now as well. It's, it's it's very similar, and it's very much emulating Nazi Germany right now. Yeah, yeah. They say in stages of genocide that America is sitting at around a seven out of 10. Oh, yeah. Yeah. So it's, it's very scary for queer people. Nonetheless, it starts with trans people. And it seems to always starts with trans people rest in peace us I guess, like, but here's to hoping that America can open its eyes a little bit because it's, it's genuinely from the outside point of view, pathetic as people and all these politicians are like, in their 70s, they're gonna be dead. Why exactly that is, it's like they forgot that. So I think there or maybe they're remembering that at some point, like, all of our generation is going to be in their seats at some point. Yes. They're trying to enforce all those things that are difficult to remove them. Exactly. So it's, it's a form of like, you can't take my spot if you don't exist.

Like, and that's scary to think about, like, especially for like youth needs to be way more represented in politics. And they need to be I mean, obviously, like, we still need adults running things. Like we, I think, I think like getting involved in things like youth councils in your, in your local cities, or towns, yeah, are so important for those reasons. Because just making sure people your age, and someone in your mindset has a voice or has some sort of,

I guess you could say like word in edgewise as to what's going on in the place you live in, is it makes such a big impact?

Wow, this has been such a great episode. So far, we're gonna take a quick break to announce today's prize code, which is ally in all capital letters. To enter the win the $50 Shoppers Drug Mart gift card, please click on the Google Form link in the description and follow the instructions. Thank you for your support. And now back to the show. Like, I know, there's opportunities for like high schoolers and stuff to like, volunteer to work at polls. When there's voting like I think it happened in that one voting thing that Trudeau wanted to do a couple of years ago. Oh, so like, that puts you in like the gate to go into politics. Because if you have that on your resume, it's like, yeah, like it's definitely a builder. It's kind of like I don't know, like volunteering at the fair for a summer child being like running the machines, you know what I mean? But at the same time, like being there to for the polls, you're still just a bystander. So definitely, like get involved in like community service and everybody associates community service with prison, but you don't have to do that. I promise. You don't gotta pick up later. Even volunteering at like parades and stuff like that. It gets you quite a lot of insight as to the people you'd be working with. So

h my god, Kay, I graduated in: 2018

I mean, I won't lie like if we're speaking in like a political spend sense like yeah, I'll probably say the acronym if you can, but like, I won't lie even as a queer person. That's a lot of damn letters. How do you feel about like straight people or sis heterosexual people using those words using race terms? Yeah, I really think it depends on the context like I don't think they're like off limits for anyone to say like, it's not gonna make a lot of sense to be to like, like, how do we explain it? Also the overabundance of the use because like, I absolutely we all love the support and we all like to just let's just cut the mumbo jumbo when I'm when I'm walking in the Pride Parade. Or if I'm if I'm at a show when someone comes up to me and just goes, oh my god, work Queen slay the house down, you better work and I'm like, and like this is just very obviously the most straight person I've ever met in my life and they have never bat an eyelash at a drag queen before. I'm like, I think you are precious. And I appreciate your support, but I'm going to slam my head into a table like I like for real like people will really just be like, If queen like eat like they'll just throw whatever they can at us that they know is queer. It's like it's almost like they're speaking a foreign language you know what they're just like, oh wow, like it's borderline mockery it really it's like I might just call me a slur God like this is that would be better at that point. Would you ever want to go and repose drag race in Canada? I would love to honestly, I have made garments for RuPaul drag race I really Yeah. So I'm it was just for one person but I'm so going to act like I've done the whole itinerary. Yeah, but Rue was on season three of candidates drag race. I was her seamstress for about like at least six of her garments. So no one she was unfortunately eliminated and it's beautiful. You can find it on my instagram if that's Mr. Karma dot k. Yeah, we find it we tag you tag you. Oh my god. Yes. You find on my Instagram. You can find it on my Instagram or even Canada's drag race’s Instagram. But she had this beautiful look. The category was sleeves. And so we had these big nude illusion sleeves and it was the whole Alpha was nude illusion covered in pastel ribbons. They all tied up at her at the tops of her sleeves and hung down to her the trails hung down to her ankles. It was like so much fun. We had quite the time crunch but like we turned out what we call it and that's what I would say. Yeah. So long story short, I would love to be on drag race. Yeah, it sounds like a good experience. I am I'm like what I like to call a chain of all trades. I can sell all my outfits. I style my hair.

