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Women Around the World: Bianka Rodriguez · Stuff Mom Never Told You

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Hey, this is Annie and Samantha and welcome to Steph.
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: I've never told your production off I Heart Radio, and
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: welcome to another edition of Women Around the World when
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  Speaker 1: we just celebrate all the women doing all the amazing
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: things and we want to keep lifting them up because
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: you know, they need their flowers and they should get
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: them while they're still with us. But before we start,
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  Speaker 1: a I do have a pretty intense personal question and
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  Speaker 1: just so you know, listeners, and I did ask her
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: before so that she was prepared let it and you know,
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  Speaker 1: put her on the spot. I think the other people
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  Speaker 1: are like, oh my god, why would you ask this?
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  Speaker 1: It's you know, because we we love each other and
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  Speaker 1: we love sharing with you all our listeners, our personal thoughts.
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  Speaker 1: But for you, who has come out as queer, uh,
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  Speaker 1: not so recently but recently, but definitely recently to some
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  Speaker 1: p what was the hardest part about coming out? I
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  Speaker 1: think the hardest part for me because I identify, as
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  Speaker 1: I have said, as like a sexual slash maybe gray
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  Speaker 1: sexual by romantic, but I was I thought I was
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  Speaker 1: queer from high school ish age and that it wasn't
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  Speaker 1: so hard in a lot of ways. You know, I
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  Speaker 1: as an a sexual person, it was easy to like pass.
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  Speaker 1: So I think for me coming out, I had a
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  Speaker 1: lot of doubts about well, I didn't go through all
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  Speaker 1: these horrific things I've seen other queer people go through,
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  Speaker 1: so I'm not queer enough. Um. And then I hate
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  Speaker 1: to admit this, but I was almost embarrassed for people
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  Speaker 1: who had dated me. Yeah it's terrible, like it's not
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  Speaker 1: a good that's not healthy in any way. But I
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  Speaker 1: was embarrassed at what they would like tell their friends
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  Speaker 1: about dating me. And then probably the other thing was
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  Speaker 1: that no one would believe me, that they would dismiss it,
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  Speaker 1: and they would say like essentially what we've seen, what
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  Speaker 1: we've talked about in past episodes with a sexuality of
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  Speaker 1: oh you just don't like sex, so like that fear
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  Speaker 1: of being dismissed, being judged, being like looked down upon
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  Speaker 1: and ostracized. Luckily, I've been fairly most of the people
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  Speaker 1: I know have been really supportive. I've had a few
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  Speaker 1: that haven't, but that was definitely it was hard, like
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  Speaker 1: the like telling of someone and then that moment where
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  Speaker 1: they process it and me thinking, oh, they don't believe me,
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  Speaker 1: or they think it's a phase or something like that
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  Speaker 1: just dismiss it, right, And I know there's a lot
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  Speaker 1: of conversation right now, especially in the US and around
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  Speaker 1: the world, as the queer community feel like they're being
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  Speaker 1: targeted and they are, I think specifically by morality police
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  Speaker 1: as well as the right wing conservative political stances. But
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  Speaker 1: I think it's really important that we keep talking about
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  Speaker 1: that because you're you know what you went through, even
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  Speaker 1: though it's very deeply personal for you, and it is
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  Speaker 1: individualistic like everybody goes through different things. You've had a
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  Speaker 1: better reception from your community, which I love, which I
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  Speaker 1: hope you felt that way as part as being part
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  Speaker 1: of your community, But I know a lot of people
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  Speaker 1: haven't always had that. Lots of family, a lot of homelessness,
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  Speaker 1: a lot of that, And I think that's really important
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  Speaker 1: that we keep talking about it because even though it
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  Speaker 1: might be a good reception seemingly, there's still a lot
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  Speaker 1: of turmoil that people go through, as as you talked
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  Speaker 1: about within your own self that whole like, how how
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  Speaker 1: are my ex partners? I think that's legitimate. I don't
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  Speaker 1: think we talked about that a lot. How it affects
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  Speaker 1: you as much as it affects possibly those around you,
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  Speaker 1: but affects you because that is one more thing added
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  Speaker 1: to your level of so many emotions that you are
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  Speaker 1: going through. And you know, we really want to keep
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  Speaker 1: talking about the queer community at all points. This is
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  Speaker 1: not something for for us, you know, being in an
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  Speaker 1: intersectional conversation constantly, we want to make sure that that
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  Speaker 1: is something that is always at the forefront of everybody's minds.
