Speaker 1: Good morning, peeps, and welcome to wok F Daily with
Speaker 1: Me your Girl. Daniel Moody recording from the Home Bunker.
Speaker 1: Pre recording. Dear friends, as I am away for a
Speaker 1: couple of days, I would love to say that I'm
Speaker 1: taking some rests, but you know that I'm away from
Speaker 1: the pod but on social media, so as always follow
Speaker 1: me there, and you know that if there is breaking news,
Speaker 1: I will surely have a microphone and a laptop. That's
Speaker 1: what it means to kind of pseudo go on vacation
Speaker 1: these days. Nonetheless, I'm really excited to bring to you
Speaker 1: a pre recorded conversation with a friend of the show,
Speaker 1: Anna Deshaun, who is the founder of E three Radio
Speaker 1: and The Cube and is the host of Queer News
Speaker 1: podcast and Second Sunday. We get into a really good
Speaker 1: conversation Anna and I about you know, obviously the state
Speaker 1: of politics, but also about faith and what it means
Speaker 1: to hold faith in this moment, and also what this
Speaker 1: political moment means for people that live at the intersections
Speaker 1: of multiple identities. This conversation was recorded prior to the
Speaker 1: announcement that Joe Biden would be stepping down from reelection
Speaker 1: and the announcement of Vice President Kamala Harris as our
Speaker 1: new Democratic nominee. This is a good conversation, however, because look, folks,
Speaker 1: as we make our way into this election, we know
Speaker 1: exactly what is at stake and what I can say
Speaker 1: right now, just days, you know, removed from this seismic
Speaker 1: shift in our body politic, is that people are energized
Speaker 1: in a way that I have not seen. I am
Speaker 1: hopeful in a way that I have not been hopeful
Speaker 1: probably since two thousand and eight. There is just this
Speaker 1: palpable energy and excitement that I am just so grateful
Speaker 1: that I was wrong. As everybody knows, I was very
Speaker 1: staunchly against Joe Biden stepping aside, only because I thought
Speaker 1: that the Democrats were going to fall into absolute disarray
Speaker 1: and it was going to be inevitable that Donald Trump
Speaker 1: would be elected because of it. But now seeing the
Speaker 1: way that people are hitting the ground running. You had
Speaker 1: forty four thousand black women show up for a call
Speaker 1: that raised over a million dollars. Then the following day
Speaker 1: you had over fifty thousand black men show up for
Speaker 1: a call that raised over a million dollars. Now you're
Speaker 1: having aapi, folks, do a call. White women are being
Speaker 1: organized to do a call. Different communities are taking on
Speaker 1: the responsibility of what it means to activate in this
Speaker 1: moment with three and a half months to go to
Speaker 1: the election. The stakes are still the same, right, but
Speaker 1: the players are different, and I think that that matters.
Speaker 1: And you know where we are right now. I continue
Speaker 1: to share on social media ways in which people can
Speaker 1: get activated. If you have the ability to give money,
Speaker 1: give money, if you have the ability to organize it,
Speaker 1: get out the vote in your town, in your city,
Speaker 1: do that right. If you have the opportunity to organize
Speaker 1: and host salons and discussions in your home to talk
Speaker 1: to people about what is at stake in this election
Speaker 1: with friends, family, colleagues, neighbors, do that. We all have
Speaker 1: a role to play in this moment, and we have
Speaker 1: three and a half months. So every single person needs
Speaker 1: to roll up their sleeves and needs to get to
Speaker 1: work and needs to do what they can where they can,
Speaker 1: so that we can get Vice President Kamala Harris and
Speaker 1: our democracy over the fucking finish line and finish Donald
Speaker 1: Trump off once and for all. So that's where I am.
Speaker 1: I am energized. I'm taking a few days away, but
Speaker 1: I'm never really too far away, and leaving you with
Speaker 1: some really great interviews in the meantime. Coming up next,
Speaker 1: my conversation with Anna Deshon, Folks, I am very happy
Speaker 1: to welcome back to the show. Anna Deshon, who is
Speaker 1: a founder of E three Radio and The Cube and
Speaker 1: is the host of Queer News, a podcast covering all
Speaker 1: that queer news. Anna, it has been what did you
Speaker 1: say before, A wild time?
