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 want to bring you a really disturbing story that
Speaker 1: came across my new speed that just shows you how
Speaker 1: the Republican cult, white supremacists, transphobic wool parties policies are
Speaker 1: transcending outside of the United States and has global reach.
Speaker 1: Let me tell you about this story, folks, just prepare
Speaker 1: yourself for this. A nine year old girl. This is
Speaker 1: according to The Daily Beast, a nine year old Canadian
Speaker 1: girl was left visibly shaking and sobbing. Why you ask,
Speaker 1: will let me tell you because she was accused by
Speaker 1: a grown ass fucking man of being transgender at a
Speaker 1: school track meet. Let me just say this again. A
Speaker 1: nine year old little elementary school girl who was in
Speaker 1: the middle of a shot put competition was berated by
Speaker 1: a man who has been identified as Joseph Tessar for
Speaker 1: stopping the event and asking the officials if this was
Speaker 1: a mixed competition. He further claimed that he wanted to
Speaker 1: know whether or not this was a girl's event. He
Speaker 1: says that the mother of the child that he yelled at,
Speaker 1: shouted out him and said, do you want to see
Speaker 1: her naked? Do you need to see her genitals? Folks?
Speaker 1: This is at a fucking kids track meet. It happened
Speaker 1: in British Columbia. The man who was screaming at the
Speaker 1: child used phrases like groomers, pedophiles, and genital mutilators. By
Speaker 1: the way, the little girl that he was yelling at
Speaker 1: as a ciss gender nine year old shot put her.
Speaker 1: This is what the Republican white supremacist hate group formerly
Speaker 1: noticed the Republican Party has done. How their message, which
Speaker 1: has proliferated outside of the borders of our country and
Speaker 1: is spreading their hate around the world. Let me just
Speaker 1: repeat to you what you already know because we've discussed
Speaker 1: it during our Pride month. Trans people make up about
Speaker 1: one million people in the entire United States one million.
Speaker 1: The US population in comparison is three hundred and thirty
Speaker 1: million people. Trans athletes make up about one hundred not
Speaker 1: one hundred thousand, not one hundred million, one hundred spread
Speaker 1: across the United States. But you see, the trans community,
Speaker 1: because of its very small size, because of bigotry and hatred,
Speaker 1: is low hanging fruit for the Republican Party, because they
Speaker 1: can create a boogeyman and a monster, tell you about
Speaker 1: scary people in bathrooms, tell you about scary books that
Speaker 1: talk about, you know, equity and justice and treating people
Speaker 1: with kindness. They can talk to you about all of
Speaker 1: these scary things because in the grand scheme of this
Speaker 1: country right now, only about thirty percent of Americans know
Speaker 1: somebody who is trans. That leaves seventy percent of the
Speaker 1: population that has never come into contact with somebody that
Speaker 1: is trans. So you can fill that gap with bigotry
Speaker 1: and hatred as a way to distract from the policies
Speaker 1: that aren't being created to actually keep people safe, like oh,
Speaker 1: I don't know gun reform, or I don't know climate change,
Speaker 1: or I don't know education reform or voting reform or
Speaker 1: policing reform or anything anything that could actually help secure
Speaker 1: our country, make our citizens safe, and allow us all
Speaker 1: to live free in this quote unquote democratic society. But
Speaker 1: you see, Republicans don't want to create policy that matters
Speaker 1: because they know that none of the things that they
Speaker 1: believe in register nationally with the people of this country.
Speaker 1: So instead of them focusing on creating policies that would
Speaker 1: actually compete with the Democratic Party and actually compete for
Speaker 1: people's votes. Instead, they give you somebody to fear, somebody
Speaker 1: to hate, because it's easier to do that than actually
Speaker 1: do anything that makes your life and the life of
Speaker 1: your children, your family better. One hundred trans students across
Speaker 1: this fucking country, and they have rolled out over five
Speaker 1: hundred policy bills for this imaginary monster. Do you know
Speaker 1: what trans people want? They want what all fucking people want, dignity, respect,
Speaker 1: the ability to live their lives inside of their bodies,
Speaker 1: inside of their skin, free from harm, free from abuse,
Speaker 1: free from discrimination. But that's not what the Republican Party wants.
