Title IX—passed on June 23, 1972—prohibits discrimination based on sex within educational programs or activities that receive federal funding in a mere 37 words: “No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.”

“Obviously you don't know who people are, but that really allows people to be authentic and kind of bond together over a lot of things,” Valentine said.

“I think my attitude was like, ‘Well, we've already had weird times, I'm just gonna go and do my own thing—there's no other time to do it other than now,’” Carey said.

“It makes me really uncomfortable because it doesn’t seem right for people like that to be here and around us when they directly are trying to make other people’s lives uncomfortable or unbearable,” Gonzalez said.

“It was just kind of understood that this is what we needed to get our feet back under us and be successful. And it's gonna require you rolling up your sleeves and doing... something a little different, so it was just kind of understood, like, ‘Here's what we need.’”