Speaker 2: It's wild and complicated.
Speaker 1: Wild, wild and complicated. I think that if there was
Speaker 1: a word or two words to describe twenty twenty four,
Speaker 1: that is what we would use. I would use the
Speaker 1: same as well. Let's just start with this for you
Speaker 1: as you cover the news of the community, about the community.
Speaker 1: What is happening to and in and around the LGBTQ
Speaker 1: plus community. What has made it the most wild and
Speaker 1: complex time in your opinion?
Speaker 2: Where do we start? Danielle, Oh, my God, and so family.
Speaker 2: Always always great to be on WOKF with you, So
Speaker 2: thanks for having me back. You know, as black quear women,
Speaker 2: every day our identity is in the news. So that's
Speaker 2: just let's just start there. So wild and complicated times
Speaker 2: when it comes to abortion rights, when it comes to DEI,
Speaker 2: affirmative action, everything that is being rolled back at time,
Speaker 2: and then we get to queer and I just feel
Speaker 2: like history is continuing to repeat itself, and I feel
Speaker 2: like we haven't learned a single lesson. So I've been
Speaker 2: sitting in this reflective moment of what does it mean
Speaker 2: to be in this time while history is in fact
Speaker 2: repeating itself where we are looking ahead thirty years to
Speaker 2: be able to repeal all the stuff that's happened over
Speaker 2: the last eight and what does that mean for us?
Speaker 2: I have another posse a Sunday, we had Bishop flunder
Speaker 2: On and she talked about believing that we come from
Speaker 2: eternity into time and then back into eternity and had
Speaker 2: me thinking, like what are we doing with this time?
Speaker 2: Like how do we how will the future talk about
Speaker 2: us right now? And y'all it's complicated and and why
Speaker 2: What I mean by that is I report one week
Speaker 2: about how some of Desantus' anti trans policies have been
Speaker 2: rolled back, clarified, cleared up, moved to socide, okay right.
Speaker 2: Recently a couple weeks ago, I reported about how that
Speaker 2: judge Judge Hinkel Right put a permanent ban on that
Speaker 2: whole trans healthcare business in Florida. So folks who identify
Speaker 2: as trans can now have health care there because he said,
Speaker 2: it doesn't matter what you think, you can't stop somebody
Speaker 2: from getting health care for themselves. Right. That is a
Speaker 2: big win. That is a major moment because Desantus's legislation
Speaker 2: laid the groundwork for all these other states to use
Speaker 2: as a blueprint for all this anti trans legislation. Right,
Speaker 2: So now we sort of have a blueprint and now
Speaker 2: a precedent that could also be used in other states
Speaker 2: to roll back all this anti translationlation. Right. But then
Speaker 2: I you know, another day rolls by, and I'm also
Speaker 2: reporting about how Utah there's colleges in Utah who are
Speaker 2: closing pride centers because of di regulations, right.
Speaker 1: And not just Pride centers, the Black Center, the Indigenous Center,
Speaker 1: all of these different centers for historically marginalized communities that
Speaker 1: were place of community right and connection are being closed down.
Speaker 2: Yep, that's right, and now being a rolled all up
Speaker 2: into one place as if everybody's needs are the same
Speaker 2: and as everybody you know, resources ought to look the same.
Speaker 2: It makes no sense, right, And then I've got a
Speaker 2: celebrating on the White House lawn. It's great pride celebration
Speaker 2: that didn't happen, you know, four years ago. These are
Speaker 2: things we ought to appreciate. At the same time we
Speaker 2: in amidst these wars that we're funding genocide that's happening.