Speaker 1: They don't want that for trans people, and they sure
Speaker 1: as fuck don't want that for the rest of us.
Speaker 1: They want you to conform, They want you restricted, they
Speaker 1: want your thoughts minimized, they want your critical thinking erased,
Speaker 1: they want you subjugated. And where they start, dear friends,
Speaker 1: is with the transgender community. Because, unlike the larger lgb
Speaker 1: plus community, which has a majority of people in this
Speaker 1: country know somebody that is lesbian, gay, or bisexual, a
Speaker 1: majority of people in this country right have somebody within
Speaker 1: their family, somebody whom they know so they can defend
Speaker 1: right said person because they have real life experience. The
Speaker 1: fact is, you shouldn't have to know somebody in order
Speaker 1: to treat a community with dignity and respect. You should
Speaker 1: see another human being targeted and think about how you
Speaker 1: would feel if it were you, knowing that you indeed
Speaker 1: are next. We have got to be better, folks, and
Speaker 1: we have got to come together as a collective, as
Speaker 1: a collective group of humans that care about the future
Speaker 1: of our humanity and our democracy that is under attack.
Speaker 1: You should need to know somebody black. You should need
Speaker 1: to know somebody trans, You should need to know somebody Latin. Now,
Speaker 1: you should need to know somebody that is Asian American
Speaker 1: to see that when one community is being targeted, we
Speaker 1: are all being targeted. We are the majority, so let's
Speaker 1: start fucking acting like it. Coming up next, dear friends,
Speaker 1: my conversation with Jonathan Hamilt, the founder and the director
Speaker 1: of Drag Story Our folks, I am very excited to
Speaker 1: welcome to WOKF Daily for the very first time Jonathan Hamilt,
Speaker 1: who is the executive director of a Drag Story Time
Speaker 1: and Jonathan. First off, I I wanted you to talk
Speaker 1: about Drag story Time for those people who have only
Speaker 1: ever heard about it, you know, from the headlines that
Speaker 1: have been made over the last I guess year of
Speaker 1: drag story Times being banned, and all of these attacks
Speaker 1: tell people about like the beauty of drag story Time,
Speaker 1: the history of drag story Time, the creation of drag
Speaker 1: story Time.
Speaker 2: Yeah, thank you so much for having me. This is awesome.
Speaker 1: Happy pride, Thank you, Happy pride to you.
Speaker 2: So Drag Story Hour is exactly like it sounds. It's
Speaker 2: drag artists, kings, queens and all other non binary royal
Speaker 2: beings that read to kids and public schools and libraries
Speaker 2: all across the country. And we've been around since twenty fifteen.
Speaker 2: But I'm sure there's been many queer people in costume
Speaker 2: reading the kids since the dawn of time. We were
Speaker 2: just the first ones to really organize it and kind
Speaker 2: of replicate our best practices and share resources and kind
Speaker 2: of make it a really organized thing.
Speaker 1: And even just your description of saying, oh, yes, I'm
Speaker 1: pretty sure there have been people that have dressed up
Speaker 1: and read to kids since the beginning of time, which
Speaker 1: is what this is, right, it is about. You know,
Speaker 1: I've always understood it as a way to spark imagination
Speaker 1: and creativity and a way to actually bring story to life.
Speaker 1: Is that how you have seen like the the experience
Speaker 1: and the kind of the essence around drag.
Speaker 2: Yeah, drag is like it's a form of play as praxies.
Speaker 2: It's like, you know, drag is a great tool and
Speaker 2: a great study for kids to learn about resilience and
Speaker 2: strength in creativity and kind of see the world in
Speaker 2: a different way, you know, are one of our objectives
Speaker 2: is to kind of really think outside of a binary system.
Speaker 2: And before kids are baked, baked into societable norms, they
Speaker 2: have like freedom of expression and creativity to kind of
Speaker 2: explore whatever they want to explore with without being told, oh, no,
Speaker 2: you can't do that the society says, you know, blues
Speaker 2: for boys, or you know, whatever the case may be.
Speaker 2: So drag can be like a great window and mirror
Speaker 2: for kids to access really creative channels.
