WEBVTT - Don't Let Them Take Our Pride 0:00:11.760 --> 0:00:14.840 Good morning, peeps, and welcome to WOKF Daily with Meet 0:00:14.920 --> 0:00:19.880 Your Girl Daniel Moody recording from the Home Bunker. Folks 0:00:19.920 --> 0:00:25.799 Happy Pride. June celebrates the beginning of Pride Month, something 0:00:25.880 --> 0:00:31.040 that has been celebrated in this country since nineteen seventy 0:00:31.360 --> 0:00:36.600 nineteen sixty nine. If we all recognize the beginning of 0:00:36.760 --> 0:00:42.000 pride being the riots that took place at Stonewall Inn 0:00:42.720 --> 0:00:47.760 in New York City in nineteen sixty nine, when cops 0:00:48.360 --> 0:00:53.120 came into the Stonewall Inn on a mission to arrest, 0:00:53.640 --> 0:01:02.760 humiliate queer people and folks back. Marsha P. Johnson, a 0:01:02.760 --> 0:01:08.880 black trans woman, fought back against the police and said 0:01:09.280 --> 0:01:16.480 no more, No more harassment, no more closets, no more criminality, 0:01:17.160 --> 0:01:23.960 no more abuse. When you look up the definition of pride, 0:01:24.000 --> 0:01:30.039 Miriam Webster defines it as this reasonable self esteem or 0:01:30.120 --> 0:01:36.920 confidence and satisfaction in oneself. Oxford defines it as this 0:01:38.120 --> 0:01:42.480 a feeling of deep pleasure or satisfaction derived from one's 0:01:42.480 --> 0:01:50.160 own achievements. Consciousness of one's own dignity. That's the one 0:01:50.200 --> 0:01:56.840 I like the most, consciousness of one's own dignity. We're 0:01:56.880 --> 0:02:07.320 living at a time where dignity and respect are almost 0:02:07.360 --> 0:02:15.560 non existent, not in politics for sure, not in sports, 0:02:16.160 --> 0:02:26.760 not in entertainment, where we see through policies, through rhetoric, 0:02:27.720 --> 0:02:33.959 the assaults on any number of communities, but it always begins, 0:02:34.120 --> 0:02:39.919 for some reason, with black people and then LGBTQ people 0:02:41.080 --> 0:02:47.280 to make the targets of the radicalized right, because I 0:02:47.320 --> 0:02:50.400 don't even want to call these folks the religious right anymore, 0:02:50.480 --> 0:02:54.600 because their religion is bullshit. Their religion is white supremacy, 0:02:55.720 --> 0:02:59.760 their religion is racism, their religion is patriarchy, their religion 0:02:59.800 --> 0:03:06.240 is read. Their religion actually disrespects the very text that 0:03:06.320 --> 0:03:13.200 they love to recite, but only portions of so pride. 0:03:13.440 --> 0:03:19.200 Pride is about not giving a fuck what the outside 0:03:19.400 --> 0:03:27.440 agitators and haters say, even if those haters happen to 0:03:27.520 --> 0:03:34.320 occupy or have occupied the White House, occupy governor's mansions, 0:03:36.320 --> 0:03:48.280 occupy police departments, Senate seats, congressional seats. Pride is something 0:03:48.320 --> 0:03:54.960 that comes from the inside out. This month and this 0:03:55.200 --> 0:04:02.680 year has been testing the LGBTQ community in ways. I 0:04:02.720 --> 0:04:07.840 don't even think that we have expected the amount of 0:04:08.080 --> 0:04:17.280 anti trans, anti LGBTQ pieces of legislation, well over five 0:04:17.360 --> 0:04:24.359 hundred plus the indignities that so called representatives want to 0:04:24.440 --> 0:04:31.160 write into law make it that much more important to 0:04:31.320 --> 0:04:36.400 have and create reasonable self esteem. Pride Month used to 0:04:36.400 --> 0:04:39.119 piss me off. I'm gonna be honest, as a black 0:04:39.160 --> 0:04:44.280 queer woman, initially I loved