The ideas expressed in Citi Club forums are those of the speakers and not of the City Club of Cleveland Ideastream Public Media or their sponsors.

Production and distribution of City club forums and ideastream Public media are made possible by PNC and the United Black, fond of Greater Cleveland, Inc.. Hello and welcome to the City Club of Cleveland, where we are devoted to creating conversations of consequence that help democracy thrive.

It is Friday, April 4th, and I am Ken Schneck, editor of the Buckeye Flame.

Ohio's LGBT Q Plus newsroom and moderator for today's conversation, which is in partnership with the 49th Cleveland International Film Festival, or Ciff.

Many of us are familiar with the story of Sally Ride.

She became a household name after she became the first American woman to blast off into space.

In fact, in September 1983, she actually joined the Women's City Club right here in Cleveland to speak to a crowd of over 500 people.

Though many didn't know it at the time, Sally's celebrated trip to space would also make her the first lesbian in space.

As she journeyed among the stars.

Sally managed to keep a nearly three decade relationship with author and tennis player Tam O'Shaughnessy a secret.

On Saturday, April 5th, Siff will screen the documentary film Sally, which is a chronicle of Sally Ride's challenges as a pioneering woman in science, technology, engineering and mathematics STEM.

It also brings to the surface the sacrifices she made during her years together with her life partner for the first time.

Sally.

The film tells the whole story of this complicated and iconic astronaut from national Geographic documentary films.

Sally is directed by Emmy Award winning filmmaker Christina Constantini.

Yet let's put it in some context.

This film also comes at a very fragile time in America's political climate, where once again, the LGBTQ community is caught in the crosshairs.

Add to this an A.D. movement, both nationally and here in the state of Ohio that many believe will threaten to set back decades of progress for women in stem.

What can we learn from the life and legacy of Sally Ride?

And are we destined to confront the same challenges as Sally did in the 1970s and 1980s?

Here to answer these questions and many more, all the way to my left is Amanda Cole, the executive director of Plexus LGBT, an allied Chamber of Commerce, where she champions inclusivity and economic empowerment for LGBTQ plus and allied professionals.

Under her leadership, Plexus cultivates partnerships that advance advance equality, dismantle barriers for LGBTQ plus entrepreneurs and contribute to economic growth.

And to my immediate left, Marcy from our President and trustee at the International Women's Air and Space Museum, which aims to collect, preserve and showcase the history and culture of women in all areas of aviation and aerospace.

Marcy is also the space advisor for the Museum.

That's a very cool title, by the way.

I created it myself, so that's the best way.

And Marcy is a lifelong spaceflight enthusiast who first got involved as a volunteer for the museum when it moved to Cleveland in 1998.

If you have a question for our speakers, you can text those questions to 3305415794 and City Club staff will try to work those questions into the Q&A portion of the program.

Members and Friends of the City Club of Cleveland, please join me in welcoming Amanda and Marcy.

All right, Marcy, space advisor for the museum.

Let's start with you.

Can you give us a sense before we even talk about Sally Ride?

Can you give us a brief, brief sketch of women in the space program?

Pre Sally Ride?

Yes.

So going back in time to the 1960s, we have a really cool exhibit at our museum called Quest for the Stars that talks about this era.

And at that time, there were the mercury 13 women who took the same tests, both physical and psychological tests.

The original male Mercury seven astronauts took, and they weren't sanctioned tests by NASA.

And in the early 1960s, basically NASA's in the country was not ready for women in space.

It wasn't until 1963 that the first woman launched in space, and then that was by the Soviet Union, Valentina Tereshkova.

It wasn't until 20 years later that Sally Ride launched a space in 1983.

Thank you.

As long as we're in this history place.

Amanda, can you talk a little bit about the Lavender scare?

It's going to be some level setting for everyone here in the room and also those listening in to talk about LGBTQ plus issues in the workforce.

Yeah.

So we're familiar with the idea of the Red Scare, and it's part and parcel of that same moral panic.

So what was happening under Eisenhower in the fifties and this went through until sixties seventies was a systemic, purposeful and public purging of LGBTQ people from the public sector and the federal government.

And then we saw ripple effects of this into the sixties and the seventies with Anita Bryant and trying to pass different legislation that disallowed us from teaching, you know, from being teachers.

And so it it just pushed out.

It caused fear.

It just allowed people to rise up into different places of leadership within the government.

And any time we're talking about anything to do with LGBTQ, that means everybody that is black folks, right?

That is Hispanic people, that is differently abled.

People.

It's all different kinds of people because our identities don't get siloed together.

And so that means that it was a purging of leadership and belonging at the federal government, and it was sanctioned.

It is the same thing that we are hearing almost word for word with the executive orders that we have now hearing around from the Trump administration to disallow it specifically in the federal government.

And it has ripple effects out into the private sector.

These kinds of moves don't just stay in a glass jar in society.

Thank you.

Let's talk about the film a little bit.

The film is a must see for for so many reasons.

But for me, how Dr. Wright had to navigate the media and the questions that they asked.

