Collections of the library of congress for up to a year to study intensively and extensively and to produce great works of the sort you get to hear about at the National Book festival. Welcome to produce joining us live on cspan today. We areli proud to partner with cspan again this year for todays event. Our next Program Features r. K. Russell in conversation with roswell encina. Became the first out active nfl player to identify as bisexual pic his new book is titled the yards between us a memoir of life, love, and football. Roswell encina is a chief Communications Officer at the Library Library of congress. Please join me in welcoming them. [applause] thank you, kevin. Thank you russ. I finish a book this weekend is such a beautiful number. Very honored, very profound. I think its a little bit of love letter to the relationship in your life, your mom but i think especially the men iner yr life, when i mean your stepfather, your biological father, your childhood friend, hoops, your best friend joe and, of course, all your teammates. How did relationships with these men impact you. Timing that was a foundation of what i felt my mended office, what i discern of my masculinity, of my identity. In this birth very much a culmination of all these people. My stepfather for example, i lost a very young age but still his messages ring true to me today, that the character of man isntno all that big or, how strong you are, how intimidating you are but off of your word and your character, saying things and following through, being defendable and accountable for people in the something that carries me to this day. Hoops, my childhood friend who i consider a brother now, is someone who is taught the resilience, who survived heartache and lost and think up and bites on film becoming of my, my best friend joe, about the heart and about morality and really seeking out to be the change in people to be like in the someone peopleme completely. The biological father in the stuff in my life for most of it he is an example of the thinks maybe not to do of the false steps we can all take his young men, the arctic is the force of healing from the trauma so you dont continue the cycles. All of these men teammates as well have taught me about the things that truly means to be a man and those things have nothing to do with sexuality or how much money you make are a setup if you are being a Football Player and not being. Its about how you fix people, how you shop in peoples lives, the things they say when youre not in the room about you and think they will say about you when you were gone. Host you talk about a lot in the book about the struggles you had when you were a young man. How did you get through that . Who do julie not to make sure you could get through it . Guest multiple and multitude of people. My mother firstbe and foremost. I can talk about the men and life but the one constant is my mother. Shes my best friend to this day. She taught me so much just by being herself, who she is, that there are no limits of what you can do as a person in this world. She had me at a very young age. My mother got pregnant at 19 and had me at 20 come as as a sie black mother in america. A lot of what she heard was the thing she couldnt do, the person she couldnt become the statistics that we fell into and she exceeded all of them. She was never to woman for something. She was never limited. She got her masters while being a single mother and just was always in my life to the point when i was drafted by the Dallas Cowboys the presented was moved by mother in with me because and if she would be the foundation, she would be the rock for me. So yeah, its funny because i learned i think the most about being a man also from a woman and i think that is pivotal because also as midweek sister with multiplicity of people with women and nonbinary people every understand how to fit in these molds, how was rick these multitime and how we coexist and uplift each other. Host you mentioned that sports has given me a lifeline you might if i read apart from your book . It says you wrote football was how h i found place of how i fod peace in high school, how i obtained a scholarship to a top university, how i attracted most of my love interests. Football was how i made friendships became brotherhoods, and when no oneth else wanted m, football was home. Guest yeah, so much of my identity, a lot of it for my benefit, some to my detriment. Football especially going up in texas is a pivotal part of culture there. I say its the 3f, family, faith and football. Though my family alone tempted look like other peoples site did not attend church regularly like others to come football was something that i could lean on, something i think proceeds all postings when he saw me and something that as the outside world begins to valuefo and vale before i began to do the same. I tried to tell you athletes and with all people in general that of course its okay to sacrifice things to achieve your dream and to succeed in the profession and interest in the creative hobbies or activities you love but it was never okay to sacrifice yourself. That is the line walking the light of football. It becomes obsessive in your life and i think as much as id the football come as much of the kidney brothers in the shape of teammates and mentors in the male figures and coaches and family and purpose in education, i let it take things from me. My uniqueness, my love for something my individuality, the ability to challenge the things i was told about being a man or a black man in america. I let it encompass all of me. Its okay for it to be a huge part but football is not all that and and it took me a long time to unlearn that. Host