WEBVTT - Kelley Robinson 0:00:00.400 --> 0:00:15.000 Hey, everyone, it's Sophia. Welcome to work in progress. Welcome 0:00:15.040 --> 0:00:18.919 back to work in progress. Friends. It may be August, 0:00:19.160 --> 0:00:23.520 but pride is never over in my world. And I 0:00:23.640 --> 0:00:29.000 think celebrating joy and love and our community is more 0:00:29.040 --> 0:00:31.800 important now than ever. And there's no one better to 0:00:31.840 --> 0:00:35.080 do that with than my friend Kelly Robinson, who is 0:00:35.159 --> 0:00:39.360 the President of the Human Rights Campaign. Over the last 0:00:39.600 --> 0:00:42.519 year and a half, we have all been reminded in 0:00:42.600 --> 0:00:47.680 so many ways that progress isn't permanent, that politics requires 0:00:48.960 --> 0:00:52.640 vigilance and resilience, because our rights can be ruled back 0:00:52.640 --> 0:00:56.440 and our protections can disappear, and hard won victories might 0:00:56.480 --> 0:00:59.440 have to be won all over again. And I gotta 0:00:59.440 --> 0:01:02.360 be honest with you. You whips Marty's sometimes that feels 0:01:02.440 --> 0:01:05.920 like a real bummer to me. And then I spend 0:01:06.000 --> 0:01:10.600 time with Kelly, and I'm reminded that there is joy 0:01:10.760 --> 0:01:14.800 and love and love and action really in showing up 0:01:14.840 --> 0:01:17.640 for your community. She serves as the president of the 0:01:17.680 --> 0:01:21.920 Human Rights Campaign, which is the nation's largest LGBTQ plus 0:01:22.000 --> 0:01:26.319 civil rights organization, and there Kelly is leading one of 0:01:26.360 --> 0:01:30.479 the defining social and political movements of our time. Because 0:01:30.480 --> 0:01:33.040 this is a fight for equality and whether or not 0:01:33.080 --> 0:01:35.440 you're a member of the community or an ally, I 0:01:35.480 --> 0:01:37.919 am telling you this fight and the outcome of it 0:01:37.959 --> 0:01:42.240 is also your fight. Kelly leads us by drawing on 0:01:42.360 --> 0:01:46.280 years of experience as an organizer and an advocate, and 0:01:46.319 --> 0:01:49.559 she manages to bring her urgency and her optimism into 0:01:49.600 --> 0:01:54.400 these conversations, whether they're about democracy, visibility, building coalitions, or 0:01:54.920 --> 0:01:57.640 just the power of showing up. And I'm going to 0:01:57.680 --> 0:02:00.760 brag about her because she's a history maker. She's not 0:02:00.800 --> 0:02:03.640 only the first black queer woman to lead the HRC, 0:02:04.280 --> 0:02:07.560 she's also a mom of two, making mistakes this fight 0:02:08.040 --> 0:02:13.480 deeply personal. Kelly has this really magical way of being. 0:02:13.560 --> 0:02:15.360 She's the kind of person in a room that everyone 0:02:15.400 --> 0:02:19.680 gravitates towards. And I think it's because she's so unwavering 0:02:19.760 --> 0:02:23.480 in her beliefs that everyone deserves love and safety. She 0:02:23.520 --> 0:02:27.720 believes in the power of visibility, and she has such 0:02:27.760 --> 0:02:33.280 a clear understanding of what history teaches us about protecting 0:02:33.320 --> 0:02:36.720 our hard one rights, and she knows that because of 0:02:37.080 --> 0:02:40.120 our story, but also her family's story, which you'll hear 0:02:40.160 --> 0:02:43.440 about today. Kelly's one of the people who reminds me 0:02:43.560 --> 0:02:46.880 that hope isn't enough on its own, but when matched 0:02:46.919 --> 0:02:51.880 with action, magic can happen. So let's get a big 0:02:51.919 --> 0:02:55.320 dose of hope and perhaps a few tips on what 0:02:55.440 --> 0:03:11.079 to do next from the inimitable Kelly Robinson. There are 0:03:11.160 --> 0:03:14.680 so many things I want to talk to you about 0:03:14.720 --> 0:03:17.000 and ask you about and also tell people about, because 0:03:17.520 --> 0:03:19.200 like we have all this, you know, we got the 0:03:19.240 --> 0:03:22.320 secret sauce, because we have the board, but before we 0:03:22.400 --> 0:03:26.799 get into twenty twenty six, and you know, are our 0:03:26.840 --> 0:03:30.200 ever advancing merch toward freedom and equity and all the things? 0:03:30.440 --> 0:03:35.120 I want to go back because people who get to 0:03:35.160 --> 0:03:37.680 see you be around you, who watch you, know your 0:03:37.720 --> 0:03:43.480 tos go viral, like they know Kelly Robinson. I want 0:03:43.480 --> 0:03:49.360 to know Kelly as a kid, you know, and especially 0:03:49.360 --> 0:03:51.320 because you're a mom. I always think this is a 0:03:51.360 --> 0:03:55.320 fun one. If you got to you know, bend space 0:03:55.400 --> 0:03:59.600 time and we walked onto the playground and little Kelly 0:03:59.680 --> 0:04:02.880 yet eight or nine years old, was there and you 0:04:02.960 --> 0:04:05.480 got to talk to her. Do you think she would 0:04:05.520 --> 0:04:07.840 see herself in you? Would you see yourself on her? 0:04:08.040 --> 0:04:09.400 That's such a good question. 0:04:10.120 --> 0:04:12.240 I mean, I feel like I'm the same person that 0:04:12.280 --> 0:04:13.760 I was when I was born, but when I was 0:04:13.760 --> 0:04:16.040 a kid I was painfully shy. 0:04:16.279 --> 0:04:17.880 I mean painfully shy. 0:04:19.400 --> 0:04:21.640 Yes. I remember my mom used to say that we 0:04:21.640 --> 0:04:24.040 would go into stores. I could talk pretty early, so 0:04:24.080 --> 0:04:25.520 I was talking a little bit before I was one 0:04:25.600 --> 0:04:26.040 year old. 0:04:26.520 --> 0:04:27.440 And I'd be, you. 0:04:27.480 --> 0:04:31.920 Know, in the little pram or the stroller, and I'd say, 0:04:32.000 --> 0:04:34.440 pick me up, pick me up, mommy, Like, I do 0:04:34.560 --> 0:04:36.039 not want to be around these people. 0:04:36.880 --> 0:04:38.520 But that's the one thing that's really. 0:04:38.400 --> 0:04:40.360 Changed for me that I think I used to be, 0:04:40.440 --> 0:04:43.840 for some reason, so shy and just afraid of crowds, and. 0:04:43.760 --> 0:04:46.320 Now like I love people. 0:04:46.760 --> 0:04:49.720 And I think it's partly because I realized that like 0:04:50.120 --> 0:04:53.359 other folks aren't necessarily something that we should be afraid of. 0:04:53.440 --> 0:04:56.760 It's really an opportunity, an opportunity to find somebody that 0:04:57.000 --> 0:05:00.400 you might experience something with in life, an opportunity to 0:05:00.440 --> 0:05:02.640 meet somebody who might change your perspective. 0:05:03.120 --> 0:05:05.839 And so that's the biggest thing that's changed in me. 0:05:06.800 --> 0:05:09.440 I'm still that little, like, you know, little girl that's 0:05:09.440 --> 0:05:11.640 still looking for mommy to pick her up sometimes. 0:05:13.320 --> 0:05:16.719 Yeah, well you know me, I'm always like I just 0:05:16.760 --> 0:05:20.480 want to hug so probably same. Do you have great 0:05:20.520 --> 0:05:24.200 memories of Iowa? What was your What was the sort 0:05:24.200 --> 0:05:25.640 of picture of your family. 0:05:26.200 --> 0:05:27.000 YEA, yeah. 0:05:27.040 --> 0:05:30.920 So my family story is that we were the first 0:05:30.960 --> 0:05:35.400 free black family in a little town called Muscatine, Iowa. 0:05:35.480 --> 0:05:37.160 And I remember growing up, I used to hear the 0:05:37.160 --> 0:05:40.280 story of my family all the time, of how we 0:05:40.279 --> 0:05:44.400 were enslave people in Louisiana and Mississippi who made our 0:05:44.440 --> 0:05:46.599 way north to Iowa, one of the first states to 0:05:46.640 --> 0:05:49.120 rebuke the Futuive Slave Act and not send slaves who 0:05:49.120 --> 0:05:51.040 had made their way to freedom. 0:05:51.040 --> 0:05:52.000 Back down south. 0:05:52.520 --> 0:05:54.760 And what it meant for you know, members of my 0:05:54.800 --> 0:05:58.680 family to literally hear the stories of our ancestors who 0:05:58.720 --> 0:06:02.120 were born into slavery, of having the documentation of knowing 0:06:02.480 --> 0:06:06.200 the importance of like education and faith. And I bring 0:06:06.240 --> 0:06:09.920 that all up because for me, as hard as things 0:06:09.960 --> 0:06:12.520 are today, like you can't get over like how far 0:06:12.640 --> 0:06:14.960 we've come. I mean, it was only two generations ago 0:06:15.000 --> 0:06:17.680 where I can hear the stories of my ancestors and 0:06:17.680 --> 0:06:20.160 what it meant for them to make their way to freedom. 0:06:20.600 --> 0:06:23.159 And so for me, I've got stories of Iowa growing 0:06:23.240 --> 0:06:25.200 up and being connected to my roots. 0:06:25.920 --> 0:06:28.520 Most of my young youth, young life. 0:06:28.360 --> 0:06:31.080 I spent in Chicago, so I've got a lot of 0:06:31.120 --> 0:06:32.400 stories of Chicago. 0:06:32.440 --> 0:06:34.400 I want it meant to like grow up there, and 0:06:34.480 --> 0:06:37.520 you know Chicago. I mean, you know Chicago it is 0:06:37.680 --> 0:06:39.200 I know Chican Town. 0:06:39.320 --> 0:06:43.080 It's a town of leaders and big voices and big figures, 0:06:43.400 --> 0:06:46.720 and that's what I was raised around. So, you know, 0:06:47.320 --> 0:06:48.960 when we think about the work that I do now 0:06:49.000 --> 0:06:52.000 of community service, it just felt like something that we 0:06:52.040 --> 0:06:52.840 didn't name. 0:06:52.960 --> 0:06:55.120 Organizing back then. It was just what it meant to 0:06:55.160 --> 0:06:57.040 be a good person and show up for your community. 0:06:57.480 --> 0:07:02.479 Yeah, when did the organizing bug get you? Like, when 0:07:02.480 --> 0:07:06.400 did it dawn on you what you were doing, what 0:07:06.960 --> 0:07:07.880 you're calling. 