You're listening to Comedy Central. My guest Tonight's is an actor and the founder of trans Tech Social Enterprises. Please welcome Angelica Ross. Thank you so much for being here. Thank you for having me. Trevor, Um, let's get straight into it's You are the CEO of trans Tech, which is basically a creative technology company. Uh, you know, getting trans people, anyone from the LGBT community to come in and learn about technology, you know. Um, well, yeah, I mean there's a lot of space where we're just kind of forced out of school, we're forced out of the work. No place really is safe, especially in certain states for trans people. So first we wanted to create a safe space that people could come in and access the Internet and computers and trainees and build their skills for other employee. Man. So this might be a really personal question, but at what age did you realize that you were a tech person? Honestly, very very young. I was the one that was hooking up the VCR and all the TVs, you know, the VCR, that's the thing with the tape. Old school. I'm old school, so I've always been TechEd. What's really fascinating about your organization is not just the fact that you're teaching and and educating transgender people and getting them into the workforce. But you're transforming the workforce because a lot of the time it's corporations who don't know how to deal with trans people, and you're you're basically teaching them. The trans employees are the same as every other employee. They just spend their day on Facebook looking at cat videos. Actually trans employees are actually even better, you know, but seriously, because they work that much harder sometimes because we know the playing field in front of us, and so sometimes we're even working two, three or four times. It's hard just so someone will give us an opportunity, just so someone gives you the respect that they don't think. That's it's it's such a tough place to come from. Your story is really interesting as well, because you're a military veteran as well. I don't know if it's technically or not, because my discharge was uncharacterized. So back in night or so when around the don't ask, don't tell sort of thing. Um, they hung me out of a window and asked me to tell, and uh, you know, so I was discharged, but I was discharged with and characterized so it's basically like you were never here, no benefits, but I definitely walked away with the sort of a sour taste inment. On from that, let's let's talk about Caitlyn Jenna. So, I guess in many communities considered a gift and a curse to the trans community. On one hand, Caitlyn Jenna has brought the conversations, you know, really shown of spotlights on what's going on in the trans community. On the other hand, people go, that's not an accurate representation of what it means to be trends. We don't all have glamor and and makeup artists, you know, we don't have that any Kaylin is like sixty something, but in reality she's a baby trans. And that's all it is is that we need to like baby trans. Yeah, baby trans, because we're all learning here. We don't know, because you're gonna walk away from the show and be like, hey, baby trans and like, can't you say I've heard it, don't understand the show? No, baby trans is a thing. It's like when you first transition, you kind of reach for the longest hair and the shortest skirt, you know, but but then you learn let's let's chat about the community on the other side. This is This is something I think a lot of people are afraid to talk about because it is hard to talk about. I know this personally, you want to get involved. You are not just not opposed to the transgender community, but you actually want to support it. And a lot of the time it feels like the conversation is hindered by the fear of saying the wrong thing. Is is it he or she is? Is it transgendered or transgender? Is it? How? How do you begin educating people and saying, hey, I understand that as a society we're also transitioning. How do we begin that conversation? Um? Google, It's fascinating you can find any kind of information on Google. Um, But honestly, just that is a person though as a question, how how does that make you feel? So if somebody says to you, what are the duds and don't just the simple things where you go, hey, this, this does this is not the right thing to do, just on a personal level, it is really trial and error. I think it's when you learn and realize you're talking to another person and you realize maybe this is not the right question. To ask. If you are actually asking yourself, well, this may be offensive, then you're already starting out on the wrong page. So you know, really it's it's a thing where we're in the trans community. We understand intention now more than we understand the words and other things, and there's a lot of energy that goes behind certain people's words, and I can feel that hatred, I can feel that energy. But when someone's just fumbling across something and they don't know what the right thing to do is, as long as I see that there's an energy for you to sort of want to learn, then I think things are okay. Intention and impact because a lot of people think they're well intentioned, but the impact is quite different than what their intentions were. So you can't just say well, I didn't mean to or that wasn't my intent. But we also need to look at the impact of what you said or did. I think we all will be in a great job on your impact when what your organization is doing U and Jelica Ross, everyone will be right back. This has been a Comedy Central podcast

