Speaker 1: Hey, everyone, it's Sophia. Welcome to work in progress. Welcome
Speaker 1: back to work in progress. Friends. It may be August,
Speaker 1: but pride is never over in my world. And I
Speaker 1: think celebrating joy and love and our community is more
Speaker 1: important now than ever. And there's no one better to
Speaker 1: do that with than my friend Kelly Robinson, who is
Speaker 1: the President of the Human Rights Campaign. Over the last
Speaker 1: year and a half, we have all been reminded in
Speaker 1: so many ways that progress isn't permanent, that politics requires
Speaker 1: vigilance and resilience, because our rights can be ruled back
Speaker 1: and our protections can disappear, and hard won victories might
Speaker 1: have to be won all over again. And I gotta
Speaker 1: be honest with you. You whips Marty's sometimes that feels
Speaker 1: like a real bummer to me. And then I spend
Speaker 1: time with Kelly, and I'm reminded that there is joy
Speaker 1: and love and love and action really in showing up
Speaker 1: for your community. She serves as the president of the
Speaker 1: Human Rights Campaign, which is the nation's largest LGBTQ plus
Speaker 1: civil rights organization, and there Kelly is leading one of
Speaker 1: the defining social and political movements of our time. Because
Speaker 1: this is a fight for equality and whether or not
Speaker 1: you're a member of the community or an ally, I
Speaker 1: am telling you this fight and the outcome of it
Speaker 1: is also your fight. Kelly leads us by drawing on
Speaker 1: years of experience as an organizer and an advocate, and
Speaker 1: she manages to bring her urgency and her optimism into
Speaker 1: these conversations, whether they're about democracy, visibility, building coalitions, or
Speaker 1: just the power of showing up. And I'm going to
Speaker 1: brag about her because she's a history maker. She's not
Speaker 1: only the first black queer woman to lead the HRC,
Speaker 1: she's also a mom of two, making mistakes this fight
Speaker 1: deeply personal. Kelly has this really magical way of being.
Speaker 1: She's the kind of person in a room that everyone
Speaker 1: gravitates towards. And I think it's because she's so unwavering
Speaker 1: in her beliefs that everyone deserves love and safety. She
Speaker 1: believes in the power of visibility, and she has such
Speaker 1: a clear understanding of what history teaches us about protecting
Speaker 1: our hard one rights, and she knows that because of
Speaker 1: our story, but also her family's story, which you'll hear
Speaker 1: about today. Kelly's one of the people who reminds me
Speaker 1: that hope isn't enough on its own, but when matched
Speaker 1: with action, magic can happen. So let's get a big
Speaker 1: dose of hope and perhaps a few tips on what
Speaker 1: to do next from the inimitable Kelly Robinson. There are
Speaker 1: so many things I want to talk to you about
Speaker 1: and ask you about and also tell people about, because
Speaker 1: like we have all this, you know, we got the
Speaker 1: secret sauce, because we have the board, but before we
Speaker 1: get into twenty twenty six, and you know, are our
Speaker 1: ever advancing merch toward freedom and equity and all the things?
Speaker 1: I want to go back because people who get to
Speaker 1: see you be around you, who watch you, know your
Speaker 1: tos go viral, like they know Kelly Robinson. I want
Speaker 1: to know Kelly as a kid, you know, and especially
Speaker 1: because you're a mom. I always think this is a
Speaker 1: fun one. If you got to you know, bend space
Speaker 1: time and we walked onto the playground and little Kelly
Speaker 1: yet eight or nine years old, was there and you
Speaker 1: got to talk to her. Do you think she would
Speaker 1: see herself in you? Would you see yourself on her?
Speaker 2: That's such a good question.
Speaker 3: I mean, I feel like I'm the same person that
Speaker 3: I was when I was born, but when I was
Speaker 3: a kid I was painfully shy.
Speaker 2: I mean painfully shy.
Speaker 3: Yes. I remember my mom used to say that we
Speaker 3: would go into stores. I could talk pretty early, so
Speaker 3: I was talking a little bit before I was one
Speaker 3: year old.
Speaker 2: And I'd be, you.
Speaker 3: Know, in the little pram or the stroller, and I'd say,
Speaker 3: pick me up, pick me up, mommy, Like, I do
Speaker 3: not want to be around these people.
Speaker 2: But that's the one thing that's really.
Speaker 3: Changed for me that I think I used to be,
Speaker 3: for some reason, so shy and just afraid of crowds, and.
Speaker 2: Now like I love people.
Speaker 3: And I think it's partly because I realized that like
Speaker 3: other folks aren't necessarily something that we should be afraid of.
Speaker 3: It's really an opportunity, an opportunity to find somebody that
Speaker 3: you might experience something with in life, an opportunity to
Speaker 3: meet somebody who might change your perspective.
Speaker 2: And so that's the biggest thing that's changed in me.
Speaker 3: I'm still that little, like, you know, little girl that's
Speaker 3: still looking for mommy to pick her up sometimes.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well you know me, I'm always like I just
Speaker 1: want to hug so probably same. Do you have great
Speaker 1: memories of Iowa? What was your What was the sort
Speaker 1: of picture of your family.
Speaker 2: YEA, yeah.
Speaker 3: So my family story is that we were the first
Speaker 3: free black family in a little town called Muscatine, Iowa.
Speaker 3: And I remember growing up, I used to hear the
Speaker 3: story of my family all the time, of how we
Speaker 3: were enslave people in Louisiana and Mississippi who made our
Speaker 3: way north to Iowa, one of the first states to
Speaker 3: rebuke the Futuive Slave Act and not send slaves who
Speaker 3: had made their way to freedom.
Speaker 2: Back down south.
Speaker 3: And what it meant for you know, members of my
Speaker 3: family to literally hear the stories of our ancestors who
Speaker 3: were born into slavery, of having the documentation of knowing
Speaker 3: the importance of like education and faith. And I bring
Speaker 3: that all up because for me, as hard as things
Speaker 3: are today, like you can't get over like how far
Speaker 3: we've come. I mean, it was only two generations ago
Speaker 3: where I can hear the stories of my ancestors and
Speaker 3: what it meant for them to make their way to freedom.
Speaker 3: And so for me, I've got stories of Iowa growing
Speaker 3: up and being connected to my roots.
Speaker 2: Most of my young youth, young life.
Speaker 3: I spent in Chicago, so I've got a lot of
Speaker 3: stories of Chicago.
Speaker 2: I want it meant to like grow up there, and
Speaker 2: you know Chicago. I mean, you know Chicago it is
Speaker 2: I know Chican Town.
Speaker 3: It's a town of leaders and big voices and big figures,
Speaker 3: and that's what I was raised around. So, you know,
Speaker 3: when we think about the work that I do now
Speaker 3: of community service, it just felt like something that we
Speaker 3: didn't name.
Speaker 2: Organizing back then. It was just what it meant to
Speaker 2: be a good person and show up for your community.
