Healthcare & Community Extraordinaire...Riley Barka!

We're excited to welcome Riley Barka to the Livestream!

Riley (he/him) is a local leader in community health with a strong commitment to advancing health equity for the LGBTQ+ community. As a registered nurse and the Director of Community Health for Blackboots Twin Ports, Riley has focused on building community partnerships through expanding access to health services and harm reduction supplies. He is passionate about addressing gaps in care that disproportionately affect marginalized communities.

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:10

All right, hey friends, welcome. We are back and live with Transnorth. I am so grateful and honored to be your host for these conversations. My name is Sean Hayes. My pronouns are he, him, and his. And I'm a co-founder and the executive director here at Transnortland. And goodness, it's a beautiful day here in Duluth. I don't know about Superior. Sometimes the weather can be different, but I'm looking out a beautiful sunny day. Uh, and I'm just really grateful for that right now. So I hope all of you are able to enjoy some nice weather wherever you are. And yeah, before further ado or without further ado, I want to bring on today's amazing guest star. Welcome, everybody. Help me welcome Riley to the show. Hi, everyone. Really happy to be here. Super happy for you to be here. And I know you and I have recently met, and so I'm just really looking forward to kind of getting to know more about you and your story and all of the work that you're doing in and around our community. Um, and yeah, to get to introduce everyone watching to you. So you're gonna have a lot more friends now, hopefully, um, folks tuning in. Um, so yes, and for those of you who have been watching these conversations, gosh, we've had quite a few now. Maybe, maybe we're in double digits. I should check that. But, anyways, we always love to start off these conversations with our gender joy segment. Uh, and for those who are kind of familiar, this is a moment where we share like a moment or a story or some experience that we've had, whether it was recently, like today or a year ago, whatever it is, some meaningful experience where we just really feel good in our bodies, in our genders, expressing our genders, um, whether that's out in the world or just at home. So um I would love to invite Riley uh to share a story of gender joy. And just as a quick note, um, I thought about this the first time we had um cisgender guests on. I was like, yeah, cis folks still experience gender joy as well. We all do. Um, and not a lot of us are thinking about those moments, and so yeah, I'm just really happy to invite you to share something joyful with us, Riley.

SPEAKER_00 2:44

Yeah, you know, it's not something that as a cis person, I haven't really thought about too much before, but I um on reflecting and kind of out of the blue yesterday, even had a moment of gender joy myself. Um and it came in a really weird place that I wasn't expecting. I was at work having a meeting with my incoming manager who uh um whose department I'm gonna be transitioning into. Um we just got onto a really good topic about dinner parties and hosting guests. And for me, it was something that kind of breaks out of that masculine gender norm a little bit and really expresses who I am myself. Um, I love entertaining, I love cooking for people, I love hosting. Um so that was just a moment that you know it kind of broke out of that stereotypical gender mold, and it really felt authentically me.

SPEAKER_03 3:43

Yes, that's the part, the authentically me part. Yes, oh, I love that. Um, and it is, it's so funny. The society we live in, there's just all of these rules we've learned and been like programmed with about how we can express our gender and what this or that means. And man, it's just so nice to be able to just be our whole full selves, right? Absolutely, yeah, man. Yeah, and I think um for me, um I got to go to this really cool event. There's a conference that I've been attending this week um that the Minnesota Indian Women's Sexual Assault Coalition is putting on over at Black Bear Casino this week. Um, incredible conference, super great um group of folks based out of the Twin Cities. Um, MUSAC is what they kind of go by. Um, but they host during this conference every year a self-care carnival, and there's always a theme to dress up. And I'm not, if you know me, I'm not a dress up person. Like I didn't get to experience Halloween growing up in my family because of like religious things, and so like never really got into dressing up. Uh, and this year's theme was flower power, like hippie vibes. And I just like I saw it, I immediately cringed because I was like, oh no, a costume, but then I was like, no, embrace it, do it, go for it, you know, try to find a costume, and um, and it actually ended up being a lot of fun. I, you know, had a little help from my girlfriend finding some pieces and some cool big necklaces, and yeah, it just felt really good to kind of step outside of my norm and just like be fun and silly. And gosh, there was so much laughter, and people really dug my outfit. Man, they dug it. So that is my gender joy, some hippie love costume fun. Um, so thanks to Musack and shout out to Men as Peacemakers who runs that self-care carnival. Um, it was a really great time, and yay, for just being able to be silly and feel safe to do that in a group of folks. We love that.

SPEAKER_00 5:55

I love that. I love I love the hippie vibe, I love that aesthetic.