you received a scholarship at purdue. You played in a football team. For the folks who didnt know what richard r, could you explain what richard r and what did being a a richer teacher . Guest yes. Redshirting is essential when you commit to a college and go to the college to play on the team but for whatever reason the first or yet to set out. For me it was because i was undersized. I was tall and athletic but i was kind of small to be defensive end. It was basically a coach telling me i need her to go work out and eat and geter bigger if i i wo play in this league. Which i agree, which i did do. There of course are benefits to like you get to learn again, get to be around the college atmosphere and other athletes intimates and would be in this practice is going against for me at the time big ten starters, all americans, and things of that nature. Seeing what it takes and you get the extra year to prepare and compete. You still get for years to point out that which is amazing. For me it was vital that also comes with hardships like i moved from texas to west lafayette, indiana, to play football and for your i wasnt doing that. For your i was told you were good enough to be in building but not out on the field and that is a knock at your confidence. Its a knock on the sacrifices i made and it comes with its own unique challenges. Host one of my favorite parts of the book is when your mom surprise you for your birthday. You guys drove around and related at where the cowboys played. It was your very first nfl game. The Dallas Cowboys versus the philadelphia eagles. Im not sure if they are cowboy says her eagles fans, but your life with full circle. A few years later you get a call fromm julie jones when you were drafted to the nfl. What was going through your mind then trickery that they better call soon. [laughing] i was stressing. But no, its amazing, like you said the full circle moment. My mother and the birthday gifts apprising them so pivotal on my tree because although i i plad football though such a disconnect from me and nfl. These were people that were largerthanlife laying on the tv screen and i send everything that they did with something that i could not be cheap or could not aspire, not even in my realm of thinking. But going to see the game and seeing these men were huge men, they were still financing 100yard field, still playing the same type of ball i was like, stillhe the same rules at the same game made so much more achievable to me. When i get the call in 2015 to be Dallas Cowboys and i hear jerry jones thick thick country accent say my name, its validating. Like i said i sacrifice so much in that time to be a Football Player and achieve the dream like being drafted that most people never cheapen the life, but also as a professional, you realize its time to go to work. Its time to show, and just in terms of my personal journey, cultures were im starting to understand i wasnt straight, that my sexuality for whether it was gay or bisexual because it did have a lot of information about bisexual at the time, whatever it was i wasnt straight and those never think i put under the box of sacrifices for sports and getting drafted in mine mine i will did that. Im glad i i didnt have a boyfriend or open about my sexuality because i made it. Once youre in an event we all assume the money is pouring in and of his hard work has paid off already. Theres a lot of work aside physically but a lot of mental work that needs to happen is you never know if youre going to get resigned, if youre going to be staying with eating, if youre going to get injured. How was it going from the cowboys to the buccaneers . Guest at first it was devastating. The cowboys were my hometown team. They were thinking team that drafted me. He theres pride in every player we want to fulfill that. We all want to be like jason witten and play there forever and retire there. Which he ended up going somewhere else. But you want to be that figure in your team. You what the people that started to bring in the room to be right and correct and exceed those expectations. Getting cut from the cowboys was my moment of basically own shit a messed up, this is something i can even do . Even before going with the buccaneers i went on several trials that didnt work out. I went to go up try for the jets, the patriots in each trial i i felt a bit with something chipped away. So to go to tampa bay and have in my opinion kind of like the least best workout, to be in that and have team say we will give you a chance, was at recognition, glimmer of hope i needed to really kick into second gear. I also remember that was a time was like okay, theres no more funny business to my life. Im not hanging out with friends as much. Im not going, to be the hometn hero anymore. Im not going to date. Im going to just focus on football life as a funny way as soon as you try to shut all the stores and focus on one thing actually at showing to the broader picture of where your focus shouldd lie, and that happen to me. Host when you were in tampa something would a big happened in football. This is what Colin Kaepernick meal during the national anthem. The whole nation witnessed all this was happening with the nfl. Tell me was happening during the scenes. How workplace deciding if they need to kneel . It seem like an easy decision o it, but what were the factors that players were weighing tray through so much going on. Especially in the nfl, people have perception of what it is but honestly we really just talk football or talk sports in general most ofra the time. Guys cheer and with more moments but we are there some of us almost 12 hours a day strictly forfo football and that was the first time we were