Speaker 1: Good morning, peeps, and welcome to wok F Daily with
Speaker 1: me your girl Danielle Moody, back in effect after such
Speaker 1: a long time away. I've missed each and every one
Speaker 1: of you, and for those of you that are new
Speaker 1: with us here on, iHeart welcome. I'm so excited to
Speaker 1: be on this new platform, and for all of you
Speaker 1: who have been on this joining with me since the
Speaker 1: very beginning, I just can't wait for this next chapter. So, folks,
Speaker 1: it seems that the entire time that I've been away,
Speaker 1: trying to get my thoughts together, you know, get a
Speaker 1: little bit of peace, taken some books and some walks. Unfortunately,
Speaker 1: the world did not decide to take a break with me,
Speaker 1: and things have been spinning out of fuck in control
Speaker 1: from the unrelenting amount of anti trans bills that we
Speaker 1: have seen, to Rondascentis and his high heel wearing self
Speaker 1: just trying to become I guess young Mussolini, to the
Speaker 1: potential of Donald Trump being indicted with news coming out
Speaker 1: of the Manhattan District Attorney's office. I mean, there's just
Speaker 1: so much, so friends, I'm excited to be back. Let's
Speaker 1: dive in, all right. Starting off, I have to say
Speaker 1: that what we have seen over the last month plus
Speaker 1: since we were together with regards to the anti trans,
Speaker 1: anti lgbt Q bills have been absolutely crazy. And I
Speaker 1: say that because, you know, folks, I am not kidding
Speaker 1: myself when I thought that after the passage of marriage
Speaker 1: equality that there would somehow be this slow move, continued
Speaker 1: move towards progress that we would feel right like the
Speaker 1: change that people have fought for since Stonewall, to watching
Speaker 1: the White House turn into a rainbow after the passage
Speaker 1: of marriage equality by the Supreme Court. After we told
Speaker 1: young kids that things would get better, folks, I did
Speaker 1: not think that I would be here. I got to
Speaker 1: be honest with you. I didn't think that things would
Speaker 1: be perfect. But I sure as fuck did not think
Speaker 1: that we would be going backwards at the speed and
Speaker 1: at the rate at which we are right now. Where
Speaker 1: it stands, dear friends, we have over three hundred pieces
Speaker 1: of legislation that have been offered up to ban everything
Speaker 1: from drag story time to drag performances in public to
Speaker 1: gender affirming care to the criminalization of parents who want
Speaker 1: to access gender affirming care for their children that are
Speaker 1: under the age of eighteen. I mean I got to
Speaker 1: tell you that it's terrifying. I have friends who have
Speaker 1: made the decision to move out of the state of
Speaker 1: Texas to move to Washington, d C. I know other
Speaker 1: people that are making decisions who have the privilege, right,
Speaker 1: Because let's be real, when we kind of make flipping comments,
Speaker 1: you know, for those of us that happen too currently, right,
Speaker 1: because it doesn't mean that it's forever. And I'll get
Speaker 1: to the case of abortion that is happening right now
Speaker 1: in Texas that has national implications. But when we look
Speaker 1: and we say to people, well, why are you living
Speaker 1: in Mississippi, Why are you living in Arkansas? Why are
Speaker 1: you living in Tennessee? Just move? Let's understand that we
Speaker 1: are saying that comment and it's dripping in privilege and
Speaker 1: classism because there's only a select group of people, right
Speaker 1: that can look at their significant others, or look at
Speaker 1: their family, or look at themselves and say, you know what,
Speaker 1: I have the money, I have the resources to pick
Speaker 1: up and relocate my entire life, leave my family, leave
Speaker 1: my friends, leave all that I know, and go pick
Speaker 1: up and start someplace else. Right, So let's understand that
Speaker 1: when we make these comments, right, it's like looking at
Speaker 1: the people back during you know, terrible natural disasters that
Speaker 1: we know have gotten worse. But it's like looking at
Speaker 1: the people who live in Tornado Valley or who live
Speaker 1: in hurricane places, and we say, well, why don't you
Speaker 1: just move because it's not that fucking easy. Why didn't
Speaker 1: you just leave when they said that the hurricane was coming, Well,
Speaker 1: because that takes resource. Right, So let's just make clear
Speaker 1: that when we say those comments, and I have definitely
Speaker 1: said them and tweeted them before, that I understand right
Speaker 1: that not everybody can move that way. And so when
Speaker 1: we're looking at these pieces of legislation that all right
Speaker 1: oriented out of that Petrie dish that we call Florida,
Speaker 1: which began last year this time with the passage of
Speaker 1: they Don't Say Gay Bill, that we know that every
Speaker 1: Republican governor is acting like a copycat of Rhonda Santis
Speaker 1: is trying to compete right on the national stage who
Speaker 1: can be the worst. And these barrage of bills are
Speaker 1: set to do nothing more, dear friends, then to make
Speaker 1: us feel like the progress that we have made, the
Speaker 1: progress that we have fought for, is done and gone with.