Pride. I loved the marches, 0:04:44.520 --> 0:04:50.320 I loved the rainbows everywhere, I loved the parties. Let's 0:04:50.360 --> 0:04:54.760 be honest. I loved it when I was younger because 0:04:56.320 --> 0:05:00.960 it just felt so free. There's a free that comes 0:05:01.000 --> 0:05:06.760 with Pride, a liberation. When you look at all of 0:05:06.800 --> 0:05:15.560 the people that intersect inside of the queer community, it's everybody, 0:05:17.200 --> 0:05:22.360 and it's everybody learning to love themselves and each other 0:05:22.720 --> 0:05:29.320 despite what embedded homophobia and transphobia tries to tell us 0:05:29.880 --> 0:05:34.960 that we're unworthy, that we don't matter, that we should 0:05:34.960 --> 0:05:41.120 go away, or worse, we should be locked away. The 0:05:41.200 --> 0:05:45.640 reason why I started to hate Pride over you know 0:05:46.240 --> 0:05:51.839 the last several years, was because it became so corporatized. Right. 0:05:53.320 --> 0:05:55.920 You see, all of these companies just for this one 0:05:55.960 --> 0:06:00.960 month put up their rainbow flags and their rainbow icons, 0:06:02.400 --> 0:06:08.839 put out their merchandise because capitalism. But then the other 0:06:08.920 --> 0:06:14.560 eleven months of the year put their resources behind politicians 0:06:14.640 --> 0:06:20.520 and policies that work to take away our rights. So 0:06:20.560 --> 0:06:24.440 they're good with taking our money, but they're not actually 0:06:24.440 --> 0:06:26.919 good with the follow through of what it means to 0:06:27.360 --> 0:06:31.320 be a real ally And it doesn't just happen in June. 0:06:31.440 --> 0:06:36.120 If you care about LGBTQ equality, you should be giving 0:06:37.680 --> 0:06:41.800 to this community all year, not just one month and 0:06:41.800 --> 0:06:45.200 then patting yourself on the back. So it was never 0:06:45.440 --> 0:06:48.680 the fact that I hated Pride. It was the way 0:06:48.760 --> 0:06:57.120 in which capitalism and corporations decided to weasel their ways 0:06:57.200 --> 0:07:06.080 into our communities expression of freedom of joy. I don't 0:07:06.120 --> 0:07:08.719 know if I've ever spoken about this before. Maybe I have, 0:07:09.760 --> 0:07:15.080 but I'll speak about it explicitly today on wokf's first 0:07:15.520 --> 0:07:18.880 real official day of Pride, because that Trump trial fucked 0:07:18.920 --> 0:07:21.320 me up and I had to talk about it on Monday. 0:07:22.400 --> 0:07:27.760 But for me, you will hear me say, and have 0:07:27.840 --> 0:07:31.160 heard me say throughout the years, that I am queer 0:07:32.680 --> 0:07:36.440 and a black queer woman, a black queer woman child 0:07:36.480 --> 0:07:40.800 of immigrants. I often say this, and I say it 0:07:40.840 --> 0:07:44.400 at the beginning of conversations, I say it in interviews, 0:07:45.840 --> 0:07:49.320 and the reason for that is because one I see 0:07:49.360 --> 0:07:53.560 my queerness as a political identity as well as an orientation, 0:07:55.120 --> 0:08:01.160 a political identity, in the fact that I am deeply progressive, 0:08:01.480 --> 0:08:07.280 deeply believe in equity and queer because lesbian for me 0:08:07.600 --> 0:08:12.440 just never sat right, because I think that there are 0:08:12.480 --> 0:08:15.920 all different ways in which you can love and fall 0:08:15.960 --> 0:08:20.200 in love with an array of people, and so I 0:08:20.280 --> 0:08:24.920 never wanted to necessarily feel like I was boxed in, 0:08:25.960 --> 0:08:29.240 and I think that that is important. What I love 0:08:29.320 --> 0:08:33.000 the