WEBVTT - How We Saved Trans Medicaid Healthcare Coverage 0:00:01.720 --> 0:00:05.000 Cool Zone Media. 0:00:06.559 --> 0:00:10.119 Welcome to It Happened Here, a podcast that played some 0:00:10.400 --> 0:00:14.360 role in the defeats of the Republicans reposed ban on 0:00:14.520 --> 0:00:17.000 using Medicaid to pay for trans healthcare. I am your host, 0:00:17.040 --> 0:00:19.680 Mia Wong, and with me are three of the people 0:00:19.680 --> 0:00:23.520 who helped make this whole thing possible. This is David Forbes, 0:00:23.520 --> 0:00:26.360 a journalist from the Ashual Blade and Medica's News. Mattie 0:00:26.360 --> 0:00:30.479 Castigan of the namesake Medicast News, and Mira Laisine of 0:00:30.560 --> 0:00:33.479 Free Radical and also Medicast News, and all of you 0:00:33.560 --> 0:00:37.040 welcome to the show. Congratulations on your defeats of the 0:00:37.080 --> 0:00:41.360 Republican Party and helping to save trans healthcare for unbelievably 0:00:41.440 --> 0:00:45.040 large numbers of people in this country. 0:00:43.120 --> 0:00:47.800 Yeah. Yeah, it's kind of like a sentence that's kind 0:00:47.800 --> 0:00:50.360 of hard to accept, and you know, in a lot 0:00:50.360 --> 0:00:52.480 of ways, it is really what we've been trying to say. 0:00:52.440 --> 0:00:55.480 It's been like a collective effort of everyone involved, especially 0:00:55.520 --> 0:00:58.880 the people at the grassroots, and you know, like I 0:00:58.920 --> 0:01:01.600 guess to give there's a little bit of context. So 0:01:01.760 --> 0:01:05.560 going back to May, there in the big beautiful bill 0:01:05.720 --> 0:01:10.520 that unfortunately did pass, originally Republicans included a ban on 0:01:11.000 --> 0:01:15.160 government funding for Medicaid for gender transition procedures, and originally 0:01:15.200 --> 0:01:17.720 just from miners in the House. Then right before they 0:01:17.760 --> 0:01:20.200 passed it through the House, they actually removed the miners claw, 0:01:20.280 --> 0:01:22.920 so it was applying for all adults on Medicaid who 0:01:22.959 --> 0:01:26.240 are trans. At this point, everyone started kind of freaking out, 0:01:26.240 --> 0:01:28.480 which is very reasonable because you know, there's over two 0:01:28.560 --> 0:01:31.840 hundred thousand trans people on Medicaid depending on numbers like 0:01:32.760 --> 0:01:35.479 hundred and seventy thousand depending on her us. And so 0:01:35.920 --> 0:01:38.080 what we found is that, you know, a lot of 0:01:38.120 --> 0:01:41.080 other sources have told us this that the bird rule, 0:01:41.120 --> 0:01:43.639 which is basically you know, parliamentary procedure in the Senate 0:01:43.680 --> 0:01:46.200 that only exists in the Senate because of the filibuster 0:01:46.280 --> 0:01:48.880 pretty much, is one way that we could kill this 0:01:49.080 --> 0:01:51.520 is what they told us back in May. And so 0:01:51.640 --> 0:01:54.440 that's something that we reported on and tried to take 0:01:54.560 --> 0:01:57.320 like you know, basically like a don't panic angle or 0:01:57.360 --> 0:01:59.520 don't panic yet at least you know like that there's 0:01:59.560 --> 0:02:02.440 a lot of ways to fight back against this, and 0:02:02.920 --> 0:02:05.840 we provided you know, templates for here's how you can 0:02:05.880 --> 0:02:08.560 email your senators and this is exactly what you should 0:02:08.560 --> 0:02:11.000 tell them. You should call them you could call specific 0:02:11.040 --> 0:02:14.200 people on specific committees and tell specific things to them. 0:02:14.480 --> 0:02:16.560 And you know, of course a lot of other organizations 0:02:16.600 --> 0:02:19.200 and people also chipped into this, you know, a for 0:02:19.280 --> 0:02:22.639 t te head of campaigns and whatnot. But I think 0:02:22.720 --> 0:02:24.320 you know, at the end of the day, what really 0:02:24.360 --> 0:02:27.560 pushed the needle was the people calling in and waking 0:02:27.600 --> 0:02:30.680 Democrats up to this issue. And basically what ended up 0:02:30.680 --> 0:02:34.560 happening is we both sent it. Widen basically argued to 0:02:34.600 --> 0:02:37.760 