Sheri

its worth fighting for 🌷

Writer of word both truth and tale. Video producer, editor, artist, still human. Hire me?

Check #writeup for The Good Posts.

Slowly making a visual novel called We Will Not See Heaven, demo is free. Sometimes I stream, or post adult things. Boys' love novel enthusiast. Take care, yeah?

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TECH CAN ONLY BE AS KIND TO US AS WE ARE TO ONE ANOTHER.


🖥️ blog
sherishaw.net/blog

...but you can't take the CEO from profit-driven motive.

This is Part 2 of a multi-part series on mass layoffs at The Trevor Project during union negotiations. Read Part 1 first.

Discussion around violence against LGBTQ+ folks, in particular the Club Q shooting, ahead. I did my best to write kindly.


being the CEO of a Crisis Prevention Center isn't a job for just anybody. so when researchers at HuffPost, principally journalist Molly Redden presented the Purdue-Paley connection- it didn't take long for employees to demand his replacement.

Teen Vogue spoke to employees at Trevor following the reporting, and bless our fellow queers for not mincing words:

“[He has] blood on his hands… …How does he sleep at night?”

“The first thing you learn in suicide prevention is
removing the means and he was out there pushing
the means.”

“You’re going to tell me a former journalist nominated
for a Pulitzer had no idea about the opioid crisis?
Come on.”

oh yeah, he worked at The Washington Post, didn't he? i wonder what his-

A Washington Post article from 2011 by Amit R. Paley. It's titled 'Burning Man: A countercultural experiment goes mainstream.' Further details are locked behind a paywall.

-never mind, then.

still, all of this is in reference to his past behavior- what was it like working under him during his time at Trevor Project?

Multiple sources told Teen Vogue that Paley seems
to be focused on numerical growth and scale as CEO
of the Trevor Project, which they feel sometimes comes
at the expense of the actual quality of service.

god i get enough debate about 'numbers' on co-host i don't want it in my suicide prevention center. still, testimonial is only that; let's consult The Trevor Project's Strategic Plan for 2020-2023 and see if it corroborates this claim?

"CRISIS SERVICES: The Trevor Project will dramatically increase its core crisis services to reach 1.8 million LGBTQ crisis contacts across the United States. GOALS: Significantly grow the number of crisis contacts served. The Trevor Project will pursue significant growth annually between FY21 and FY23, enabling the organization with the capacity to reach 1.8 million crisis contacts by the end of FY23"

i see! by the looks of things, Trevor estimated that 1.8 million queer youth are suicidal in the US; and set out to close in on that demographic by the end of fiscal year 2023.

anyways, back to the Teen Vogue piece:

This includes a push to expand services in Mexico
as well as a change to internal programming, which,
in the past few years, had crisis managers using a
“Multichat” platform to serve several people
seeking help at once. One source told Teen Vogue that,
as of 2020, volunteers have often been expected to carry
on multiple conversations with young people simultaneously.

hell i can't even field my own goddamn DMs, let alone multiple chats of queer youth in danger. these people are volunteers!

OUR BOLD GOAL: The Trevor Project’s bold, ambitious goal is to serve 1.8 million crisis contacts annually by the end of its 25th year, while continuing to scale and innovate on its other core services. JOIN OUR MOVEMENT: Answering 1.8 million calls, texts, and chats from LGBTQ young people in crisis is possible — but only with the continued dedication of supporters like you. By contributing to The Trevor Project, you are helping us build the capacity to reach any LGBTQ young person in the United States who needs us. We invite you to join this life-saving movement to end suicide among LGBTQ youth.

"helping us build the capacity" motherfucker the volunteers are the capacity!!

hey, what'd that fine print say, by the way?

Note: the projected number of annual crisis contacts is derived using estimate of youth reached in the final month of plan timeframe, as calculated on an annual run-rate basis.

man alive, can we stop treating youth in crisis like a market, please?!

