Speaker 1: Good morning, peeps, and welcome to wok F Daily with
Speaker 1: Meet your Girl Danielle Moody, recording from the Home Bunker. Folks,
Speaker 1: I hope that those of you who our fathers had
Speaker 1: a wonderful Father's Day weekend. You know, I was home
Speaker 1: on Long Island, celebrating my dad and just spending time
Speaker 1: with my family. And you know, I have to say
Speaker 1: that one I find and I realize again coming from
Speaker 1: a place of privilege, that I love my family. My
Speaker 1: family loves me. I enjoy spending time with them. I
Speaker 1: am well into, you know, very very adult age, and
Speaker 1: I have enjoyed the maturation of my relationship with my parents.
Speaker 1: And I just like when I have the opportunity to
Speaker 1: go home and visit, which is probably more so than
Speaker 1: most people unless you live in the same town. I'm
Speaker 1: just able to refocus on what's important and what matters.
Speaker 1: Like sure, I will sit and I'll you know, talk
Speaker 1: like a little bit of politics, but honestly not really.
Speaker 1: The focus is on joy and spending good times together
Speaker 1: and creating memories. And I think that it is really
Speaker 1: important to remind ourselves that there is only so much
Speaker 1: that we can do right. You can post you can share,
Speaker 1: you can donate, you can educate, you can try and
Speaker 1: push this country your representatives to be better. But in
Speaker 1: that pushing, I also want folks to recognize when it's
Speaker 1: time to just relax, when it's like, you don't have
Speaker 1: to show how woke and conscious you are by making
Speaker 1: every single waking moment about injustice, oppression, trauma and all
Speaker 1: of these things. I think that the way to also
Speaker 1: show solidarity is through joy and through gratitude, right like
Speaker 1: living in gratitude. I thought about how many fathers have
Speaker 1: been stripped from their families, from their communities, whether it
Speaker 1: be through genocide that is happening in Gaza and Congo
Speaker 1: and Sudan, whether it is you know, the jail system,
Speaker 1: the money making scheme of a system in the United
Speaker 1: States that is locked up and stripped more Black men
Speaker 1: and Latino men from their families and their communities, you know.
Speaker 1: And so it is a point of gratitude to have
Speaker 1: a loving, intact family and intact I just mean that,
Speaker 1: like we're all still living healthy and I'm grateful for that,
Speaker 1: and I'm just you know, I'm reminded as I start,
Speaker 1: you know, this week, to even when things are grim
Speaker 1: as they are, even when we know that the Supreme
Speaker 1: Court has one final ruling that will maybe the death
Speaker 1: blow to this country. Hold the people that you love closer,
Speaker 1: you know, really be present in moments of joy, like
Speaker 1: truly present, because it's what keeps us going and it
Speaker 1: is what fuels us. Coming up next, my conversation with
Speaker 1: the Communications director to the LGBTQ Task Force on the
Speaker 1: responsibility of media, Kathy Renner joins WOKF to continue our
Speaker 1: Pride Month coverage. That conversation is coming up next, Folks.
Speaker 1: I am very excited to welcome to WOKF Daily. No
Speaker 1: stranger to WOKF Daily, actually Kathy Renner, who is a
Speaker 1: Communications director at the National LGBTQ Task Force. You all
Speaker 1: know this organization as I have had the pleasure to
Speaker 1: interview some of your incredible people in the field, your
Speaker 1: incredible executive director, and so I'm excited to talk to
Speaker 1: you today, Kathy, about you know, it's Pride, right and
Speaker 1: you know Pride Month is a busy month. It's usually
Speaker 1: a very celebratory month for the queer community. But I
Speaker 1: want to know how you and the Task Force are
Speaker 1: kind of walking in to this Pride Month where where
Speaker 1: your thoughts and kind of feelings are at this moment.
Speaker 2: Thanks Danielle, and we cannot tell you how much we
Speaker 2: appreciate you and this podcast and your work. You know,
Speaker 2: it's almost like every May of the media wakes up
Speaker 2: and says, oh wait, it's Pride again coming. So you know,
Speaker 2: there's that annual having to re educate and reframe and
Speaker 2: reposition the media because they're always their biggest question is
Speaker 2: you know, what are the big issues for Pride this year?