SPEAKER_03 6:01

So literally, I had to Google. I mean, it's not my time. I was a late 80s baby myself, so I had to do some Googling, but it yeah, it worked out a lot uh really well, and yeah, man, I still feel silly about it, but I'm just embracing it, embrace the silly. We need silly, we need joy right now, especially. Oh my gosh, absolutely. Oh man, well, yeah, thanks for taking the time to think about that for yourself, and and yeah, I'd encourage all the cis folks out there, you know. If you've never taken a moment to be like, yeah, when do I feel joyful? Like within my gender, within my gender expression, like it's actually kind of a cool thought experiment. So I challenge you to do that. Um, and so next up, I'm gonna roll us quickly into our events segment. Um, we host an events calendar on our website that includes not only our events with Trans Northland, but as many queer, trans, safe, affirming events out in the community as we possibly can find. Um, and so we always love to kind of highlight what we have coming up as well as what else is going on, because there's so many ways these days to get involved in our community, which is so exciting and um so needed. Uh, and so I want to quickly highlight uh tonight. So if you are watching live right now, tonight you should get down to Zeitgeist uh starting at 6 p.m., they are kicking off their uh Minnesota Film Festival with a film called Bigfoot Woods. And I'm so excited to see this event uh this film. Uh, it's about a young trans person uh based in Ely, Minnesota. There's a Bigfoot angle as well. I'm really excited to see it. Um and so yeah, you can come down to Zeitgeist. Things are kicking off at six. You know, we'll have a Trans Northland table. You can come say hi, grab a sticker, uh, watch the movie, and then I'll be moderating a panel afterwards with some of the makers of the film. And so come on down for that tonight if you see this in time. Uh, and then yeah, I was gonna sort of you know open this up for you too, Riley, but I'm really excited because we are for the second time now hosting our Be Safe and Get Tested event uh this coming Saturday. So that's uh the 25th. Yes, the 25th from 1 to 3 p.m. at the Imaginarium. So we're doing this this year. We're really excited to once again partner with our friends over at the Wii Health Clinic. They're gonna be doing testing for us and with us. Uh, and then this year, bringing in uh Black Boots Twin Ports, which we'll we'll hear a little bit more about too. But yeah, Riley, how are you feeling about the event coming up on Saturday? Anything you'd like to share about that?

SPEAKER_00 9:03

Yeah, we're really excited to be co-hosting the event with you guys. We love working with TransNorthland, we love working with We Health. Um, Black Boots is really excited to uh be bringing our community health table to the event. Um, for those who don't know too much about our health table, it's an initiative that I kind of took on as kind of a passion project um within Black Boots, but it is a free distribution service for supplies like Narcan, Safer Sex supplies. Um we have drug and uh drink testing kits. Um, so we have all kinds of great stuff. Um, we'd love to see you guys there.

SPEAKER_03 9:50

So come on down, yeah. Check it out. Here's the details. Saturday we'll be at the imaginarium for those who've come to the tea room. It's the same spot there. Um, so yeah, we'll have some snacks, probably some tunes going. It's gonna be chill vibes, and we can all get tested and know that we're keeping ourselves and our community safe. So what's not to love about that, y'all? Come on down. Um, which reminds me, so moving into uh the community calendar, so there is a crafternoon event happening with our lovely friends with the free mom hugs group. So that's happening. You could come to our event first, get tested, say hi, have fun, and then go do some crafts and connect with the free mom hugs group. They're meeting up at uh I think it's the spirit room Saturday, three to five. So that's it's a full day of community right there. That's right. You could just be busy all day in community, safe and wonderful community. Um, and then yeah, finally, I I don't know how it has come up so quick, but next week is the homegrown musical festival. So I don't know, Riley. Have you ever gone to that or is that a thing you do?

SPEAKER_00 11:11

I have never been to Homegrown, but I've talked with a bunch of people who have performed at Homegrown. And I don't know, everyone I talk to says that it's so much fun, and every year I'm like, Oh, I should actually go this year, but then life always gets so busy, and then I forget, and then homegrown passes, and I'm like, no, I missed it.

SPEAKER_03 11:36

Oh man, I feel that. I mean, as a parent, it's often like my kid week that homegrown falls on. So it's like, oh man, if I could get a sitter, I could get out there. But um, I know we always love to, I haven't gotten to this. We do always love to highlight like our queer artists that are out and about, and um and I do know there's a ton of amazing queer bands and trans folks out there playing. So um just Google Homegrown Music Festival, it'll pop up. They've got their whole schedule, it goes all week. Um, and one thing to keep an eye out there, if you are popping into Homegrown, we are working on a couple different projects related to gender-affirming health care. Uh, and there are gonna be flyers up and about at some of these venues with more information about how you can get involved. Uh, if you're someone who's being impacted by losing access to gender-affirming care, there's gonna be a survey for folks to fill out and share what's going on and what's happening. And then there's also gonna be a petition that we're creating, um, sort of with this larger healthcare coalition group that we've thrown together for the last couple months. So keep an eye out for flyers. There'll be a cool little easy QR code. You can pop on, sign a petition saying you support gender-affirming healthcare. Uh, and then for any families or youth who are being impacted right now, we want to hear from you uh if you're willing to share that. And we'd love to connect with you. So, yeah, pop out to Homegrown, keep an eye out for some of our flyers about those gender-affirming healthcare uh ways to get involved. Uh, and I think that's it for our events calendar little segment. So there's the link there. You can pop on and look at that calendar anytime. Uh, and there are just countless events happening and groups and art gatherings. So connect in with community, folks. All right, woo! So we got through sort of the chunk of like here's all the housekeeping things you should know. And now we get to dive into our larger conversation here with you, Riley. So I'm excited about that. And I would love it if you would just, you know, take a couple minutes to share a little bit about yourself. Who are you? What's your story? You know, I I think I shared with you ahead of time. Uh, one of my mentors, Sarah, always says you can mind your depth. We don't need you to, you know, talk about anything that's uncomfortable or whatever, but whatever you want to share with us and community, we'd love to get to know you a little bit better.

