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, today,
Speaker 1: I want to do something crazy, and I want to
Speaker 1: start off with some good news. I know that a
Speaker 1: lot of times we are inundated with everything that is bad,
Speaker 1: everything that the far right, white supremacist Republican Party is
Speaker 1: throwing at us, everything that feels like it is spinning
Speaker 1: out of control and hopeless. And I just want to
Speaker 1: remind you that that's the point, right that when Steve Bannon,
Speaker 1: you know, said that the far right strategy was going
Speaker 1: to be to flood the zone with shit, what we
Speaker 1: are experiencing right now is his strategy come to life.
Speaker 1: And so in order to not become literally covered in
Speaker 1: all of their bullshit, we must create mechanisms of disruption,
Speaker 1: and that will look different for each of us, but
Speaker 1: we have to create them, and we have to do
Speaker 1: them every day. And that doesn't mean just burying our
Speaker 1: heads in the sand. It means actually searching out the good,
Speaker 1: finding what is working, what is lifting us up, what
Speaker 1: is bringing us joy. And so I want to open
Speaker 1: the show up with my experiences earlier this week, that
Speaker 1: have really given me some renewed energy and excitement about
Speaker 1: where this country is headed. And so I want to
Speaker 1: talk today about two events that I had the great
Speaker 1: fortune one of attending and the other of hosting. And
Speaker 1: the first event that I want to talk to you
Speaker 1: about is Family Equality. Family Equalities Night at the Peer
Speaker 1: is an event that happens every year at the Chelsea
Speaker 1: Peers and it is the Family Equality Organization's New York
Speaker 1: City gala, and I want to tell you a bit
Speaker 1: about Family Equality, which you may have heard from their
Speaker 1: CEO Stacy Stevenson, who has joined WOKF before. She is
Speaker 1: a friend and former client, and Family Equality over the
Speaker 1: last forty years has just been doing God's work. But
Speaker 1: over the last two I've had the ability to work
Speaker 1: with them as Stacy Stevenson came on as their first
Speaker 1: black woman CEO. The organization is dedicated in creating spaces
Speaker 1: for families, queer families to feel safe, to feel welcomed.
Speaker 1: They work on everything from policy to family practice to
Speaker 1: creating events for LGBTQ families across the country. And you know,
Speaker 1: over the last several months, we've talked about the unrelenting
Speaker 1: anti LGBTQ and anti trans policies that have passed, and
Speaker 1: there have been over four hundred and fifty bills, if
Speaker 1: you really want to put a number on it, over
Speaker 1: four hundred and fifty bills have been passed to limit
Speaker 1: the presence, existence, and bodily autonomy of queer people in
Speaker 1: this country, and namely they've been going after queer children
Speaker 1: and Family Equality is suing Rondi Santis and the State
Speaker 1: of Florida. They are part of many groups that are
Speaker 1: suing Rondasantis and the State of Florida for putting literal
Speaker 1: targets on the backs of trans children and the LGBT
Speaker 1: community at large. And during this amazing night that was
Speaker 1: set with the theme of love, family freedom, which I
Speaker 1: had the great honor to be able to craft during
Speaker 1: my work and time with Family Equality, it was so
Speaker 1: inspiring to listen to stories of the journey that queer
Speaker 1: parents have taken in order to create their families and
Speaker 1: how much love and how much patience and how much
Speaker 1: fortitude these people had to have in order to create
Speaker 1: their families. And as I'm listening to stories that range
Speaker 1: anywhere from surrogacy to adoption to you different fertility journeys.
Speaker 1: And I'm thinking to myself, who would go out of
Speaker 1: their way to deny people who want to create a
Speaker 1: loving union, who want to be able to share that
Speaker 1: love with children, Who would deny them the access and
Speaker 1: ability to do so. Who would make it so that
Speaker 1: these families no longer feel safe in their communities and
Speaker 1: have to find ways, if financially possible, to relocate from
Speaker 1: their home states. And so when I sat there listening
Speaker 1: to stories of resilience and fortitude and people saying things
Speaker 1: to the effect of, I'm not leaving. I'm not leaving
Speaker 1: my state. I'm not going to be run out of
Speaker 1: my city. I'm not going to be run out of
Speaker 1: my town. I'm going to stay and I'm going to fight,
Speaker 1: and I'm going to fight for what is right. I'm
Speaker 1: going to fight for myself, for my family, for my friends,
Speaker 1: and for my loved ones. And these are people who
Speaker 1: live in places like Florida and Texas, Tennessee and Alabama
Speaker 1: who were being recognized for their incredible work in their communities.