the parliamentarian that hey, this trans medicaid ban, it's not 0:02:38.160 --> 0:02:41.400 a budgetary matter, it's actually a policy matter. And the 0:02:41.440 --> 0:02:45.000 parliamentarian agreed and ruled that it was basically a sixty 0:02:45.080 --> 0:02:47.760 vote threshold and not a fifty vote threshold. So what 0:02:47.800 --> 0:02:50.120 that meant is that as long as all Democrats, or 0:02:50.120 --> 0:02:54.280 at least forty Democrats forty one Democrats were opposing this measure, 0:02:54.360 --> 0:02:56.480 it was basically guaranteed to be kicked out of the bill. 0:02:57.080 --> 0:03:01.239 And we did end up having enough Democrats basically ensure 0:03:01.280 --> 0:03:04.600 that the that provision didn't make it into law, even 0:03:04.600 --> 0:03:07.000 though unfortunately the bill did pass in to day. 0:03:07.720 --> 0:03:10.480 Yeah, I think one thing that's notable about this. I 0:03:10.480 --> 0:03:13.679 think one thing to emerge in our discussions, and while 0:03:13.760 --> 0:03:16.280 she's not in the podcast, I really want to thank 0:03:16.639 --> 0:03:21.400 Koreean Green for very invaluable like policy insight into some 0:03:21.440 --> 0:03:23.680 of this and some of the specific ways and weaknesses 0:03:23.720 --> 0:03:27.360 to go after politicians on this. And you know, certainly 0:03:27.360 --> 0:03:28.960 we were not alone in this. I think there were 0:03:28.960 --> 0:03:31.760 a lot of grassroots organizations as well, and I think 0:03:31.840 --> 0:03:35.320 kind of the approach that emerged and was successful, I 0:03:35.440 --> 0:03:38.440 think it's kind of important how it happened, because one, 0:03:38.480 --> 0:03:42.040 it identified a specific weakness who weren't just vaguely asking 0:03:43.160 --> 0:03:46.640 legislators to do something about this. And two I think 0:03:46.640 --> 0:03:51.560 it did something which traditionally definitely democratic politicians but even 0:03:52.200 --> 0:03:55.200 a lot of the gay ink to use a term 0:03:55.240 --> 0:04:00.119 popular among a lot of transactivists like big lobbying groups 0:04:00.200 --> 0:04:03.800 and establishment nonprofits, been loath to do, which is it 0:04:03.840 --> 0:04:06.720 got angry at democrats. It warned them that people were watching. 0:04:06.760 --> 0:04:09.440 It wasn't like, pretty please, you know, will you do 0:04:09.520 --> 0:04:13.720 something to stop this? And from two decades dealing with politicians, 0:04:13.760 --> 0:04:17.560 that's a much more effective way to approach. If you're 0:04:17.600 --> 0:04:19.640 just going to ask nicely, they'll ignore you. They'll ignore 0:04:19.640 --> 0:04:24.560 your entire demographic. If you're marginalized if they're afraid of you. However, 0:04:24.800 --> 0:04:27.479 if they're worried about their phone lines being shut down 0:04:27.480 --> 0:04:30.680 with pushback, people are getting angry at them, then they 0:04:30.720 --> 0:04:33.040 get worried and feel like they need to do something. 0:04:33.200 --> 0:04:36.520 So I think both with our article and with some 0:04:36.560 --> 0:04:39.680 of the other grassroots groups involved, it really kind of 0:04:39.680 --> 0:04:42.040 put the focus back on what people can do. But 0:04:42.080 --> 0:04:45.240 it did it by identifying a weakness and then pressing 0:04:45.320 --> 0:04:47.320 really hard on it. And I think that's kind of 0:04:47.360 --> 0:04:51.839 a break with how some of the very unsuccessful higher 0:04:51.960 --> 0:04:55.400 level tactics that have been used or not been used 0:04:55.440 --> 0:04:57.279 against transphobic legislation before. 