SPEAKER_00 14:17

Yeah. Happy to talk about myself a little bit. Um, sometimes that's kind of the hardest part, though, is figuring out how to actually talk about myself. Um, well, for those who don't know, my name is Riley. Um, I am the director of community health for both Black Boots Twin Ports and DS Pride. Um, I'm new to the DS Pride board this year, and we're really hoping to put together a really awesome festival. Um, but a big part of my work has been really focused on like community access and making sure that the marginalized communities that are the greater LGBTQ community um were able to access the supplies, the care, and really the support that we need to be able to live happy, healthy, successful lives. Um outside of my work with Black Boots and DS Pride, I am a nurse over at Essentia. I work in our neurotrauma critical care unit currently. Um but here in the next couple weeks, I'm gonna be moving into a new role where I'm gonna be working with like quality improvement and supporting nursing-led initiatives throughout the health system. So super excited about that move. Um and then the last hat that I wear, because I wear too many hats, um, is I'm also in my uh graduate nursing program down through the U of M. Uh so I'm doing school full-time, working part-time, and then volunteering where I can on top of that.

SPEAKER_01 16:02

So that's a little little bit about me, I guess, and um just a little bit about the little things that you do.

SPEAKER_00 16:13

Yeah, I mean uh it it sounds like a lot, but it's all things that I'm really passionate about and things that I really, really love doing. So it makes it a little bit easier. Can't wait for school to be done though.

SPEAKER_03 16:28

I bet, yeah. Are you like off for the summer or do you have to go through summer?

SPEAKER_00 16:33

It is a year-round program. So I've been told this second semester that I'm in right now is the worst. So fingers crossed, it gets a little bit better. Um, I'll have a three-week break, which is gonna be my little decompress and reset moment before we hit the ground running again in June. So yeah, yeah, because then pride's gonna come up real quick, and I transgender and all of the awesome summer events that we like to put together.

SPEAKER_03 17:08

Yep, yeah, it's a lot, and it's so good and worth it, and it does get busy. So I'm glad to hear you're getting a little bit of a break there to recharge, replenish yourself. Um, and look, people are already popping in and just showing you love, so yeah, just reminders for viewers. You can share whatever comes up if you have questions during our conversation. We'll try to bring that in. Um, so yeah, hop into the comments if you would like. Thanks, Melissa, for joining us right now. Yeah, um, yeah, wow, so that is so much. Wow, I didn't know about the nursing grad school. Wow, because that seems like that alone would be a whole lot. It keeps me busy, it keeps me on my toes, that's for sure. Oh my gosh. Well, yeah, on that note, so diving into some questions for you. Tell us how did you get into healthcare? Was it always something you wanted to do? And what is it that you enjoy about it?

SPEAKER_00 18:09

You know, when I was growing up, so I I guess I should start off by saying healthcare was not where I thought I would end up in life. Um, despite everything that I'm doing right now, um, this is kind of a second path that I went down. Um I initially wanted to or was going to school for chemical engineering up at UMD. That's how I ended up in the Duluth area to begin with. Um it took me one Celc class to say absolutely not. Not for me. That would be me too. Uh-huh. Yep, yep. I did uh a little bit of soul searching, uh, spent some time in the army reserves, and then was like, you know, healthcare seems like a really easy field to get into up in the Duluth area, but I also don't want to do something that requires me to get a doctorate before I can even start working. So what are my options? And I just kind of picked nursing and said, I don't know much about it, but here we go. Um in that, you know, one thing ultimately led to another, and um here I am on this crazy, bumpy, unexpected road. Um but part of what I really love about where I ended up is how versatile everything is. So I can do like my ICU work, which I love, I love taking care of our super sick patients and our families who are helping people go through some of the worst experiences of their lives. Um, that's something I'm really passionate about and really enjoy. But at the same time, I can do this community health work and I can connect to marginalized communities, I can connect to the you know, the different branches of like the trans community and the gay community up here, and we can really figure out ways to support each other.

SPEAKER_03 20:22

Heck yeah, and we need to be doing that so much right now.

SPEAKER_00 20:26

Yeah, oh no, more than ever.

SPEAKER_03 20:30

That is so interesting. I I mean, as someone who's not a healthcare person, I'm just like, oh, you're like a doctor, a nurse, like I, you know, like I've never really thought about all the different ways that and fields and like yeah, just like what a difference it might feel like working in the ICU versus you know, I don't know, regular, more regular stays in the hospital. I mean, no one wants to be there, I suppose.

SPEAKER_00 20:54

Right, nobody wants to be in the hospital, but you know, if you land in the ICU, holy smokes, you know, you're there for a reason. Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_03 21:04

Yeah, and so it's nice to know that there are folks there who are like, I want to be in the ICU, I want to be here caring for folks who are dealing with really scary things. Uh, and as someone who I had my first uh emergency room visit with my child a couple weeks ago. Um, and as a single dad, you know, it was like, oh my gosh, I'm gonna have to, can I physically carry my child into the how does this work? You know, I can't do this alone. Called my mom up, grandma. She came through and met us down there. But we had such a lovely nurse who, and my kid is so curious and wants to understand, and she had to have her first IV, and that was very scary. And he took so much time to just explain and show her things. And I was like, this like could have been a very traumatic experience for my seven and a half year old, and that person, that nurse, really. I mean, he made it okay. And for me too, as a dad, of like, I don't know what to do. What test do we need, you know? So I think it's just one of those things I take for granted, and then you're there all of a sudden, and you have these kind, caring folks who are hopefully for the most part, you know, doing a really good job of caring for everyone involved.

