Q&A with Katrina Eames, Candidate for Northgate School Board Member

The truth is politicians pushing anti-LGBTQ legislation that attempts to vilify our children for playing sports or experimenting with their gender expression are bullying children. When they try to ban books that show the diversity of our world to stop kids from reading these stories, they are trying to cut off empathy for groups that aren’t like the people in power. And our kids are smart enough to know that’s what is happening.

The next post in our 2023 primary election season series ‘Political Q&A’ with progressive candidates throughout Pennsylvania. Candidates can be anywhere in Pennsylvania running for any level of office. Please note that these are not necessarily endorsements, more of an opportunity for candidates to connect with the LGBTQ community, progressives neighbors, and others with an interest in Western Pennsylvania. If your candidate would like to participate, please contact us pghlesbian at gmail dot com. We welcome candidates at all levels of government across the entire Commonwealth.

By participating, candidates are saying that they

must be an LGBTQIA+ ally, specifically supporting equality and dignity for transgender persons
identify as pro-choice
must affirm that President Joe Biden won the 2020 election and that they accept the certified Pennsylvania’s election results

Katrina reached out to me to introduce themself and request a Q&A. I took some time to dive into their online presence, realizing they are serving an appointed term to the Northgate School Board as well as identifying as an out LGBTQ/queer person. I’m a big fan of bringing younger voices to the decision tables not as advisors but as full participants. Katrina is a good role model, yes, but not as a token. Their work and contributions are examples of how the world has changed and who will be at the helm as we all resist the latest tide of anti-LGBTQ hatred. Katrina is more than their orientation and identity, a thread that weaves its way through their responses.

Your Name: Katrina Eames

Your Pronouns:They/Them

The Office You Seek: Northgate School Board Member

How do you describe your identity?

The short answer that I frequently use online is “Queer Asian Nonbinary person”. This is partially because of the character limit on certain platforms, but also because having a nuanced discussion of my personal identity on the internet is really hard.

In longer discussions it might come up that I am specifically: Thai, bi and demisexual, the child of a blind single mother, an alumni of Northgate School district, and that I have ADHD.

Tell us about your district. What is a hidden gem most people might not know about?

Thai Tamarind! My whole family loves the restaurant – from the chicken satay to the mango and sticky rice, every dish is a delight.

How has redistricting impacted your district?

n/a

Tell us about the first LGBTQ person you met and what impact they had on your life? Using initials or pseudonyms is fine.

The truth is I don’t remember who was the first openly LGBTQ+ person in my life. A few of my friends came out around the same time – a girl a year younger than me would privately come out to a selection of our friends as a lesbian, and a boy a few years younger than both of us would come out as gay when he was in middle school and I was in high school. Several more of my friends would come out shortly after high school graduation and throughout college.

I don’t remember who came out first. I do remember feeling protective of my openly queer friends though. I remember keeping track of whose parents knew their children were gay, I remember keeping track of which teachers and adults would have been safe to go in case something happened, and I remember looking up and studying resources about gender and sexuality so I could be the most supportive friend I was capable of being at the time.

In the long-term, it is through loving my friends and making sure I had the resources for anything that came up that eventually made me realize that I was bisexual – and eventually that I was on the asexual spectrum – and even later on that I was nonbinary. There weren’t a lot of resources when I was a teenager and actively seeking them out throughout high school and college eventually lead me to who I am and being comfortable with discovering more about myself as I age.

Historically, people haven’t voted in these local odd-year elections. But these elections are important – the people running this year will build policies that impacts what kinds of schools our kids go to, which streets get plowed first in a snowstorm and get paved first in the summer, how often trash pick-up is, and how affordable the housing in the region is going to be.

Based on this, what do you understand to be our top LGBTQ concerns and priorities for the Northgate School Board? How will you respond to those priorities?

Based on my work on Northgate’s Social Equity Committee and meeting with the high school No Place for Hate club – the students are concerned with microaggressions and bullying. It is my goal to continue to work with the students to build a culture of respect in all of our schools so every child will have a welcoming and nurturing environment where they feel safe enough to focus on learning.
Based on what is happening across the state, I am worried about book bans and the efforts to remove books written by people of color and lgbtq+ people from our libraries and classrooms. I will use my position on the board to ensure our students will always be able to access the resources they need to discover themselves and learn about the world around them.