in a discussion in such a largescale was about something so much more. A lot of misinformation, players who didnt understand what it was about there were executives and coaches who didnt understand. The first time with a owners of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers came to speak with all of the team, and to come up with what they believed to be solutions or to address the problem but also to the guy how we could get all the places ten for the anthem and support the game of football and what the answer represented. It was a bit of a mess i have to be honest at the time, you struggled with it. Guest yeah, because the answer mean so much to so many people. And also police brutality, social injustice for black people and people of color also something that affects me and my family and everyone that i know it it affects all of us whether we are people of color or not these are two very things. I fed family be in the military. My brother currently is in the army. My dad was in the air force, sorry, the navy. My granddad was in the air force. So many things the anthem represents to so many people. To me a message and the conversations were being had and i think that was important part. It was an opportunity for the nfl to jump in on the discussion i did not think at that time he really did. Host talk about that. They jumped in, made some changes. What you think of themm could do think it is enough . I know itss a major culture change but used the league on the right path when it comes to this . Guest i think the league is on the good path. I think as we navigate theres always missteps, but it has to make. Also the representation of the leak league us up at the european are watching football and we get the message to them in a way that is both digestible but also meaningful, doing things like putting into racism in the end zone is something that a lot of i think the audience would see as that is cute but what are we actually doing . The nfl funding changes confronting black businesses, funding women ownedse business, trying to be more proactive about issues instead of reactive. I think once you we look at the landscape of the things theyre doing that making an effort. I think the nfl, its a huge organization, there will always be room to o do more but theyre open to have that discussion and listen to people whoop come to e table and challenge in a and wht they do and what they think. Host more to the nfl later. Another subject matter asn youl hear this years theme is a good has a i story and your story isa trail blazing story that we believe Everybody Needs to hear. The library of Congress Logistics books broadens our world but also needs to be a mere two excellent worlder so begin to seek other people stories and this is where your story comes in a importantly. You in your book mentioned about how you struggled with your sexuality and your happiness, versus your career. I think, that is football and the league allibbi read this. You said the questions in my head grew louder. Selfdoubt about my sexuality and my identity overflowed into worries about the future. Theree was a bitter irony of how i was shrinking away from a dream even as my hard work had brought it within reach. The nfl wanted me but only because they didnt know the real me. I donte want to that muste been something really hard to wrestle with. You work toward your entire life for this moment and then what do i do kind of thing . Guest football is one of those things, those unique things that though it is a job at that level, it is one of the few jobs where it calls your manliness for your character likely or as a person. I think that something we focus a lot on an nfl players like we dont understand a central child it when you pick up football at a very young age people tell you what type of person you need to be to play this game. Some of it is correct him like you need to be a little crazy to go and hit of the people at full speed and get up and do it over and over again but theres rhetoric, misogynistic record of adults are like a girl, there is been tough which is of course important but not kind of blocking all emotions. Get up and rub some dirt on it works in effect to some effect, but it doesnt work for all of your life obstacles. When you focus on the type of people that can play football you really saying the type of people cant play football. I grew up with that, all of this, now most of the listed in the league as will require realized i i didnt estimate that that type from a very young age, when Football Player, the strong, masculine, straight, hardnosed, nonemotional person, i thought im not a Football Player. Do i not belong here . Host that was hardest part i think when i was reading your book, you struggled a lot with both depression and maybe binge drinking. How are you today . Guest not drinking, thank god. [applause] thank you. I am for your sober in september. Host we wish you well. This month is the four your anniversary in europe that as a that was published on espn. I will beatk a quick excerpt and the talk about that. You wrote, i want to live my dream of playing again. I have worked my whole life to play and be open about the person ive always been. Those two objectives shouldnt be in conflict, but judging from the fact that is in a single openly player in nfl, nba, Major League Baseball come or the nhl brings me pause, to change that. For me, for other athletes to show these commonot goals, and r the generations ofhe lgbtq athle who will come next. When you were in college i believe came out and most recently carl came out. Currently the only nfl player who is a free agent who is out. Let me ask you this. What do you think it will take