Speaker 1: Yeah, when did the organizing bug get you? Like, when
Speaker 1: did it dawn on you what you were doing, what
Speaker 1: you're calling.
Speaker 3: Yeah, well, I my journey takes us through the Midwest,
Speaker 3: So I always say, anyone that flies over the middle
Speaker 3: of the country, you are missing out right.
Speaker 2: Go to Des Moines, Iowa.
Speaker 3: Go to Chicago, but go to where I went to
Speaker 3: school in Columbia, Missouri. I went there for college, and
Speaker 3: that was the first time that I'd really experienced like
Speaker 3: a more southern version of racism, where you know, folks
Speaker 3: will say one thing to your face, but then say
Speaker 3: a totally different thing when the sun goes down, Right.
Speaker 2: This kind of like duplicity.
Speaker 3: Not to say that racism wasn't alive and well in
Speaker 3: Chicago and Iowa, but this Missouri kind of southern feel
Speaker 3: was just different from what I had grown up with.
Speaker 2: So I actually ended up leaving school.
Speaker 3: There were just too many things going on for me
Speaker 3: to kind of focus on academics. I just needed to
Speaker 3: take a break. If my mom said, that's cool, but
Speaker 3: you you got to figure that out boom. So I
Speaker 3: ended up bartending during the day and doing like MMA
Speaker 3: fighting at night to make money and get by I'm
Speaker 3: sad with you.
Speaker 2: And it was in that.
Speaker 3: Kind of journey that I got a call. This was
Speaker 3: like two thousand and seven, two thousand and eight. I
Speaker 3: got a call from the Obama campaign. They had heard
Speaker 3: about some of the work that I had done on
Speaker 3: campus and that I wasn't in school currently and they
Speaker 3: needed organizers. And I was like, look, I don't know
Speaker 3: what an organizer is, but if I don't have to
Speaker 3: get punched in the face to make my rent, I'm
Speaker 3: willing to give it a try.
Speaker 2: And that's when I started.
Speaker 3: And I remember like I went into the office, and people,
Speaker 3: of course would come in for Barack Obama, but that
Speaker 3: feeling of why people stayed, they stayed because they found
Speaker 3: other people that they connected.
Speaker 2: With that, they believed that change could.
Speaker 3: Be possible with and we did things that the felt impossible.
Speaker 3: We elected a black man, the first black man's president
Speaker 3: of the United States of America.
Speaker 2: We also helped somebody like get a.
Speaker 3: Stop sign on their street to stop folks from speeding
Speaker 3: through and putting kids in danger. We helped somebody to
Speaker 3: run a campaign and get on their city council. And
Speaker 3: that was a moment when I really started to understand that, yeah,
Speaker 3: there's big things in front of us, sexism, racism, homophobia,
Speaker 3: but there's really something that can happen when people come
Speaker 3: together with a shared purpose, the impossible can actually become possible.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Well, and one of the things I love about
Speaker 1: what you're saying, this is my drum beat. Also since
Speaker 1: early Obama days, like people think politics is for someone else.
Speaker 1: Policy happens somewhere else, you know. Thank God for lin
Speaker 1: Manuel Miranda, right like he popularized it and people now
Speaker 1: are like the room where it happens. I'm like keep
Speaker 1: singing and also volunteer. But policy is everything around us.
Speaker 1: You know. I'm on location right now in Colorado for
Speaker 1: this film we were talking about earlier, and I'm looking
Speaker 1: out in my window and I see a stop sign
Speaker 1: and a one way sign and a no parking sign,
Speaker 1: and there's trees on this particular sidewalk in this neighborhood
Speaker 1: that I'm in, and like, all of that is the
Speaker 1: result of policy, absolutely, And I think people don't understand
Speaker 1: how personal it is. And when we take it away
Speaker 1: from this like boring process or this, somebody else is
Speaker 1: responsible for that. And you make it empowering when you
Speaker 1: personalize the political and you say, like your kids need
Speaker 1: a playground, let's organize the community for that. Yes, you
Speaker 1: know something, some drinking fountains aren't working, you know at
Speaker 1: your college on campus, in one of your buildings. Let's
Speaker 1: organize around that. Like there is actual, real I think
Speaker 1: effervescent excitement in organizing if we can give people the
Speaker 1: way into it. And you are so good at that,
Speaker 1: And I love that they tapped you for it. They
Speaker 1: were just like, whatever is your night job? You come
Speaker 1: work for us?
Speaker 2: Oh, I love that.
Speaker 3: Well, you're so great at that too. And I think
Speaker 3: that's what we have to do with politics. We've got
Speaker 3: to make it proximal to people again and remind them that,
Speaker 3: like every policy that you see right now started off
Speaker 3: as an idea. Every law that exists on our books
Speaker 3: started off with somebody imagining that we deserve something better, right,
Speaker 3: And that's our job.
Speaker 2: And especially if.
Speaker 3: You're if you are a woman, if you're a queer person,
Speaker 3: if you're somebody that's living paycheck to paycheck, you may
Speaker 3: not want to be involved in politics, but politics is
Speaker 3: involved in your life already.
Speaker 2: Boom right, Like, we have work to do to reclaim
Speaker 2: this space.
Speaker 3: And what I love doing with you and with the
Speaker 3: Human Rights Campaign is taking down the distance right between
Speaker 3: the people who are making the decisions and the people
Speaker 3: to whom they are accountable, and that's you.
Speaker 2: And me and everyone that exists in our neighborhoods.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, and it's interesting, you know. Connecting those issues I
Speaker 1: think is also so important because a lot of people
Speaker 1: will think, oh, well, if you work on women's issues,
Speaker 1: or you work on queer issues, or you work on
Speaker 1: I don't know, civil engineering with the state, like whatever
Speaker 1: is your bag. They're actually all so interconnected and an
Speaker 1: attack on one is really an attack on all. You know,
Speaker 1: they've been They've figured out that if they could come
Speaker 1: for women and overturn row, they could begin this work
Speaker 1: that they've always been trying. The far Ray has always
Speaker 1: tried to come for our community. And if they can
Speaker 1: destroy privacy laws for women, then they can destroy privacy
Speaker 1: laws for queer people. And if they can boogeyman, you know,
Speaker 1: our incredibly small population and most at risk population of
Speaker 1: trans youth, then they can bully queer people again because
Speaker 1: we got popular and they realized we're everywhere. And when
Speaker 1: you see it, you can't unsee it. The desire for
Speaker 1: some of these systems of power to harm the most
Speaker 1: vulnerable so they can do the most damage. I'm really
Speaker 1: curious how the years you organized, especially around reproductive freedom,
Speaker 1: influence the way you organize for the LGBTQ community with
Speaker 1: the HRC, because I know.
Speaker 3: Yes, yes, and you better make it plain for the people,
Speaker 3: Professor Bush, because you're exactly right.
