- Welcome back, y'all.
We are here with Gina Torres and Eugene Levy.
Give it up.
(audience cheers)
So this is crazy.
We are only in the second month of 2023 and already
hundreds of bills targeting the LGBTQ+ population
have been filed in state legislatures across the country.
I mean, just think how isolating
that must feel for anyone who's a part
of that queer community, especially kids, you know.
That's why I love what our next guests are doing.
They host a summer camp for LGBTQ kids
that fosters leadership and celebrates individuality.
That makes them rad humans.
(upbeat music)
(audience applauds)
All right, everybody.
From Brave Trails, let's welcome Jessica and her wife Kayla
along with one of their campers, Ben,
and Ben's mom, Kathleen.
(audience applauds)
Meet Gina.
Meet Eugene.
Everyone say hi.
- They're loaded couches.
I love it when it's like this.
So Kayla, how did you come up with the idea for the camp?
- Yeah, so it's very much a mix of our two greatest loves
but I grew up going to summer camp
from the time I was eight,
all the way to being a counselor.
- That's cool. - It was really cool.
I struggled a lot in school
so I had really low self-esteem
and once I got to camp,
it was a whole different world.
Like, I felt important, I felt seen,
all the things that are valued in a school space.
It was the complete opposite at camp.
It was like critical thinking,
and how you make friends, and your energy,
and all these other wonderful things.
And so, it was just a magical place for me.
And I would walk by the director's house every day
and just think, dang, that's what I wanna do
with the rest of my life.
But that was kind of like my race car driver-NASA dream
until I met this one.
She's a licensed marriage and family therapist.
She studied LGBTQ mental health
and so, really, it was just the merger of like,
she wants to see a place
where LGBTQ youth can be healthy and their best selves
and mixed with the magic of camp.
And now we've been able to serve thousands of young people
all over the world and it's-
- Wow. - It's been a wild ride.
- That's incredibly cool, you've known each other.
Jessica, tell us about what the campers experience
at Brave Trails.
- Yeah, so I like to kind of say that
Brave Trails is a mix between traditional summer camp
and a leadership institute
'cause we really value that leadership aspect.
- Mm-hmm.
- So we have traditional stuff,
we have swimming, archery, arts and crafts,
everything with queer twist and lots of glitter.
Lots of glitter, a must.
And a leadership institute where we have folks
from the community come in and do leadership workshops
and those can range from the hard skills of public speaking,
and building your resume, and things like that.
All the way to identity workshops,
and mental health, and mindfulness, and yoga.
And really we say that Brave Trails is the beginning.
We want them to take those skills back to their community
and be the change-makers that they are.
- Absolutely.
Kayla, you also leave room for kids to explore
and come to terms with their sexual and gender identities
which I think is super cool.
- Yeah, so, something we did really intentionally
when we were building Brave Trails was to make sure
that our campers didn't have to explain themself
as much as possible because they have to do it so much
in their homes and in their communities and schools.
And so, all of our housing is genderless.
Bathrooms are genderless.
We ask for names and pronouns all the time for campers
and they can change them as they like.
Also, one of my favorite parts of camp
is the clothing closet where campers can go in.
I love that energy from Ben.
And just like try on all kinds of looks
whether that be theatrical or just more everyday clothing
so that they can really try and find who they are
and what feels good to them without the pressures
of things that don't, you know,
that are happening outside of camp.
It's magical.
It's really cool. - That's so cool.
- Yeah.
- Kathleen, you enrolled Ben into Brave Trails
after going through a family tragedy, right?
- Yeah, so March 31st 2021,
I lost my husband to COVID
and prior to his passing he had started to work
on being a better parent to his LGBTQ teenagers, plural.
So I have an older son who's 19 that is gay,
and he was raised Indiana conservative (laughs)
and was really working on trying to be a better parent.
And when he passed away, I realized
that we were gonna have to fill that gap somewhere, somehow.
And so I started, you know, scouring the internet
and I found Brave Trails and I was like,
"Yes, this is the place I know this is,
this is where Ben belongs."
And when Ben got accepted,
I had this, like, major out-of-body experience.
I broke down, I was crying, I was calling all my friends
because I knew that not only Ben's life was going to change
but all lives were going to change
because Ben was gonna take whatever he learned at camp,
and bring it home, and apply it to our local community
which is very much needed as well.
- Yeah.
For progress to happen.
(audience & guests applauding)
Eugene, have to ask, you and Dan have talked openly
about his coming out experience.
So did you have fears about how he'd be treated,
not by your family, but by others?