for more professional male athletes to come out . I note it is a major culture change picture it start with whether it is the league or teammates on the owners or the sponsors . Its a major undertaking and the know youve taken this task but what you think needs to change for more players to feel more comfortable coming up . Guest it has to come kind from both sides. I think we have heard of a look at more about how the league feels about its own inclusion and diversity, players have come forward to talk about just accepting a player for the mayor of the game and their hearts and their hard work. I think all that is great. I dont think weve had that the message from ownership outside of like robert kraft. I dont think with that thats a messaging when it comes to marketing and promotion when you show and you see on tv or on commercials or in the stadiums of what type of people are about toan be fans, let alone allowedo be players. Its making sure you ingrain inclusion into the place of your foundation, into the base of your Organization Chart lgbtq people even if theyre not out players, as coaches, as a executives, as it administration. All of these things, as referees. Again needs to be more inclusive where people feel comfortable. You cannot ask someone will make them feel comfortable if you dont understand their experience. You are treating the worldy instead of actually the problem and the cause of it. But i personally though i worked very closely with the nfl and professional players, in the sports culture, i truly believe thein most shameful come with te youth, like i was saying a lot of that is in culture we here at a young age. A lot of that has been losing lgbtq athlete growing up because they dont feel included in sports, because i dont feel supported in sport and the think once we fixed that problem thats going to affect more people. More people are going to play at the Public School level, at the city lead levels even at the collegiate level than in the professional level, you think it should start from the very beginning when kids appoint touch football or an little leaguett baseball games and strk the culture change there . Guest thats important. My goal is not have every professional player out for every lgbtq , out here to meet have been given to sport young, state in sport and to go into prices surely already outcome already being there true self, the valued for the upfront a study by teams and being allowed to play became desolate as themselves. Host i read a bit of your essay. When you publish that ended your interview on espn how did you feel . That much of that mustve been huge weight off your shoulders tragic i discovered i think my book is coming up for air for the first on the net realized ive been driving my whole life. There are things ive done to this day im so proud of, this book being one of them, what are the top, being drafted, going to college and graduating, coming out is to probably my number one because it wasnt about football. It wasnt but of the people of what they taught me. It wasnt toooo at that time mae a statement even. Itak was for me. It was me choosing my own life, be choosing to live whatever i had come whatever time i had on earth for me and to prioritize myself first and is something everyone should do for themselves, it is something that sentiment that everyone should have at some point in the lives because at the end of the date this life is ours and regardless of the things we like to do with activities for the sports we play, we have to live with ourselves. [applause] host youve seen a lot of fans, a lotce of people reading your book. What kind of reaction are you getting . Either fellow athletes are people on the street . Guest interaction i have gotten most has been positive, which im verye thankful for. But honestly the broad sweeping kind of iff i had to pick a similar sentiment and all the interaction i have is thank you for telling the story, thank you for having this discussion in the field especially like male sports that has not and is still shying away from the subject, regardless of whether we like to admit or not we all know someone that is lgbtq . Where problems are related to so that is lgbtq . If you dont have that connection or no one comes to mind an insulin in your life is suffering, that in some in your life is shrouded in shame and secret and either too afraid or dont feel safe enough or for a multiplicity of reasons not living a full and loving life as they should be, s and that is wt this book is about and that is a message im trying to convey. Yi that we need to let people where they are at, we need to let people to be themselves, that we need to not judge people before we know them. A lot of the time to talk about things that they are just topics as if they are just things on sheets check yes or no wind is a really connected to true peoples lives. When these are really points that people agonizing about day in and day out. Host you open the book by talking new opponent which is hate. Let me read this quick exit. I am no longer strapping on helmet and shoulder pads everyday to clash with other individuals. In today my opponent isis hate, the idea paid how we teach it to younger generations, how we funded with our dollars and the system that uphold it. Hate is the true opponent of all of us come the idea of the sum of a different color general religion or sexuality is lesser than anyone else. Thats the opponent i dont have to tell you, theres a lot of that going on whether its from book banned to Everything Else around the country. How do you want to play a a pt in fighting that . Guest anyway i can. Honestly i think we all have different piece to play in this battle