0:07:08.080 --> 0:07:12.080 Yeah, well, I my journey takes us through the Midwest, 0:07:12.120 --> 0:07:14.360 So I always say, anyone that flies over the middle 0:07:14.360 --> 0:07:16.480 of the country, you are missing out right. 0:07:16.960 --> 0:07:18.200 Go to Des Moines, Iowa. 0:07:18.280 --> 0:07:20.560 Go to Chicago, but go to where I went to 0:07:20.600 --> 0:07:24.680 school in Columbia, Missouri. I went there for college, and 0:07:25.800 --> 0:07:28.520 that was the first time that I'd really experienced like 0:07:29.000 --> 0:07:32.720 a more southern version of racism, where you know, folks 0:07:32.720 --> 0:07:34.880 will say one thing to your face, but then say 0:07:34.880 --> 0:07:37.840 a totally different thing when the sun goes down, Right. 0:07:37.840 --> 0:07:39.600 This kind of like duplicity. 0:07:39.680 --> 0:07:41.760 Not to say that racism wasn't alive and well in 0:07:41.840 --> 0:07:46.119 Chicago and Iowa, but this Missouri kind of southern feel 0:07:46.320 --> 0:07:48.560 was just different from what I had grown up with. 0:07:49.840 --> 0:07:52.360 So I actually ended up leaving school. 0:07:53.640 --> 0:07:55.440 There were just too many things going on for me 0:07:55.480 --> 0:07:57.560 to kind of focus on academics. I just needed to 0:07:57.600 --> 0:07:59.680 take a break. If my mom said, that's cool, but 0:07:59.800 --> 0:08:02.520 you you got to figure that out boom. So I 0:08:02.600 --> 0:08:06.119 ended up bartending during the day and doing like MMA 0:08:06.240 --> 0:08:11.040 fighting at night to make money and get by I'm 0:08:11.080 --> 0:08:11.560 sad with you. 0:08:12.280 --> 0:08:13.320 And it was in that. 0:08:13.200 --> 0:08:15.400 Kind of journey that I got a call. This was 0:08:15.440 --> 0:08:17.120 like two thousand and seven, two thousand and eight. I 0:08:17.160 --> 0:08:19.560 got a call from the Obama campaign. They had heard 0:08:19.560 --> 0:08:20.960 about some of the work that I had done on 0:08:21.040 --> 0:08:23.400 campus and that I wasn't in school currently and they 0:08:23.400 --> 0:08:26.000 needed organizers. And I was like, look, I don't know 0:08:26.040 --> 0:08:27.880 what an organizer is, but if I don't have to 0:08:27.920 --> 0:08:29.920 get punched in the face to make my rent, I'm 0:08:29.960 --> 0:08:32.880 willing to give it a try. 0:08:33.040 --> 0:08:34.320 And that's when I started. 0:08:34.360 --> 0:08:37.880 And I remember like I went into the office, and people, 0:08:38.240 --> 0:08:40.320 of course would come in for Barack Obama, but that 0:08:40.400 --> 0:08:43.800 feeling of why people stayed, they stayed because they found 0:08:43.840 --> 0:08:45.640 other people that they connected. 0:08:45.160 --> 0:08:47.400 With that, they believed that change could. 0:08:47.200 --> 0:08:50.640 Be possible with and we did things that the felt impossible. 0:08:50.640 --> 0:08:53.480 We elected a black man, the first black man's president 0:08:53.480 --> 0:08:54.920 of the United States of America. 0:08:55.360 --> 0:08:57.840 We also helped somebody like get a. 0:08:57.760 --> 0:09:00.720 Stop sign on their street to stop folks from speeding 0:09:00.760 --> 0:09:03.320 through and putting kids in danger. We helped somebody to 0:09:03.360 --> 0:09:05.760 run a campaign and get on their city council. And 0:09:06.200 --> 0:09:09.640 that was a moment when I really started to understand that, yeah, 0:09:09.640 --> 0:09:12.960 there's big things in front of us, sexism, racism, homophobia, 0:09:13.320 --> 0:09:15.960 but there's really something that can happen when people come 0:09:16.000 --> 0:09:20.320 together with a shared purpose, the impossible can actually become possible. 0:09:20.840 --> 0:09:23.559 Yeah. Well, and one of the things I love about 0:09:23.559 --> 0:09:26.640 what you're saying, this is my drum beat. Also since 0:09:26.720 --> 0:09:32.920 early Obama days, like people think politics is for someone else. 0:09:33.160 --> 0:09:37.160 Policy happens somewhere else, you know. Thank God for lin 0:09:37.240 --> 0:09:40.320 Manuel Miranda, right like he popularized it and people now 0:09:40.400 --> 0:09:42.280 are like the room where it happens. I'm like keep 0:09:42.320 --> 0:09:52.240 singing and also volunteer. But policy is everything around us. 0:09:52.920 --> 0:09:55.640 You know. I'm on location right now in Colorado for 0:09:55.679 --> 0:09:58.680 this film we were talking about earlier, and I'm looking 0:09:58.679 --> 0:10:00.240 out in my window and I see a stop sign 0:10:00.280 --> 0:10:02.199 and a one way sign and a no parking sign, 0:10:02.240 --> 0:10:05.679 and there's trees on this particular sidewalk in this neighborhood 0:10:05.679 --> 0:10:07.880 that I'm in, and like, all of that is the 0:10:07.920 --> 0:10:13.559 result of policy, absolutely, And I think people don't understand 0:10:13.600 --> 0:10:17.760 how personal it is. And when we take it away 0:10:17.800 --> 0:10:21.920 from this like boring process or this, somebody else is 0:10:21.960 --> 0:10:26.120 responsible for that. And you make it empowering when you 0:10:26.280 --> 0:10:29.920 personalize the political and you say, like your kids need 0:10:29.960 --> 0:10:33.360 a playground, let's organize the community for that. Yes, you 0:10:33.400 --> 0:10:38.559 know something, some drinking fountains aren't working, you know at 0:10:38.600 --> 0:10:41.040 your college on campus, in one of your buildings. Let's 0:10:41.080 --> 0:10:45.320 organize around that. Like there is actual, real I think 0:10:45.480 --> 0:10:51.720 effervescent excitement in organizing if we can give people the 0:10:51.760 --> 0:10:55.640 way into it. And you are so good at that, 0:10:55.960 --> 0:10:57.960 And I love that they tapped you for it. They 0:10:57.960 --> 0:11:01.160 were just like, whatever is your night job? You come 0:11:01.200 --> 0:11:01.840 work for us? 0:11:01.880 --> 0:11:02.679 Oh, I love that. 0:11:02.720 --> 0:11:04.760 Well, you're so great at that too. And I think 0:11:05.040 --> 0:11:06.960 that's what we have to do with politics. We've got 0:11:06.960 --> 0:11:10.120 to make it proximal to people again and remind them that, 0:11:10.280 --> 0:11:13.920 like every policy that you see right now started off 0:11:14.040 --> 0:11:17.760 as an idea. Every law that exists on our books 0:11:17.760 --> 0:11:22.040 started off with somebody imagining that we deserve something better, right, 0:11:22.600 --> 0:11:23.559 And that's our job. 0:11:23.760 --> 0:11:24.640 And especially if. 0:11:24.559 --> 0:11:27.400 You're if you are a woman, if you're a queer person, 0:11:27.920 --> 0:11:31.240 if you're somebody that's living paycheck to paycheck, you may 0:11:31.280 --> 0:11:33.880 not want to be involved in politics, but politics is 0:11:33.920 --> 0:11:35.640 involved in your life already. 0:11:35.679 --> 0:11:38.440 Boom right, Like, we have work to do to reclaim 0:11:38.520 --> 0:11:39.079 this space. 0:11:39.160 --> 0:11:41.079 And what I love doing with you and with the 0:11:41.160 --> 0:11:45.160 Human Rights Campaign is taking down the distance right between 0:11:45.200 --> 0:11:47.880 the people who are making the decisions and the people 0:11:47.920 --> 0:11:49.839 to whom they are accountable, and that's you. 0:11:49.880 --> 0:11:52.040 And me and everyone that exists in our neighborhoods. 0:11:53.600 --> 0:11:59.120 Absolutely, and it's interesting, you know. Connecting those issues I 0:11:59.160 --> 0:12:02.240 think is also so important because a lot of people 0:12:02.280 --> 0:12:04.400 will think, oh, well, if you work on women's issues, 0:12:04.480 --> 0:12:06.720 or you work on queer issues, or you work on 0:12:06.840 --> 0:12:10.280 I don't know, civil engineering with the state, like whatever 0:12:10.400 --> 0:12:16.079 is your bag. They're actually all so interconnected and an 0:12:16.120 --> 0:12:19.120 attack on one is really an attack on all. You know, 0:12:19.160 --> 0:12:23.280 they've been They've figured out that if they could come 0:12:23.280 --> 0:12:26.640 for women and overturn row, they could begin this work 0:12:27.040 --> 0:12:30.000 that they've always been trying. The far Ray has always 0:12:30.000 --> 0:12:32.720 tried to come for our community. And if they can 0:12:32.960 --> 0:12:36.400 destroy privacy laws for women, then they can destroy privacy 0:12:36.480 --> 0:12:39.760 laws for queer people. And if they can boogeyman, you know, 0:12:40.200 --> 0:12:46.200 our incredibly small population and most at risk population of 0:12:46.240 --> 0:12:50.600 trans youth, then they can bully queer people again because 0:12:50.640 --> 0:12:54.360 we got popular and they realized we're everywhere. And when 0:12:54.360 --> 0:12:58.000 you see it, you can't unsee it. The desire for 0:12:58.080 --> 0:13:01.240 some of these systems of power to harm the most 0:13:01.360 --> 0:13:04.800 vulnerable so they can do the most damage. I'm really 0:13:04.880 --> 0:13:09.559 curious how the years you organized, especially around reproductive freedom, 0:13:10.679 --> 0:13:15.640 influence the way you organize for the LGBTQ community with 0:13:15.760 --> 0:13:17.080 the HRC, because I know. 0:13:18.200 --> 0:13:20.800 Yes, yes, and you better make it plain for the people, 0:13:20.800 --> 0:13:23.559 Professor Bush, because you're exactly right. 0:13:23.760 --> 0:13:26.319 Everything is connected. 