Speaker 1: And yeah, what do you make then based on your
Speaker 1: description and how you understand and how you have understood
Speaker 1: your work and the history of drag. This the attack,
Speaker 1: the attacks that the community is under the year are
Speaker 1: now that is being stoked in all of these places
Speaker 1: like Kentucky and Alabama and Florida and Texas, and the
Speaker 1: list is so long that I can't even remember all
Speaker 1: of the states where drag is now banned. What do
Speaker 1: you make of the reasoning behind these attacks?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, you know, queer people, the LGBT community
Speaker 2: has always been you know, under attacked, and there's there's
Speaker 2: always been having hate crimes, and there's always there's always
Speaker 2: been rampant homophobia and transphobia. But with this recent iteration
Speaker 2: that's twenty twenty three, it's obviously very apparent that people
Speaker 2: very homophobic and transphobic, and Drag Story Hour and programs
Speaker 2: like ours are I think, just a scapegoat to what's
Speaker 2: really going on, which is transphobia and trans missogity, and
Speaker 2: people can't pinpoint it. But it's not about drag, it's
Speaker 2: not about protecting the children. It's about legislating queer people
Speaker 2: out of existence and having control over people's bodies and
Speaker 2: having control over people's self expression and art, which is
Speaker 2: extremely dangerous. And if this isn't a red flag for
Speaker 2: someone who is not even in a martialized community or
Speaker 2: you know, gay or anything, it should be a red
Speaker 2: flag that a big group of people want to censor
Speaker 2: books and art forms and speech. That's kind of a
Speaker 2: terrifying thing to think about. So it's part of a
Speaker 2: larger ripple effect, and sadly drag is in the middle
Speaker 2: of everything going on.
Speaker 1: You know, I have spoken to a lot of people
Speaker 1: over the course of the last you know, year plus
Speaker 1: across the LGBTQ community because one, you know, there was
Speaker 1: a time when we were all celebrating in twenty fifteen
Speaker 1: the creation of drag Story hour for you all. But
Speaker 1: you know, when I was celebrating the fact that the
Speaker 1: White House had turned rainbow, where like the work that
Speaker 1: I'd been doing on the front lines of the LGBTQ community,
Speaker 1: it was like, oh my god, We've made it, you know, here,
Speaker 1: here we have arrived. What do you make of kind
Speaker 1: of the the that celebratory moment, right And I don't
Speaker 1: know if if the creation of drag Story are also
Speaker 1: coincided or just happened to be. You know that during
Speaker 1: that twenty fifteen year, we saw marriage equality passed, we
Speaker 1: saw the White House turn rainbow. We you know, there
Speaker 1: were representation of more queer people in government than we'd
Speaker 1: ever seen. And now you have but a handful of
Speaker 1: years later, this return to the dark ages, This this
Speaker 1: return to a time where I just got an article
Speaker 1: sent to me about queer youth and the toll, the
Speaker 1: emotional toll that all of this hatred is taking. So
Speaker 1: how do you kind of see this sea change and
Speaker 1: also its effects that it's having on queer youth.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, in twenty fifteen, we were in a
Speaker 2: very different place obviously, you know, with marriage equality passing
Speaker 2: on a national level, Story Hour being birthed in the
Speaker 2: middle or the start of the Trump presidency, it was
Speaker 2: a whole different time. And you know, with marriage equality
Speaker 2: and you know, more representation than politics of queer people,
Speaker 2: it kind of showed the country in the world like, oh, hey,
Speaker 2: you know, gay people are just like you. We just
Speaker 2: want to get married and we want to have kids,
Speaker 2: and we can run for office, and we're citizens that
Speaker 2: pay our taxes and we're you know, we all go
Speaker 2: to the bathroom and you know, go to work and
Speaker 2: do everything that everyone does. But with that said, Story Hour,
Speaker 2: the progression of like gay rights and queer rights has
Speaker 2: changed a lot because Story Hour doesn't work in the
Speaker 2: binary and doesn't fit into this kind of like you know,
Speaker 2: a patriarchical, capitalistic view. It's not cut and dry like
Speaker 2: marriage equality. It's not you know, it's not Pete for president.
