Hatching Creativity: Conversations on Success, Innovation, and Growth
Welcome to "Hatching Creativity: Conversations on Success, Innovation, and Growth"! Join us as we dive deep into the world of creativity and explore the minds of remarkable individuals who have achieved extraordinary success in their respective fields.
In this podcast, we believe that creativity is not limited to the realm of art and design; it encompasses every aspect of life and business. Through engaging interviews and thought-provoking discussions, we'll uncover the secrets behind harnessing creativity to drive innovation and fuel personal and professional growth.
Discover the strategies, mindset, and experiences that have propelled our guests to new heights. We'll explore guests journeys, challenges, and breakthrough moments. Be inspired by their stories, learn from their failures, and gain practical insights to apply in your own creative endeavors.
Get ready to tap into the boundless potential of your own creativity, ignite your passion, and embark on a transformative journey of success, innovation, and growth. Subscribe now and join us on this exciting adventure!
Hatching Creativity: Conversations on Success, Innovation, and Growth
Shining a Light on LGBTQ+ Advocacy: The Impact of Supportive Communities and Education with Phil McCabe of Rutgers University
What if we told you that the path to equality for the LGBTQ+ community is paved with education, advocacy, and supportive communities? Get ready to challenge your own beliefs as we take a deep dive into the importance of understanding the unique struggles faced by the LGBTQ+ community, the unfair practice of reparative therapy, and how laws are stepping in to protect them. We also tackle the harmful culture of victim blaming, highlighting the need for empowerment and the crucial role allies play in this mission with our guest Phil McCabe.
Welcome to Hatching Creativity. This isn't just another behavioral health podcast. This is the place where thought leaders converge to talk about real life challenges, breakthroughs and pivotal aha moments.
Speaker 2:Just like someone who is lesbian, gay or bisexual. You can't turn them straight. You just cannot do that. That's why we have laws against reparative therapy in the United States, but those laws why there might be. I think now we have 29 states that prohibit reparative therapy or conversion therapy, sometimes referred to as pray the gay way. I may be wrong on that number of states, but I know New Jersey was the second state to outlaw it. But there's a number of states, particularly in the Midwest or the Bible Belt, where young people are being sent to these camps and they're being forced to modify their behavior, restrict their behavior, as if they could become heterosexual, and it doesn't happen.
Speaker 2:There is no evidence that shows reparative or conversion therapy can be successful. It has been spoken out against by the American Psychiatric Association, american Psychiatric, psychology, pediatrics, social Work, addiction Counselors we all have statements against reparative therapy and yet there are still individuals who try to offer it. In New Jersey it's considered unethical and actually it's you could be. I don't want to talk about just in our state because I'm very proud of our state that our Attorney General took it very serious and said if you are offering that to someone, you're committing consumer fraud. Not only is it harmful to them, but it's also fraud and that's why we put a stop to the practice here in New Jersey. You know there's so many little things that are happening and what we're seeing now is, as we made progress for a number of years, the previous administration pushed us back and we are now dealing with the implications of that pushback.
Speaker 2:I just use, you know, some other examples there's. There have been protests and and harassments, and people have found their voice and empowered themselves. You know, 1959 was the first known activity where someone said to the, to the police officers who were in the shop it's not right. You know we didn't do anything wrong. Here's the Cooper's donut, which is a donor shop in LA. They were inside the donor shop having coffee and chit, chatting, like a lot of people do after a night on the town, and the police came in typically to harass them, particularly if they were trans or drag queens or commercial. You know certified sex I'm sorry, not certified sex workers, that's me you know sex workers. You know engaging in prostitution yes, that might have been illegal activity, but they weren't doing it in the coffee shop, they were just having a cup of coffee and talking with their friends.
Speaker 1:So Go ahead, mike. What I'd like to do is talking a little bit about solution. Let's talk a little bit about first. If you feel that you're being harassed or being treated unfairly, what can somebody do in order to speak up?
Speaker 2:Mike, I just want to make an observation here also because, yes, what is important for LGBT individuals to find their voice and to feel in power. That also goes back it kind of has its roots to what we refer to as victim blaming, that if you're the one being abused and you're the one that has to correct the situation, well, what about the rest of society? That's where allies are so important. Allies are the ones that stand up and say wait a minute. I don't know what you're basing that information on, but it's inaccurate. I know many LGBT clients, I know many LGBT counselors, and that's not what they do or that's not what they need.
