Good morning and welcome, welcome to Matt Nair on air.
Jane Matt Nair, Greg Buck, Calvin Butonoff coming to you live from our studio here at Radio Park in Racine.
You can always join us, call or text.
The number is the same.
855-752-4842.
Leave a comment if you're watching on the live stream on Facebook, YouTube, and what used to be Twitter Friday, February 14th.
Happy Valentine's Day.
Happy Valentine's Day.
The average price of a gallon of 2% milk in Wisconsin, $3.10.
That's actually down three cents from yesterday.
However, the average price of a dozen large eggs in Wisconsin, $5.86.
That's up a penny from yesterday.
and up considerably from last week.
Very much so.
We had a 32 cent rise this week.
So that's where we are with the prices.
We're not going to belabor that.
But another little reminder before we get into the show, and we have lots of stuff coming up for you today, Brad Schleikowski from Courage MKE is going to be joining us after the 1030 News to talk about the LGBTQ Plus community, which is the community that they serve and their concerns now that we are under a second Trump administration.
Also, next hour,
after the 11 o'clock news, Linda McMahon, having her confirmation hearings yesterday, she has some experience with schools.
She
has more
experience with wrestling.
Much more experience with wrestling, but yes, let's put her in charge of the Department of Education.
We will be talking about that after 11 o'clock.
And then something Vivek Ramaswamy said.
Who?
I know.
Can we call him, can we call him former doge?
He's doge
adjacent.
He's doge adjacent.
Yeah, he's not part of doge anymore.
I never stood, understood why a government agency dedicated to efficiency had two heads, but they don't anymore.
No.
But Vivek chiming in about what our kids need in schools.
Always got more
opinions on the kids.
The opinions are always of the times too.
They're very, very modern opinions.
Kids can really identify with them.
As we always do at 11 30, we lighten things up a little bit.
We're going to talk about whether or not you dream about work.
I certainly do.
I have.
Yeah, then we'll get to you after 11 30.
We would love to know if you dream about work and what those dreams are.
Yeah, that will be at 11 30.
We will wrap it all up with this shouldn't be a thing.
Today it's the two way addition.
Again,
two
way addition.
If you ever have a thing you think should not be, send it in to Greg and me at janesays, j-a-n-e-s-a-y-s, janesays, at civicmedia.us.
If you ever have a guest you think we should highlight on the show some issue that's going on in your local community, I don't hear how big or small, all across Wisconsin.
And of course, complaints, please send them in.
I read them all.
And Jane says, J-A-N-E-S-A-Y-S at civicmedia.us.
Well, after all the snow we had, we're not done yet.
I was listening to you and Todd Alba this morning, filling in for Pat Croytlow on Civic Media mornings.
Yeah, we got more snow coming.
Brittany Merleau was on with you guys this morning.
So it's supposed to start later on this afternoon.
We do have a winter weather advisory kicking in in southeastern Wisconsin from 6 p.m.
tonight.
until six a.m.
tomorrow.
And it's expected to be pretty heavy at some times.
So visibility might be an issue, two to four inches possible, then we're going to have some more tomorrow.
But tonight, I think, especially after work, as you head out of the office, maybe you can get out a little bit early, build in some extra time.
Just please be patient.
And check 511WI.gov.
Yes.
Before you walk out the door, it's really a great resource.
that will show you every highway, every roadway in Wisconsin, what the conditions are, and where all the accidents are.
So please take advantage of it.
It's free.
It's 511WI.gov.
And you can also download that as an app.
One of the starts with an article in Wisconsin Public Radio.
Joe Schultz has the byline.
Steel and aluminum tariffs to drive up costs for Wisconsin manufacturers.
Homebuilders less impacted by metal tariffs.
are now bracing for possible tariffs on Canada and Mexico.
Donald Trump, of course, says tariffs the most beautiful word in the English language.
Yes, it is.
And the answer to all of our problems, apparently.
Not everyone is welcoming these tariffs and expecting them this to fix all our problems.
In fact, there are many even manufacturers here in Wisconsin that are heavily dependent
On items we get from other countries Call the supply chain.
Yeah We had one of them on we've had them on twice now James Vanderloo talking about the importance of and we'll be having him on in the coming weeks About how these tariffs affect Milwaukee companies and one of the things he said that I will never forget was that The moment that Trump won he was gonna have to talk to companies about moving their company moving their companies to other
countries because they might be manufacturing in China.