Speaker 1: And so either we just lose ourselves in hopelessness, or
Speaker 1: we begin to figure out a pathway forward. Because here's
Speaker 1: the thing. I was talking to my therapist the other day,
Speaker 1: and when I'm in therapy these days, you know, I
Speaker 1: talk about a lot of my feelings of being kind
Speaker 1: of trapped in an existential crisis. Right that. You know,
Speaker 1: there are some people who will enter into therapy and
Speaker 1: they learn that the stories that they're telling themselves are not,
Speaker 1: you know, really aligned with reality. With me, however, right
Speaker 1: doing this work, working in politics, working on the front
Speaker 1: lines for social justice in a media capacity, that what
Speaker 1: I am actually facing and what I'm talking about every
Speaker 1: day is real, right, Like I'm not making up three
Speaker 1: hundred pieces of legislation, Right, I'm not making it up
Speaker 1: in my head. That you have people like Rhonda sand Fitz,
Speaker 1: Marjorie Taylor Green, Paul Gosar, Matt Gates, and others that
Speaker 1: are using language like Mike Knowles did at Sepack a
Speaker 1: couple of weeks ago when he said that transgenderism needs
Speaker 1: to be quote eradicated. Right when you have people who
Speaker 1: are in positions of power or have proximity to power
Speaker 1: that once they do have the White House back once
Speaker 1: they do have the Senate back that their eradication plan
Speaker 1: can be operationalized. That's not me being chicken little. That's
Speaker 1: not me, you know, making up stories. That's me taking
Speaker 1: the facts of what it is that these people are
Speaker 1: articulating and saying, oh shit, if we don't hold on
Speaker 1: to the White House in twenty twenty four, if we
Speaker 1: don't expand the Senate, right, if we don't take back
Speaker 1: the House, that the eradication solution that the Republicans are offering,
Speaker 1: and they're starting because I want folks to understand two.
Speaker 1: And this is the piece in the piece that I
Speaker 1: wrote in the Daily Beast last week entitled Democrats need
Speaker 1: to fight harder as the GOP tries to eradicate transpeople.
Speaker 1: And what I said in this piece is this eradicate right,
Speaker 1: eradicate What does that word actually mean? And this is
Speaker 1: what I want people to understand. To be clear. Quote,
Speaker 1: the definition of eradicate is to remove or destroy entirely.
Speaker 1: So when Michael Knows says this, and by the way, folks,
Speaker 1: he said this to a room that was filled with applause,
Speaker 1: This is not me saying, oh, well, they probably don't
Speaker 1: really mean it, right. This is me sitting down with
Speaker 1: my therapist being like, I am having trouble mustering up
Speaker 1: consistency around my joy and ease because I feel like
Speaker 1: the walls they're closing in on me as a black
Speaker 1: queer woman, as an out black queer woman, as an
Speaker 1: out black queer woman with a bit of a platform
Speaker 1: that she uses to advance equity and justice. Right, So,
Speaker 1: what I say about this terminology, what I say about
Speaker 1: these bills, is this terminology like this is used for
Speaker 1: one purpose to separate people from their humanity. Why, to
Speaker 1: normalize brutality, to make a violence legislatively or physically not
Speaker 1: only justifiable but necessary. When Adolf Hitler and the Nazis
Speaker 1: referred to the Jewish people as quote vermin that needed
Speaker 1: to be quote eradicated from Germany, they were able to
Speaker 1: convince enough of the population that their neighbors were subhuman.