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  Speaker 1: We don't want to ever come to a point that
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  Speaker 1: we just do things because of a month or a day.
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  Speaker 1: So just to put that out there, I know, I
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  Speaker 1: think we've talked about this before. The same thing is like, yeah,
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  Speaker 1: it's a women's history month, sure, but we talk about
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  Speaker 1: women all the time and so nothing's really changed. Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: we wish that more people could do that, so we
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  Speaker 1: could go outside of this month and it would be
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  Speaker 1: more of a regular thing that it doesn't have to
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  Speaker 1: be highlighted. It would be a delight not to have
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  Speaker 1: to do these things in order for any recognition to
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  Speaker 1: be done. But that's a sidebar that I always like
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  Speaker 1: to add in. But today we also wanted to talk
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  Speaker 1: about another queer woman who's doing some amazing things, and
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  Speaker 1: that is a Bianca Rodriguez and Bianca. It's a Salvadorian
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  Speaker 1: tra and activists who has been a leader in her
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  Speaker 1: home and for the LGBTQ plus community. Born in nine
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  Speaker 1: and Saint Salvador, Bianca has seen the continued violence and
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  Speaker 1: discrimination around her. Though she was supported by her father
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  Speaker 1: when she started to discover her true identity at the
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  Speaker 1: age of five, it wasn't long lived. She lost her
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  Speaker 1: father at the age of six, and unfortunately her mother
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  Speaker 1: was not so understanding and it was fairly abusive and
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  Speaker 1: unwilling to accept Bianca and forced her to leave to
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  Speaker 1: go and live with her grandmother, who had quote, I
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  Speaker 1: don't want this to come out as saying I'm saying this,
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  Speaker 1: so this is quote, come to terms with who Bianca
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  Speaker 1: was and accepted it. So she did have a little
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  Speaker 1: bit of support, yes, and with her grandmother's support, Bianca
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  Speaker 1: graduated high school and moved on to get her degree
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  Speaker 1: in agro industrial engineering, but due to the targeted harassment
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  Speaker 1: and bullying from the school, Bianca eventually dropped out and
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  Speaker 1: she experienced many hardships outside of just school, and she
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  Speaker 1: continued to try to find jobs and a way to
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  Speaker 1: survive and support herself, but she also continued to be
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  Speaker 1: rejected due to her i D which mis gendered her.
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  Speaker 1: As she has said, quote, we live in a situation
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  Speaker 1: in which society at large discriminates against us, and the
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  Speaker 1: state discriminates against us. The only option left is to
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  Speaker 1: try to survive in a country that denies as our
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  Speaker 1: rights in Bianca adopted her new name and identity and
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  Speaker 1: worked to do more, not only for herself but for
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  Speaker 1: those who were in similar situations as she was. So.
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  Speaker 1: In Human Rights Watch report, it was stated that the
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  Speaker 1: South Vadorian government admitted that the l g B t
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  Speaker 1: q I plus community quote face torture in human or
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  Speaker 1: degrading treatment, excessive use of force, illegal and arbitrary arrest,
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  Speaker 1: and other forms of abuse, much of it committed by
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  Speaker 1: public security agents, which forced many of the l g
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  Speaker 1: B t q I plus community to flee from their home.
