WEBVTT - Commodification and Assault 0:00:11.840 --> 0:00:14.680 Good morning, peeps, and welcome to Okay f Daily with 0:00:14.720 --> 0:00:19.560 Meet your Girl Danielle Moody. Recording from the Bunker, Folks. 0:00:19.880 --> 0:00:24.599 This recording is taking place before the hearings that will 0:00:24.640 --> 0:00:29.040 happen with the House Commission, so we will be covering 0:00:29.160 --> 0:00:34.720 that in the next show. But I want to bring 0:00:34.800 --> 0:00:39.920 to you today a conversation once again for our Pride 0:00:39.960 --> 0:00:46.479 as a Riot series with my friend, activist writer, transactivist, writer, 0:00:46.760 --> 0:00:52.600 advocate Tik Milan. You know, I have had throughout my 0:00:53.479 --> 0:00:57.760 many many years as an activist, as an advocate, as 0:00:57.800 --> 0:01:01.400 a policy wonk, have had a of hate relationship with 0:01:01.520 --> 0:01:07.040 Pride and because of the capital list nature of it, 0:01:07.280 --> 0:01:10.759 right what I'm finding and we're seeing it right now 0:01:10.840 --> 0:01:15.360 with Juneteenth, Juneteenth becoming a federal holiday means that corporations 0:01:15.480 --> 0:01:19.039 want to dig their hands into how they can make 0:01:19.080 --> 0:01:23.640 money right off of the something that is about the 0:01:23.720 --> 0:01:28.640 sanctity of our freedom as black people and the travesty 0:01:28.800 --> 0:01:32.840 that Juneteenth, even as a holiday, needed to exist because 0:01:32.880 --> 0:01:37.080 it was the last of the enslaved Africans that would 0:01:37.120 --> 0:01:41.279 hear of their freedom. Right and now you have fucking 0:01:41.280 --> 0:01:44.200 corporations turning around and making ice cream and T shirts 0:01:44.240 --> 0:01:48.720 to sell back to the very communities that they extract from, right, 0:01:49.440 --> 0:01:53.680 and so with pride. You know, I when I first 0:01:53.800 --> 0:01:58.760 came out, I was so excited to attend, you know, 0:01:58.960 --> 0:02:03.200 my first Pride per raid, my first Pride parties because 0:02:03.520 --> 0:02:07.320 you know, as a young queer person, and the times 0:02:07.320 --> 0:02:10.960 are different now, but I just want to imagine, you know, 0:02:11.360 --> 0:02:14.680 bring you back to a time and imagine what it 0:02:14.720 --> 0:02:19.000 was like before there was marriage equality, before you saw 0:02:19.440 --> 0:02:24.400 you know, corporations lifting up rainbow flags, before you know, 0:02:24.480 --> 0:02:28.520 you had politicians even uttering the world gay or lesbian. 0:02:29.360 --> 0:02:31.480 You know, I grew up in a time where Donas 0:02:31.520 --> 0:02:35.640 don't Tell was hailed as progressive, right. I grew up 0:02:35.639 --> 0:02:40.560 in a time when you know, Ellen DeGeneres had lost 0:02:40.600 --> 0:02:43.960 her job because she came out and said that she 0:02:44.080 --> 0:02:47.359 was gay and on the cover of a magazine and 0:02:47.400 --> 0:02:50.240 then you didn't hear from her for well over a decade. 0:02:51.080 --> 0:02:54.360 So when that is the kind of imagery that's being 0:02:54.400 --> 0:02:59.600 reinforced to you, you know, through acts of policy, through 0:02:59.760 --> 0:03:05.119 your church, through your community. The whole idea around Pride 0:03:05.720 --> 0:03:08.560 was to take you from a place of being invisible 0:03:08.760 --> 0:03:12.840 to visibility, take you to a place where the world 0:03:13.200 --> 0:03:16.320 is telling you that you should be ashamed of who 0:03:16.360 --> 0:03:21.919 you are, of who you love, of your humanity right, 0:03:21.960 --> 0:03:25.720 that you are an embarrassment and an abomination. You know, 0:03:26.320 --> 0:03:30.600 the other day I said that there was a self 0:03:30.600 --> 0:03:34.320 proclaimed Christian fascist mob that rolled up on a gay 0:03:34.360 --> 0:03:40.360 bar in the gay neighborhood of Dallas, Texas, and that 0:03:40.520 --> 0:03:44.400 