0:04:57.720 --> 0:05:00.960 Yeah, And I think I think it's important to, you know, 0:05:02.080 --> 0:05:04.880 look at the changing terrain of this all because a 0:05:04.880 --> 0:05:09.719 lot of the sort of gain lobbying efforts were based 0:05:09.839 --> 0:05:12.920 on conditions that don't exist anymore. And you could argue 0:05:12.920 --> 0:05:15.919 how effective they were back in like you know, like 0:05:16.279 --> 0:05:20.839 twenty fifteen, right, and I still think there were more 0:05:20.880 --> 0:05:22.960 effective things that could have been done. Then there is 0:05:23.080 --> 0:05:27.160 no argument now like you can't just rely on sort 0:05:27.200 --> 0:05:30.400 of like access democratic politicians and being like, oh hey, 0:05:30.440 --> 0:05:32.200 we're this org. You want this thing to happen. And 0:05:32.200 --> 0:05:33.720 we saw this a lot. This is something that our 0:05:33.800 --> 0:05:36.280 policy analyst friend Karine Green, who have had in the 0:05:36.320 --> 0:05:39.240 show before, was talking about with like with the Biden 0:05:39.279 --> 0:05:41.160 administration was the way that all of these orgs sort 0:05:41.160 --> 0:05:44.320 of just fell in line behind the Biden administration, like 0:05:44.400 --> 0:05:48.000 fucking over trans people's healthcare in ways that no one 0:05:48.040 --> 0:05:52.200 ever really talked about, and that kind of access model 0:05:52.279 --> 0:05:55.320 got flipped, you know, whatever they were trying to do before, 0:05:55.360 --> 0:05:57.200 and you can ar you know, you can have arguments 0:05:57.200 --> 0:06:00.680 about like what they thought they were doing. At this point, 0:06:00.720 --> 0:06:03.840 it's just like no, like you're not existing to like 0:06:04.279 --> 0:06:07.160 protect queer people. You're existing to protect the Democrats from 0:06:07.320 --> 0:06:07.960 queer people. 0:06:08.520 --> 0:06:09.880 And yeah, you. 0:06:09.839 --> 0:06:12.240 Know, and and and the situation we're in now is 0:06:12.279 --> 0:06:15.080 one where and there was some very very scary reporting 0:06:15.560 --> 0:06:17.640 coming out of the Democrats were like it wasn't clear 0:06:17.640 --> 0:06:19.279 if they were actually going to try to whip the 0:06:19.360 --> 0:06:23.159 votes together, like to actually vote against this stuff. And 0:06:23.200 --> 0:06:25.520 so like we're at a point where regardless of whatever 0:06:25.600 --> 0:06:28.560 you would have supported before, and again like I think 0:06:28.560 --> 0:06:30.599 I think they were wrong before, but like now no, 0:06:30.720 --> 0:06:32.240 you had this is the only way to do this shit, 0:06:32.360 --> 0:06:34.719 Like there's no other mechanism. 0:06:35.600 --> 0:06:39.920 Yeah, so this has been something I've especially noticed in 0:06:40.040 --> 0:06:43.039 like reporting on this terms. Myself and Matty, we both 0:06:43.080 --> 0:06:46.600 co reported on the initial story breaking the the fact 0:06:46.640 --> 0:06:49.640 that the Medicaid bandage going in there. Mattie especially did 0:06:49.680 --> 0:06:52.679 all the stuff with the birds role. When we initially 0:06:52.760 --> 0:06:55.280 started working in the story, it was just a small 0:06:55.360 --> 0:06:57.800 tip we had that there was going to be something 0:06:57.839 --> 0:07:02.000 big coming in the next funding bill, and I can 0:07:02.040 --> 0:07:06.679 definitely speak that at the time, Democrats, lobbyists and so forth, 0:07:06.720 --> 0:07:11.520 they were just very like business as usual, right, They 0:07:11.560 --> 0:07:15.400 were just even knowing that a lot of this was 0:07:15.480 --> 0:07:18.560 kind of had the chance of emerging, and that there 0:07:18.600 --> 0:07:20.239 was going to be a lot of bad stuff emerging. 0:07:20.280 --> 0:07:21.760 A lot of it was still like trying to use 0:07:21.800 --> 0:07:26.080 these whole tactics Streme way back when to just act 0:07:26.120 --> 0:07:30.640 like everything is still as if it's you know, twenty fifteen, 0:07:31.120 --> 0:07:37.680 twenty fourteen, and once everything started to unferral and the 0:07:37.760 --> 0:07:44.760 medicaidvand became added in to the bill itself. Witnessing it 0:07:44.800 --> 0:07:49.080 all from just a reporting perspective with like it felt 0:07:49.080 --> 0:07:51.160 like watching them all go into panic mode and yet 0:07:51.200 --> 0:07:55.119 at the same time be like trying to find ways 0:07:55.160 --> 0:08:00.040 to kind of push us to the side. Yeah, and 0:08:00.040 --> 0:08:03.280 and of course, like god so incredibly thankfully were able 0:08:03.320 --> 0:08:05.800 to play any type of role in getting this