0:13:26.440 --> 0:13:29.520 And I think when our opposition talks about quote unquote 0:13:29.559 --> 0:13:33.640 making America great again or going back to a simpler time, 0:13:33.840 --> 0:13:37.679 they're literally talking about going back. And for me, as 0:13:37.720 --> 0:13:40.240 a black queer woman, please do not put me in 0:13:40.280 --> 0:13:43.360 a time machine, because even though things are not where 0:13:43.360 --> 0:13:45.640 I need them to be today, don't take me back 0:13:45.640 --> 0:13:48.440 to the sixties. Don't take me back to the forties. 0:13:48.520 --> 0:13:51.199 Please don't take me back to the eighteen hundreds, because 0:13:51.200 --> 0:13:55.040 we've made tremendous progress since then, right, And our job 0:13:55.120 --> 0:13:57.840 right now is not just to protect the status quo, 0:13:57.960 --> 0:13:59.640 but it's actually to fight for the world as it 0:13:59.679 --> 0:14:02.520 should be and as it could be if we imagined 0:14:02.559 --> 0:14:06.000 a democracy with our lives at the center. And I think, 0:14:06.000 --> 0:14:09.160 you know, the fight for reproactive freedom. I spent thirteen 0:14:09.240 --> 0:14:12.760 years working at Planned Parented. I went straight from you know, 0:14:12.800 --> 0:14:17.000 the political campaign world into the world of reproductive rights 0:14:17.000 --> 0:14:21.680 and reproactive justice, and it is everything to me. The 0:14:21.720 --> 0:14:25.880 attack on our bodies, our ability to make decisions for ourselves, 0:14:25.960 --> 0:14:29.600 our economic opportunity, that was all playing out in the 0:14:29.640 --> 0:14:32.480 fight for abortion. And when you think about the script 0:14:32.560 --> 0:14:37.440 that they used right first isolate a huge segment of 0:14:37.480 --> 0:14:41.760 the population women right, then try to narrow the ability 0:14:41.760 --> 0:14:45.120 of that group of people to make decisions for themselves, 0:14:45.560 --> 0:14:48.480 and then convince even their allies that it's not a 0:14:48.520 --> 0:14:49.960 popular thing to talk about. 0:14:50.000 --> 0:14:52.640 That is a playbook of authoritarianism. 0:14:52.880 --> 0:14:55.200 And it's also similar to the playbook that we see 0:14:55.200 --> 0:14:58.680 playing out right now on trans lives and where we've 0:14:58.680 --> 0:15:01.360 got to get people to understand is where the arc 0:15:01.440 --> 0:15:04.840 of progress always leads. Look, we're a country that kind 0:15:04.880 --> 0:15:07.080 of you know, we do a little two step, little 0:15:07.080 --> 0:15:10.680 stutter step when it comes to progress, but in the 0:15:10.720 --> 0:15:13.680 long arc, we always end in the place of expanding 0:15:13.760 --> 0:15:17.040 rights and not narrowing them, especially for folks who start 0:15:17.080 --> 0:15:19.760 off with less right. And I think right now there's 0:15:19.760 --> 0:15:21.520 really that decision point in front of a lot of 0:15:21.560 --> 0:15:23.720 people of are you going to be on the right 0:15:23.760 --> 0:15:27.000 side of history and that doesn't mean waiting for public 0:15:27.000 --> 0:15:32.160 opinion to catch up with the moral obligation that we 0:15:32.240 --> 0:15:34.920 have to fight for everyone's civil rights and civil liberties. 0:15:36.560 --> 0:15:39.440 Well, I think it's also particularly arresting because this is 0:15:39.480 --> 0:15:41.920 the first time in our modern lives our country has 0:15:42.080 --> 0:15:48.520 taken rights from people. We have absolutely impeded rights, we 0:15:48.640 --> 0:15:56.600 have enacted policies that have been prejudicial and just set inequity, 0:15:57.000 --> 0:16:02.240 you know, on steroids, but we have not, prior to 0:16:02.440 --> 0:16:10.400 this recent time, seen the Supreme Court take settled rights away, 0:16:11.640 --> 0:16:16.960 and that that is very arresting to me. And to 0:16:17.280 --> 0:16:21.320 watch the way they're saying it all out loud. You know, 0:16:21.360 --> 0:16:23.560 we're going to take abortion rights away. We don't care 0:16:23.560 --> 0:16:26.000 if women die. Women are dying all over this country 0:16:26.040 --> 0:16:29.720 and they don't care even that elected lady, whatever her 0:16:29.840 --> 0:16:32.520 name is, I don't even know. I've stricken her from 0:16:32.560 --> 0:16:36.200 my mental record, but who voted to take our rights 0:16:36.240 --> 0:16:39.000 away and then needed abortion care and couldn't get it, 0:16:39.040 --> 0:16:40.960 and then finally got to get it because she's an 0:16:40.960 --> 0:16:43.000 elected official. I was like, well, that must be nice 0:16:43.000 --> 0:16:47.120 for you, you know, is trying to say she doesn't think 0:16:47.160 --> 0:16:49.280 they did the wrong thing. And I'm like, at some 0:16:49.360 --> 0:16:51.600 point you got to wake up from this sort of 0:16:51.680 --> 0:16:55.520 reverie of loyalty to party over country or over the 0:16:55.560 --> 0:17:01.880 people you represent. And I don't know. It worries me 0:17:02.080 --> 0:17:07.119 because they announced that they are very bullish on overturning Overfelsh, 0:17:07.320 --> 0:17:12.520 which affects all of us. You know, the idea that 0:17:13.000 --> 0:17:18.600 only some people in our country deserve rights is frankly 0:17:18.680 --> 0:17:22.640 so an American. And when you talk about how far 0:17:22.720 --> 0:17:27.080 we've come, yes, you know, I think about different than 0:17:27.119 --> 0:17:28.919 your story. But I think about the fact that my 0:17:28.960 --> 0:17:31.960 grandmother came to this country on a boat with her 0:17:32.000 --> 0:17:36.240 family from Italy, walked through the stalls at Ellis Island, 0:17:36.640 --> 0:17:40.480 you know, became an American. My grandmother was born in 0:17:40.520 --> 0:17:44.080 a Stone farmhouse in Italy with no electricity or running water, 0:17:45.240 --> 0:17:49.280 and two generations later, I have a computer in my pocket, 0:17:49.920 --> 0:17:53.480 and am you know, an activist and a writer and 0:17:53.520 --> 0:17:57.600 a producer and an actor and a like what you know? 0:17:58.520 --> 0:18:00.800 The progress is so clear, and the idea that there 0:18:00.800 --> 0:18:03.119 are people who want to take it from us, that 0:18:03.240 --> 0:18:07.720 somehow taking from us gives them more is so strange 0:18:07.760 --> 0:18:11.520 to me. So when I think about you and the 0:18:11.600 --> 0:18:14.480 exceptional way you're able to talk to people about freedom, 0:18:15.040 --> 0:18:19.639 you know, you frame our freedom, our community's freedom, not 0:18:19.800 --> 0:18:23.199 just as an imperative, but you ask people questions. You 0:18:23.240 --> 0:18:25.639 ask them what they believe in in terms of freedom 0:18:25.680 --> 0:18:30.600 and dignity and belonging. And I'm curious how has the 0:18:30.720 --> 0:18:34.400 motivation and also the question become a pairing for you, 0:18:34.480 --> 0:18:36.800 Like how did you drill down on that as a 0:18:36.840 --> 0:18:40.959 way to wake people up to what democracy is supposed 0:18:41.000 --> 0:18:41.440 to be by? 0:18:41.840 --> 0:18:45.080 And some of it is about helping people to really 0:18:45.160 --> 0:18:50.040 wrestle with the disconnect between our experiences of progress and 0:18:50.040 --> 0:18:53.199 then what actually exists in terms of our rights, Like 0:18:53.280 --> 0:18:55.720 the last sixty years in American history have really been 0:18:55.800 --> 0:18:58.200 transformative when you think about the progress that we've made, 0:18:58.280 --> 0:19:01.639 right like women got the ability to get a credit card, 0:19:02.000 --> 0:19:04.080 you know, or access lines of credit, to be. 0:19:04.040 --> 0:19:05.840 Able to buy homes in their own name. 0:19:06.240 --> 0:19:09.640 The Civil Rights Act past so that we could actually have, 0:19:10.000 --> 0:19:13.520 you know, voting rights for black folks. We had marriage 0:19:13.520 --> 0:19:15.840 equality become the law of the land, Roe v. Wade 0:19:15.880 --> 0:19:19.160 became law, and then unbecame law. But all those things 0:19:19.200 --> 0:19:21.439 happened really in the last sixty years or so, and 0:19:21.480 --> 0:19:24.680 while some of us were celebrating the diversity of our nation, 0:19:24.840 --> 0:19:28.040 how things were evolving and changing, I actually think that there. 0:19:27.920 --> 0:19:30.520 Was a segment of this country that was terrified by it. 0:19:30.920 --> 0:19:32.000 They saw all of this. 0:19:32.080 --> 0:19:34.119 As we talk about what happened to our lives and 0:19:34.160 --> 0:19:36.919 our families and two generations, there's a group of people 0:19:36.920 --> 0:19:41.479 that saw the same thing and became rooted in figuring 0:19:41.560 --> 0:19:44.280 out ways not to lose their hold on power because 0:19:44.320 --> 0:19:48.119 they couldn't imagine a democracy that could hold. 0:19:47.560 --> 0:19:48.080 All of us. 0:19:48.280 --> 0:19:50.680 In fact, I used to have a past that would say, 0:19:50.680 --> 0:19:53.240 the reason that those people are so afraid is because 0:19:53.240 --> 0:19:55.600 they're worried that when folks that who look in love 0:19:55.720 --> 0:19:58.320 like us have the power that matches our numbers, that 0:19:58.440 --> 0:19:59.879 will treat them just as terribly. 0:20:00.119 --> 0:20:02.480 They've treated us all these hundreds of years, right. 