Mk: Hello and welcome to The Child And Its Enemies, a podcast for and about. We are a neurodivergent, kids living out anarchy and youth liberation.
Here at the child. We believe that youth autonomy is not only crucial to queer and trans liberation, but to anarchy itself. Governance is inherently based on projecting linear narratives of time and development and gender onto our necessarily asynchronous and atemporal queer lives. And kids, teens, and everyone else affected by anti child HSM are at the center of this form of oppression.
Our goal with the podcast is to create a space by and for trans liberation. Kids and teens that challenges all forms of control and inspires us to create neuroqueer, feral, ageless networks of care. I’m your host, MK Zariel. My pronouns are they, them I’m 15 years old, and I’m the youth correspondent at the anarchist review of books, author of the blog, debate me, bra and organizer of some all ages, queer spaces in my city and online with me today is our first ever guest Skye G Garcia, who is a community organizer.
and freedom fighter. Hello, Skye.
Skye: Hi, I am stoked to be your first guest. As MK said, my name is Skye Gia Garcia and my pronouns are she, her, hers. My business in Madison is primarily centered around my work with Outreach LGBTQ Community Center, along with my personal advocacy work that continues no matter where I live and who I am affiliated with.
Mk: So you work with Dane County Youth Action Board for a project led by queer, trans, and unhoused young people, right?
Skye: I am currently employed by Outreach, LGBTQ community center, and I was hired to work for a program that’s now called EverStrong. And it was one point called YHDP, which stood for Youth Homelessness Demonstration Project.
EverStrong is a program that has been designed and led by Dane County’s Youth Action Board. And the YAB is made up of youth between the ages of 14 to 24 who have a lived experience of housing insecurity and some of them just so happen to be queer. So that has resulted in the program design being inclusive to all people, especially those most marginalized in the LGBTQ community.
Mk: I would love to learn more about that, but first I’m curious about how you organized as a teenager. Did you have access to spaces like the Youth Action Board, or was there other organizing, or just other ways of experiencing and creating anarchy that were meaningful for you?
Skye: I wish, MK, no, not at all. Uh, there was nothing for me to access like the Youth Action Board in my hometown of Rockford, Illinois.
I believe that every city should have a Youth Action Board, and that we should continue to be led by radical youth. who wish to break the molds that bind us. The best ways that I could think of my presence and existence creating some type of anarchy was by defying gender norms that existed. So, in high school, if there were categories that Were meant to exclude what the gender was that I was based off of.
I didn’t allow that to stop me if I was passionate about, let’s say the dance team, for instance, I ended up auditioning for a dance team that was originally all one gender and made it co ed by just putting myself out there. So I would say that. Due to the support that I had from my peers, we were successful at overthrowing authority that was rooted in heteronormativity and patriarchy.
Mk: I love that for you. Especially given the oppression of compulsory education, it is so beautiful to create anarchic liberated spaces in high school. I say this as someone who founded an anarchist queer collective at my middle school. So, um, on that note, um, can you tell me more about the youth action board?
What kind of cool projects do you get to support these queer kids in?
Skye: I definitely can. I just wanted to say that, especially from my experience working in Rockford for an LGBTQ community center. It was always so inspiring seeing how youth in middle school were starting clubs like a GSA or a queer anarchist club.
I mean, that is mind blowing to me because there’s nothing like that when I was in middle school in my immediate experience. So it’s really inspiring. I just wanted to give you your flowers, MK. That’s super awesome.
Mk: Uh, thanks. I mean, middle school is when social hierarchy really starts to get ingrained, like, I mean, adults always compare the most hierarchical situations to their middle school experiences, so for that reason, I think it’s like the best time to find anarchism, and I’m so grateful that I did.
Skye: Me too, honestly. Uh, so in terms of your question of the types of projects that I get to support the youth in, my favorite way to support the Youth Action Board is by supporting Creating space for their autonomy to flourish respectfully, I have made sure to show up in meetings with other adults who may not understand the importance of their leadership due to their age and indoctrination that says that they should delegitimize these youth because they supposedly don’t have lived experience as an adult, but time and time again, these projects that I’m a part of are proving that the experience that youth do have is just as valuable, should be legitimized as much as possible.