Speaker 1: Young people being able to be cheered on and celebrated
Speaker 1: in the room as opposed to being jeered and having
Speaker 1: to hide the very existence of their families at school.
Speaker 1: And it reminded me that the headline stories that I
Speaker 1: bring you, and that I share, the statistics that we
Speaker 1: discuss on this show and that I write about, there
Speaker 1: are real people that are attached to this, and sometimes
Speaker 1: I can get so caught up in the battle, in
Speaker 1: the fight and in names like Ron DeSantis and Matt
Speaker 1: Gates and Ted Cruz and Marjory Taylor Green and the
Speaker 1: rest of the band of fucking idiots that I forget
Speaker 1: about the real people and the real consequences and the
Speaker 1: real fighters that are on the ground that while I
Speaker 1: get to and maybe some of you do too, live
Speaker 1: in for right now, what is considered a safe haven
Speaker 1: of a blue state. For right now, I will reiterate
Speaker 1: that that there are too many that wake up every
Speaker 1: day in these red states and they don't know whether
Speaker 1: or not their marriages are going to be nullified. They
Speaker 1: don't know whether or not their children are going to
Speaker 1: be taken away, they don't know whether or not they're
Speaker 1: going to need to figure out how to fundraise and
Speaker 1: how to move so that they can get to a
Speaker 1: place of safety and literally find asylum. I am not
Speaker 1: talking about people crossing the border in Mexico. I am
Speaker 1: talking about LGBTQ people having to cross borders, state borders
Speaker 1: in order to find asylum within America. It is absolutely
Speaker 1: fucking crazy. But there are incredibly courageous people that are
Speaker 1: fighting the hard fight, face to face, toe to toe
Speaker 1: with these horrible right wing bigots, right that we get
Speaker 1: to shut our computer off and shut our minds off
Speaker 1: and not bother with, but that they have to deal
Speaker 1: with on a regular basis. And so when I was
Speaker 1: sitting at this gala and listening to these stories and
Speaker 1: listening to Stacy Stevenson, the CEO of Family Equality, I
Speaker 1: said to myself, you know, I really need to remind
Speaker 1: myself that we are fighting for real people, and that
Speaker 1: each of us, inside of our own communities can find
Speaker 1: the local organizations, the grassroots organizations, go through the national ones,
Speaker 1: if that's all you know, and get to the local
Speaker 1: folks to feel like you we're doing something, to actually
Speaker 1: be doing something. It is important for us to stay informed, absolutely,
Speaker 1: but it is also incredibly important for us to turn
Speaker 1: that information into action and into purpose. And it isn't
Speaker 1: okay for us just to sit back and rage and say, well,
Speaker 1: I just feel helpless because there are people that are
Speaker 1: on the ground that could use your talent, use your treasure,
Speaker 1: and use your time to be able to go toe
Speaker 1: to toe with these bigots that show no sign of
Speaker 1: slowing down. And so Monday night was a wonderful reminder
Speaker 1: for me to be able to continue the work that
Speaker 1: I am doing and really focus on the people and
Speaker 1: the spirit and the fight and how people are doing
Speaker 1: so in a joyful way. Right. That it isn't oh,
Speaker 1: let us pause and do this work and then go
Speaker 1: to this you know gala and dress up and what
Speaker 1: have you know. It is to remind ourselves that being
Speaker 1: in joy is so part of our resistance. And somebody
Speaker 1: in the room that the Family Equality gala was talking
Speaker 1: about queer joy and that's one of the themes that we
Speaker 1: are going to be talking about next month all month
Speaker 1: during Pride Month on WOKF is queer joy right? That
Speaker 1: you can't ban that right, You can't ban people's happiness,
Speaker 1: you can't ban joy, right, And so how do we
Speaker 1: do this work in community where we can have safety
Speaker 1: in numbers, where we can help others feel seen right
Speaker 1: and be heard. And so it was just a beautiful
Speaker 1: reminder on my night of who we are all fighting
Speaker 1: for and what we are fighting against, and I just
Speaker 1: encourage each and every one of you if you don't
Speaker 1: have money, but you have time, if you don't have time,
Speaker 1: but you have some talent to be able to look
Speaker 1: and see what is going on in your community, and
Speaker 1: you know, how can you help in these red states?
