Up next in 10
A Journey Towards Acceptance
0 views
Feb 23, 2023
Best selling author of A Journey Towards Acceptance, Jason Masters shares a story that will not only help executives across the globe, but will empower the youth of today to live a life they were born to have and to own. A Journey Towards Acceptance: An Evolving Memoir is an empowering story about one man’s struggle with his identity. @ajourneytowardsacceptance #journeytowardsacceptance #Memoir #socialjustice #lgbitq Follow us on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/carenglasser Follow us on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/carenglasserlive Follow us on Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/carenglasser
View Video Transcript
0:00
Professor here and welcome to the author Spotlight make sure you say hi in the comments and tell us where you are
0:06
watching from today's show is sponsored by the online author's office a platform
0:11
for aspiring writers who seek that Quantum Leap into marketing their work and today we are diving deep with
0:19
best-selling author Jason Masters as the first foreign son of a World War II
0:24
veteran Jason grew up in a 1980s Society where the murder of gay men was not uncommon as a basketball Enthusiast he
0:32
inspired his community as a coach his coaching motto to teenage basketball players is you can't change the past but
0:38
you can influence the future this motivation eerily returned to himself for his own healing as an author Jason
0:44
shares a story that will not only help Executives across the globe but will empower the Youth of today to live a
0:51
life that they were born to have and to own so without further Ado welcome to
0:56
the stage how are you today I'm doing welcome thanks calm yourself
1:02
I am doing great as well I am delighted that you're here today your story is amazing it's amazing and I know it is
1:10
doing it is doing such good in the world right now so we're gonna Jump Right In I want to talk about your journey you call
1:17
yourself an accidental activist first of all I love the phrase but I want to make
1:22
sure that we all understand what you meant by that what is an accidental activist so I think
1:28
um I've always been interested in in social justice you know I when I left Adelaide my my home city of birth and
1:36
and started my first professional job in Melbourne I was very involved in the United Church which for your listeners
1:42
is uh an indigenous church here in Australia a merger of the congregational
1:47
Methodist and most of the Presbyterians in 1977. and Melbourne
1:53
um was the epicenter or is the epicenter of social justice so I did social justice training through my church and
1:59
was always interested but um never was it relevant to myself great
2:05
when I came out um I came out into a very difficult time here in Australia Australia's only the
2:13
second country in the world that's had a national vote over whether lgbtiq plus people can get married
2:21
um Ireland had to do it because of a constitution Australia did it because the conservative government at the time had
2:28
been trying to delay and defer this so I then suddenly found myself coming
2:33
out um starting to discover who I was and then getting involved in National
2:39
politics and having to advocate for the right for lgbtiq plus people to get
2:45
married and then from there um after there was success with the we
2:52
called it a postal survey and was how it was done um there was then a push back from
2:58
various conservative members of parliaments in the various layers of our system here in Australia
3:05
um that were starting to push for religious rights and one of the things that happened here in New South Wales is
3:12
one of the right-wing parties uh called the Pauline Hanson One Nation party
3:18
um put a bill into the New South Wales Parliament that effectively meant that
3:24
teachers groundskeepers office staff counselors in schools if they provided
3:31
any support to transgender children or gender diverse children would be sacked
3:37
and teachers would lose their license pretty much what we're seeing Across America I was just going to say that it
3:43
sounds like they're taking their their their their Road from what was going when you guys
3:48
went yeah and so I I am involved in the
3:53
lgbtiq um organization in the United Church called uniting a network
3:59
and so I started writing the submission to uh the Parliamentary inquiry into
4:05
that now what was interesting is um there was a lot of submissions from the
4:12
conservative religious element um there are quite a few submissions from the lgbtiq advocacy area
4:22
um there are only four submissions from people or organizations that are
4:27
religious um opposing this legislation the chair of the committee wouldn't allow any of
4:33
us to be Witnesses at his committee um so surprise surprise and so from that
4:40