done. 0:08:06.200 --> 0:08:13.200 Like so it's becomon narrative among so many for lack 0:08:13.240 --> 0:08:15.960 of better phrasing, proponents of gay ink, proponents of the 0:08:15.960 --> 0:08:20.800 status quo, proponents of just you know, your social democracy types, 0:08:21.480 --> 0:08:25.440 that the way forward is to be nice, to beg 0:08:25.480 --> 0:08:27.960 and plead for our rights, so hopefull they give us 0:08:27.960 --> 0:08:30.520 it if we ask really, really nicely and we beg 0:08:30.520 --> 0:08:32.720 in clead and we say thank you and we don't 0:08:32.760 --> 0:08:36.160 be too rude or else we'll earn it and we'll 0:08:36.440 --> 0:08:39.160 deserve what a will give. You know, It's like what 0:08:39.240 --> 0:08:43.760 ultimate need became. The final stroll was like we sent 0:08:43.800 --> 0:08:50.720 out a push for every single just reader follower, every 0:08:50.800 --> 0:08:56.360 single listener podcast like everyone at home who just bread 0:08:56.440 --> 0:08:59.800 this around. Put pressure on the politicians, made it clear 0:08:59.840 --> 0:09:03.440 the wasn't acceptable, made it clear that no, they can't 0:09:03.480 --> 0:09:05.920 just ignore us and act like we don't exist, and 0:09:05.960 --> 0:09:09.480 that no, they can't just wash their hands away and 0:09:09.480 --> 0:09:11.920 pretend like this is all fine, and that their records 0:09:11.960 --> 0:09:16.160 came that No, it's this is something that matters. This 0:09:16.240 --> 0:09:21.120 is something that has to be thought, and it really 0:09:21.160 --> 0:09:25.560 boiled down to just the endtense like pressure everyone put 0:09:25.679 --> 0:09:28.320 publicly like yeah, And I think it is just a 0:09:28.440 --> 0:09:32.720 very ultimate testing to how the true power in any 0:09:32.760 --> 0:09:36.720 political system lies not with just a handful of elected 0:09:36.840 --> 0:09:41.320 NEPO babies that end up getting into office, but with 0:09:41.520 --> 0:09:44.839 the regular people who make their voice heard, who band 0:09:44.840 --> 0:09:47.560 together and aren't afraid to say, hey, this shit is 0:09:47.640 --> 0:09:50.120 fucked up, we need to do something about it. 0:10:00.480 --> 0:10:03.440 You are mentioning, how like whatever debate about the gag 0:10:03.480 --> 0:10:07.680 approach before, it's it's not just dead now it's catastrophically failed. 0:10:08.600 --> 0:10:11.800 I honestly think that's kind of beyond debate at this point. 0:10:12.800 --> 0:10:15.320 But what one thing that I think kind of this 0:10:15.480 --> 0:10:17.920 shows is that when you're dealing with politicians, if all 0:10:17.960 --> 0:10:20.280 you have is hey, pretty please be nice to us, 0:10:20.960 --> 0:10:23.640 but earlier you not just can you be ignored, but 0:10:23.760 --> 0:10:27.400 like if they go no, what else do you have then? 0:10:27.440 --> 0:10:30.160 If you don't have some other kind of leverage? And 0:10:30.280 --> 0:10:34.800 one thing I've seen consistently local, state, and federal levels 0:10:34.920 --> 0:10:37.400 is the odds are a lot better if people are 0:10:37.480 --> 0:10:41.439 angry and the politicians are afraid. So I think living 0:10:41.520 --> 0:10:44.720 that that's the real vantage the grassroots have, you know, 0:10:44.880 --> 0:10:47.480 stop caring about if politicians are your friends or really 0:10:47.520 --> 0:10:52.079 care about us, because generally the answer is they don't. 0:10:52.400 --> 0:10:56.240 None of them are our friends, and more focus on 0:10:56.280 --> 0:10:59.840 what can you and your communities, your friends, the larger 0:11:00.080 --> 0:11:03.360 networks you're part of, do to make their lives miserable 0:11:03.880 --> 0:11:05.640 until the part of the sascore you're trying to fight 0:11:05.679 --> 0:11:07.320 becomes unsustainable for them too. 0:11:08.640 --> 0:11:12.560 What I heard from people on the hill or people 0:11:12.640 --> 0:11:14.920 close to people on the Hill is basically that the 0:11:14.960 --> 0:11:18.520 whole bird rule maneuver. For this specific provision, there was 0:11:18.559 --> 0:11:20.439 you know, definitely whispers