At one point, I think it was a reporter from Time magazine or Life, or it was I shouldn't call out the magazine that I'm not sure of.

But specifically asked her, if you encounter a problem in space, do you think you'll weep?

And it just encapsulated all the all the pressures.

Marcy How would you frame the pressure that that Dr. Wright must have experienced?

Well, she experienced a tremendous amount of pressure can and really so she was one of the six original women astronauts at NASA.

And one of the reasons why they picked her was they thought that she could handle the pressure specifically, kind of like when they picked Neil Armstrong to be the first man on the moon.

Another Ohioan talking about today.

But anyhow, they really were trying to make sure that while she was training for the flight, that she was protected and the influx of all the questions and media attention came after her flight.

Yeah.

And Amanda noted queer film critic.

I wrote it on my paper.

What themes left off the screen for you?

Well, just to the pressure when you're watching the opening sequence, it's all about the pressure of blast off.

And then you hear these interviews where she says things like, I don't want to do something stupid.

And that is the pressure that we feel when we're the first or one.

Them were the one and the only.

Like everything rides on us so we don't mess it up for anybody else like us.

And then that pressure, you can probably hear that while coming out as a lesbian would have been something stupid, right?

She couldn't be both.

She couldn't be a double minority in that regard.

And I think that was really amazing.

I think also to like just kind of also armchair psychologist it a little bit.

She probably did so well with the pressure because her family was literally like, we don't talk about feelings.

There's a part in the film where they ask her mother, well, how did you feel about that?

And she was like, That's none of your business.

And then they come around again.

They're like, Why do you think you have such a hard time with feelings?

And she was like, If I knew, I want to tell you.

And I was like, Let's compartmentalize and go to space.

Apparently, I don't know those those things just really sit out.

It's a beautiful film.

I really hope you all take an opportunity to see it.

Well, let's start by start bringing the context into today's climate.

First, Marcy, can you talk about Sally's legacy, about what she left behind, the doors that she opened and the LGBTQ plus astronauts that that came after her?

Yes.

So Sally, of course, wasn't acknowledged as gay until she passed away.

That's, you know, a big part of the film.

But there were a lot of women who looked up to Sally when they were considering what kind of careers they wanted to do.

And they have told me men written in books that it was really seen.

Sally and the other first woman astronauts go to space that gave them the courage and believability, that that was something that they could do, too.

You kind of have to see it to be is kind of the way it's said.

And that was really important to a lot of them.

Now, finally, there has been some news about gay astronauts, and one of them came with a woman who's up on the International Space Station right now.

Her name is Anne McClain.

And when she was on her first mission to the International Space Station a couple of years ago, her her partner was trying to finagle money out of her.

Basically, it was accusing her of wrongdoing.

And it came out that she was gay and it ended up that and was not guilty of any wrongdoing.

This was all on the other person's part during this time.

But then it finally came out that we did have a current gay astronaut and another woman astronaut.

Her name is Wendy Lawrence.

And while she was an astronaut, didn't admit that she was gay, but came out later when she was attending some functions at the Naval Academy where she graduated from and brought her spouse with her, a woman.

So finally, these things are coming more to light.

I was so struck by the part of the movie of Sally actually blasting off into space.

I think was it's like a half a million people showed up in person.

And so many of them not just were women, but had infant daughters because they wanted their infant daughters to be present during that moment.

And so it had to have opened just so many doors in that way.

Absolutely.

Like I said, finally, people could see women could see young girls when they were in maybe they were in middle school, maybe they were in high school, maybe they were in college.

But they could finally see a path for something that they wanted to do.

And before that was only male astronauts.

That was it.

Can I say there's some things I was thinking by here.

We were talking about opening doors.

It reminds me about the film Woman in Motion, which my friend Carmen Lane reminded me of and the role that Nichelle Nichols played, because it wasn't just men in the room, it was white men in the room.

And we have to be specific about this.

And one of the things that she said in that film was, I'm going to open this door.

So why that they'll be able to see the whole world.

And so it is this it's this idea, too, that like how is it that all of our ships can rise?

How is it that we can all kind of blast off if we recognize that we do not have everybody in the room when we recognize who is missing and we think search strategically about why they're not there and how we can remove those barriers and then to to ask somebody like Nichelle Nichols to help bring folks in the room, it opens up that door for all of us.

And I think there's also some words that you use that were really interesting, acknowledge that she was gay, admitted that she was gay.

Here's the thing.

We are always acknowledging and admitting who we are in some kind of rooms.

And to some people, it's just the threat and the challenge of everybody knowing or the language and the honesty and the vulnerability of putting it into words that we always don't have the privilege of doing.

And we also saw this with Don't ask, Don't Tell.

Many times people were employed and their partners here stateside want to be able to have those benefits, want to be able to attend those military funerals and be given the honor of losing somebody in service to America because they were not allowed to be fully out.

And so that story that you shared while was like very trifling with that partner did.

And it's like, doesn't look good for us gays.

But, you know, not we don't all have moral high ground all the time or, you know, life is complicated, but many times that might be the way that somebody kind of was outed.

And then also the way that those partners are left out and not included.

