Every day of Pride Month, Mashable will be sharing illuminating conversations with members of the LGBTQ community who are making history right now.
Sameer Jha is just 17 years old, but has already achieved something remarkable -- establishing a nonprofit and helping it become a cultural force. On top of all that, Jha is also a youth ambassador for the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) Foundation.
At the age of 14, Jha founded The Empathy Alliance, an organization dedicated to making schools safer for LGBTQ youth. As a queer and trans middle schooler, Jha says they endured extensive harassment and bullying. By establishing the nonprofit, they hoped to dramatically improve the quality of life for other LBGTQ students, so that no one would have the same traumatizing experience.
Jha started the Empathy Alliance by conducting research on school climate for students in the Bay Area. After discovering that the majority of LGBTQ students surveyed experienced bullying and name calling because of their identity, they decided to work with their old middle school to establish a Gay Straight Alliance (GSA) for youth, add safe space stickers to classrooms, fill the library with LGBTQ-friendly books, and encourage educators to take Gender Spectrum training (Gender Spectrum helps organizations and individuals who work with youth to become more gender-sensitive and inclusive). The Empathy Alliance now serves the entire district, including 42 schools and over 35,000 students.
SEE ALSO:Today's youth deserve inclusive masturbation educationThe organization is able to serve so many youth because it has such a strong base of volunteers. Since starting The Empathy Alliance, Jha has helped the organization expand to include close to 500 volunteers.
Mashable spoke to Jha about activism, the Empathy Alliance, and how schools can better serve LGBTQ youth.
The interview below has been edited for length and clarity.
Sameer Jha:I was 14 [when I founded The Empathy Alliance]. I was just coming out of freshman year. I had recently come out as queer and trans. All throughout elementary and middle I had been bullied for being feminine ... I didn’t even know I was queer. But just for being gender nonconforming I faced a lot of bullying and harassment. Within the South Asian community where I'm from we really didn't talk about queer issues at all. I just knew of the word "gay" as a slur, as something that meant "annoying" or "disgusting" or "terrible."
When I went to a different high school in a more diverse setting I got to see what the queer community was actually like. I discovered that a lot of their experiences were like my own. I eventually came out as queer and trans halfway through my freshman year. I finally saw people who were open and accepting and free to be themselves. [But then] I spoke with my friends from my old middle school and they were still facing the same kind of bullying. There was no understanding of what queer and trans identities were. That’s when I started The Empathy Alliance.
We work to change the school climate to make it more accepting. Even if you can't change your home situation, which is often rooted in religious or cultural environments, school environments are required by law to protect all their students. I knew that was something we could work on to change.
SJ: We started out of the Bay Area. Locally it's around 500 people volunteering and putting on events in the area. We do a lot of work internationally with the Human Rights Campaign and GLSEN (Editor's note: GLSEN is an organization that advocates specifically for LGBTQ youth). We go to conferences and do panels with those organizations. I recently wrote a book [based on the work I do with The Empathy Alliance] ... That book has been shared with people all around the country.
SJ: Being queer or trans is going to be difficult in the climate we have today. But it really does get better and things are already changing so much.
It's easy to see things as going backwards. A couple of days ago a story broke about how [certain] queer married couples aren't being given the same rights as other couples. But in the long run the culture is changing. People in general are becoming more aware of these issues. People are saying the word queer or LGBTQ in the media. The fact that we're even having this conversation is [big]. That's a huge thing that wouldn't have existed in the mainstream media a couple decades ago.
SJ: I really believe in the importance of inclusive health education. That's been a battle in local school districts. Students need to know what queer identities are and that it's okay to be queer. Just having your identity acknowledged by an adult can be life-changing. Just even mentioning it in the classroom.
I think GSAs are really powerful. That's where I found out about my identity and found a community. Even if there's a GSA that has no one it, that improves the climate for students. It's just an acknowledgement. It shows that someone cares.
Having inclusive educators, having at least one [teacher] who is open to queer and trans students, having an adult you can come to -- that's really important. We're still kids, we're still youth. We need an adult who can tell us that things are going to be okay.
SJ: I'm in a transition period. I'm transitioning from being a high school student and going to Stanford, where I'll also be an activist. I will still continue to do The Empathy Alliance. There are still things I want to do every year.
I'm still trying to figure out what I can get involved in at Stanford and what kind of things do I need to change at that level. I've been more focused on schools and communities because it's affected my life more. But I want to get more involved in politics. How can the government help us? ... I want to know.
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TopicsActivismSocial Good
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SEE ALSO:Today's youth deserve inclusive masturbation education