SPEAKER_00 22:20

Yeah, that's awesome. I'm so glad you had actually, you know, a decent experience the first time going, you know, in that healthcare setting. I mean, you know, especially when you're talking ER, urgent care stuff, like it's so scary to have to do that, especially if you're not in the healthcare field, you don't know what's going on. So I'm so glad to hear that you had someone who was supportive and took the time to really make sure that you and your kiddo were feeling safe and educated and like people actually cared. That's so important.

SPEAKER_03 22:56

Like that's gotta be the norm, I or like the goal, right? And I'm sure also there's so many elements of that too, where hospitals and clinics are understaffed and you know, overworked. I mean, I just you know, thinking back to COVID times and and just all of the ways that y'all, you healthcare folks, you know, carried us through those times. And um yeah, so it is. I'm I'm very grateful too. What was his name? I think his name was Jameson. Yeah, so shout out, nurse Jameson. You rocked it. Um, we are deeply grateful. Um and yeah, so wholesome. Yes, just had to pop that up. It was wholesome. Uh, and I know that you are, you know, one of those good ones, too, um, who are there, you know, really trying to check in with folks. Um, and so I'm just feeling really grateful right now for people like you, Riley, who love what they do, and like that is like their calling, they're not in it for the money or glory or whatever, they're there to take care of our community. So that's huge. Um, so thank you for the work that you do. Yeah, I don't know if y'all hear that enough. Um and so yeah, let's move into our next thing. So you did, you mentioned a bunch of different things that you're involved in, uh, including black boots, including Delusperi Your Pride. Um, and so yeah, I'd just love to hear more about how you got involved with community work on top of it.

SPEAKER_00 24:33

Yeah, so my community work really started with black boots and going to our president at the time and saying, Hey, we're I think we were four years old at that point, and we were starting to kind of balloon and grow pretty rapidly. And I was like, this is something, you know. I went I went to this conference and I came back really, really inspired about the things that we can do to support each other within the greater queer community. Um and so I came to our Black Boots leadership and I was like, hey, let's get something like this started up here. Like, I want to spearhead this, I want this to be my project. Um and they said, Absolutely, show's all yours. Better uh better buckle down and get this show on the road. Um, and so over the course of probably about two months, we uh built up the community health table. We started reaching out to uh local harm reduction groups, building some good connections in the community. Um, and you know, even today, a lot of our supplies are built on donations from those different community partners that we've made. So I especially want to shout out the harm reduction sisters uh for being the first group who we got in contact with and supplied so many, you know, just different resources and different things for us. Uh Vivant Health out of Superior has been huge in helping us maintain like a Narcan supply and helping keep us connected in that regard. Um, and then WeHealth has been huge in donating plan B to us to have available for distribution at all of our events. Um, so those are really great connections. Um from there, we just kind of kept growing and we started doing um HIV STI testing events. The first one we did was with Vivant. Um that was super duper successful. We loved having them partner with us at our event, and uh between them and the Rural AIDS Action Network here out of Duluth, we're hoping to get more events scheduled. Uh, we're aiming for quarterly here coming up. So um more info to come on those as those come out. Um, but then yeah, it that all kind of transitioned over to DS Pride. Once I got involved with them, I'm the treasurer of their board right now. But then on one of our meetings, we were talking about how uh passionate you know all of us were about uh these different programs that we could get started up with HIV testing and just uh be meeting people out in the community where they're at. Um and so our co-chairs decided to say, hey, uh, we can create a community health position for you if you want to take that on uh for our organization. Um, and I was really happy to do so. I mean, I'm already doing this work for Black Boots for the community, I might as well ship that in and uh you know, impact a broader group through DS Pride as well. Um so that role is pretty new, um, but we're hitting the ground running. Um, and I think one thing that Sean, you and I have met about that we've talked about a little bit, um, is the prospect of DS Pride and Black Boots and Trans Northland and various different other community members coming together, forming a coalition. Um, right now the big focus is on that gender-affirming care that you had mentioned a little bit earlier. Um so really coming together and building that tight knit community and really showing that we support people, building community networks, and then figuring out how we can have an impact beyond just this community, how can we influence greater communities, greater Minnesota? How can we get legislation pushed out that actually supports these individuals?

SPEAKER_03 29:03

Mm-hmm. Yes. Oh my gosh. And you have so many good ideas about that. Um, too. And there's so many folks. I mean, I think that's really key to mention um because I think news about gender-affirming care and worries and concerns about losing access, especially for our youth, um, those are circulating in our communities. We have heard from families that their doctors are starting to say we can't prescribe, um, we can't do gender-affirming care for your youth anymore. Um, they're not being referred to other places where they can continue getting this life-saving health care that they need. Um, and so yeah, we're definitely going to dig into that. I wanted though, quick ask, you know, for folks who may not be super familiar with Black Boots Twin Ports, you know, could you talk a little bit more about what that group is? Uh, you know, you talked a little bit about like your healthcare piece, which is this newer part of the group. So, what can folks like um look for or like what could they expect to find if they like come out to an event or something that y'all put on?