Yeah, I'm confused by the idea that gays don't always have the moral high ground, but we'll move on.

That's that forum will be coming next week.

Marci and I already know the answer to this because we're both geeks, but just for some level setting, if anyone listening and doesn't know who Nichelle Nichols is.

Right.

So Nichelle Nichols is an actress.

She passed away a couple of years ago, but she was the first black woman on Star Trek and she played Lieutenant Uhura.

Star Trek, one of my favorite shows growing up.

And hopefully some of you liked it as well.

But what happened is NASA's hired Nichelle Nichols and her company, which was the same name as the film documentary Woman in Motion, actually.

And it was done.

The producer was originally from Cleveland and the writer was from Cleveland as well.

So we go to Cleveland and but they also hired her to specifically seek out women and minorities to apply to become astronauts because people didn't really believe that was happening.

And just for NASA to say that wasn't enough, But when they hired Nichelle Nichols in her company, I've seen in that film the documentary that people who later became astronauts, you know, finally were convinced By the way, none of that was on my question list.

But I assume that with the title Space Advisor, you knew all of that stuff.

So that was that was perfect.

Ad nauseum.

What can I say?

I love it.

We need to talk about it, RG said.

So this is a two part question.

Amanda.

First, the easy part for for folks who don't know what is an E?

RG and why are they important?

Yeah, so every time we come up with an acronym, that's fine, but we need to make sure everybody in the room knows what the meaning is.

So diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging.

And one of the strategies of creating that in organizations is through employer resource groups or affinity groups.

And the point about this is that you're giving people of different identities, whether it's caregiver's disability orientation, an opportunity to see themselves within the organization and come together and have connection.

But also ideally you're listening to them around the policies that they need so that they are informing what leave policies look like, what health care looks like, how the door should open literal doors, you know, so you can actually get into your office if you're going to do work.

So that's what employee resource groups are.

Yeah.

And they I mean, they've been seen as a proven best practice for employee retention, return on investment of time, just like all good stuff.

And they've become very commonplace.

I wish we could just leave it as you.

They're all good stuff.

But the second question is what is the status of the GEs right now?

Well, we have friends from NASA here that we're very grateful that they are joining us today and they, our friends, helped to start and lead those ERGs and Nasser.

And the day after the executive orders came back that DTI efforts were dead and illegal like these let this language in the federal government that was stripped away, things like not being able to wear a pride badge to work, not being able to introduce yourself with your pronouns or change your name, like just really basic things that for LGBTQ ergs they might be a part of.

It puts in a severely chilling effect.

When you are told in the federal government that if you are involved with anything to do with diversity, equity, inclusion, you're going to be put on a list or that you're immediately fired, that you're walked out of your office.

It has it creates the moral panic and the fear.

Again, it doesn't stay in a container.

So what we see in the private sector is twofold.

It is people.

Absolutely.

And and, you know, companies like the Cleveland Cavaliers saying, we are committed to this.

This is not going anywhere.

And then we have other companies that obeyed in advance, which is the greatest way to teach tyranny how to use their power.

Because if we obey in advance, if we say if we give this first, they won't take more from us, we are false.

So we've seen in some corporations and companies having to roll back and maybe in higher education, if it's tied to federal funding, it's actually having to comply with the law.

So we saw this at Tri-C, having to get rid of their DTI office.

We've seen this now in higher education.

But what is happening is it doesn't matter what the language is.

We didn't always have these words, but we've been doing this work.

We've been doing the work to exist and be in leadership in organizations, even when they tell us we're not allowed to be there.

And in American history, we've been telling a lot of different people for a really long time that they're not allowed to be there.

So this is not new.

This is not new for some of us.

It can feel like the first time that we're going through this.

Right.

Especially for like white folks, This can feel like the first time that we're being targeted in this way, but it's not new.

Yeah.

Speaking of that history, the film does so well.

Marci, to to bring LGBTQ plus NASA history onto the screen.

Talk to us about how the preservation of that history is right now in danger.

Yeah.

So it's really important, even one thing that is going on right now.

So there's was Apollo back in the 1960s going to the moon, and now there's the Artemis program.

And so the whole thing that's been on NASA's website until recently was that we were all going to have our first woman and our first person of color landing on the moon with Artemis program.

Suddenly now that's wiped out of NASA's website.

So, yeah, it affects everything.

And I think it's really important for a place like our museum, the International Women's Air and Space Museum here in Cleveland, to be able to present these ideas and concepts about women, black women, gay women, any kind of woman, so that those stories are out there and people can hear them, especially in this kind of a chilling environment where those stories at universities and our governments are all being closed.

Amanda Dr. Ride wasn't out at work that that wasn't part of her journey.

What are we hearing about new concerns about being and you spoke to this a bit, but expand more on on the concerns around being out in the workforce right now.

Yeah.

So we have stat you know, we have statistics that show the way that even before this.

So there's this statistic that says that young professionals, when they first move in their career, one in three go back into the closet.

What does this mean?

Right.

So this means that if that were me and I did this, I did this early in my career, actually, I might talk about my partner and neutral terms.