Speaker 2: Everything is connected.
Speaker 3: And I think when our opposition talks about quote unquote
Speaker 3: making America great again or going back to a simpler time,
Speaker 3: they're literally talking about going back. And for me, as
Speaker 3: a black queer woman, please do not put me in
Speaker 3: a time machine, because even though things are not where
Speaker 3: I need them to be today, don't take me back
Speaker 3: to the sixties. Don't take me back to the forties.
Speaker 3: Please don't take me back to the eighteen hundreds, because
Speaker 3: we've made tremendous progress since then, right, And our job
Speaker 3: right now is not just to protect the status quo,
Speaker 3: but it's actually to fight for the world as it
Speaker 3: should be and as it could be if we imagined
Speaker 3: a democracy with our lives at the center. And I think,
Speaker 3: you know, the fight for reproactive freedom. I spent thirteen
Speaker 3: years working at Planned Parented. I went straight from you know,
Speaker 3: the political campaign world into the world of reproductive rights
Speaker 3: and reproactive justice, and it is everything to me. The
Speaker 3: attack on our bodies, our ability to make decisions for ourselves,
Speaker 3: our economic opportunity, that was all playing out in the
Speaker 3: fight for abortion. And when you think about the script
Speaker 3: that they used right first isolate a huge segment of
Speaker 3: the population women right, then try to narrow the ability
Speaker 3: of that group of people to make decisions for themselves,
Speaker 3: and then convince even their allies that it's not a
Speaker 3: popular thing to talk about.
Speaker 2: That is a playbook of authoritarianism.
Speaker 3: And it's also similar to the playbook that we see
Speaker 3: playing out right now on trans lives and where we've
Speaker 3: got to get people to understand is where the arc
Speaker 3: of progress always leads. Look, we're a country that kind
Speaker 3: of you know, we do a little two step, little
Speaker 3: stutter step when it comes to progress, but in the
Speaker 3: long arc, we always end in the place of expanding
Speaker 3: rights and not narrowing them, especially for folks who start
Speaker 3: off with less right. And I think right now there's
Speaker 3: really that decision point in front of a lot of
Speaker 3: people of are you going to be on the right
Speaker 3: side of history and that doesn't mean waiting for public
Speaker 3: opinion to catch up with the moral obligation that we
Speaker 3: have to fight for everyone's civil rights and civil liberties.
Speaker 1: Well, I think it's also particularly arresting because this is
Speaker 1: the first time in our modern lives our country has
Speaker 1: taken rights from people. We have absolutely impeded rights, we
Speaker 1: have enacted policies that have been prejudicial and just set inequity,
Speaker 1: you know, on steroids, but we have not, prior to
Speaker 1: this recent time, seen the Supreme Court take settled rights away,
Speaker 1: and that that is very arresting to me. And to
Speaker 1: watch the way they're saying it all out loud. You know,
Speaker 1: we're going to take abortion rights away. We don't care
Speaker 1: if women die. Women are dying all over this country
Speaker 1: and they don't care even that elected lady, whatever her
Speaker 1: name is, I don't even know. I've stricken her from
Speaker 1: my mental record, but who voted to take our rights
Speaker 1: away and then needed abortion care and couldn't get it,
Speaker 1: and then finally got to get it because she's an
Speaker 1: elected official. I was like, well, that must be nice
Speaker 1: for you, you know, is trying to say she doesn't think
Speaker 1: they did the wrong thing. And I'm like, at some
Speaker 1: point you got to wake up from this sort of
Speaker 1: reverie of loyalty to party over country or over the
Speaker 1: people you represent. And I don't know. It worries me
Speaker 1: because they announced that they are very bullish on overturning Overfelsh,
Speaker 1: which affects all of us. You know, the idea that
Speaker 1: only some people in our country deserve rights is frankly
Speaker 1: so an American. And when you talk about how far
Speaker 1: we've come, yes, you know, I think about different than
Speaker 1: your story. But I think about the fact that my
Speaker 1: grandmother came to this country on a boat with her
Speaker 1: family from Italy, walked through the stalls at Ellis Island,
Speaker 1: you know, became an American. My grandmother was born in
Speaker 1: a Stone farmhouse in Italy with no electricity or running water,
Speaker 1: and two generations later, I have a computer in my pocket,
Speaker 1: and am you know, an activist and a writer and
Speaker 1: a producer and an actor and a like what you know?
Speaker 1: The progress is so clear, and the idea that there
Speaker 1: are people who want to take it from us, that
Speaker 1: somehow taking from us gives them more is so strange
Speaker 1: to me. So when I think about you and the
Speaker 1: exceptional way you're able to talk to people about freedom,
Speaker 1: you know, you frame our freedom, our community's freedom, not
Speaker 1: just as an imperative, but you ask people questions. You
Speaker 1: ask them what they believe in in terms of freedom
Speaker 1: and dignity and belonging. And I'm curious how has the
Speaker 1: motivation and also the question become a pairing for you,
Speaker 1: Like how did you drill down on that as a
Speaker 1: way to wake people up to what democracy is supposed
Speaker 1: to be by?
Speaker 3: And some of it is about helping people to really
Speaker 3: wrestle with the disconnect between our experiences of progress and
Speaker 3: then what actually exists in terms of our rights, Like
Speaker 3: the last sixty years in American history have really been
Speaker 3: transformative when you think about the progress that we've made,
Speaker 3: right like women got the ability to get a credit card,
Speaker 3: you know, or access lines of credit, to be.
Speaker 2: Able to buy homes in their own name.
Speaker 3: The Civil Rights Act past so that we could actually have,
Speaker 3: you know, voting rights for black folks. We had marriage
Speaker 3: equality become the law of the land, Roe v. Wade
Speaker 3: became law, and then unbecame law. But all those things
Speaker 3: happened really in the last sixty years or so, and
Speaker 3: while some of us were celebrating the diversity of our nation,
Speaker 3: how things were evolving and changing, I actually think that there.
Speaker 2: Was a segment of this country that was terrified by it.
Speaker 2: They saw all of this.
Speaker 3: As we talk about what happened to our lives and
Speaker 3: our families and two generations, there's a group of people
Speaker 3: that saw the same thing and became rooted in figuring
Speaker 3: out ways not to lose their hold on power because
Speaker 3: they couldn't imagine a democracy that could hold.
Speaker 2: All of us.
Speaker 3: In fact, I used to have a past that would say,
Speaker 3: the reason that those people are so afraid is because
Speaker 3: they're worried that when folks that who look in love
Speaker 3: like us have the power that matches our numbers, that
Speaker 3: will treat them just as terribly.
Speaker 2: They've treated us all these hundreds of years, right.