SPEAKER_00 30:15

Yeah, so Black Boots really started out as kind of more of a social group. It was a place for um kind of individuals from across the queer spectrum who are part of the leather community to come together, celebrate that part of who we are. Um, and it's kind of evolved from there. So we're a very open and accepting group to all members of the queer community who want to express really who they are through their sexuality. Um, we're a very, very kink positive group. Um every month on the first Saturday of the month, we have our uh theme nights at the main club. Uh, every event will have either kind of a general buckle theme, which is come dressed up either in your leathers or just as you are to have a good time, celebrate being queer, and um just socialize a little bit. Um sometimes we'll have specific themes, like my uh theme coming up is leather and lace themed, and it's kind of gonna be a throwback to the 70s and 80s, and we're gonna have um remixes of kind of some newer songs, but in that older style, just to set the vibe a little bit. Um, and while each of these nights have themes, you know, come as you are, come in your regular clothes, dress up however you want. We don't judge, we don't care. Um outside of those events that we have at the main, uh, every month we have our kinky karaoke over at the superior flame. Um, those events, you know, dress up in whatever you like and sing some songs with us. We have a really good time. Uh Octavia always DJs for us at those. So yes. Shout out Octavia. Woo! We love Octavia so much. Um, yeah, so we have a lot of social groups, a lot of social kind of networking stuff in that regard. And um yeah, in the near future, we're gonna be planning a lot more like events and community engagement and involvement. So come check us out at Transjoy Fest. Uh, we'll be tabling up with Two Harbors Pride this summer. You know, we're just trying to get out, get around, and show people that hey, we're here.

SPEAKER_03 32:55

We're here, we're queer. Come connect with us. That's amazing. And I really like what you said and want to point out the piece around judgment, like there's no judgment. Show up as you are. That's something that I've heard because I'm I'm newerly, newerly, newly connected with the group Black Boots uh Twin Ports and myself. Like, I have never been to your any of your events. You know, it's a newer group that I'm learning about. Uh, and just in general, like I have not had a lot of experience or gotten to learn about the leather community, kink communities. Um, and I think there's a lot of like overlap with polyamorous folks as well. And so it's a really interesting dynamic. And a couple of folks, probably you included, have said to me recently, just show up. Like, we want folks to show up and learn and um ask questions, you know, but do it in a way where, yeah, you're not coming with judgment, you're coming to learn, you're coming to experience this different part of the community that maybe you've never intermingled with, and there might be something there for you, or there might be a new friend for you there, you know. So um, yeah, I just think I would totally get in my head and I need to be brave and show up at an event soon. Um but yeah, it's like, oh man, I know nothing. I'm gonna be this like dummy who shows up and is so awkward, and you know, I don't think that that's actually what would happen if I showed up at one of your events. They all sound very lovely and like like y'all really take safety like as a super important priority, like making sure everyone feels safe in those spaces. I'm sure consent is huge. Um, and I think there is a newer piece, right? Where there's, and you may have mentioned this in my brain, it's a little off today, but like there is some educating that you're starting to do more of at some of those events where it's not just you know, show up, have a drink, music, but like there's conversations that are happening, and and I think that is so important to just helping folks, myself included, sort of broaden our horizons of who else is in our community, what else is out there, what might I be into, right?

SPEAKER_00 35:09

Yeah, yeah, we do a lot of educational stuff. Um, so we do before each of our event nights on that first Saturday of the month, we try and have an educational piece for one to two hours before then. Um this coming month's event is our Kink College night. That's on May 2nd. So show up early to that, and our uh Mix Black Boots title holder, uh Freddie, is doing a presentation on how to make zines, how to do some activism kind of work in that regard, um, how to distribute those, and we'll do kind of like an arts and crafts session before you know the drinking and the actual bar event starts, where we're just hanging out, making some zines together and just having a good time. Um, we've done are just like education sessions about like kind of intro sessions to different fetishes or different kinks that people might have where we're talking about them in an accessible and approachable way. We don't want people to feel shame or judgment that they're having these feelings and maybe want to explore something a little bit. So, really just promoting that that space. Um, Dell brings up a really, really great point that we're going to be talking about consent as well. Uh, consent is huge within Black Boots. We actually have consent language, I believe, built into our either our bylaws or our code of conduct, maybe both. Um, but that is consent and safety are some of our top priorities at our events.

SPEAKER_03 36:56

And I mean, I have not read a lot about it, but you know, with the latest headlines about these rape academies, for better, you know, lack of better words. I mean, we know that violence against women in particular, violence against queer folks, trans femme folks, non-binary folks, all of the folks in the queer community, you know, we are at a higher risk of violence in general. But then when you hear about all of these different ways that people are causing harm, um, and consent never comes into that equation for those folks. And so I'm I'm really glad, Dell, that you mentioned that. Um, and that it is so key and priority for y'all. And I think we still are living in a society where not many of us are learning about consent in like really direct, honest, clear ways. Um, so I think it's more than ever so important for all of us, especially in the queer community, y'all. Like we take care of us, like we got to be looking out for ourselves and our people in our community because there's not a lot of other people trying to do that. We have allies, we're so grateful for you, but it's got to start in our own community, right? Like the changes have to start with us.

SPEAKER_00 38:14

Absolutely. If we can't protect ourselves, you know, how can we trust other people to protect us? So that's right. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 38:25

That's right. Yeah. Um awesome. Oh my gosh. Well, I never would have guessed you could go and do like an art project at a Black Boots kink leather event. So, like, what we all have, I think, a lot of like misconceptions about the different groups and what we are and who the people are running those groups, and um and yeah, so I'm just gonna encourage myself in this moment and everyone watching to kind of be a little more open-minded. There's so many different beautiful parts of our LGBT plus community. Um, and there doesn't need to be shame around any of that, you know. So I don't know. I'm preaching to the choir. I have a lot of shame in myself that I'm trying to heal as well. Um, but y'all are really doing some cool things. So I'm I'm grateful you shared a little more about that. And then Deluth Superior Pride, um, yeah, there's been some changes in leadership, I know, recently, and I know they were struggling. I mean, even before the election, I mean, and so that is uh an event that has happened for gosh, how 50-ish years in this area? I don't know if you know.