most about this younger generation gen Z is that 0:08:33.520 --> 0:08:39.000 a lot of them identify as non binary, as queer, 0:08:39.679 --> 0:08:44.679 as just living on the spectrum where they understand that 0:08:45.559 --> 0:08:52.760 sexuality and identity is fluid, and that it is patriarchy 0:08:52.880 --> 0:08:58.720 and religion that has put us all in varied boxes 0:08:59.760 --> 0:09:04.560 and forced us to comply to their rules. When I say, 0:09:04.720 --> 0:09:08.079 when I'm talking about abortion, for instance, and I say 0:09:08.480 --> 0:09:12.880 women and people with uteruses, it isn't just to be 0:09:13.000 --> 0:09:17.080 quote unquote woke, even though I am and flucking happy 0:09:17.120 --> 0:09:22.199 for it, but it is to acknowledge the spectrums of 0:09:22.320 --> 0:09:25.920 identities of people who can in fact become pregnant that 0:09:26.040 --> 0:09:33.000 don't all identify as women. What queerness requires is really 0:09:33.800 --> 0:09:39.559 an exercise in intellectual expansion. The idea that we are 0:09:39.640 --> 0:09:45.320 forever learning and growing. And if we see the world 0:09:45.480 --> 0:09:51.600 in that way where I'm not stuck just with the 0:09:51.640 --> 0:09:55.559 information that let's say I graduated from undergrad or grad 0:09:55.640 --> 0:10:00.280 school with as the only right way it it is 0:10:00.320 --> 0:10:07.719 that I am nimble and I avail myself of new information, 0:10:07.840 --> 0:10:16.439 of new perspectives, of the friction that does come with expansion. 0:10:17.000 --> 0:10:22.320 It's not always easy, right. People would tell me, you know, 0:10:23.400 --> 0:10:27.559 it's so difficult to you know, to do the pronoun 0:10:27.720 --> 0:10:32.520 thing quote unquote. And I say, why if I walk 0:10:32.559 --> 0:10:35.280 into a room and tell you that my name is Danielle, 0:10:36.679 --> 0:10:40.240 but you tell me that I look like a Patricia? 0:10:41.120 --> 0:10:43.640 What the fuck gives you the right to call me Patricia? 0:10:43.679 --> 0:10:47.240 When I've told you what my name is. It goes 0:10:47.400 --> 0:10:54.880 back to dignity, right and respect. I respect you enough 0:10:54.920 --> 0:11:01.800 to challenge myself in ways that usher in a wider 0:11:02.960 --> 0:11:08.079 way of thinking, that challenge what I have been taught 0:11:09.080 --> 0:11:12.960 never to question. And now I'm asking why. It isn't 0:11:13.000 --> 0:11:19.000 all this quote unquote new fangled stuff. It's people gathering 0:11:19.120 --> 0:11:25.640 more information and recognizing that in many ways they've been 0:11:25.840 --> 0:11:32.120 forced to adapt to society's whims and ignore themselves. So 0:11:32.320 --> 0:11:38.800 pride is really about self trust. I am trusting myself 0:11:39.400 --> 0:11:43.600 to know myself so that I can show up as 0:11:43.679 --> 0:11:49.480 my full self, and that I am so rooted in 0:11:49.559 --> 0:11:53.800 the truth of who I am that whatever wind, whatever 0:11:54.040 --> 0:11:58.680 storm you try and bring my way, will not knock 0:11:58.880 --> 0:12:03.280 me over. And there are some people that hear that 0:12:03.480 --> 0:12:07.360 statement and they want to dig down to the roots 0:12:07.440 --> 0:12:12.520 and pull it out, and sometimes they win, because, as 0:12:12.559 --> 0:12:19.479 you all know, the LGBTQ community has higher suicide rates 0:12:19.520 --> 0:12:26.920 than any other community. So what pride gives us, particularly 0:12:27.120 --> 0:12:33.480 young queer people who may sometimes travel great distances to 0:12:33.640 --> 0:12:38.760 experience what it's like