one of those disgusting house members, Lauren Bobert, you know, 0:03:44.440 --> 0:03:47.400 the one that wants to wheeld around her nine millimeter gun, 0:03:47.960 --> 0:03:52.800 had the audacity to tweet and say that those kids 0:03:52.840 --> 0:03:55.720 shouldn't be at a you know, be at a drag bar, 0:03:55.840 --> 0:03:59.280 be at pride celebrating with their families. They should be 0:03:59.320 --> 0:04:03.320 at church. Bitch. I don't know if you haven't seen 0:04:03.560 --> 0:04:07.440 what has happened to the church over the past twenty 0:04:07.440 --> 0:04:10.760 fucking years. You mean, all of the pedophilia and actual 0:04:11.120 --> 0:04:13.960 grooming that has been done at the hands of religious 0:04:13.960 --> 0:04:17.320 figures who were given children as a way to guide 0:04:17.360 --> 0:04:21.080 and love them and didn't. And then come to find 0:04:21.120 --> 0:04:25.560 out that Lauren Boubert's own fucking disgusting ass husband serve 0:04:25.640 --> 0:04:28.440 time in prison for what you ask, will let me 0:04:28.480 --> 0:04:32.680 tell you. Come to find out he exposed himself to 0:04:32.839 --> 0:04:36.119 a group of teenage girls at a bowling alley. Don't 0:04:36.120 --> 0:04:39.880 believe me, go ahead and google it. So what comes 0:04:39.960 --> 0:04:43.440 up for me is that these people who have the 0:04:43.480 --> 0:04:47.800 audacity to tell queer people that we should be ashamed, 0:04:48.000 --> 0:04:50.679 that we should be the ones that are kept away 0:04:50.960 --> 0:04:54.120 from civilized society because we are the ones that are 0:04:54.120 --> 0:04:57.520 harming children. Well, I want you to pull back the 0:04:57.560 --> 0:05:01.960 fucking cloak, right and look under what it is that 0:05:02.040 --> 0:05:05.240 these people actually stand for and who they stand with, 0:05:05.600 --> 0:05:08.919 like the Matt gates Is of the world right, like 0:05:09.200 --> 0:05:14.400 the Jeffrey Epsteins of the world Daily Coast has done. 0:05:14.520 --> 0:05:17.839 I think maybe now they're in their forty part series 0:05:18.400 --> 0:05:23.679 of sexual abusers, pedophiles and harassers that have been charged 0:05:23.680 --> 0:05:28.000 and convicted within the Republican Party. So I say all 0:05:28.000 --> 0:05:30.520 of that to say that we are at a time 0:05:31.480 --> 0:05:35.520 going back to a really dark time in our society 0:05:35.560 --> 0:05:40.360 where the LGBTQ community, particularly trans people, have been made 0:05:40.400 --> 0:05:43.240 a target of the right, and we are being forced 0:05:43.320 --> 0:05:48.760 during our Pride month and celebration to be worried about 0:05:48.800 --> 0:05:53.680 our safety, to be worried about whether or not our 0:05:53.760 --> 0:05:58.000 children are going to be able to be safe talking 0:05:58.120 --> 0:06:03.719 about their families, their community, in their schools, right. And 0:06:03.760 --> 0:06:07.839 so I have this love hate relationship with pride now 0:06:07.920 --> 0:06:11.440 once again because I see the commodification of it right 0:06:12.040 --> 0:06:15.040 without any of the integrity behind it. I see these 0:06:15.080 --> 0:06:19.279 corporations that are so quick to rainbow up their websites 0:06:19.360 --> 0:06:22.039 and you know, and their Twitter feeds and all of 0:06:22.080 --> 0:06:26.000 these things, but then they give money to the Lauren Beaubert's, 0:06:26.080 --> 0:06:28.839 the Donald Trump's and the Matt Gates is of the world. 