Speaker 2: What are we doing here? Where is our humanity? Is
Speaker 2: also complicated? And then we have probably the on record,
Speaker 2: the worst presidential candidate coming up here in November. But
Speaker 2: all the same time, day y'all was in here, Like
Speaker 2: it feels like history's repeating itself. I'm sitting here like
Speaker 2: this feels like the Bull O'Connor of our time. Like
Speaker 2: I feel like this is like the Inneded Bryant of
Speaker 2: our time, right, like Marjorie Taylor Green's like, for example,
Speaker 2: come to mind, And I just find myself one to
Speaker 2: tap back in to all of our ancestors, the Ella
Speaker 2: Bakers and the Fannie Lou Hammers, and the people who
Speaker 2: had taught us how to get through those times, because
Speaker 2: I feel like I feel like we are in it.
Speaker 1: I think that similarly, I have found myself really looking
Speaker 1: back right, looking in history to provide some solace, to
Speaker 1: provide some hopefulness, and faith because what we are up against,
Speaker 1: while daunting, is nothing like what our ancestors were up against.
Speaker 1: I'm reading a book by a friend, Jen M. Jackson,
Speaker 1: doctor Jackson, called Black Women Taught Us, and going through
Speaker 1: each chapter is about, you know, a different black feminist
Speaker 1: from a different time who was dealing with being you know,
Speaker 1: Ida b Wells, being run out of her state with
Speaker 1: death threats, all because she was covering in great detail
Speaker 1: the lynchings that were happening right that mainstream white media
Speaker 1: wasn't covering, talking about enslaved you know, women hiding out
Speaker 1: in attics addicts that weren't even high enough to be
Speaker 1: able to stand up in or really long enough to
Speaker 1: be able to lay down in. But what freedom looked
Speaker 1: like to her was like the freedom of space and body.
Speaker 1: So that's where she hid on the plantation. So it's
Speaker 1: just one reminding ourselves that inside of I think our
Speaker 1: DNA lies like a great resili and a blueprint of
Speaker 1: how to move forward, because I think that what we
Speaker 1: were lulled into believing is that the bull Connors were gone,
Speaker 1: is that we had toppled them, you know, and that
Speaker 1: it was now our time to move forward. And there
Speaker 1: were never going to be people who were going to
Speaker 1: stand in our way because we had pushed them to
Speaker 1: the margins. And I think that that's where we got
Speaker 1: caught up.
Speaker 2: Oh we did. We got complacent. We got so complacent,
Speaker 2: and I think, especially with queer folks, I think about
Speaker 2: marriage equality being the start of that complacency, thinking that
Speaker 2: that was the ultimate right, that was like the silver ullan,
Speaker 2: that was it, you know, from here all other things
Speaker 2: are solved. But even during that time, if you talk
Speaker 2: to anybody whose identities were marginalized, that was not their
Speaker 2: number one issue. They trying to find housing, employment. And
Speaker 2: so when we don't tackle the most basic fundamental rights
Speaker 2: of those who are the most I like what Arlen
Speaker 2: Hamilton says, like the most underestimated of us, you know,
Speaker 2: then we really aren't solving the real problems. And I
Speaker 2: think that's what we have found in all the efforts
Speaker 2: of all of our ancestors. It's like we've solved this
Speaker 2: one piece, but we haven't really solved the real problem
Speaker 2: in this country. I mean, let's be real, I don't
Speaker 2: know what is possible in all of its shapes and forms,
Speaker 2: given how this place started. I tell people our time
Speaker 2: in conversation like this was a great experiment. Okay, there's
Speaker 2: no other country in the world made up like the
Speaker 2: United States of America. It's still a great experiment. And
Speaker 2: it's not been going that great Okay, Okay, there's some
Speaker 2: things that are like really shining bright lights, but Chile, Chile,
Speaker 2: to be in this body has not been the greatest
Speaker 2: of times, right, It's been pretty awful. So I think
Speaker 2: we find ourselves in this place, in this experiment and
Speaker 2: not knowing how to actually solve it, actually solve it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, as a black queer woman, we are facing down.
