'Wrapping Arms and Resources and Hearts Around Communities'

Jordan Kent is vice president of Bend Pride Coalition, the nonprofit organization that produces Bend’s Summer Pride. Ruth Vernotico is the founder of SUS, a local nonprofit working to increase visibility for 2SLGBTQIA+ people through print media, community engagement, education and celebration. In a conversation with the Source Weekly for our Women’s Issue, the two expressed concerns about recent executive orders affecting trans and 2SLGBTQIA+ rights, including passport issues and sports bans. The conversation has been lightly edited for clarity.

Source Weekly: What are some of the things you are concerned about right now?

Jordan Kent: There’s a lot of information right now, and it is hard to follow which are most important. I feel like the ones that are being blasted in regard to the trans community and the 2SLGBTQIA+ community as a whole, it feels distracting, and so it’s hard to pay attention to what is most important, because there are greater things happening — like things happening in regards to all women’s rights, like all AFAB [assigned female at birth] bodies, and also immigrants’ rights as well. So, that seems more important. So what do I pay attention to? But as a whole, you know, executive orders are like the flashy, really disturbing pieces and don’t hold nearly as much weight as other things happening.

Trans women are no longer included in sports, like, just period; they’re not going to be allowed to compete. It is such a strange thing to me when those things come up in the news because it is such a low, low, low percentage of our population. And even just in regard to women’s sports, just such a tiny, tiny percentage of who’s competing. So, it’s like, why is this what’s happening in the first 30 days of taking office?

It’s a lot of flash, bang, confusion, and I’m trying to read the subtext.

Ruth Vernotico: I think the point is to keep us guessing what the point is. And what I have chosen to do instead is to focus on what’s right in front of me. I believe wholeheartedly that this is not the time for anyone to stick their head above the parapet. All of us need to be looking right in front of us at the people who need help. And that has been my goal.

I’ve been working directly with trans people in our community asking me how to put together a bug-out bag, what documents do I need to have in case I have to flee the country. That is a real and genuine concern that people have in our community, in what is supposed to be a sanctuary state. I can only imagine the increased level of impetus there for other people outside of the state.

And, as a person who works directly with the communities that are being impacted, specifically the 2SLGBTQIA+ community, I’m focusing on making sure that we aren’t insular in this, and that we are wrapping our arms and our resources and hearts around communities, undocumented people, and doing whatever we can within whatever reach we have to assist the people around us.

SW: What are some of the things you’re seeing in the 2SLGBTQIA+ community right now?

RV: I think the most immediate experience that I have personally had, and I think Jordan would have a broader say on all of this, but immediately, trans folks not having access to medical care. And here’s the thing, too, with a community that has been sidelined for so many years — barriers to us can also be the ones that we perceive, right? They’re not necessarily real barriers. You know, the perception of fear, the perception of harm that could be done to us is also a barrier, and so we have real and perceived barriers. And sometimes the perceived ones are worse — people who are afraid to talk to their doctors, people who are afraid to push back against their physicians because of a perceived barrier.

I think on a personal level, I’m trying to go to grad school, and I’ve already had three scholarships I’ve applied for be pulled because they are DEI-specific scholarships.

JK: I grew up in Texas, so there’s quite a few people that I see on social media saying, I lost my passport because I tried to get my gender marker confirmed. There are people that I’m seeing, and I know there’s more than I’m actually seeing, right? But there are people that I’m seeing that I’m like, OK, there are necessary things that we, as trans individuals, need to prioritize in order to keep ourselves safe in the future, if we do need to travel internationally, and I’m taking those precautions, and that’s what my feed is all about. It’s like, here’s the order of operations. This is what you do, and here’s who you don’t talk to first, and that kind of thing, which is crazy to me, because that was really, really fast. And I think that’s probably some privilege that I’m coming from as a white person, that I’m like, oh, this has been coming, and BIPOC people have been saying this for a long time, and we’re just starting to listen to that.

RV: I can confirm at least two folks — one here in Central Oregon and one in New Orleans — they have gone to get their passports, have been told they couldn’t get the marker that they wanted, and when they asked for, well, just give me the marker of my birth, they weren’t given that either, and told they couldn’t get a passport. Which is essentially a ban on trans travel, right?

SW: How do you see the community mobilizing to stand up to any of this?

JK: To be perfectly frank, I think that people are frozen right now. I think that there’s a strong desire to mobilize, and there’s still a lot of freeze, there’s a lot of panic and shock, that is being effective, right? So that was kind of the point, and it’s working. And I’m not exactly sure what the plan is to move forward beyond just like maintaining life and still being able to find joy as individuals.

“I’m focusing on making sure that we
aren’t insular in this, and that we are wrapping our arms and our resources and
hearts around communities, undocumented people, and doing whatever we can
within whatever reach we have to assist the people around us.” —Ruth Vernotico

RV: Personally, I don’t know that the smart move is trying to hit a moving target. And I feel like that’s what, obviously, executive orders are. All I think that we can truly do effectively right now is the effects of these executive orders, because that isn’t a moving target. There are real people right in front of us, and I’m helping those people and connecting resources where possible.

SW: What actions would you like to see from local, state or national leadership right now?

JK: I would love for our representatives to be vocal, not necessarily in even a partisan way, just in a human rights way that certain people and groups do not deserve to be targeted for violence. They don’t need to be targeted to strip their rights. I think that there needs to be a vocalization around like what is actually lawful for our greater government to not, like, if they’re not following the law, then who is going to call them out?

RV: I really want to hear our elected officials, and even unelected officials, stop calling us a sanctuary state. I think that’s harmful. I think it lulls people into a false sense of security. I think that we need to cut that shit out, if I’m being really honest, because I hear it so much from not only like county and state and city governments, but I hear it from local leaders as well. The truth is that none of us are safe. And I don’t believe the answer there is to live in fear or anxiety, but to live in the truth, right? None of us are untouchable, not even our very liberal state government. I really think that it’s important for the state of Oregon, for [Gov.] Kotek’s office to have a watchdog website of: Hey, this got passed. This is what it means for Oregon residents, that is an official communique from the state, where we understand how a federal mandate, law, policy has impacted our state-level rights.

This article appears in The Source Weekly February 27, 2025.