0:06:29.360 --> 0:06:33.200 So I'm like, you can't have it both ways. So 0:06:33.279 --> 0:06:36.400 I would love it for all of us for pride 0:06:36.400 --> 0:06:39.760 to go back to a space where it originated from, 0:06:40.200 --> 0:06:44.840 which was there is the society at large that has 0:06:45.040 --> 0:06:49.919 deep problem with people owning who they are and challenging 0:06:49.960 --> 0:06:55.400 the fucking status quo. And because of that right, they 0:06:55.440 --> 0:06:58.520 are trying to force us back into the closet, to 0:06:58.880 --> 0:07:04.840 criminalize our very existence. And so this month, in speaking 0:07:04.880 --> 0:07:10.680 with so many bold, brilliant queer people, I just want 0:07:10.720 --> 0:07:14.320 to remind all of us, you know what pride is 0:07:14.400 --> 0:07:17.160 really about. And sure it is about the fucking glitter 0:07:17.240 --> 0:07:20.560 and the thongs and the music and the rainbows and 0:07:20.640 --> 0:07:23.160 the good time, because that is our way of saying 0:07:23.280 --> 0:07:27.920 fuck you to heteronormativity, of saying fuck you to those 0:07:27.960 --> 0:07:32.040 who tried to coerce us right into believing that there 0:07:32.160 --> 0:07:36.880 was something wrong with us. And so I want, as 0:07:37.000 --> 0:07:41.280 you know, we are seeing the continued commodification, the continued 0:07:41.720 --> 0:07:46.440 assault against the trans community in general, right that all 0:07:46.480 --> 0:07:49.200 of us, whether you are a part of the queer 0:07:49.240 --> 0:07:53.720 community or an ally, used this month as an opportunity 0:07:53.760 --> 0:07:57.920 to learn more right about our origins, to learn more 0:07:58.040 --> 0:08:01.200 about how you can be and active ally. And it 0:08:01.240 --> 0:08:05.760 doesn't just mean attending a Pride parade right or going 0:08:05.800 --> 0:08:09.000 to a Pride event. It means that we are under 0:08:09.040 --> 0:08:12.600 assault once again, that we are being placed with targets 0:08:12.600 --> 0:08:16.040 on our back, stuffed and put back into a closet. 0:08:16.360 --> 0:08:19.520 And so if you have a platform or in a 0:08:19.600 --> 0:08:24.200 position of power to offer your voice, then please, please, 0:08:24.320 --> 0:08:27.600 I urge you to do so. Coming up next, my 0:08:27.720 --> 0:08:40.760 conversation with my friend, activist model author Tiq Milan. The 0:08:40.840 --> 0:08:43.520 Damage Report with John Idarola is one of the most 0:08:43.520 --> 0:08:46.440 popular shows on the TYT Network that serves as your 0:08:46.559 --> 0:08:49.640 daily breakdown of the genuine threats and challenges facing our 0:08:49.640 --> 0:08:53.200 country and world. These days, we're confronted with an overwhelming 0:08:53.240 --> 0:08:57.199 sea of shocking, confounding, and devastating news stories. 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New episodes every Tuesday, folks. 0:10:07.080 --> 0:10:10.200 I am very happy to be joined on woke af 0:10:10.320 --> 0:10:17.440 today by longtime friend, activist, speaker, writer all the amazing 0:10:17.520 --> 0:10:23.800 Things Tique Milan Tique. We you know, are living in 0:10:23.880 --> 0:10:26.840 extraordinary times. I don't even know some days where to 0:10:27.000 --> 0:10:31.240 start with the interviews that I'm doing, but I want 0:10:31.240 --> 0:10:35.320 to start with this. We know through the history of 0:10:35.480 --> 0:10:40.360 our community that Pride began as a riot. Pride was 0:10:40.440 --> 0:10:46.080 about black transwomen leading the charge to fight back against 0:10:46.120 --> 0:10:53.120 police brutality in New York at Stonewall. And since the 0:10:53.280 --> 0:10:59.000 inception of this fight of resistance, Pride has kind of 0:10:59.040 --> 0:11:04.000 become personalized. It has become a part of the capitalistic 0:11:04.160 --> 0:11:08.480 cog in the WHEELM what do you think about Pride 0:11:08.600 --> 0:11:15.360 now versus what Pride began as. Yeah, I mean I 0:11:15.440 --> 0:11:17.640 love Pride, I really do. I love Pride Month. I 0:11:17.679 --> 0:11:19.679 love Pride Season. It's a great time for us to 0:11:19.720 --> 0:11:22.440 get together as a community and to celebrate, you know, 0:11:22.480 --> 0:11:24.840 how far we've come as as as as a community 0:11:24.840 --> 0:11:27.760 as people, right as LGBTQ people. Anyway, it did start 