Speaker 3: But if that was your motivation, you start to kind
Speaker 3: of understand why people are so entrench and we've got
Speaker 3: to break through some of that and actually force ourselves
Speaker 3: to imagine a democracy. In Harold Washington, who was the
Speaker 3: first black Mary or Chicago, used to say this, that's
Speaker 3: actually fairer than fair to re envision a world where
Speaker 3: all of us actually have an equal shot and what
Speaker 3: that will take. And if we can construct that sort
Speaker 3: of a future that everyone can be a part of,
Speaker 3: that gives us the greatest room to access rights that
Speaker 3: aren't as shallow as we currently have, because you're right,
Speaker 3: right now, too many of our rights are hanging on
Speaker 3: a single Supreme Court case.
Speaker 2: The fall of Roe v.
Speaker 3: Wade showed us that pretty clearly when Roe was overturned,
Speaker 3: and you had all those state trigger laws that were
Speaker 3: just waiting for that to happen so that they could
Speaker 3: criticalize abortion access. If a Berga Fell is overturned, we've
Speaker 3: got some protection with.
Speaker 2: The respect for Marriajack, but it doesn't guarantee that you
Speaker 2: can actually get married in every state. If Lawrence v.
Speaker 2: Texas is overturned.
Speaker 3: There are still states with laws on the books that
Speaker 3: are banning sodomy, which could create a world where states
Speaker 3: could criminalize whatever you are doing in your bedroom. That's
Speaker 3: how shallow our rights are right now. So the reason
Speaker 3: that I think we ask these questions to envision the
Speaker 3: future of democracy is because this is a participatory sport.
Speaker 3: We got to be able to constructive for ourselves and
Speaker 3: help people to understand that there is right now a
Speaker 3: disconnect in what many of us, not all of us,
Speaker 3: but many of us have experienced in terms of the
Speaker 3: ability to move in the world and what's actually protected
Speaker 3: under law, and now's the time that we actually need
Speaker 3: to fortify that foundation, not just by protecting the things
Speaker 3: that were right, like Roe was always the floor and
Speaker 3: never the ceiling when it came to protecting abortion access,
Speaker 3: but instead to use this moment of crisis, when everyone
Speaker 3: understands that something's wrong, to actually build the democracy that
Speaker 3: we want.
Speaker 1: And how do you think we do that?
Speaker 2: Now, that's a big question. Look, it starts. We're getting
Speaker 2: the power to make it.
Speaker 3: Happen, right Like we've got to turn out to vote
Speaker 3: this year, and you're seeing like tremendous things happen all
Speaker 3: over the country when it comes to elections, from progressive
Speaker 3: candidates are winning primaries with visionary platforms, to pro equality
Speaker 3: candidates over performing in districts.
Speaker 2: To the district where Donald Trump.
Speaker 3: Votes in Mary Lago now being represented by a Democrat
Speaker 3: in Florida.
Speaker 2: Right, Like, there are these tremendous things that are happening.
Speaker 3: But for us to get to change, we got to
Speaker 3: have power first. So the first step is we got
Speaker 3: to win some elections. But the second step, and it
Speaker 3: has to happen in close secession, is we got to
Speaker 3: hold people in office accountable to our vision for democracy.
Speaker 1: Yes, yes, totally. And it's a weird thing, right, I
Speaker 1: don't know, I've sort of been on this see saw
Speaker 1: of hope and exhaustion. And it was a strange thing
Speaker 1: to celebrate America's two hundred and fiftieth birthday. You know,
Speaker 1: I was like, well, what are we like, what are
Speaker 1: we celebrating? You know, I celebrate the idea that the
Speaker 1: sacredness of the idea that we are building an equal nation.
Speaker 1: And I also am heartbroken to see it, you know,
Speaker 1: being chopped up like one of Donald Trump's casinos, and
Speaker 1: the way he's distracting from the chop up and the
Speaker 1: sale of all the parts is by making everybody hate
Speaker 1: each other. I'm just like, this is how basic we are?
Speaker 1: Oh God? And you know, to add insult to injury,
Speaker 1: attacks on our community and you know, over six hundred
Speaker 1: bills trying to criminalize queer people. And then and then,
Speaker 1: you know, you tell the story of your family, like
Speaker 1: I would be remiss to not say the terror I
Speaker 1: feel loving my my family, our children, my friends, your children.
Speaker 1: You know, look looking at what's happening around the country,
Speaker 1: to black youth, to kids like Nolan Wells. You know
Speaker 1: when when historians are starting to ask like could this
Speaker 1: potentially be a resurgence of KKK activity around the two fifty,
Speaker 1: Like what's going on here? You know it? It feels
Speaker 1: like there is so much rage directed at all of us,
Speaker 1: and I I guess I just wonder, Yes, we have
Speaker 1: to turn out and vote, and yes we got to
Speaker 1: take our school boards back from those moms for liberty
Speaker 1: Kugu banana pants people, and like, yes, we have to
Speaker 1: figure out how to actually get Congress to do its
Speaker 1: damn job. But you know, how do you as a
Speaker 1: queer black woman, like how are you moving through the
Speaker 1: world right now? How are you how are you remaining hopeful?
Speaker 1: How are you refusing to change how you move and
Speaker 1: where you move? Or or are you taking different steps?
Speaker 1: Are there places you don't feel like you can go
Speaker 1: right now?
Speaker 2: Like?
Speaker 1: What what is all that in your being and in
Speaker 1: your family?
Speaker 2: I mean it's hard to sit in both, Like you're
Speaker 2: right for me?
Speaker 3: The week of America's two hundred and fiftieth birthday, well,
Speaker 3: I'm just trying to have my hot dogs and a
Speaker 3: little sparkler.
Speaker 1: Like, just give me a hot dog and something the.
Speaker 3: Best of America if you will. But it's the reminder
Speaker 3: of who America is showed itself right. Yet Nolan Wells, which,
Speaker 3: oh my gosh, is a parent right of kids of color?
Speaker 3: Rips your heart apart. Yet Ice murder two people in
Speaker 3: cold blood in the last week, just two dads, Like
Speaker 3: what are we do? You even have the Supreme Court
Speaker 3: rule again in to legalize discriminate discrimination against trans youth.
Speaker 3: You had all of this happened in the same week.
Speaker 3: And for me, I can't say that that's not who
Speaker 3: America is because that's definitely part of our story, right.
Speaker 3: But when I do think about the two hundred and
Speaker 3: fiftieth of America I also try to remember that there's
Speaker 3: another side to our story too, the side of the
Speaker 3: story where you know Marsha p. Johnson, Sylvia Rivera throw the.
Speaker 2: First brick, the side of the story where.
Speaker 3: John Lewis marks marches across the Selma Bridge, the side
Speaker 3: of the story where the women come together in Seneca Falls.
Speaker 3: To imagine a different reality like that is as much
Speaker 3: America too. And when I told you my family story
Speaker 3: about Iowa, were the first free black family there. And
Speaker 3: I remember my great aunt, who's the matriarch of our family.
Speaker 3: She died at the age of one hundred and two.
Speaker 2: And just before she passed, it.
