Speaker 1: Good morning, peeps, and welcome to wok F Daily with
Speaker 1: Meet Your Girl Danielle Moody, recording from the Brooklyn Bunker. Folks,
Speaker 1: I'm really I don't know what the word is. It's
Speaker 1: not excited, but I'm really proud of the compilation of
Speaker 1: shows that we are putting together this Pride Month. As
Speaker 1: I'm going to re state at the beginning of each
Speaker 1: week in June, we are talking with leaders and activists
Speaker 1: and thought leaders and Hollywood folks authors to get a
Speaker 1: better picture of their thoughts around Pride, around where we
Speaker 1: are with regard to progress for the LGBTQ community. And
Speaker 1: the question that I'm asking is should we be going
Speaker 1: back to our roots as a community that was born
Speaker 1: out of resistance to violence, to struggle, to oppression, to
Speaker 1: invisibilizing us altogether. I will say that I was so
Speaker 1: fucking disgusted last week for a variety of reasons, as
Speaker 1: I am with this country these days. But the Biden
Speaker 1: administration decided to hold an event where they were going
Speaker 1: to be honoring Nancy Reagan on a stamp, as you know,
Speaker 1: one of the first ladies to get a stamp, and
Speaker 1: who else was going to be at that event, but
Speaker 1: was Louis Louis de Joy, you know, the Trump lackey
Speaker 1: who took over the postal service, slowed it down so
Speaker 1: that we wouldn't be able to mail in ballots for
Speaker 1: the election. Who is Nancy Reagan? While she isn't just
Speaker 1: you know, a former first Lady, she was also very
Speaker 1: prominent in the war against the LGBTQ community. When AIDS
Speaker 1: was our epidemic and not COVID, the Reagan administration allowed
Speaker 1: for tens of thousands, if not more, queer people in
Speaker 1: the United States to die and do nothing about it.
Speaker 1: Wouldn't even utter the words AIDS. It was perceived, if
Speaker 1: you remember, for those of you who are old enough
Speaker 1: in the eighties to be God's excuse to how to
Speaker 1: get rid of these sinful characters. Back in the eighties,
Speaker 1: before there were investments into various drugs to allow for
Speaker 1: this diagnosis to not be a death sentence, so many
Speaker 1: people died, died in the streets, died alone in hospital rooms,
Speaker 1: with not even the kindness of caretakers. Because of how
Speaker 1: the Reagan administration characterized gay people. It was your fault
Speaker 1: that you got hivna's and your death was but a
Speaker 1: scarlet letter on you and on those who loved you,
Speaker 1: knew you, so forth and so on. So for me,
Speaker 1: as a black queer woman, to see that this administration
Speaker 1: would think that during Pride Month that the would be
Speaker 1: a right move to make once again signals how out
Speaker 1: of touch disconnected they are. Look, I'm not saying, hey,
Speaker 1: don't provide first ladies with stamps, but I'm saying, let
Speaker 1: it be known, not in the month for the community
Speaker 1: with which that administration made a target harmed in irrevocable ways.
Speaker 1: Thank God for science, thank God for medicine, thank God
Speaker 1: for public pressure, and those like Ryan White who would
Speaker 1: show that it wasn't just LGBTQ people that were getting
Speaker 1: hivna's right, that this was a epidemic of not just
Speaker 1: one community, but what would become that of the entire
Speaker 1: nation that the rank and administration could have stopped, but
Speaker 1: they didn't. So for me, for them to decide to
Speaker 1: honor this person in our month was a slap in
Speaker 1: the face. I am so tired too, And you will
Speaker 1: hear me talk with different people throughout the week about
Speaker 1: the commodification of Pride. These companies who don't who literally
Speaker 1: will fund candidates who work against our best interests, fund
Speaker 1: them behind our back, and then rainbow up their websites,
Speaker 1: their products, their merchandise all through the month of May
Speaker 1: to receive LGBTQ dollars, take our money by daylight, and
Speaker 1: stab us in the back at night, the same way
Speaker 1: that we are seeing places like Walmart degrade what Juneteenth
Speaker 1: is too Black Americans. They're putting out ice cream in
Speaker 1: bullshit T shirts. That's not what Juneteenth is. And while
Speaker 1: I at one time appreciated the main streaming of Pride
Speaker 1: because I felt like it was us being brought from
Speaker 1: the margins into daylight, it was all just a ploy
Speaker 1: for capitalism, because as soon as that month is over,
Speaker 1: they go back to funding bad actors that look to
Speaker 1: dehumanize us through their vicious policies on a regular basis.