0:11:27.760 --> 0:11:29.080 off as a riot, and I think I think it 0:11:29.120 --> 0:11:31.680 has lost some of that edge. I think, you know, 0:11:31.760 --> 0:11:34.320 I really do love the celebratory spirit of pride, but 0:11:34.360 --> 0:11:36.679 what really kind of pisces me off is how can 0:11:36.679 --> 0:11:39.040 you get to exploit it all of the rainbows everywhere 0:11:39.200 --> 0:11:41.800 of companies who don't give a damn about LGBTQ, people 0:11:41.800 --> 0:11:45.000 who are not really invested in like diversifying their candidate pool, 0:11:45.040 --> 0:11:46.640 who are not interested in making sure you have an 0:11:46.720 --> 0:11:51.240 l LGBTQ people in positions of leadership and decision making positions, 0:11:51.360 --> 0:11:53.920 and it's just kind of displacating and just it's just 0:11:53.960 --> 0:11:56.439 turned into a product. Right, So that is kind of 0:11:56.480 --> 0:11:59.560 disheartening that would start off as a protest and as 0:11:59.640 --> 0:12:02.840 kind of like our freedom song, our our our cry 0:12:02.880 --> 0:12:06.560 for freedom and equality has turned into has been commodified 0:12:06.760 --> 0:12:09.440 and packaged in rainbows, and it's being sold back to us. 0:12:09.640 --> 0:12:11.720 But I think that is the nature of this country. 0:12:12.160 --> 0:12:14.360 This is what we do, you know, and you know 0:12:14.640 --> 0:12:18.000 that we see the for Juneteenth, we saw with you know, 0:12:18.080 --> 0:12:24.640 Black Lives Cream Girl, and and they have place that 0:12:24.720 --> 0:12:28.680 said it's the freedom for me girl, whose ideas that 0:12:29.240 --> 0:12:31.160 you know, there are no black people in the room 0:12:31.160 --> 0:12:33.439 where they decided to do that. Right, So this is 0:12:33.480 --> 0:12:35.520 kind of disheartened to see that that's happening with that 0:12:35.520 --> 0:12:37.679 that has happened with Pride. It's going to continue to happen. 0:12:37.960 --> 0:12:40.440 But I think, you know, so with that being said, 0:12:40.480 --> 0:12:42.280 so then what so then what do we do? So? 0:12:42.320 --> 0:12:43.959 I think for those of us like you and me, 0:12:44.040 --> 0:12:47.160 who are considered leaders in in you know, in our communities, 0:12:47.200 --> 0:12:49.280 how can we leverage those privileges that we have, How 0:12:49.320 --> 0:12:51.960 can we leverage our influence, in our power and our 0:12:52.040 --> 0:12:54.560 leadership capabilities to make sure people don't forget that this 0:12:54.600 --> 0:12:56.760 startoff has a fight, that this was a riot. So 0:12:56.800 --> 0:12:59.280 we could celebrate, okay, but go ahead throw those punches 0:12:59.280 --> 0:13:02.120 with a smile on your factually throw those punches, you know. So, 0:13:02.160 --> 0:13:03.959 I think it's up to us as leaders in the 0:13:04.000 --> 0:13:06.400 community to make sure that we don't forget where we 0:13:06.480 --> 0:13:09.640 came from as as as a Pride community, and also 0:13:09.679 --> 0:13:12.720 to lay out some better blueprints for the future of Pride. 0:13:13.920 --> 0:13:19.600 When you see tiak all of the policy attacks that 0:13:19.640 --> 0:13:24.280 are particularly being waged against trans youth in this country 0:13:24.360 --> 0:13:28.040 in places like Florida and Texas and Tennessee and Oklahoma 0:13:28.080 --> 0:13:32.360 and Mississippi, right, It's happening across the country. Yeah. Do 0:13:32.400 --> 0:13:36.360 you think that this, unlike with marriage equality, which was 0:13:36.400 --> 0:13:41.560 its own fight, do you think that these attacks, particularly 0:13:41.640 --> 0:13:47.440 around don't stay gay right, trans kids can't participate in sports? 