Speaker 2: And it's not like they've changed very much right in
Speaker 2: the past several years, but I think for the task
Speaker 2: Force this year in particular with the election coming up,
Speaker 2: as are most folks who are thinking about Pride frankly,
Speaker 2: whether it's organizations or Pride organizers or just the individuals
Speaker 2: that we're talking to out in the world, they're very
Speaker 2: focused on the election like that is looming. And you know,
Speaker 2: as you know, I think I've heard this phrase, I
Speaker 2: don't know a thousand times in the last few weeks.
Speaker 2: Everyone says this is the most important election of my life,
Speaker 2: that this is like the sixth of the most right.
Speaker 2: So it just keeps happening over and over and the
Speaker 2: reality is that we need to be out there. And
Speaker 2: you know, I've also worked on Big Prides so well,
Speaker 2: fifty Washington, d C. Pride, Prides. You know, prides different
Speaker 2: things to different people. But what I always say at
Speaker 2: the end of the day is it is our opportunity
Speaker 2: to show our power, to show our strength, to show
Speaker 2: our diversity, and to show as a community that we may,
Speaker 2: even if we don't agree on all things, that we
Speaker 2: are unified in wanting to move forward as a people.
Speaker 2: And so we were doing a lot of more virtual
Speaker 2: online stuff in terms of organizing related to the election
Speaker 2: and our career the vote campaign, but that's on hold.
Speaker 2: It's time to get out there. It's time to be
Speaker 2: with the people. And so we have already started dispatching
Speaker 2: our staff. We've had folks at Pittsburgh Pride and Kissie Pride,
Speaker 2: in Miami Beach Pride, and you know, we have an
Speaker 2: office in Miami. We do a tremendous spot of work
Speaker 2: in Florida. Florida is obviously an incredibly important state for
Speaker 2: so many reasons, not just for our queer community. I mean,
Speaker 2: our work in Florida is also you know, engaged around
Speaker 2: the ballot initiatives, whether the abortunate right extension or the
Speaker 2: marijuana legalization. So you know, we're at DC trans Pride, right,
Speaker 2: we're working to We're going to Harlan Pride in New
Speaker 2: York City. You know, we have well over a dozen
Speaker 2: that we're dispatching folks to and they're signing up hundreds
Speaker 2: of people. I mean, even in the last weekend, folks
Speaker 2: can home super energized because there really is I think
Speaker 2: a higher level of engagement than we've seen before. And
Speaker 2: look at what we have at stake.
Speaker 1: You know, one of the questions I do want to
Speaker 1: ask you as it pertains to pride, you know happening
Speaker 1: and you know across the country. Really but when they
Speaker 1: think about it, when you mentioned Florida and you mentioned
Speaker 1: some other places, I get nervous. I get worried about
Speaker 1: those places. So what does it mean to host pride
Speaker 1: in places that have become so hostile, right openly hostile
Speaker 1: to LGBTQ people, trans people in particular. You know, again,
Speaker 1: Pride is about celebration. It is about lifting the self
Speaker 1: esteem of the community. It's about showing I think young
Speaker 1: people and old people that like there are people who
Speaker 1: look like you, love like you that are here for you, right,
Speaker 1: that we're not going anywhere, But at the same time,
Speaker 1: safety is a real issue. So how do you reconcile
Speaker 1: with the reality of that while not dampering this celebration.
Speaker 2: It's hard. I think that Pride organizers have always been
Speaker 2: on some level that safety is a priority, But in
Speaker 2: the last few years and this year particular, with the
Speaker 2: elevated safety concerns that have come out and the warnings
Speaker 2: that have come out from the FBI, from the State Department,
Speaker 2: you know, and I'm just outside New York City, I
Speaker 2: mean New York City. Pride takes precautions that are they're
Speaker 2: absolutely necessary for the safety of everyone, folks who are dissipating,
Speaker 2: the folks who are doing the organizing, the folks who
Speaker 2: are marching, and you know, we take our own precautions,
Speaker 2: like we had our staff they were at Pope County
Speaker 2: Pride in Central Florida last year. One of the issues
Speaker 2: that we have to grapple with depending on again, like
Speaker 2: you said, these some of these places which are particularly hostile.
