Get to Know Us: Sarah from Care2

Care2 community, meet Sarah Rose! I’m so excited to introduce her as part of our continuing staff spotlight series. Sarah is our Social Media Coordinator and LGBTQ Issues Advocate here at Care2, and you may be familiar with her. If you follow us on Facebook (and you should), she’s the reason why you get all those incredible, uplifting, urgent, and sometimes outrageous updates on the latest petitions trending on Care2.

But that’s not all Sarah does — she’s also a passionate warrior for trans rights. You’ve probably seen or heard her on NPR or ABC Atlanta, or read her words in articles by the BBC, Entertainment Tonight and Fox News. That’s because she’s been the driving force behind some of our best-known petitions, including this one to boycott Zoolander 2 for its offensive depiction of a non-gender-binary character, and this one to install permanent rainbow pride crosswalks in Atlanta, Georgia.

She’s also the front person for the awesome rock band Sarah and the Safe Word, and has — no kidding — been an extra in the TV show The X-Files. We’re all just hoping that when she becomes a big-shot famous person she still remembers us! When she’s not out talking to media and playing music gigs, she’s nerding out to the latest Star Wars gossip and updating us on which movies were the best, and in which order (Rogue One, obviously).

But there’s much more know about Sarah. Read our Q&A with her below to learn more!

What’s your favorite activist chant ever?

During the AIDS crisis, a popular slogan/chant was “Silence equals death!” — I think that’ll go down in history as one of the many times the LGBTQ community as a whole rallied together in a powerful and beautiful way.

Favorite part of being at Care2?

I get to make a difference in issue areas that directly affect me. I don’t forget for a moment that there is a disproportionate unemployment rate among transgender women in America. While the tide is turning, any trans woman that has the privilege of a steady career is still a lucky one. I feel privileged in that I get to directly give back to my community and to other LGBTQ-identifying people who are struggling to find their place in society through bringing attention to specific issues and causes.

What’s the biggest lesson you’ve learned about advocacy, good or bad?

Don’t read the comments section. Haha.

[Editor’s note: SO TRUE! This made me laugh so hard. But also cry. Doesn’t matter what you’re reading — a news article, Facebook, or YouTube — skip the comments section.]

How do you keep motivated?

I try to get out in my community and see younger queer kids coming out and living their truth and being proud of who they are. While there’s still a lot of work to be done, I feel like society has changed for the better in so many ways since I was a kid. That’s directly because of the work and energy people within the Care2 community and elsewhere have devoted towards equality.

Favorite emoji?

Combo skull and rock horns. ??

When you get stuck on an advocacy problem, what resources to do you use to solve it?

There’s no better counsel than my friends. If I’m stuck on something or not sure how to approach an issue, usually one of them gives me a direction to approach it from that I never considered.

What’s your favorite Care2 petition or campaign you’ve ever worked on?

I’ll always be proud of the work we did with the Zoolander 2 boycott. It got so much international media attention, and I think it really made a lot of people step back and question how gender-nonconforming folks were being portrayed in media.