Join Suge for canvassing, phonebanking and text banking starting in February. 

Meet the Triangle Regional Organizer, Sugelema Lynch

I'm excited to introduce you to Sugelema Lynch, but you can call her Suge (pronounced: shug; like sugar). Suge is the regional organizer for the Triangle- Durham, Orange and Alamance counties.

As a Mexican-American child of migrant farmworkers, growing up in rural communities on the west coast, I quickly learned that my childhood was different from others. My family moved around every three months following the seasons and adapting to various types of agricultural labor to make ends meet.  My mother valued education and despite moving so frequently, she made sure I stayed in school.  She knew knowledge was the way out of poverty and emphasized its importance by getting me on the bus everyday no matter where we were. 

My mother’s commitment to education is what fueled my desire to earn a Bachelor’s degree in K-12 education and an MBA. After teaching for several years, I decided to become an activist in my community. Today, there are many people that share my story of living in poverty and my goal as a regional organizer for The New North Carolina Project is to create voters for life by making politics relevant for those that often feel ignored by politicians and help them find ways to improve their quality of life. The time is now to shift the narrative and create a place that is representative of the growing diversity in North Carolina.  Join us today and be a part of the shift we need to build a state that represents us all.   

Upcoming Events

Our next Town Hall is about Education and it's coming up on Wednesday, February 2. We're excited to have Christian Rhodes, Chief of Staff for the Office of Elementary & Secondary Education at the US Department of Education, Ricky Hurtado, NC State House Representative for District 63, Leo Williams from the Durham City Council and Trey Roberts, an organizer for NNCP and student debt activist joining the panel.

Last year in sweeping legislation across the country, trans rights were attacked in state legislatures, taking away the right to healthcare for trans folks, versions of the infamous HB-2 bill, threatening to put trans kids in foster care if their families affirmed their gender (calling it child abuse) and not allowing trans kids to play sports as the gender they identify as. And 51 trans people were murdered last year- 3 of them were from North Carolina- Jaida Peterson, Remy Fennell and Jenna Franks. 

This year doesn't seem to be any better. 21 states have already proposed bills that would criminalize doctors for providers gender affirming care as well as banning trans kids from sports.

What doesn't make sense is that cisgender people receive gender affirming cosmetic surgeries all the time, yet cisgender people don't want trans people to receive that same care. Trans TikTok creator Rey explains it well.

North Carolina Republicans tried to pass 3 anti-trans bills in the state legislature last year- one to ban trans women from playing sports, another to ban any trans person under the age of 18 from receiving healthcare and another that allowed any healthcare provider to deny a trans person healthcare. Thankfully none of these ended up passing last year. But trans rights are at stake and will be something we need to consider when voting in the primary and the November general election.

Protecting Trans Rights

How can cisgender people be strong allies to the trans community? I have listed some basic tips below, but you can read more on GLAAD.

• Know your elected officials stances on trans rights and vote for candidates that are pro-LGBTQ+ rights.
• Write and call your legislators when anti-trans bills come up in the General Assembly or in Congress to ask them to not support those bills.
• Find out if your city or county has local non-discrimination ordinances to protect the LGBTQ+ community (See Wake County for example). If they don't ask them to support one.
• Don't assume someone's gender and normalize using pronouns and asking for other people's pronouns so that you know how to refer to someone- use them when you introduce yourself to someone and put them on your social media bios and e-mail signatures.
• Start using inclusive language instead of binary gendered language- Watch this video by Blair Imani for many terms you can use!
• Educate yourself on the ways that the patriarchy hurts all of us and trans experience and the history of trans peoples existence- Do not expect trans people to do the emotional labor to educate you. I recommend watching the documentary Disclosure, reading the book Beyond the Gender Binary by Alok V. Menon, listening to the podcast Gender Reveal, and follow LGBTQ+ news with Them to start!
• If someone you know tells you that they are trans, do not publicly out them as that could put them in danger.
• Advocate for trans resources to be available- LGBTQ+ books (both fiction and non-fiction) are being pulled from bookstores and libraries so that people cannot explore their gender identities or properly educate themselves