against hate. I think we all at some point felt like we were told we couldnt do something or we couldnt be something or something in our lives was incorrect just based off who we are, where weo were born, how e were born, what we look like. I dont think thats fair. I dont think we should limit human beings but i think that are beyond our control. My color for example, being one of them. The importance also if intersectionality of being both a person of color and bisexual person is that i see the way this idea forms different rhetoric around the multiplicity of topics that is why i will stand with anyoneab who feels as if theyre being oppressed, being erased f and silenced, puh down into the foreground because that is happened to me in so many ways. If i allowed tome happen to you, and some im loving it to happen to me, im allowing it to happen to others. Im okay with that idea, and you think is what ill need to be on the same page about. We are going to discuss think, have different points of view, thats the beauty of being human but at the end of the day when someone tells you that theyre hurting come when someone tells you they are under attack, when someone says they feel unsafe or they feel like they are not meant to be here by an outside force come that iss when you ned to listen. That is when the discussion needs to stop in the listening needs to start. We need to hear what people are truly think how we can help them, we will be taking question shortly. There are two mikes on that i also feel free to line up and it will point to you if you have a question. Lets talk about coming out. Were talking how hard it is for men or professional male athletes to come out but it doesnt seem the same on the female side. I i believe in will cover anothers about there were about 86 women who are out among all the soccer players c around the country. Why do you think it is more easier for women to come out . Guest multiple reasons. I also believe that me personally i believe women are constantly at the foreground of change in our country. I think women are constantly challenging the status quo. [applause] women leave our society in many ways. As a woman, unfortunately being hit in the state you are told from birth to think you cant do and i think women have built up the resilience to automatically say no, you dont define me. I think that attributes to womens sports. Also more in in the problemac sector of things, that sports, i talked about the misogyny of sports in that vision women that are in sports have been told that in some way that theys women for being in sport. I think then once you take off that, as negative as it is you take off the shackles of whether sexual identity, this person is allowed to be since opening the league. I think women leaks are also built by women. Women leaks are representative of the district would talk about the wb all the time and being in the forefront of not just lgbtq and the first conclusion but in social change using the voice and apart from because that is the lead run by women, we were talking earlier i think when young girls are playing, its kind of the culture is there. Making it hopefully easier for them. We have the first question. Yes. Very proud to hear your story and see that you are true to yourself. I was curious, what was the reactions of your teammates and management at youge came out . Guest my teammates, whether it be from high school or college or professional were very supportive of me. Everyone that knew me personally mostly had very nice things to say. If anyone outside of that sphere even other players in the league felt negatively or indifferent about it they didnt come which i appreciate. But no, i received so much love and acceptance. Thats great, thank you. Congratulations on your book. Im interested in the process. Did you just say im going to just write it . Did you doo a little every day . Did you do just a whole process changes this booklet by the culmination of almost three years. It with that come out in 2019, sharing my story and feeling how not only at affected other people but how liberating it was for me and wanting to do the at large. The process was something i was also kind of handheld through, fortunately. I had an agent very early on to read the essay in love by writing and wanted to expand that, and to make this dream come true. I wrote in flurries through three years. There were two months my boyfriend, there were too much when it didnt do anything and it waser like a month what justn a dark room in the hayes typing forever. Writing was challenging, therapeutic. I cried. I i screamed. I hate it it. I it. It was everything. I sayay to this day including playing in the National Football league, writing this book was the hardest thing ever did in my life but alsois one of the most fulfilling and i have a great team, great editors. Needed a lot of editing. We finally got to something that felt good for me and for my story, you talk about your writing. I forgot asking you mentioned out sage as well. Youve been writing since you were younger. You. How do writing help you internalize and really help you may be asked like a little come feel like there before you . Guest we talk a lot about the social issues here in the construct, even the norms, the societal agreements we all adhere to whether we know it or not, just by being complicit in this world and in certain things but theres none of that in writing for me. Writing was such a judgment freezone it was a zone where there were no rules like it had to be anyone where i wasnt come where i could be someone also wanted to come where i could jump in book and experience something so far removed from my own expense was an be about it