Speaker 1: Coming up today in our conversation and with our theme
Speaker 1: Pride is a Riot, we chat again with b Pegel's minor, who,
Speaker 1: if you remember, was the very outspoken former employee of
Speaker 1: Netflix who is also black and transgender and organized helped
Speaker 1: to organize the walkout with regard to Netflix's showing of
Speaker 1: Dave Chappelle's comedy, and I use that term loosely special
Speaker 1: where he attacked for what felt like an entire fucking hour,
Speaker 1: the most marginalized community in this country, one that is
Speaker 1: killed well beyond our normal rate of murder and forgotten
Speaker 1: about thrown in trash cans. But he felt that, oh,
Speaker 1: this is the community that I'm going to make quote
Speaker 1: unquote jokes about. Well. As a Netflix employee who was
Speaker 1: also one of the heads of their employee resource groups
Speaker 1: that are dedicated to both black folks and queer people, B.
Speaker 1: Pagel's Minor took it upon themselves to organize their employees.
Speaker 1: Following that walk out, they were fired, and we have
Speaker 1: seen since then that not much with Netflix has changed.
Speaker 1: In fact, they have threatened their employees, telling them that
Speaker 1: they will reap what they sew as it pertains to
Speaker 1: quote unquote wokeness. So in this conversation coming up next
Speaker 1: with B we will talk with them about what queer
Speaker 1: employees still face. They have become a new parent during
Speaker 1: this time, so we will also touch upon what it
Speaker 1: means to be a transparent and the safety of our
Speaker 1: queer kids and children in general. That conversation with B.
Speaker 1: Pagel's Minor, as we continue to celebrate pride here on
Speaker 1: Woke f is coming up next. It's no secret that
Speaker 1: the news is horsepill hard to swallow. Thankfully, there's The
Speaker 1: Bituation Room podcast hosted by comedian and commentator Francesca Freer
Speaker 1: and Tini for a lighter take on the heavy stuff.
Speaker 1: Each week, The Bituation Room brings you progressive comedians, experts,
Speaker 1: and activists to break down the issues in a way
Speaker 1: that won't just leave you crying under a weighted blanket.
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Speaker 1: Listeners can also expect interviews with fascinating guests, political leaders, commentators,
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Speaker 1: with Doctor rashad Ricci on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever
Speaker 1: you get your podcasts. If you like what you hear,
Speaker 1: be sure to subscribe so you never miss a new episode. Folks,
Speaker 1: I am very excited to welcome back to woke F Daily,
Speaker 1: B Pagel's minor, who is an investor and startup advisor
Speaker 1: and former Netflix employee. And if you remember, it was
Speaker 1: rough Lee, I think about a year ago, B when
Speaker 1: you joined us in woke F to talk about your
Speaker 1: termination from Netflix following your organization of a walkout. And
Speaker 1: this was associated with Dave Chappelle's I guess it was
Speaker 1: at that time his latest comedy special where I found
Speaker 1: nothing funny, but it was an entire special that seemed
Speaker 1: to be directed at weaponizing comedy against the trans community.
Speaker 1: And I didn't understand it. I didn't understand, you know,
Speaker 1: his format, and I was a Dave Chappelle fan. You
Speaker 1: organized at the time a workout because according to you
Speaker 1: and the and the piece that you had written, your
Speaker 1: opinion piece in Washington Post back in twenty twenty one,
Speaker 1: there was no conversation with the trans e ERG. There
Speaker 1: was no even even if folks had said, oh, we
Speaker 1: just want things canceled. Then that couldn't happen because you know, capitalism,
Speaker 1: there could have been, as you said in your Washington
Speaker 1: Post piece, and opportunity to have conversation, to be in
Speaker 1: community at least to have people be heard. Um, there
Speaker 1: hasn't been much be that has happened at Netflix in
Speaker 1: the positive from a year ago. I wanted to get
Speaker 1: your thoughts on what you have heard, what you've read
Speaker 1: and seen about their war against their quote unquote woke
Speaker 1: employees and how that landed with you. Yeah, so, first
Speaker 1: and foremost, thank you for having me back. You know,
Speaker 1: it was a great conversation last time. And actually, what's
Speaker 1: really crazy is it's only seven months, Like, oh my god,
Speaker 1: it's it's such it's such a it's like it feels
Speaker 1: like forever and our social more period of time ago.