Speaker 1: And give you your time, your money and just connect
Speaker 1: with folks so that they know that they are not
Speaker 1: fighting alone, because I believe that there are more of
Speaker 1: us than there are them, and we just need to
Speaker 1: be activated in our power and remind ourselves that we
Speaker 1: are not powerless. The second event that I had the ability,
Speaker 1: the great honor, the great honor to be able to host,
Speaker 1: was the Misfoundation's fiftieth Anniversary of Visionary Women, and I
Speaker 1: serve on the Misfoundation board. I've served on the board
Speaker 1: for a few years now. I've been involved with MISS
Speaker 1: for at least the last seven, but I think that
Speaker 1: I have been on the board for at least the
Speaker 1: last three or four. And the Misfoundation is an extraordinary
Speaker 1: organization that again is really about is really about advancing right,
Speaker 1: is about building women's collective power in the United States
Speaker 1: to advance equity and justice for all, And this is
Speaker 1: what they say on their website. We achieve our mission
Speaker 1: by investing in and strengthening the capacity of women led
Speaker 1: movements to advance meaningful, social, cultural, and economic change in
Speaker 1: the lives of women. And it is an incredible, incredible
Speaker 1: organism that believes in creating a safe world where power
Speaker 1: and possibility are not limited by gender, race, class, sexual orientation,
Speaker 1: gender identity, disability, or age. We believe that equity and
Speaker 1: inclusion are the cornerstones of a true democracy, in which
Speaker 1: worth and dignity of every person, of every person are valued.
Speaker 1: And so in this room filled with some of the
Speaker 1: most brilliant, beautiful, thoughtful, brave women and non binary people
Speaker 1: who are leading, leading in places like Texas, in places
Speaker 1: like Tennessee, it was truly truly inspiring. And particularly I
Speaker 1: want to talk about two of the young women who
Speaker 1: I had the opportunity to shake their hands, and it
Speaker 1: was really, really, really something you know too often, right,
Speaker 1: we talk about Generation Z, Right, we talk about Generation
Speaker 1: Z and the fact that oh, these young people they're
Speaker 1: just on TikTok, They're just on this, they're just on
Speaker 1: that they're lazy, they don't want to work, blah blah blah,
Speaker 1: blah blah. And the truth is, ain't none of that
Speaker 1: true because I met too extraordinary Generation Z leaders. And
Speaker 1: if we just look at what has been happening in Tennessee,
Speaker 1: is what has been happening in Florida, with these young
Speaker 1: people walking out of schools, them taking over state houses,
Speaker 1: with them saying that they are not going to go
Speaker 1: quietly into the good good night. They are not going
Speaker 1: to surrender their civil liberties and this democracy into the
Speaker 1: hands of people who would rather see them shot to
Speaker 1: death with AR fifteen's in their classrooms right than they
Speaker 1: would see them safe, see them with books that are
Speaker 1: not banned, and live in a gun free, a gun
Speaker 1: violence free society. And so the first young woman that
Speaker 1: I had the opportunity to meet was Olivia Juliana. And
Speaker 1: Olivia Juliana is if you recall last year when Olivia
Speaker 1: Juliana went on social media to talk about the abortion
Speaker 1: bands and talk about the rollback of Robi Wade, and
Speaker 1: and that Gates, a representative of Congress, used his platform
Speaker 1: to fat shame her, to body shame her, and fat
Speaker 1: shame her and say all of these despicable things, this
Speaker 1: grown ass man to this young woman. And what did
Speaker 1: Olivia do? She turned around and she ended up raising
Speaker 1: two million dollars for REPO rights and justice. And so
Speaker 1: she was honored last night at the MS Foundation for
Speaker 1: her extraordinary, extraordinary work. And I just when I listened
Speaker 1: to her speech, I was so in awe. I got
Speaker 1: up on stage and I said, I want to live
Speaker 1: in her America. I want to live in an America,
Speaker 1: she said, where I don't want to be equal to men,
Speaker 1: because I don't want the power to oppress and disregard
Speaker 1: and overlook and command with force. I want to create
Speaker 1: a better future for all of us, regardless of gender.