I mean, this program that exists in Dane County is designed to be like no other social service offered in the area. So we were able to provide necessary support in ways that haven’t been possible, all in an effort to end youth homelessness.
Mk: So, what have your experiences with this Youth Action Board taught you about youth liberation as a strand of liberation and as a way of relating?
And more broadly, what would you say youth liberation means to you?
Skye: My experience with the Youth Action Board has reminded me of the success that comes from having no hierarchy of leadership. To me, youth liberation means listening to the voices of the youth and allowing those voices to overpower our own as adults, so long as it’s rooted in expanding consciousness and liberation of all oppressed people.
Mk: I love that vision of accompliceship being about shedding power and doing that in a way that’s deeply anti hierarchical and about not only centering youth But giving you the space to not govern and not be governed and simply exist in care and solidarity and queerness with one another. So on that topic, what would you say your relationship to anarchy is like as a trans and youth liberationist organizer?
Skye: My relationship to anarchy looks like being a part of a multitude of different horizontal collectives and projects. Constantly, I am dedicating myself to sacrificing any type of privilege that I could hold by refusing to stay silent. So, in my eyes, silence buys a lot of people privilege. And by refusing to do so, I’m not only sacrificing that privilege, but I’m putting myself on the front lines and assuring that the institutions who wish to uphold oppression, that they know who I am and that they know who I stand with.
Mk: That idea of silence as buying privilege is so important for liberation and honestly with queer liberation. Like, I think about Audre Lorde’s essay, The Transformation of Silence into, I think, power and action or something. Like, so many people simply default to never speaking on an issue and privately having feelings about it, but not necessarily actually organizing around it.
Like, I see this so much with teenagers who have concerns about compulsory education and the nuclear family. I just lament that they don’t learn at school and feel repressed at home and still haven’t transitioned and paid their life, but still won’t organize around that. And I don’t fault them for that at all.
Like, it’s so hard to get into organizing when you’re a teen and the organizing world is pretty adult dominated, but it’s also. So hard to stay silent as a teenager.
Skye: It blows my mind, MK, actually, because I meet a lot of people who are in that exact predicament. They are aware of it. They will complain to me about it.
And in my eyes, and I can see you were the same way, when I went through that process, I immediately began taking action and organizing. And it’s almost like some of the people who will talk to me about these things, it’s like that thought never, like, pops into their head. And, um, like you said, it’s nothing to fault them for.
Instead, I’ve found that lending support and compassion and a listening ear and planting maybe a seed that will hopefully, like, be watered by the ways that they’re dissatisfied and then sprout and bloom, like, that’s how we, you know, support the revolution, I think.
Mk: Exactly, and also creating spaces that meet teenagers where they are, like, I was giving a workshop on youth liberation once, and it came up that organizing spaces in schools are so important, because, like, if you’re a teenager, it’s intimidating to be functional, but if you organize with your classmates, then that takes that out of the equation, and I’ve known teenagers who have gotten radicalized that way, and we need that accessibility in the world.
So what advice would you have for you? Do you want to get into community organizing at school, or in their communities, or whatever? Or just generally liberate themselves and find more autonomy and care? Or what would have felt useful for you when you were younger? I think
Skye: a really big thing, because I get asked this question quite commonly, so it’s, it’s nice to really get a chance to think about it, and I like to focus on the topic of fear.
I feel that fear is what stops a lot of folks from taking action that can radically change their life for the better, and I feel that fear is weaponized against people and used to stop them from taking those actions. So my advice is that folks, you should just accept whatever fear that you have, and you should work with it.
I always think that accepting the truth and then embracing it is the best way to changing what’s possible. And I think that if you instead allow the fear to guide you in identifying barriers, that it would work more in your favor because, like I said earlier, fear is corrupted and influenced by external factors.
But fear can serve a purpose that is productive and it’s a human experience. I would say the more that I’ve healed my relationship with fear, the more that it has served to protect me because there’s an intuitive aspect to it as well. And if you want to get, if you want to get into community organizing because you recognize the ways that it will liberate you and your community, you should really start your own collective.
Do not allow the fact that you may only start with a few people to deter you. Remember to value the contribution and power that just one person has to offer, even if that one person is just you. Believe in yourself. I believe in you. And if you ever forget, find me because I will remind you.
