Jane Araf

You would go to somebody like Karen Ortiz. And on his first day in office, Trump signed this executive order that declared that the U.S. government now only recognizes two sexes, male, female. And about a week after that executive order, Ortiz says she received this directive from her direct supervisor to pause all their LGBTQ cases in New York and send them to Washington for further review.

I was seething. And so she decided to stand up and say no. And she hit reply all, sent an email back to her boss and the entire agency.

I was seething. And so she decided to stand up and say no. And she hit reply all, sent an email back to her boss and the entire agency.

I was seething. And so she decided to stand up and say no. And she hit reply all, sent an email back to her boss and the entire agency.

Yeah. I've worked in countries where the consequences are extremely severe for criticizing governments. Right. In Syria, you were actually disappeared. Nobody knew where you went and you showed up often dead or never. You know, we saw mass graves from that regime. In Egypt, you know, same thing. You could end up in house arrest.

Yeah. I've worked in countries where the consequences are extremely severe for criticizing governments. Right. In Syria, you were actually disappeared. Nobody knew where you went and you showed up often dead or never. You know, we saw mass graves from that regime. In Egypt, you know, same thing. You could end up in house arrest.

Yeah. I've worked in countries where the consequences are extremely severe for criticizing governments. Right. In Syria, you were actually disappeared. Nobody knew where you went and you showed up often dead or never. You know, we saw mass graves from that regime. In Egypt, you know, same thing. You could end up in house arrest.

Anybody could file a suit against you, and the prosecutor will pick it up if it's something critical of the government, and you could end up in jail for a speech. Free press. There was no thriving free press. There was a demonization of civil society organizations that were working on critical work that documented human rights abuses.

Anybody could file a suit against you, and the prosecutor will pick it up if it's something critical of the government, and you could end up in jail for a speech. Free press. There was no thriving free press. There was a demonization of civil society organizations that were working on critical work that documented human rights abuses.

Anybody could file a suit against you, and the prosecutor will pick it up if it's something critical of the government, and you could end up in jail for a speech. Free press. There was no thriving free press. There was a demonization of civil society organizations that were working on critical work that documented human rights abuses.

And what I will say is when we did this call out to our listeners saying, how do you feel? Do you feel free to speak in this moment? Do you feel less free to speak? I was so shocked. Our entire team was so shocked to read through all of these responses and see how many people didn't feel safe saying, this is my full name and this is what I do. That is something new in the United States.

And what I will say is when we did this call out to our listeners saying, how do you feel? Do you feel free to speak in this moment? Do you feel less free to speak? I was so shocked. Our entire team was so shocked to read through all of these responses and see how many people didn't feel safe saying, this is my full name and this is what I do. That is something new in the United States.

And what I will say is when we did this call out to our listeners saying, how do you feel? Do you feel free to speak in this moment? Do you feel less free to speak? I was so shocked. Our entire team was so shocked to read through all of these responses and see how many people didn't feel safe saying, this is my full name and this is what I do. That is something new in the United States.

I've worked here for a long time. I've worked abroad for a long time. And that is something familiar to me. in countries where I did live.

I've worked here for a long time. I've worked abroad for a long time. And that is something familiar to me. in countries where I did live.

I've worked here for a long time. I've worked abroad for a long time. And that is something familiar to me. in countries where I did live.

And the other thing that is familiar is often when the governments couldn't deal with the consequences, the social consequences from their public that they served, they would scapegoat and demonize the organizations or the press that reported on what was happening.

And the other thing that is familiar is often when the governments couldn't deal with the consequences, the social consequences from their public that they served, they would scapegoat and demonize the organizations or the press that reported on what was happening.

And the other thing that is familiar is often when the governments couldn't deal with the consequences, the social consequences from their public that they served, they would scapegoat and demonize the organizations or the press that reported on what was happening.

You know, I remember doing an interview in Egypt and there had been so much time spent on demonizing the foreign press as people who wanted to destroy the country and they were anti-Egyptian and they didn't love Egypt. That I would have people grab my notebook out of my hand or scream at me because they believed that it wasn't me trying to find facts and information and share that with the world.