I've been involved in you know other religious discrimination legislations and also the the work
4:47
towards Banning conversion practices across Australia so as you as you say
4:52
coming out as a gay executive has been a very long and arduous Journey wow so
4:58
that is actually how you became an accidental activist and you continue to this day
5:04
um because you have made a huge difference um and so you decided to write your book it's a journey towards acceptance and
5:11
evolving Memoir so is did the book come out of what you
5:17
were experiencing or was it in addition to what how did this happen so I I think
5:23
it happened when I came out um I found a group that unfortunately no
5:30
longer exists called freedom to be um and it was a group of a Christian
5:38
lgbtiq people who would meet um and sort of have speakers or talk
5:45
about issues and then go out and have dinner um unfortunately about a year after I
5:51
joined it sort of came to a natural end um when people started to hear my story
5:59
they kept saying to me Jason you've got to write your story and I just thought this is ridiculous I'm kind of the the
6:05
baby in the group so to speak and um so this kept happening and happening
6:12
and then in 2018 I went to a conference in Hong Kong
6:18
um it was the Asia Pacific rainbows Family Forum and I was asked to be on a
6:23
panel of speakers around um faith family in the workplace um there was a transgender Pacifica
6:30
woman there was myself as a Christian gay man and he was then living in Fiji
6:37
uh but a a Muslim uh man was on this panel and through that I had mentioned I
6:45
was thinking about writing my story at that point of time I just had this concept that I would write something PDF
6:52
and put it up on a website now one of the funny things about this conference is one of the sponsors was an
6:58
International High School in Hong Kong um they actually had quite a lot of
7:04
lgbtiq students and so they actually ran a session at the conference and raised
7:10
money to help bring an international speaker from a a country and and it's
7:16
one of these speakers that we weren't allowed to record we weren't allowed to tweet about because if their government
7:23
found out about what they were speaking about um they could be imprisoned or worse
7:28
um anyway their teacher came up to me afterward and said um you've got to write a story
7:34
um it's really important and you need to talk to pashmina she had uh published her book and done a lot of work with
7:41
Patrona uh from the um online author's office so um that's
7:46
when I started the process of starting to put the book together so that's the the Genesis of it what is it like having
7:53
a book like this that is your story and it's there for people to read is
8:00
that is that emotional for you is this is this I mean obviously you had never thought about doing this you did it
8:06
because people asked but now that you've done it this is quite the accomplishment thank you yes it it is and I think
8:14
um we had the official book launch in in Sydney uh just recently and
8:20
um I've not been to any book launchers but ones that I've been to it's basically been the author speaking all
8:26
the time and I thought I wanted to do something different and so um I had a
8:32
well-known um sort of advocate for the community um as the MC I had a very good friend of
8:40
mine uh be interviewed about you know when he got to know me in Sydney and and
8:45
what he observed of me coming out um he interviewed my son my daughter was doing the bookstore
8:54
um and uh what we realized is that um nearly 20 years ago was the first
9:02
book of this genre in Australia it was published and mine is only the second
9:07
and so Anthony Ben Brown who was the author of that first book who was a a
9:13
Pentecostal Pastor who was married and then came out
9:18
um he uh and I have known each other since I've come out um and so he was interviewed and then he
9:25
interviewed me and uh so this this whole thing that it's been 20 years almost
9:31
since the first book to the second I think says something about the the challenge for people writing their
9:37
stories so um I think I was pretty tired last week after having got the the book out and
9:44
now starting to think about um you know what might be some of the consequences
9:49
um I have been constantly talking with my psychologist about this um because there are very conservative
9:56
religious elements in Australia as there are in most countries um who know me for my advocacy work who
10:03
might then try and um sort of attack me so we've done some work to prepare for that so is it I'm I'm actually really
10:10
happy to hear that you have somebody in your corner you're that you can talk to because I again I can only guess I I am
10:19
not obviously experienced in this but I can only guess that
10:24
anticipating what may come to you to be prepared for it is a smart smart thing
10:31