Speaker 1: And it's so interesting because you know, one of the
Speaker 1: things I definitely reflect on at this time is, you know,
Speaker 1: one of the reasons I joined Netflix was because of
Speaker 1: this idea that you know, they welcome disagreement and discussion.
Speaker 1: You know, the idea really being that you know, you
Speaker 1: write a memo, you you know you have a point
Speaker 1: of view, and you have a conversation with people to
Speaker 1: create the best version of something. And so that's what
Speaker 1: we were really asking then, and that's what employees are
Speaker 1: asking now. Right. It's like, invite us into the conversation.
Speaker 1: Why would you go out and seek to build the
Speaker 1: best sports team? Right? So that's the Netflix metaphor, right.
Speaker 1: It's not about family, it's not about you know, a
Speaker 1: personal connection, It's about building the absolute best sports team. Well,
Speaker 1: the thing is, Phil Jackson asked Kobe Bryant what his
Speaker 1: opinion was on the best defense that they were playing, right,
Speaker 1: you know, coaches asked their team to help them improve
Speaker 1: their team. And so what was happening in Netflix then?
Speaker 1: You know, even actually before that that first Ruppel special,
Speaker 1: when I first got there in March twenty twenty, we
Speaker 1: were having conversations about content and how content can be
Speaker 1: harmful and whether it was trans Star or if it
Speaker 1: was Black At which are the two of the large
Speaker 1: ARGs and Netflix, whether it was those arenizations just raising
Speaker 1: their hand and saying, we want to be partners to
Speaker 1: you because we feel like we can help you. Because
Speaker 1: that was always a conversation. It was about let's be
Speaker 1: partners and I think that's one of the things that
Speaker 1: mainstream media really got this wrong, is that it was
Speaker 1: kind of this like Netflix employees who don't understand capitalism
Speaker 1: for instance, um you know who who are against the company.
Speaker 1: And that's not what it was. It was let's work
Speaker 1: together and create like an actual partnership because we think
Speaker 1: we can make content that's great. I'm a trans person
Speaker 1: who just had a baby. Every time I went to
Speaker 1: my doctor's appointment and those other pregnant ladies saw me
Speaker 1: come in, they gave you the like double taken from
Speaker 1: the take. That is a comedy special right there. It's
Speaker 1: just watching a trans person going too you know, an OBG.
Speaker 1: Bryantan's office pregnant, right, like, we understood what comedy is.
Speaker 1: Like we love to lad If you've ever been to,
Speaker 1: you know, a gay club or a drag show one o'clock,
Speaker 1: two o'clock in the morning, it's raunchier than Dave Chappelle
Speaker 1: has ever even thought of. Right, So, if being offended
Speaker 1: wasn't the whole conversation, it was about being partnership. And
Speaker 1: to your point today, I'm I'm frankly not very surprised.
Speaker 1: You know, some of the people who are in leadership
Speaker 1: at Netflix. You know, it seems like they made a
Speaker 1: concerted effort to push out a lot of those people
Speaker 1: who were really like on the edge of of you know,
Speaker 1: the company, who are talking about, you know, very difficult conversations,
Speaker 1: trying to push them for trying to really develop them.
Speaker 1: You know, one of the you know, C suite executives
Speaker 1: is Rachel Lets them, whose husband is a very very
Speaker 1: conservative human and you know, is a concerning human right.