SPEAKER_00 39:38

Yeah, so this year we're going into our 40th year. Um, that's part of why we want to make it such a huge celebration because um Duluth Superior Pride is actually one of the oldest pride groups in the country. Uh that's a huge thing for us to be proud of. Wow, I think that we need to keep that going, you know. It's right, it's huge. Um, and yeah, it recently, you know, as of December, um, Duluth Superior Pride has gone through a pretty significant leadership change. Um, but we're all really excited. We want to make Pride bigger, better than it has been before. Um, and we're really just here to support the community. It that's really what this all comes back to is we want to be out, be loud, be proud. Um, and so figuring out the best ways to do that while we're and you know, entering our 40th year and doing this big, huge celebration of that. Um for anyone who wants to get involved with that, we'd love to have more community members who share their voices, opinions, help us work through projects because we have a lot of work to do and a lot of ground to cover um in the near future. Uh we have our monthly planning meetings, I believe, on the third Wednesday of every month. Um, but the link to those is on our website. Um the easiest one that we yep, duluthsuperiorpride.com, and we also actually just updated our website as well, and that redirects you to dspride.org. So it gives us a little more official name, and there you go. It's a little bit easier to type in rather than duluthsuperiorpride.com. But right, yeah, it anyone from the community is welcome to come to our planning meetings. We'd love to have as many faces there as possible.

SPEAKER_03 41:47

So and it's a lot of work, y'all. I have never personally been involved directly in planning it, but my uh I've had partners involved in the past, and it is so much work, and not a lot of people who are doing that work. I think there's more now, maybe, with some new folks coming in and getting involved, but they need help, y'all. So if you want to continue seeing Deluze Superior Pride happen every year uh in August when it does, uh, or Labor Day weekend, um, please come and get involved. Don't just show up at the events. Come and help make the events possible because it does take people, it does take a lot of work and teamwork. Um, and I think, gosh, there's probably just hundreds of people over the years who have been a part of making Deluxe Superior Pride amazing and have been a part of it growing and expanding. And it really sounds like y'all, sort of some of the newer leadership folks, have a bigger vision of what Delu Superior Pride can be in this community, you know. And there were times, I think, when they were hosting events kind of throughout the year. Um, and I think recently it's mainly just been the big like Pride weekend events. Um, and I've always thought there's so much potential there. Um, but again, you need people who have time and energy and and that passion um and desire to help and step forward. So I'm really grateful that there's some great folks now who are, you know, continuing Pride on its journey, and it is so important. I saw someone popped into the chat and said like one of the very first pride parades ever in Wisconsin was hosted in Superior. Like, I don't even know this history. Holy moly! Um so yeah, I'm being very excited.

SPEAKER_00 43:40

Uh, we have an official his uh pride historian now. Um, so we'll have, you know, especially in honor of our 40th year, we're revamping, putting an emphasis on uh the history of pride and how we've evolved over time. Um so Yeah, it they did great work with the skeleton crew they had before, but you know, we've got a little bit more support now, but absolutely we need as many people from the community as we can get.

SPEAKER_03 44:13

Yep. And if you're a person who's like, I wish they had this, maybe you're the person who could show up and do that thing. Uh, you know, so if it's something you're excited about, passionate about, think that should be a part of pride, that's a great way to make sure something like that happens, is showing up and getting involved and sharing your ideas. So uh yeah, just I'm I'm already pumped. It's still months away, but I'm excited for Pride. Trans North and I'll be there tabling at the festival. And uh it's always a really, really beautiful time with tons and tons of lovely rainbowy. Oh, I love it. It's so good. Uh well, gosh, I don't know how our time is just flying. Uh, because this last question I definitely want to get into. And so um, you know, I mentioned for folks who are listening earlier, you know, we have heard at Trans Northland that families in our town, in Duluth, in superior, surrounding areas, are losing access, their uh youth uh in particular are losing access to gender-affirming care at hospitals multiple throughout our state, but here in town. Uh, and folks who travel to this area from more rural areas um are starting to let us know that that's happening. Um, and so when we first sort of started hearing that, um we were like, what, you know, me, it was like me and Rep Leash Kozlowski, and we were like, we're not healthcare people, what do we do? And it was like, we got to get all the healthcare people in the room. We gotta get a group of folks together meeting and talking about what does this look like? How do we, you know, put pressure on these hospital systems to continue offering uh this legal and protected care in Minnesota? Um, and then how else, like, how are we supporting our community members when they are losing access to the care? We can't just like not have something to send or to share. Uh, and so you know, Transnortland has just been a tiny part of this group of healthcare folks who have been brainstorming and um kind of trying to just connect about what's really happening out there and how do we take care of our folks, especially our youth. Um, and so I had mentioned we're gonna be rolling out a survey uh for families who have been impacted by this. Uh, and then for everyone else, you may not have been personally impacted, but if you believe in gender-affirming care, we want you to sign our petition. Uh, we would really like to get a huge showing of support in those ways. Um, and then we're able to better connect with families and help them connect with gender justice if they're looking for more legal supports around what is happening around the loss of their youth's care, or whether they need to find a new place for that care, which is Wii Health Clinic right now. They have just begun offering gender-affirming care for youth. So if you are a parent or a caregiver, call them up and they will get you in, they'll get you established. Um, and we are so grateful for the providers in this area who believe in and will do gender-affirming care. Um, so thank you to all of you without naming names because there's way too many. Um, but we have many, many allies in healthcare who are stepping forward, who are wanting to help. Um, and so it already disappeared because I talked too too long. Um, but basically, yeah, I would love to hear more about your vision, uh, Riley, you know, with your healthcare background. What can we be doing? What are your thoughts?