Speaker 2: You know, law enforcement may be more supportive of the
Speaker 2: folks who are protesting us than us, right, So we
Speaker 2: also have to as one of our colleagues chanted at
Speaker 2: creating change. You know, who keeps us safe? We keep
Speaker 2: us safe, right, So we have to have our own
Speaker 2: systems in place as well, and that's as an organization,
Speaker 2: like our teams that go out or super connected. We
Speaker 2: put locations on our you know, location on our phones.
Speaker 2: We have text chains, we do check ins, they're on slack.
Speaker 2: Even for those of us who are not physically there,
Speaker 2: they need to let their supervisors or department heads know
Speaker 2: when they're coming and going. And you know, we have
Speaker 2: to do all those things. And it's not just physical safety.
Speaker 2: There's also health issues right right, kinds of things. So
Speaker 2: those are things that we don't actually talk about a lot.
Speaker 2: So I actually appreciate you bringing it up because a
Speaker 2: lot of folks just show up at Pride and don't
Speaker 2: realize how much work has gone into both on the
Speaker 2: organizing side, but also for those of us who are
Speaker 2: doing the work and participating and wanting to engage folks.
Speaker 2: What has to happen to really be able to not
Speaker 2: just be productive and be able to enjoy and participate,
Speaker 2: but to actually feel safe doing it.
Speaker 1: I think that it's important to lift up because I
Speaker 1: want people to understand. I mean, while we may read
Speaker 1: right and see the headlines that tell us that the
Speaker 1: times have changed for the worst. But for folks like
Speaker 1: yourself that are still organizing on the ground in these
Speaker 1: places that are in the headlines because of their anti gay,
Speaker 1: anti trans laws, that like this has now become dangerous.
Speaker 1: It was never truly safe, but now when you see
Speaker 1: the target and you see the lies being sped groom
Speaker 1: and these things in these are states where you know,
Speaker 1: they love their guns. And so I wanted you to
Speaker 1: be able to lay that out for people so that
Speaker 1: they can understand that while you know, we love our
Speaker 1: rainbows and BoA's and you know, and the dancing and
Speaker 1: the celebration, what happens behind the scenes in order to
Speaker 1: make that actually happen, you know, is really serious.
Speaker 2: Absolutely more and more. And I think that you know,
Speaker 2: we're hearing we've been hearing stories now for several years
Speaker 2: that we've got folks who are literally moving. They're leaving. Yeah,
Speaker 2: they're leaving where they live, where they have community, where
Speaker 2: they have family, where they have their jobs because their
Speaker 2: trans kid can't get firming healthcare, because they're afraid because
Speaker 2: of the views that they've expressed, or they've been even
Speaker 2: targeted by the Proud Boys and other you know, anti LGBTQ, racist, sexist,
Speaker 2: you know hate groups that they are are quite literally leave.
Speaker 2: I have a friend who moved from Tennessee to upstate
Speaker 2: New York and like lives in a safe house. Now
Speaker 2: that's a reality. It's painful and hard to talk about,
Speaker 2: but we we have to talk about that stuff, and
Speaker 2: we have to talk about it when every may in
Speaker 2: my position, I get a thousand calls from the media
Speaker 2: what are the big issues, what are the stories? And
Speaker 2: they always want to talk about progress. And I'm happy
Speaker 2: to talk about progress we've made because we're also making progress.
Speaker 2: But progress isn't linear, and we are also dealing with
Speaker 2: some of the most villil backlash that I've seen. And
Speaker 2: I've been doing this for thirty years. Yeah, you know,
Speaker 2: there were we had some times. You and I know
Speaker 2: we were in d C right when Obama was president
Speaker 2: and he's felt bad.
Speaker 1: Old days, old days.
Speaker 2: My daughter says, I thought, you fixed all this stuff.