or see a see a patient thd to cultivate in my life. That was something i constantly sought out in writing, regardless of how the world tommy i could grab a pen and a piece of paper and create my own image of who i am and do admit to be in the life i want to live in something that still trusted to things like this, to be honored, to be part of such an Amazing Program with so many authors who have challenged the status quo who wrote their own stories and shed light assuming things i even as a person in the space was unaware of, by the will continue to be i believe it was form of communication in connection for me and a something i value so much. I saw that your book is being turned into ar television show. Ii was wondering how sort of tht process, is going for you . Are you involved like a n writing and how it feels to have your life being adapted into something is made for a larger audience . Guest guess i would first like to sayto there is a strike happening right now in hollywood, and a very much support that. Itst very important everyone feels as though they have fair wage, fair compensation and protection. [applause] thats first and foremost but in terms of this book and the series, i have been honored to have thehe option come from Gabrielle Union herself to be in conversation with her to a Sony Pictures didnt take that on as well and development. And as to be a coexecutive producer and cowriter psych and should be writing and telling stories and trying to bring this book to as many people and destroyed to as many people as i can. And also a chance to tell other stories. Its supposed to be a comedy so hopefully i am a funny. We can make that happen. And i think for that part to laugh at you know that youre going to sit down and have a good time, make talking about things like this these you. Nobody wants this sit and watch an hour long been raiding or lecture all the things you should be doing but i think were people you love to come to the table of have a good laugh and love each other and hopefully at the end of it understand each other a little bit more. The process is great. Have a real union is amazing a dream to work on. Hollywood is crazy. In good ways and do not good ways but its truly just i am honored to be able to tell stories. Congratulations again on your sobriety. I would love to hear more about howd getting sober mightve ben connected with the other happenings in 2019 and your life tragic it definitely was. I came out late august 2019 and then after a a long weekend of kind of looking at my life and being oh, my god, what have i done . For the better and which is the difference, i realized a call was longer serving be in my life. I realize a lot of the times when included in seeking healing or understand or reflection i saw at alcohol instead. And so i might not have had what people classified as an addictive personality or localism. I knew alcohol had a negative relationship around and it never made anything in my life better. My partner also be sober, tenure sober as well so seeing someone live a life of sobriety and live a life of connection still be in entertainment and do with it want and achieve dreams and having a Guiding Light was huge in my own journey. Yes, sir. Congratulations again on your book and your ability to be your own authentic self. I am wondering whether or not as you move from one professional team to another team, dallas, tampa bay and so on, and a teens view tried to go to in between, do you feel like you are discriminated against because of your sexuality, that you may have been, been able to hang with some of those teams if you are not, if there had not been any indication that you might have been bisexual . Guest i can say that im not sure about that experience. I wasnt out at the time, and there were multitudes reasons why teens turn me down double also made sense to me. Eveng being the proud Football Player i am i understand that. I will say afterr coming out though i was getting calls prior to after coming out i did not it anymore calls from leagues. I can also say that i think the evidence theres only one out actively right now in the league is evidence maybe not at this commission but there is not enough being had to make players feel comfortable and included. I talk about in his book the choice i made in my life not to chase conspiracy and not to wonder of the things that could have, should have, would have for me and personally because my life was so full. I believe im in my purpose now that i want those people come up in the league did not have that fear of being discriminated against, to know that regardless of how they identify they will be judged. Off of their ability to help a team win. That is my goal today, yes, maam, with the festival of books tshirt from ellie. Thank you for coming. I was wondering im also bisexual and i was wondering about your journey between finding that out because i know a lot of People Struggle between amite gay, and my bisexual . I wonder what that journey is for you . Guest the same. I the same struggles in college. I was to get it wasnt straight but bisexual a lot of times did i feel like an option. It felt like i was told that bisexuality were for gay individuals were afraid to say that the rick gates and holding onto a bit of masculinity, which even if it is a case or someone, i understand that as well, that it is scary the lgbtq in the world, that a lot of the times we do what we can to survive which a blend or to be accepted. Butfo for me it was kind of lack of representation, lack of story and lack of accessible over Accessible Information about bisexual that made myma journeya little more challenging i would say. Unfortunately, i answered a lot of