and I think that that helps other people as well knowing that if they're going to walk your walk that you're showing them
10:39
how to walk that walk so thank you for that you've always been involved in
10:44
social justice work and I know that um you mentioned that when when you came
10:49
out it sort of narrowed that Focus that you had for the LGBT IQ plus it's hard
10:57
to say all of those letters and you're focusing on that but you also say that you're still in the learning
11:03
phase talk to us so um one of the things that you know
11:09
we're seeing globally at the moment um is a significant pushback on the
11:14
transgender community and in fact yeah I mentioned earlier that bill won the one
11:19
nation party put here in New South Wales um so that's meant that I've had to do a
11:25
lot of research and and I find the historical parallel
11:30
is quite interesting um you know I I never heard of The Stonewall riots in in New York but one
11:36
of the things I I learned as I started to look at that history um was that the transgender women were
11:44
some of the first people who um started the defense of the hotel
11:50
and and what I found interesting was how I actually got to meet Anthony van Brown
11:56
that author of that first book was because a transgender woman was at a I
12:02
think a uh LGBT RQ plus um business networking function I was at
12:09
and we were talking and she was a little bit concerned that I may not have the
12:15
support around me and one of the things that happened out of Anthony's book was a lot of people were reaching at him
12:21
saying I need help and I'm saying through my book I'm happy to do that as well wow so you know I was seeing this
12:27
parallel between the transgender women helping that first movement in New York
12:32
and transgender women then reaching out and trying to support me as well
12:38
um so um I I've figured that um whilst things are improving for you
12:45
know gay men it's not perfect yet by long means but the the community that's
12:51
being attacked the most globally is transgender women so I would do a lot of work on that and in fact as we we had a
12:59
brief chat before we we started um you know it's it's morning here I I normally
13:04
not up this early um although some people would say you know it's business hours Joseph
13:10
um but I've already been out tweeting supporting an activist actor in the UK
13:16
um who has been um pressured by um JK rowlings to take down some tweets
13:24
um and she you know does run a quieter and anti-lgbti Q group and I Mani wanted
13:31
to support him he was getting support from America and I wanted to support him from Australia because
13:37
um you know it I too um have been forced to take down
13:44
um some tweets by powerful people um so News Corp which is the largest
13:49
media organization in the world a very anti-lgbtiq um in their their reporting
13:57
um they had a a journalist here who was regularly you know every at least every
14:03
Fortnight if not more putting out false information about transgender you know kids in Australia and he forced me to
14:09
take down some tweets as well so the the powerful who are often the media are saying are being canceled in in this
14:17
woke War um actually had the power to actually silence the minorities and so I wanted
14:24
to give him some support so wow I'm just gonna say wow and did
14:30
you think that this is what you would be doing when you chose to step into this world did you no I didn't and and it
14:40
then yeah it becomes yeah very interesting and one of the things I'm tweeting a lot about
14:47
um is all this anti-lgbtiq legislation in America and
14:52
and in fact the why I phrased um this tweet this morning to support
14:59
this young actor in in the UK um was around to make sure I don't get
15:05
sued because the Americans who are responding have actually got federal law in America to protect them being sued by
15:10
a foreign entity we don't have that in Australia so I'd be very careful in how I did my tweets
15:17
um I understand I didn't see the tweak it was taken down um was some reference perhaps to
15:25
um your fascist movement and Nazis and things like that um what most people don't understand
15:32
about um World War II history and the Nazi movement is everybody has heard about
15:38
the Holocaust um everybody who's heard about what they did to the Jews but there are 11 million
15:45
other people so yeah and and one of the first acts
15:51
um of the the Nazi youth movement uh was to destroy you know what in
15:57
English roughly translates as The Institute of sex sexology
16:03
now and this is where this whole false narrative about transgender people being very new right
16:11
um this institute was created I think around 1907 something like that
16:18
it's not sure um uh was supporting
16:25
um lgbtqiq people but specifically they did a huge amount of research around
16:30
transgender people so what these Nazi youth did as one of their first acts was