They might be manufacturing, but now he's, he's, he's putting tariffs on Canada, Mexico,
China.
He's threatening Europe also.
He's
threatening Europe.
I mean, if it's, if it's unending, I mean, where is, except for bringing it back here, which is so expensive.
Well, and it would be a great thing, but that's not a, a weak fix.
Yeah.
We're talking about years in order to build back our manufacturing to the point where we don't need imports from anybody else.
That's a great goal to shoot for.
Which I still think it's not going to happen next month.
I don't think I don't think it's possible to get no imports.
Well, there are some things that we just don't have.
Yeah.
And especially when it comes to materials and mine materials and materials for cell phones and things like that.
We just don't have them in this country.
Don't worry, Jane.
Tariffs just say tariffs.
It's all gonna fix it all fixed earlier this week Donald Trump imposed 25 percent tariffs on all steel and aluminum imports According to Buckley Brinkman, who is the executive director of the Wisconsin Center for Manufacturing and Productivity He said generally manufacturers work on a pretty thin margin if the metal component is 40 percent of their cost of goods sold
They don't have the margin capability to absorb the new tariff.
That will be passed along to consumers.
Wait a minute, wait a minute.
That's not how tariffs work, Jane.
Jane, tariffs work.
The country charges, and the guy who's buying the stuff charges, and he pays it, and then I buy it.
at my regular price.
That's what I was told.
It's gonna be fine.
That's not how it works.
Wait a minute, are you telling me that someone lied to me?
That I would say yes.
I would say yes.
Oh boy, howdy.
Spokesperson for the Wisconsin Builders Association, Alicia Naleed, said, in the construction industry, the steel and aluminum terrace will primarily hit companies working on commercial or multi-family housing.
This isn't necessarily a slap to the single family.
industry, they don't expect that those tariffs will continue to have a big impact on single family home building.
But as she said, this is going to affect companies who work on commercial and multifamily housing developments.
And we've talked about this repeatedly about the that's part of the crisis in the in this country is the lack of affordable housing.
Yes.
And while it won't directly affect single single family homes,
The price of building materials like lumber have gone up exponentially since the pandemic so it's Price hikes are going to affect everybody, but this one specifically is going to hit a specific Market sector, but still going to cost a lot of money, which means The materials cost a lot of money construction costs a lot of money that means these homes might not be available to
Regular Joe and John Q
public well and think about it as well that if the price of the materials go up This means that companies won't be able to afford as many workers.
Yep, which in turn will slow down the work.
Yep Seems bad seems like the not right thing to do she also said Donald Trump's announcement creates even more uncertainty for companies who are navigating international trade
Tariffs are a tax that drive up costs for consumers.
And we've talked to this with other business people in the past.
You know what business loves is uncertainty.
They just love not knowing what's coming and how their bottom line is going to be in the next three months.
Nobody loves that more than business.
And the bigger the business, the more chaos
they love.
Oh, they do.
It's just so good for
business.
Shareholders love not knowing things.
25% tariffs on imports from Mexico and Canada expected to kick in next month.
Canada and Mexico, by the way, Wisconsin's biggest trade partners.
Canada bought $8.5 billion worth of Wisconsin exports in 2023.
And Mexico bought $4.3 billion
in-state imports.
This could have a big hit, again, on single-family home builders, a bigger impact than even the steel and aluminum tariffs.
And that's just one specific tariff.
Just one area.
Just one area.
And we're bringing it down to where you live, folks.
This is a nationwide thing, but...
This comes down to Wisconsin.
How does it affect your pocketbook?
How does it affect what you're buying?
How does it affect, you know, if you work in this industry in Wisconsin?
Someone explained to me why tariffs are beautiful.
Why they're the grand fix explained to me.
I guess explained to me like I'm a 10 I'm a 10 year old because I don't get it how and why you're so excited about this.
Our brains just aren't big enough.
They're not.
No, they're they're they're rotting away with liberal talking points.
CEO of Molson Coors Gavin Hattersley answered questions about tariffs during an earnings call earlier this week on metal tariffs.
He says Molson has made changes to how it sources aluminum and it now sources all aluminum used in products made for US consumption from the US, which is great.
Again, not every company has the ability to do that and not all of these items can be made here or mined here.
Yeah.
I mean, that's Michelle trestler, who is one of the co-founders and co-owners of hinterland brewing in green Bay.