You stepped in to fill a vacancy on the Northgate School Board last year. How did that happen and why did you make that commitment? Had you previously considered any political office?

Last spring when there was a vacancy on the board, multiple people had asked if I would be interested in filling the seat. I had shown up to school board meetings before and contacted my school board members about keeping our kids safe during the ongoing covid-19 pandemic.

I care about my community. I had the time to commit to being a part of this school board and to be a good steward of our schools. Ultimately, I decided to put my name forth because I had seen the work the current school board and administration was already doing to make our schools a more accepting and inclusive space – from continuing to teach an honest history and give our kids the tools they need to solve big problems, to openly supporting LGBTQ+ students freedom to be themselves, and to engaging in social and emotional learning and providing mental health resources so kids could feel safe at school and have the resources they need.

I had not previously considered running for any political office. As an activist and organizer, I imagined holding political office might be something in my far-off future, but when it came down to it my community needed to step up and I’m happy to serve where I’m needed.

Please give an example of how intersectionality has informed your work.

Along with providing a framework for how I consider issues within the school, I think the easiest example for people to understand is my commitment to accessibility on the internet. My videos have captions, my graphics are high-contrast, my photos have alt-text, my hashtags are written in camel case – I do whatever I can to make things as accessible as possible to as many people as I can. When I make social media toolkits for other creators to use – it includes alt-text, camel case hashtags, captions, etc. to make it as easy as possible for other creators to include accessibility in their work.

I don’t currently need any of those accessibility tools, but I grew up with a blind mother and hearing the computer through early text to speech reader programs. My version of intersectionality doesn’t just take my experiences as a queer person of color, but looks for where my work and power can be used to make a better system for everyone.

Please give an example of when another Board Director has persuaded you to change or adjust your perspective on an issue.

I believe the most recent example of someone persuading me or helping me adjust my perspective, was when my colleague Dr. William Bergmann asked an insightful question on a topic when I felt ready to move onto the next item on our agenda.

Dr. Bergmann frequently asks thoughtful questions that lead me into wanting to dig more deeply into whatever topic we are discussing. Ultimately, this conversation in particular left the board wanting to collect more data before making a decision and we left the meeting with the conversation looking forward to getting more information and discussing the topic even more in our future meetings.

Do you have classroom or instruction experience?

No, I do not.

I don’t remember who came out first. I do remember feeling protective of my openly queer friends though. I remember keeping track of whose parents knew their children were gay, I remember keeping track of which teachers and adults would have been safe to go in case something happened.

As of March 6, 2023, 415 anti-LGBTQ bills have been introduced across the United States compared with 315 total in 2022. While Pennsylvania has no active anti-LGBTQ legislation on the State level, there is movement specifically targeting drag queens and drag performances. And we have seen activity at the school board policy levels stripping LGBTQ students of their rights. Tell us about the impact these numbers have on students and other youth. What outcomes can we expect as this legislative tsunami grows? Also, important to note that Pennsylvania’s Senate has introduced one piece of affirming legislation, SB 293.

The rise of anti-LGBTQ bills being introduced and passed across the country is disheartening. I am sure it can be overwhelming for LGBTQ youth to see people in power try to push them into boxes and stop them from being themselves.

The truth is politicians pushing anti-LGBTQ legislation that attempts to vilify our children for playing sports or experimenting with their gender expression are bullying children. When they try to ban books that show the diversity of our world to stop kids from reading these stories, they are trying to cut off empathy for groups that aren’t like the people in power. And our kids are smart enough to know that’s what is happening.

We’ve all seen the statistics on bullying – from the impact it has on long-term health impacts, to increased rates of depression and suicide. It’s up to us as adults to protect all of our kids and build a safe environment for our kids that protects them – by having policies that have their back, by having adults in our schools who understand and will protect them, and by standing up to any proposed legislation in Pennsylvania that would threaten our kids.