Speaker 1: And so it's not surprising that you have some certain
Speaker 1: people who are in power who are moving Netflix further
Speaker 1: and further away from that general idea of having difficult
Speaker 1: conversations to create the best product. Right, So it's not
Speaker 1: actually about being woke. And that's the thing that people
Speaker 1: keep being wrong about. You don't become some of the
Speaker 1: most talented people in the world who get recruited to
Speaker 1: work in one of the best companies in the world
Speaker 1: by being right. You get those jobs by having critical conversations,
Speaker 1: critical thinking, and literally being just really brilliant people. And
Speaker 1: that's the thing that's being necessary. Yeah, I guess you
Speaker 1: know where I find there is in media and in
Speaker 1: the reporting particularly around this, was a lack of nuance, right,
Speaker 1: because it's so much better to say that all people
Speaker 1: wanted was Dave Chappelle to be canceled, Right, That's the
Speaker 1: easy way out. And what we often say, you know,
Speaker 1: within the LGBT community, within the black community, is we're
Speaker 1: not trying to cancel people, trying to like, have you
Speaker 1: be conscious of what it is that you are delivering
Speaker 1: and how it is landing on the communities that you
Speaker 1: are making the target or the headline of your content. Right,
Speaker 1: it's it's how does it land and did you have
Speaker 1: that consciousness ahead of time? And I think that, you know,
Speaker 1: particularly around comedy, it becomes really trick. We've seen you know,
Speaker 1: incidents over the over the last h couple of couple
Speaker 1: of months really um where people have been assaulted. Um.
Speaker 1: And I'm not even I'm not talking about the Will
Speaker 1: Smith Chris Rockley. I'm talking about you know at the
Speaker 1: comedy club, the guy rushing the rushing the stage. You know.
Speaker 1: I just think that we are living in more violent times.
Speaker 1: Frankly right where where they're they're just they're people need
Speaker 1: to be aware that folks are really on edge. But
Speaker 1: that to your point, what this isn't about cancel culture right, Like,
Speaker 1: what do you think that the real there there is
Speaker 1: that the lgbt Q plus community is asking for. And
Speaker 1: this is just with outside of just Dave Chappelle just
Speaker 1: using him as kind of you know, the intro in.
Speaker 1: But when we come up and say X is a
Speaker 1: problem or this is a problem, what do you believe
Speaker 1: is at the core of it? Yeah, you know, I
Speaker 1: want to bring up a recent example because this has
Speaker 1: been something that like all of us have been talking
Speaker 1: about because trying to figure out how we feel about it. So,
Speaker 1: you know, Kendrick Lamar just released his new album and
Speaker 1: he has this song Antique Stories, right, and in the
Speaker 1: song he says the F word, he missed genders and
Speaker 1: dead names one of his relatives. And it was so
Speaker 1: interesting because like on one end, I had my black relatives,
Speaker 1: I had white folks. I had a whole bunch of
Speaker 1: people come to me and being like, Okay, what's your
Speaker 1: because like, first of all, this is like one of
Speaker 1: the most famous, most respective rappers having a conversation about
Speaker 1: LGBTQ plus people and it doesn't seem like it's being
Speaker 1: done right. And to your point about nuance, the first
Speaker 1: thing I said is I was like I would like
Speaker 1: to know what his auntie and his cousin says about
Speaker 1: the song. I was like, did they say it was
Speaker 1: okay for him to do that? Because the reality is,
Speaker 1: that's what we're really coming to. There's a nuance of
Speaker 1: what is the larger conversation, right, and then what is
Speaker 1: a personal conversation between individuals. Right. So Kendrick Lamar could
Speaker 1: have had complete, you know, authority and approval from his
Speaker 1: family saying it's perfectly fine to miss gender man and
Speaker 1: that's fine. But if he goes outside of that space
Speaker 1: and he and miss gender someone else or he dead
Speaker 1: names someone else, that's not acceptable. Rights. That's really what
Speaker 1: the conversation is. The conversation is whatever your personal feelings are,
Speaker 1: that's a one to one relationship. When you're talking about
Speaker 1: a larger whole community, you don't get to just make
Speaker 1: assumptions and put certain qualities on that community and have
Speaker 1: that community to say yes. I mean, it's just like