Speaker 1: So I want you to understand and feel community in
Speaker 1: the fact that you are not alone, if you, like me,
Speaker 1: are struggling these days with finding your north star, finding
Speaker 1: your sense of hope, your sense of light, when every
Speaker 1: single headline, every single alert that's coming across on your
Speaker 1: phone is one of something else that is bad, that
Speaker 1: was just past. But here's the thing that I want
Speaker 1: folks to understand is that it is time, dear friends,
Speaker 1: it is time for all Americans, whether you know a
Speaker 1: trans person, whether you are a member of the LGBTQ
Speaker 1: community or not, to wake the fuck up. Because what
Speaker 1: I close and write in this piece and the Daily
Speaker 1: Beast is this Republicans are laying out their plans. First
Speaker 1: they come for the transgender community, but because a majority
Speaker 1: of Americans don't know a person who is trans, they
Speaker 1: do nothing. Eventually they come for you. It's time we
Speaker 1: as Americans wake up and realize the end to me,
Speaker 1: to freedom and our collective humanity is within and the
Speaker 1: war has already begun. That's the truth, folks, those are
Speaker 1: the facts. This for the Republican Party has never been
Speaker 1: about protecting children. It has never been about the concern
Speaker 1: around children. It has been the concern around the consolidation
Speaker 1: of their power and the ability to weaponize government to
Speaker 1: serve their own ends. You go for the most marginalized
Speaker 1: and vulnerable community because when we look at reports, I
Speaker 1: think less than twenty percent of the American population actually
Speaker 1: know somebody who is trance. You see, you go for
Speaker 1: the community that people still have a hard time placing
Speaker 1: their fingers are and you you dehumanize them because it's
Speaker 1: easy because most likely over the holidays, right at your
Speaker 1: kitchen table, you're not sitting across the table from somebody
Speaker 1: who is transgender nonconforming. But I want to tell you this, folks,
Speaker 1: it shouldn't fucking matter. It shouldn't matter whether you know someone,
Speaker 1: whether it is a person that is inside of your
Speaker 1: own family, in your own classroom, next to you, on
Speaker 1: the job, sharing a cubicle with you, they are a person.
Speaker 1: They are human, And what we know to be true
Speaker 1: is that this is a tried and true tactic. I
Speaker 1: talk to you about Hitler because when people are feeling
Speaker 1: the weight of their lives, when they feel like the
Speaker 1: walls are closing in and they are drowning, and they
Speaker 1: are looked for anyone to blame to say, so long
Speaker 1: as that person suffers, then I will be doing better.
Speaker 1: The reality is that Democrats need to do more and
Speaker 1: show people the true face of the Republican Party that
Speaker 1: is full on anti trans, anti Semitic, anti black, anti woman.
Speaker 1: Everything that they are pro is about regression. You know
Speaker 1: why they went ahead and reverse Rob Wade because they
Speaker 1: don't want women and people with uterousist to have the
Speaker 1: autonomy over their bodies. Because guess what reports are coming out,
Speaker 1: folks that younger generations are not getting married and they're
Speaker 1: not having kids at the same rate. So let's blame
Speaker 1: the books. Let's blame wokeism instead of the fact that
Speaker 1: capitalism only works for a certain few. So let's remove
Speaker 1: the books and then call that freedom. I don't know
Speaker 1: about you, but I don't know a free democratic society
Speaker 1: that jail's librarians and targets schools and targets private industry
Speaker 1: for stating their opinion on the states where their headquarters are.
Speaker 1: The way that Rhnda Santis is going after Disney. This
Speaker 1: isn't about fucking freedom. You got Marjorie Taylor Green talking
Speaker 1: about wokeism is being shoved down my throat. I say,
Speaker 1: turn off the fucking television. If you choose to want
Speaker 1: to live your life like an Austrians, if you believe
Speaker 1: that freedom looks like something that should only be given
Speaker 1: and taken by those that are white, that are cists,
Speaker 1: that are hetero, that are Christian, then you shouldn't live
Speaker 1: in these United States because our founding may be fucked up.
Speaker 1: But the work that we have been doing to perfect
Speaker 1: our union each and every generation is work worth doing.
Speaker 1: But understand, folks, that we have had people by different names,
Speaker 1: but of the same white, angry, angry, rageful faces pushing
Speaker 1: against progress since the beginning of time, literally since the
Speaker 1: formation of what we know to be the United States.