Speaker 2: It's a little more complex and nuanced, and a lot
Speaker 2: of people don't understand the rich intersectionalities of queer culture
Speaker 2: and how a bunch of different marginalized groups can merge
Speaker 2: together and create new culture and new waves. And not
Speaker 2: everybody's going to fit into this like white, patriarchal, monogamous
Speaker 2: you know, thing that we've been told forever, and Story
Speaker 2: Hour really breaks that out, and it's a whole different
Speaker 2: wave of rights and the movements for like queer families
Speaker 2: and queer youth zerbe lives their lives differently.
Speaker 1: And do you think that that was part of do
Speaker 1: you think, you know, Jonathan, that that was kind of
Speaker 1: part of the problem with the way that marriage equality
Speaker 1: was pushed, which was like we're just like you, you know,
Speaker 1: we want the same things as opposed to this expansive
Speaker 1: thought of what queerness actually was and is like that
Speaker 1: is that has been part of the that has been
Speaker 1: part of the problem.
Speaker 2: I don't know, I mean, I wish the gay agenda
Speaker 2: was that organized with a nice clear out, nice clear outline.
Speaker 3: But you know, whether you're whether you're gay or straight.
Speaker 3: You know, people either believe a marriage or get married
Speaker 3: or they don't. And that's no different for a queer
Speaker 3: person or a straight person. And the great thing about
Speaker 3: being queer is there's no right or wrong way to
Speaker 3: be queer. So a lot of people in the community
Speaker 3: want to get married and want to have that union
Speaker 3: and have a family, which is great, and other people
Speaker 3: want that and or something totally different. And it's you know,
Speaker 3: important to recognize that families and structures look totally different
Speaker 3: and that not everything is going to fit into this
Speaker 3: pretty kind of nineteen fifties box that we think things
Speaker 3: should look like.
Speaker 1: I don't know, can you speak to what is happened
Speaker 1: with drag story time in different locations around the country.
Speaker 1: I know that you're in New York like I am,
Speaker 1: and so I mean, but there was a protest that
Speaker 1: I did read about that happened. I guess it was
Speaker 1: the Proud Boys that showed up or whoever it was
Speaker 1: that showed up at some library where there was a
Speaker 1: story time that was happening here in New York, and
Speaker 1: I was absolutely appalled. But what can you speak to
Speaker 1: what is happening or what you have heard happening in
Speaker 1: other places where now it's illegal.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: What's interesting about, you know, the rise of protests against
Speaker 2: our program is many of the people that are against
Speaker 2: it are not part of the community. So they'll either
Speaker 2: try community.
Speaker 1: That it's happening in.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we'll either drive in or fly in or make
Speaker 2: phone calls from out of state. And it's just it's
Speaker 2: just silly that somebody is going to spend all this
Speaker 2: time and attention going out of their way to protest
Speaker 2: literacy or something different, you know. And different parts of
Speaker 2: the country are facing different challenges. You know, in the
Speaker 2: rural South, we have a lot of you know, BIPOC
Speaker 2: trans performers. And if you're you know, a trans woman
Speaker 2: of color that does drag in the South where drag
Speaker 2: is banned, you could be arrested for just living your life.
Speaker 2: If you're stopped at a stoplight and your gender market
Speaker 2: doesn't match the clothing assigned that it's opposed to, you
Speaker 2: could be arrested for quote, being in drag in public
Speaker 2: and be put into prison for six years as a
Speaker 2: sex offender. So these anti drag bills and laws are
Speaker 2: really harmful for our trans community, and they specifically target
Speaker 2: people that aren't wearing clothes that fit their you know,
Speaker 2: sex at birth and drag is an art form where
Speaker 2: you can take off and on and it's theater. But
Speaker 2: for the trans community, this isn't theater. Is their lives
Speaker 2: and gender. For me, clothing and appearance is you know,
Speaker 2: part of who we all are and taking that away
Speaker 2: is really dangerous.