Mk: That idea of starting your own collective is such a formative thing for so many teenagers I know, because even more than just learning to organize and meeting cool people, it, it can really be a way to prove to yourself that anarchy is possible, and that you’re in a group that isn’t hierarchical with people your age, and that can not only work, but even make people’s lives better and make you feel liberated and human, so.
If you could say anything to a teen out there who’s feeling that fear and is struggling with something going on in their life and looking for community or connection, what would that be?
Skye: So for anyone out there who’s listening, if you find yourself disappointed and uninterested in the status quo of mainstream society, and you want something different for yourself, just please don’t give up.
Listen to my voice when I say this. Please don’t give up. Not only is another world possible, but another world is happening at the exact same time. I see this other world every day. I live this other world with my own eyes and soul. So allow my voice to support you in shattering the illusion that your community isn’t trying to find you, and shatter the illusion that your community doesn’t exist, because we are here, we are looking for you, and we believe that we will win.
Mk: I love that so much. So many teenagers need to hear that. I know I need to hear that as a 13 year old. So, thank you so much for putting that into the world. And finally, in case teenagers, um, want to learn more about your work, um, any shameless plugs?
Skye: Yes. If you would like to follow me on Instagram, you totally can.
That’s a safe place to reach out to me and to follow what I’m up to. My Instagram handle is Skyebinary. That’s S-K-Y-E-B-I-N-A-R-Y. And then you can also find me on Facebook at Skyee Gia Garcia, S-K-Y-E-G-I-A-G-A-R-C-I-A. Thanks so much. Okay.
Mk: Thank you so much. And is there anything you would like to say to close out this podcast?
Skye: MK, I actually do have a question for you. I just visited the National Summit to End Youth Homelessness in D. C., and there was a panel of youth there that were speaking on their experience and speaking of what needs to be done in order for change. One of the youth had a question for Alvi. Adults in the audience and they asked, what are you doing to liberate youth?
What, what are you doing? So I kind of, I would love to ask you, what can adults do? You know, there will be adults who are listening to this as well. What can those adults do or just adults in general to assist in the liberation of youth? Well,
Mk: I’d actually like to turn that question on its head and say that adult accompliceship doesn’t mean liberating youth.
It means empowering youth to liberate one another and create networks of care, because at the end of the day, if they’re in a position where we are supported by adults, but don’t have our own ways of providing care to one another, then adult supremacy stays in place and statism isn’t challenged. So, I would really say, um, supporting teen led organizing.
If you are an adult in a community organizing space, pushing those youth specific events and campaigns, such as even direct obstruction of conversion therapy and other queer youth oppression, um, Obviously treating young organizers as equals, taking on emotional labor and care work in support of teens, letting teens initiate conversation about age rather than making everything about the fact that we’re teenagers.
But more than anything, just Seeing what youth need and what organizing we’re already doing or what organizing we want to be doing and supporting us in that.
Skye: You know, I really couldn’t agree more with you, especially when it comes to that acknowledgement of the ways in which adults supporting youth has actually contributed in the past to youth not being able to be independent.
I really loved that you put an emphasis on that. Uh, because that’s what some of these cycles would do actually, they acknowledged it during the summit on youth homelessness that they were putting youth in positions where they could gain expertise and things like that, but it was really only valuable while they were in that position, and they couldn’t actually take that position to a legitimized standpoint that would get them a job with a living wage or anything like that, because that whole position was dependent on those adults and the operations in which they ran.
So. That was, that was amazing. I wouldn’t be surprised if you were, if I see you being a keynote speaker for one of these summits soon on youth liberation all together.
Mk: That would be cool. But yeah, I agree that a lot of times, um, adult support for youth can really get towards, um, charity rather than mutual aid.
Similarly to how quote unquote straight allyship doesn’t necessarily liberate queer people unless it centers queer people’s actual needs and lived experiences. But I also think that adult accompliceship is so important and stuff like Dane County Youth Action Board that is about building youth autonomy and youth mutual aid and support and so happens to be facilitated and supported by adults really has its place as a youth liberationist basis and is so important and I’m so glad you’re doing it.
Skye: Awesome. Thank you so much. That’s sounds like a good sounds effective. Thanks so much for both of your time
Mk: Thank you so much for coming on this podcast. Yeah.
Skye: Thanks to you MK. We’ll see you guys. Bye. Bye.