0:13:48.000 --> 0:13:51.080 Do you think that this will be the galvanizing force 0:13:51.360 --> 0:13:55.040 or forces to get us back to the roots of 0:13:55.160 --> 0:13:59.080 what pride was about our resistance or have we just 0:13:59.160 --> 0:14:04.600 become too comfortable and complacent. I think we've become too 0:14:04.600 --> 0:14:07.800 comfortable and complacent. I'm really it's I'm really scared about this, 0:14:07.920 --> 0:14:11.120 all this legislation that's happening right now, particularly you have 0:14:11.160 --> 0:14:13.920 like Roe v. Wade actually being on the chopping block, 0:14:13.960 --> 0:14:15.920 and this the prescedent that that can set, and how 0:14:15.960 --> 0:14:18.240 that's going to trickle down and then not for nothing, 0:14:18.400 --> 0:14:21.520 even if the Supreme Court doesn't Even if if the 0:14:21.560 --> 0:14:24.800 Supreme Court doesn't make these bad decisions, these the states 0:14:24.800 --> 0:14:28.200 are already empowered to take away people's rights. And I 0:14:28.240 --> 0:14:30.440 think people are really complacent, And I think there are 0:14:30.480 --> 0:14:33.560 too many people in the queer community who are not 0:14:33.720 --> 0:14:36.520 invested in the lives of trans people, particularly that of 0:14:37.200 --> 0:14:40.720 black and brown trans people. Because they got their marriage equality, 0:14:40.920 --> 0:14:42.960 they got their house alt of Fire Island and they're 0:14:42.960 --> 0:14:45.360 having a good time. Um, and you know, and I 0:14:45.360 --> 0:14:46.840 think what we have to understand it has to be 0:14:46.880 --> 0:14:48.640 all of us or none of us. And the thing 0:14:48.680 --> 0:14:53.600 that really that's that's like that's really frustrating about it 0:14:53.640 --> 0:14:57.000 is that people can be people who are gatekeeping in 0:14:57.040 --> 0:15:00.360 these organizations who are not necessarily who aren't really doing 0:15:00.400 --> 0:15:02.280 the hard work and the nuanced work that needs to happen. 0:15:02.280 --> 0:15:04.800 And that's why I implore people that are who are 0:15:04.920 --> 0:15:07.440 allied that if they're going to donate time and resources, 0:15:07.440 --> 0:15:10.640 donate your resources to grassroots organizations like I love the 0:15:10.680 --> 0:15:12.320 Human Rights curR of Paign, and I love Glad, and 0:15:12.320 --> 0:15:13.920 I love all these organizations that are doing this, but 0:15:13.960 --> 0:15:16.640 they sucking in millions and millions of dollars and are 0:15:16.640 --> 0:15:19.200 just on the surface. We have other organizations like the 0:15:19.440 --> 0:15:23.080 Marster P. Johnson Project and Anti Violence Project who are 0:15:23.080 --> 0:15:25.560 really like doing like groundwork, and those are the people 0:15:25.560 --> 0:15:27.120 who need are funding and those are the people who 0:15:27.120 --> 0:15:29.000 we really need to be listening to. But I think 0:15:29.040 --> 0:15:31.640 just a lot of people are just really comfortable where 0:15:31.640 --> 0:15:34.120 they're all where they are and are really comfortable with 0:15:34.200 --> 0:15:36.320 like turning away from it. Turning away from it and 0:15:36.360 --> 0:15:39.920 maybe I don't know, retweeting or you know, hashtagging or 0:15:39.920 --> 0:15:44.640 whatever and calling that solidarity when it's just like performance. 0:15:44.680 --> 0:15:46.840 Nobody's really ready to get their hands dirty, and it 0:15:46.840 --> 0:15:49.000 feels like folks aren't really ready to get uncomfortable. And 0:15:49.000 --> 0:15:50.480 the only people that are really doing it is us. 0:15:50.880 --> 0:15:53.000 It's the black trans folks who are out here doing it, 0:15:53.160 --> 0:15:54.720 in the black queer folks who are out here doing it. 0:15:54.760 --> 0:15:58.800 I'm tired, really, you know. It's it is really interesting 0:15:58.880 --> 0:16:02.760 because I've been thinking about this a lot, which is 0:16:02.960 --> 0:16:08.120 the fact that I don't think that within the LGBTQ community, 0:16:08.280 --> 0:16:13.040 we've done a really good job of continuing to embrace 0:16:13.720 --> 0:16:18.560 and the trans