16:36
to go to this institute take all the books out and there were 20 000 books
16:42
around research around transgender people plus all the clinical records and
16:48
burnt them um and then then destroyed the actual
16:53
Institute so you know in many ways what I'm trying to point out is history is repeating
16:59
itself the powerful go after the edge minority
17:05
and try and make them out as the awful people so that generally us white people
17:12
right uh need to you know the race needs to be protected and that's the message
17:19
at the moment it's such um a fear that makes Act made no sense
17:25
to me it just doesn't make sense people are people or people if you're just tuning in right now we are talking to
17:31
Jason Masters about his new book a journey towards acceptance I really
17:36
really encourage you to go and take a look at this book pick up a copy you can
17:42
take your phone out right now and just scan it it will take it well don't do that right now actually I don't want you to do that right now but do it later so
17:48
you can go see go check out the book um how long did it take you to write this book
17:54
uh a long time um so I started it around 2018 I'd done
18:01
some preliminary work before that conference in Hong Kong um then I started to engage with pashmina
18:08
um it took me a while to find my voice um because being an executive I was
18:15
overthinking things and I was you know thinking about a structure you know in
18:20
my work I've got to have an executive summary and then I've got to have a Skype call work and then I've got to have the detailed finding and then all
18:27
the supporting appendices and all that sort of stuff and that's not how you write a memoir
18:32
um and I was also writing it very formally and so um also I didn't understand the process
18:40
I I thought I needed to understand the process first um and what kashmina really helped me
18:46
understand is I just need to write right and just writing every day
18:52
and um I didn't always do that but um that was that was admitted enough to
18:58
finally you know come out with this book passionately I hope your ears are burning we are talking about you she's
19:04
an amazing woman and clearly she had a great impact on you in order to get you
19:11
to actually do this um and it was one of the uh one of the
19:16
early um sort of chapter editors um that helped me change my writing
19:22
style a bit and and that led to a very different voice and it was really the
19:29
voice of the enemy um not the voice of the executive so to
19:35
speak and then it started to work from there um we got very very close
19:42
um and then covert it and on the first day of lockdown I had a very bad
19:48
accident and I'm still you know almost three years down strange still dealing with the consequences of that so um that
19:57
had a significant the LIE Factor plus all these other things that you know I
20:02
didn't think about having to do as an author and particularly for a memoir a
20:07
fact that a church the other week There's a couple of other authors in my church and he said
20:13
this is the reason why I do fiction not non-fiction because I don't have to do
20:18
all this administrative work you did which is for everybody that is or any organization that it's either mentioned
20:26
or could be identified has to give their release right and um so there were some
20:33
issues with that um the church wouldn't approve um one quarter chapter and I had to
20:40
rewrite that um I had to get
20:46
um a release from my ex-wife and we needed a mediator to help with that because she didn't see a very private
20:52
person she didn't want anything out there so that took quite a while to get through
20:58
um and then there's the final editing process and all that sort of stuff so are you going to do another book
21:04
so it's interesting um when we created the the subtitle and
21:09
evolving Memoir um I think the instruments always saying you're relatively young Jason yeah there could
21:15
be another book in it yeah um once we get through this sort of
21:23
related promotional process I am thinking of starting a single which will be about
21:29
um having an accident living through covert um and recovering through covert now
21:36
I've got a disability in my left arm um and doing all of that um you know that three or three year
21:42
period upbeing so that's what I'm thinking at the moment well we're going to be waiting for that I want you to
21:47
know we're going to be waiting for that um so I always like to ask my guests no matter what field they're in I always
21:54
want to know why people do what they do what is your big why why are you doing
21:59
this I I think you're doing this because
22:04
there is so much um still unknown about the lgbtiq
22:10
community in our society um what what I see if I go back to the
22:15
transgender issue is arguments that were in the 1970s presented about gay people
22:22
