Social Change and My Community by Mason Oliver

Environmental

masonoliver1_1 — 2025-04-06 21:39:55 UTC

In addition to other vulnerabilities, this article calls out the increased likelihood of LGBTQIA+ people to experience houselessness, which automatically creates greater vulnerability to the effects of extreme weather.

Gay Liberation - Stonewall

masonoliver1_1 — 2025-04-06 21:50:05 UTC

The Stonewall riots were so important to the queer community in this country. Queer people standing up to unfair and hateful law enforcement practices and creating increased visibility for queer and trans people paved the way for subsequent generations of queer folks.

My Community

masonoliver1_1 — 2025-04-06 22:03:13 UTC

I've identified as part of the Portland queer community from a young age. The Pride Parade is a highlight of the year for the community, not only because it's fun but because it feels empowering to be among community and allies.

Cultural

masonoliver1_1 — 2025-04-06 22:15:59 UTC

Drag has become a huge cultural force in the years since Stonewall. RuPaul's career, and the platform they have provided for hundreds of other performers, has really normalized queer art and experimentation with gender and exposed typically heteronormative mainstream culture to queer music, art and performance.

Inequality & Health

masonoliver1_1 — 2025-06-07 23:21:06 UTC

This touches on both global inequality and public health and how they intersect with the LGTBQIA+ community. It highlights how those overlapping factors increased the community's vulnerability to COVID with a variety of examples from around the world.

Inequality & Economic Systems

masonoliver1_1 — 2025-06-07 23:29:39 UTC

This article highlights the increased likelihood for members of the LGBTQIA+ community to live in poverty in this country, compared to their cis-het peers. Interestingly though, it digs in further and makes clear that feminist issues of patriarchal control and prejudice are also at play in this dynamic, as gay men represent an exception to the rule. Women, non-binary and trans people experience the worst of these effects.

Globalization

masonoliver1_1 — 2025-06-07 23:38:57 UTC

This article is from a few years ago but does a great job pointing out the friction that has been created by the differing ways that countries are evolving to treat and protect (or not) their LGBTQIA+ populations. The differences between different countries' laws and the wild west of the internet can create a very complex set of expectations for folks to navigate.

Economic Contributions

masonoliver1_1 — 2025-06-07 23:46:03 UTC

This interview with Lauren Schweppe, of the National LGBT Chamber of Commerce, goes into some depth on the challenges that the community of LGBT entrepreneurs faces in trying to build their businesses and create jobs in the wider economy. Their annual contribution of $1.7T is significant and must be protected and preserved.

Mental Health

masonoliver1_1 — 2025-06-07 23:49:44 UTC

This short video from the Trevor Project is powerful in laying out how the compounding impacts of LGTBQ identity, lack of family and community support and the accompanying economic hardship can have huge negative health impacts on this community.

Youth Healthcare

masonoliver1_1 — 2025-06-08 00:02:01 UTC

This article highlights the fact that the health disparities and challenges for the LGBTQ+ community in our society begin at a very early age and compound over time. Per the article, "These outcomes include poor mental health, suicidal thoughts and behaviors, experiences of violence, and sexually transmitted infections (STIs)."

Oregon K-12 Guidelines

masonoliver1_1 — 2025-06-08 00:14:39 UTC

This document that defines the state of Oregon's commitment to specifically considering the needs of LGBTQIA+ youth, in addition to other minority or marginalized groups, is an important piece of the work to ensure that these kids are set up for success, and understand that they are as worthy of support and as capable of success as any of their peers. Digging into the document, there's a section highlighting the work the group did to solicit and incorporate into their outcomes direct feedback from impacted youth. This is so crucial.

K-12 Education - LGBTQ Informed

masonoliver1_1 — 2025-06-08 00:21:21 UTC

This video from Harvard Graduate School of Education focuses on challenges in K-12 ed in this country around LGBT kids and/or kids with LGBT parents with a lot of specific details and examples to substantiate these concerns.

Creating Inclusive Learning Environments

masonoliver1_1 — 2025-06-08 00:31:44 UTC

This is a great talk with specific suggestions on pedagogy and changes that can be made to create better, safer, more inclusive environments for kids in schools. It's informed by the speaker's own experience growing up as a closeted gay kid, which adds a layer of relevance and urgency.

Religion

masonoliver1_1 — 2025-06-08 00:38:35 UTC

This is an interesting video about individuals' experiences with the intersection of religiosity and queer identity, and how that impacted their development and conception of themselves. This is a very micro look at the experience, which I think is a useful piece of the larger picture. It touches on conversion therapy, one of the most intensely anti-LGBTQ, toxic practices used to try and force kids to be straight.