Speaker 1: me being black. You know, if I were to have
Speaker 1: taken into my heart the media representations with black people
Speaker 1: in the sixties, seventies, eighties, nineties, I would think that
Speaker 1: I'm supposed to be a gang member who's gonna shoot
Speaker 1: some random white lady on the side of the street, right,
Speaker 1: And I don't do that, Like, no one in my
Speaker 1: family would even possibly contemplate that, right. And so it's
Speaker 1: about this idea of let's have actual individual conversations with people,
Speaker 1: learn who they are, so that we could be more
Speaker 1: intelligent and more respectful of them. Right. And that is
Speaker 1: that's whether it's LGBT plus, that's whether it's black, that's
Speaker 1: whether it's Asian, that's whether you know, even if it
Speaker 1: is a white lady who has more privileged than the
Speaker 1: rest of us. Let's have individual conversations, because that's how
Speaker 1: we end up with legislation with folks saying that you know, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, it's women can't have an emotion, right, even
Speaker 1: though it's their right, it's their private conversation. The fact
Speaker 1: is that it starts with us, but it goes to
Speaker 1: every other community, right, Like, do not make assumptions about
Speaker 1: other people, have actual conversations, because if you do, chances
Speaker 1: are you or learning that will really shock you. You know,
Speaker 1: and even I think, you know, even I've said multiple
Speaker 1: times when I talked, well, now, listen to Dame Chappelle
Speaker 1: especially talk about some of his investments and what he
Speaker 1: wants to do a community. He and I have exact
Speaker 1: same opinions, like literally the same opinions, but he wouldn't
Speaker 1: know that because he hasn't decided to choose to acknowledge
Speaker 1: the fact that I exist, that I'm a black LGBTQ
Speaker 1: plus person, because for him, there's only two worlds in
Speaker 1: that world doesn't include me. You know, it's just so
Speaker 1: wild because I'm listening to you and a couple of
Speaker 1: things that's stood out, and one of which is that
Speaker 1: this all comes down to the desire to recognize that
Speaker 1: we all don't know everything, right, and so if I
Speaker 1: am really trying to be in community or I'm just
Speaker 1: trying to grow as a human being, that comes with
Speaker 1: the understanding that there is more information out there, So
Speaker 1: why would I lock myself off to that information? I
Speaker 1: think about it in the context of, you know, the
Speaker 1: the pushback with the Republican Party and critical race theory, Right,
Speaker 1: it's the desire not to want to know, right, not
Speaker 1: to want to know anything outside of what you've always
Speaker 1: been taught, And so it is it is wanting to
Speaker 1: exist inside of a bubble. For Dave Chappelle and others
Speaker 1: to believe that the world is binary, to believe that
Speaker 1: everything has to be either this way or this way,
Speaker 1: and it's not right. And so if we don't if
Speaker 1: we don't educate in the way of recognizing that we
Speaker 1: are living in shades of gray, that everything is a
Speaker 1: lot more layered than a nuanced than is being presented,
Speaker 1: we don't grow. We're not going to grow as people,
Speaker 1: and we certainly are not going to grow as a society. Um,
Speaker 1: you are a new parent. And when we spoke, which
Speaker 1: now I thought was seven years ago, b it was
Speaker 1: just seven months ago. Um, mobi spoke seven months ago,
Speaker 1: you were getting ready to give birth. So first I
Speaker 1: want to ask, how are you as a as a
Speaker 1: as a new parent, having a new human in your home?
Speaker 1: How is that going? Well? I was talking to my
Speaker 1: aunt's disity right now and I was telling him last night.
Speaker 1: I was like, well, I was like, it's like I'm
Speaker 1: really looking forward to twenties two, and she's like why.
Speaker 1: I was like, I was like, I think that's when
Speaker 1: I'm asleep A little bit more correct, I was like,
Speaker 1: that feels like a really good, like target date period
Speaker 1: type situation. But no, it's great, like honestly, you know,
Speaker 1: I am very tired, like there's like a lack of sleep,
Speaker 1: but honestly, it's it's the forest over. Like I wasn't
Speaker 1: sure if I'm gonna be, like, like what kind of
Speaker 1: parent I was going to be, But now I'm just
Speaker 1: like I can just look at you for a few
Speaker 1: more hours. You know, it's so great, An, that's wonderful.
