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: A couple of things I want to bring to your
Speaker 1: attention today. I'm just so tired. I'm so tired of
Speaker 1: mainstream media. And I know that I spend a lot
Speaker 1: of time like bashing mainstream media. And it's all justified
Speaker 1: because you know, at the end of last week, you
Speaker 1: had special counsel that Merrick Garland, who should not have
Speaker 1: the job of Attorney General in this moment, appoint you know,
Speaker 1: special counsel her to over or see the investigation into
Speaker 1: Biden's documents, and in his report, which should have only
Speaker 1: been about the fact that there's nothing to see here
Speaker 1: because he didn't do anything illegal, he didn't obstruct the
Speaker 1: Justice Departments, he returned the documents once he realized that
Speaker 1: he had them. Instead, her decided to attack Biden's age
Speaker 1: and his mental fitness. And this is a sycophant of
Speaker 1: Trump that you served as counsel in the Trump administration,
Speaker 1: and it's a holdover. And I just for the life
Speaker 1: of me can't figure out why fucking Democrats bend themselves
Speaker 1: over backwards to try and appease the monster that is
Speaker 1: Maga Republicans. I just, for the love of fucking God
Speaker 1: cannot figure it out and think that somehow you're going
Speaker 1: to satiate this insatiable beast that wants to destroy democracy,
Speaker 1: and the way that they do that is by sowing
Speaker 1: doubt about Joe Biden's capabilities. Now, we can talk about
Speaker 1: our feelings about Joe Biden, frankly, which there are many
Speaker 1: that I have that I know many of you have.
Speaker 1: But at the end of the day, the fucking false
Speaker 1: equivalency that is put up in the media at a
Speaker 1: time when we actually need people to be as informed
Speaker 1: as they can be is just like, oh God, folks,
Speaker 1: I I'm just so angry. I'm just so angry. I'm
Speaker 1: angry that Merrick Garland is the Attorney General of the
Speaker 1: United States. The man is so fucking weak and lacks
Speaker 1: the integrity intensity fortitude that it takes to maneuver this
Speaker 1: Justice Department through the domestic terrorism that we are experiencing
Speaker 1: and have continued to experience since the beginning of Donald
Speaker 1: Trump's presidency that has just gotten worse. We're in this
Speaker 1: fucking run up against the clock with cases that Merrick
Speaker 1: Garland could have brought the day that he was fucking
Speaker 1: sworn in, but didn't. He sat on his fucking hands
Speaker 1: for over a year. Had he brought this case when
Speaker 1: Donald trump let office assigned a special prosecutor the moment
Speaker 1: that Donald Trump was on that helicopter, we wouldn't be
Speaker 1: pushing up against an election, and there would have been
Speaker 1: more than enough time, and Donald Trump probably would not
Speaker 1: have announced right his bid, so wouldn't have seemed like
Speaker 1: a political fucking attack. And which hunt that he lies about.
Speaker 1: So Merrick Garland has no business being Attorney General and
Speaker 1: then appointing a Republican to oversee an investigation into Joe Biden,
Speaker 1: as if somehow this is the fucking nineties, Like are
Speaker 1: we dumb here or do you just not fucking get it?
Speaker 1: Like which one is it? Are you incompetent or are
Speaker 1: you stupid? And so I just, you know, find myself
Speaker 1: consistently shaking my head realizing that, you know, folks, fucking
Speaker 1: February is halfway done. We are just like racing towards
Speaker 1: this election that I think is going to be devastating
Speaker 1: unless some miracle happens. Devastating for this country, devastating for
Speaker 1: all of us who are not part of MAGA, who
Speaker 1: are not white rich men, and the fact that I'm
Speaker 1: still having to convince people that the threats that we
Speaker 1: are facing are real, and it's not even just the voters,
Speaker 1: because apparently we have to convince fucking Merit Garland that
Speaker 1: these threats are not just gonna go away because you
Speaker 1: close your eyes or because you want to seem like
Speaker 1: you're unbiased, So you're going to pretend that the Republican
Speaker 1: Party isn't at the root of the cancer that is
Speaker 1: eating away at our democracy. I tell you that the
Speaker 1: politicians of yesteryear do not have the ability to deal
Speaker 1: with what is when they are still nostalgic for what
Speaker 1: was that is never returning. So I'm angry, and I'm tired,
Speaker 1: and I'm also tired of being angry. So it's, you know,
Speaker 1: it's like, where do we go from here? Not to
Speaker 1: mention that by the time that you're listening to this,
Speaker 1: all of you are more than aware of the absolutely
Speaker 1: brutal bombings and attacks that Rafa, an area that was
Speaker 1: supposed to be designated as safe for Palestinian civilians to
Speaker 1: pass through, was attacked during the Super Bowl, so that
Speaker 1: all eyes were away from social media and glazed over
Speaker 1: with commercials and bullshit, I'm just, oh, I don't know,
Speaker 1: I don't know. It's like it's just getting harder and
Speaker 1: harder and harder to muster faith.