0:20:02.960 --> 0:20:05.840 But if that was your motivation, you start to kind 0:20:05.840 --> 0:20:08.840 of understand why people are so entrench and we've got 0:20:08.840 --> 0:20:12.720 to break through some of that and actually force ourselves 0:20:12.760 --> 0:20:15.760 to imagine a democracy. In Harold Washington, who was the 0:20:15.800 --> 0:20:18.280 first black Mary or Chicago, used to say this, that's 0:20:18.320 --> 0:20:22.080 actually fairer than fair to re envision a world where 0:20:22.119 --> 0:20:24.879 all of us actually have an equal shot and what 0:20:25.080 --> 0:20:28.120 that will take. And if we can construct that sort 0:20:28.119 --> 0:20:30.199 of a future that everyone can be a part of, 0:20:30.720 --> 0:20:33.879 that gives us the greatest room to access rights that 0:20:33.960 --> 0:20:36.760 aren't as shallow as we currently have, because you're right, 0:20:37.240 --> 0:20:39.280 right now, too many of our rights are hanging on 0:20:39.400 --> 0:20:41.480 a single Supreme Court case. 0:20:41.920 --> 0:20:42.680 The fall of Roe v. 0:20:42.840 --> 0:20:45.760 Wade showed us that pretty clearly when Roe was overturned, 0:20:45.760 --> 0:20:48.040 and you had all those state trigger laws that were 0:20:48.080 --> 0:20:50.280 just waiting for that to happen so that they could 0:20:50.320 --> 0:20:54.280 criticalize abortion access. If a Berga Fell is overturned, we've 0:20:54.280 --> 0:20:55.720 got some protection with. 0:20:55.680 --> 0:20:59.040 The respect for Marriajack, but it doesn't guarantee that you 0:20:59.080 --> 0:21:02.840 can actually get married in every state. If Lawrence v. 0:21:03.080 --> 0:21:05.000 Texas is overturned. 0:21:05.600 --> 0:21:08.359 There are still states with laws on the books that 0:21:08.400 --> 0:21:11.679 are banning sodomy, which could create a world where states 0:21:11.680 --> 0:21:15.280 could criminalize whatever you are doing in your bedroom. That's 0:21:15.320 --> 0:21:19.159 how shallow our rights are right now. So the reason 0:21:19.200 --> 0:21:21.359 that I think we ask these questions to envision the 0:21:21.359 --> 0:21:24.720 future of democracy is because this is a participatory sport. 0:21:25.240 --> 0:21:28.239 We got to be able to constructive for ourselves and 0:21:28.440 --> 0:21:31.359 help people to understand that there is right now a 0:21:31.400 --> 0:21:34.399 disconnect in what many of us, not all of us, 0:21:34.400 --> 0:21:37.240 but many of us have experienced in terms of the 0:21:37.280 --> 0:21:40.359 ability to move in the world and what's actually protected 0:21:40.520 --> 0:21:43.560 under law, and now's the time that we actually need 0:21:43.600 --> 0:21:47.520 to fortify that foundation, not just by protecting the things 0:21:47.560 --> 0:21:49.920 that were right, like Roe was always the floor and 0:21:49.960 --> 0:21:52.960 never the ceiling when it came to protecting abortion access, 0:21:53.200 --> 0:21:55.960 but instead to use this moment of crisis, when everyone 0:21:56.040 --> 0:21:59.679 understands that something's wrong, to actually build the democracy that 0:21:59.680 --> 0:22:00.200 we want. 0:22:00.520 --> 0:22:01.960 And how do you think we do that? 0:22:02.240 --> 0:22:05.159 Now, that's a big question. Look, it starts. We're getting 0:22:05.160 --> 0:22:06.280 the power to make it. 0:22:06.240 --> 0:22:10.119 Happen, right Like we've got to turn out to vote 0:22:10.119 --> 0:22:13.040 this year, and you're seeing like tremendous things happen all 0:22:13.040 --> 0:22:17.080 over the country when it comes to elections, from progressive 0:22:17.119 --> 0:22:22.520 candidates are winning primaries with visionary platforms, to pro equality 0:22:22.520 --> 0:22:24.680 candidates over performing in districts. 0:22:24.240 --> 0:22:26.400 To the district where Donald Trump. 0:22:26.160 --> 0:22:29.800 Votes in Mary Lago now being represented by a Democrat 0:22:29.880 --> 0:22:30.440 in Florida. 0:22:30.560 --> 0:22:33.560 Right, Like, there are these tremendous things that are happening. 0:22:33.200 --> 0:22:35.200 But for us to get to change, we got to 0:22:35.200 --> 0:22:37.360 have power first. So the first step is we got 0:22:37.400 --> 0:22:39.919 to win some elections. But the second step, and it 0:22:39.960 --> 0:22:42.280 has to happen in close secession, is we got to 0:22:42.280 --> 0:22:46.320 hold people in office accountable to our vision for democracy. 0:22:46.760 --> 0:22:52.639 Yes, yes, totally. And it's a weird thing, right, I 0:22:52.640 --> 0:22:56.080 don't know, I've sort of been on this see saw 0:22:56.160 --> 0:23:00.200 of hope and exhaustion. And it was a strange thing 0:23:00.640 --> 0:23:06.879 to celebrate America's two hundred and fiftieth birthday. You know, 0:23:07.240 --> 0:23:09.760 I was like, well, what are we like, what are 0:23:09.760 --> 0:23:15.240 we celebrating? You know, I celebrate the idea that the 0:23:15.320 --> 0:23:18.400 sacredness of the idea that we are building an equal nation. 0:23:18.640 --> 0:23:21.840 And I also am heartbroken to see it, you know, 0:23:21.920 --> 0:23:24.960 being chopped up like one of Donald Trump's casinos, and 0:23:25.000 --> 0:23:27.280 the way he's distracting from the chop up and the 0:23:27.320 --> 0:23:29.680 sale of all the parts is by making everybody hate 0:23:29.680 --> 0:23:32.200 each other. I'm just like, this is how basic we are? 0:23:32.880 --> 0:23:36.560 Oh God? And you know, to add insult to injury, 0:23:36.600 --> 0:23:39.160 attacks on our community and you know, over six hundred 0:23:39.200 --> 0:23:43.160 bills trying to criminalize queer people. And then and then, 0:23:43.680 --> 0:23:45.679 you know, you tell the story of your family, like 0:23:46.160 --> 0:23:50.800 I would be remiss to not say the terror I 0:23:50.960 --> 0:23:58.160 feel loving my my family, our children, my friends, your children. 0:23:58.920 --> 0:24:02.400 You know, look looking at what's happening around the country, 0:24:02.480 --> 0:24:05.879 to black youth, to kids like Nolan Wells. You know 0:24:06.200 --> 0:24:10.159 when when historians are starting to ask like could this 0:24:10.280 --> 0:24:15.080 potentially be a resurgence of KKK activity around the two fifty, 0:24:15.240 --> 0:24:20.000 Like what's going on here? You know it? It feels 0:24:20.119 --> 0:24:28.840 like there is so much rage directed at all of us, 0:24:28.880 --> 0:24:35.800 and I I guess I just wonder, Yes, we have 0:24:35.880 --> 0:24:37.560 to turn out and vote, and yes we got to 0:24:37.560 --> 0:24:40.120 take our school boards back from those moms for liberty 0:24:41.119 --> 0:24:44.439 Kugu banana pants people, and like, yes, we have to 0:24:44.480 --> 0:24:46.800 figure out how to actually get Congress to do its 0:24:46.840 --> 0:24:51.359 damn job. But you know, how do you as a 0:24:51.440 --> 0:24:55.560 queer black woman, like how are you moving through the 0:24:55.600 --> 0:25:00.560 world right now? How are you how are you remaining hopeful? 0:25:00.680 --> 0:25:06.240 How are you refusing to change how you move and 0:25:06.280 --> 0:25:09.840 where you move? Or or are you taking different steps? 0:25:09.920 --> 0:25:11.959 Are there places you don't feel like you can go 0:25:12.080 --> 0:25:12.600 right now? 0:25:12.640 --> 0:25:12.760 Like? 0:25:13.600 --> 0:25:17.560 What what is all that in your being and in 0:25:17.600 --> 0:25:18.080 your family? 0:25:18.119 --> 0:25:19.919 I mean it's hard to sit in both, Like you're 0:25:20.000 --> 0:25:21.040 right for me? 0:25:21.880 --> 0:25:24.960 The week of America's two hundred and fiftieth birthday, well, 0:25:24.960 --> 0:25:26.680 I'm just trying to have my hot dogs and a 0:25:26.680 --> 0:25:27.960 little sparkler. 0:25:30.080 --> 0:25:32.560 Like, just give me a hot dog and something the. 0:25:32.520 --> 0:25:37.680 Best of America if you will. But it's the reminder 0:25:39.680 --> 0:25:43.680 of who America is showed itself right. Yet Nolan Wells, which, 0:25:43.720 --> 0:25:46.639 oh my gosh, is a parent right of kids of color? 0:25:46.840 --> 0:25:51.439 Rips your heart apart. Yet Ice murder two people in 0:25:51.520 --> 0:25:56.399 cold blood in the last week, just two dads, Like 0:25:56.440 --> 0:25:58.959 what are we do? You even have the Supreme Court 0:25:59.280 --> 0:26:04.520 rule again in to legalize discriminate discrimination against trans youth. 0:26:04.520 --> 0:26:06.680 You had all of this happened in the same week. 0:26:07.160 --> 0:26:09.479 And for me, I can't say that that's not who 0:26:09.560 --> 0:26:12.640 America is because that's definitely part of our story, right. 0:26:13.320 --> 0:26:15.119 But when I do think about the two hundred and 0:26:15.119 --> 0:26:18.120 fiftieth of America I also try to remember that there's 0:26:18.160 --> 0:26:21.280 another side to our story too, the side of the 0:26:21.280 --> 0:26:24.560 story where you know Marsha p. Johnson, Sylvia Rivera throw the. 0:26:24.520 --> 0:26:27.440 First brick, the side of the story where. 0:26:27.320 --> 0:26:32.080 John Lewis marks marches across the Selma Bridge, the side 0:26:32.080 --> 0:26:34.600 of the story where the women come together in Seneca Falls. 0:26:34.640 --> 0:26:37.080 To imagine a different reality like that is as much 0:26:37.119 --> 0:26:42.240 America too. And when I told you my family story 0:26:43.440 --> 0:26:45.679 about Iowa, were the first free black family there. And 0:26:45.720 --> 0:26:48.879 I remember my great aunt, who's the matriarch of our family. 