Speaker 1: So much is at stake in this election, and for you,
Speaker 1: you know, and the folks that you talk to on
Speaker 1: your shows, Like, as we get closer to the election,
Speaker 1: what are you hearing from other black queer people, queer
Speaker 1: people of color in terms of the threat and the fear.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's tough. It's hard because are we looking to
Speaker 2: save what was a like white center democracy? Is that
Speaker 2: what we're really looking to say, We're looking to create
Speaker 2: a new democracy? What does that look like? And what
Speaker 2: I hear is the goal is to fight fascism? Balid
Speaker 2: valid okay, And is the democracy we've been in the
Speaker 2: one that's been working. Has that been working for you?
Speaker 2: Has that been working for me? Has that been working
Speaker 2: for my cousins, all the black men I know? Has
Speaker 2: that been working for all the black women I know?
Speaker 2: For all the queer folks I know? I don't think so.
Speaker 2: So I'm hearing I'm gonna do what I gotta do
Speaker 2: when it's time to go vote, you know, because I
Speaker 2: know voting people. They're gonna go and they're gonna vote
Speaker 2: against fascism, but they are not happy or pleased with
Speaker 2: the other options. I mean, it just feels like we're
Speaker 2: constantly sucking this rock in a hard place. And I
Speaker 2: catch myself saying, oh, this is like the most crucial election,
Speaker 2: because I feel like every time there is something crucial
Speaker 2: happening to black and brown bodies period. Every presidential election
Speaker 2: is important to as a matter of fact, every local
Speaker 2: election is even more important to us. And so I
Speaker 2: catch myself and I catch other people saying, like, don't
Speaker 2: say like this is the child. Every election is yep,
Speaker 2: important to our bodies, but this is just what we
Speaker 2: have to deal with in this particular election, in this
Speaker 2: particular time. So I find people just being just terribly conflicted.
Speaker 1: How are you finding hope? We've been saying on wookf
Speaker 1: And I say, you know all the time, Pride is
Speaker 1: three hundred and sixty five days a year, and there
Speaker 1: is something about my feeling where I become conflicted because
Speaker 1: I'm just like, even going to attend the White House
Speaker 1: Pride event was a deep conflict for me.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 1: I woke up that day and I was just like, hmm, well,
Speaker 1: you know, still sending weapons and bombs and murdering tens
Speaker 1: of thousands of Palestinians every single day, and there is
Speaker 1: no sign of stopping.
Speaker 2: And so.
Speaker 1: How do I not be complicit? So talk to me
Speaker 1: about like the conflict if any you were feeling.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it is. It is what I'm facing here in
Speaker 2: Chicago as well. Right, We've got a black man as
Speaker 2: mayor of this city right now, right, this is a
Speaker 2: historical moment for us. We haven't had one since Harold Washington. Right.
Speaker 2: He's also a liberal mayor, doing very positive things, guaranteed
Speaker 2: minimum income type of stuff like stuff that's like, okay,
Speaker 2: that's like fighting capitalism type stuff, you know. And we
Speaker 2: also have the shortest parade on record happening this year
Speaker 2: for the Chicago Pride Parade. We also have a shorter
Speaker 2: route this year. Now it's the Pride Parade, something that
Speaker 2: I have shown up at every single year. No, I'm
Speaker 2: at an age child, I've been to the parade, so okay,
Speaker 2: I have done the rainbow thing. Okay, I don't need
Speaker 2: the rainbow thing. And in fact, I'm queer every day, okay.
Speaker 2: And I felt it was incredibly important to fight for
Speaker 2: the Pride Parade because I remember being the baby gay
Speaker 2: who had never seen anything like that before and just
Speaker 2: knowing how incredibly important it is. Yeah, that these types
Speaker 2: of spaces exists. Despite the capitalism that comes along with
Speaker 2: the corporate you know whatever that they put on, it
Speaker 2: is still important to so many people who don't have
Speaker 2: the opportunities to come out, who don't have the privilege
Speaker 2: and who have never celebrated before, and that is worth
Speaker 2: fighting for. And so I feel the same way about
Speaker 2: the White House. It is important to show up because
Speaker 2: there might be another time, but we are not allowed
Speaker 2: where literally he does everything. If he's elected again, he
Speaker 2: will erase us from every single document moment that exists
Speaker 2: in every legal period. His goal is to erase our existence,
Speaker 2: and that is exactly what he will do quickly and
Speaker 2: swiftly with some type of executive order and break some
Speaker 2: other type of protocol that nobody ever thought of president
Speaker 2: would ever break. Like, I think that is his goal
Speaker 2: and mission in life. And so I don't think it's
Speaker 2: this or that, it's but and and I think that
Speaker 2: we just have to stay committed to what we know
Speaker 2: is important, which is centering the most marginalized of us,
Speaker 2: because we if we actually sent to the most marginalized,
Speaker 2: everybody wins. And when you ask me, like how, I
Speaker 2: get hope. I do my best to tell balanced stories
Speaker 2: and have a balanced pod because what bleeds is not
Speaker 2: what leads on this podcast, because that doesn't serve us.