Speaker 2: And so.
Speaker 1: I am grateful for the time that I spent in
Speaker 1: New Orleans for the Creating Change Conference, where I got
Speaker 1: to sit down with queer folks in battleground states that
Speaker 1: are really y'all doing the Lord's work in these blood
Speaker 1: red states where just simply living they are a target.
Speaker 2: And so.
Speaker 1: In today's conversation, which these Queer the Vote conversations will
Speaker 1: be happening on WOLLKF over the next two weeks, where
Speaker 1: I'm going to be playing for you pre recorded conversations
Speaker 1: that happened while I was live in New Orleans. Today's
Speaker 1: conversation is with Andrea Monthenez talking about, you know, what
Speaker 1: it means to be trans and try to create safety
Speaker 1: for other trans people in these red states and what
Speaker 1: is needed and required you know, And I will tell
Speaker 1: you that I consistently talk about the fact that we
Speaker 1: won't know right for those of us that live in
Speaker 1: blue states until if and when Donald Trump becomes president
Speaker 1: again and makes these states an absolute hell right what
Speaker 1: it is like to be queer in a state that
Speaker 1: you are made a target of, And so these conversations,
Speaker 1: I hope give us a lens into what that is
Speaker 1: like and the fact that everybody doesn't have the means
Speaker 1: to leave, and that we don't want everybody to leave
Speaker 1: because if they do, nothing ever changes. And so these
Speaker 1: are some of the bravest people that I've had the
Speaker 1: opportunity to speak with. So our continuation of the LGBTQ
Speaker 1: Task Force Creating Change Conference Queering the Vote campaign is
Speaker 1: coming up next. I'm really excited folks to welcome to
Speaker 1: wok F Daily Andrea Montanez from the Hope Community Center,
Speaker 1: who works on how to include trans people into the
Speaker 1: immigration conversation. We talk about immigration a lot on this show.
Speaker 1: I have never Andrea talked about it from the lens
Speaker 1: of trans folks coming to this country, and so I'm
Speaker 1: very grateful that we are meeting here at Creating Change,
Speaker 1: the LGBTQ Task Force Conference to discuss twenty twenty four
Speaker 1: and to discuss one of the major issues in the
Speaker 1: twenty twenty four election, which is going to be immigration.
Speaker 1: Andrew talk to me about the Whole Community Center and
Speaker 1: about your role.
Speaker 2: Thank you and thank you to be here. Really important
Speaker 2: to be talking about these topics. Intersectionality between the LGBTQ
Speaker 2: and the immigrants. To start my cell and our regional
Speaker 2: from Columbia. So in a proad immigrant, but I also
Speaker 2: a proud transgender person, so a tre gender woman. So
Speaker 2: does mean intersectionality Whole Community Center, my role in there,
Speaker 2: and the LGBTQ immigration organizer. That's my position. My position
Speaker 2: is too working in the intersectionality between what is immigration
Speaker 2: and what's important for the LGBTQ community, in particular the
Speaker 2: trans community in this case Hope. What's created to be
Speaker 2: short stories. It is located in a Podca, Florida, a
Speaker 2: podcast a city like fifteen minutes from fifteen miles from Orlando,
Speaker 2: Orland is the bubble of the only city protected in Florida.
Speaker 2: I can say that Aportica is so conservative and we
Speaker 2: are almost there. So the organization was created fifty years
Speaker 2: ago for four Catholic nons. That's an interesting historian. They
Speaker 2: can hear for the times when Apordca has racial issues
Speaker 2: with the black community. The black community cannot go to
Speaker 2: the same places to the white community in that time.