We know what the worst outcomes could look like, but I believe in the parents and adults in my district to see through these fear-mongering politicians, stand up to their bullying, and make sure they never hold office again.

As a queer Asian adult, how does the legislation impact you? (Katrina, I took those descriptors from your Twitter profile. If “queer Asian adult” is not accurate for this context, please let me know.)

Anti-LGBTQ legislation both scares and motivates me. In my lifetime, I have seen people grow to be more accepting of the LGBTQ+ community. I have seen the community in my neighborhood grow to be accepting of the LGBTQ+ community. I’m scared that it could fall apart and that I, as well as people that I love, are being targeted across the country. I am afraid because there are powerful people who are literally seeking to eradicate me.

Legislation seeking to limit how I can express my gender in public, that bans gender-affirming care, that tries to stop stories like mine from being told and people like me from existing – this all impacts me.

And I will not let them win. I will keep working to protect the LGBTQ+ people in my life – whether that means building out policy that protects and affirms queer youth in our schools, showing up on election day to support other candidates who will work to make Pennsylvania a safer and more welcoming place, supporting LGBTQ+ charities and organizations with my money or time, or running for office myself because I refuse to let someone who hates me or my community be in a position of power where they can hurt us.

What is the gold standard for LGBTQ affirming school district policies?

If anyone is looking for model policies to implement, the recommendations made by GLSEN and the National Center for Transgender Equality is a good place to start. They include:

Harassment, bullying, and non-discrimination policies
Policies for facilities accessibility for trans, gender non-conforming, and non-binary students
Policies affirming trans and gender non-conforming student’s participation in athletics

It is a contentious time to serve on school boards – safety threats, intractable extremists, people clinging to inaccurate information, and letting irrational fears drive policy. What is necessary to bring reason and fairness back to school boards?

Right now, Northgate has a functional school board – where we focus on the facts, act in good faith with each other even as we disagree on the best path forward, and we do what we believe is best for our schools and what we believe is necessary to put students first and foremost.

If we want to ensure that our school boards are healthy in the long-term then it is going to take all of us. We need to find good people to run for school board who will treat each other with respect and take the job seriously, as voters we need to elect people who will put students first and work to build a nurturing and safe environment so every student can focus on learning, and as community members we need to show up to the school board meetings and ensure that our school boards are treating each other with respect and focusing on implementing policies that will improve our schools.

The school board is made up of our neighbors, they’re our community members who have chosen to serve in a volunteer position – and we can make sure the people we elect are the members of our community who want to build a community for everyone. We can also remember that our neighbors who are serving in these positions are usually doing their best.

How do competitive primary elections benefit the residents of a community?

Historically, people haven’t voted in these local odd-year elections. But these elections are important – the people running this year will build policies that impacts what kinds of schools our kids go to, which streets get plowed first in a snowstorm and get paved first in the summer, how often trash pick-up is, and how affordable the housing in the region is going to be.

A competitive primary could mean that more people find out that we have elections when nobody is running for President or congress. A competitive primary means more people will get reached out to by campaigns in the region and will show up to vote to make their voice heard on May 16.

What are three reasons people should vote for you/support your campaign?

There is a lot about my unique identity and values that I bring with me as a representative on the school board. But most importantly, as a school board member, I will work to provide 3 things for the Northgate community:

A high-quality honest education for our students
Open communication and accessible community engagement
A safe and nurturing environment so our kids can focus on learning

Tell me about your other endorsements and supporters.

At this time, I am proud to say that I am endorsed by Run For Something, an organization that encourages young progressive candidates to run for state and local office.

Based on what is happening across the state, I am worried about book bans and the efforts to remove books written by people of color and lgbtq+ people from our libraries and classrooms. I will use my position on the board to ensure our students will always be able to access the resources they need to discover themselves and learn about the world around them.

Where can readers find your campaign on social media?

https://www.facebook.com/ElectKatrinaEames
https://www.twitter.com/KatrinaEames
You can also check out my website: https://www.katrinaeames.com

Thank you, Katrina

Other Q&A’s in this election cycle series. You can read previous cycle Q&A’s here.

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