Speaker 2: It just makes us sad and depressed. Yeah, but you
Speaker 2: know this past week Shakirie richardson freaking is a bright light. Okay,
Speaker 2: she let the storytelling on my pod, all right, as
Speaker 2: a queer black woman out here running as fast as flow. Joe, Oh,
Speaker 2: that is good news. When I tell a story. This
Speaker 2: man he came out in his obituary at the age
Speaker 2: of eighty five.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, see the story. Yeah, it broke oh god, Anna,
Speaker 1: it broke my heart. Yeah, to think that you would
Speaker 1: carry that secret until your death to say that you
Speaker 1: had lost the love of your life decades prior, you know,
Speaker 1: and the fear had like it really it broke That
Speaker 1: story broke my heart.
Speaker 2: It broke my heart. And at the same time, I
Speaker 2: was like, he had the courage enough to write that,
Speaker 2: and if somebody on the other end had the courage
Speaker 2: enough to follow the directives, because clearly there was something,
Speaker 2: you know, where he felt like he couldn't but somebody said,
Speaker 2: this is what he wanted, and he's gonna be buried
Speaker 2: next to the person that he loved his entire life.
Speaker 2: You know, when I report about young people fighting back,
Speaker 2: like I got the chance. We have Senator Mike Simmons
Speaker 2: here in the state of Illinois, our first out elected
Speaker 2: state senator, black man with locks. Okay, I am a
Speaker 2: fan of Senator Centimons, and this year for his Pride
Speaker 2: press conference, he actually was like, ain't none of y'all
Speaker 2: talking this year? I want to center queer youth. And
Speaker 2: he had a queer youth panel that gave me so
Speaker 2: much hope, Danielle listening to these young people sixteen, seventeen,
Speaker 2: eighteen years old talk about their queer identities, their experiences
Speaker 2: in school, their experiences with their families, them having the
Speaker 2: courage to sit up here and be recorded and be
Speaker 2: broadcasted out everywhere about how they are fighting for their
Speaker 2: humanity because if they don't like, who will? And the
Speaker 2: I'm stepping up and saying that's what I'm doing because
Speaker 2: I love us so much. That gives me hope, you know.
Speaker 2: And that's the tough type of stuff I like to
Speaker 2: report on. And that's why I end every podcast with
Speaker 2: Anna's word, because we're more than just these terrible moments,
Speaker 2: and I don't believe we're going to stop fighting. And
Speaker 2: I think that that ought to give all of us
Speaker 2: a little bit of hope.
Speaker 1: I think that it's just like one young people listening
Speaker 1: to young people. I mean, the college campus uprisings gave
Speaker 1: me so much hope because it was a stark reminder
Speaker 1: that it is and has always been young people that
Speaker 1: move this kind treeforward, that hold up a mirror and
Speaker 1: show us all who we are. So whether it was
Speaker 1: Ryan White during you know, the beginning of the AIDS crisis,
Speaker 1: being a child going on the news to talk about
Speaker 1: having had contracted AIDS, whether it is these young people
Speaker 1: queer kids saying like you can strip off the safe
Speaker 1: space stickers from the classroom, but like I'm still going
Speaker 1: to be gay right, Like you know, So it is.