Religion

masonoliver1_1 — 2025-06-08 00:45:32 UTC

This is a great set of demographic and sociological data around religion, sexual orientation/identity and even incorporates race. To contrast the very personal video I selected around this topic about individual experiences, this is a big picture data set that allows one to understand the general landscape of how, and how often, the community interacts with religiosity.

Religion, Youth & Suicidality

masonoliver1_1 — 2025-06-08 00:49:42 UTC

This article is very clear that kids in families that place a high degree of emphasis on traditional religious practices and whose parents talk about those fundamentally anti-LGBTQ religious beliefs are at higher risk for suicide. Youth is an incredibly dangerous time for LGBTQ folks and their family and community are the number one factor that can either allow them to grow and flourish or prevent them from doing so.

Gay Liberation

masonoliver1_1 — 2025-06-08 01:07:48 UTC

A short video about one of the earliest events in the gay liberation movement in San Francisco, a precursor to the Stonewall riot.

Trans Rights

masonoliver1_1 — 2025-06-08 01:12:10 UTC

A great overview of the struggle for trans rights and freedoms in the US, with some context on the larger historical presence of trans and other variations on gender and identity.

Same Sex Marriage

masonoliver1_1 — 2025-06-08 01:15:25 UTC

This is a full length documentary, a deep dive into the long fight for marriage equality. This is one of the most well known, well publicized social movements championed by the LGBTQ community and its allies.

AIDS Activism

masonoliver1_1 — 2025-06-08 03:20:49 UTC

HIV/AIDS was a massive health crisis for the gay community in the 1980s and in the face of indifference and fear, healthcare providers, activists, patients and allies poured their hearts into grassroots activism and mutual aid and support as the community was decimated. Without the outspoken advocacy of the community, who knows whether or when the advances in medicines and treatments that have allowed those with HIV to live a relatively normal life now would have been developed.

SOCIAL MOVEMENTS

masonoliver1_1 — 2025-06-08 03:21:26 UTC

Activism and advocacy have been built into the struggle for LGBTQ+ rights and liberation for the better part of a century now. The examples I've specifically called out here are by no means exhaustive. The reality for queer people and those with non-traditional gender or sexual expression is that they have been disregarded at best and intentionally, systematically deprived of rights, attacked, othered and maligned. The community has known for a very long time that it needs to speak and fight for itself, and the proof of that is in examples like the ones I've shared. None of these hard-won rights were or would ever be just handed over, and the sometimes pugnacious culture of the community has evolved largely in response to that.

HEALTH & SAFETY

masonoliver1_1 — 2025-06-08 03:53:17 UTC

Health and safety is an incredibly relevant topic for the LGBTQIA+ community. I've focused on health here, and the imminent threats to kids' mental and physical health, echoed in the education section below, in addition to the difficulties adults have in accessing informed care, but physical safety is another huge concern for the community. "Gay bashing", verbal or physical assaults prompted by someone's presumed sexual orientation or other gender/sexual behaviors or characteristics, unfortunately still happen all the time at the hands of ignorant, hateful individuals who often receive very little consequences for those actions. Zooming out from the individual struggles folks have with care, especially in non-urban, more conservative areas, is the often religion-based legal and political initiatives to rob the community of the same rights as their fellow citizens, including the ability to access gender-affirming, and therefore lifesaving, care.

EDUCATION

masonoliver1_1 — 2025-06-08 03:54:23 UTC

As referenced in the health section above, LGBTQIA+ youth is such a vulnerable population that requires special, thoughtful attention to ensure they never feel less than others, and to make sure the other kids are inculcated with the expectation that they treat these peers with respect and decency. When legislators lean in to try and make their personal religious or moral beliefs the law of the land, and seek to do harm to children in so doing, it is everyone's responsibility to stand up and fight back. The efforts in Florida, such as the incredibly insidious law preventing teachers and administrators from honoring kids' chosen names without outing those kids to their parents, puts kids in danger and actively harms their mental health, which is seemingly the desired outcome, to scare people back into the closet. This community will never give up and will never stop fighting for our, and our kids', futures.

Experiences Accessing Care

masonoliver1_1 — 2025-06-08 04:03:49 UTC

First person perspectives from a group of Australian queer folks of differing identities who all share a background of invalidating, negative, in some cases borderline hateful treatment at the hands of healthcare professionals, highlighting some of the barriers to accessing care.

"Don't Say Gay"

masonoliver1_1 — 2025-06-08 04:11:02 UTC

The law colloquially known as "don't say gay" in Florida was intended to make it so adults in schools were legally prohibited from even acknowledging the existence of the LGBTQ community, or honoring kids' chosen names without explicit permission from their parents, which in some cases put them in dangerous situations. The fact that the article linked here is from just last year is proof positive that the struggle for equal rights, and to be treated as full and equal citizens in our society, is still in full swing.