of it, you know, especially among 0:11:20.520 --> 0:11:23.840 Lompias and maybe some staffers. But until it was being 0:11:24.000 --> 0:11:27.760 publicly advocated for this specific tool to be used by 0:11:27.800 --> 0:11:33.400 constituents towards senators Democratic senators specifically, it wasn't really like 0:11:33.679 --> 0:11:35.840 hugely in consideration or like that wasn't something they were 0:11:35.880 --> 0:11:38.679 planning to do in a very strong way, Like maybe 0:11:38.720 --> 0:11:41.839 it would have happened eventually, But it definitely does seem 0:11:41.880 --> 0:11:47.360 like the constituent pressure specifically did help kind of make 0:11:47.400 --> 0:11:49.960 Democrats realize that hey, we're watching, you're watching you do 0:11:50.240 --> 0:11:53.920 like whether you're invoking these parliamentary procedures that you aren't 0:11:53.960 --> 0:11:55.520 supposed to know about. Like you're not supposed to know 0:11:55.520 --> 0:11:57.840 about this stuff, right, And it's like it's really obscure 0:11:57.880 --> 0:12:01.359 stuff that no one knows about except like super autistic 0:12:01.400 --> 0:12:04.360 paulicy Neer. It's like like me and a current probably, 0:12:05.000 --> 0:12:09.600 but yeah, and this kind of stuff is really what 0:12:09.760 --> 0:12:11.720 turns the needles. And like you can look at the 0:12:11.720 --> 0:12:14.880 other side too, right, Like, you know, there are extremely 0:12:14.920 --> 0:12:17.240 effective lobbies in Congress you can look at you can 0:12:17.280 --> 0:12:19.839 look at the lobby that literally got this provision into 0:12:19.880 --> 0:12:22.720 the bill. They sent a letter to Speaker Johnson saying, hey, 0:12:22.960 --> 0:12:25.679 you should expand this from miners only to adults because 0:12:25.720 --> 0:12:27.560 we think this will actually help it survive the bird 0:12:27.600 --> 0:12:30.280 rule better. And this was a public letter, right, And 0:12:30.360 --> 0:12:31.760 you know you might say, oh, well, that's not a 0:12:31.760 --> 0:12:34.280 big deal, right, it's a letter. Right, But how many 0:12:34.720 --> 0:12:39.240 gay rights organizations released a letter to Democrats saying they 0:12:39.240 --> 0:12:42.360 should invoke the bird rule. I'm not aware of any, like. 0:12:43.200 --> 0:12:46.319 Well, I think that's the key part of this is that, yes, eventually, 0:12:46.960 --> 0:12:50.640 some of those groups did start belatedly moving against this. Yes, 0:12:50.720 --> 0:12:53.720 eventually it's progi into a second some politicians did in 0:12:53.800 --> 0:12:57.280 various ways start moving against this. But I think it's 0:12:57.320 --> 0:12:59.360 important not to get kind of the cart before the horse. 0:12:59.640 --> 0:13:03.160 That came after the grassroots pressure, came after weeks of 0:13:03.240 --> 0:13:06.480 people getting angry at them, blowing up their phones, very 0:13:06.520 --> 0:13:09.880 public criticism, all the things that I think we're told 0:13:09.960 --> 0:13:11.720 a lot of the time by liberals and Democrats we're 0:13:11.800 --> 0:13:14.760 not supposed to do, you know, be nice or you know, 0:13:14.840 --> 0:13:16.920 your concerns won't be heard. Well, it turns out is 0:13:16.920 --> 0:13:19.560 that the Isaac alas is the case. And you mentioned 0:13:19.559 --> 0:13:22.680 that those conservative lobbyists people know, you know, I don't 0:13:22.720 --> 0:13:25.480 think it's always a rule that the tactics or enemy 0:13:25.520 --> 0:13:29.520 can be adopted for various reasons. But the NRA and 0:13:29.520 --> 0:13:33.520 all of these terrible groups don't go into Congress going, hey, 0:13:33.760 --> 0:13:36.600 please be nice to us. They go in going do 0:13:36.760 --> 0:13:39.160 this or we're going to make your life hell yeah. 0:13:39.320 --> 0:13:42.240 And if you're if this is a terrain people are 0:13:42.240 --> 0:13:44.800 going to fight on, that's how you have to fight 0:13:45.000 --> 0:13:48.480 as far as because that's what moves politicians at every 0:13:48.559 --> 0:13:51.840 level is it's oh my god, I do not want 0:13:52.440 --> 0:13:53.719 this