are now being rehashed around transgender people so I think that that's part of it
22:29
I think another part of it is um the importance of representation and
22:36
and one of the things that is important to me I I went to a program at Stanford
22:42
University um in California there um they've got their master's program
22:49
um they had a variety of other programs they also have in there in the American summer week-long programs and they've for a
22:56
long time just run an executive leadership program they then modified it
23:02
to create one for women um they then modified it again to create one for Asian executives and then about
23:10
2015-16 they created one for lgbtiq executives so I went to the third one of
23:16
that um I had started to wearing a watch band that sort of you know Pride related and
23:23
I had two a one like this that was very obvious pride and then another one that
23:28
if you kind of knew you knew but for most people they wouldn't know and that's what I wore to work and things
23:35
like that and I would wear you know an earlier version of this one when I went out with my lgbtiq friends
23:43
um so when I went to Stanford I thought well if I can't wear this all the time while I'm there I'm really still got a
23:51
long way to process who I am so I did and what was interesting is one activist
23:56
from America um towards the end of the week said you've won this all week and I think I
24:04
need to do the same I've been too scared to do that so that that was interesting even amongst people who are you know
24:09
it's 50 people some of the most amazing leaders from around the world but they were inspired by you they were inspired
24:17
by you so when I came back I had been working in the um the cemetery space here in
24:24
Australia I was um at a government Cemetery they had um a board that they had to dismantle
24:32
and I went in as the board of one so to speak and it was through that process that I was also coming out so it was
24:39
actually a a a good place for me and I had a hugely supportive chief executive
24:45
soon after that I was asked to step in to be the CEO for another Cemetery
24:52
um where there were some some issues and I thought right now is the time to start afresh as a gay
25:01
executive and so I wore my band every day that was now my standard uh
25:09
wristwatch but the big change for me was not hiding who I was so beforehand if people said
25:16
to me what are you doing at the weekend if I had been doing something with my community I would just say I was out
25:22
with a group of friends um soon after I started this role we were leading into the Mardi Gras season Lord
25:30
Pride starts today Sydney Mardi Gras and um I
25:37
um then thought when if somebody asked me what are you doing this weekend it was well actually a group of us are getting together to practice the
25:43
drumming uh for our group Marching In the Mardi Gras parade we love it so that was the big change and what that then
25:50
did was open some doors that would not have been there right um
25:55
one manager came to me and said oh
26:01
I know I've got a a ledger to be an employee she's been on paternity leave
26:07
because her partner had the um the child is there anything I need to do when she
26:13
comes back wow and I said well what would you do when any other employee
26:18
come back oh I just asked how the child was going how their partner was going to keep those conversations going it's just
26:25
a normal family situation and then started the kind of the sad part
26:31
um my head of sales and marketing came to me and said I wish you'd been here a few months ago
26:37
and I said oh why is that and she said well we had um a funeral for a an early 30s male
26:46
dentist who committed suicide um and we found out he was gay
26:52
um he was part of the Greek Orthodox community and the church wouldn't participate in the funeral at all and
26:58
his parents were really struggling and then his friends didn't know how to you
27:04
know work and I'm sure you could have done something I said I don't know what I would have done but
27:09
I I probably just could have helped facilitate some things and then later on
27:16
um we had two big Cemetery sites and at the other Cemetery side again the the
27:21
executive responsible sales and marketing came and said to me Jason we're at a wits end I don't know what to do tell me the story she said well
27:28
few years ago two women bought side by side plots that were lesbians that
27:34
weren't that old and they were expecting to have you know a long life and then last year
27:40
one of the partners died oh it's sad um so they've got a you know Tombstone that
27:45
goes across bike plots and so on the first one it's you know Jane Smith you know partner of you know Mary
27:52
um Mary James and you know born died all that sort of stuff right and the family of the woman who died
27:59
would regularly come out and cross out you know you know scratch the tombstone
