Title: Your Lehrer Prize Nominations

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Brian Lehrer: It's The Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC. Good morning, everyone, and happy day before Christmas, day before Hanukkah starts tomorrow night, and two days before Kwanzaa begins on Thursday. For today's show, we're doing something special for the holiday that involves no politicians, no other newsmakers, no other experts, not necessarily holiday-related content, but the guests for today's show are all you. As we go, we will do an all-caller-generated edition of 100 Years of a Hundred Things, our WNYC centennial series.

It'll be the best true story from your family from the last hundred years, so think of one that's either funny or meaningful or surprising in some way or interesting to the wider world for whatever reason, the best true story from your family from the last hundred years, and we'll invite you to tell it on the air, coming up later in the show. We'll also do an all-calls edition of our Climate Story of the Week, which we've been doing every Tuesday on the show all this year, and since this is Tuesday, we'll do a climate story here on December 24th like any other Tuesday. Stay tuned for our Climate Story Caller Question coming up.

Again, start thinking about those best family stories. It can even be a best family joke that's been handed down from the last hundred years, but it can also be super serious. Think of those for later in the show, your best family story from the last hundred years, but here's how we begin. We are announcing now the topic for this year's Lehrer Prize for Community Well-Being. If you're asking, "What's this?" Well, five years ago, I was honored that WNYC decided to create an award called the Lehrer Prize for Community Well-Being. Each year, we choose a well-being category in which to honor three recipients. They get recognition, a chance to describe their work on the air, and a small cash grant.

Past categories have included individuals or groups who helped deliver food to the homebound at the start of the pandemic. Maybe you remember us doing that. Those who were leaders in social and emotional learning as many kids struggled to readjust to in-person school, and last year, those helping asylum-seekers get their feet on the ground as they arrived in New York by the busload. Thank you, Greg Abbott. Each year, our team looks for potential Lehrer Prize winners, and we invite you, our listeners, to supplement our team's research by making nominations as well.

Our Community Well-Being category for this year is People Supporting Transgender Kids. If you know a person or a group who has excelled this year at supporting transgender or non-binary minors and their parents medically, socially, or in any other way, we're inviting you to nominate them for the Lehrer Prize for Community Well-Being for 2024. We have a form online at wnyc.org/lehrerprizenominate, but but we'll kick off the nominations right now by inviting anyone to call in and name a person or an organization doing good work in supporting transgender or non-binary kids and their parents. 212-433-WNYC, 212-433-9692.

This doesn't have to be a long call-in. If we just get a few stories on the air of people or groups doing good work in this area, that would be a great kick-off to the nomination season for this year's Lehrer Prize. Again, if you know a person or a group who has excelled this year at supporting trans minors and their parents or just non-binary minors and their parents medically, socially, or in any other way, we're inviting you to nominate them for the Lehrer Prize for Community Well-Being for 2024.

We have a form online at wnyc.org/lehrerprizenominate, but we are kicking off the nominations right now by inviting a few phone calls on the air for you to name a person or an organization doing good work in supporting transgender or non-binary kids and their parents. 212-433-WNYC, 212-433-9692. You can also just text it in if you prefer. As your calls are coming in, I'll talk about why this. Well, one of the horrors of this year, in my opinion, has been the extent to which trans or non-binary minors have been used as political punching bags.

They and their parents are just kids and adults trying to deal with adolescence and emerging identities, which is hard enough for any kid and their parents. These days, they also have to deal with being told by the most powerful people in the country that they don't exist. Trump says there are only two genders or that getting hormone therapy or puberty blockers is somehow child abuse. If you know a person or a group who has excelled this year at supporting trans minors and their parents medically, socially, or in any other way, we're inviting you to nominate them for the Lehrer Prize for Community Well-Being for 2024. 212-433-WNYC to kick this off for a few minutes on the air. 212-433-9692.

Let me be clear, there is nothing wrong, in my opinion, with good-faith conversations about when it's appropriate to let a minor have puberty blockers, or how to find the right balance between respecting a young athlete's gender identity and keeping competition fair. We can have good-faith conversations about things like those, but what happened in the election campaign and what's been happening since is not that, the slogan "Save Women's Sports" that I saw in yard signs to oppose the New York State Equal Rights Amendment during the campaign season does not start a productive conversation.