I might refer to my wife as my friend.

I might avoid talking about what I did over the weekend.

I might not tell you what neighborhoods I went to or what bars I go to.

I don't want to cue to you that I'm gay.

And then for transgender and non-binary people, this might mean that they they delay or don't live their whole selves with their pronouns and their names or getting the medical care that they need to be.

Well in their body.

They delay that so that they're not out at work, that that is like what happens there when that goes on.

So the way that this happened for me, I was interviewing for a job.

I really needed a job after grad school.

It was after the recession that was just tough.

And I'm interviewing and I'm not mentioning my partner the whole time, which is really weird cause we have kids together.

So now it sounds like I'm a single mom.

That is something I have been and that has a whole other level of discrimination and finally I just said, like, Look, I'm gay.

Like I'm gay.

I totally, like, you know, have a fiancee, it's great or whatever.

And she is my fiance at the time.

Remember what you were.

Right.

Yeah.

But like, I wasn't acing the interview because I was thinking like, five steps forward and five steps back.

I was so nervous.

So it reduces productivity.

We're less likely to stay at companies that we can't be out.

We are less likely to get a promotion right.

And then unfortunately, when we come out, we also might be less likely to stay because we have harassment, you know, and any harassment I might experience as a cisgender white, middle class lesbian.

Multiply it times three.

If you are a queer person of color, multiply it times three.

Literally, the statistic is multiply it times three if you're a transgender person.

So even as I experience that and I share that, I have privilege as well in it.

And that's how it works.

And so it's important to be out.

The City Club had Billy Beane here.

He was a baseball player and he talks and then he became the LGBTQ liaison commissioner.

I can't remember the terms.

He talked about how he did not do well as a player because he was hiding his life.

It does deep psychological damage and so if we are supposed to, like, fly in space and like run bases and do sports things like supposed to like, operate at a high level, you can't be hiding an essential part of who you are and how you love it.

Amanda will now be moderating all the sports stuff, right?

I should do better.

There are plotting you questioning your relationship status on stage, which we've never seen before.

Here I was having one of the hallmarks of pretty much every article we do at the Buckeye Flame is an Ignite Action section.

Just a couple items where people can take the content that they've read and actually do something with it.

Marci After people watch the film, the credits roll, what do you want people to do?

Well, I think what they should do is get more of a understanding of who Sally Ride was, because a good part of the film, the beginning of the film, talks about the spaceflight, her going to space and what happened after she was in space in terms of the media barrage that came to her.

And she then when she left Nasser, she started a company called Sally Ride Science and what she wanted to do with that with her partner, Tamal Shaughnessy, by the way, was to educate young women, young girls, so that they also would be interested in science and technology, and they wouldn't be afraid about going into those kind of careers.

And so that's a big part of it.

Of course.

Also, there's her relationship with Tamal Shaughnessy, and I read in a book about Sally Ride, a great book by Lynn Share, the former ABC reporter.

She talked about some people knocked Sally after she passed away for not coming out as gay when she was alive with her partner for 27 years.

But another person commentated well, that would have been breaking two glass ceilings.

That's kind of a lot to ask for one individual in their lifetime.

Yeah, Amanda, on that topic of what do you want people to do?

Yeah.

So I think that every time we're in a room, we should ask who is missing and why are they missing and what can I do about that?

I think take very seriously how people that are already marginalized and on the margins are feeling right now are the fear that is really, really, really happening.

I think that if you have the opportunity in a workplace or an organization to make sure that you're level setting and strengthening diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging opportunities, that you should do so.

And I think that you should call your representatives and you should vote and you should organize because we should always be doing those things and we especially should be doing them now like I think it's clear how important that is.

It can feel futile.

I called my representative the other day about the SB one or something.

I don't know, something.

It was Amelia Sykes.

Officer It had to be federal.

And when I and I was already to like, leave this message about how important this was, and I can't believe you, it was like, Hi, it's Amelia Sykes.

I forgot she was my representative and I was like, Oh, thank you.

Yeah.

So, like, I was going to be really upset and tell you how not this can't happen.

And then I was like, So you know what?

Just thinks we're doing what you're doing.

So I also think it's important to thank people when you see them doing the thing that you believe is right and good.

I think that it's really important on the comments page, on the article, for instance, like they folks are bold.

They've always been bold.

Every time there's a pride night, all of a sudden like they're coming for me and I'm a terrible person and we're groomers and all this, but they're more bold now.

And so I, we tell our board, Hey, we have a news article that's going up or something, and we ask people to flood the comments with positive things.

When your library shares books, just books, and then you can see that there's terrible comments.

You know, message them because there's probably like a 24 year old who like, why the hell am I?

You know, I'm allowed to say that word.

Okay.

Okay.

Okay.

Thank you.

I love that your face just said I broke city closet.

Yeah.

You all have no idea about my patch, but they're probably like, why am I running the social media for the library?

Because they're getting such hateful things.

So literally just be like, Hey, thanks for sharing that book.

I'm going to go get it.

You're doing a good job.

Like, Yeah, you stop.

