Interviews

June 18 2025 I’m doing a lot of interviews these days about the impact of federal funding cuts. The agencies that actually get federal funding are afraid to talk so it falls to me. I tell the reporter about the indirect ways we’re being impacted, the flood of intakes, the increased competition for the foundation grants and dwindling individual donations that we rely on, the spiking anxiety among the clients. I can tell this reporter gets how bad this all is, I can hear it in his voice, in his questions. I start to tell him about the fear among our our trans clients and I tear up, the tears choking my voice. I fight it off, stroke Smokey who is on the table “helping”, continue with the interview. At the end he asks me how nonprofit workers on the front lines are keeping it together and I draw a blank. Smokey nudges me, "well, I have cats," I say. "They help when they’re not being maniacs." I can pretty much hear him nodding over the phone. "I have cats too," he says. We laugh. And then I remember what I do to stay sane. "I protest," I tell him. "We read the names of the people disappeared to El Salvador in the lobby of Trump Tower and got arrested. We guided 200,000 or so people through the streets of NYC with their props and homemade signs."