Speaker 2: Let's happen. Yeah, I you know, I think for young
Speaker 2: people that's a this is a really important issue because
Speaker 2: they do feel safer, they are more out, they are
Speaker 2: more expressive, they are more in some ways, like want
Speaker 2: to be you know, confronting folks, and for those of
Speaker 2: us who've been doing this for a long time, having
Speaker 2: to temper that with a message of safety is a
Speaker 2: challenge a bit. And so, like I said, I mean,
Speaker 2: I've been talking to media now for several weeks as
Speaker 2: we've moved into June, and when I talk about what
Speaker 2: the big issues are, it's to me, it's really important
Speaker 2: that they start not just talking about issues, but talking
Speaker 2: about people and telling our stories because there are a
Speaker 2: lot more stories to tell and why those stories are important.
Speaker 2: You know, there are so many trans youths that we
Speaker 2: have worked with now for years. They are being targeted
Speaker 2: in an unprecedented way. And what I keep saying to
Speaker 2: journalist is we have to stop talking about trans youth
Speaker 2: and we have to start talking to trans youth. And
Speaker 2: they're but at the same time, being the overprotective media
Speaker 2: person and parents that I am, like, we're very mindful
Speaker 2: about how to do that safely with folks and families
Speaker 2: and what the impact can be. So all of these
Speaker 2: things have come into play. So it's made for a
Speaker 2: pretty challenging pride But you know, at the same time,
Speaker 2: it's more important than ever that we actually make that,
Speaker 2: like you said, like that political statement. I mean, I
Speaker 2: don't care if your show up at Pride with a
Speaker 2: Cosmopolitan in one hand or a picket sign show up, Yeah,
Speaker 2: it's just the visibility of the representation does. What I
Speaker 2: always say is one of the most important things Pride
Speaker 2: can do is that for the folks that may not
Speaker 2: be there or it's their first time there, they realize
Speaker 2: that they're part of something a whole lot bigger, and
Speaker 2: that is what's life changing.
Speaker 1: Because I think too that you know, for those of
Speaker 1: us like me and you how have been in this movement,
Speaker 1: in and around this work for decades, sometimes I forget
Speaker 1: how important pride is, right. I think that, you know,
Speaker 1: prior to the Trump administration and the regression that we're seeing,
Speaker 1: I kind of took pride for granted. That was the
Speaker 1: beauty of progress, right, was being able to be like, eh,
Speaker 1: you know, it's become super corporatized, that it's not you know,
Speaker 1: uber necessary blah blah blah. And now recognizing one that
Speaker 1: that was coming from a place of privilege, and two
Speaker 1: that there are so many you know, young people who
Speaker 1: this time that one march that one dance, that one
Speaker 1: thing may be their entire experience to carry them through
Speaker 1: the next three hundred and sixty four days of the
Speaker 1: year where they're invisibilized well.
Speaker 2: And the other thing is that you know, if you're
Speaker 2: not a fan of a pride that has corporate sponsors,
Speaker 2: they're prides without corporate sponsors. I mean, in New York
Speaker 2: we have like, I don't know, like half a dozen
Speaker 2: We've got New York City Pride. We've got the Career
Speaker 2: Liberation March. We've got the Dike March, which I love, right,
Speaker 2: we have Youth Pride. We have all these different events
Speaker 2: that have become so much more diversified, which I love.
Speaker 2: We have suburban prides. I live in mont Clooney, Jersey.
Speaker 2: There's a pride. Literally I will step out of my
Speaker 2: building and within a block be at Pride on Saturday
Speaker 2: with I don't know, fifteen twenty thousand people, which you know,
Speaker 2: those are prides where it's really interesting to also see
Speaker 2: and I we've noticed this more and more over the years,
Speaker 2: and it's so heartening. It's allies coming out, it's families
Speaker 2: with their kids, like we were in because it was
Speaker 2: the Task Force's fifteenth anniversary. Last year, we actually participated
Speaker 2: in a lot of the big marches and stuff, and
Speaker 2: you know, we were in the New York City Pride
Speaker 2: March and I can never stay still. I'm running around
Speaker 2: talking to people saying hi. And I saw a kid,
Speaker 2: he was about thirteen, trans boy with a big sign
Speaker 2: that said, this is my first Pride. That makes all
Speaker 2: the work of the hundreds of volunteers and the staff
Speaker 2: and the folks who do this right. And I said,
Speaker 2: make sure you go to Youth Pride, make sure you
Speaker 2: go to trans Pride. And he was with his mom
Speaker 2: and she had a sign that said my first Pride too.