Before we get to the Q&A, Marcy, I'm going to give you the last word.

As space advisor, I'm never going to not say that, by the way.

I think it's a wonderful Why should everyone see this movie?

I think it's a really good film in terms of giving you the background of what was going on in the night early 1980s, late 1970s, when Sally and the first group of women astronauts were selected.

So that was 1978, her first flight was 1983.

I think it gives you a good understanding of what was going on in terms of history and context at that time and absolutely keep it in mind for what's going on today and see the parallels and the connections and make sure you have an understanding of that as well.

And they are.

Those connections are there.

I'm obsessed with the media and how the role that the media played here.

And you can still see that if you as there so much tennis in the movie, which made me happy but if you you yeah there you go.

If you watch the differences these days between press conferences for male and female tennis players, you see exactly that.

We have not come that far, but we have come far in our program.

We're about halfway through and we're about to begin the audience Q&A for our live stream and radio audience.

Again, I'm Ken Schneck, editor of the Buckeye Flame, Ohio's LGBTQ Plus NEWSROOM and moderator For today's conversation, we are partnering today with the 49th Cleveland International Film Festival and discuss discussing the upcoming documentary film Sally and what we can learn from the life and legacy of the first American woman in space, astronaut Sally Ride.

Joining me on stage is Amanda Coyle, executive director of Plexus, LGBT and Allied Chamber of Commerce, and Marcy Frank, our president and trustee at the International Women's Air and Space Museum.

And it doesn't say it, but and Space advisor we welcome questions from everyone at City Club members, guests, as well as those joining our live stream at City Club Dot o RG or our live radio broadcast at 89.7 Ideastream Public Media.

If you would like to text a question for our speakers, please text it to 3305415794.

That's 3305415794.

And City club staff will try to work your question into the program.

May we have our first question please?

Thank you and thank you for a wonderful program here.

I have a personal question for each of you and then a bonus question for Marcy.

The personal question is, given the avalanche of news that we are all facing, how are each of you facing it?

How are each of you coping with how do you get up in the morning, Give us some secrets.

How are you coping with it?

The bonus question for the space advisor is, is there a woman in in space or aviation history whom you think is particularly unheralded or all unheralded?

But is there one in particular that you think her story should be told?

Start with the news.

How are you coping?

I would like to remind everyone that your questions are not intended to cause depression.

Yes.

How are you coping?

Yeah, well, first, I mean, I think sometimes it's okay to just not be coping like that's just like a full stop and just be okay with that.

That's my mental health thing.

But also I set timers, especially on social, and I try to flip up my algorithm.

So I'm watching different things.

I'm engaging in different aspects, like maybe I want to see a protest movement, maybe I want to learn something, maybe I just want to like, watch butterflies, you know, that's a little bit of what I do.

Uh huh.

I look to the headlines and then I sometimes go and find people who are kind of dissecting that and telling me what it means.

I listen to a lot of podcast, so I try to listen to them to get their take on things I follow and like and read the book I Flame, which we all should do.

If you want to know what's happening at LGBTQ Ohio, which again like is kind of like for everybody.

And I know one of the things that you're doing, I might be stealing your thunder here, but it also came up yesterday at the Cavaliers Employee Resource Group Summit and the LGBT breakout room is just focusing on joy, like Focus on the Good Stuff, you know, and I know that that's what you're doing as well at the Flame.

Yeah.

How are you coping?

Yeah.

So, you know, it's difficult reading the news every day and seeing what's going on.

It's hard, right?

But I guess I have hope that there's people out there who are thinking in a different way and who don't want to see this kind of way continuing in our world.

And so I have hope for young people, especially that they don't want to see this continuing.

I also I am upset at what's happening in terms of money from the federal government being taken away from museums who could be presenting information and history about what's going on in our country and the past and the present so that they can't tell the stories about amazing people.

But I think it's also important for places like our museum, the International Women's Air and Space Museum, to be sure we're getting the word out there because we're not handicapped by this.

We can tell the stories about these amazing women in aviation and space and get that out to our communities so that they can have discussions about it.

We're not handicapped by that.

So I think that's very important.

So your second question, and thank you for that question.

It's a tough one to pick, but I guess I go back to the era of the 1960s and Wally Funk, so her real name is Mary Wallace Funk, and she was one of those Mercury 13 women.

In fact, she was only 20 years old when she took those tests.

She had to get her parent's signatures because she was so young in order to be able to do those tests.

And she's the last surviving one.

And she had wanted to go to space for so many years.

She'd done all sorts of things after her aviation career was over, incredible aviation career.

But she actually did get to go to space a couple of years ago, one of these private commercial space flights, suborbital Blue Origin flight and so she got her 10 minutes up and down.

And so I think she's a great personality to talk about.

And I have met her a couple of times and she's just a fascinating character.

Thank you.

Yeah.

Hello.

This is a text question with the recent DACA executive orders.

Can you speak to your concerns about a potential decrease in supporting women in STEM?

How will this impact the competitiveness of America in the global science, tech and innovation industry?

Sure.

Well, it's very disconcerting.