Speaker 1: She talked about shared power. She talked about her passion
Speaker 1: and desire to lead, and particularly to do so in
Speaker 1: her state of Texas, and I just I gotta tell
Speaker 1: you that I was absolutely absolutely taken aback by her
Speaker 1: brilliance and her fortitude and her just conviction about who
Speaker 1: she is, who this generation is, and what they are
Speaker 1: coming for. And it made me feel like, oh, we're
Speaker 1: going to be okay, right, because this next generation coming
Speaker 1: up behind us and the one coming up behind them,
Speaker 1: they are so fucking activated. It is a gorgeous thing
Speaker 1: to see. The next young woman that I had the
Speaker 1: ability to meet was Rebecca Breezenhoff. Rebecca Breezehoff went viral
Speaker 1: when she was I think around between twelve and sixteen
Speaker 1: years old, where she was holding up a sign at
Speaker 1: a march that said, I'm the scary trans kid that
Speaker 1: Republicans are trying to warn you about. She is fierce.
Speaker 1: She is using her platform and her talents to build
Speaker 1: camaraderie and community in her school, in her community, and
Speaker 1: her neighborhood. She has become an outspoken activists on trans kids'
Speaker 1: rights and trans kids want nothing more than to just
Speaker 1: be kids. It was extraordinary because, honestly, I couldn't tell
Speaker 1: you a time that when I was there ripe young
Speaker 1: age having the ability to articulate my power and my
Speaker 1: purpose and my path in the way that they did.
Speaker 1: There were so many beautiful moments from last night, as
Speaker 1: well as being able to meet with, not meet with,
Speaker 1: but actually meet and take a photo with the Duchess
Speaker 1: of Sussex, Megan markle But she was honored last night
Speaker 1: for her work on racism and sexism and mental health,
Speaker 1: and to listen to her beautiful speech and words about
Speaker 1: again the power of being able to use your platform
Speaker 1: turn your pain into power wherever you are. Just it
Speaker 1: hit the room in so many different ways, and so
Speaker 1: again I encourage you that if you're interested in learning
Speaker 1: more about the misfoundation about family equality, that head to
Speaker 1: each of their sites. If you're looking and you're finding
Speaker 1: yourself in this moment of great turmoil, just you know,
Speaker 1: spinning out of control. Everything is bad, everywhere is bad,
Speaker 1: and just wanting to turn everything off. Sure you can
Speaker 1: turn off the news, but tune into something good. Tune
Speaker 1: in to the people that are actually on the ground fighting,
Speaker 1: look for those good stories and lift them up, and
Speaker 1: look to be a part of taking real action and
Speaker 1: not just being a part of the reactionary tornadoes of
Speaker 1: social media. Because I think that what I experienced this
Speaker 1: week was just a re energizing that I didn't know
Speaker 1: that I needed to be in community and to be
Speaker 1: in celebration with people who are really truly doing things
Speaker 1: that are just admirable and necessary, and that we are
Speaker 1: not alone in our outrage, and we are not alone
Speaker 1: thinking that no one else is woke. Because I met
Speaker 1: hundreds of them over the last two days and it
Speaker 1: has been an extraordinary reigniting of a fire, the fire
Speaker 1: of possibility that I wanted to share with all of
Speaker 1: you today. So do make sure to check those organizations out.
Speaker 1: And folks, we've almost made it to the end of
Speaker 1: the week and bore, do I have a fucking Friday
Speaker 1: for you. It's coming later. That is it for me today,
Speaker 1: dear friends on woke a app. As always, power to the
Speaker 1: people and to all the people. Power yet woke and
Speaker 1: stay woke as fuck.