Helping Those Who Need Help

[00:00:00]Hey everybody, I wore the hat to fool you, but today's video, as you can tell probably from my voice, is a little bit different, but I hope you'll watch.

[00:00:07]Uh many of you know, maybe not all of you, but many of you know that I ran for Congress earlier this year in the special election in NJ-11. Uh I did not win. Uh I was obviously disappointed with the results, but I was very moved by the generosity and support of my fans, my friends, and a lot of people who didn't know me from a hole in the wall, but liked what I was saying. Uh it took us a while to unwind the campaign.

[00:00:30]I made various donations to like-minded candidates and in some local races.

[00:00:35]Uh but I had one more chunk of money that I was finally able to uh donate yes- this week uh to an organization called Edge New Jersey, edgenj.org.

[00:00:47]Now, they had hosted a forum for candidates during the special election uh campaign season, and we had events at a lot of great organizations and great venues, and and I met uh with a lot of great people.

[00:01:00]But I found myself sort of moved particularly strongly uh by an encounter I had at Edge Edge NJ.

[00:01:11]And um it's a it's a group dedicated to helping the LGBTQ uh community, and you know, me as a sort of standard left-of-center Democrat, uh I obviously, you know, hate seeing discrimination. I you know, say those words like I stand with the LGBTQ community, etc., etc., and I mean it, but I'd never had the kind of conversation I had uh with that community that I did that night. Uh a parent of a of a trans boy uh was speaking to me, and I was just I was curious. Um and I was asking her about, you know, her situation, and and I remember my first question. She was just such an upbeat person, but the things she was telling me uh were not particularly upbeat.

[00:01:58]And she was saying to me that, you know, only a few of her son's closest friends know that he's trans.

[00:02:07]Uh, that they had moved towns.

[00:02:09]Uh, you know, just for for safety and comfort and that they were at the point now where they were looking at colleges and um, they weren't necessarily looking at the school that was best in terms of maybe academics, but best in terms of safety and fostering a welcoming community.

[00:02:34]And to see how upbeat this person was and that she had a smile on her face, um, all I could think in the back of my head while being impressed with her composure and her decency and her positivity was the sort of attacks that take place in this country on the street, in the halls of Congress, in the White House, uh, on that community.

[00:02:59]And it's so flippant the way people dismiss the trans community, what they go through psychologically, physically, uh, emotionally, um, socially. It's it's it's not the, as Trump I think had said, you go to school in the morning a boy and you come home a girl.

[00:03:21]Uh, I think that resonates with far too many people in this country. That sort of simplistic and insulting uh, description of what it is, but talking to this woman who this was not somebody making a flippant decision. This was years if not over a decade of sort of community assessment, medical advice, um, social awareness, uh, building up sort of safety structures for her child.

[00:03:50]And I just to see that she was still kind of upbeat, it made me realize that this organization clearly fostered a kind of safe haven that is definitely needed and not just for the individuals who may be trans or LGBTQ, uh but their families.

[00:04:10]And I just left feeling, you know, so inadequate, I would say as almost as a somebody running for for office because the work that they're doing in many ways is so much more substantial. I know if I were in Congress, you'd be trying to pass laws, but we also see how ineffective Congress can be, especially under the control of Republicans.

[00:04:32]But seeing what these people were doing and what they were offering and giving to their community and people who are under attack and so unfairly. And I would ask people you know, I'm I'm a mass-attending Catholic. So, maybe I don't I don't necessarily fit the profile of somebody who'd be doing this video and making this sort of push for advocacy for this group.

[00:04:53]Which they did not ask me to do.

[00:04:55]They didn't ask for they didn't solicit a donation, they didn't ask anything of me. Uh I just was moved by by my brief time uh visiting with them.

[00:05:05]I would ask people who who might say you know, I don't believe I believe there's two genders or I believe, you know, whether as a faith-based argument or just a sort of their understanding of science.

[00:05:20]Even if we accept all that.

[00:05:22]Okay?

[00:05:23]Let's say you're right.

[00:05:27]The cruelty the indignity the hate the violence um the shame and the discomfort heaped upon this tiny community of people and their families cannot be justified. Even if you believe that it's the cause of something other than uh you know a a a gender dysphoria.

[00:05:51]And seeing the the comfort that not only the woman I spoke to at length, but but other people felt in that community. And to see the contrast of how they're treated by politicians, by everyday people.

[00:06:07]Um I just said I I whatever little I can do to help this community, I I need to do it. And this organization in particular. So um for anybody who donated to my campaign, that's where the last of the remaining money went to this organization. And uh you know, if you if you feel the way I feel about it, um I would recommend you throw edgenj.org uh a few bucks today because I talked that sort of generic liberal talk, and I mean it, but I it felt it hit me much more in my core seeing really great, generous people doing work for a community that is incredibly marginalized, incredibly under attack.

[00:06:53]Um and it just, you know, it made me want to do something more than just say I stand with or you know, anything like that. So this was my campaign donating, but you know, once I start when I get to giving, you know, my donations towards the end of the year to to different organizations and charities, edgenj will definitely be be on the list. So uh just some food for thought on a Friday. Uh I hope you're doing well. And I'll get back to doing the funny voices and offensive videos later.

[00:07:21]Bye.