part of the community. I think that 0:16:18.600 --> 0:16:22.920 these attacks are able to be waged at a statewide level, 0:16:22.960 --> 0:16:27.560 at a national level because the trans community is low 0:16:27.600 --> 0:16:30.880 hanging fruit. Oh yea, because we and so what do 0:16:30.960 --> 0:16:34.240 you where do you see the breakdown is that we 0:16:34.320 --> 0:16:39.680 have had amongst ourselves that has allowed this kind of 0:16:39.760 --> 0:16:43.360 set up to be what it is right now? Yeah, 0:16:43.400 --> 0:16:47.440 I don't know, I mean, how have we allowed this 0:16:47.520 --> 0:16:50.280 to happen? Again? I think that folks are not necessarily 0:16:50.520 --> 0:16:53.520 putting all the resources in time, to the organizations and 0:16:53.520 --> 0:16:55.760 to the people who can really speak to this issue. Right. 0:16:55.800 --> 0:16:58.520 But I also think it's it's bigger than the queer community, 0:16:58.520 --> 0:17:01.240 because what's happening is this is sault on trans bodies. 0:17:01.640 --> 0:17:06.120 Is because it's because we exist, transgender people, us being 0:17:06.160 --> 0:17:08.560 self determined in our gender and us saying that we can. 0:17:08.640 --> 0:17:10.400 We're gonna live the way we want. We're gonna look 0:17:10.440 --> 0:17:13.040 the way we want, despite what gender we're assigned with, 0:17:13.119 --> 0:17:16.040 despite what our body parts are, despite how people say 0:17:16.080 --> 0:17:18.640 masculine and femininity, if feminite supposed to look in the world, 0:17:18.760 --> 0:17:20.679 when we do that, we are kind of just turning 0:17:20.840 --> 0:17:26.000 patriarchy on its head. Makes the United makes America America? 0:17:26.240 --> 0:17:29.000 Is it's patriarchy, which gives all of these old white 0:17:29.040 --> 0:17:32.199 men all of their power. Is patriarchy, right, And so 0:17:32.280 --> 0:17:34.560 what we are doing just by existing, we are we 0:17:34.600 --> 0:17:37.880 are dismantling the patriarchy, just by existing in our skin, 0:17:38.080 --> 0:17:40.120 and they can't take it. And that is something that's 0:17:40.119 --> 0:17:42.159 bigger than the community. So it's not even it's not 0:17:42.200 --> 0:17:45.119 necessarily just about the LGBTQ. This is an assault on 0:17:45.240 --> 0:17:47.879 gender and trying to tell people, trying to legislate us 0:17:47.880 --> 0:17:50.280 out of existence in order to hold on to this 0:17:50.400 --> 0:17:56.040 like heteronormative nuclear family, this very white, absist kind of life, 0:17:56.040 --> 0:17:58.640 and that's in us being in the world is saying 0:17:58.640 --> 0:18:00.880 that that's not it, Like that can be some people's lives, 0:18:00.880 --> 0:18:02.520 but it's not all of us. We really complicate the 0:18:02.600 --> 0:18:05.040 human experience to the point where people just can't take it. 0:18:05.200 --> 0:18:07.119 They can't take us because the thing is is that 0:18:07.240 --> 0:18:08.879 you have people in power, and the only reason that 0:18:08.880 --> 0:18:11.120 they are in powers because they're standing on the next 0:18:11.119 --> 0:18:13.280 of us. The only reason people are in power because 0:18:13.280 --> 0:18:16.240 they create this binary system of gender, these binary systems 0:18:16.280 --> 0:18:19.280 of sexuality that are just power structures. These are made 0:18:19.320 --> 0:18:21.520 up power structures, and we are chipping away at that 0:18:21.560 --> 0:18:24.960 power structure and they would rather kill us than lose power. 0:18:25.600 --> 0:18:27.439 That's what's happened. So I think it's bigger than just 0:18:27.480 --> 0:18:30.560 the LGBT community. This is about This is about this country. 