And to see this happening when there's been such great strides that have been made since the Sally Ride era in the 1980s.

And so I'm hopeful that even with these cutbacks, that people will still be enthusiastic about wanting to have their young children, be they girls or boys, to be interested in STEM and to go after careers like that, because I think that is very important to still have grassroots efforts, even as this money is being taken away from so many important organizations.

Yeah, I'm really concerned because it's not just saying we're not allowed to do this anymore.

They weaponized it with money.

When money goes away, it doesn't come back into budgets easily, ever.

Maybe we're also like removing words like, you just can't have words.

Somebody's a Ph.D. student.

A woman in STEM lost her funding.

Her funding was denied because her project had the word diversity in it.

She's a bioscience, so she was looking at the diversity of a forest ecosystem and she can't get funding.

And that's that's bizarre.

It's bizarre to me that we can't speak about women and transgender people and black people and like that.

We can't talk about people and their contributions and and science and technology and engineering is bizarre, right?

Because we just we should be able to do it.

So I am very concerned because of the funding impacts and I'm also very concerned because of the compliance in advance.

Right then I'm concerned about it in higher education.

I'd like to see some of these endowments being used.

And I under I'm in fundraising, so I understand restricted dollars and blah blah and donor intent and all this.

But I would like to see some of those billions of dollars that are being sat on being used to actually choose to fight and continue to invest in areas where we know no matter how enthusiastic you are, you might not pursue that career because you also need to get paid.

You need to get money, you know, in your career.

Yeah.

Hi.

Thank you for being here today.

Senate Bill 113 sponsored by Senator Andrew Brenner.

It would ban diversity, equity and inclusion in all public schools in Ohio.

What is that going to look like for students who are members of the LGBTQ plus community and what kind of support will be available for them?

And if I can just add in the extra note of nowhere in that legislation is diversity, equity and inclusion defined.

They don't define that anywhere.

Yeah.

Mm hmm.

Mm.

Well, we have kids, and so when we're always having these clear conversations with our young people because we're also aware that us being gay than being raised by lesbians means that they're kind of coming out around that.

So we've always had to navigate that with them and allow them to have their different level of comfort with that.

And but they're they're feisty.

So we actually have to calm them down a little bit about it.

So but the conversations that we've had have we're literally strategizing with our children.

So we are talking to them about how to tell their friends who are queer that they need to come up with some code words.

They need to use new language so people don't know, but they need to make sure that their friends who are queer or themselves are talking because you need to.

We're telling them that they need to be really careful how they go to teachers and they need to tell their friends that as well.

And so what we're trying to do on a personal level is get into our school district to figure out how to support those teachers, tell them those same tactics.

And that also, you know, I think it's important that we can meet with our superintendents and our school boards because they can find ways to comply and still create the best safety nets for those young people.

But we know that it's not going to be great mean even in the film.

You know, Tim and Sally met when they were 13 playing tennis and they might not have known it then, but a lot of kids know who they are at 13 and like, who wants to be 13 and have feelings for anything ever again in your life?

None of us want to do that again.

So multiply it by being told tha I think it's going to be extremely challenging.

And here's the thing.

We're going to see people leaving health care and we're going to see people losing the teaching professions, which we already do not have enough people in post pandemic.

These are the two places in our society that we saw the way that we were overburdening direct service folks already in our society.

We haven't bounced back from that and they're not going to continue.

Who wants to go and teach when you don't even know if you can mention, you know, and ask somebody about their their moms or their dads?

You know, in that case, I'm really, really worried about it.

So we're trying to teach our kids tactics for how to be well, how to have codes, how to take care of each other, how to we're like, you need to make sure everybody knows what teachers not to trust.

Like, let it be known.

And the kids are ready now.

You know, they always now all the time.

I think it really makes the case for in addition to the bill that our wonderful colleague just shouted out, this is why it's so important that everyone keep on top of the legislation that keeps being introduced in the last 48 hours alone in sub bill, HB 97, which is the budget, it's supposed to be about the budget.

What was added into that budget is a number of clauses that will make it difficult for LGBTQ plus youth, not the least of which is Ohio officially only recognizing the genders of male and female, taking any books that have LGBTQ plus content out of view for anyone under 18 and defunding homeless shelters.

If the homeless shelter in any way affirms trans youth and the things that we know about young people, it's always hard to track people who aren't or who are homeless young people.

It's like impossible data.

But we know that youth who are houseless are likely.

40% of them are likely to be homeless because they are LGBTQ, because they are trans, and then youth who are moving through the foster systems when they come out, if they if they let folks know that they're non-binary or they're trans or they're gay, they lose those those homes and then they're not able to find affirming places to be.

So that is extremely challenging.

It is hard to take care of any young person who doesn't have a stable home like it is hard to get them networked in the way that they need to be.

We don't have good solutions around it and that we're going to leave up to 43% of those kids out of our shelter system is terribly shocking.

This is another text question How complex is help support Cleveland organizations LGBT, BQ plus RG groups?

Are there any upcoming events or volunteer events that organizations can get involved in?

Yeah, all the time, yeah.

So what we do is we have done this since our inception.