She was on civic media morning with Dr. Lyley on Wednesday and they talked specifically about this point.
She said that the aluminum tariffs affects every single can of beer they brew.
Every time they fill a can up, they pay a tax, they pay a tariff on those cans and they have to then eventually pass those costs onto the customers.
So it's
You're most in cores.
That's great.
You can afford to do that, but not every brewery in America can do that.
And people love their craft beer.
And we're already seeing a lot of craft breweries going out of business.
Oh my goodness.
This isn't going to help them stay alive.
No,
no, but it's beautiful, Jane.
Just deal with it.
Accept it.
It's going to fix everything.
We're waiting.
I'm waiting.
Hey, and once it does fix it everything will be the first ones to be grown about it I would love I would love to come on air with great news.
Yes, I really really would So if you have great news and please just don't say that hey, we cut $85 billion from the government I want to see some documentation to back that up as just opposed to Elon said it.
Yeah, that's not quite good show your work.
We have
More on the way, including a go away.
Could you please just go away?
You're listening to Matt Nair on air.
This is the Civic Media Radio
Network.
Good morning.
Welcome back to Matt and air on air.
Jane Matt and air Greg back kelp.
Greg Bach.
There it is.
Yeah,
that's kind of a famous last name, but you know, whatever.
And Caliente on the board coming to you from our studio at Radio Park in Racine.
Join us caller text at 855-752-4842.
Leave a comment if you're watching on the live stream on Facebook, YouTube and what used to be Twitter after the 10 30 news branch like Kowski.
From Courage MKE will be joining us to talk about what's going on and what he's hearing from the LGBTQ plus community.
A lot of concern.
I am sure we'll be talking to Brad about that.
After 11 o'clock Department of Education, Linda McMahon, very experienced in wrestling, slightly less experienced in education.
Stone
Cold Stunner.
problem with education, you know, get in there and be like, I'm going to tombstone you.
I'm not even sure what to do with it, but I like it.
I stumbled on this and I think this is important for us to keep in mind because when is the gubernatorial election?
Who cares?
Who cares?
Uh,
next month.
Next
year.
Next year.
Next year.
Not the gubernatorial.
Yeah, the gubernatorial
election is next year.
Yeah,
next
year.
Tony Evers still waffling on whether or not he is going to run for yet another term.
Yeah.
Meanwhile, Lake Sitting acts throwing California banker guy Eric Hovde.
You forgot loser.
Oh, that too.
Again, cites debunked claims in questioning his 2024 election loss to Tammy Baldwin.
is from Lawrence Andrea in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel in a video posted on Twitter this week, Eric Hovde raising doubts about the processing of absentee ballots in Milwaukee and criticizing same day voter registration.
Hovde claimed without providing specifics.
That's an important sentence.
Show your work.
Hovde claimed without providing specifics that a lot has come out since the election.
Has it?
It has?
Where?
When?
A lot of people are very upset about what happened that night as it pertains to my race and feel that I may have been robbed.
California guy lost his Senate bid against Tammy Baldwin by more than 29,000 votes, a little less than one percentage point.
Let's not forget he refused to concede until almost two weeks later.
Never called Tammy Baldwin
to concede.
In a video.
Yeah, he did it in a video.
where he was also whining, a whining, sniffling, crying little loser boy who just couldn't deal with the fact that he... He lost.
He lost.
And we didn't just feel like you get to have it because you're a wealthy white guy.
Yeah, that's it.
I mean, and also for the fact, I do care that there's an election.
I'm just tired.
We're all tired.
But yeah, he lost.
That's it.
The GOP has moved out.
I don't hear hide nor hair of...
Brian Schimming, Robin Voss, any of the Brian's previous, no, the higher ups in the Wisconsin GOP are screeching about this.
Screeching, waving their finger.
It's just Eric Huvde in California in the sunlight.
But see, that's not what's important.
What's important is that Eric Huvde comes out now with this.
So for the next however many months, up until the gubernatorial election, he can start planting this seed.
That's what this is about.
So
I guess because one thing we did learn from the Hoof Day campaign is he is great at campaigning.
I mean he is he is so personable and human like and his ad campaigns are so full of joy and excitement.
If he comes to Wisconsin to the people of Wisconsin with this.
on his plate of saying like, well, I didn't win the Senate race because I was, it was taken from me.
So now I want to be your governor.