Speaker 1: And you know, as a new parent who is also queer,
Speaker 1: and we are living in some of the most threatening
Speaker 1: times I think I have ever seen in modern in
Speaker 1: modern times, um, with a tax coming not just on
Speaker 1: our community, but particularly queer kids, queer youth right um,
Speaker 1: who adults are supposed to protect and instead have turned
Speaker 1: into targets for their target practice of hate. What comes
Speaker 1: up for you? What are you feeling as you were
Speaker 1: seeing these don't say gay bills and knowing that your
Speaker 1: child at some point will be going into school, right um,
Speaker 1: And what it means for them to be acculturated into
Speaker 1: a society that doesn't want to see them, see their
Speaker 1: see their parents, see their caregivers, see their community. What
Speaker 1: comes up for you as a new parent as all
Speaker 1: of this is transpiring around us, well, First and foremost,
Speaker 1: you know, I think that it's just like a deep
Speaker 1: responsibility that he knows the truth, right, you know, Like
Speaker 1: you know, it's it's crazy. The number of books that
Speaker 1: are on his shelves is like insane, right because I
Speaker 1: was just like, well, we have to get we have
Speaker 1: to start this library now because we have to start
Speaker 1: educating him on real truths and real facts. That's the
Speaker 1: first thing. It's like, it's a little bit terrifying to
Speaker 1: know that we have to like so closely safeguard facts
Speaker 1: now from fiction. And then it's it's going to be
Speaker 1: a personal responsibility. I honestly believe for parents to really
Speaker 1: do that. But the second thing is that this really
Speaker 1: feels like a parent rights issue. Like I remember, you know,
Speaker 1: especially a lot of these laws are coming through. I
Speaker 1: was like, I cannot imagine if someone told me, but
Speaker 1: I couldn't do what I thought was best for my child, right, Like,
Speaker 1: you know, I'm sure my mother would feel the I like,
Speaker 1: you know, how can you say, like, I spend all
Speaker 1: day with this kid, I know exactly what's going on
Speaker 1: with him, you know, And then how could you if
Speaker 1: he told me, you know, in a few years or
Speaker 1: even tomorrow, if you just learn how to talk to you.
Speaker 1: You can say and he said, you know, hey, you know,
Speaker 1: blah blah, I'm trans, Like you know, I think I'm
Speaker 1: a girl, and you're gonna tell me that I somehow
Speaker 1: don't know what's best for him, and it just it
Speaker 1: just it boggles my mind. And it goes back to
Speaker 1: this idea of like the spectum fiction, right because like
Speaker 1: you have so many people saying that, you know, I
Speaker 1: don't want to wear a mask, It's my personal choice, yep.
Speaker 1: But then you know, when it comes to women's bodies,
Speaker 1: they don't have a choice. When it comes to parents
Speaker 1: and how they want to raise their kids, they don't
Speaker 1: have a choice. And that's a really troubling pattern for me,
Speaker 1: right because like, ultimately I feel as though that this
Speaker 1: comes down to individuals again, you know, like if you
Speaker 1: don't know what that one on one relationship is. And
Speaker 1: obviously I'm not a propone, you know, whenever we talk
Speaker 1: about trans care and trans PRIs what any person is
Speaker 1: really talking about, any rational person is talking about, is
Speaker 1: providing those kids the necessary treatment to stop certain progress.
Speaker 1: But all of that can just be taken out pretty
Speaker 1: quickly and then can just keep going right. I mean,
Speaker 1: for example, myself, I was on testostroone before I tried
Speaker 1: to get pregnant, So I had to go off with
Speaker 1: testostroone given a couple of months, and then my body
Speaker 1: just went right back into normal cycles and then I
Speaker 1: was able to, you know, get pregnant. So you know,
Speaker 1: whenever people are talking about this is going to completely
Speaker 1: change in Stroud and I was like, no, it's not
Speaker 1: like I literally proved that. You know, the body just
Speaker 1: goes right back to whatever it was doing beforehand. And
Speaker 1: to all we're really doing is it is creating this
Speaker 1: a pathway for these kids to live, right, because that's
Speaker 1: the thing that we're talking about. And so you know,
Speaker 1: I can't imagine you know, any any rational human who
Speaker 1: actually loves other humans actually, if they understood and if
Speaker 1: they were curious, and if they were thoughtful, and if
Speaker 1: they did any research, actually being against a child having
Speaker 1: the care that they needed, if they understood it. And
Speaker 1: so it's just it's it's it's it's terrifying, but it's
Speaker 1: also is one of those things like you know, I
Speaker 1: had a fundraiser last week in Chicago from Howard Brown
Speaker 1: Health to Hower Brown Health. I've been on the board
Speaker 1: there for seven and a half years. And honestly, so
Speaker 1: Hower Brown Health is the largest LGBTQ plus center in
Speaker 1: the Midwest and potentially, you know, depending on who you
Speaker 1: talk to, the largest in the country. And what's really
Speaker 1: interesting about that is to this point, you know, obviously
Speaker 1: Chicago has already said that there will be a haven
Speaker 1: state for people who are seeking abortion. They also will
Speaker 1: be a haven state for people who are seeking transcerror.