I dance I sang like I don't see I don't see a single reason why they wouldn't they wouldn't shouldn't or couldn't have me on there. Yeah, like let's get every one of our listeners to do drag race. Please like

I have a whole high school dem drag race. I think that's incentive. We did have a listener from New Zealand but I don't know if they used a VPN or something we like we like to think that it was either. I think Blues said Karl Urban or Taika Waititi. Listen like good for her over in New Zealand. Whoever she is she was dedicated. She said I was just scrolling and I said, Cool. I'll give you a listen. Physical Activity

Wow, she was wonderful. Go send her some love on Instagram at Miss Karma dot k, and listen to her advice. Despite times changing, there are still ways we can do better. And given her stories of personal experience, we have some too. If you didn't know Harley and I are bisexual. Oh yeah, we've got some experience. You could say, Do you have anything you would like to share? Well, off the top of my head when I was younger and first found out I wasn't straight. I told many of my friends that I was that way. After all, they were my friends. And I was like, Yeah, this is interesting, I guess. So I told them. Most of them were like, Okay, so this was third grade. So they probably don't even know what that meant. But some of my classmates called me the F slur. These kids were taught that it was okay. And my teacher didn't really do anything about it either. She heard them saying it would tell them off and then do nothing further. Therefore, they would just do it again. And that really pissed me off. And to this day, it still pisses me off. I got pushed around quite a bit too. But let's just say I found some new friends. That's awful. Yeah, things happen. And that's how it has been for a long time now. It's good that things are starting to change. I agree. Well, that about wraps our segment up. Remember guys be supportive of your LGBTQ peers, they matter just as much as everyone else. And if you're experiencing any symptoms of depression, anxiety, or anything of that matter, reach out to a counselor, teacher, parent or even a friend. It's not okay to be silent, it can get better and it will get better.

Thank you, Harley and Sam. It can be very challenging to speak about personal stories and speak about topics that you are heavily invested in. So thank you for sharing. Being an ally is crucial. And I hope that all of you listening have learned how you can support those 2SLGBTQI plus community. Now let's take a look at the many events happening for students at MMGCI right now the SRCS annual musical extravaganza coffeehouse is tonight, April 19. Doors open at 6pm. So if you haven't already grab a ticket and a complimentary coffee for $10 at the door with talented student performances, great prizes and mouthwatering refreshments. You won't want to miss this exciting event. We have many great clubs at the school. Check out our Paranormal Society for all things spooky and supernatural. Or try your hand at coding, building and problem solving but the robotics club, the eSports club is also accepting new members all are free to come out and join the growing community of gamers. In addition, the yearbook club is looking for new members. It's a great opportunity for writers, photographers and graphic designers. There's a club for everyone at MMGCI. the badminton season is wrapping up. Keep an eye out for city champion cheats and locations to come and share on your junior and senior teams. Don't forget to come out and support our track and field team at their meats. If you're looking for something to do at lunch intramural floor hockey is beginning soon in the gym. It was anything like last year, the league will be full of intense action, highlight reel goals and unbelievable saves. Come check it out. If you see a member of the senior band or choir, wish them a bon voyage. They are headed to Cuba in under two weeks. So if you want a souvenir, now's the time to ask. Well, that's all for this episode. Join us next time when we take a look at healthy eating guidelines and nutritious snack ideas is sure to be a delicious episode. So watch our Instagram at MMTC I Falcons nest for more details. As always thank you for your support. Without listeners like you. This podcast will not exist in the form it does today. And we really appreciate you. If you want to provide feedback in your listening experience or you just want to suggest students who should be interviewed send an email to falconnestpodcast@gmail.com. Don't forget to check out our website which is LinkedIn and description. Fly high falcons and see you next time