In this week’s episode, Zoa Starlight Glows (Zoa now uses they/she pronouns) shares about coming out to her students and family. Learn about what messages she was given as a Black person while navigating a big, religious family, her LGBTQ+ identities over the years, and the noise of society overall telling and teaching her to hate herself (but rose above it!). We also discuss honoring students by giving a name + pronoun sheet ahead of time and how the term deadnaming doesn’t resonate for everyone. Have you been wondering why someone might use multiple pronoun sets? They talk about how their sets embrace different parts of themself and how you absolutely can ask people how they want you to use multiple pronoun sets.

🎙️ Connect with Zoa:

• Instagram
• TikTok
• The footage of Zoa coming out to students: https://www.tiktok.com/@zoaglows/video/6971755967306304774
• The infamous suitcase: https://www.tiktok.com/@zoaglows/video/6998160167107906821

💻 Sources and resources from this episode:

• @Ellosteph on Instagram, also known as Steph Frosch, who created the pronoun sheet Zoa mentioned in the episode for teachers
• Ace Schwarz (they/them) of @TeachingOutsideTheBinary also has a Get to Know You Sheet for teachers
• Inviting In Toolkit by the National Black Justice Coalition (NBJC)  “SUGGESTS that if someone puts in the work, they may be INVITED IN“. You can also see this IG post for more info: https://www.instagram.com/p/COA1O3rLt5y/
• Matt Bernstein’s post on love the sinner, hate the sin bigotry: https://www.instagram.com/p/CSiOgsLDv3O/
• Want to practice pronouncing pronoun sets? You can hear them here https://en.pronouns.page/

Host Charlie Ocean, MSW (they/them), has a background in LGBTQ+ training, community organizing, and technology. Guest episodes feature at least one allyship tip, including tailored questions based on the guests' unique intersecting identities. You can follow Charlie on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Substack. *You will hear Charlie's former name in this episode and previous ones.*