You're listening to Comedy Central. My guest Tonight's is an actor and the founder of trans Tech Social Enterprises. Please welcome Angelica Ross. Thank you so much for being here. Thank you for having me. Trevor, Um, let's get straight into it's You are the CEO of trans Tech, which is basically a creative technology company. Uh, you know, getting trans people, anyone from the LGBT community to come in and learn about technology, you know. Um, well, yeah, I mean there's a lot of space where we're just kind of forced out of school, we're forced out of the work. No place really is safe, especially in certain states for trans people. So first we wanted to create a safe space that people could come in and access the Internet and computers and trainees and build their skills for other employee. Man. So this might be a really personal question, but at what age did you realize that you were a tech person? Honestly, very very young. I was the one that was hooking up the VCR and all the TVs, you know, the VCR, that's the thing with the tape. Old school. I'm old school, so I've always been TechEd. What's really fascinating about your organization is not just the fact that you're teaching and and educating transgender people and getting them into the workforce. But you're transforming the workforce because a lot of the time it's corporations who don't know how to deal with trans people, and you're you're basically teaching them. The trans employees are the same as every other employee. They just spend their day on Facebook looking at cat videos. Actually trans employees are actually even better, you know, but seriously, because they work that much harder sometimes because we know the playing field in front of us, and so sometimes we're even working two, three or four times. It's hard just so someone will give us an opportunity, just so someone gives you the respect that they don't think. That's it's it's such a tough place to come from. Your story is really interesting as well, because you're a military veteran as well. I don't know if it's technically or not, because my discharge was uncharacterized. So back in night or so when around the don't ask, don't tell sort of thing. Um, they hung me out of a window and asked me to tell, and uh, you know, so I was discharged, but I was discharged with and characterized so it's basically like you were never here, no benefits, but I definitely walked away with the sort of a sour taste inment. On from that, let's let's talk about Caitlyn Jenna. So, I guess in many communities considered a gift and a curse to the trans community. On one hand, Caitlyn Jenna has brought the conversations, you know, really shown of spotlights on what's going on in the trans community. On the other hand, people go, that's not an accurate representation of what it means to be trends. We don't all have glamor and and makeup artists, you know, we don't have that any Kaylin is like sixty something, but in reality she's a baby trans. And that's all it is is that we need to like baby trans. Yeah, baby trans, because we're all learning here. We don't know, because you're gonna walk away from the show and be like, hey, baby trans and like, can't you say I've heard it, don't understand the show? No, baby trans is a thing. It's like when you first transition, you kind of reach for the longest hair and the shortest skirt, you know, but but then you learn let's let's chat about the community on the other side. This is This is something I think a lot of people are afraid to talk about because it is hard to talk about. I know this personally, you want to get involved. You are not just not opposed to the transgender community, but you actually want to support it. And a lot of the time it feels like the conversation is hindered by the fear of saying the wrong thing. Is is it he or she is? Is it transgendered or transgender? Is it? How? How do you begin educating people and saying, hey, I understand that as a society we're also transitioning. How do we begin that conversation? Um? Google, It's fascinating you can find any kind of information on Google. Um, But honestly, just that is a person though as a question, how how does that make you feel? So if somebody says to you, what are the duds and don't just the simple things where you go, hey, this, this does this is not the right thing to do, just on a personal level, it is really trial and error. I think it's when you learn and realize you're talking to another person and you realize maybe this is not the right question. To ask. If you are actually asking yourself, well, this may be offensive, then you're already starting out on the wrong page. So you know, really it's it's a thing where we're in the trans community. We understand intention now more than we understand the words and other things, and there's a lot of energy that goes behind certain people's words, and I can feel that hatred, I can feel that energy. But when someone's just fumbling across something and they don't know what the right thing to do is, as long as I see that there's an energy for you to sort of want to learn, then I think things are okay. Intention and impact because a lot of people think they're well intentioned, but the impact is quite different than what their intentions were. So you can't just say well, I didn't mean to or that wasn't my intent. But we also need to look at the impact of what you said or did. I think we all will be in a great job on your impact when what your organization is doing U and Jelica Ross, everyone will be right back. This has been a Comedy Central podcast