Speaker 2:So again, yes, gay people should feel empowered, should be able to address and confront homophobia and transphobia and other biphobia that exists, but at the same time, we as a community also and there are many people I think that's what we're dealing with in our political strife right now, as much as there has been a pushback and it feels like sometimes with all these increase in anti-LGBT legislation particularly women in sports is what they're referring to it as, but it's really an anti-trans bill and it's showing up in many different areas. I think that there are many people who say wait a minute. I don't think that's true, I don't think that's really necessary, I don't think it's going to hurt someone if there's a transgender person on the team, and I also know that there's a right to privacy when you're using a restroom or a changing room or a bathroom facility. So why are we all sudden threatened by someone who might be perceived as being another gender coming into a restaurant?
Speaker 2:I mean, if they're there for illegal activities, of course that's illegal, but just to go in to use a restroom should not be challenged because of how someone appears to be and someone else thinks they might be trans or expressing their gender differently. But I think, going back to the idea behind this, that's why allies are so important and I believe that the better we educate allies, then we'll have those clinicians or we'll have those family members or friends who say, hey, wait a minute, I don't think that's true, or we can stop that. Stop repeating a distortion, stop believing a lie. We can do better. I think that goes back to the treatment community is when we say we need to do better and we can do better, and we do have resources available to help people do better.
Speaker 1:So you know what I think is also really important. You talk about allies, and I agree with you. The ally speaking up is even more important, but also the allies being cognizant of the message that they want to be sharing. Oftentimes, when people run out of facts, without you know when you run out of facts, or maybe when you're arguing with somebody who has no argument based in the facts, right, you know, there's an expression I don't know if you're familiar with Sam Harris, but Sam Harris had an expression and he says you know, if somebody doesn't value evidence, you're never going to give them enough evidence to make them value it.
Speaker 1:And I think that's really important because, coming from an allies perspective, as soon as it devolves into name-calling, arguing anything outside of facts, it works against what you're trying to do. In fact, you just you're, you're worsening the situation. And I'm not saying to be tolerant of ignorance, because there's no tolerance. There should be no tolerance for ignorance. It should be about trying to educate the ignorant and be able to provide good facts that are going to back what your argument is, as opposed to getting into those kinds of arguments that are just about the other person rather than the facts. Does that make sense?
Speaker 2:You know, there, unfortunately, are some individuals who are comfortable in their ignorance, which is really unfortunate because, again, as much as the work that I'm doing is important the contributions that you are making are important it also has to be a change that occurs not just with the individual, not just in their immediate family, but also in their community, but also in society in general, and each of us can make that change. In public health, we talked about the social ecological model, which is how we do bring about change. So not only do we need the belief and the change in the belief systems that are out there that are anti or harassing or discriminating or bullying or stigmatizing or creating prejudice against LGBT individuals. We also need to make a change that we have laws of protection and many of those laws of protection have been written, but at the same time, they're often ignored or people are attempting to rewrite them to exclude LGBT individuals. Mike, if I can just for a moment go back and remind people that you know we've seen laws and policy change and then we're seeing a pushback. You know President Obama repealed the Don't Ask, don't Tell, which allowed military personnel to be open in their transitioning or in their coming out, and then we had another administration where they denied it. And then we're back to now. President Biden has again reversed the ban on transgender people in the military, which went into effected January 21. So this political strife that we're seeing why you don't have to be a service member to recognize that it's creating an undercurrent around our country. So there are a lot of resources available. I encourage people to check out nowgaporg N-A-L-G-A-Porg that's our website. We have a lot of resources on there that can help individuals.
Speaker 2:The important thing, going back to the treatment community, is many times in treatment gay people have been treated only with a minimum level of tolerance, sometimes not even help to feel welcome.
Speaker 2:But we need to move from that unwelcoming environment to a welcoming environment, to environment that's also affirmative, and I think that's what we'll be talking about next time, mike how the spectrum of treatment that we can offer to people needs not to just to recognize LGBT individuals but to help to affirm them in their identity, in their gender expression and also within their community, because that's where it does come back to the whole community. Recovery for me, is about connection. Addiction was about isolation, so it's really important and I've seen, unfortunately, people going into treatment who are LGBT identified and told don't worry about that right now, just focus on your alcohol and drug use and that other stuff will get sorted out later. No, it's the issue they're coming in with, and if we connect them to a community that supports their recovery and LGBT affirmative community, it's going to be really important. Many clinicians aren't really sure how or when to do that, so I would love to carry the conversation with you, mike, in our future where we move into some of those components.
Speaker 1:Well, Phil, thank you so much for coming on today. I appreciate your time and everything you put together. This is really good. Maybe we can share this slideshow. If you're okay with sending it to me, I'd be happy to link it onto onto the podcast. And yeah, guys, I can't wait to bring Phil back on and talk a little bit more about the treatment world and the center of excellence, the things we're doing together. Phil, thank you so much for joining us today and I look forward to the next one.
Speaker 2:All right. Thank you, mike. Happy to be here and thank everybody who's listening. Thanks so much, phil.