0:26:48.920 --> 0:26:50.920 She died at the age of one hundred and two. 0:26:52.560 --> 0:26:54.320 And just before she passed, it. 0:26:54.240 --> 0:26:57.760 Was she passed like one year into Trump's first term, 0:26:57.920 --> 0:27:01.119 I believe. And I was taught her and I said, 0:27:01.280 --> 0:27:04.440 you know, Aunt Birch, and my great aunt, I said, ugh, 0:27:04.960 --> 0:27:07.800 things are so terrible now, things are so terrible. What 0:27:07.840 --> 0:27:11.480 are we going to do? And she said, baby, you 0:27:11.520 --> 0:27:15.560 ain't special. And she reminded me of how like my 0:27:15.680 --> 0:27:19.359 grandfather fought in World War two for this country. And 0:27:19.400 --> 0:27:21.919 he fought at a time when he was fighting for 0:27:22.000 --> 0:27:24.159 rights for people who would not let him drink out 0:27:24.200 --> 0:27:26.600 of the same water found, and yet he stood for 0:27:26.680 --> 0:27:29.639 this nation not because of what it was, but because 0:27:29.680 --> 0:27:32.240 of the promise of America and what it could be. 0:27:32.720 --> 0:27:35.280 And because of that sacrifice, we get to have, like 0:27:35.359 --> 0:27:39.320 you said, computers in our pockets beyond zoom. Talk about 0:27:39.359 --> 0:27:41.840 a nation not just where we can live, but a 0:27:41.920 --> 0:27:45.160 nation where we can thrive. And I think that the 0:27:45.200 --> 0:27:49.119 greatest tool of an oppressor, whether you look at the 0:27:49.119 --> 0:27:53.120 Trump administration, you look globally, look at the history of authoritarians, 0:27:53.760 --> 0:27:56.679 is when the people lose hope. And I will be 0:27:56.840 --> 0:27:59.800 damned if democracy dies on our watch, I will be 0:28:00.080 --> 0:28:03.080 And if we are the generation that gives up because 0:28:03.080 --> 0:28:04.680 it got hard, this is. 0:28:04.640 --> 0:28:07.159 A hard part and this is what our ancestors have 0:28:07.200 --> 0:28:08.040 set us up to do. 0:28:08.640 --> 0:28:13.160 So you know, it's not quite the rosiest of viewpoints 0:28:13.200 --> 0:28:15.280 on this nation, but I think it's an important one. 0:28:15.320 --> 0:28:17.359 That part of the American story is the story of 0:28:17.400 --> 0:28:20.640 people than the face of adversity refuse to give it. 0:28:21.040 --> 0:28:22.879 And that's the chapter I feel like we've got to 0:28:22.880 --> 0:28:23.520 write together. 0:28:25.040 --> 0:28:27.960 I agree, And you know what I wonder for us, 0:28:28.720 --> 0:28:33.160 there is there is no better story than the one 0:28:33.200 --> 0:28:38.400 your grandfather believed in, right, like this true melting pot 0:28:38.560 --> 0:28:43.040 of anyone in everyone who wants to be an American, 0:28:43.120 --> 0:28:46.320 can be an American. Even reguezs that, like, you can't 0:28:46.520 --> 0:28:51.000 become a Frenchman, but you can become an American, you know, 0:28:51.040 --> 0:28:53.360 in the day of that speech, and you list it 0:28:53.360 --> 0:28:54.600 off a bunch of more countries. I don't need the 0:28:54.600 --> 0:28:55.440 French people to come for me. 0:28:55.480 --> 0:28:58.560 I love y'all, but orry about the World Cup. 0:28:58.600 --> 0:29:03.280 But yes, I know, oh god, that was heavy. Also though, 0:29:03.320 --> 0:29:09.400 congratulations to Spain all both and but but like one 0:29:09.400 --> 0:29:12.200 of the things I think about us is our story, 0:29:13.120 --> 0:29:16.240 the ideal, the kind of like the seed at the 0:29:16.280 --> 0:29:20.680 middle is so good that there is rightfully so so 0:29:20.800 --> 0:29:24.080 much shame about all the wrong that has come with it. 0:29:24.480 --> 0:29:26.320 Like if you think about it as to you know, 0:29:26.360 --> 0:29:29.840 two scales, two sides of the scale, I guess like 0:29:30.280 --> 0:29:32.600 we really want to lean into the good stuff, and 0:29:32.640 --> 0:29:35.560 we want to ignore the bad stuff. And some of 0:29:35.560 --> 0:29:37.520 the people who tell us to ignore the bad stuff 0:29:38.000 --> 0:29:39.920 want us to be so raw raw for the good 0:29:40.360 --> 0:29:42.440 so we don't pay attention to the bad stuff they're doing. Yes, 0:29:42.480 --> 0:29:45.320 I'm talking about Donald Trump and all his friends, but 0:29:46.640 --> 0:29:51.560 it strikes me, you know, the time I've spent in Germany, 0:29:51.680 --> 0:29:57.280 there is no denying history. There are memorials and plaques 0:29:57.360 --> 0:30:02.920 and museums, and I mean parks where you interactively walk 0:30:03.040 --> 0:30:07.360 through art installations that are meant to acknowledge what happened 0:30:07.400 --> 0:30:10.240 there and what the Nazis did and what they did 0:30:10.280 --> 0:30:16.000 to other people. You are never allowed to forget, and 0:30:17.040 --> 0:30:22.040 symbols are banned and gestures are banned, and like they 0:30:22.080 --> 0:30:27.080 do not play with how hideous that chapter of their 0:30:27.200 --> 0:30:32.480 national story was. And I think part of what we 0:30:32.640 --> 0:30:36.320 have to do to build the America we've all always 0:30:36.360 --> 0:30:41.959 deserved to actually claim like the good seed, is also 0:30:42.360 --> 0:30:47.280 start acknowledging the bad. I think we have to build 0:30:47.320 --> 0:30:49.680 the memorials. I think we you know, like what Brian 0:30:49.720 --> 0:30:53.240 Stevenson did in the South, they should be everywhere. Like 0:30:53.520 --> 0:30:58.320 we have to start to say, we have so much 0:30:58.360 --> 0:31:02.040 to be grateful for. Let's not play about how we 0:31:02.160 --> 0:31:05.160 got here. And that's what we haven't been willing to do. 0:31:05.200 --> 0:31:07.239 And I fear that our lack of willingness to do 0:31:07.280 --> 0:31:10.280 it is part of why we keep opening the door 0:31:10.400 --> 0:31:12.800 for people who want to keep doing it. 0:31:12.880 --> 0:31:16.760 I could not agree more. Look, this nation, for better 0:31:16.840 --> 0:31:21.320 or worse, is going to outlive Donald Trump. The story 0:31:21.360 --> 0:31:23.720 that we tell about this chapter matters. I mean, just 0:31:23.760 --> 0:31:25.760 look at right now. They're trying to make us believe 0:31:25.800 --> 0:31:30.000 that January sixth, what's a dog on Boston tea party? Right, 0:31:30.400 --> 0:31:34.000 They're trying to rewrite history. There's a reason why Texas 0:31:34.080 --> 0:31:38.040 is banning the story of our history in their history books. 0:31:38.280 --> 0:31:41.360 There's a reason why this administration is coming after education, 0:31:41.480 --> 0:31:44.800 because an uninformed populace is one that you can control. 0:31:45.240 --> 0:31:47.440 So telling our story and reckoning with it is an 0:31:47.440 --> 0:31:50.160 important piece of it. And I actually think that to 0:31:50.200 --> 0:31:53.880 your point, in that reckoning, we can think of ways 0:31:53.920 --> 0:31:56.440 to move forward differently, will they say? Old folks used 0:31:56.440 --> 0:31:59.440 to say when you know better, you do better. But 0:31:59.480 --> 0:32:01.800 this is chance to do that. I think the worry 0:32:01.840 --> 0:32:04.560 that I have is is that sometimes we get so 0:32:06.240 --> 0:32:10.080 entrenched in all of the bad that we can miss 0:32:10.520 --> 0:32:12.880 all of the light that has still allowed. 0:32:12.640 --> 0:32:15.600 Us to survive. And I think it's possible for us 0:32:15.680 --> 0:32:19.920 to actually be able to hold both. That's a complicated 0:32:20.000 --> 0:32:23.160 nature of being humans, a complicated nature of being an American. 0:32:23.600 --> 0:32:25.800 But for me, look, as a black person, I ain't 0:32:25.840 --> 0:32:29.680 got nowhere else to go. So we've got to claim. 0:32:29.920 --> 0:32:31.480 We've got going to claim this nation. 0:32:31.600 --> 0:32:34.400 I think about James Baldwin a lot who said, you know, 0:32:34.520 --> 0:32:36.680 I love America more than any country in the world. 0:32:36.760 --> 0:32:38.640 That's why I criticize her relentlessly. 0:32:39.160 --> 0:32:42.400 It's okay to criticize this nation, but it's not okay 0:32:42.760 --> 0:32:44.280 to give up on her and still want to be 0:32:44.320 --> 0:32:48.120 a part of the American story. We have to reclaim 0:32:48.160 --> 0:32:50.880 and embrace what is ours and what our ancestors have 0:32:50.920 --> 0:32:52.480 already fought and already paid for. 0:32:53.280 --> 0:32:56.040 Yeah, we have too much history here. We literally have 0:32:56.120 --> 0:33:02.160 too much blood exact to ever say I think about 0:33:02.640 --> 0:33:05.800 you know, w comal Bell He said something it must 0:33:05.800 --> 0:33:08.840 have been like a year ago. Uh, he said, anytime 0:33:08.880 --> 0:33:12.160 I get overwhelmed or I think like I can't keep 0:33:12.200 --> 0:33:15.640 fighting this, I'm I'm done. He goes that, goes to 0:33:15.800 --> 0:33:18.960 area dumb and smacks me across the face, and it 0:33:19.200 --> 0:33:22.360 just made me laugh so hard. I was like, fair point, 0:33:23.000 --> 0:33:28.280 because the people whose footsteps were following in have done 0:33:28.560 --> 0:33:31.920 incredible work, and no matter how bad it is, we 0:33:31.960 --> 0:33:34.400 have it better than they did, and so we better 0:33:34.440 --> 0:33:36.440 not be the lazy generation. 0:33:37.680 --> 0:33:38.320 We better not. 0:33:38.520 --> 0:33:40.560 Can you imagine on the other side of the way, 0:33:40.560 --> 0:33:45.480 our ancestors would collect us. You didn't march because you 0:33:45.520 --> 0:33:47.080 were afraid they'd find you online. 0:33:47.120 --> 0:33:48.480 You better get in those streets. 