Speaker 3: Was she passed like one year into Trump's first term,
Speaker 3: I believe. And I was taught her and I said,
Speaker 3: you know, Aunt Birch, and my great aunt, I said, ugh,
Speaker 3: things are so terrible now, things are so terrible. What
Speaker 3: are we going to do? And she said, baby, you
Speaker 3: ain't special. And she reminded me of how like my
Speaker 3: grandfather fought in World War two for this country. And
Speaker 3: he fought at a time when he was fighting for
Speaker 3: rights for people who would not let him drink out
Speaker 3: of the same water found, and yet he stood for
Speaker 3: this nation not because of what it was, but because
Speaker 3: of the promise of America and what it could be.
Speaker 3: And because of that sacrifice, we get to have, like
Speaker 3: you said, computers in our pockets beyond zoom. Talk about
Speaker 3: a nation not just where we can live, but a
Speaker 3: nation where we can thrive. And I think that the
Speaker 3: greatest tool of an oppressor, whether you look at the
Speaker 3: Trump administration, you look globally, look at the history of authoritarians,
Speaker 3: is when the people lose hope. And I will be
Speaker 3: damned if democracy dies on our watch, I will be
Speaker 3: And if we are the generation that gives up because
Speaker 3: it got hard, this is.
Speaker 2: A hard part and this is what our ancestors have
Speaker 2: set us up to do.
Speaker 3: So you know, it's not quite the rosiest of viewpoints
Speaker 3: on this nation, but I think it's an important one.
Speaker 3: That part of the American story is the story of
Speaker 3: people than the face of adversity refuse to give it.
Speaker 3: And that's the chapter I feel like we've got to
Speaker 3: write together.
Speaker 1: I agree, And you know what I wonder for us,
Speaker 1: there is there is no better story than the one
Speaker 1: your grandfather believed in, right, like this true melting pot
Speaker 1: of anyone in everyone who wants to be an American,
Speaker 1: can be an American. Even reguezs that, like, you can't
Speaker 1: become a Frenchman, but you can become an American, you know,
Speaker 1: in the day of that speech, and you list it
Speaker 1: off a bunch of more countries. I don't need the
Speaker 1: French people to come for me.
Speaker 2: I love y'all, but orry about the World Cup.
Speaker 1: But yes, I know, oh god, that was heavy. Also though,
Speaker 1: congratulations to Spain all both and but but like one
Speaker 1: of the things I think about us is our story,
Speaker 1: the ideal, the kind of like the seed at the
Speaker 1: middle is so good that there is rightfully so so
Speaker 1: much shame about all the wrong that has come with it.
Speaker 1: Like if you think about it as to you know,
Speaker 1: two scales, two sides of the scale, I guess like
Speaker 1: we really want to lean into the good stuff, and
Speaker 1: we want to ignore the bad stuff. And some of
Speaker 1: the people who tell us to ignore the bad stuff
Speaker 1: want us to be so raw raw for the good
Speaker 1: so we don't pay attention to the bad stuff they're doing. Yes,
Speaker 1: I'm talking about Donald Trump and all his friends, but
Speaker 1: it strikes me, you know, the time I've spent in Germany,
Speaker 1: there is no denying history. There are memorials and plaques
Speaker 1: and museums, and I mean parks where you interactively walk
Speaker 1: through art installations that are meant to acknowledge what happened
Speaker 1: there and what the Nazis did and what they did
Speaker 1: to other people. You are never allowed to forget, and
Speaker 1: symbols are banned and gestures are banned, and like they
Speaker 1: do not play with how hideous that chapter of their
Speaker 1: national story was. And I think part of what we
Speaker 1: have to do to build the America we've all always
Speaker 1: deserved to actually claim like the good seed, is also
Speaker 1: start acknowledging the bad. I think we have to build
Speaker 1: the memorials. I think we you know, like what Brian
Speaker 1: Stevenson did in the South, they should be everywhere. Like
Speaker 1: we have to start to say, we have so much
Speaker 1: to be grateful for. Let's not play about how we
Speaker 1: got here. And that's what we haven't been willing to do.
Speaker 1: And I fear that our lack of willingness to do
Speaker 1: it is part of why we keep opening the door
Speaker 1: for people who want to keep doing it.
Speaker 3: I could not agree more. Look, this nation, for better
Speaker 3: or worse, is going to outlive Donald Trump. The story
Speaker 3: that we tell about this chapter matters. I mean, just
Speaker 3: look at right now. They're trying to make us believe
Speaker 3: that January sixth, what's a dog on Boston tea party? Right,
Speaker 3: They're trying to rewrite history. There's a reason why Texas
Speaker 3: is banning the story of our history in their history books.
Speaker 3: There's a reason why this administration is coming after education,
Speaker 3: because an uninformed populace is one that you can control.
Speaker 3: So telling our story and reckoning with it is an
Speaker 3: important piece of it. And I actually think that to
Speaker 3: your point, in that reckoning, we can think of ways
Speaker 3: to move forward differently, will they say? Old folks used
Speaker 3: to say when you know better, you do better. But
Speaker 3: this is chance to do that. I think the worry
Speaker 3: that I have is is that sometimes we get so
Speaker 3: entrenched in all of the bad that we can miss
Speaker 3: all of the light that has still allowed.
Speaker 2: Us to survive. And I think it's possible for us
Speaker 2: to actually be able to hold both. That's a complicated
Speaker 2: nature of being humans, a complicated nature of being an American.
Speaker 2: But for me, look, as a black person, I ain't
Speaker 2: got nowhere else to go. So we've got to claim.
Speaker 2: We've got going to claim this nation.
Speaker 3: I think about James Baldwin a lot who said, you know,
Speaker 3: I love America more than any country in the world.
Speaker 2: That's why I criticize her relentlessly.
Speaker 3: It's okay to criticize this nation, but it's not okay
Speaker 3: to give up on her and still want to be
Speaker 3: a part of the American story. We have to reclaim
Speaker 3: and embrace what is ours and what our ancestors have
Speaker 3: already fought and already paid for.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we have too much history here. We literally have
Speaker 1: too much blood exact to ever say I think about
Speaker 1: you know, w comal Bell He said something it must
Speaker 1: have been like a year ago. Uh, he said, anytime
Speaker 1: I get overwhelmed or I think like I can't keep
Speaker 1: fighting this, I'm I'm done. He goes that, goes to
Speaker 1: area dumb and smacks me across the face, and it
Speaker 1: just made me laugh so hard. I was like, fair point,
Speaker 1: because the people whose footsteps were following in have done
Speaker 1: incredible work, and no matter how bad it is, we
Speaker 1: have it better than they did, and so we better
Speaker 1: not be the lazy generation.
Speaker 2: We better not.
Speaker 3: Can you imagine on the other side of the way,
Speaker 3: our ancestors would collect us. You didn't march because you
Speaker 3: were afraid they'd find you online.