Speaker 1: I think that it's so important because those of us
Speaker 1: who are older, I think, can get calcified in our
Speaker 1: frustration and our apathy, and so I think that it
Speaker 1: is really important to have those reminders.
Speaker 2: Often we're so easily jaded. That's what, Yeah, we are.
Speaker 1: But it's not to say that there isn't a lot
Speaker 1: that has jaded us the jaded nate.
Speaker 2: It is valid.
Speaker 1: Yeah, what is it that you hope that folks get
Speaker 1: from your POD's Sunday Sermon and Queer News? Like, what
Speaker 1: is it that you hope that you are able to
Speaker 1: contribute to the media landscape?
Speaker 2: So with queer News, my hope is that I contribute
Speaker 2: to this canon, that is this news cycle, no matter
Speaker 2: what's happening on the social media networks with their shadow
Speaker 2: banning or whatever is happening on this particular day or moment,
Speaker 2: but that people can hear news that they are not
Speaker 2: getting anywhere else period. That centers us first, and for me,
Speaker 2: that is what I hear from people, and that is
Speaker 2: where people center their gratitude around this piece of work,
Speaker 2: and that encourages me. I was actually recently at in
Speaker 2: DC for Capital Pride and what a great time I had.
Speaker 2: I'm looking forward to World Pride. And a sister came
Speaker 2: up to the table and talked about how my reporting
Speaker 2: on Britney Griner before anybody else even cared about what
Speaker 2: was happening with her, meant so much to her. And
Speaker 2: that's why I do it, and that's why I think
Speaker 2: it's important, because a Britney Grinder story is important every day,
Speaker 2: not just on the day that someone sent a press release.
Speaker 2: Important to us every day, and so that's what I
Speaker 2: hope people get from Queer News. And then with Second Sunday,
Speaker 2: it is an opportunity for us to talk about stories
Speaker 2: that we don't get to talk about out loud. It's
Speaker 2: literally about black queer people finding keeping in sometimes losing faith.
Speaker 2: And there's a lot of us who grew up in church,
Speaker 2: in the Christian Church in particular, and it caused us
Speaker 2: a whole heck of a lot of harm. And we
Speaker 2: have found some type of spiritual grounding or not in
Speaker 2: other ways and shapes and forms, and we talk about it,
Speaker 2: but nobody else hears about it, and I wanted the
Speaker 2: world to hear about how the Christian Church has not
Speaker 2: only harmed us, but we are still okay, and for
Speaker 2: other people to know that they can be okay too,
Speaker 2: because there's so many other people who have felt ostracized
Speaker 2: from the church or cast aside in the church who
Speaker 2: can relate to the stories that we're telling. And I
Speaker 2: feel like that is really resonating with a lot of people.
Speaker 2: I love it. I love it.
Speaker 1: You're giving me a run for my money with your
Speaker 1: multiple pods. Now I gotta go pick out like a
Speaker 1: fourth thing, fourth and fifth one to stay in the race.
Speaker 1: Tell people where they can find your shows, Listen to
Speaker 1: your shows, share your shows.
Speaker 2: One hundred percent so you all can totally listen wherever
Speaker 2: you get your podcasts. I would also love for you
Speaker 2: to go visit the qube t a t qu b E.
Speaker 2: It's our currated platform of the best black and brown
Speaker 2: pods out here. You can go there and listen, you know,
Speaker 2: and wherever you get your pods. I know how y'all
Speaker 2: are y'all particular, So go wherever you go to follow, listener, subscribe,
Speaker 2: You can find career news, you can find second Sunday
Speaker 2: and you can find an other podcast as well.
Speaker 1: Thank you for making the time for wok app daily.
Speaker 1: Thank you for all of the work that you do,
Speaker 1: all of the stories that you lift up each and
Speaker 1: every day. And you know, happy pride today and every
Speaker 1: day to you.
Speaker 2: Yes, indeed, happy pride, my Briger.
Speaker 1: That is it for me today. Dear friends on wok app.
Speaker 1: As always, power to the people and to all the people.
Speaker 1: Power work, get woke and stay woke as fuck.