0:33:48.880 --> 0:33:52.080 Yeah. Also like, oh you didn't you didn't go to 0:33:52.120 --> 0:33:56.520 the protest because you were doomed. Get stuff out of here. 0:33:57.240 --> 0:33:59.560 And now a word from our sponsors that I really 0:33:59.640 --> 0:34:08.719 enjoy and I think you will too. I started to 0:34:08.760 --> 0:34:11.560 think about the pressure we put on our children and 0:34:11.640 --> 0:34:16.000 how that pressure is really being manipulated, especially in sports 0:34:16.040 --> 0:34:19.279 and especially with trans kids. And they're claiming like, oh, 0:34:19.400 --> 0:34:21.600 trans kids can't play sports because we have to protect 0:34:21.600 --> 0:34:26.080 the girls. All the kids are friends. Like what are 0:34:26.120 --> 0:34:28.240 we talking about? Kids just want to play with their friends. 0:34:28.719 --> 0:34:31.080 You know, some little nine year old trans girl on 0:34:31.160 --> 0:34:34.840 a soccer team isn't taking a space away from another 0:34:34.920 --> 0:34:39.480 nine year old. They're just playing. And it's surreal to 0:34:39.520 --> 0:34:42.480 me that the people who are trying to defund anything 0:34:42.520 --> 0:34:44.719 that has to do with women, they've literally labeled the 0:34:44.760 --> 0:34:47.920 word women dei and they want to cut all our funding, 0:34:48.040 --> 0:34:51.760 including in sports, are saying this is somehow for the women. 0:34:53.120 --> 0:35:00.440 Why do you think trans youth especially is being tararget it? 0:35:00.480 --> 0:35:06.160 Is it because just statistically, so many people in this 0:35:06.200 --> 0:35:08.400 country don't know a trans person or don't know that 0:35:08.440 --> 0:35:12.080 they know a trans person. So they can boogeyman these kids. 0:35:12.239 --> 0:35:15.000 It's like you said, they're looking for a boogeyman right now, 0:35:15.040 --> 0:35:17.440 and I think it's It is so sad to me 0:35:17.520 --> 0:35:19.360 because there used to be in a line in politics 0:35:19.360 --> 0:35:22.920 that people didn't cross, right, you just didn't go after kids. 0:35:23.280 --> 0:35:28.440 But right now you have adults, grown people. They're spending time, energy, 0:35:28.600 --> 0:35:32.200 and money in states across the country pushing hundreds of 0:35:32.280 --> 0:35:36.279 bills to target kids as young as five years old. 0:35:37.200 --> 0:35:40.239 Can you imagine at a time when gas prices are 0:35:40.280 --> 0:35:44.280 through the roof, there's wars all over the world, healthcare 0:35:44.320 --> 0:35:48.720 premiums are out of control, there's explosive diarrhea on the strawberries, 0:35:49.080 --> 0:35:51.439 Like this is what you're spending your time and your 0:35:51.560 --> 0:35:52.080 energy on. 0:35:52.520 --> 0:35:55.320 Why And if you look just one layer further. 0:35:55.480 --> 0:35:59.000 There was a quote from the head of American Principles Project, 0:35:59.080 --> 0:36:02.120 one of these extreme ass right wing organizations, and they 0:36:02.200 --> 0:36:05.080 said that after the twenty twenty two election cycle. So 0:36:05.120 --> 0:36:09.240 remember that's after Roe is overturned through the Dobbs decision 0:36:09.280 --> 0:36:13.719 and they lose just a whole range of ballot initiatives 0:36:13.760 --> 0:36:17.200 on abortion access. They threw issues at the wall to 0:36:17.239 --> 0:36:20.120 see what would stick, and attacks on trans kids is 0:36:20.200 --> 0:36:20.840 what's stuck. 0:36:21.600 --> 0:36:25.239 This is not about safety and sports, it's not about 0:36:25.280 --> 0:36:29.560 protecting girls. It's about using a community that people don't 0:36:29.600 --> 0:36:32.160 know enough about yet to make it seem like there's 0:36:32.200 --> 0:36:35.440 a boogeyman that's the source of all their challenges. And 0:36:35.480 --> 0:36:37.359 now's the time where we got to break through that myth. 0:36:37.400 --> 0:36:40.400 And I think that people are people are getting wise 0:36:40.480 --> 0:36:40.799 to it. 0:36:41.280 --> 0:36:43.360 Yeah, I think people are getting wise to it. And 0:36:43.400 --> 0:36:48.000 I think especially a point that I have made to 0:36:48.040 --> 0:36:51.759 some people that has been a big aha, is how 0:36:51.760 --> 0:36:55.440 do you enforce what little kids are trans? And aren't 0:36:55.200 --> 0:36:58.600 you want some stranger at a school or at an 0:36:58.680 --> 0:37:04.439 after school sports club inspecting your children's genitalia because that's 0:37:04.480 --> 0:37:07.080 the only way, that's the only way to check. So 0:37:07.200 --> 0:37:11.800 what you're actually voting for is to put all children, 0:37:11.960 --> 0:37:14.680 and let's be real, this will focus mostly on little girls. 0:37:15.680 --> 0:37:19.040 You are you are voting to put children at risk 0:37:19.080 --> 0:37:22.560 of sexual abuse under the guise of saying you want 0:37:22.600 --> 0:37:26.920 to protect them from other children. Like, everybody better wake 0:37:27.000 --> 0:37:28.880 up real quick, because that's not what we're going to do. 0:37:29.800 --> 0:37:33.799 And what we're certainly not going to do is put 0:37:33.480 --> 0:37:35.560 our kids under threat. 0:37:36.200 --> 0:37:39.279 Look, we know that there's political attacks are happening, But 0:37:39.320 --> 0:37:41.400 the way that we break through the policy is by 0:37:41.400 --> 0:37:45.120 getting closer to the people, by having conversations with our friends, 0:37:45.120 --> 0:37:48.480 with our neighbors, with other parents right in our communities. 0:37:48.520 --> 0:37:51.600 And that's what this moment charges us to do. You know, 0:37:51.640 --> 0:37:54.239 I was talking with one of my colleagues about the 0:37:54.280 --> 0:37:56.719 marriage fight and how we actually got to marriage equality, 0:37:57.200 --> 0:38:00.080 and she reminded me of two things, like, remember, in 0:38:00.080 --> 0:38:04.360 two thousand and four, there were a ton of anti 0:38:04.640 --> 0:38:08.040 marriage bowdnishis and bills are moving all across the country 0:38:08.080 --> 0:38:11.000 two thousand and four. But in the aftermath of that, 0:38:11.040 --> 0:38:14.960 when folks saw the cruelty and how wrong it was 0:38:15.040 --> 0:38:17.400 to discriminate against our friends and neighbors, things. 0:38:17.160 --> 0:38:19.600 Started to change. And I think that we're at that 0:38:19.640 --> 0:38:20.160 point now. 0:38:20.680 --> 0:38:23.680 And she also reminded me that in that time, they 0:38:23.680 --> 0:38:26.800 said that they would measure their success by the moment 0:38:26.840 --> 0:38:29.239 when kids could come out to their parents as gay 0:38:29.719 --> 0:38:33.120 and the parents wouldn't cry out of fear. We have 0:38:33.480 --> 0:38:36.280 overcome that bar in so many ways for the lesbian, 0:38:36.320 --> 0:38:38.319 gay and bi community. That's where we need to go. 0:38:38.360 --> 0:38:41.480 With the trans community, we're coming out and experiencing the 0:38:41.480 --> 0:38:43.560 freedom of who they want to be does not feel 0:38:43.560 --> 0:38:46.440 like a threat to their future and to their lives. 0:38:46.760 --> 0:38:48.600 And that to me, like, I don't care where you 0:38:48.640 --> 0:38:50.920 live in this country. I don't care what your identity is, 0:38:51.040 --> 0:38:53.840 what your religion is, what your politic is. All of 0:38:53.920 --> 0:38:57.280 us want our kids to experience that kind of freedom, 0:38:57.600 --> 0:39:03.279 and if we can start having that conversation, that is transformative, 0:39:03.760 --> 0:39:05.640 not just for a year, but for a generation. 0:39:06.680 --> 0:39:09.040 Yeah. And you know, it's funny because I think there's 0:39:09.080 --> 0:39:12.120 also this this talking point. They're like, oh, you know, 0:39:12.200 --> 0:39:15.920 everybody's gay, and it's like, well, everybody used to be 0:39:16.000 --> 0:39:18.600 right handed until we stopped the rules that said if 0:39:18.680 --> 0:39:20.960 kids were left handed, you had to change it, and 0:39:21.000 --> 0:39:22.880 then suddenly there were all these left handed people. 0:39:22.960 --> 0:39:25.239 They were handed, you know. 0:39:25.560 --> 0:39:30.560 And it's like, guys, if if media or knowing gay 0:39:30.600 --> 0:39:33.520 people made kids gay, then everyone would be straight because 0:39:33.520 --> 0:39:38.399 every movie ever is about straight people, all the kids cartoons, 0:39:38.440 --> 0:39:42.640 all the Disney movies. Like, it's not a real thing. 0:39:43.360 --> 0:39:47.240 We gotta like get past this idea that seeing people 0:39:47.360 --> 0:39:50.000 is a bad thing. Knowing gay people or trans people 0:39:50.080 --> 0:39:52.480 isn't gonna make your kid gay or trans, but it 0:39:52.560 --> 0:39:55.960 will make you are gay or trans. Kid make it 0:39:56.000 --> 0:39:58.480 to adulthood, and that's. 0:39:58.280 --> 0:40:00.279 The difference, you know. 0:40:00.880 --> 0:40:02.960 And I think about this a lot in terms of 0:40:04.400 --> 0:40:06.480 because you know me, I love math because these are 0:40:06.600 --> 0:40:09.799 very These are emotional issues and they're moral issues, and 0:40:09.840 --> 0:40:13.759 they're all the things, and they're spiritual issues. But like 0:40:14.040 --> 0:40:16.440 the math and the morals meet, I get excited. And 0:40:16.520 --> 0:40:19.399 so like when people in the healthcare world talk about 0:40:19.480 --> 0:40:22.520 women's issues like endometriosis and say that's niche, I'm like, 0:40:22.600 --> 0:40:25.480 we are fifty one percent of the population. We're actually 0:40:25.520 --> 0:40:28.160 the majority. So an issue that affects us is not 0:40:28.239 --> 0:40:32.520 a niche. It's actually a crisis. And when people talk 0:40:32.560 --> 0:40:36.040 about our community and they're like, well, you know, LGBTQ 0:40:36.120 --> 0:40:39.279 people murmurmur. I'm like, conservative estimates say one in five, 0:40:39.400 --> 0:40:42.920 probably one in four. But women aren't fifty one percent 0:40:42.960 --> 0:40:45.640 of the population. The gays are probably twenty five percent. 