SPEAKER_00 47:58

Yeah, so you know, this this issue was brought forward to me a couple months ago by some really concerned community members, and I'm really, really thankful that they did. Um, because it was something that had kind of been done so quietly that even I in healthcare wasn't aware that it was going on. Um, with everything else going on in the world, it's just so hard to keep up with everything. Um and I think right now we're kind of caught between a rock and a hard place, um, because we know that a lot of this action was spurred on by a Trump executive order. Uh, we know that uh it's been fought very, very hard in legal battles. Um, and very recently, excitingly, uh Attorney General Keith Ellison's case uh successfully overturned the Kennedy doctrine that withheld Medicare and Medicaid funding for organizations providing this care. Um I think uh where some of the concern from healthcare organizations still comes from is uh we all know that this administration is gonna fight this tooth and nail all the way up to the Supreme Court if they have to. And that decision is gonna be uh questionable at best. Um so I think absolutely we need to build these community support networks, we need to build referral networks so people can get in touch with organizations like WeHealth that are continuing to provide this care, that are actively trying to vamp up what we can do. And we need to tell these organizations that are halting this care that we don't approve of it. Um I don't know exactly how much that push is going to directly make them change their policies, because I think a lot of that boils down to battles between their legal teams and their medical teams. Because I think their medical teams want to provide this care, and their legal teams are saying probably something to the effect of we hear you, but is uh this administration gonna come back after the fact to try and hurt us? Um so yes, we need to tell these organizations we don't uh agree with what with you know these actions, we don't agree with you guys stopping this care. But I think on a larger scale, uh these attacks aren't gonna stop until we fight them in the highest courts that we can. And so what I really foresee is us building this community support network, connecting people with Wii Health and other organizations that can provide this support, uh, helping people get in touch with mental health providers, especially with everything that's going on right now, that's more important than ever. Um but then we need to do fundraising, we need to do advocacy. How can we support these bigger groups like gender justice that are able to fight these fights on the bigger scale? Because these organizations like gender justice they have direct pipelines to people like uh Attorney General Keith Ellison. Um, they're the ones who can make help us make this change on a larger scale because it's not just our community that's suffering right now, it's people across the country. You know, you think about people who live in states like North Dakota where this care was already exceedingly difficult to find, uh, and they don't their attorney generals aren't fighting this executive order at all. Uh so I think we need to figure out how we can form a coalition to say uh both that we don't support what these local organizations have taken away from us, and how can we fight this fight all the way up as far as we can? Because as hard as this administration is gonna fight, we're gonna fight just as hard as they are.

SPEAKER_03 52:31

True that. I mean, that's what I feel like, you know, the the little bit of history I've learned about our LGBT plus community just as a whole, we've always been fighting. We've always been fighting the powers that be that want to hard up hurt us and who want to take away our rights. Um, and we've always been taking care of each other, you know. I mean, I don't know a lot about the AIDS epidemic, but what I do know of it is that people were taking care of their people and were showing up when nurses and doctors and other folks weren't, right? When people were actively working to just allow all of these people to die. Um, and our folks were there, you know. I always hear about the stories of like lesbians who were showing up and really trying to provide care for the gay men and all of the folks who were impacted by AIDS back then and and still are, right? Like that's still a thing that we're talking about as well, losing funding for HIV, you know, research and all of that. And um, so yes, I hear you. And I think it's really interesting to think about all of the different ways that people can get involved in something like this, right? Like there are folks like you who are looking at that bigger picture of how do we change the standards? How do we change the systems in power? How do we get to that level? And then I think there's folks, you know, like our doctors and nurses who've been showing up to these um healthcare meetings, you know, that we've been hosting, who are just trying to figure out how do I keep getting my patients the care they need when I can't physically do it now. How do I make sure these folks are safe, you know, and everyone in between, right? There's lawyers, there's folks who are making food for the meetings, you know. So there's so many ways that you viewers uh can step up and get involved because you're absolutely right. This fight is gonna continue on against the trans community in particular, against the larger LGBT plus community. Um, and yeah, now is the time to be banding together, to be building these relationships and these coalitions because we are powerful when we come together. We're really powerful. There's a lot of power here. Um, and so I guess I'm just I'm feeling encouraged, you know, despite I think we all live in the reality that like it is constantly really a lot of pressure that we're all living under right now, a lot of fear about if we can get our health care, if we can go out safely into the world and use the restroom, if we can show up at a gay bar and be accepted as a trans person in that space, you know. So there's so many ways um that we are all really um, I think struggling and fighting to survive. And so coming together, getting trans Northland and Black Boots and Pride and We Health and Vivant Health, you know, all of these folks, we all have a role to play. And if we're coming together to the table, yeah, I just really believe there's so much more power there that we need right now to take care of, you know, especially our young, trans and queer youth who are experiencing such high levels of suicidality and fear of the future. And so it's a dark time. And also, there's so many bright spots, so many people who are showing up and doing the work and wearing multiple hats like yourself, sir. Um, and I'm just really grateful because you know, it's just really easy to feel alone and scared out there, y'all. I mean, just speaking from my own heart, you know, it's a scary time for sure, but there's also a lot of joy, a lot of hope, and a lot of connection happening. So you just gotta look for it and plug in. And we want you to plug in, whether it's with us, Trans Northland, or Black Boots or some other group in town. We want you to connect um with safe folks who value you for all of who you are. Um, and so yeah, I don't know. Any final thoughts there, Riley? I know you know you and I and and all of these folks who um care about healthcare um in our own ways are gonna keep showing up and keep you know creating plans and finding solutions because that's what we do. We make shit out of nothing, and we're gonna keep doing that. But yeah, any final thoughts on that, Riley?