We found ourselves in boardrooms that maybe other queer organizations weren't invited and we helped to stand up.

The first employee resource group at KeyBank and Progressive because of our founding board member, Thomas Horne.

So we've been doing this work since 2006.

So we've seen it, our board has seen it in a number of ways we work with 50 different companies in their employee resource groups.

So first start and stop.

If you are wondering how to do this and how to figure it out, please contact us.

We're at think plexus dot org.

We convene monthly for any number of different topics and those are also very open.

All the time.

One of our really wonderful programs that we focus on for emerging and young professionals is called our Queer Executive Officer Dinner series.

So it's just a turn.

Yeah, it's a little cheeky around CEO, so it's an out executive officer and it's just about sitting at the table.

It's 30 people, It's dinner, family style and, you know, questions like what would you tell your younger self?

What was your biggest challenge?

You know, what did you study in school?

But always, no matter what, somebody says, What was it like when you came out?

How do people treat you at work?

How did your parents treat you?

I mean, you have like 33 year olds who are still wanting to find from elder people, like how we did it.

So that's on April 22nd, and it's with Dr. Scott, literally, who is the president of the West Shore campus at Tracy Community College.

So that's open.

But we have a number of events.

You can go to our calendar and find them there.

And then also we have a directory page.

We have 450 members.

That is a significant number of members of our small Chamber of Commerce like us.

And it's also important to hear in our name we're the LGBT and Allied Chamber of Commerce.

We are open to everybody.

It's just you just know that when you're in the room, you're you're in the room for a particular reason.

Like if you're not a member of the community, that's okay.

You're showing up in our allyship.

So our directory page is really, really important there.

You're going to find folks who are doing the work.

So if you're looking for a job, any company that's a member, they're doing something.

And the thing is, is I mean, a Fortune 500 companies, I have a direct line to somebody in the air and I can tell you immediately what they're doing to support an inclusive and welcoming and affirming workplace.

So, yeah, we're we're open for business for everybody.

And we do want to officially thank Michelle tomorrow for texting.

And that question on Plexus.

Thank you fun note because I like mentioning it.

Tell us when the Scott Latrell conversation is April 22nd and it'll be at the West Shore campus and in what a small world it is.

He was my supervisor when I was an R.A. at NYU in 2000.

That's how small this world is.

That's we have text question related to Amanda's point.

If you have a coworker that you notice may not be their full self at work, what's a good way to make them feel more comfortable or support them?

That's great.

So one would not be like, well, so it's a mixture of things.

Like one of my least favorite things is like, Oh, I know somebody that's gay.

It's like grade.

Do you know them if they're gay?

And here's the thing, people of color are very familiar with white people saying these things.

So we often do this.

We try to get like proximity and familiarity, and we kind of stumble and drop the ball.

So but you do want to have some visibility, right?

So we're an ally open.

I mean, right now, you know, have things at your desk and go if you if there is an LGBTQ urge, you go to the urges.

The things about these urges is they are open to everybody.

So if there's an African-American employee resource group, white folks should go into that space.

And allyship just recognize that sometimes there might be programing or opportunities where maybe that door is closed too, if you're not a part of the group.

And that's also okay, right.

That doesn't mean don't ever come in here.

It just might mean like right, right now.

No, I think just also asking people, hey, how you doing?

How are things going for you if you do know that somebody is a member of the LGBTQ community, just pay attention that these bills coming down, the fear that we have is very, very real.

So if you're in that opportunity to just recognize that maybe acknowledge it if you're a manager, shift their workflow, right?

See how you can shift their workflow, Think about ways that you can just be responsive to maybe take things off their their plate.

I think those are some important ways, but you kind of just want to signify we're just looking for visibility.

And you can also see that folks know, hey, things are really hard.

I'm I'm here for you if you need anything.

The other thing somebody said this I can't remember, but it was about not being a silent bystander.

So like, as always, speak up.

If somebody makes a joke or an offhand comment, these things are often like they're little pieces of sand.

And then, you know, and you know how that feels like when it's like in your shoe or something, it hurts over time.

That's how it feels when people say well-intended things or they say crass and discriminatory and hurtful things purposely.

You should speak up if you can.

So in a can just be as easy.

If like, why is that funny?

What do you mean?

Where did you hear that?

I don't agree with you.

Please don't speak about them that way.

Just nice and calm.

You don't have to go like elbows up.

But you can say something.

You can still speak up.

And that was certainly in the movie as well.

Of of Dr. Ride's male colleagues in the many comments that they made.

And what did you make of those parts and the regret that some of them expressed?

Yeah, absolutely.

And in fact, one of the people I interviewed in the film is Sally's husband, who was a male astronaut, Steve Hawley, at the time.

And I thought it was great that he was comfortable talking about, you know, his early life with Sally when they were both brought into the space program at the same time, and also hearing comments from other astronauts, male or female, talking about Sally's influence in her whole story.

Yeah.

Thank you.

Yeah, this is a text question.

Great talk.

I wish I had the i w s in the area when I was a young person, as I have always had a fascination with space.

