Salutations L. Nash

Please be gentle with me, dear listener. I know there's some weird audio in this one, but it's almost 10PM on a Sunday night, and I have a calculus quiz tomorrow that I know I haven't studied enough for. Also, I clicked on this background music by accident, but I liked it for the tone of today's episode, so I kept it. Also also, it's raining, and I like the sound.

I've realized while writing some of these that most of the content has been about my own personal experiences and less about straight up information. I'd like to branch out a bit when I'm feeling less overwhelmed, especially when Valentine's Day comes around, as it will be a great time to talk about attraction! In the meantime, if there's something you'd like me to talk about, feel free to let me know!

Wowee, been a bit. Do y'all like the new background music? I've been trying to get Anchor to turn it down when I speak, but so far not so good. Sorry if that ends up being distracting. Anyway, here are some references I made in this recording!

LCSDC: Low Country Student Diversity Conference. This was started by my school's cultural competence director in order to provide an accessible gathering for students throughout the southeastern United States (largely GA, FL, AL, and SC) to learn about diversity in their communities and beyond in order to effect change within their schools.

SDLC: Student Diversity Leadership Conference. This is a national conference hosted in a different location each year which gathers upwards of 7,000 students in order to learn from each other, discover ways in which they can explore their similarities and differences further, and strategize methods of bringing about positive social change in their schools through effective leadership.

POCC: People of Color Conference. This is the adult counterpart to SDLC, though it focuses more specifically on racial diversity, while SDLC covers many forms of identity. It was created largely as a space for POC, though white allies are welcome to attend and learn about their privilege and ways to support marginalized groups.

affinity group: A group of people who share some kind of identity, culture, or background (ex: black students, multiracial students, LGBTQIA+ students, etc.). Unlike other aspects of diversity conferences, which encourage privileged people and allies to learn from the experiences of others, affinity groups are exclusive to those who share the specific identity. They provide a safe space to exist free from judgment, harassment, and prejudice, as well as to engage with one's community.

Greetings, fellow humans. Guess who learned how to use Audacity for the first time? That didn't stop me from making plenty of mistakes, my favorite of which is the heartfelt, "It's easy to feel like you're -not- alone, but you never are." Sigh. I don't think I covered much terminology here, so I'll focus on the heart of the matter: the holidays can be a wonderful or extremely stressful time for queer people, especially those who are closeted or spend the holidays in their hometowns. The most important thing is that you will get through it, and no matter what, you are valid and loved by your community, including queer communities of faith. Questions, comments, or the like? You know how to contact me! Happy Chanukah, and since I won't be recording for a while, enjoy a lovely assortment of rich, beautiful winter festivities!

Some pointers for anyone listening who is unfamiliar with a term or language!




biological sex: a combination of physical traits and characteristics, including genitalia, chromosomes, and hormones




gender identity: an innate, personal sense of oneself, which can be aligned with their biological sex, the gender binary, neither, or any combination thereof




pronouns/personal pronouns: used to refer to a person in place of their name, can be used to affirm gender identity (while some people use one  set of pronouns, such as she/her, others use multiple sets on different occasions or interchangeably, such as he/they)




singular 'they': an English language gender-neutral pronoun which refers to a nonbinary person or a person whose gender is not known




transgender: gender identity description which indicates that one's inherent gender differs in some way from the gender assigned to them at birth (in this case, Elliot Page, who was assigned female at birth, has come out as trans, and their gender identity is, thus, not female)




nonbinary: gender identity description which indicates that one's inherent gender is separate from the gender binary (strictly male or strictly female) in some way--under this umbrella term falls many gender identities, such as agender, genderfluid, bigender, demigender, and genderflux




transmasculine: (typically nonbinary) gender identity description which indicates that one's inherent gender, while masculine in a certain way, is not aligned or entirely affiliated with male-ness; i.e. this person is not a man, but they may feel somewhat masculine or present in a masculine way as they see fit




to come out: to reveal one's formerly private identity to another person or people, used in reference to LGBTQ+ individuals and their identities (for example: "I came out to my friends yesterday as bisexual. They told me they were happy that I had opened up to them, and they said they'd support me no matter whom I love. I was nervous about how they'd react, and I'm so glad they accept me for who I am!")



Any questions or suggestions? Please let me know, Spectrum! I'm more than happy to follow up for you.