group angry at me. 0:13:54.720 --> 0:13:57.800 And it's one thing I want to add to is 0:13:58.559 --> 0:14:00.800 since the bird rules and soil in the band was 0:14:00.840 --> 0:14:04.760 taken out. There has emerged a common narrative online. It's 0:14:04.760 --> 0:14:07.840 not really one specific person doing this, it's just kind 0:14:07.840 --> 0:14:11.000 of something that's kind of collectively emerged in that claiming 0:14:11.000 --> 0:14:15.000 that the credit lies with politicians, with lobbyists, with staffers, 0:14:15.000 --> 0:14:18.600 with all these anonymous people behind closed doors who are 0:14:19.120 --> 0:14:21.880 supposedly the ones that actually did the work, and no 0:14:21.920 --> 0:14:26.760 one else matters. I want to strongly emphasize that that 0:14:26.960 --> 0:14:30.600 is not only not true, but dangerous rhetoric. 0:14:31.800 --> 0:14:32.640 It's propaganda. 0:14:32.960 --> 0:14:38.080 It's propaganda. Yes, it's an attempt to reinforce the role 0:14:38.240 --> 0:14:41.440 that the state has in subjugating everyone, to reinforce the 0:14:41.480 --> 0:14:44.800 fact that, oh no, the way things are is perfect. 0:14:44.880 --> 0:14:47.640 You can trust all these leaders to protect you when 0:14:47.880 --> 0:14:50.360 you can't. They are the reason we got in this mess. 0:14:50.480 --> 0:14:52.600 The gay en tactics are the things that have failed 0:14:52.680 --> 0:14:55.400 and led to this in the first place. Liberals have 0:14:55.480 --> 0:14:59.760 plenty of opportunities prevent this and they didn't. And ultimately, 0:15:00.840 --> 0:15:04.840 the reason that this narrative spreads is because, at the 0:15:04.920 --> 0:15:06.680 end of the day, gay yank is called back for 0:15:06.720 --> 0:15:10.320 a reason because well, yes, their interests happen to align 0:15:10.520 --> 0:15:13.520 on the realm of queer rights because they themselves are queer. 0:15:14.080 --> 0:15:16.800 At the end of the day, they are still representing 0:15:16.840 --> 0:15:20.080 the upper class, and their primary interests are still going 0:15:20.120 --> 0:15:22.800 to be with protecting the upper class and protecting the 0:15:22.880 --> 0:15:26.600 role they have in subjugating the lower class and subjugating 0:15:26.640 --> 0:15:30.960 marginalized people who are not in their economic class. 0:15:31.320 --> 0:15:34.920 Yeah, which is most trans people, like all of us. 0:15:35.160 --> 0:15:36.760 Yeah, this is. 0:15:36.760 --> 0:15:39.400 Like really important because I don't think the intersections of 0:15:39.480 --> 0:15:42.080 queerness and definitely not transists in class get talked about 0:15:42.120 --> 0:15:46.000 nearly enough. Yeah, which is is that queer and transy 0:15:46.080 --> 0:15:52.800 are overwhelmingly working class demographics. Yep, like the legislators you know, 0:15:52.840 --> 0:15:55.200 like Sara McBride, but also like the people running gang 0:15:55.240 --> 0:15:58.960 crimanizations are not just like not generally representative of our 0:15:59.040 --> 0:16:03.280 wider communities in a lot of ways. They also just 0:16:03.360 --> 0:16:07.200 have had incredibly different lives almost always, with some exceptions, 0:16:07.560 --> 0:16:11.440 they've been part of the gentry their entire lives, and 0:16:11.600 --> 0:16:14.240 most queer trans people, especially trans people, are as far 0:16:14.280 --> 0:16:17.280 from the gentry as you get. So that does create 0:16:17.320 --> 0:16:21.320 like this massive gulf. But also I think it's one 0:16:21.400 --> 0:16:24.359 reason these groups are so out of touch. But also 0:16:25.440 --> 0:16:28.040 I think it does. You know, if we put the 0:16:28.080 --> 0:16:30.880 power back on ourselves, if we realize that this kind 0:16:30.920 --> 0:16:34.520 of grassroots anger is much more representative of where queer 0:16:34.520 --> 0:16:37.960 and trans people are, If this willingness to fight directly 0:16:38.280 --> 0:16:41.600 in whatever tactics people choose is much more like in 0:16:41.800 --> 0:16:45.320 keeping with like queer culture and tradition and history, then 0:16:45.360 --> 0:16:46.840 I think