0:40:46.440 --> 0:40:47.520 We're not a niche. 0:40:48.040 --> 0:40:51.440 Like you guys, you gotta get over it, like catch up, 0:40:51.560 --> 0:40:53.680 come to the party. Our parties are more fun anyway. 0:40:54.000 --> 0:40:56.560 You're welcome as long as you're not rude, and like, 0:40:56.680 --> 0:40:58.040 let's moved it along, you. 0:40:58.000 --> 0:40:58.640 Know, totally. 0:40:58.920 --> 0:41:01.319 Yeah, And like I think that there's something to all 0:41:01.320 --> 0:41:04.960 those people that are saying, like everybody's gay, what's happening? 0:41:05.040 --> 0:41:08.160 I think they're actually either saying the world is changing 0:41:08.680 --> 0:41:10.120 and I don't know how I can be a part 0:41:10.120 --> 0:41:13.040 of it, right, Which look, I felt that way when 0:41:13.120 --> 0:41:15.680 you know, we move from computers to max but now 0:41:15.760 --> 0:41:17.719 look at me, I'm a mac. I'm doing okay, right, 0:41:17.800 --> 0:41:20.160 Or we moved from my Nokia phone to a smartphone. 0:41:20.200 --> 0:41:22.279 It was hard, but that kind of transition, and we 0:41:22.320 --> 0:41:25.080 need to create a world where change isn't seen as 0:41:25.120 --> 0:41:26.880 a bad thing, but it's actually seen. 0:41:26.719 --> 0:41:28.479 As a positive way that we grow. 0:41:29.440 --> 0:41:32.560 Or some of them are saying, why does that person 0:41:32.600 --> 0:41:34.799 get to experience a freeeness that I have to hold 0:41:34.840 --> 0:41:35.360 back every. 0:41:35.280 --> 0:41:37.719 Day in my life? And I wonder how many of. 0:41:37.680 --> 0:41:41.759 Those people actually are trying to unlock something that has 0:41:41.760 --> 0:41:43.880 felt so deep and core to them but has been 0:41:43.920 --> 0:41:46.600 stigmatized in a way that they can't break free from. 0:41:47.080 --> 0:41:49.120 And that's the thing about this kind of a movement. 0:41:49.160 --> 0:41:52.359 When we do it well, when we don't discard people. 0:41:53.600 --> 0:41:56.839 That are moving through their challenges of change but find 0:41:56.880 --> 0:41:59.919 ways to create on rams for them, you actually create 0:42:00.239 --> 0:42:03.279 freeness for everybody, For that little boy that wants to 0:42:03.320 --> 0:42:05.759 paint his nails, for that girl that wants to have 0:42:05.880 --> 0:42:09.040 short hair, for anyone that wants to engage in the 0:42:09.080 --> 0:42:11.279 world in whatever way they see fit, you create more 0:42:11.360 --> 0:42:13.719 space for it. So I think this is one of 0:42:13.760 --> 0:42:16.319 those times where we're going to look back and say, 0:42:16.360 --> 0:42:18.880 can you believe that there was a time when people 0:42:19.080 --> 0:42:20.760 fell away about trans people? 0:42:21.040 --> 0:42:23.960 You know, because we'll reach a different level of freeness. 0:42:24.520 --> 0:42:27.080 But this point of moving through that tension is a 0:42:27.120 --> 0:42:30.040 really important one about how we navigate it, not from 0:42:30.040 --> 0:42:32.759 a political perspective, but just as people that can see 0:42:32.800 --> 0:42:33.360 each other. 0:42:33.200 --> 0:42:39.279 Again, yeah, yeah, to again, to personalize it, you know, 0:42:39.400 --> 0:42:43.000 in a really real way, and then hopefully that personal 0:42:43.040 --> 0:42:48.160 motivation takes us into action. You know, we're we're coming 0:42:48.239 --> 0:42:54.120 up on the midterms, Like, how are you encouraging people 0:42:54.160 --> 0:42:58.399 to think about what's at stake for our community in 0:42:58.440 --> 0:43:02.080 the upcoming election? If they are feeling apathetic or if 0:43:02.120 --> 0:43:04.239 they're feeling tired, what are the things that you think 0:43:04.280 --> 0:43:07.719 help remind them like you can't give up yet. And 0:43:07.760 --> 0:43:08.879 this is why, you. 0:43:08.840 --> 0:43:10.680 Know, we're actually at a moment where I feel like 0:43:10.840 --> 0:43:13.040 if there's one thing that most people can agree on, 0:43:13.200 --> 0:43:16.800 it's that something is not right in this country because 0:43:16.840 --> 0:43:20.319 people experience it every day when you walk out of 0:43:20.360 --> 0:43:23.359 your front door, right whether it's the gas prices or 0:43:23.440 --> 0:43:26.960 you can't get berries at the store anymore, or worrying 0:43:26.960 --> 0:43:29.000 that your kid's going to make it home from school safely. 0:43:29.080 --> 0:43:31.759 Right Like, everybody is running into a crisis at some 0:43:31.840 --> 0:43:34.640 point in their days. So our challenge right now isn't 0:43:34.719 --> 0:43:38.040 necessarily reminding people of what's at stake. It's helping them 0:43:38.040 --> 0:43:40.839 to believe that there's something that you can do about it, 0:43:41.120 --> 0:43:44.399 and that your vote matters. And right now, like if 0:43:44.440 --> 0:43:46.920 you just look across this country, there are so many 0:43:47.360 --> 0:43:49.640 races and districts that are decided by a. 0:43:49.719 --> 0:43:54.200 Handful of votes. Your vote matters. We got to make 0:43:54.239 --> 0:43:55.440 sure that people turn out. 0:43:55.960 --> 0:43:58.799 And at this point, look right now, there's still school 0:43:58.800 --> 0:44:01.000 board races across the country. There are thousands of school 0:44:01.040 --> 0:44:03.879 board races right, tens of thousands of them. There are 0:44:03.920 --> 0:44:06.080 so many races where there are open seats just because 0:44:06.080 --> 0:44:07.120 nobody raised their. 0:44:06.960 --> 0:44:08.560 Hand, that could be you. 0:44:08.800 --> 0:44:10.640 If you have a problem with your schools, now's the 0:44:10.680 --> 0:44:12.320 time to jump on that school board. 0:44:12.440 --> 0:44:14.360 But our top of the Human Rights campaign is to 0:44:14.400 --> 0:44:16.879 give folks something to do let them know that there's 0:44:16.880 --> 0:44:18.560 a community that backs them up and if they want 0:44:18.600 --> 0:44:20.600 to take that next step in their leadership, give them 0:44:20.600 --> 0:44:21.440 the tools to do it. 0:44:22.840 --> 0:44:37.680 Yeah, and now a word from our wonderful sponsors, how 0:44:37.680 --> 0:44:40.920 would you encourage people? You know? I feel like the 0:44:41.080 --> 0:44:43.840 HRC is such an enormous organization in so many ways, 0:44:44.320 --> 0:44:47.239 and there's people all the time that are just discovering 0:44:47.239 --> 0:44:51.000 that it exists. For folks at home who maybe know 0:44:51.360 --> 0:44:53.560 what we are, but not how to get involved, or 0:44:53.600 --> 0:44:56.200 maybe even for people who are like I've heard of 0:44:56.239 --> 0:45:00.400 the Human Rights Campaign, what does that do? Like, how 0:45:00.440 --> 0:45:03.279 would you encourage listeners to understand what we do and 0:45:03.320 --> 0:45:04.440 then how to get involved. 0:45:04.480 --> 0:45:06.480 Yeah, we are here to make sure that no matter 0:45:06.560 --> 0:45:08.480 where you live or who you are, you've got a 0:45:08.520 --> 0:45:11.279 way to stand up for LGBTQ plus equality, either either 0:45:11.360 --> 0:45:13.000 as a member of our community. 0:45:12.680 --> 0:45:13.400 Or as an ally. 0:45:13.800 --> 0:45:16.000 So I always encourage folks to come visit us, find 0:45:16.080 --> 0:45:19.000 us on the interwebs, find us at HRC dot org. 0:45:19.080 --> 0:45:21.680 We've got toolkits, we've got ways to connect you with 0:45:21.719 --> 0:45:24.440 local volunteers. But if you just want to get started, 0:45:24.760 --> 0:45:27.480 start by telling your story. Start by going out and 0:45:27.520 --> 0:45:30.160 talking to your neighbors about why the election matters, or 0:45:30.200 --> 0:45:33.640 about why trans kids matter, or about why you're an ally, 0:45:33.920 --> 0:45:36.279 or what your experience has been like being a member 0:45:36.280 --> 0:45:38.239 of our community in these tough times, because we know 0:45:38.719 --> 0:45:41.040 the number one thing that moves other people to action 0:45:41.239 --> 0:45:43.640 is knowing that somebody that they love and care about 0:45:44.040 --> 0:45:45.480 needs them to be a part of this fight. 0:45:46.120 --> 0:45:48.640 I also think that symbolism matters right now. 0:45:49.480 --> 0:45:53.200 Putting up the little HRC sticker in your neighborhood or 0:45:54.200 --> 0:45:57.160 at your business, like, that's important because people are looking 0:45:57.200 --> 0:45:59.960 for those signs, those symbols that there are safe spaces 0:46:00.040 --> 0:46:02.640 that are still available to us. And if you want 0:46:02.640 --> 0:46:05.080 to do more, there are tons of things you can do, 0:46:05.160 --> 0:46:08.799 from running for a school board to volunteering on an 0:46:08.960 --> 0:46:12.520 HRC steering committee in your area, to making sure that 0:46:12.600 --> 0:46:15.160 you're joining political campaigns to help to turn out the vote. 0:46:15.160 --> 0:46:17.560 But we can be a source to help you figure 0:46:17.560 --> 0:46:19.000 out the right ways to get engaged. 