It demonizes high school students who just want to be themselves and compete at the games they love, as if they were some kind of male predators out to take advantage of girls. Also, half the states now have laws prohibiting puberty blockers or hormone therapy for anyone under 18, even when their parents think those treatments are in the best interest of their kids. The Supreme Court, as some of you know, is currently considering a challenge to such a law in Tennessee, but I don't believe those laws are really intended to protect children from medical risks.

I believe they're part of a religious-conservative culture war campaign to delegitimize the very humanity of our transgender or non-binary neighbors by denying that they even exist. These same culture warriors argue that they are the champions of parents' rights, but that's only when parents want to exclude their kids from hearing about diverse populations different from themselves or other perspectives not in their echo chambers. The campaign for parents' rights seems to end when it comes to parents who think supporting their trans or non-binary kids in conjunction with the advice of their doctors is part of parental rights, so it's not about parents' rights. It's about demonizing difference.

Just this week, President-elect Trump said, "Under the Trump administration, it will be the official policy of the United States government that there are only two genders, male and female." We played the clip yesterday. We don't need to play it again, and it isn't just the rhetoric of dehumanization. He promised action, "With the stroke of my pen on Day 1, we are going to stop the transgender lunacy," so how exactly is he going to define someone you know as a lunatic or erase you out of official existence? We don't yet know.

If you are not transgender yourself or personally close to a trans or non-binary person, imagine what it must feel like to hear the most powerful person in the world promise to erase you. Our Lehrer Prize for Community Well-Being for 2024 will go to some people or organizations who have excelled this year at supporting trans or non-binary minors and their parents medically, socially, or in any other way, we're inviting you to nominate them for the Lehrer Prize for Community Well-Being for 2024.

Call in and mention a person or group doing that kind of work. Maybe you work for one yourself or want to name one who has worked with your family or anyone else you know of, and that'll help pick this year's honorees. 212-433- WNYC, 212-433-9692, and let's start with Alexis in Saugerties. You're on WNYC. Alexis, thank you for calling in.

Alexis: Thank you so much, Brian. It's a pleasure to be on with you. I'm a second-generation WNYC listener. My son is a third generation.

Brian Lehrer: Aw.

Alexis: Despite the fact that I live in Saugerties, I listen every day, and it's a delight to be on, to be able to nominate Kate Barnhart of New Alternatives. It's one of the only, if not the only drop-in center for LGBT young people who are runaways and throwaways in need of support and services and a warm meal and sometimes even a place to stay. I've known Kate since she was 16 when she joined ACT UP, where I was also an activist, and Kate has gone on to do remarkable work for the people of the City of New York, our transgender and other LGB young people, and she's just the best of the best. I nominate her with a lot of love this season.

Brian Lehrer: Nomination noted. Thank you very much, and I hope you enjoy [crosstalk]--

Alexis: Her organization is New Alternatives.

Brian Lehrer: New Alternatives. We're writing it down. Alexis, thank you for calling from Saugerties. Love that area, by the way. Exit 20 on the Thruway. I know. Alexis, [crosstalk]--

Alexis: Exactly. Happy holidays. Sorry, I cut you off. I thought you were done, but happy holidays to you too. Eric in Provincetown. You're on WNYC. Hello, Eric.

Eric: Hello. Thank you for having me. Really appreciate this discussion. I was talking with a friend the other day that there's also misogynistic element to this discussion besides religious, because it's usually about men who've transitioned to women playing women's sports or going to women's bathrooms, but what I want to do is nominate the Sam & Devorah Foundation for Trans Youth. It was founded by Adam and Beth Price in 2016 in honor of their daughter Sam Price, who unfortunately died from suicide when she turned 21 at Oberlin College.