SPEAKER_00 57:03

Yeah, I just say, like to everyone watching and to all of our community members, I I really just want you to know together, we are loud, we are proud, and we're not gonna let this just go off to the wayside. So we're all here to support each other. And whether you can come to these planning meetings and help with plan formation, whether you are helping create a safe space and maybe even just hanging out with people. It doesn't all have to be activism. That's right, but all of the things that we can do to support each other to build those community connections, I encourage you to do right now, whether it's with TransNorthland and everything that you guys are doing, whether it's through Black Boots and all the things that we're doing, through Pride, through Wii Health, everyone that we've talked about today. Like you said, we all have a role to play, but that doesn't mean that our community stops either. So band together, hang out, sit at coffee shops, do some crafts together. All that stuff is just as important. Take care of yourselves as well.

SPEAKER_03 58:18

And that's a perfect segue into our final question that we always ask all of our guest stars because it is so important. We cannot be out here burning out, we don't want to lose anybody. So, how are you taking care of yourself, Riley?

SPEAKER_00 58:34

Yeah, it recently I have been really practicing intentionality and really just being intentional uh with the actions I'm taking, the things I'm committing to, all of the things that I'm outputting. I want it all to be very intentional. With that, it brings me meaning, it brings me purpose, and it helps me stay grounded in what's important to myself and not get lost in the big raging sea that is everything else right now.

SPEAKER_03 59:10

I love that. Being more intentional. Oh, I'm storing that away. I also need to work on that, I think. And it's yeah, it's something about being present in the current moments with our people, with our pets, what you know, whatever it is. Like, just that's hard for me to do. Turn off my brain, don't think about tomorrow, don't think about all those thousands of things that are like attacks against you. Be here with your kid or my cat or you know, the sunshine.

SPEAKER_00 59:41

Yep, be here. Enjoy the here, the now, what you got going on around you. Because as crappy as everything is going on right now, the world is still a beautiful place. You know, the sun's shining, we're finally heading into spring. I can see some flowers starting to pop up out of the ground in my garden.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:03

Oh, it's so exciting! I saw green grass driving to the cities last week. Woo! There's so much to look forward to, y'all. So, ah, well, I love that. Thanks for sharing that, Riley, and good luck. That is a practice learning how to be more intentional. So good on you. Um, and so just like that, our time has run out. I don't even know how it flies by, just because we have such amazing guest stars like yourself, and it's so fun to get to talk with you and get to know you and and really introduce you and you know, everything that you're doing out to the community. So thank you. I'm very deeply grateful for you taking the time out of your very busy schedule uh to join us and and just yeah, be a part of this conversation. Um, and we want to say thank you so much to all of you who have tuned in, who've been sharing these conversations and getting the word out. Um, we really love all the support, uh, and especially for our guest stars and all of the good work they're doing. So you heard it here from Riley, Deluze Superior Pride, you can get involved in, Black Boots, Twin Ports, you can go to nursing grad school if you want. That's another thing. Uh, but you could probably talk to Riley about it if you wanted. Yes, yes. Well, yeah, lots of ways to get involved. Thanks for letting us get a little more info about those groups. Um, and yeah, as we mentioned before, you can check out our events calendar. You can find us on Facebook and Instagram, Trans Northland. We're always sharing stuff about events and things we've got coming up. Don't forget to come pop in on Saturday to our Be Safe and Get Tested event. It's gonna be great, it's gonna be a lot of fun. Can't wait to be there with you, Riley, and all the great folks from Wii Health and Black Boots who will be there. Uh, and then yeah, finally, we just really want y'all to take good care of yourselves because it's hard out there right now, and we care about you, and we want you to stay and be a part of our community. So take care of yourselves. We will be back um two weeks from today, which will be May, which is wild. Uh, it's gonna be May, we'll be back, and we are gonna have on not one, not two, but three guest stars who are all therapists or mental health providers. Uh, if you didn't know, May is mental health awareness month, so we will be having a super cool uh learning conversation with those three folks from our community. So stay tuned. We'll share more details about that soon. But until then, y'all, we hope you take good care. Any last words, Riley?

SPEAKER_00 1:02:53

I just wanted to say thank you to you and TransNorthland for having me on today. Thanks to everyone who tuned in and was listening. Um, thanks to everyone for listening to me ramble on and talk about myself for an hour.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:10

We loved it. We all loved it. I know everyone is cheering who's watching and listening after the fact, too. So thanks again, Riley, and thanks to all of you for being a part of our community, and we will see y'all next time. Bye.