0:18:30.680 --> 0:18:34.560 This is about just the power structures or the performance 0:18:34.560 --> 0:18:38.280 and the performance of gender and what that looks like. 0:18:38.400 --> 0:18:40.239 This is about talking about gender in a different way 0:18:40.240 --> 0:18:42.479 and understated that gender is something that is self determined, 0:18:42.520 --> 0:18:44.720 it's something that's not imposed. And I think if more 0:18:44.720 --> 0:18:47.359 people understood that, I think the world would be a 0:18:47.400 --> 0:18:50.080 better place. You know well understood that. It's you know, 0:18:50.160 --> 0:18:52.160 the more people are that are understanding it, it's getting 0:18:52.160 --> 0:18:55.680 really scary for those who don't. You know, I want 0:18:55.680 --> 0:18:57.960 to dig into what you just said here because I 0:18:58.000 --> 0:19:01.520 think that it was present in just the right way. 0:19:01.640 --> 0:19:05.720 That gender is something that is not imposed, that you 0:19:05.760 --> 0:19:10.000 don't impose your will on other people. And so when 0:19:10.040 --> 0:19:12.560 we think about what we were taught and how we 0:19:12.680 --> 0:19:18.640 were how we were subscribed to heteronormativity and to cist culture, 0:19:19.240 --> 0:19:22.600 it is through this idea that men do this and 0:19:22.800 --> 0:19:26.960 women do this. The biggest pushback that we hear from 0:19:27.680 --> 0:19:29.600 the opposition, and I don't even want to call them 0:19:29.600 --> 0:19:32.359 the opposition, because these people are truly evil. It isn't 0:19:32.400 --> 0:19:34.960 just it isn't just like an opposition we have a 0:19:35.000 --> 0:19:37.959 difference of opinion. You literally are trying to kill us. 0:19:38.119 --> 0:19:40.880 So the thing that I want to say is that 0:19:41.080 --> 0:19:45.160 the common refrain is that they don't want people just 0:19:45.480 --> 0:19:50.600 doing whatever they want, right, that the desire here is 0:19:50.680 --> 0:19:54.199 about it is about control. So can you connect the 0:19:54.240 --> 0:19:57.600 dots for folks as to why if they are concerned 0:19:57.640 --> 0:20:00.520 about Roe V. Wade which they should be because it's dead. 0:20:01.720 --> 0:20:07.040 Why they should also be concerned about the pushback and 0:20:07.080 --> 0:20:10.719 the assault on trans people and trans bodies and trans 0:20:10.800 --> 0:20:14.320 lives because there is a connection there, because it's about power, 0:20:14.680 --> 0:20:17.000 that's right, It's about power. The assault on trans lies 0:20:17.119 --> 0:20:19.640 is a stepping stone to an assault on CIS lives. 0:20:19.920 --> 0:20:21.520 So as all of us are none of us like this. 0:20:21.760 --> 0:20:24.400 They know folks are our play and are playing chests 0:20:24.400 --> 0:20:26.199 and other people are playing fucking Candyland. You know what 0:20:26.200 --> 0:20:28.560 I'm saying, Like when they're assaulting trans people and this 0:20:28.600 --> 0:20:31.120 is they're dismantling these rights as a way of controlling people, 0:20:31.160 --> 0:20:34.480 particularly controlling women's bodies, as a way of creating more 0:20:34.520 --> 0:20:38.000 power for men, and absolutely destroying and legislating trans people 0:20:38.000 --> 0:20:40.000 out of existence. So all these things are happened with 0:20:40.040 --> 0:20:42.920 trans people before we got you know, before somebody's built 0:20:42.920 --> 0:20:44.919 the tea about Roe v. Wade. It was leading up 0:20:44.960 --> 0:20:48.400 to that, so they're setting a precedent. You know, this 0:20:48.440 --> 0:20:50.840 is this is very scary stuff that's happening, and people 0:20:50.880 --> 0:20:52.520 have to be able to connect those dots. That's what 0:20:52.560 --> 0:20:54.800 I'm saying. Well, we all have to be fighting for 0:20:54.800 --> 0:20:56.920 for for one another because if because one day they're 0:20:56.920 --> 0:20:58.320 gonna come for you, the next day they're gonna come 0:20:58.320 --> 0:21:00.000 for me. They're going to come for all of us 0:21:00.560 --> 0:21:02.480 in order to keep power. So I think it's really 0:21:02.480 --> 0:21:04.960 important for people to really be if they're involved with 0:21:05.240 --> 0:21:07.000 what's going on with Roe v. Wade and are fighting 0:21:07.000 --> 0:21:08.600 for that. They have to be fighting for the lives 0:21:08.600 --> 0:21:10.280 of trains people. You have to be fighting for the 0:21:10.320 --> 0:21:13.080 lives of black people, right this is about And that's 0:21:13.080 --> 0:21:16.360 the thing, like change really happens when you start with 0:21:16.400 --> 0:21:20.040 the needs of the people on the margins quote margins. 