- I think by the time he came out, you know,
the times seemed to be changing for the positive.
So it wasn't so much a concern
as it would've been 10, 15, 20 years ago.
- Yeah.
- But, you know, needless to say,
things are still not where they should be today.
And that's unfortunate.
So unfortunate.
- So, Ben, tell us how Brave Trails has shaped your life.
- Definitely, it definitely helped me
because I was in a very deep mental state
because of everything that was going on with my dad.
And I was bottling up all of these negative emotions,
and I didn't really know how to release them,
and I didn't know who to release them to.
But when I went to Brave Trails,
I met all these amazing people and I figured out
how to release all of these emotions
and I was able to finally experience
the luxury that is Brave Trails
and I was able to perform.
- [Kelly] Yes!
I was able to do a lot of other-
so many activities, meet all these people,
and I was able to grow as a leader
because I was able to be a co-costume lead
for a few productions that my school did for theater
and I made sure that I was taking charge.
We were all getting our work done,
no one was being left out.
And it also gave me a kickstart
to a career in fashion design, so.
- I was gonna say that was really cool
with the caution tape.
- [Ben] I made that.
- [Kelly] I was gonna ask you that.
That was really rad.
- [Ben] Yeah, thank you.
It was. - Wow.
- I loved that costume song
and I lip-synced to your song in that costume song.
- Oh, my God.
You looked better than I did.
(group laughs)
I am not that cool.
You're very rock and roll.
So cool.
Kathleen, it must be such a relief to see Ben so happy.
Like, you know, any mom, I'm a mama...
Your kid finds a group that they finally feel confident
and they're inspired instead of beaten down.
- It is such a relief, you know,
to know that this space exists
for kids like Ben and for, you know, my older son too.
Just because we don't have these kind of places very-
You know, we don't see it, right?
So it's a good space where they can explore their pronouns
and just learn and grow as a queer person.
And I'm sorry, I'm trying not to cry
but anyway I just wanted to say thank you.
We just wanna be a part of Brave Trails
for the foreseeable future because we know
how much of a positive impact-
Look at you, thank you.
It has had on Ben's life and our lives,
and it's so important.
I know there are other kids who don't get that opportunity.
So yes, it's such important work that you're doing
and we thank you.
- What you're doing, I wanna say too, is
one, you're creating a space
that you feel like you probably didn't have
and that you really desired when you were younger.
And then also, wouldn't it be great if the world
was all like that?
The world was just accepting everywhere of who anyone is.
You wanna be like- I think the goal here is
that you don't have to go to one certain spot.
The goal is what you were saying.
These kids can take what they learn, these skills,
and apply them.
All this is applicable knowledge for when they go away
and then that spreads and that ripple effect,
you know, infects in a good way.
You know what I'm saying?
And it changes society for the better is my hope.
Sitting here listening.
But Kayla, in addition to the camp,
you offer other resources as well, right?
- Yes.
So as you're hearing, camp is such an incredible experience,
but then they have to go home
and so we've added a bunch of new programs
in the last few years.
One of them being our mental health program,
where our campers and other youth can come
and receive comprehensive mental health support,
as well as family camps.
We have all sorts of year-round meetups.
And my favorite program is our scholarship program.
I got to go to camp for like $75
because I came from a single parent household growing up.
And so I always knew when we created Brave Trails,
finances was not gonna be a barrier for campers.
Like whatever we have to sacrifice
to make sure campers can come to camp
and not have to worry about funds.
- 'Cause honestly those are the kids-
I was that kid, too.
Those are the kids that need it,
the kids in the underserved communities,
the kids that don't have all that opportunity.
- Exactly.
- Those are the kids that need it.
- Exactly.
- I'd never even heard of experiences like that
and you know, that's silly.
It should never-
It should never be that way.
And so we're lucky enough to give
at least a hundred thousand away in scholarships each year
to campers who need it from all over the world,
all over the country.
And it's like the lifeblood of our program and it's-
- That's really key.
Well, Conagra believes that every kid deserves access
to a safe place that nurtures healthy habits
and empowers them to be themselves.
When they heard how Brave Trails is changing lives,
they wanted to help, so they're donating $10,000.
- Oh, my God.
- It was like a open mouth, open mouth, open mouth.
It was like a row.
Thank you guys so much for sharing your story
and being so vulnerable with your family
and I'm so sorry for your loss.
- Thank you. - That is hard.
So we are all thinking of you as well.
And that it's so great
that you seem like you have a great support system
which is what you need in a time of loss and grief.
So I'm glad that you found that.
- Thank you.