Cabán and JJ Cleo Mizrahi discuss faith, family rejection, and trans visibility

Thank you.

And I just want to take a moment to say I appreciate what you said about your faith.

One of the things I love about the Jewish faith is the idea that none of us is beyond redemption.

And yeah, when you save a life, you save the world.

And going beyond that, I think about the way that these institutions have capitulated.

And another part of the Jewish faith is like, you don't sacrifice it.

It's like we get there together or we don't get there at all.

And so I think it's really, really powerful that you all are here and making it clear that.

that's the case.

And so I'm really proud to be fighting with y'all.

So I appreciate you.

Thank you.

Yeah, go for it.

Yeah, I just, it's always hard to like time consume with everything.

But, you know, I'm thinking about also as someone who grew up in New York, who did not know about my rights and about accessing certain safe spaces, you know, about how, for example, growing up in the Orthodox Jewish community, there's misinformation.

When I came out, my mother said to me, not long ago, she says, all you'll ever be is a prostitute.

And my father said, all you'll ever be, no one will ever love you.

And these are messages we're internalizing that they are taking from the media, right?

And I had to make a really hard predicament over a decade ago where my mother said, either you comply to my rules despite paying the rent and able by law to, you know, not have to

observe her faith, you know, because we have a different Jewish denomination.

She said, either you have to take your hormones and you have to leave or you don't.

And, you know, I was subjected to abuse for many years and never got help.

And this is the reality for many people.

And there's so many stories of people who, whether they leave a fundamentalist faith or whether they're not in a supportive

environment, and what does that do to them long term about having internalized about who they are and feeling fearful that you're hated and that you're paranoid.

And it's still even hard, I'll just end, with trans elders to remind you that not everyone's against you, but I will say that everyone in the community is on guard.

And it breaks my heart to even go to a support group and see people terrified of just simply wanting to change other parts of their documentation and feel like we have to hide until the Trumpism is over.

So thank you so much.

Thank you all.