Jackson Lewis wasn’t trying to make history when he decided to run for his local school board, but that’s exactly what he did.
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The 19-year-old didn’t just bat first. LGBTQ+ He won the Canyons School Board District 1 election in November, making him the person elected to that position and the youngest elected official in Utah. Lewis said she didn’t have that in mind when she decided to run, but she was motivated to get involved after seeing the issues facing her community.
As an employee of the state Legislature’s Office of Legislative Research and General Counsel, and as a student at Hillcrest High School, Lewis said, “I often hear complaints about the Utah Legislature’s repeated insistence on passing huge amounts of education legislation each year.” ” he said. This is causing a lot of stress and headaches for educational staff. ”
“I thought there was no better way to not only get involved in my community, but just get involved in the electoral process,” Lewis said. defender. “I wanted to represent my teachers, coworkers, friends, and family who helped get me through high school.”
Lewis currently represents his former high school, which his sister still attends. One of the issues that is important to him is “chronic student absenteeism.” He himself was a chronically absent student at one point. He believes one way to address this problem is to use “applied learning” instead of lecture-based settings, which can improve student focus. Another method is to delay the school start time.
“I was a chronic absentee for part of my high school years, and one of the things the school district did to help me get out of that situation was to start school at 9:30 instead of 7:30. and got the sleep I needed,” Lewis says.
Another important issue for him is “protecting student pedestrians” and “improving access between neighborhoods and schools.” Lewis, who traveled on foot to cover almost every street in the district during his campaign, and who often walked to school as a student, says with authority, “We need to improve sidewalks.”
“It’s often very difficult to get from neighborhood to neighborhood, which prevents pedestrians from using the streets. And it creates a much more hostile environment for student pedestrians,” he said. explains.
Lewis believes his closeness to the people he serves will make him an effective school board member. She also hopes her presence will help “introduce Gen Z to a lot of people who don’t know much about them,” as young people face challenges unique to their generation. .
“I was a post-pandemic student, and it was hard to go back,” Lewis said. “The whole world has changed, and the district has to change with it.”
Lewis also believes that Gen Z is a generation with a different view of politics than previous generations, especially because they have been exposed to politics during polarized times. “We are primarily the generation that grew up after 9/11. Most of us don’t remember that. Most of us don’t remember the war. Most of us don’t remember the recession. I remember that after 2012, for better or worse, many of us entered the world of politics because of the 2016 presidential election.
For LGBTQ+ youth, the struggle is compounded by coming of age in a changing landscape for gay rights, something Lewis said grew up in a conservative state. He says he has experienced it.
“It was very easy,” Lewis said. He was raised by lesbian parents and had a supportive group of friends. Still, he waited until January 2021 to come out. He recalls: He said he faced prejudice at school, where he was directly hurled insults and heard “extremely homophobic and homophobic slurs used on a daily basis”.
“I spent elementary school, middle school, and half of high school as a closed-off kid. It wasn’t good for my mental health,” Lewis says. “I didn’t like most of my time at school. When you feel like you have to hide yourself, even if it’s not for any particular reason, it’s still scary.”
“It fills my heart every time I see queer people finding hope in this race,” he continues. “It was tough being a queer kid in Utah, but it made me the person I am today.”
The 19-year-old’s election was one of the bright spots in a dark election cycle for LGBTQ+ people. Lewis said he was particularly troubled by the “double-digit point shift among young people” to the right and said Democratic officials needed to do more to “reach my demographic to win the next election.” He claimed that there was.
“These voters need to be met where they are,” he says. “We don’t watch cable TV, we don’t watch much TV. We watch streaming services. We have to reach out online. We have to reach out on TikTok, and unfortunately, Joe… We need to reach out through Logan. …We need to talk about important issues, like talk about the economy. We need to talk about them in a way that people can understand.”
The next four years will be tough, but there are still ways the average person can fight back. “The most basic thing anyone can do is know who their elected officials are, and when election time comes, know who their candidates are,” Lewis said. “That’s it,” he says.
“Local elections are much, much more important than what’s happening in Washington, D.C.,” he says. “D.C. is very important. Don’t get me wrong, what happens on the school board, what happens on the city council, what happens on the state legislature, that’s going to change your life. ”
Additionally, Lewis emphasizes that LGBTQ+ people “need to be in the spaces where these people congregate.” [anti-LGBTQ+] The laws are going to be written,” and just being an openly queer person in public can change someone’s mind.
“I was working in the Utah Legislature for this 2024 session, and during that time they passed a lot of really bad bills, especially regarding queer people,” Lewis says. “We know that change happens when people go to testify. Whether you change a legislator’s mind or not, the media is in the room and your voice is heard on TV, on the radio, in publications on the internet, etc. It will be shown in the country.
“You don’t have to be an elected official to get involved, go talk to your local city council member, join local organizations, go to marches, go to meetings, attend everything. ” he continues. “Sometimes the best thing you can do is just have queer people participate and be in that space because it shows that we’re just regular people.”
Lewis emphasizes that this is not just a fight for LGBTQ+ people, as everyone has something to lose.
“If you choose not to do politics, it doesn’t matter,” he says. “Politics will always choose you.”
Source: Advocate.com – www.advocate.com