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  Speaker 1: Many of the queer community in El Salvador has been
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  Speaker 1: a target of violence, and the government has done very
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  Speaker 1: little to help the community. Um In twenty twenty three,
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  Speaker 1: police officers were found guilty in the killing of Camilla
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  Speaker 1: Diaz Cordova, a transgender woman who had been deported by
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  Speaker 1: the u S, which is a whole other conversation we
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  Speaker 1: need to get into UM and though the conviction was
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  Speaker 1: a good sign that perhaps people would be held accountable,
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  Speaker 1: there's so much more to be done UM as in fact,
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  Speaker 1: they talked about the amount of violence that is happening
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  Speaker 1: and much of them being transgender community being targeted. Lgbt
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  Speaker 1: q i plus community in El Salvador has not been protected,
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  Speaker 1: as in fact, one presidential nominee UH previously had like
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  Speaker 1: went all the way in kind of like some of
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  Speaker 1: our political people right now and being anti lgbt Q
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  Speaker 1: rights as well as really pushing to use harmful rhetoric
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  Speaker 1: around that community. And Blanca again has seen violence of
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  Speaker 1: this nature at firsthand, including being abducted and held at gunpoint,
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  Speaker 1: but she's been able to make it out and has
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  Speaker 1: become a fierce advocate to protect others from the constant
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  Speaker 1: targeted violence and harassment. She said in an un article
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  Speaker 1: quote in El Savador, my country, lgbt i Q plus
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  Speaker 1: people are killed, beaten by gains, sexual abused, and persecuted.
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  Speaker 1: Trans people face the most danger, but together we can
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  Speaker 1: change things. She began volunteering at Calm Cavis Trans, a
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  Speaker 1: Salvadorian nonprofit that works for the rights of the l
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  Speaker 1: g B d q I plus community and HIV positive people.
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  Speaker 1: Under the leadership of Kayla Avalar, she became the communications manager,
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  Speaker 1: and after Avalar was forced to flee, Bianca stepped in
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  Speaker 1: as the executive director of Calm Cavist Trans and I
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  Speaker 1: hope I'm pronouncing that correctly. And under her leadership, since then,
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  Speaker 1: Bianca has been an advocate and leader for the trans
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  Speaker 1: community and even named you in hc r's first trans
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  Speaker 1: woman high profile supporter, allowing her to continue to speak
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  Speaker 1: up and advocate for her community and country. So right,
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  Speaker 1: and here's a bit of the history on com cavis.
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  Speaker 1: And we're calling this com cavist. We don't know if
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: that's how it's said or it's supposed to be c
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  Speaker 1: O M C A v I S. So sorry. We
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  Speaker 1: took it from their side, could not find any pronunciations,
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  Speaker 1: but we want to recognize them. So the history on
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  Speaker 1: Calm Cavist Trans from their site calm cavis dot org.
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  Speaker 1: U com Cavist Trans Association was born in response to
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  Speaker 1: the nis felt by trans women participating in the various
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: support groups people with HIV to feel discriminated against, not
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  Speaker 1: represented and did not obtain the required information according to
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  Speaker 1: their own characteristics and on July five, two thousand eight,
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  Speaker 1: calm cavist Trans was founded with the purpose of having
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  Speaker 1: a support group with which you could feel identified trans
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  Speaker 1: women and thus strengthened your knowledge on HIV, anti retroviral therapy,
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: human rights, stigma and discrimination, gender identity and related interest
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  Speaker 1: direct populations of trans women's issues. With the passing of time.
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  Speaker 1: Com Cavus Trans is defined as a non political, non religious,
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  Speaker 1: non governmental organization and nonprofit which aims to quote represent, defend, ensure,
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  Speaker 1: and promote human rights and interests of women trans to
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  Speaker 1: foster their development and respect for human dignity, obtaining legal
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  Speaker 1: status on December eight, two thousand eleven, when the Ministry
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  Speaker 1: of Interior gives us judicial personality and which was published
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  Speaker 1: in the official Gazette on December twenty two, two thousand eleven.