Speaker 2: You better get in those streets.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Also like, oh you didn't you didn't go to
Speaker 1: the protest because you were doomed. Get stuff out of here.
Speaker 1: And now a word from our sponsors that I really
Speaker 1: enjoy and I think you will too. I started to
Speaker 1: think about the pressure we put on our children and
Speaker 1: how that pressure is really being manipulated, especially in sports
Speaker 1: and especially with trans kids. And they're claiming like, oh,
Speaker 1: trans kids can't play sports because we have to protect
Speaker 1: the girls. All the kids are friends. Like what are
Speaker 1: we talking about? Kids just want to play with their friends.
Speaker 1: You know, some little nine year old trans girl on
Speaker 1: a soccer team isn't taking a space away from another
Speaker 1: nine year old. They're just playing. And it's surreal to
Speaker 1: me that the people who are trying to defund anything
Speaker 1: that has to do with women, they've literally labeled the
Speaker 1: word women dei and they want to cut all our funding,
Speaker 1: including in sports, are saying this is somehow for the women.
Speaker 1: Why do you think trans youth especially is being tararget it?
Speaker 1: Is it because just statistically, so many people in this
Speaker 1: country don't know a trans person or don't know that
Speaker 1: they know a trans person. So they can boogeyman these kids.
Speaker 3: It's like you said, they're looking for a boogeyman right now,
Speaker 3: and I think it's It is so sad to me
Speaker 3: because there used to be in a line in politics
Speaker 3: that people didn't cross, right, you just didn't go after kids.
Speaker 3: But right now you have adults, grown people. They're spending time, energy,
Speaker 3: and money in states across the country pushing hundreds of
Speaker 3: bills to target kids as young as five years old.
Speaker 3: Can you imagine at a time when gas prices are
Speaker 3: through the roof, there's wars all over the world, healthcare
Speaker 3: premiums are out of control, there's explosive diarrhea on the strawberries,
Speaker 3: Like this is what you're spending your time and your
Speaker 3: energy on.
Speaker 2: Why And if you look just one layer further.
Speaker 3: There was a quote from the head of American Principles Project,
Speaker 3: one of these extreme ass right wing organizations, and they
Speaker 3: said that after the twenty twenty two election cycle. So
Speaker 3: remember that's after Roe is overturned through the Dobbs decision
Speaker 3: and they lose just a whole range of ballot initiatives
Speaker 3: on abortion access. They threw issues at the wall to
Speaker 3: see what would stick, and attacks on trans kids is
Speaker 3: what's stuck.
Speaker 2: This is not about safety and sports, it's not about
Speaker 2: protecting girls. It's about using a community that people don't
Speaker 2: know enough about yet to make it seem like there's
Speaker 2: a boogeyman that's the source of all their challenges. And
Speaker 2: now's the time where we got to break through that myth.
Speaker 2: And I think that people are people are getting wise
Speaker 2: to it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think people are getting wise to it. And
Speaker 1: I think especially a point that I have made to
Speaker 1: some people that has been a big aha, is how
Speaker 1: do you enforce what little kids are trans? And aren't
Speaker 1: you want some stranger at a school or at an
Speaker 1: after school sports club inspecting your children's genitalia because that's
Speaker 1: the only way, that's the only way to check. So
Speaker 1: what you're actually voting for is to put all children,
Speaker 1: and let's be real, this will focus mostly on little girls.
Speaker 1: You are you are voting to put children at risk
Speaker 1: of sexual abuse under the guise of saying you want
Speaker 1: to protect them from other children. Like, everybody better wake
Speaker 1: up real quick, because that's not what we're going to do.
Speaker 1: And what we're certainly not going to do is put
Speaker 1: our kids under threat.
Speaker 3: Look, we know that there's political attacks are happening, But
Speaker 3: the way that we break through the policy is by
Speaker 3: getting closer to the people, by having conversations with our friends,
Speaker 3: with our neighbors, with other parents right in our communities.
Speaker 3: And that's what this moment charges us to do. You know,
Speaker 3: I was talking with one of my colleagues about the
Speaker 3: marriage fight and how we actually got to marriage equality,
Speaker 3: and she reminded me of two things, like, remember, in
Speaker 3: two thousand and four, there were a ton of anti
Speaker 3: marriage bowdnishis and bills are moving all across the country
Speaker 3: two thousand and four. But in the aftermath of that,
Speaker 3: when folks saw the cruelty and how wrong it was
Speaker 3: to discriminate against our friends and neighbors, things.
Speaker 2: Started to change. And I think that we're at that
Speaker 2: point now.
Speaker 3: And she also reminded me that in that time, they
Speaker 3: said that they would measure their success by the moment
Speaker 3: when kids could come out to their parents as gay
Speaker 3: and the parents wouldn't cry out of fear. We have
Speaker 3: overcome that bar in so many ways for the lesbian,
Speaker 3: gay and bi community. That's where we need to go.
Speaker 3: With the trans community, we're coming out and experiencing the
Speaker 3: freedom of who they want to be does not feel
Speaker 3: like a threat to their future and to their lives.
Speaker 3: And that to me, like, I don't care where you
Speaker 3: live in this country. I don't care what your identity is,
Speaker 3: what your religion is, what your politic is. All of
Speaker 3: us want our kids to experience that kind of freedom,
Speaker 3: and if we can start having that conversation, that is transformative,
Speaker 3: not just for a year, but for a generation.
Speaker 1: Yeah. And you know, it's funny because I think there's
Speaker 1: also this this talking point. They're like, oh, you know,
Speaker 1: everybody's gay, and it's like, well, everybody used to be
Speaker 1: right handed until we stopped the rules that said if
Speaker 1: kids were left handed, you had to change it, and
Speaker 1: then suddenly there were all these left handed people.
Speaker 2: They were handed, you know.
Speaker 1: And it's like, guys, if if media or knowing gay
Speaker 1: people made kids gay, then everyone would be straight because
Speaker 1: every movie ever is about straight people, all the kids cartoons,
Speaker 1: all the Disney movies. Like, it's not a real thing.
Speaker 1: We gotta like get past this idea that seeing people
Speaker 1: is a bad thing. Knowing gay people or trans people
Speaker 1: isn't gonna make your kid gay or trans, but it
Speaker 1: will make you are gay or trans. Kid make it
Speaker 1: to adulthood, and that's.
Speaker 2: The difference, you know.
Speaker 1: And I think about this a lot in terms of
Speaker 1: because you know me, I love math because these are
Speaker 1: very These are emotional issues and they're moral issues, and
Speaker 1: they're all the things, and they're spiritual issues. But like
Speaker 1: the math and the morals meet, I get excited. And
Speaker 1: so like when people in the healthcare world talk about
Speaker 1: women's issues like endometriosis and say that's niche, I'm like,
Speaker 1: we are fifty one percent of the population. We're actually
Speaker 1: the majority. So an issue that affects us is not
Speaker 1: a niche. It's actually a crisis. And when people talk
Speaker 1: about our community and they're like, well, you know, LGBTQ
Speaker 1: people murmurmur. I'm like, conservative estimates say one in five,
Speaker 1: probably one in four. But women aren't fifty one percent
Speaker 1: of the population. The gays are probably twenty five percent.