Speaker 2: You know that's the kind of stuff right that that
Speaker 2: is super powerful. And it's interesting because I do experience
Speaker 2: to this with colleagues, not just the dasports but everywhere.
Speaker 2: They get a little jaded. Yeah, Ill stated, you know,
Speaker 2: and we get comfortable, and I think you're right. It
Speaker 2: can come from a place of privilege or from a
Speaker 2: place of just not wanting to participate in that kind
Speaker 2: of pride. There's so many options now. That house part
Speaker 2: is if they don't want to go to a big event.
Speaker 2: Some people don't like crowds.
Speaker 1: Yeah, next.
Speaker 2: Some of our Grand Marshals at New York City Pride
Speaker 2: don't like crowds, and they still go because they know
Speaker 2: that's important for folks to see them as role models,
Speaker 2: as representations. You know. One of the things I love
Speaker 2: is that New York City Pride this year some of
Speaker 2: the Grand Marshals Miss Major is a Grand Marshal, Rockdelle
Speaker 2: willis as a Grand Marshal. But they also instead of
Speaker 2: having one youth Grand Marshal, they have three that are together,
Speaker 2: and then they have their entire the heritage or Pride
Speaker 2: like float that they have is all young people. It's
Speaker 2: usually volunteers and whatever politicians. It's all young people this
Speaker 2: year front and center, like last year when Robie Wade
Speaker 2: was overturned on the Friday before the march and by
Speaker 2: Sunday the front of the march was planned Parenthood, Maya Wiley,
Speaker 2: all of these other reproductive rights groups, to show the
Speaker 2: solidarity that we have at to show that this is
Speaker 2: actually not simply for LGBTQ people. Yeah, and that's something
Speaker 2: that you know, I just you go to any of these,
Speaker 2: any of these events, doesn't matter which one it is.
Speaker 2: You're going to see Mama Bear T shirts you're going
Speaker 2: to see I love my trans cut T shirts. Allies
Speaker 2: are coming out, you know, in lots of different ways,
Speaker 2: and that you know, there aren't enough of us to
Speaker 2: well maybe there are for something so some elections, but
Speaker 2: we need our allies to put us over the open there.
Speaker 2: I really do finish line right exactly.
Speaker 1: Because you bring up the election, which is always looming
Speaker 1: over us. I want to switch gears and ask you
Speaker 1: how the Task Force is preparing for the next five months.
Speaker 1: One way or the other, America is going to be
Speaker 1: changed greatly by this election. And you know, we know
Speaker 1: you said it at the top, every election always the
Speaker 1: most consequential. This one we know really is right. It's
Speaker 1: the decision between fascism, ormocracy, between you know, white supremacy
Speaker 1: or progress. So I wonder do you prepare two paths
Speaker 1: if Biden continues with the second term, if Donald Trump
Speaker 1: is elected, Like, what does it look like to be
Speaker 1: inside of the Task Force right now as we make
Speaker 1: the countdown to November.
Speaker 2: Well, I mean we're a C three, so we don't
Speaker 2: endorse candidates. But you know, no matter what, and again
Speaker 2: in some ways, actually no matter who wins the election,
Speaker 2: this is a long fight we have. You know, if
Speaker 2: Biden wins and Trump doesn't win, they're still going to
Speaker 2: fight for what they want, which is autocracy and fascism.
Speaker 2: They're not going to suddenly stop because you know, they
Speaker 2: lost an election. You know, they didn't stop last time.