0:46:19.520 --> 0:46:22.080 Yeah, that's one thing I'd like to encourage people. You know, 0:46:22.120 --> 0:46:26.560 your local HRC chapter is such a great resource for 0:46:27.000 --> 0:46:30.600 civic engagement in general. Just to know where to go, 0:46:30.680 --> 0:46:35.440 who to learn from, how to get involved. It's pretty inspiring. 0:46:35.520 --> 0:46:37.200 And one of the things I love. You know, we 0:46:37.239 --> 0:46:40.000 do our big board meeting in DC and so many 0:46:40.000 --> 0:46:42.439 of the chapters come and we get to just hang 0:46:42.480 --> 0:46:45.120 out with everybody and meet people from all over and 0:46:44.800 --> 0:46:49.520 I'm always so impressed with the things that they're activating on, 0:46:49.719 --> 0:46:52.520 you know, both in terms of how to stand up 0:46:52.520 --> 0:46:56.800 for the LGBTQ post community, but also their communities at large, 0:46:56.880 --> 0:47:00.880 whether it's school kids or you know, I don't know, 0:47:01.040 --> 0:47:03.799 clean water, like, they're working on all of it, and 0:47:03.840 --> 0:47:06.279 it's a really good place to get started and kind 0:47:06.280 --> 0:47:08.040 of find your thing. 0:47:08.280 --> 0:47:09.160 Find your people. 0:47:09.280 --> 0:47:12.040 That's what this is all about, right We want folks 0:47:12.040 --> 0:47:14.319 to know that you're not alone. And HRC we've got 0:47:14.360 --> 0:47:18.000 over four million members across the country. They're committed to this, 0:47:18.400 --> 0:47:19.839 and that's why I say, like, you know, as hard 0:47:19.840 --> 0:47:22.920 as things are right now, I just want every young 0:47:23.000 --> 0:47:26.799 person that's coming out, every trans kid, every parent of 0:47:26.880 --> 0:47:29.520 queer kids, to know that there are millions of people 0:47:29.600 --> 0:47:31.920 that have your back and when you're ready to join us, 0:47:32.320 --> 0:47:35.760 we are ready to wrap you in this rainbow embrace. 0:47:36.680 --> 0:47:40.759 I love that. How do you feel like becoming a 0:47:40.840 --> 0:47:45.719 parent has changed the way you advocate? 0:47:46.160 --> 0:47:50.239 Oh, there's the before parenthood and there's now. And I 0:47:50.280 --> 0:47:54.960 was always like a serious advocate, but I've never really 0:47:55.280 --> 0:47:58.160 understood what it meant to have your heart beating outside 0:47:58.160 --> 0:48:01.480 of your body, to have little people that you want 0:48:01.520 --> 0:48:04.240 to so fiercely protect in this world, to be charged 0:48:04.280 --> 0:48:07.360 with not only creating a world that they deserve, but 0:48:07.480 --> 0:48:11.359 creating a world that's deserving of them. And right now, 0:48:11.360 --> 0:48:13.880 I just feel like for our kids, the urgency of 0:48:13.880 --> 0:48:16.560 this moment is unparalleled, and I just want to make 0:48:16.600 --> 0:48:18.880 sure that when they grow up and they ask me, 0:48:19.080 --> 0:48:21.080 you know what we did in this moment, I can say, 0:48:21.120 --> 0:48:24.960 without flinching and without hesitation that we did everything that 0:48:25.000 --> 0:48:28.840 we could. But I feel that immense responsibility to my kids. 0:48:30.560 --> 0:48:34.200 Yeah, I mean too. It's wild. It's like it takes 0:48:34.239 --> 0:48:38.520 the idea of what we leave, you know, how we 0:48:38.680 --> 0:48:41.400 care for this planet while we're on it. It takes 0:48:41.400 --> 0:48:44.719 the abstraction and it makes it so immediate because it's 0:48:44.760 --> 0:48:48.120 what am I leading for? You? You know, are what 0:48:48.160 --> 0:48:53.120 are you? Literally? What will you inherit on this earth? 0:48:53.760 --> 0:48:59.120 And I think there's something really profound and committing to 0:48:59.200 --> 0:49:02.319 making sure that all of our children inherit a place 0:49:02.320 --> 0:49:03.080 where there will. 0:49:03.000 --> 0:49:07.400 Is and that they know it's their job to protect 0:49:07.400 --> 0:49:08.919 it for everyone that comes after them. 0:49:09.520 --> 0:49:12.799 Yes, yes, it's all of our jobs. If there were 0:49:12.840 --> 0:49:16.479 like three things. Speaking of jobs, we're getting a little 0:49:16.520 --> 0:49:21.319 homework here. Three tasks, three things, three action items that 0:49:21.400 --> 0:49:25.160 you would want to offer to listeners to begin on 0:49:25.239 --> 0:49:26.480 their making a difference journey. 0:49:26.480 --> 0:49:28.280 What do you think? Ooh, I love this question? 0:49:29.480 --> 0:49:30.200 Oh good? Yes? 0:49:30.280 --> 0:49:31.919 Number one, speak. 0:49:31.640 --> 0:49:35.560 Up, tell your story. Don't let people say lies about 0:49:35.560 --> 0:49:42.160 our community without hearing from you. Number two, find a 0:49:42.239 --> 0:49:47.399 candidate that you love and give them five dollars. Join 0:49:47.440 --> 0:49:49.279 their campaign, but be a part of it. But find 0:49:49.280 --> 0:49:52.160 a candidate that inspires you and get active. And then 0:49:52.200 --> 0:49:54.000 three and this one is a little bit kind of heady, 0:49:54.000 --> 0:49:57.600 but like, don't give up. Have a practice every day 0:49:57.640 --> 0:50:00.520 where you remind yourself that change is possible, but never 0:50:00.640 --> 0:50:03.480 let your spirit feel like the way that we are 0:50:03.520 --> 0:50:04.239 today is a way that. 0:50:04.239 --> 0:50:05.160 We're always going to be. 0:50:05.480 --> 0:50:08.799 But remintaining that kind of resilience about where we're going 0:50:08.840 --> 0:50:11.239 to go as a community. It is so important to 0:50:11.280 --> 0:50:12.520 get to the next bass fight. 0:50:14.360 --> 0:50:20.520 I love that it's almost a resiliency practice or adice. Yeah. Well, 0:50:21.280 --> 0:50:25.160 and for you, my very favorite question to ask everybody 0:50:25.920 --> 0:50:28.640 what and it can be personal and professional. It could 0:50:28.640 --> 0:50:32.200 be for HRC, anything, anything that strikes you. But I'm 0:50:32.239 --> 0:50:34.640 really curious, because you do so much, and you achieve 0:50:34.719 --> 0:50:38.080 so much, and you advocate for so much. What feels 0:50:38.080 --> 0:50:39.719 like you're work in progress right now? 0:50:39.840 --> 0:50:44.280 Oh, that's such a that's such a great question. Wow, 0:50:44.440 --> 0:50:47.000 my work in progress. I think my work in progress 0:50:47.160 --> 0:50:50.160 is like trying to figure out how this human thing 0:50:50.239 --> 0:50:53.200 is supposed to work, you know, balancing if you can, 0:50:53.920 --> 0:50:58.480 the mom piece and the work piece and the tending 0:50:58.560 --> 0:51:01.839 to oneself piece all at the same time. I don't 0:51:01.840 --> 0:51:04.440 know if there's any answers to it, but woo, she's 0:51:04.480 --> 0:51:05.400 a work in progress. 0:51:05.440 --> 0:51:06.040 I'll tell you that. 0:51:06.520 --> 0:51:10.799 Mm hmm. I feel that deeply. Every day I'm like, 0:51:10.880 --> 0:51:14.000 I'm so tired. But also, if I could just have 0:51:14.120 --> 0:51:17.120 four more hours in the day, I might get it done. 0:51:17.520 --> 0:51:19.280 That's right, I might actually have a shot. 0:51:19.400 --> 0:51:22.440 But yeah, like I might have a shot. But also 0:51:22.480 --> 0:51:25.560 I wanted to go to something hour ago both. 0:51:25.760 --> 0:51:29.040 And I feel like that, and I feel like that's 0:51:29.080 --> 0:51:33.759 indicative of the movement, right Like I want, as leading 0:51:33.760 --> 0:51:35.760 the human rights campaign to build the movement. 0:51:35.800 --> 0:51:36.719 I've always wanted to. 0:51:36.719 --> 0:51:39.400 Be a part of one that is rigorous about the 0:51:39.520 --> 0:51:41.160 change that we want to make in the world. But 0:51:41.160 --> 0:51:45.279 it's equally rigorous about finding joy and celebrating each other 0:51:45.600 --> 0:51:49.719 with reckless abandon right, and I think finding ways to 0:51:50.640 --> 0:51:52.200 embody that in ourselves. 0:51:52.239 --> 0:51:54.080 Like, that's a work in progress too. 0:51:54.440 --> 0:51:59.600 I love that. Yeah, it's the work that's never done. 0:52:00.040 --> 0:52:01.920 I think if you figure out how to do it 0:52:01.960 --> 0:52:05.800 in a way that feels good, that's. 0:52:06.280 --> 0:52:08.320 That's a life. That's a life, that's a movement. 0:52:08.480 --> 0:52:11.480 Yeah all right, friends, Well you better be following Kelly 0:52:11.560 --> 0:52:14.120 Robinson on Instagram and all the things, and the Human 0:52:14.239 --> 0:52:18.520 Rights Campaign on Instagram and all the things, and come 0:52:18.600 --> 0:52:21.920 join us also shameless Plug as a board member. 0:52:22.160 --> 0:52:27.400 Our new merch is so crop tops for everyone. 0:52:26.000 --> 0:52:29.799 Like it's so cute and the yes, yes, I wear it. 0:52:29.880 --> 0:52:30.560 I love it. 0:52:30.760 --> 0:52:32.480 Ever since I saw it on Nick, I was like, 0:52:32.520 --> 0:52:35.240 I'm buying that immediately, and now I wear it everywhere 0:52:35.239 --> 0:52:37.480 and people are like, oh, what is that? And what 0:52:37.520 --> 0:52:41.879 I love about our merch is it's so good. And 0:52:41.960 --> 0:52:44.560 also people go what is that? And then it's a conversation. 0:52:44.680 --> 0:52:47.680 Start I love it, So you know, get yourself a 0:52:47.680 --> 0:52:49.040 hat or a T shirt and then you got a 0:52:49.040 --> 0:52:51.160 good way to begin your con though. 0:52:51.840 --> 0:52:53.800 That's a perfect way to start right. 0:52:54.320 --> 0:52:58.120 Just a little cute We deserve it well, thank you 0:52:58.160 --> 0:52:58.640 for coming to. 0:52:58.760 --> 0:53:01.200 Thank you this was so fun. And thank you Sophia Bush. 0:53:01.280 --> 0:53:01.799 We love you.