Speaker 1: There is always, as my therapist is trying to move
Speaker 1: me out of my existential downward spiral, there is always
Speaker 1: going to be polarity in life. The yang and the yang,
Speaker 1: and the dark and the light. That is just what
Speaker 1: it means to exist. We're not looking for a utopia.
Speaker 1: We're looking for equanimity. We're looking for balance. But my
Speaker 1: feeling is that what happens when Republicans and I far
Speaker 1: right christio fascist agenda begins to wait on the scale, folks,
Speaker 1: then the light and the love and the goodness and
Speaker 1: what is just needs to put just as much weight,
Speaker 1: if not more, on that scale as well. We don't
Speaker 1: have the luxury, dear friends, to rescind our energy and
Speaker 1: our time and say, oh no, maybe next time I'll
Speaker 1: go get him, because we are at a point, folks,
Speaker 1: where those next times are not given. They want us
Speaker 1: to believe that they are gaining steam and momentum, and
Speaker 1: they are. But I will tell you that the reason
Speaker 1: why this is happening is because there are more people
Speaker 1: that are fucking woke and conscious to social injustices to
Speaker 1: the layered crises than have ever been before in this
Speaker 1: country and globally. People have become critical thinkers that are
Speaker 1: asking questions about why we've been operating under this arbitrary
Speaker 1: set of societal norms that actually don't feel like they fit.
Speaker 1: The shit is not couture. It's like a cheap fucking suit, right,
Speaker 1: So we talk about, oh, well, a woman is a
Speaker 1: woman and a man is a man, says who ask yourself?
Speaker 1: Who benefits from the lies that we've been fed. Adulthood,
Speaker 1: dear friends, is about on learning all of the things
Speaker 1: that we have been taught. We have been brainwashed to
Speaker 1: understand the reason why the right is pushing in the
Speaker 1: way that they are because more people are questioning. That's
Speaker 1: why they want to move the books, folks. That's why
Speaker 1: they want to erase history. That's why they want to
Speaker 1: put their clause into curriculum, because an educated populace is
Speaker 1: a dangerous populace to the status fucking quo. So if
Speaker 1: that doesn't show you that we are winning, right, because
Speaker 1: let me tell you something, people don't steal and take
Speaker 1: things that are of no value. That's why they try
Speaker 1: and steal your vote. That's why they're trying to steal
Speaker 1: your books. That's why they are trying to steal our joy.
Speaker 1: Our job as we march forward together is a reclamation project, folks,
Speaker 1: because I'm telling you this show, the next iteration of
Speaker 1: wok F is not about marinating in the misery. It
Speaker 1: is about recognizing the polarity, recognizing that, yes, I'm going
Speaker 1: to be honest about all the dark shit because there
Speaker 1: is a lot of it, and I'm also going to
Speaker 1: be honest about all of the light, about all of
Speaker 1: the good because we cannot get stuck in one place
Speaker 1: or the other. We have got to be nimble, to
Speaker 1: be pliable, to be expansive in the way that we
Speaker 1: think and in the way that we dream, because without
Speaker 1: the ability to have ease, without the ability to actually dream,
Speaker 1: we cannot think past the bullshit that we are in
Speaker 1: right now. And we have got to be able to
Speaker 1: think past it otherwise we can't actualize it. So this
Speaker 1: is a window into what woke a f in our
Speaker 1: new chapter, in our new home of iHeart will be.
Speaker 1: It'll be about holding the both and about asking the
Speaker 1: critical questions, about unpacking what we don't know, and calling
Speaker 1: in our friends, our academics, our analysts, our authors, our
Speaker 1: change makers, our activists, our artists, our musicians to help
Speaker 1: make sense out of all of the fucking nonsense. Because
Speaker 1: I know that there is a strong desire to want
Speaker 1: to tune out, because everything is really overwhelming. And that's
Speaker 1: why you have to have the ability to be able
Speaker 1: to pick and to choose. And I'm so happy that
Speaker 1: I'm one of the choices that you make. That is
Speaker 1: it for me today, Dear friends on woke f as always,
Speaker 1: power to the people and to all the people. Power,
Speaker 1: get woke and stay woke as fuck.