“That’s the crux of the battle. People in large part are staying
[employed at Trevor Project] to keep things as safe and good
as we can for the youth, while feeling like our organization is
making decisions that [are] making that work harder.”
    -Sources for Teen Vogue at The Trevor Project, July 2022

it's almost like experience learned from for-profit businesses is anathema to running a moral nonprofit! who knew?

look. this story isn't specifically about one CEO. ultimately, in my opinion, he was, in-part, a victim of a society that taught him the road to heaven is paved with compromised intentions.

that does not mean i forgive him; i simply understand removing a single person from the equation does not solve the larger problem.

Removing A Single Person To Solve A Larger Problem

Article from TeenVogue entitled 'Trevor Project CEO Amit Paley Removed From Position After Staff Outcry' by Brittney McNanara and Versha Sharma. Posted November 4th, 2022. I have blotted out the CEO's eyes with this timestamp, for visual metaphor I guess?

(was it Robert Broccoli who said "We've called a lot of things the November Revolution"?)

once the public oxycontinned-on to paley's bullshit, he was promptly oxicleaned. scrubbed away, with OG cofounder Peggy Rajski stepping in for the interim.

so.

after the Fortune 40 under 40 era of charity- what's next for Trevor? what can be next after your CEO spent six years treating 'non'profit as a challenge?

well, if Trevor Project exists for the benefit of the mental health of queer folk, let's look back: what was being queer like, in November 2022?

Article from Bloomberg titled 'Colorado Club Shooting Follows Rise in Anti-LGBTQ Rhetoric, Violence'. Written by Kelsey Butler and Ella Ceron November 21st, 2022. The byline reads: "Saturday’s massacre is the latest in a string of attacks on the community". Included is a picture from David Zalubowski from AP of flowers, pillows, candles and many other offerings in memory of the victims of the Club Q shooting in Colorado Springs.

not a good time to be trying on new CEOs for your mental health resource.

and it hasn't gotten better since.

Article from NBC News entitled 'Right-wing influencers and media double down on anti-LGBTQ rhetoric in the wake of the Colorado shooting' The byline reads: "Tucker Carlson was among the conservative media figures who continued attacking LGBTQ people in the wake of the Club Q shooting." Written November 23rd 2022 by Ben Goggin and Kat Tenbarge. A picture by Cecilia Sanchez from AFP is included. Set in the evening, at a memorial for victims in the shooting at Club Q. Candles sat in front of pictures of the lost.

terrifyingly, the stats i was planning to show here, as presented by The Trevor Project in early 2023, actually concluded polling on november 2nd, 2022- meaning before the club Q shooting. like things weren't already bad enough.

all of this is to say: The Trevor Project was needed more than ever.

Press release from The Trevor Project entitled 'The Trevor Project Mourns Victims of LGBTQ Nightclub Shooting in Colorado Springs' Published November 20th, 2022 by 'Trevor News'. The text continues: "The senseless act of violence against the LGBTQ community happened overnight ahead of Transgender Day of Remembrance. November 20, 2022 — The Trevor Project — the world’s largest suicide prevention and mental health organization for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer & questioning (LGBTQ) young people — expressed mourning and solidarity in response to the overnight shooting at Club Q, an LGBTQ nightclub in Colorado Springs, Colorado, in which at least five people have died and 18 were injured."

and they were here to. uh. 'express mourning and solidarity.'

“We are heartbroken for the victims, their families,
and the Colorado LGBTQ community. The Trevor Project
is here for LGBTQ young people who need help or
support processing this tragic news,”

the quotes are attributed to Kasey Suffredini, who was apparently fielding government calls for Trevor after the last person- well, that's a story for another day.

“LGBTQ people deserve to live their lives and access safe,
affirming spaces and community without the threat of violence.
We cannot allow our community’s sources of love, joy, and pride
to become ones of fear and trauma. We must all come together
to promote acceptance and condemn anti-LGBTQ violence and
the rhetoric that incites it.”

who is 'We?'

The Trevor Project execs? the lawyers writing boiler plate PR statements because nobody else can? the CEO who got fired for promoting pills?

or the volunteers who pick up the damn phone?

"A Trevor Project crisis counselor trainee interacts with “Riley,” one of the Crisis Contact Simulator personas who’s struggling to come out as genderqueer."

hopefully the machine trained them well.


Part 3: "Drive Down Costs-Per-Youth-Served"


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