Speaker 1: I know that within you know, and I have experienced
Speaker 1: this that within the LGBTQ community there has often times
Speaker 1: also been discrimination against the trans community. And so, in
Speaker 1: your opinion, what does solidarity and like real strengthening of
Speaker 1: community look like in this moment when we know specifically
Speaker 1: that this isn't just about the costume, Like you said
Speaker 1: that you can take on and off for drag, but
Speaker 1: this is actually real people's lives, right, and the trans
Speaker 1: community has often been the letter of the alphabet that
Speaker 1: has been left behind in a lot of ways in
Speaker 1: the progress that has been made. So for you, in
Speaker 1: your mind, what does solidarity and community strengthening look like
Speaker 1: at this time?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I feel like it's it's a really big conversation
Speaker 2: that we're having currently within the community and figuring out
Speaker 2: what does you know, true allyship look like and not
Speaker 2: just performative work. And for so long the focus has
Speaker 2: been on like this, like cis White male gayness, which
Speaker 2: has kind of been the front runner of the movement
Speaker 2: for a long time. But you know, with all these intersectionalities,
Speaker 2: all these different groups, there's all these different tiers of community, right,
Speaker 2: So you have like the big umbrella of like LGBT,
Speaker 2: but you could have you know, you know, POC queer people,
Speaker 2: and within that community there could be like disabled poc
Speaker 2: queers and it just kind of there's all these different
Speaker 2: levels of community, right, and kind of until we lift
Speaker 2: up the most marginalized group and we're all bringing each
Speaker 2: other up together on that most impacted level, that's probably
Speaker 2: the only time we're going to actually have real equity
Speaker 2: and really bring everyone up at the same time, to
Speaker 2: have a space for everyone at the table. When like
Speaker 2: that group of like two spirited drag performers that no
Speaker 2: one even thinks about when they're getting lifted up, then
Speaker 2: we're all going to be lifted up. So it just
Speaker 2: takes a lot of work, and you know, realizing that
Speaker 2: we're not the center of the world, and like there
Speaker 2: are other people out there that need help too.
Speaker 1: So, yeah, last question for you for people that are
Speaker 1: listening and you know, they may be allies, they may
Speaker 1: be a part of the community, but they are really
Speaker 1: struggling with how they can help, how they can help,
Speaker 1: whether it is in protecting organizations like yours, protecting the
Speaker 1: community writ large. What advice do you give to them?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I figure if you really want to be a
Speaker 2: good ally and help, just ask, just ask the community
Speaker 2: what they want. Don't just assume that a social media
Speaker 2: post will do it or donating to some really big
Speaker 2: nonprofit or really overarching thing. Really ask community, what do
Speaker 2: you need? Do you need resources? Do you need money?
Speaker 2: And do you need an event space? Do you need security?
Speaker 2: Do you need artists? You know, a photographer? Like, what
Speaker 2: do you need from us? Do you need to be silent?
Speaker 2: You need need to speak up for you? What does
Speaker 2: a defender of your group look like? So with Story Hour,
Speaker 2: you know, we have a lot of protests, obviously, but
Speaker 2: we've a lot of defenders that come out and support
Speaker 2: Story Hour. But sometimes the people that defend us just
Speaker 2: yell back at opposition, which they should be yelled at.
Speaker 2: But you know, sometimes communities need more than you just
Speaker 2: defending them and defending yelling back at haters may not
Speaker 2: be always the best thing in community needs. So just
Speaker 2: I guess asking, Yeah, what do you need from me?
Speaker 2: And I'll sit and I'll listen, and I'll help out
Speaker 2: the best I can.
Speaker 1: Appreciate you, and please tell people how Jonathan, that they
Speaker 1: can find their next Drag Story Hour, how they can
Speaker 1: connect with you and your organization.
Speaker 2: Yeah, find us on Facebook, Instagram and for the gen
Speaker 2: zsor on the TikTok so follow us along our events
Speaker 2: calendar on our Facebook page. Will have events all over
Speaker 2: the country and you can always catch our Virtual Story
Speaker 2: Hour online. So stay safe and have a happy pride.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much, appreciate you. I'm happy pride to you.
Speaker 1: That is it for me today. Dear friends, on Woke
Speaker 1: a f as always Power to the people and to
Speaker 1: all the people. Power, get woke and stay woke as fuck.