Speaker 2: And I think, you know, it's fair that there are
Speaker 2: a lot of progressive issues that the Task Force works
Speaker 2: on that we are constructively critical towards the Biden administration
Speaker 2: about that with our allies, whether it's you know, around
Speaker 2: immigration or other things. And again it's it's like what
Speaker 2: we talked about at our Korean Change conference, you know,
Speaker 2: earlier this year, is how do we find ways to
Speaker 2: have these conversations and be in principal struggle and not
Speaker 2: cancel each other out right and try and continue to
Speaker 2: move forward because I think at the end of the day,
Speaker 2: the vast majority of folks have the same goal, right
Speaker 2: in terms of where we want to end up as
Speaker 2: people from a civil rights perspective, you know, just from
Speaker 2: a cultural perspective, from a safety and having you know,
Speaker 2: lives where we don't just survive but thrive. Right. So
Speaker 2: for us, it's about, you know, given the resources that
Speaker 2: we have, just being all in, you know, so whether
Speaker 2: it's being at these prides where we can really I mean,
Speaker 2: those are the places where you can access thousands of
Speaker 2: people at once in person in ways that is they're
Speaker 2: impossible otherwise. Right, So it's a it's an organizing tool
Speaker 2: that we're going to use not just through June, through
Speaker 2: the fall, because the reality is is that prides don't
Speaker 2: just happen in June. Again, it's something that you know,
Speaker 2: we'll be We'll be at price through October. I mean,
Speaker 2: we have our CREA Change conferences in Las Vegas next January.
Speaker 2: We're at Las Vegas Pride October twelfth, you know, and
Speaker 2: so we're going to be right up to the election.
Speaker 2: And then the other part we do is the sort
Speaker 2: of the digital level organizing is, you know, is reaching
Speaker 2: out to folks across the country, working particularly with partners
Speaker 2: like our media partners are queer media especially, who are
Speaker 2: all in to try and get folks. You know, the basics.
Speaker 2: Are you registered to vote if you're not, this is
Speaker 2: how you do it. If you are, get ten of
Speaker 2: your friends and family and people in your community to
Speaker 2: do it too, and if you need information about candidates,
Speaker 2: about ballot initiatives, because I think what happens often in
Speaker 2: this country is people, especially the media you want to
Speaker 2: talk about media, spend so much time on the national
Speaker 2: election that what gets forgotten are the local level thing. Yeah,
Speaker 2: and that's in your in our day to day lives
Speaker 2: for most of us, that's where the the pain points are. Right.
Speaker 2: We worked on school board elections in Polk County in
Speaker 2: central Florida last election cycle. We didn't win, but we
Speaker 2: did everything we could to try and just keep things
Speaker 2: moving forward because we're in it for the long game.
Speaker 2: We may not have success on some of these balid
Speaker 2: initiatives or local you know, quarter bed campaigns or primary
Speaker 2: this election cycle, but we're not going anywhere. We've been
Speaker 2: around fifty years, We're going to be around another fifty
Speaker 2: And the reality is that we have to build the
Speaker 2: power locally because it can't be everywhere. And you know,
Speaker 2: we partner with local folks. That's the key. We know,
Speaker 2: national organization could just walk in and say we're going
Speaker 2: to you know, we're gonna help you. That's I mean,
Speaker 2: maybe some of them do, but we don't because we
Speaker 2: set what do you need? How can we be helpful?
Speaker 2: Like for the Summerlee primary, in Pennsylvania. We dispatched one
Speaker 2: of our staff and you know, they basically didn't want
Speaker 2: to send him home because he did such a great
Speaker 2: job literally going door to door and reaching over thousand people.
Speaker 2: That makes a big difference.
Speaker 1: That's the basics, right, It's getting back to the basics.
Speaker 1: Sometimes it's getting people offline and getting them back into
Speaker 1: the real life where you can knock on doors, meet people,
Speaker 1: see people, understand who they are, where they're coming from.
Speaker 1: I think that we absolutely need to get back to
Speaker 1: that place before I let you go. You know, last
Speaker 1: question is for people that are feeling hopeless, for people
Speaker 1: that are queer, that are feeling like we have betrayed them.
Speaker 1: They are things we're supposed to get better and they
Speaker 1: seem to be getting worse.