Speaker 2: We're not a niche.
Speaker 1: Like you guys, you gotta get over it, like catch up,
Speaker 1: come to the party. Our parties are more fun anyway.
Speaker 1: You're welcome as long as you're not rude, and like,
Speaker 1: let's moved it along, you.
Speaker 2: Know, totally.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And like I think that there's something to all
Speaker 3: those people that are saying, like everybody's gay, what's happening?
Speaker 3: I think they're actually either saying the world is changing
Speaker 3: and I don't know how I can be a part
Speaker 3: of it, right, Which look, I felt that way when
Speaker 3: you know, we move from computers to max but now
Speaker 3: look at me, I'm a mac. I'm doing okay, right,
Speaker 3: Or we moved from my Nokia phone to a smartphone.
Speaker 3: It was hard, but that kind of transition, and we
Speaker 3: need to create a world where change isn't seen as
Speaker 3: a bad thing, but it's actually seen.
Speaker 2: As a positive way that we grow.
Speaker 3: Or some of them are saying, why does that person
Speaker 3: get to experience a freeeness that I have to hold
Speaker 3: back every.
Speaker 2: Day in my life? And I wonder how many of.
Speaker 3: Those people actually are trying to unlock something that has
Speaker 3: felt so deep and core to them but has been
Speaker 3: stigmatized in a way that they can't break free from.
Speaker 3: And that's the thing about this kind of a movement.
Speaker 2: When we do it well, when we don't discard people.
Speaker 3: That are moving through their challenges of change but find
Speaker 3: ways to create on rams for them, you actually create
Speaker 3: freeness for everybody, For that little boy that wants to
Speaker 3: paint his nails, for that girl that wants to have
Speaker 3: short hair, for anyone that wants to engage in the
Speaker 3: world in whatever way they see fit, you create more
Speaker 3: space for it. So I think this is one of
Speaker 3: those times where we're going to look back and say,
Speaker 3: can you believe that there was a time when people
Speaker 3: fell away about trans people?
Speaker 2: You know, because we'll reach a different level of freeness.
Speaker 3: But this point of moving through that tension is a
Speaker 3: really important one about how we navigate it, not from
Speaker 3: a political perspective, but just as people that can see
Speaker 3: each other.
Speaker 1: Again, yeah, yeah, to again, to personalize it, you know,
Speaker 1: in a really real way, and then hopefully that personal
Speaker 1: motivation takes us into action. You know, we're we're coming
Speaker 1: up on the midterms, Like, how are you encouraging people
Speaker 1: to think about what's at stake for our community in
Speaker 1: the upcoming election? If they are feeling apathetic or if
Speaker 1: they're feeling tired, what are the things that you think
Speaker 1: help remind them like you can't give up yet. And
Speaker 1: this is why, you.
Speaker 3: Know, we're actually at a moment where I feel like
Speaker 3: if there's one thing that most people can agree on,
Speaker 3: it's that something is not right in this country because
Speaker 3: people experience it every day when you walk out of
Speaker 3: your front door, right whether it's the gas prices or
Speaker 3: you can't get berries at the store anymore, or worrying
Speaker 3: that your kid's going to make it home from school safely.
Speaker 3: Right Like, everybody is running into a crisis at some
Speaker 3: point in their days. So our challenge right now isn't
Speaker 3: necessarily reminding people of what's at stake. It's helping them
Speaker 3: to believe that there's something that you can do about it,
Speaker 3: and that your vote matters. And right now, like if
Speaker 3: you just look across this country, there are so many
Speaker 3: races and districts that are decided by a.
Speaker 2: Handful of votes. Your vote matters. We got to make
Speaker 2: sure that people turn out.
Speaker 3: And at this point, look right now, there's still school
Speaker 3: board races across the country. There are thousands of school
Speaker 3: board races right, tens of thousands of them. There are
Speaker 3: so many races where there are open seats just because
Speaker 3: nobody raised their.
Speaker 2: Hand, that could be you.
Speaker 3: If you have a problem with your schools, now's the
Speaker 3: time to jump on that school board.
Speaker 2: But our top of the Human Rights campaign is to
Speaker 2: give folks something to do let them know that there's
Speaker 2: a community that backs them up and if they want
Speaker 2: to take that next step in their leadership, give them
Speaker 2: the tools to do it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and now a word from our wonderful sponsors, how
Speaker 1: would you encourage people? You know? I feel like the
Speaker 1: HRC is such an enormous organization in so many ways,
Speaker 1: and there's people all the time that are just discovering
Speaker 1: that it exists. For folks at home who maybe know
Speaker 1: what we are, but not how to get involved, or
Speaker 1: maybe even for people who are like I've heard of
Speaker 1: the Human Rights Campaign, what does that do? Like, how
Speaker 1: would you encourage listeners to understand what we do and
Speaker 1: then how to get involved.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we are here to make sure that no matter
Speaker 3: where you live or who you are, you've got a
Speaker 3: way to stand up for LGBTQ plus equality, either either
Speaker 3: as a member of our community.
Speaker 2: Or as an ally.
Speaker 3: So I always encourage folks to come visit us, find
Speaker 3: us on the interwebs, find us at HRC dot org.
Speaker 3: We've got toolkits, we've got ways to connect you with
Speaker 3: local volunteers. But if you just want to get started,
Speaker 3: start by telling your story. Start by going out and
Speaker 3: talking to your neighbors about why the election matters, or
Speaker 3: about why trans kids matter, or about why you're an ally,
Speaker 3: or what your experience has been like being a member
Speaker 3: of our community in these tough times, because we know
Speaker 3: the number one thing that moves other people to action
Speaker 3: is knowing that somebody that they love and care about
Speaker 3: needs them to be a part of this fight.
Speaker 2: I also think that symbolism matters right now.
Speaker 3: Putting up the little HRC sticker in your neighborhood or
Speaker 3: at your business, like, that's important because people are looking
Speaker 3: for those signs, those symbols that there are safe spaces
Speaker 3: that are still available to us. And if you want
Speaker 3: to do more, there are tons of things you can do,
Speaker 3: from running for a school board to volunteering on an
Speaker 3: HRC steering committee in your area, to making sure that
Speaker 3: you're joining political campaigns to help to turn out the vote.
Speaker 3: But we can be a source to help you figure
Speaker 3: out the right ways to get engaged.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's one thing I'd like to encourage people. You know,
Speaker 1: your local HRC chapter is such a great resource for
Speaker 1: civic engagement in general. Just to know where to go,
Speaker 1: who to learn from, how to get involved. It's pretty inspiring.
