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FEATURING DR. VAN BAILEY - Our nation and our world is overrun with billionaires and bigots, but they are few and we are many. On this series, exclusive to subscribers of Rising Up With Sonali and viewers of Free Speech TV, we’ll hear from organizers in the movements for social justice, and dig into the nuts and bolts of values, strategies, tactics, narratives, and building power.

Joining us this week is Dr. Van Bailey, an award-winning educator and advocate for transgender youth. They serve as the Family Resources Manager at Campaign for Southern Equality, where they provide patient navigation for the Trans Youth Emergency Project.

ROUGH TRANSCRIPT:

Sonali Kolhatkar: So, tell us about your organization. For those of us outside of the South, it, we, many of us might be unfamiliar with it. There is the Campaign for Southern Equality, and within that, a specific project that we'll be focusing on today, the Trans Youth Emergency Project. Tell me about both.

Dr. Van Bailey: Yeah. So at the Campaign for Southern Equality we're an organization that's fighting for a future where all LGBTQ+ Southerners can really thrive. Through our specific program at the Trans Youth Emergency Project, we respond to one of the most urgent crises facing transgender youth today, which is state level bans on gender affirming care.

So these harmful laws are basically being forced on families and where they have to travel hundreds of miles just to access basic healthcare. And so, through the project, which we call TYEP, we're working to ensure transgender youth and their families can live with dignity, safety and access to healthcare that they need.