28:05
to cross out the word apartment you know partner of and uh unfortunately
28:10
we didn't have cameras that could pick it up so I said well there is a Specialist Group in the New South Wales
28:16
police force which does have a difficult reputation with the community that is
28:22
focused on lgbtiq people and often resourced by lgbtiq people let's go and
28:28
have a chat with them and see what we could do so we're talking a 2020 in Australia that people are still going
28:34
and and Crossing out yeah can you imagine the outrage if somebody went to a Jewish Tombstone and defaced it yeah
28:42
um you know Jason it almost I'm listening to you and I'm hearing you and I'm just
28:49
incredulous and the fact that this happens and I know it's not isolated I
28:55
know it happens all over the place and I have to believe that you go home every
29:01
day saying I'm making a difference in people's life so kudos to you wow I if
29:09
you're just tuning in we are talking to Jason Masters we're talking about his new book a journey towards acceptance
29:15
um I am sure that people are going to want to follow you and see what's up with you as you continue on this journey
29:22
that you're on no pun intended the website is called a journey towards dot
29:27
life check it out and I'm glad to give everyone all of your social media this Jason you're everywhere you are really
29:33
everywhere so first if you play on Twitter go check them out at jpmasters if you are an Instagram go check them
29:40
out at jasonpmasters if you happen to play on Tick Tock yeah yes you if you
29:45
happen to play on Tick Tock go to Jason Masters dot a u s you're also on YouTube
29:51
I I wasn't kidding he's everywhere a journey towards acceptance and also you
29:56
have a Facebook page that is wrapped around the book at a journey towards
30:01
acceptance and also they can just go and check you out on Facebook plain and simple Jason dot P dot Masters you are
30:09
everywhere I'm exhausted just saying all of these things and I'm actually laughing because I'm on every one of
30:15
those platforms as well so we I think we've been connecting this past week on all of these these platforms uh to get
30:22
your message out and I really I I am I applaud you
30:27
um I applaud you for being vulnerable in the face of I am sure
30:33
a lot of things that you did not want to have to deal with um and but you you are a walking example
30:39
you don't just talk the talk you were walking your talk um any last thoughts that that you would
30:45
like to share that maybe we did not talk at all about because I don't want to
30:51
leave without you being able to say your piece I think there are two things
30:56
um that I probably want to just mention and the the first one is you know the
31:02
coming out process I've tried to outline what the process was for me everybody is different
31:09
what I think is really important is that you find your own rhythm in the process
31:16
and and the best advice I received from my psychologist and my pastoral carer in my
31:22
church was I didn't need to tell anybody which is one of the things I thought I
31:27
needed to do because you know I felt like I had perhaps been a bit of a fraud in my life so what they encouraged me to
31:34
think about is who do I want to tell
31:40
um why do I want to tell them and and what do I want to get out of it and for me
31:46
that was the really hard part because in hiding who I was
31:52
I was always pretty much ensuring and never focused on myself and so the
31:57
thought of actually thinking about who I wanted to tell and what I needed to get out of it was a really important part of
32:04
the the journey for me that I'm actually a valuable person and I do deserve to
32:12
have some positive things coming out of what I was going to be doing with telling people
32:17
I I think the other thing um was around and sorry just uh it's
32:24
just run out of my head at the moment um so maybe we want to make any comment on that and I'll just get the brain
32:30
cells going on on the other the other one I I we will leave the one and if you if
32:37
you want to come back and share your your second thing I would love to have you back on
32:44
we've been watching this amazing man who has done so much and actually a very
32:49
short amount of time and has so much more to do I'm going to be following you Jason Masters I'm gonna see what you're
32:55
going to be doing next I want to thank you for taking time in the early morning where you are to be on the show today
33:02
and I want to thank our viewers you have a choice as to how you spend your time you chose to spend it with Jason and I
33:09
today and we are eternally grateful for that so I encourage you to go out give somebody an
33:16
awesome day and we'll see you next time on the author Spotlight goodbye everyone
#Discrimination & Identity Relations
#Human Rights & Liberties
#Self-Help & Motivational