Speaker 2: What do you say, Well, if you can safely go
Speaker 2: to a pride event, whether it's a small community event
Speaker 2: where you live, or whether you can go to a
Speaker 2: you know, something a whole lot bigger, and if not,
Speaker 2: if that's not safe, this is where this is where
Speaker 2: social media and the Internet can actually be a useful thing.
Speaker 2: I mean, you know, what of the challenges, like you're saying,
Speaker 2: get out there and be face to face with people.
Speaker 2: Taking it out of the abstract of these little like
Speaker 2: echo chambers that we're all living in on social media
Speaker 2: is absolutely critical because I think that's where a lot
Speaker 2: of the hopelessness can come from. You know, if you're
Speaker 2: just seeing negative stuff on television, or you're just seeing
Speaker 2: negative stuff on Facebook, or you're seeing even worse as
Speaker 2: you well know, misinformation, disinformation, hostility and attacks like that
Speaker 2: can wear you down and people will either you know,
Speaker 2: they'll turn it off, they'll disconnect, they'll feel hopeless. And
Speaker 2: I think there are ways that you can connect, and
Speaker 2: you know, in person is the best, but if you
Speaker 2: if not, you know, one of the things I love
Speaker 2: about a lot of a lot of the Prides, but
Speaker 2: I know best here in New York City is that
Speaker 2: our local ABC affiliate streams yeah the first two hours
Speaker 2: of the March. Yeah, so it's online and you can
Speaker 2: it is just it's so powerful to see this amazing,
Speaker 2: you know, diverse array of folks who are being honored
Speaker 2: for work they've done in the community. You know, young
Speaker 2: people who are just starting out in are an inspiration leadership,
Speaker 2: and then organizations. You know, if you're a person of faith,
Speaker 2: you'll feel less alone when you see you know, a
Speaker 2: church and a synagogue and a you know, ten different
Speaker 2: faith denominations go by that are in the march and
Speaker 2: affirming the fact that that's who they are, that they're
Speaker 2: er and they're people of faith. I mean, that's that's
Speaker 2: a huge issue I think for folks who are who
Speaker 2: are isolating our community and have been rejected by you know,
Speaker 2: their own faith community.
Speaker 1: Kathy, I thank you so much for the work one
Speaker 1: that you've done for decades, but the work that you
Speaker 1: continue to do inside of the LGBTQ Task Force. I
Speaker 1: think that you know, we need it. We need to
Speaker 1: be reminded that there are good people doing great things
Speaker 1: and that people can get involved. So please tell folks
Speaker 1: how they can get connected to the task Force, how
Speaker 1: they can be involved with the Task Force.
Speaker 2: So, I mean, the easiest thing to do to follow
Speaker 2: us on social is just to find at the Task Force.
Speaker 2: We're on Instagram, we're on x We're on Facebook, we're
Speaker 2: on LinkedIn. You can also go to our Queer the
Speaker 2: Vote website which is just squere thevote dot org. You
Speaker 2: can get all the information around the elections and all
Speaker 2: the waste that you can get engaged both virtually and
Speaker 2: in person. And our general website is the task Force
Speaker 2: dot org. And so you know, we'd love to have
Speaker 2: folks join us for again. The great Change Conference can
Speaker 2: be a life changing experience. It's like basically like it's
Speaker 2: like an activist pride for a week, you know. I mean,
Speaker 2: it's true.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's true. It's true. I've been to my fair share.
Speaker 2: It's not a conference. A Kia Johnson, our executive director, says,
Speaker 2: it's not a conference. It's an ecosystem. I always say
Speaker 2: it's not a conference, it's an experience. Like we try
Speaker 2: and create these opportunities for folks to get engaged and
Speaker 2: then have what they need in the support to sort
Speaker 2: of grow and you know, really make a difference and
Speaker 2: great change.
Speaker 1: Lati Rana, thank you so much as always been making
Speaker 1: the time for WOKF. Really appreciate you.
Speaker 2: I appreciate you too, Thanks so much.
Speaker 1: That is it for me today, dear friends on wok F.
Speaker 1: As always, power to the people and to all the people. Power,
Speaker 1: get woke and stay woke as fuck.