What do you know about trans joy? On this podcast episode, we’re joined by Vanessa Ford, an award-winning educator, author, and parent and Rebecca Kling, an educator, organizer, storyteller, and advocate for social change. The two talk about their collaboration to publish “The Advocate Educator’s Handbook: Creating Schools Where Transgender and Non-Binary Students Thrive” and the lessons they’ve learned working with educators, parents, and adults to encourage expansive resistance, remembering the importance of community and the politics of passing. 

Trump Is Rolling Back Protections for Transgender Students. What Educators Can Do https://www.edweek.org/leadership/opinion-trump-is-rolling-back-protections-for-transgender-students-what-educators-can-do/2025/01 

www.jrandvanessaford.com 
www.theadvocateeducator.com 
VanessaFordDC
www.RebeccaKling.com

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Rainbow In Black is a non-profit organization that provides unwavering support, resources, and advocacy for Black families of transgender and gender-diverse youth. Sonia Murphy and Keisha Bell, two of the organization's three founders and operators, join the class to discuss the importance of creating community, advocating and showing up for all the babies, and addressing church hurt and hypocrisy.  They remind us that acceptance does not require understanding, break down what “gender diverse” means, and talk about organizations like Gender Cool that work alongside Rainbow In Black and NBJC to ensure that YOU have everything you need so we all get free! 

https://www.rainbowinblack.org/ 

https://gendercool.org/

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If you’re still thinking about the significance of home or getting a DNA test to know where your people are from, this episode is for YOU. Dr. Gina Paige, co-founder of African Ancestry Inc., joined the class to discuss the company's pioneering efforts to ensure African descendants throughout the diaspora are empowered with information about the communities we come from and can contribute to, what distinguishes them from other companies that profit from selling our genetic information while also lacking the range to provide us with meaningful information in the exchange, and the power we can draw from having meaningful information about who we are and where we draw strength from.

African Ancestry is offering a 10% discount on its DNA testing kits as a gift to the class. Visit AfricanAncestry.Com/Discount and use the code “TeachTheBabies” to activate the offer

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Are you at the point where you’re ready to flip tables? If not, what will it take for you to grow there? Our sister, Alencia Johnson, the self-proclaimed accidental entrepreneur, stops by the class to talk to us about the lessons learned from producing her debut novel, “Flip The Tables, a guide for everyday disruptors to find the courage, disrupt the status quo and create a better world, right where they are.” We discuss what she learned working on four presidential election campaigns, creating the “Stand With Black Women” branding and framework at Planned Parenthood, how the personal is political, and our responsibility to play BIG!
 
www.Flipthetables.com 

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Andre 3000 told us the South has something to say, and Dr. Christina Greer wants us to heed the lessons that Black women political leaders from the South are teaching us. Dr. Greer stops by the class to talk about her latest publication, “How to Build a Democracy. From Fannie Lou Hamer and Barbara Jordan to Stacey Abrams,” and what it means to grow beyond fear, to build upon foundations established by our ancestors, being prepared to thrive at Historically White Colleges and Universities, the importance of political tithing and not waiting for America to grow up fully–she may never.  

How to Build a Democracy. From Fannie Lou Hamer and Barbara Jordan to Stacey Abrams https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/how-to-build-a-democracy/F34AB82F40A6FFD835D39C8AF46DA530 

Instagram: @dr_cmgreer

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Too often, we celebrate moments like holidays without holding space for the grief that comes for many of us. Advocate, attorney, and herstory making Florida State Representative Michel Rayner stops by the class to talk about how love shows up in her work, learning to live without your parents as anchors in the physical form, and the importance of having chosen family–folks who create space for you like attorney Ben Crump who wrote a check for Michele’s future and post-dated it for when she was brave enough to bet on herself. 

E-mail [email protected] “GTN: Good Trouble Network” for more. 

Michel Rayner For Florida https://micheleforflorida.com/

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If James Baldwin and Toni Morrison had a literary baby, it would be Robert Jones Jr. He stops by the class to discuss what he learned about love from writing his debut novel, The Prophets. The New York Times Bestselling book shares the romance and love between two enslaved same-gender loving men on a plantation in the American South and a parallel story of Kosii and Elewa, who live and love in a place farther than the past on the African continent.

Robert discusses the importance of permitting yourself to love and interrogating the pleasure in bigotry. He also discusses the importance of witnessing, writing, and harnessing our superpowers. The episode celebrates caring and compassionate adults who invest in us, open windows, and expose us to mirrors so that we can explore who we are in this world we didn’t ask to be born into. 

Witness Substack: https://robertjonesjr.substack.com/ Jordan Neely

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing_of_Jordan_Neely 

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In case you missed it, as the new Texas state legislative session commenced on Tuesday, Jan. 14, Jones, one of the first Black same-gender loving men to serve in the state house, got down on one knee and proposed to his longtime partner, Gregory Scott Jr., moments after being sworn in at the State Capitol in Austin. Rep. Jones stops by the class to talk about the responsibility of elected office,, the importance of going back home to lea,d, the importance of love, afrofuturistic dreams that include family, and finding and creating safe and soft places. There’s some School House Rock revisiting how a bill becomes a law and the importance of sustained legislative and civic engagement. This episode is bound up on knowing love–love of yourself, love of community, and love of family.  We pray you know love.

E-mail [email protected] “GTN: Good Trouble Network” for more. 
 
Rep. Jones, Venton - District 100 https://house.texas.gov/members/4275 

Venton Jones: https://www.ventonfor100.com/ 

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Warning" This episode discusses self-harm.

On April 18, 2019, 15-year-old Nigel Shelby died by suicide in response to constant homophobic, anti-Black bullying at school. His mother, Camika Shelby, stops by the class to discuss keeping Nigel’s legacy as he celebrates his 21st birthday (2/1) with our ancestors.  Camika reminds us of the importance of everyone using every available resource to support our babies.  She says that if a child doesn’t have a safe space at home, they will go looking for it elsewhere. She provides lessons she’s learned, including through loss and in grief, for caring and compassionate adults. Listen to the episode and read her book, “A Need for Nigel.”  

National Suicide Hotline 988
Camika Shelby- Facebook
@longlivenigelshelby- Instagram 
Iamnigelshelby- Facebook group page 
Website. www.thenigelshelbyfoundation.org

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Ask anyone in DC for recommendations for disability advocates, and they’ll likely name Dara Baldwin. She works within the Disability Justice movement to end racism and systems of oppression. She served as the Director of National Policy for the Center for Disability Rights, Inc., and Senior Policy Analyst at National Disability Rights Network.  She has worked on over 25 bills signed into law by five Presidents. She stops by the class to discuss the most important lessons learned in fighting for disability justice for all!

Baldwin, Dara. To Be A Problem: A Black Woman’s Survival in the Racist Disability Rights (July 2024).

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