Do you think the people of Wisconsin even want like, I don't think that the Republican party is going to allow him to be uncontested if he runs.
I think that there will be a primary for governor.
I don't think the GOP are going to want him.
Why?
Because he's
He's going to do exactly what they want, which is what they want.
They can find other people to do it with less baggage and less whining.
He's a bad campaign.
They need someone of Wisconsin to shake hands with the people and really be there.
He's not good at it.
There are other people they can find who will do, who they will do exactly what
they want.
But what sets Eric Havde apart is that he can help finance his own campaign, which is why they tagged him in the first place.
But he financed up to a point.
But still.
that's better than some average folk in Wisconsin who don't have millions in the bank to throw into their own campaigns.
That's why they tagged him for this in the first place, because he has money.
I don't think they're going to tag a regular person.
I think they'll find someone similar to Havdie who's just better at this than he is, because it was his race to lose and he lost it.
At the time, Havdie said he was shocked by the reporting of Milwaukee's absentee ballot results in the early mornings
After Election Day, little side thing here, Eric, under Wisconsin law, and I'll say this slowly, absentee ballots can't be processed before 7 a.m.
on Election Day.
Republican-controlled state Senate Wisconsin last year refused to take up legislation, making it possible for clerks to start processing those ballots the day before the election.
and then finish counting all of the votes earlier on election day.
So you can thank Robin Voss and Devin Lenohue and Tom Tiffany and all those guys in the Wisconsin legislature, the Republicans who refused to do something about this so they can come back to it and say, see, something Hinky was going on.
See, see, see.
Milwaukee is just a hotbed of voter fraud.
Well, for one thing it isn't.
It isn't even, you know who said that Ron Johnson said that last year when he went down to Central Central Station and saw the counting and saw there wasn't a problem.
He said there wasn't a problem But you don't want to solve the problem this goes beyond Eric Hoofty It goes this is the problem of the GOP in Wisconsin.
They don't want to solve the problem If they solve the problem then it's a problem.
They can't whine about like sniffling little babies Eric Hovey on the other hand, I mean I just I think that I think that this is
I don't disagree that this will be his tactic.
He's gonna say, I didn't get my way, so now I want this.
I just don't know if Wisconsin will buy it from him and of the Republican.
We still have people who believe the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump.
Of course this is going to work.
He's taking it directly out of Trump's playbook saying, I was robbed, I was cheated.
We're gonna hear this for months and months and months.
Mark my words, leading up to the next gubernatorial election.
We are just about out of time.
Sorry, there's presidents carry lake.
All right news coming up next.
Stay close.
You are listening to Matt near on air.
This is the vast civic media radio network.
If I could turn back time.
Good morning.
Welcome.
Welcome to Matt Nair on air.
Jane Matt Nair, Greg Bach, Calviente on the board coming to you live from our studio at Radio Park in Racine.
You can join a scholar text.
The number is the same 855-752-4842.
Leave a comment if you're watching on the live stream on Facebook, YouTube and what used to be Twitter coming up after 11 o'clock.
We're going to talk about Linda McMahon.
Lots of experience in pro-wrestling, less experience in education.
She wants to be the head of the Department of Education.
Some interesting things came out during yesterday's hearing.
And also, Vivek Ramaswamy has an idea for our kids in school that is somewhat reminiscent of an earlier program from someone on the other side of the political aisle that was not necessarily received with a lot of warmth.
Shall we say?
Yeah.
That's after the 11 o'clock news.
Right now we are welcoming on the phone.
Brad Schleikowski is one of the co-founders of Courage MKE Courage Milwaukee.
Good morning, Brad.
How are you doing?
Thanks for joining us.
Good morning.
How are you?
Thanks for having me.
Absolutely.
For folks who don't know, Brad, give us a little background of Courage Milwaukee and why you started and what your mission is.
Sure.
My husband and I started Courage MKE almost 10 years ago because we were foster parents and the
The folks, the kids we were fostering were teenagers and they all came with similar stories of torment and rejection from group homes, foster homes and other parts of being within the system.
So in 2019, we opened Wisconsin's first group home for displaced LGBT youth that are in the social welfare system.
And then last year, we opened a second house for those same kids that are aging out or already experiencing homelessness.
It's a bigger problem than most people realize.
It's a
it's a huge problem.
You know, they say of the kit of the amount of kids on the streets, 40% identify as homeless or LGBT.
I'm sorry.