0:21:20.080 --> 0:21:22.040 We start to get the needs of the people on 0:21:22.080 --> 0:21:24.400 the margins, and you start to feel that up it 0:21:24.480 --> 0:21:26.359 is going to trickle in. It's going to help all 0:21:26.400 --> 0:21:29.000 of us. And I don't think that people understanding, even 0:21:29.000 --> 0:21:31.119 like people who are organizing don't understand that people in 0:21:31.119 --> 0:21:33.640 our government don't understand that it's really important to start 0:21:33.640 --> 0:21:36.040 looking at what's happening in the trans community, what's happening 0:21:36.040 --> 0:21:39.360 with black people, Listen to us fill these voids, see 0:21:39.400 --> 0:21:42.760 what our nuanced needs are, and rest assure the culture 0:21:42.800 --> 0:21:45.439 is going to elevate for everybody else. But people are 0:21:45.440 --> 0:21:48.399 always starting at the center of the power and it 0:21:48.440 --> 0:21:50.560 doesn't work like that because the power structure is just 0:21:50.600 --> 0:21:53.439 going to keep just calling in everything to stay in power, 0:21:53.720 --> 0:21:55.800 whereas folks who are on the margins, we're staying listen. 0:21:55.840 --> 0:22:01.440 We are talking about how we can make things equitable quity. Yeah, 0:22:01.480 --> 0:22:04.399 so that is like what is needed for all of us, 0:22:04.480 --> 0:22:06.880 that we could all have an equal playing field. And 0:22:06.960 --> 0:22:08.800 we are the ones that people need to be listening to, 0:22:08.880 --> 0:22:10.879 but they're not, you know. And that's and that's the 0:22:10.920 --> 0:22:13.280 connection here. And I don't think that people are necessarily 0:22:13.320 --> 0:22:17.320 making you know, you have been able to both live 0:22:17.359 --> 0:22:20.000 in the United States and outside of the United States, 0:22:20.280 --> 0:22:24.359 and I want to get just your your your perspective 0:22:24.680 --> 0:22:27.720 on what you have been able to see in other 0:22:27.800 --> 0:22:31.439 places and the acceptance or lack thereof of trans people, 0:22:32.320 --> 0:22:36.600 what we could potentially learn or not And are you 0:22:36.680 --> 0:22:39.000 thinking this is a question that I'm asking in this 0:22:39.200 --> 0:22:44.120 these interview series about leaving. I am definitely thinking about living. 0:22:44.119 --> 0:22:47.280 I was just talking to my daughter's mother about that yesterday. 0:22:47.560 --> 0:22:49.399 I was just in Coasta Rica for three weeks. That's 0:22:49.680 --> 0:22:51.560 a month in Coasta Rica. A few a few years ago. 0:22:51.760 --> 0:22:54.240 I was just down there recently thinking about buying some 0:22:54.240 --> 0:22:58.320 property down there. Um, and my ex wife and my 0:22:58.359 --> 0:23:00.680 daughter just moved down to Texas, which is really scary 0:23:00.800 --> 0:23:05.000 from Toronto. Yeah, so they're in Dallas now. So but 0:23:05.080 --> 0:23:06.720 when I was in Toronto and we were going through 0:23:06.720 --> 0:23:08.720 our divorce and we you know, it was it was 0:23:08.760 --> 0:23:11.960 a pretty like nasty, customy battle. But we're here now. Um, 0:23:12.000 --> 0:23:15.320 I was really terrified that my transition is going to 0:23:15.359 --> 0:23:16.720 be weaponized and they were gonna try to take my 0:23:16.760 --> 0:23:20.159 child away from me, right. But but the courts in 0:23:20.560 --> 0:23:22.680