there's a lot of power there. And I 0:16:46.840 --> 0:16:49.720 think this is an example of successfully wielding that. I 0:16:49.720 --> 0:16:53.800 think Mirror was correct about this propaganda that's kind of 0:16:53.800 --> 0:16:56.200 been spreading in the wake, and it was particularly I 0:16:56.240 --> 0:17:00.800 think egregious because it specifically like tried to credit Sarah McBride, 0:17:00.840 --> 0:17:04.119 who had just come off a really obnoxious interview with 0:17:04.240 --> 0:17:07.320 The New York Times where she was literally against all 0:17:07.440 --> 0:17:11.000 the aggressive trans rights, and then after the band finally 0:17:11.000 --> 0:17:15.240 got killed, this you know, various sources and honestly, I 0:17:15.280 --> 0:17:17.760 don't know anyone hearing this stuff, and whatever capacities the 0:17:17.800 --> 0:17:21.160 journalist act is, whatever, I think it's just professionally good 0:17:21.160 --> 0:17:24.639 to be more skeptical when these kind of convenient narratives emerge. 0:17:24.920 --> 0:17:28.200 But kind of embers, Oh, behind the scenes, she'd been 0:17:28.200 --> 0:17:30.800 doing so much. Yeah, sure, in public, she'd been you know, 0:17:31.160 --> 0:17:33.800 very either low key or refusing defend trains rights at all, 0:17:34.160 --> 0:17:37.399 even justifying some of the narratives of our enemies. But 0:17:37.480 --> 0:17:39.240 sure she was doing all this behind the scenes. 0:17:39.840 --> 0:17:43.080 She refused to fucking do anything when they banned trans 0:17:43.119 --> 0:17:45.200 people from fucking bathrooms in DC. 0:17:45.840 --> 0:17:50.840 Yes, like in Capitol him, wouldn't even defend her own staffers, Yes, exactly. 0:17:51.000 --> 0:17:53.720 So like it's worth being skeptical to claim that she 0:17:53.800 --> 0:17:56.040 was doing so much behind the scenes. However, you know 0:17:56.119 --> 0:17:58.040 if she was prompted in the last week of a 0:17:58.119 --> 0:18:00.879 multi week effort to suddenly start taking some action based 0:18:00.880 --> 0:18:03.600 on anger. Great part of the point of these strategies 0:18:03.640 --> 0:18:06.240 is to prompt people who don't want to act into 0:18:06.320 --> 0:18:10.080 feeling like they're forced to act. But I think in 0:18:10.240 --> 0:18:14.760 twenty years of covering politics at various levels, if politicians 0:18:14.800 --> 0:18:18.280 don't like something, you will know. If they support something, 0:18:18.440 --> 0:18:21.080 you will know they will be very loud and very public, 0:18:21.080 --> 0:18:23.680 because the public platform is one of the biggest powers 0:18:23.680 --> 0:18:26.439 they have, as well as doing whatever behind the scenes. 0:18:26.840 --> 0:18:29.879 If they're quiet about something or even seem opposite to 0:18:30.040 --> 0:18:32.399 especially if it involves a group on the front lines 0:18:32.480 --> 0:18:36.480 like trans communities, and then later on they try to 0:18:36.560 --> 0:18:39.919 kind of take back credit of saying, oh, look, you know, 0:18:40.480 --> 0:18:42.720 we were doing so much behind the scenes that is 0:18:42.760 --> 0:18:45.919 pretty universally attacked to commit to demobilize people. 0:18:46.359 --> 0:18:49.000 Yeah, and I want to note that the point of 0:18:49.080 --> 0:18:51.080 us saying this is not to say that you know, 0:18:51.160 --> 0:18:54.560 Sarah McBride or you know Saffers or other people didn't 0:18:54.560 --> 0:18:56.440 do anything. Like, of course they did stuff right like, 0:18:56.480 --> 0:18:58.840 they voted, they were voting. Note, they probably made some 0:18:58.880 --> 0:19:01.840 phone calls and stuff, right, But what we're saying is like, Okay, 0:19:01.880 --> 0:19:04.720 they basically did the bare minimum of what they're supposed 0:19:04.760 --> 0:19:07.320 to do, right like, and that was only after a 0:19:07.400 --> 0:19:11.920 huge pressure campaign from the grassroots and from people who 0:19:11.960 --> 0:19:14.760 they would literally not be even in office without. Like 0:19:15.280 --> 0:19:17.800 I did the math in an article way back in 0:19:17.800 --> 0:19:20.719 that last November, and