Speaker 2: So when they come in here, they working with that
Speaker 2: with the black community to do because they were the
Speaker 2: hard workers in that time until started moving in the
Speaker 2: immigrants as far workers to the scenario. And the organization
Speaker 2: is still working with that, supporting the documentary. The hard
Speaker 2: workers see the kid the youngest one and looking for
Speaker 2: intersectionalities the does when it's LGBTQ, when the trade gender
Speaker 2: community came to Hope, when Poles happened in twenty sixteen,
Speaker 2: and this is a history why I'm there because it's
Speaker 2: important to explain because I tell at the start this
Speaker 2: is a what's founded for the Catholic Moons, but now
Speaker 2: it's an opening organization with them. When it happened the
Speaker 2: Poles Foundation, the Pole's attack with one of the two
Speaker 2: of the big things where Mexicans and living in a podca.
Speaker 2: So when the director of Whole Community Center went to
Speaker 2: the house to the pattern or one of the kids
Speaker 2: was killed in Pouls, does the gay club.
Speaker 1: Yeah, just to remind folks, the Pulse night club shooting
Speaker 1: was one of the most horrific attacks on the LGBTQ community.
Speaker 1: It was I believe black and like LATINX night at
Speaker 1: the club forty nine. Forty nine young people, black and
Speaker 1: brown queer people were gonne down in Florida, So please,
Speaker 1: I just wanted to provide that memory to folks.
Speaker 2: Thank you. Yes was the Latin black community and the
Speaker 2: two then were Latin. So when they come in to
Speaker 2: the home of the Mexican dad to say I'm sorry,
Speaker 2: the first thing he say, my song was no gay.
Speaker 2: My song was no gay. Yeah, So the founders saw,
Speaker 2: you know, they know, so this is a hole here
Speaker 2: because he's a Yoman. I don't come in here to
Speaker 2: joge nobody. They kill a person, they kill an immigrant,
Speaker 2: but it's gay too. So that's when they started working
Speaker 2: in Founders and they create the position to bring a
Speaker 2: LIBTQ community immigrant. They saw that important they don't saw before.
Speaker 2: So to explain that that one was created my position
Speaker 2: and when I come in, of course a couple of
Speaker 2: years after that, and we work in organizing these communities
Speaker 2: again bring the LGBT community. Uh, hit the spaces with
Speaker 2: education because again when I talked explained that area our
Speaker 2: Latin community, and I Latin is the or difficult community
Speaker 2: with the same transgender people in particular, So maybe I
Speaker 2: was the first transgender person dation in the LIE and
Speaker 2: I start to educate. Then I start to organize. Then
Speaker 2: and I start to fight for the rights of the
Speaker 2: immigrant community. But also I start to found the transgender
Speaker 2: and documented immigrants. They had the same struggle and then
Speaker 2: they were with the same family. So when we create
Speaker 2: our relation, and that's the job we're doing, and we
Speaker 2: start to go into Tallahassee to do raalies for immigration
Speaker 2: and to do righties for the tradgender community together because
Speaker 2: now the understand and we open more spaces to fighting
Speaker 2: because in this moment particular, my estate is the immigrant
Speaker 2: and the and the transgender community. The more attack it
Speaker 2: and I think it's national now to be there. It's veryware.
Speaker 2: Immigration is the big probably EveryWare and that include us.
Speaker 2: So that movement was incredible. So I started moving organization,
Speaker 2: you know LGBT organization today understand the immigration part two
Speaker 2: that was important. So I was educay, then edukay the LGBTQ.
Speaker 2: Remember I'm immigrant to. I don't in the citizen now,
Speaker 2: but an immigrant to. So I got the history and
Speaker 2: a lot of the LGBT community coming looking for asylum
Speaker 2: or protection because all the hey they had in other countries,
Speaker 2: so they start to understand the immigration part and they
Speaker 2: started working with us. And we do the same in
Speaker 2: the other way. With the far worker you had LGBTQ
Speaker 2: people there are with you. We're working together, and we
Speaker 2: start to create different the first ally with different the
Speaker 2: trans community, with the with the organization. The moment mass
Speaker 2: emotional for me was see for workers with the transgender flag.
Speaker 2: You know, So that's that's that's, that's proof we are together.