And this is because either their families have rejected them, I assume.
A lot of them
are like 50% of the kids that come through our facilities are because their families rejected them or they would have just been in the system.
because of neglect.
Which is so heartbreaking.
It's gut-wrenching.
It is.
And I'm sure there may be some kids who've had good experiences moving through the foster system, but I don't think anyone considers that an ideal situation.
And unfortunately, like you said, Brad, there comes a point with these kids, they age out of the system and you have to leave.
And they're not necessarily equipped to deal with adulthood.
not equipped at all, you know, the average length of stay in the group home and that's kids ages 12 to 817 is 38 days, right?
So every 38 days they're being moved for some reason.
Now imagine being a child that's been in the system since you're an infant and you've been through foster homes and then you get to the point where you're not a baby.
So the foster homes always want babies.
So you're going into group homes and every 38 days you're being moved because someone didn't like
something that you did or said, it's so sad.
Well, and it's got to be, I can't imagine how difficult it is to not only establish a caring trust, I mean, just as set up a caring, trusting relationship, you don't even have enough time to establish those emotional bonds almost.
You don't, you don't have any time.
That's why we're so proud that our average length of stay is around 230 days right now.
That's amazing.
So tell us, when your kids leave, and they're not kids anymore, they're young adults, but what kinds of stories have you heard from them once they've moved on from you?
You know, we have a handful of them that keep coming back.
And my staff look at that as the biggest compliment of love because it's still a safe place for them, right?
They don't have very many of those.
A lot of them don't go back to their parents to visit, but their stories
A lot of their stories are, I'm sorry, I was a jerk while I lived.
Right, because they
grew up some and they had that self-realization.
But a lot of their stories are, it's hard, right?
Because you're in a system, you know, I'm great.
privilege.
I had the privilege of having parents that taught me about finances, budgeting.
You have to be responsible.
You have to get a job.
You need to know how to clean the toilet.
And these kids didn't necessarily have that.
So when they're at our house, we talk about financing.
We talk about needing to have a job.
We have chores every day and every weekend to make sure that they're prepared to be responsible young adults.
I'm just curious.
So, Brad, how do you deal with the kids who's like, it's your turn to do the dishes tonight?
And he says, Nope, I'm not doing it.
So how do you handle that, or is it a case by case basis?
It is a case by case.
That's the tricky part of operating in a trauma-informed environment, right?
Because everyone has different triggers.
Everyone has different things that are going to set them off.
I'll say that I don't know any person ages 12 to 17 that wants to wash the dishes.
I can't even get my own kids at my own house
to
wash the dishes some days.
So a lot of times it's not even about...
Having trauma that's about being a regular teenager and that's one of our biggest missions is folks have this mindset that Anyone that lives in a group home is a quote-unquote bad person, right?
These kids have two things in common They didn't ask to be there and they don't want to be there, right?
so having that said and then being bounced around like
no one cares.
And then you add where we're at in the world right now where these children are literally wards of the state.
Well, the state is the government and though a different branch of government, the government right now is you're trying to erase half the kids that live in our house by saying transgender people don't exist.
So these kids know that the people that are controlling and make decisions about their lives are our government and the government is erasing them from existence.
Brad, I had that put that in your head as adults and try to process that because I don't even know how to explain it to them.
Well, that actually, so I run an event on Wednesdays and we have a trans woman who comes in for it.
And I just kind of said, Wilina, how you doing?
And she said, I'd be great if my, if my government wasn't trying to work against me actively.
And, and like, I'm thinking about that.
And she is an adult processing America right now.
What are the.
young trans kids process.
How are they processing the situation right now with everything going on in their immediate world, but then also in the US scale?
Well, I don't know if you all know anything about Gen Z, Gen Y, and Gen O. We've had worse.
Brad,
are you telling me that
young children are upset about things?
They're upset.
They're afraid.
They don't know what to do.
I mean, they're the same words that I would use to explain my own feelings right now.
You know, yesterday, yesterday, a national historic landmark, the Stonewall Inn, which is operated now under the National Park System.
went through their entire website and took the T out of LGBT of the stone wall in of which transgender people were some of the first people to throw a brick through that window and start the riots that give us the rights we have today.
Yeah.
It's astonishing to me.
that they assume that by removing a word from popular lexicon is going to make it disappear.
That's like taking the word climate out of our scientific documents.
If we just don't, shh, if we don't say it, then therefore it does not exist.