Speaker 1: And one of the things I love. You know, we
Speaker 1: do our big board meeting in DC and so many
Speaker 1: of the chapters come and we get to just hang
Speaker 1: out with everybody and meet people from all over and
Speaker 1: I'm always so impressed with the things that they're activating on,
Speaker 1: you know, both in terms of how to stand up
Speaker 1: for the LGBTQ post community, but also their communities at large,
Speaker 1: whether it's school kids or you know, I don't know,
Speaker 1: clean water, like, they're working on all of it, and
Speaker 1: it's a really good place to get started and kind
Speaker 1: of find your thing.
Speaker 2: Find your people.
Speaker 3: That's what this is all about, right We want folks
Speaker 3: to know that you're not alone. And HRC we've got
Speaker 3: over four million members across the country. They're committed to this,
Speaker 3: and that's why I say, like, you know, as hard
Speaker 3: as things are right now, I just want every young
Speaker 3: person that's coming out, every trans kid, every parent of
Speaker 3: queer kids, to know that there are millions of people
Speaker 3: that have your back and when you're ready to join us,
Speaker 3: we are ready to wrap you in this rainbow embrace.
Speaker 1: I love that. How do you feel like becoming a
Speaker 1: parent has changed the way you advocate?
Speaker 3: Oh, there's the before parenthood and there's now. And I
Speaker 3: was always like a serious advocate, but I've never really
Speaker 3: understood what it meant to have your heart beating outside
Speaker 3: of your body, to have little people that you want
Speaker 3: to so fiercely protect in this world, to be charged
Speaker 3: with not only creating a world that they deserve, but
Speaker 3: creating a world that's deserving of them. And right now,
Speaker 3: I just feel like for our kids, the urgency of
Speaker 3: this moment is unparalleled, and I just want to make
Speaker 3: sure that when they grow up and they ask me,
Speaker 3: you know what we did in this moment, I can say,
Speaker 3: without flinching and without hesitation that we did everything that
Speaker 3: we could. But I feel that immense responsibility to my kids.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean too. It's wild. It's like it takes
Speaker 1: the idea of what we leave, you know, how we
Speaker 1: care for this planet while we're on it. It takes
Speaker 1: the abstraction and it makes it so immediate because it's
Speaker 1: what am I leading for? You? You know, are what
Speaker 1: are you? Literally? What will you inherit on this earth?
Speaker 1: And I think there's something really profound and committing to
Speaker 1: making sure that all of our children inherit a place
Speaker 1: where there will.
Speaker 3: Is and that they know it's their job to protect
Speaker 3: it for everyone that comes after them.
Speaker 1: Yes, yes, it's all of our jobs. If there were
Speaker 1: like three things. Speaking of jobs, we're getting a little
Speaker 1: homework here. Three tasks, three things, three action items that
Speaker 1: you would want to offer to listeners to begin on
Speaker 1: their making a difference journey.
Speaker 2: What do you think? Ooh, I love this question?
Speaker 1: Oh good? Yes?
Speaker 2: Number one, speak.
Speaker 3: Up, tell your story. Don't let people say lies about
Speaker 3: our community without hearing from you. Number two, find a
Speaker 3: candidate that you love and give them five dollars. Join
Speaker 3: their campaign, but be a part of it. But find
Speaker 3: a candidate that inspires you and get active. And then
Speaker 3: three and this one is a little bit kind of heady,
Speaker 3: but like, don't give up. Have a practice every day
Speaker 3: where you remind yourself that change is possible, but never
Speaker 3: let your spirit feel like the way that we are
Speaker 3: today is a way that.
Speaker 2: We're always going to be.
Speaker 3: But remintaining that kind of resilience about where we're going
Speaker 3: to go as a community. It is so important to
Speaker 3: get to the next bass fight.
Speaker 1: I love that it's almost a resiliency practice or adice. Yeah. Well,
Speaker 1: and for you, my very favorite question to ask everybody
Speaker 1: what and it can be personal and professional. It could
Speaker 1: be for HRC, anything, anything that strikes you. But I'm
Speaker 1: really curious, because you do so much, and you achieve
Speaker 1: so much, and you advocate for so much. What feels
Speaker 1: like you're work in progress right now?
Speaker 3: Oh, that's such a that's such a great question. Wow,
Speaker 3: my work in progress. I think my work in progress
Speaker 3: is like trying to figure out how this human thing
Speaker 3: is supposed to work, you know, balancing if you can,
Speaker 3: the mom piece and the work piece and the tending
Speaker 3: to oneself piece all at the same time. I don't
Speaker 3: know if there's any answers to it, but woo, she's
Speaker 3: a work in progress.
Speaker 2: I'll tell you that.
Speaker 1: Mm hmm. I feel that deeply. Every day I'm like,
Speaker 1: I'm so tired. But also, if I could just have
Speaker 1: four more hours in the day, I might get it done.
Speaker 2: That's right, I might actually have a shot.
Speaker 1: But yeah, like I might have a shot. But also
Speaker 1: I wanted to go to something hour ago both.
Speaker 3: And I feel like that, and I feel like that's
Speaker 3: indicative of the movement, right Like I want, as leading
Speaker 3: the human rights campaign to build the movement.
Speaker 2: I've always wanted to.
Speaker 3: Be a part of one that is rigorous about the
Speaker 3: change that we want to make in the world. But
Speaker 3: it's equally rigorous about finding joy and celebrating each other
Speaker 3: with reckless abandon right, and I think finding ways to
Speaker 3: embody that in ourselves.
Speaker 2: Like, that's a work in progress too.
Speaker 1: I love that. Yeah, it's the work that's never done.
Speaker 1: I think if you figure out how to do it
Speaker 1: in a way that feels good, that's.
Speaker 2: That's a life. That's a life, that's a movement.
Speaker 1: Yeah all right, friends, Well you better be following Kelly
Speaker 1: Robinson on Instagram and all the things, and the Human
Speaker 1: Rights Campaign on Instagram and all the things, and come
Speaker 1: join us also shameless Plug as a board member.
Speaker 2: Our new merch is so crop tops for everyone.
Speaker 1: Like it's so cute and the yes, yes, I wear it.
Speaker 2: I love it.
Speaker 1: Ever since I saw it on Nick, I was like,
Speaker 1: I'm buying that immediately, and now I wear it everywhere
Speaker 1: and people are like, oh, what is that? And what
Speaker 1: I love about our merch is it's so good. And
Speaker 1: also people go what is that? And then it's a conversation.
Speaker 1: Start I love it, So you know, get yourself a
Speaker 1: hat or a T shirt and then you got a
Speaker 1: good way to begin your con though.
Speaker 2: That's a perfect way to start right.
Speaker 1: Just a little cute We deserve it well, thank you
Speaker 1: for coming to.
Speaker 2: Thank you this was so fun. And thank you Sophia Bush.
Speaker 2: We love you.