Speaker 2: This is working and at least in put together everybody
Speaker 2: and understand you know, I guess if we can't teach
Speaker 2: an immigrant the same machismore families, Yeah, why the style
Speaker 2: of Florida government don't understand that.
Speaker 1: Talk to me about what do you find to be
Speaker 1: the hardest piece about bringing these groups together, bringing the
Speaker 1: idea that there are transgender LGBTQ immigrants. There's an immigrant
Speaker 1: conversation issue that we're talking about, but there's also this
Speaker 1: community within this larger issue. What is the most difficult
Speaker 1: piece to explain to people to get them to understand
Speaker 1: that these are not siloed issues.
Speaker 2: Is the more hard work? You say that, I guess
Speaker 2: and it was no easy because is is the process.
Speaker 2: I want to say how it's working in this community
Speaker 2: in particular, the people trust in Hope Community Center for
Speaker 2: years and now they see me. Who is that? I'm
Speaker 2: gonna say that because the first impression after that, Hello Andrea.
Speaker 2: After that they support me. Why because I work for home.
Speaker 2: So they say, if the founders and there the exactly
Speaker 2: director trust in this person, it's's real. So that that
Speaker 2: part is don't is in this community start to move
Speaker 2: a little. It's still difficult because it's still a lotto
Speaker 2: or the war own community. They are doing a love
Speaker 2: to be in the home they almost hate, but you
Speaker 2: start to see it also education. You still to see
Speaker 2: people coming to you. I think, can you talk with
Speaker 2: my kids? Because I don't know where they are. I
Speaker 2: think they are part of the lit bity. You can
Speaker 2: you explain me this? So I opened open doors. It's
Speaker 2: not easy. It's often to the more horrifule question they
Speaker 2: can do to me and I answer, But that was
Speaker 2: my decision, and that maybe is the way the people
Speaker 2: start to change. I don't know how.
Speaker 1: To know, but you're you're right through slowly through conversations,
Speaker 1: through moving past this kind of stigma. An idea of
Speaker 1: who you think that somebody is, and through whole community center,
Speaker 1: people seeing you and saying, well, she is working here,
Speaker 1: she is helping us, she is one of us, right,
Speaker 1: and so can build that trust because I think that that,
Speaker 1: to me, is part of what the opposition is trying
Speaker 1: to do, is turn the trans community, the LGBT larger community,
Speaker 1: into the boogeyman, something to be afraid of, something that
Speaker 1: you need to protect your children from. And I wonder
Speaker 1: if you think that we need to have what needs
Speaker 1: to happen in order to push back against that idea
Speaker 1: of be afraid of these people. You don't know them,
Speaker 1: you can't trust them. So how do we push back
Speaker 1: against that?
Speaker 2: It's my goal and I think it's education, but it's
Speaker 2: a real crude education to people are common people to
Speaker 2: go back to separate this because you know, it's like
Speaker 2: people when they start talking about ideologies, this is not
Speaker 2: an ideology. That's the pro big problem, right, the recruitment process.
Speaker 2: And this is the worst I say when I spoke
Speaker 2: with that we don't recruit tragender people. We don't need
Speaker 2: to recruit because this is so special and so and
Speaker 2: I'm going to say this, we are human, but we
Speaker 2: are more special than everybody, so this is no place
Speaker 2: for everyone. It's so hard to be who we are.
Speaker 2: We don't need to recruit more. It's like, you know,
Speaker 2: and I'm going to say the word because I say
Speaker 2: that all the time. Transgender is magic, because this is
Speaker 2: a magic we had inside. And that put me in
Speaker 2: the old timers when they bore the wishes because they
Speaker 2: were magic. They bore one other article because its magic.
Speaker 2: So not because that's exactly how I feel sometime with
Speaker 2: the trends coming sometimes now that's a feeling they want
Speaker 2: to boring us because they are scared of us. They
Speaker 2: care scared because we are still there. They attacking every
Speaker 2: day us and we still show our smile talking about kids.
Speaker 2: We don't going to got kids everywhere. I don't want
Speaker 2: the kids be transgender, but we only want is our
Speaker 2: transgender kids survive. Leave this is It's like we have
Speaker 2: to teach people again because people is following what the
Speaker 2: people say in the news, what the parties say. Because
Speaker 2: that's the problem. When you get the ideologies they say,
Speaker 2: you go, oh, tragender, and they're gonna cut me sorgery
Speaker 2: tomorrow and they're gonna put all my genital that's not true.