That's loony tunes.
I
agree with you.
Just as loony is, oh, you're okay with renaming a body of water, but you can't use someone's pronouns or preferred name because
It's been the Gulf of Mexico since the 1500s.
I made a comment to Jane today saying, these are the same people who say, don't take down the monuments and the flags.
It's about our history.
Well, it's your selective history.
Oh, we're getting real selective now.
I love you guys.
If you're just joining us, Brad Schleikowski is our guest.
He's one of the co-founders of Courage Milwaukee, Courage MKE, and they provide a safe place and housing for kids who have either aged out or are going to be aging out of the foster care system and directed towards the LGBTQ plus community.
I can't imagine what it's like, Brad, trying to reassure these kids because as you said, this is if you're an adult.
And you're worried about the same things.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So we're kind of implementing the same.
mindset that I have at my own home.
Right now, I come to work and I talk about this nonstop for the last three weeks, right?
But when I get home, I see my husband, we didn't see each other all day, and we give each other one hour, one hour to just vent and rehash this what's happening through the day.
And then after that hour, we're focusing on our kids, we're focusing on dinner, we're focusing on life.
Because if we don't purposely make time to remember the good...
It's just going to consume us in four years is a really long time
and honestly that kind of you know That can also have an effect that takes a toll on your your children too They see that they see it wearing you down They see the how what affects your attitude and your well-being and they might think well That's how our dad's process information.
I should I that's how I got a process You know it that's a very smart way Brad of looking is like giving yourself that moment because that's
Your self-care and then that is that leads out to family care and I think that's Something we talked to people about on this show all the time is that we know it's tough We know everyone's going through hard things take those moments that you need to take Do that and then get back up and keep going with what you're doing because you can't stop
And you know doing that also rubs off the right way too because my son is six their Valentine's Day party is today He was at school yesterday and another child said
That's gay to give another boy a valentine and my son said No, it's not it costs nothing to make somebody happy.
Oh He's six
six, so Yep, I'm gonna raise my little activist and keep raising him to love because That's what we need every day
cuz he I mean that's the thing though.
He responded back with love You know a lot of little boys don't respond with love.
They respond with other things or they don't respond at all, but that was love
it
I'm curious, Duke, to Brad.
And unfortunately, I'm already anticipating that your response is not going to be what I'm hoping for.
Do families ever have a change of heart?
They do we actually launched new programming at courage last year that's community facing It's called plus you and part of that our groups.
It's not a regular support group like blah blah like we all think about We're creating safe spaces for anyone that has LGBT kids in their life parents aunts uncles coaches teachers etc to come and ask the questions that are in their head without
without judgment, right?
Because I feel like if we create spaces for these people to tell us what they've heard or what someone has told them that has created some sort of mindset, we can change their mind.
You know, we have seen kids from the Courage House go back home.
because we were able to work with them and their parents so that everyone understood who they are.
I understand, you know, I have that conversation with the kids, like you came out to your mom, your dad is trans, that's an adjustment for them.
And yes, their reaction in the perfect world to be like, I love you, I love you, I love you, but we have to teach them to.
Well, and I think it's so important, Brad, that you said that you're creating a safe space where they can ask questions because I think
some of the backlash against the wokeness and I put that in quotation marks was I can't ask a question because if I ask a question it might be offensive because I don't understand so therefore I can't ask anything and that doesn't help.
Right it doesn't help and we're in a time right now where we just need to we need to be those people to help because like I said four years is a long time.
It's, yeah, it's been, it's, and it's already been a long, it's already been a long three weeks.
Yeah.
Wait, you're telling me it hasn't been four
years already.
I feel like
I'm 80.
Right.
Yeah.
Absolutely.
We're going to continue our conversation with Brett Slakowski from Courage, Milwaukee.
If you have a question, text it in at 855-752-4842.
You're listening to Matt Nair on air.
This is the Civic Media Radio Network.
We'll be right back.
It was good.
Good morning, welcome back to Matt Nair on Air, Jane Matt Nair, Greg Buck.
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The job of the must continues to actively ruin.
After the 11 o'clock news, we're going to be talking about schools.
Department of Education, Linda McMahon had her confirmation hearing yesterday.
Some interesting questions brought up.
She's gonna body slam all the problems that come to her office.
That's right, she is.
And remember Vivek Rama Swami?
Vivek's back.