What the foundation does, it's actually non-profit, is they have a number of programs that started with Youth Retreats in the Berkshires, and then during the pandemic, it pivoted to include also a trans mentoring program, and this has been hugely successful where they match up mentees who are 13 to 17 years old with mentors who are 23 plus years old, and they do it by virtual, mostly virtual contacts, so that it really helps people, young people who are in areas where they don't have as many resources to find mentors. They also do various workshops and leadership programs. It's a great, great non-profit helping trans youth.

Brian Lehrer: Eric, thank you very much for a clear description of a group that it sounds like is doing very good work. We'll go next to Don in Hell's Kitchen. You're on WNYC. Hi, Don.

Don: Hi, Brian. I'd like to nominate Celeste Lecesne and The Trevor Project. Celeste wrote the film Trevor, which is the short film. It's won the Oscar for best short back in the early or mid-'90s, and that gave rise to The Trevor Project, which is an advocacy group for gay, trans, and maybe questioning kids, and a lot of people know the Trevor Project, but it all started with Celeste Lecesne, who wrote that film back when she was known as James Lecesne Trevor. The Trevor Project is a great group, so I'd like them to be recognized.

Brian Lehrer: Don, thank you very much. We are writing it down. Oh, we have one of our local mayors calling in. It's Lori Hohenleitner, if I'm saying your name right, mayor of Atlantic Highlands in Jersey. Mayor, you've called before, right?

Mayor Lori Hohenleitner: I called a lot, Brian. Thank you. [laughs] I wanted to call out two organizations here in New Jersey. One is Make It Better for Youth and Kate Okeson. Kate has been doing the good work with teenagers, especially trans teenagers in Monmouth County for years, and now she's working at the state level creating policy to make sure that they feel seen and are supported. And Garden State Equality, especially Lauren Albrecht, Brielle, and Christian.

We do great work in New Jersey trying to make sure our kids feel seen and make sure that legislators and elected officials are held accountable to support our kids. In our town, we have Madison Boylan, who is a wonderful, wonderful advocate for her peers as a trans youth, making sure that kids feel seen, and there's just a lot of good work going on here in New Jersey.

Brian Lehrer: Do you as a mayor anticipate any policy battles? I read the Trump quotes. We played them on the air yesterday. If he's going to make it the official policy of the United States that there are only two genders and promises to end the transgender lunacy, as he put it in his speech on Sunday. Do you expect any specific policy battles that might come down from Washington that if you have a different local politics in Atlantic Highlands, you're going to need to find a way to resist?

Mayor Lori Hohenleitner: I can tell you this. In New Jersey, we have Governor Murphy who is incredibly supportive, our LGBTQ community, and at the local level, our Conference of Mayors supports our youth and supports our kids, and we will resist because that's the responsible thing and the humane thing to do, and that's what we do here in New Jersey.

Brian Lehrer: Mayor, thank you very much for calling in. Kay in Brooklyn, you're on WNYC. Hi, Kay.

Kay: Hi, Brian. First-time caller, long-time listener. Very cool to be speaking with you. I am calling to nominate The Nonbinarian, which is a Brooklyn-based mobile mutual aid initiative that was established in 2022, distributing free queer books for all ages, in all genres, as many languages as possible, to book deserts throughout Brooklyn, so that includes public parks, library branches in outer borough that had their funding cut this past year, elementary schools, community centers and the like.

By making it free, it's really emphasizing that everyone deserves to see themselves on the shelf, and access thing, both in terms of financial as well as mobile, and you know, not everyone is able to get a book, and I believe book ownership to be a right and not a privilege. The Nonbinarian just opened a bookstore in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, that is new, used, pay what you can, and free, and it is exclusively queer inventory from every book to every gifty item, and it is trans-led and entirely volunteer-powered and offers a lot of programs to, again, reduce that financial barrier for folks, and is a community space centering trans folks of all ages.

Brian Lehrer: The Nonbinarians, and it's an interesting name. You know, I even wonder when I listen to the Trump quotes whether he knows there's a difference between trans and non-binary. Right?-

Kay: [laughs]

Brian Lehrer: -When he talks about the surgeries or puberty blockers being forms of child mutilation, he used that term. You know, that's one particular thing. Then there are all kinds of people, you know, who are not going for surgery or puberty blockers or hormone treatments or anything, but who are identifying, consider themselves as kind of somewhere in the middle.

