For members of the LGBTQ+ community, finding a safe space where they can be themselves is as fundamental as it is hard to find. The possibility of being comfortable in their surroundings and expressing their thoughts and feelings without fear of being ridiculed or humiliated is often unavailable to underrepresented minorities. This is why the work of our guests, Monica and Ash, is so important! By creating a safe space for the LGBTQ+ community on TikTok, they are literally saving lives. 

Monica, a former Sex Ed teacher, and her eldest Ash, a high-schooler who came out as a non-binary lesbian, have a TikTok profile, The Normalizers (@Monicatheteacher), with over 125 thousand followers and 6 million likes on their posts. They talk openly about sexual orientation, gender identity, pronouns, autism bullying, eating disorders, representation, and many other subjects. After starting over a couple of times and repurposing their content, they finally received the surprising yet well-deserved recognition that they now have. Their TikTok profile created a safe space for LGTBQ+ community members and their parents and allies, where everyone is free to express themselves and be who they are without any fear. 

In this episode, our conversation revolves around Monica and Ash's evolution as influencers, and their relationship before and after Ash came out to their mom, Monica, first as a lesbian and later as non-binary. We discuss the importance of creating safe spaces at home and normalizing talking about sexual orientation and gender identity. Monica and Ash shared some of their experience with hateful comments online, how they deal with them, and what they believe social media companies could do about it. 

Some Questions We Ask:

• How did you go from having these conversations within your family and yourself to posting videos and sharing that publicly? (16:08)
• What's it like to go upstream and create a safe place in this wild west of social media? How do you navigate that, and what do you think the companies can do better? (24:58)
• What is your take on where we're headed as a country? Is this country ever going to be a safe place for queer people? (34:23)

In This Episode, You Will Learn:

• About the difference Ash and Monica make with their safe online space (5:07)
• Coming out and producing a car crash at the same time (12:33)
• About Monica's need to teach Social-Emotional learning to the world (17:26)
• How feeling anonymous helped Ash and Monica's community feel safer (42:38)

Resources:

• Normalizers TikTok profile
• Normalizers podcast
• Normalizers Instagram
• Normalizers YouTube channel

Connect with Jackie and Bridget:

• Transgender Support: Becoming a True Ally Video Course on Vimeo
• Transgender School Patreon Membership with all exclusive content
• Transgender School on Medium
• Instagram
• Website 
• Facebook
• Community Facebook Group
• YouTube

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