Speaker 1: And so what's really happening is is for Howard Brown
Speaker 1: they've already gotten people from all of the Midwest. So
Speaker 1: you know, you have people from Iowa, Michigan who are
Speaker 1: bringing their families in there because they want to get
Speaker 1: them profrom care. And so what what it really does
Speaker 1: to me, though, is I launched that fundraiser because I
Speaker 1: was saying, you know, we have more works, right, yeah,
Speaker 1: and we're well exposed to do. We're better organizing we've
Speaker 1: ever been. You know, we're smarter than we've ever been.
Speaker 1: I think we're tougher than we've ever been. And so
Speaker 1: we're ready for this fight, right and so I have
Speaker 1: to start. I have to fight harder now because now
Speaker 1: I have this kid that I want to be able
Speaker 1: to make choices for for the rest of his life.
Speaker 1: You know. It's when you say that these medical interventions
Speaker 1: for trans youth provides a path away to living. I
Speaker 1: think also that that is not the conversation that is
Speaker 1: being happened. That is happening excuse me in mainstream media,
Speaker 1: because what we've allowed, I feel like the radical right
Speaker 1: wing to be able to take hold of is quote
Speaker 1: unquote family values. Well, if you actually do care about kids,
Speaker 1: which they don't, you know, So it's not like I'm
Speaker 1: trying to change their minds. But there are people who
Speaker 1: really do not understand, right, They don't understand the community,
Speaker 1: they don't understand the feelings. And I'm saying to myself, okay, well,
Speaker 1: have you ever seen your child depressed? Has your child
Speaker 1: ever tried to attempt suicide? Has your child? You know?
Speaker 1: But like all of these different things, like you are
Speaker 1: our parent, if you're watching your child shrink into themselves,
Speaker 1: right because of how society is treating them, how they're
Speaker 1: being treated at school, how they're being treated in community,
Speaker 1: what parent looks. I mean, there are many because the
Speaker 1: homelessness rate for LGBTQ youth is still extraordinarily high. In
Speaker 1: comparison to their straight counterparts. But it's like most parents
Speaker 1: would want to do right by their children. If I
Speaker 1: can stop your pain, if I can ease it right,
Speaker 1: that would be the desire for me to do. And
Speaker 1: so I feel like the way that we're not having
Speaker 1: this conversation is about those trans youth, those queer kids
Speaker 1: that are in schools, about how they are, how we're
Speaker 1: trying to ease their pain, right, how we're trying to
Speaker 1: ease their life, and not talk about it just in
Speaker 1: terms of statistics and in terms of um hormones. Frankly, right, Like,
Speaker 1: it's yeah, and there's two things I want to ask
Speaker 1: to that. So one of the guests that my fundraiser
Speaker 1: were two parents of a young woman who died by suicide. Right. So,
Speaker 1: she didn't make it to college, right, So, she was
Speaker 1: a senior in high school, she was a patient how
Speaker 1: a round hell, and she died by suicide because she
Speaker 1: couldn't she couldn't take it, she couldn't deal with it.
Speaker 1: And so her parents have gotten really involved in the
Speaker 1: community and are trying to for instance, their their big
Speaker 1: donors to Broadway UTH Center. To Broadway UTH Center is
Speaker 1: a space that helps LGBTQ from twelve to twenty four. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, g D programs feeding them, make sure they
Speaker 1: have you know, showers, making sure they have laundry, and
Speaker 1: they were like, you know, afterwards, they were like, this
Speaker 1: is what we feel like we can give back to.