He was co-leader of Doge for what, a week and a half?
That didn't last very long.
And now he's chiming in on what schools need to do.
to help our kids, and it sounds shockingly like a suggestion that came from an earlier administration that was excoriated by Republicans.
Shocking, I know.
We'll kick that around next hour.
That's a great word, excoriated.
Excoriated.
Do I get a point
for
that?
Like a star or something?
You get like four points for that.
Ooh,
yay.
Our guest is Brad Schleikowski.
He is the co-founder of Courage Milwaukee, located in Milwaukee.
Great website, by the way.
If you would like to find out more, it's couragemke.org.
We will include that in our show notes.
Brad, I wanted to ask you about your funding and whether or not under the second Trump administration now you are concerned about any funding sources getting cut off.
So that's a good question.
I don't know.
Right now, we are very grateful that we're not reliant on any federal funding.
We have an incredible
Our our mission at courage is to create a movement, right?
Even though we offer housing It's not about housing, but it's to create a movement and all of our donors We call them all courage family and we have this huge courage family that are supporting us So as of right now We've been trying to over the last few years get federal money, but right now there's kind of a deep sigh of big deep breath that we're not Dependent on it, but we are seeing that we are seeing
smaller grant providers sending out emails saying we're putting a pause or a moratorium on funding because we don't know what direction we're going right now.
So I am expecting to see some drop in funding this year, just not as bad as some of our peers out in the nonprofit world.
Well, and certainly again, because already you're not dependent on federal money, which I'm sure is challenging in and of itself.
But at this point, I
I'd probably say you're in slightly better position than than many other organizations who are dependent on those federal dollars.
Yeah, I'd say you're right.
Yeah.
For the people
who are.
Yeah.
For the people who do support, courage, MKE.
I'm assuming not all of them are members of the LGBTQ plus community.
There must be straight people who support you.
There is a there is a lot of straight people that support us.
And that's what the movement's about.
When we started, Nick and I were going to every gay bar that we could think of that would let us talk about it to educate our own community first.
But we knew in order to survive, we needed to expand beyond that.
And there are some amazing humans.
This last year and really this year, we're focusing on getting out of Milwaukee.
And that's how we're changing our name to Courage Plus in a couple of months here.
to make sure that we're covering and providing services to LGBT youth across the state and maybe into Minnesota and Illinois a little bit.
But that's going back to that education piece, right?
We want the non-LGBT community to be joining us in this fight.
The LGBT community is screaming right now against this administration and it's clear they're not listening.
It's our allies that are the ones that are going to help us take this movement and make sure that we stay safe over the next four years.
The more allies we can find, the better.
You speak of education on that one, Brad, moving out of Milwaukee where it's, I don't want to say easy, but it's easier on the education front.
People have maybe more open minds, more people in their lives who are in part of the queer community.
If you're looking at like Western, Northern, Southern Wisconsin.
Who are you reaching out to?
And this is, I'm sure, whether they're in the community or an ally, who do you reach out to to help with that initial education of those individuals in the community to say, this is what we're doing.
This is why we need your help.
Or at the very least, need your support.
Sure.
Well, we created a line item in our budget this year to have satellite courage employees across each quadrant of the state.
So we're working with LGBT community centers across the state so that we can take our plus you programming, which is that community.
group setting an education piece to each to each quadrant of the state so that we can hold these groups and have local people understand local that understand the local people so important issues with them
yeah that's so important
bread that's the part that the funding any funding that like that's the part we need help to fund right because
We added it to our budget was never part of our budget But we know it's so crucial across the state to get this education out there
Well and much like we've talked with different democratic organizers It's so important to have someone from within that community To be the one who is bringing the message because otherwise you're seen as an outsider and you don't understand how things work here And so I do I think that's really really wise.
We're just about out of time Brad We will put a link to courage mke.org in our show notes if anyone wants to make a donation and
help support your mission, they can do that via your website, correct?
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
And if you take a look at our socials, we launched our Embrace LGBTQ Youth Yard signs yesterday.
So go ahead and get one of those and we can get those out across the state.
Fabulous.
Brad Schlikowski, one of the co-founders of Courage Milwaukee.
Thank you so much, Brad.
Take care.
We will have you back on soon.
Thank you and love you guys.
Bye.
Bye-bye.
See
you, Brad.
News coming up next.
Stay with us.
We're listening to Matt Nair on air on the Civic Media Radio Network.