relationships to learn about myself. I think thats what we do as young people but i look back at it as probably shouldnt have done that. But no, it was i think drawnout i would say because a lot of the times i was having genuine relationships and feelings with both genders, and i just didnt see bisexuality as a landing spot. I had to release it to myself that this is white and it at the time i i did know anyone elseo was bisexual. Of course come out there are so many peopley are bisexual pic d it is not why are we not hearing those voices, why are we not hearing those stories . Thats what this is about, so thank you for sharing as well. Appreciate that. Thank you for creating a resource. Guest thank you. Thank you for writing this book. My question is about your work on eradicating eight. My question is to more specifically what would you say to an africanamerican male boy who likes the ball or like sports, felt like i dont think im straight . Lived in environment where there is hate, bullying. What you say to them to give them hope . Guest with any lgbtq person, especially my party first is about safety, that their environments and places where being yourself or being other than in what is a direct conflict to your safety so i would say to prioritize your safety first and foremost over all things. I am not of a rosecolored glass perception that just be yourself and everything will be great at or about the true challenges entry systems. I would tell them and point to the people myself or the people in thes own community who are doing the work to make sure the lgbtq youth are safe and protected. I would helpfully pointed to a resource they have, if not within their community and online that they canan access ad talk about because every situation is different but i will let them know there are people just like you that you being who you are is what makes you special and beautiful and bright and it is your superpower was the or a shame for or not and that regardless of where you are now you can find the communities, thehe love, the jo, the happiness. You dont need to change. The world needs to change and we are working on that. [applause] , we only have time for one me question. Actually you just answered my question. Im in marching band mom though i want to say thank you to you because you with the first the public who ever had anything i needed to hear from. Guest thankus you. [laughing] [applause] , we will take one question from june. I just want to say thank you so much for sharing your experience. Truly, truly wonderful. And myor question was with intersectionality with other sports. What do you think the info can do better like i know mlb has pride nights and stuff like that and other sports do other things with it. Where do you think the nfl can improve in that regard and you think theres some intersectionality between mlb athletes, in the athleteses and nfl athletes we can learn from traffic every Major Sports League team as a lesser to look for a precautionary tale of what not to do. Looking at mlb, nba, they have ambassadors for that can be done. Like i said intentionally we are building at lgbtq , odyssey the diversity and inclusion and equity divisions in the nfl can be done. Looking at the wnba and the female Sports League listen to the players and has an elite social change can be the forefront of that is are important as well. The list really goes on, the possibles are really endless think at the forefront it is about building into foundation to make sure people in room making the decisions are of the communities are making the decisions about, i cant end this without asking a question. [applause] guest there you go. So, as as a trance and bil boy, i have been having a little bit of trouble with my identity. So like what would you say about like finding yourself, aye to say about that . Guest oh, my gosh. I would say honestly that its a journey, that even at the age of 31, i know i do do not know everything about myself. But that you and hopefully everyone around you has given you the opportunity and the freedom to learn come to discover, to identify and we identify and figure it out to challenge your own concepts of the concepts around you of who you should be or who you are. I think that as time goes on you will feel moree yourself. I think youll find people that see you for you and love you and accept you as just as you are, and that it is okay to challenge the world around you. The world around you is not perfect. Ideas are made up bys other people. Its okay to challenge ideas. And i love you. I appreciate you being here. Thank you. [applause] host that is such a perfect way to end of this session. R. K. Russell everyone. Please go upstairs and he will find your book. On behalf of o the library of congress thank youar for comingo the National Book festival. We hope to see you for the rest of the day. Weekends on cspan2 are an intellectual feast. Every saturday American History tv documents americas stories, and on sundays boov brings you the lates in nonfiction books and authors. Funding for cspan2 csm these Television Companies and more including wow. The world has changed. Today a fashionable Internet Connection something no one can live without the wow is there for our customers with speed, reliability, value and choice. Now more than ever it all starts with great internet. [laughing] along with the Television Companies supports cspan2 as a public service. Host joining us now on booktv is author richard viguerie. Here is his book. Its called go big the Marketing Secrets of richard a. Viguerie. Mr. Viguerie, what you do for a living . Guest my mother went to work with the figures ago not would understand what i did. I was