Trump says the other part of that, it'll be the official policy of the United States that there are only two genders, male and female, and so does he even realize that trans is one thing, non-binary can be something else? I don't know, because he spits them out in one breath, "We're going to declare there are only two genders as official United States policy and end the transgender lunacy." Well, if you're really trans, I think, tell me if you agree, then you're really still in the binary model, you're just changing from the one you were born into to the one you believe you are inside, but then there's a whole category of non-binary, the Nonbinarians, the group you mentioned.

Kay: Correct.

Brian Lehrer: Probably just worth saying out loud that even the nuances in people's identities may be getting lost in the politics.

Kay: Absolutely. I would agree with that, and I think language has evolved, and I think part of what the "lunacy" and the culture war is happening is that there are folks in this country who are newly learning of these identities as if they are new identities, and the truth is that we have been here all along and globally that is the case as well, and so gender is an expansive concept, and so while the language might be new both for folks who are identifying and for folks who are learning about it, we're not going anywhere.

Brian Lehrer: Okay. Thank you for your call. We really appreciate it. We're just going to take one more. There are so many calls coming in with nominations and in text messages too. We're saving all the texts, and we will enter some of them, but go and enter them yourselves on our webpage for the Lehrer Prize for Community Well-Being for 2024 nominations. It's wnyc.org/lehrerprizenominate. Wnyc.org/lehrerprizenominate.

If you're just joining us, it's an all-caller, no experts, no politicians, no journalists, no college professors, no quote unquote guests, just you on the whole show today on this day before Christmas Day, before Hanukkah starts, two days before Kwanzaa starts Brian Lehrer Show, and we're doing a number of things on the show today, and we were kicking it off with a segment that we'll just take one more call in before we end it and go on to the next thing, with your nominations for this year's Lehrer Prize for Community Well-Being, which we give to a few recipients in a category every year.

We are choosing this year people supporting trans or non-binary youth because whatever legitimate conversations there may be to have in good faith about how to deal with people in sports, when it's appropriate to have surgery, these kids are just being used as punching bags by the most powerful person in the world, among others, to rally political support against those who find it easy to hate. At least that's my opinion, and so just like last year when we honored people helping the asylum-seekers doesn't mean we don't have to have the debates about border policy or about how to settle migrants who are coming to New York by the tens of thousands all at once.

Those policy debates need to happen, and they're complicated, but there are also real people at the center of these things who are just trying to live their lives. Last year, we honored the asylum-seekers and people helping the asylum-seekers as kind of a despised group. This year, it's trans and non-binary kids who are the despised group at the receiving end of an organized campaign to maximize how despised they are, so we're just talking at the personal level for people who help support trans minors, non-binary minors, and their parents. Some of you are going to get this year's Lehrer Prize for Community Well-Being. One last call. Avi in Flatbush, you're on WNYC. Hi, Avi.

Avi: Hi, Brian. I called before, I thought it was a privilege to talk to you. I called to nominate Trans formative Schools, which is a group that runs an afterschool program in Manhattan for trans, queer, non-binary, non-gender conforming middle school kids and also is trying to start a trans middle school. My older child is, they actually think of themselves as agender rather than non-binary, but they and their friends have gone there, and it's been a real haven for them in middle school, in particular is a real, I think, difficult age for any kid, but especially for kids who have identified themselves as being trans and non-gender conforming.

They've had some misgendering in their middle school where they've started in 6th grade, and this has been a place where they can go and they feel like, they've said, "I really need to go and feel like community" after something like that happens, and this has been somewhere that they can go, so transformativeschools.org is the website, and they've just been really a great place for them.

Brian Lehrer: Avi, thank you very much, and there, we leave it for now. Thanks for your nominations and stories. Kicking off our nomination process, we're also collecting nominations on a webpage we've set up. Go to wnyc.org/lehrerprizenominate. Wnyc.org/lehrerprizenominate.

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