there's like exit polls showing that 0:19:20.760 --> 0:19:24.600 like eighty six percent of LGBTQ people voted for Democrats 0:19:24.800 --> 0:19:28.120 last year. That's like a crazy margin. That's like it's 0:19:28.200 --> 0:19:31.560 up there with you know, black voters and LGBTQ people 0:19:31.560 --> 0:19:34.280 are like the biggest bass of the Democratic Party, right Like, 0:19:34.280 --> 0:19:36.200 they would have lost three or four more Senate seats 0:19:36.200 --> 0:19:37.840 they it would have been like a fifty six or 0:19:37.880 --> 0:19:40.760 fifty seven seat chamber if it were not for literally 0:19:40.800 --> 0:19:43.920 the people that are advocating for this healthcare. And it's 0:19:43.960 --> 0:19:47.359 it's so absurd that, like Sarah McBride, what she did was, 0:19:47.480 --> 0:19:49.760 if we assume everything that's been said is true about 0:19:49.880 --> 0:19:52.960 this is what she's done is basically she got Democrats 0:19:53.000 --> 0:19:56.199 to not vote to take away the healthcare of two 0:19:56.280 --> 0:19:59.480 hundred thousand trans people, which is like, why was that 0:19:59.560 --> 0:20:02.520 even a qu question like this? This is the actual 0:20:02.520 --> 0:20:04.760 story that came out of this. In my opinion that 0:20:04.920 --> 0:20:07.840 was bigger is that this was ever in question that 0:20:07.880 --> 0:20:10.440 there might be like seven or eight Democrats who would 0:20:10.520 --> 0:20:14.320 vote to ban Medicaid from two hundred three hundred thousand 0:20:14.359 --> 0:20:18.080 trans people, like and the fact that we're supposed to 0:20:18.080 --> 0:20:20.880 like give them a huge applause for not doing that 0:20:21.000 --> 0:20:23.439 is is kind of obscene to me. 0:20:23.920 --> 0:20:26.760 Yeah, I think the readiness to thank politicians kind of 0:20:26.800 --> 0:20:29.879 cuts against the grassroots anger and organizing that works. 0:20:29.600 --> 0:20:30.160 So well here. 0:20:30.520 --> 0:20:34.000 Yep, because you don't want them. Actually, I think it's 0:20:34.000 --> 0:20:37.240 cerally a good rule not to thank politicians because what 0:20:37.320 --> 0:20:39.359 you want to constantly keep them in. If that's the 0:20:39.440 --> 0:20:41.680 terrain you're going to fight on is they need to 0:20:41.720 --> 0:20:44.679 feel like they're on thin ice. They need to worry 0:20:44.720 --> 0:20:47.920 their staff needs to worry about Okay, we got to 0:20:48.000 --> 0:20:51.040 keep this out of the bill, because holy hell, you 0:20:51.119 --> 0:20:54.280 do not want those queers mad at you. That's where 0:20:54.359 --> 0:20:57.440 you want to get closer to if putting pressure on 0:20:57.560 --> 0:21:01.919 politicians is is what needs to happen, And so buying 0:21:01.920 --> 0:21:04.399 these narratives thanking them, that takes the pressure off. 0:21:05.000 --> 0:21:07.880 Don't ever do that, you know, yes, and. 0:21:07.600 --> 0:21:10.439 So I think it's it's kind of important. And you know, 0:21:10.520 --> 0:21:14.280 to quote the internet masterpiece of old drill tweet like 0:21:14.400 --> 0:21:15.840 you do underneath circumstances. 0:21:15.880 --> 0:21:17.120 Have to hand it to them. 0:21:17.440 --> 0:21:24.000 At best, they acted late, grudgingly after they faced a 0:21:24.080 --> 0:21:27.560 ton of anger that resulted and was help amplified by 0:21:27.600 --> 0:21:31.000 a ton of work from bluntly like working class trans 0:21:31.000 --> 0:21:32.639 people and working class for your people. 0:21:33.080 --> 0:21:36.480 Yeah, and I would argue that what Representative McBride did specifically, 0:21:36.840 --> 0:21:38.639 even assuming that it did like help us in the 0:21:38.640 --> 0:21:41.080 short term with this bill, the way that she's been 0:21:41.160 --> 0:21:43.240 kind of talking about this internally and in the New 0:21:43.320 --> 0:21:48.439 York Times interview is actually extremely dangerous for trans people because, 0:21:48.720 --> 0:21:50.359 like believe it or not, they're not going to stop 0:21:50.400 --> 0:21:52.400 with this bill. They're going to do it again. They're 0:21:52.400 --> 0:21:54.520