Are there any programs for young girls that come into public schools for exposure to these careers?

Yeah.

So it's important.

Obviously to get the STEM story out to the community.

Our museum does try to do that.

We do tours and talks for everybody.

We do tours for adults, we do tours for children, and sometimes in our tours they can be space related or they could be aviation related.

It's whatever the different group wants.

And so they get to do some kind of a craft kind of a thing.

We also will be having our annual Rocket Day sometime in June, and that's a really low cost way for kids to come and see.

We have Nassau professionals there who will shoot off real rockets, the parking lot at our museum, and they also will be able to make their own stomp rockets that they get to step on a two liter pop bottle and watch a go fly up in the air.

So it's a lot of fun, a cool event, and it's only a couple of dollars per kid.

So look for that.

The future.

Okay.

My mom said I wasn't allowed to do that, so that's intriguing.

But can you actually talk a little bit more about the International Women's Air and Space Museum?

Raise your hand here if you've been to the museum.

Oh, some folks have wonderful.

I mean, it was still only eight of you, but I was that was really good.

What will we see there?

I have not.

Amanda and I have not been there.

What's we will we're going to go next.

We're all going together as a group after this.

What what will we see there?

Yeah.

So thanks for that question.

Appreciate it.

So the museum actually back in 1986 in Centerville, Ohio, right outside of Dayton and moved up to Cleveland after they ran out of space down there at Centerville in 1998 and opened to the public here in 1999.

So we've been in Cleveland a long time, and we don't want to be Cleveland's best kept secret.

We want the word out there.

We're free museum so you can come and enjoy the museum any time for free.

But of course, we are a tenant at Burke Lakefront Airport, so we have to pay rent.

We have a couple of staff members who we have to pay who do a lot of the work for the organization and.

So we do have fundraisers throughout the year.

We have a may the fourth event coming up, a trivia night just in about a month or so.

And we'll also be having a murder mystery coming up at the end of May.

And we have an acting group hired to come and put on a show.

They did this a year ago, and it was a kind of a space theme.

This year.

It's an aviation theme.

So that's a fund raiser and it's a lot of fun.

And you can dress up if you want.

Well, everybody should dress up now.

We're all city clubs, renting vans.

We're all going together right after this.

Last question.

Yes.

Another text question.

Does it seem to you that despite whatever is happening at the White House, our society is getting better at telling these stories, thinking about this film and others, such as the Diana Nyad film who swam the Straits of Florida, Are we doing and telling these stories?

Yeah, I mean, more to tell.

Yeah.

I mean, here's I think I think we are making progress.

And also who's telling the stories.

That would be my other question, like, are we having more folks with the same lived reality producing and directing the stories?

And I would say, yes, we have had some increase in that.

Women, people of color, queer folks telling the stories.

I want to continue to see that grow.

And I think that it is going to be challenging.

But sure, I think we've got I think we've gotten better.

But I think that there's a lot of critiques and and I'm also probably saying that from a really privileged place of thinking that it's better because I might not be as affected or my story might be more likely to be told in a certain space, especially like even in the queer space.

You know, you're going to focus on me as a main character and not, you know, a trans woman of color, more likely, right?

Um, so I think we've gotten better, but not I don't think we're at a landing place.

Maybe we'll end with the power of this content.

Marci Space Advisor.

How did you feel at the end of the film?

Yeah, I felt.

I felt that it was a well-done movie.

I think that they did a great job in terms of telling the story about Sally's life, about how she got interested STEM and was able to accomplish what she wanted to do in terms of becoming an astronaut.

I mean, that wasn't really even her goal in life.

She wanted to be a physicist because she like physics.

That was her thing.

And she saw an ad in the newspaper at the school she was attending at Stanford and just decided to apply what the heck, right?

And then she got in.

She became an astronaut.

So I think, you know, her lasting legacy is told by a lot of women astronauts who came after her.

And they're the ones that really carry on the story now, now that she's passed.

And in terms of encouraging other women, young girls, to be interested in STEM and just go for it.

Thank you.

Well, thank you very much to Amanda Cole and Marcy from for joining us to the city club.

We're going to plot for you in just a second.

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That City club.

RG The City Club would like to welcome guests at the table hosted by Plexus and they would also like to thank the Cleveland International Film Festival for their programing partnership with today's forum.

You can view the film Sally on Saturday, April 5th at 4:55 p.m. at the Mimi Ohio Theater and Playhouse Square and use Code City Club for $1 off your ticket.

Coming up next Friday, April 11th, at the City Club, we will hear from key leadership engaged in Policy Bridge's new urban agenda for Cleveland.

And I'm told it's a very hot ticket right now.

They will be discussing the goals, the goals of the urban agenda and to celebrate the potential for significant impact on Northeast Ohio's economic growth.

Randy MC Sheppard, chairman and co-founder of Policy Bridge, will moderate.

You can get tickets, but get them quickly and learn more about this and other forums at City Club dot org.

And that, my friends, brings us to the end of today's forum.

Thank you once again to Amanda and to Marcy.

I'm Ken Schneck and this forum is now adjourned.

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