bills. Every time a parent misgenders their trans child, that contributes to the bills. Because all of this is creating a society that is steeped in transphobia, right? And so it actually has a huge impact to correct somebody when they misgender somebody, even if that person isn't present, right? So somebody is misgendering me and I'm not there, my allies, my friends, my people should definitely be correcting people when they're misgendering me, even if I'm not there. Same with public figures, right? So calling Laverne Cox the right pronouns, calling Caitlyn Jenner the right pronouns. I think it's so important to step up in those moments because that's how we change those bits of society. And when you put all that together, then you change the world. And so those small moments number one, call us the right pronouns and the right name. That's it, that's a primary easy, super impactful way to be an ally to the trans community. Two correct other people when they when they call us out. Three, advocate for rights, anywhere you can write, whether that means in a conversation with your transphobic uncle or your transphobic partner or a random person that you're starting to talk to, advocate for our rights. Have a conversation but do it from a place of grounding, never yelling at somebody calling them out, you want to call them in. Value conversation over confrontation. I think that is such an important part of allyship. It's having those conversations with people who disagree, because a lot of times we exist in these echo chambers where we have the same conversation, the same things over and over again. I'm talking to you and you agree with me, right? You're already a supporter. And that's awesome. And I, you know, I am so grateful for you. But the real change happens when we step out of this conversation, right? So I encourage everybody to walk forward from here. You're here, you're listening; take this conversation elsewhere, right? And advocate for us in other conversations. Amazin I always say it's being my champion when I'm not in the room as well. That way, and we have a question that's already come in. When is your book available? Schuyler Yeah, my book is actually available for pre order now. So if you go to my website, it's www.pinkmantaray.com/obie, or if you just Google Obie is Man Enough, it will come up either way. You can buy it anywhere you buy books. But yeah, www.pinkmantaray.com/obie is where you can preorder it again or anywhere you can buy books, and then it will be released officially September 7. So this fall, but you can buy it now. And I would be super appreciative if you did, because it helps drive sales, and pre-order stuff, which is really cool.
Amazin I want to talk about your sports, because obviously, we're both athletes and you've achieved so much. I mean, after the pandemic is over, do you see yourself competing again, what's your hope as an athlete? Schuyler Yeah, I don't know. I thought about it a lot. I think every interview I give these days asks me are you swimming or do you keep swimming. I haven’t touched a pool in almost a year which is really sad. And that's because of the pandemic. There aren't as many open pools and hours are difficult. And I'm not really keen on going to a place where I can't mask. You can wear a mask when you go to the gym but you can't really mask at the pool. So I haven't been able to swim recently. But I would love to get back at least on a team after the pandemic is over. And when people are training sort of normally again, probably would want to compete but I don't know what that would look like so I’m unsure. I also competed for 18 years straight and I think that that was a lot and I just really enjoyed the break from that intensity to kind of taking some time to just explore other interests that I have. I kind of have a bit of a childhood that I didn't have, in many ways, partially due to my transition, partially due to sports. I spent my life underwater. So it's been cool to explore myself outside of sport as well. Amazin This has just been such a lovely conversation. It's always a pleasure to connect with you. I want to thank Compete Sports for making sure that, you know, Asian athletes are amplified and particularly that trans athletes are amplified. So have a wonderful weekend. Thank you everyone for listening in. And I look forward to speaking to you again next time. Schuyler Thanks so much, Amazin. It was good to see you. And yeah, thanks Compete Sports for even hosting us here. Amazin Thank you. Bye. Take care. This is a lightly edited transcript of the full interview. Check out the entire interview on Compete's Instagram page.
@CompeteSportsDiversity
22 COMPETE march-april 2021
Photo credit Rose Lincoln, Harvard Staff Photographer
AMAZIN LÊTHI TALKS WITH SCHUYLER BAILAR