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  Speaker 1: Since its inception, colm Cavus Trans does its job with
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  Speaker 1: respect and subject to national laws to public order based
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  Speaker 1: on the impartiality regardless of gender identity, sexual orientation, race,
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  Speaker 1: sex creed, nationality, social status and political affiliations. So you're
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  Speaker 1: help routed with the high spirit of service and objective
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  Speaker 1: understanding governed by the fundamental rights and freedoms, So that
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  Speaker 1: was from their site translated. Bianca has been awarded the
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  Speaker 1: Nansen Refugee Award for her work as well as her
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  Speaker 1: content and he would work with United Nations. She has
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  Speaker 1: pushed to bring awareness of the violence and harassment targeted
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  Speaker 1: at the l g b t q I plus community
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  Speaker 1: and continues to work with Calm Cavis to help provide
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  Speaker 1: services and save spaces for her community. Bianca's vision, as
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  Speaker 1: she has said, is quote to continue empowering new leaders,
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  Speaker 1: particularly translators, to provide attention to forcefully displayed lgbt i
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  Speaker 1: q plus persons with life saving assistance as well as
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: small scale entrepreneurship opportunities to mitigate the impact of displacement
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  Speaker 1: and rebuild their lives. Amazing. So she does not have
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  Speaker 1: a Wikipedia page, so if someone wants to take that on,
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  Speaker 1: they really should, yes, and let us know because she's
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  Speaker 1: doing some amazing work and she should be recognized as
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  Speaker 1: she stands firm um and trying to advocate for her
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  Speaker 1: people for herself and it's beautiful to see. Yeah, and
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  Speaker 1: and going back to what you asked me at the top,
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  Speaker 1: I guess another thing I would add is that it's hard.
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  Speaker 1: I'll speak to my own experience, but if if so
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  Speaker 1: many people or you're the messages you're getting are this
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  Speaker 1: isn't right, this is wrong, this is sinful. And for me,
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  Speaker 1: I tried to convince myself for a long time that
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  Speaker 1: it was a phase and it will pass and I
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  Speaker 1: can be quote normal and I can have this life
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  Speaker 1: and that's what I should want. Um. So it is
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  Speaker 1: really hard to have all this messaging coming at you
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  Speaker 1: and stand firm and be like, no, this is who
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  Speaker 1: I am, and fight for yourself and for people in
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  Speaker 1: your community, when again you just inundated with this messaging
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  Speaker 1: that sell you to like be quiet and just go along. Yes,
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  Speaker 1: stop stop rocking the boat. I mean, essentially that's kind
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  Speaker 1: of Bianca's experience was as a child, her mother tried
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  Speaker 1: to abuse it out of her, locked her in room
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  Speaker 1: so she wouldn't dress, and dresses essentially, and yeah, you can,
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: like there's so many things that you really if it
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  Speaker 1: was up to you, if it was truly a choice,
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  Speaker 1: so much simpler to follow the status quo. And that's
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  Speaker 1: what we people are understanding. It's not about this, that's
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  Speaker 1: is like fan fair of like they're trying to be dramatic.
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  Speaker 1: It's no, that's they're just trying to live, trying to
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  Speaker 1: live our life. Why yes. So as always inspiring work here,
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  Speaker 1: very important work. Uh, and we're going to continue to
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  Speaker 1: look out for what Bianca does. Get on that Wikipedia page.
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  Speaker 1: Somebody please, somebody please please. And as always, if you
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: have somebody you think we should be talking about on
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  Speaker 1: this segment or any other suggestions, you can email us
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: at Stuff Media, mom Stuff at iHeart media dot com.
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: You can find us on Twitter at mom Stuff Podcast
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: or Instagram and Stuff I've Never Told You. Thanks. It's
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: always to our super producer Christina. Thank you Christina, and
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: thanks to you for listening Stuff I Never Told You
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: the production of iHeart Radio. For more podcast from my
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