Speaker 1: No one else feels that way, right, and even myself.
Speaker 1: So when I was a teenager, I committed. I literally
Speaker 1: died for a few minutes because you know, I decided
Speaker 1: I didn't want to live anymore and I was brought
Speaker 1: back and you know the other part of that. So
Speaker 1: it's not only just like do you want them to live,
Speaker 1: but it's also about the potential, right. I think that
Speaker 1: there's a lot of people who know me who would say,
Speaker 1: you know, if you weren't here, I'm not sure what
Speaker 1: this my life would look like? Right, Like there's a
Speaker 1: value in people. I think that people also forget because
Speaker 1: sometimes you know, even when you don't see the value
Speaker 1: in someone, they touch someone else and that person creates
Speaker 1: exponential value. So it's also about the loss as a
Speaker 1: society that we have too, And I know that sometimes
Speaker 1: they don't think that we are working anything, right. The
Speaker 1: sole fact is that you don't know, you really don't know, Like,
Speaker 1: you don't know. Like, so, for instance, most of the
Speaker 1: people I met, I mentor are cis gender women, right,
Speaker 1: of different ethnicities, most of them are heterosexual, right, and
Speaker 1: every single one of them who becomes a success and
Speaker 1: gets back to the community is you know that check
Speaker 1: mark for me, Like I've created that impact. And so
Speaker 1: that's the thing that people don't understand about this as well.
Speaker 1: It's like, you know, you see one part of our
Speaker 1: identity and you really focus on that part by identity,
Speaker 1: but you don't understand how um, just us as whole
Speaker 1: humans create this this exponential impact when we're whole too, right.
Speaker 1: So it's like if we could just get like a
Speaker 1: ten percent or twenty percent more, right because we don't
Speaker 1: have to deal with someone the bus that happens, whether
Speaker 1: it's seeing a law or hearing about someone being assaulted
Speaker 1: or whatever, Like, imagine how much greater of an impact
Speaker 1: could we have, right? You know, Like and we already
Speaker 1: know that, right because LGBTQ people are the zeite guys.
Speaker 1: Like when when when we when we do something, when
Speaker 1: we say something's cool, it is cool, right, you know,
Speaker 1: we're the one to create the movement, We create the joy,
Speaker 1: We create the heart, we create the music, and so
Speaker 1: it's it's it's like the exponential impact. It's so great
Speaker 1: in society, and it's like, you know, we're literally diminishing
Speaker 1: how great our society could be with the ways in
Speaker 1: which we're allowing these individuals to take away our rights
Speaker 1: and take away the humanities from these people and in
Speaker 1: taking in the end, taking away their lives. Yeah, I mean,
Speaker 1: I think that the message is always that our destinies
Speaker 1: are intertwined, right, and so by people making it their
Speaker 1: crusade and their life's mission to disrupt the lives of
Speaker 1: other people, you in turn are disrupting your own life
Speaker 1: and the opportunity for us to all actualize our greatness.
Speaker 1: And what would society look like if we were all
Speaker 1: left to be able to actualize our greatness. It would
Speaker 1: be pretty superb other than what we're living in right now.
Speaker 1: B Pagels Minor, thank you so much for making the
Speaker 1: time once again to join Woke F. We appreciate you
Speaker 1: the conversation and hope to have you back again soon.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for having me. It was a
Speaker 1: great conversation. As always, Hey there, I want to tell
Speaker 1: you about another podcast I Think You'll love The Brown
Speaker 1: Girl's Guide to Politics, hosted by a Shanty Goehler, the
Speaker 1: president of Emerge. BGG, is the one stop shop for
Speaker 1: women of color who want to hear and talk about
Speaker 1: the world of politics. Join a Shanty this season as
Speaker 1: she talks to incredible women of color who are changing
Speaker 1: the face of politics and tackling some of the most
Speaker 1: important issues facing the United States, from reproductive justice to
Speaker 1: voting rights, to climate change and more. Tune in every
Speaker 1: Tuesday wherever you get your podcasts. That is it for
Speaker 1: me today. Here folks on Woke app as always Power
Speaker 1: to the people and to all the people. Power, Get woke,
Speaker 1: and stay woke as fuck.