Speaker 2: This is a locking, difficult process. This is my lie completely.
Speaker 2: I'm fifty eight years ball and always if I told
Speaker 2: my story, I can start for my day one when
Speaker 2: I start this process. But I don't know that's so,
Speaker 2: and it's not easy. And for the kids, we don't
Speaker 2: want they go to go need they be social dately.
Speaker 2: So people have to understand that part. We don't recruit trance,
Speaker 2: We don't want to compare your kids in transgender, but
Speaker 2: we're gonna protect.
Speaker 1: I don't consider hate to be an ideology, and I
Speaker 1: think that that too is the problem that we have
Speaker 1: allowed the opposition to say, oh well I can have
Speaker 1: this different moral standing or this religious belief, and this is,
Speaker 1: you know, an ideology. Hate is in an ideology. Hate
Speaker 1: is just hate. And I think that you know the
Speaker 1: reason why I believe that the Maga supremaists, which is
Speaker 1: what I refer to them as the Maga supremists, hate
Speaker 1: the trans community so much and hate the LGBTQ community
Speaker 1: so much, is because you represent possibility, hope and the
Speaker 1: idea that you can create your own path, that you
Speaker 1: can build a life and create a life and be
Speaker 1: successful and full and happy outside of the bullshit binary
Speaker 1: and that's what scares them because it's like, well, I
Speaker 1: followed it, why can't you follow it right? Like I
Speaker 1: suppressed myself, So why can't you suppress yourself? And that
Speaker 1: that is what I truly believe. I think that you're
Speaker 1: right when you said you know that you believe that
Speaker 1: trans people are magic. You go back to the idea
Speaker 1: of burning whiches. You know, witches at the State. They
Speaker 1: weren't witches. They were independent women right with brains and
Speaker 1: ideas and thoughts that were outside of what society at
Speaker 1: that time deemed. Okay, So you must be dangerous and
Speaker 1: we must put you down. And I love the fact
Speaker 1: that you that you made that link. As we wrap up,
Speaker 1: tell me how people who are not in Florida can
Speaker 1: get connected with how donate and learn more about the
Speaker 1: Whole Community Center.
Speaker 2: I think you can, Well, you can find us and
Speaker 2: the website and the Whole Community Center. I don't know
Speaker 2: if we were so because we're doing a lot of work.
Speaker 2: We're doing a lot of we need we need support
Speaker 2: funders because everything is with a nonprofit, it's a big
Speaker 2: organization to move people, to bring the youngest one to
Speaker 2: protect our immigrants and pro protected trends with the best
Speaker 2: to support is talking about us, looking who we are,
Speaker 2: looking that we looking at like all we're doing and
Speaker 2: how is it important on these people? It's like and
Speaker 2: so it's like the two worlds. I think we're more
Speaker 2: medical with your immigrants. The immigrants, they are not a problem.
Speaker 2: The immigrants are part of the solution, yep. And the
Speaker 2: transgender immigrants are more part of the solution to were productives.
Speaker 2: So looking for that, looking for you, looking for the immigrations.
Speaker 2: What's the true about immigrants to what does the they
Speaker 2: have to look in and support Florida looking for the
Speaker 2: organization in Florida, not only Hope, all the lgby all
Speaker 2: the trans organization, all the immigrant organization. It's a lot
Speaker 2: of grassroots try to survive in this place. And every
Speaker 2: single day it is more thangerous to us. A lot
Speaker 2: of people is living every month from every way I
Speaker 2: say somebody to somebody's living. I don't go nowhere because
Speaker 2: I think when I come to this country looking for freedom,
Speaker 2: I gave my freedom. I gave my citizen. I was
Speaker 2: federal officer, so I work for this government before I
Speaker 2: decide to do what I do now. So this is
Speaker 2: my country, this is my place. I don't go nowhere,
Speaker 2: so that come with that and a lot of people
Speaker 2: with me. But we have to be together for that,
Speaker 2: so please support us, we assist.
Speaker 1: Amazing Andrew, thank you so much for making the time
Speaker 1: for book. I really appreciate you, appreciate all the work
Speaker 1: that the Hope Community Center is doing.
Speaker 2: Thank 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.