to be in community with people 0:12:38.880 --> 0:12:46.400 who accept them for who they are, and just that 0:12:46.400 --> 0:12:51.240 that sense of knowing that another world exists, even if 0:12:51.280 --> 0:12:55.359 it isn't right outside your front door, is what helps 0:12:55.960 --> 0:13:01.600 these young people helps all of us deepen and strengthen 0:13:01.720 --> 0:13:09.360 our roots, our dignity, and our esteem. So when people, 0:13:09.840 --> 0:13:15.120 you know, like the Rondescantises of the world, who pass 0:13:15.280 --> 0:13:19.319 legislation that said that no building could light up in rainbows, 0:13:19.360 --> 0:13:25.520 because my god, what would happen if people were to 0:13:25.559 --> 0:13:30.400 see a rainbow? I guess they're going to what spontaneously 0:13:30.520 --> 0:13:35.040 combust So we must protect the eyes and the egos 0:13:35.080 --> 0:13:40.600 of those fragile, fragile heterosexuals. These people go out of 0:13:40.640 --> 0:13:48.559 their way to try and make queer people ashamed of themselves. 0:13:50.280 --> 0:13:53.720 And because they're so busy banning books and denying history, 0:13:53.760 --> 0:13:58.160 they don't know that queer people have always existed. This 0:13:58.320 --> 0:14:03.800 ain't new. So what's new is that over the last 0:14:04.320 --> 0:14:12.319 decade the LGBTQ plus community has made significant advances in equity, 0:14:13.400 --> 0:14:18.520 in dignity written into policy. Which is why you see 0:14:18.559 --> 0:14:24.960 these motherfuckers working over time to condemn to shame, to silence, 0:14:26.560 --> 0:14:28.920 because at the end of the day, they are afraid 0:14:29.760 --> 0:14:35.800 of Generation Z. They're afraid that they know themselves more 0:14:36.080 --> 0:14:41.040 than the right wing ever will. They don't need prescriptions 0:14:41.320 --> 0:14:48.280 on toxic masculinity. They find it abhorrent. And so when 0:14:48.320 --> 0:14:54.640 you see acceptance happening and having a ripple effect, you 0:14:54.840 --> 0:14:59.640 know that the pushback is inevitable. But what I refuse 0:14:59.720 --> 0:15:03.840 to do, and I hope what my fellow LGBTQ plus 0:15:04.240 --> 0:15:08.640 community refuses to do, is to ever let them take 0:15:08.680 --> 0:15:15.520 away our pride, our joy, all your love, I say, 0:15:15.560 --> 0:15:19.520 all your love. Aud your Lord said that self love 0:15:21.080 --> 0:15:26.440 is a revolutionary act, and it is when you really, 0:15:26.480 --> 0:15:31.360 really really think about it. If you are from or 0:15:31.440 --> 0:15:38.600 identify with a marginal community, a marginalized community, a community 0:15:38.640 --> 0:15:44.520 that has been oppressed pushed to the margins at one 0:15:44.560 --> 0:15:48.880 point in time or another, or you're from a group 0:15:49.200 --> 0:15:55.560 that exists at the intersections of multiple marginal communities, then 0:15:55.760 --> 0:16:03.240 loving yourself ferociously from the tips of your toes to 0:16:03.320 --> 0:16:08.840 the top, top top of your head when everything around 0:16:08.920 --> 0:16:13.680 you is saying to hate yourself. I can think of 0:16:13.720 --> 0:16:20.160 no greater revolution than that. That's why when black folks 0:16:22.160 --> 0:16:25.600 we're saying in the nineteen sixties, I'm black and I'm 0:16:25.760 --> 0:16:32.720 proud because white supremacy would have us be ashamed. When 0:16:32.760 --> 0:16:36.760 I name the show Woke as Fuck, that was a 0:16:36.840 --> 0:16:43.280 declaration of consciousness. I love when I see signs that 0:16:43.360 --> 0:16:48.240 say loud and proud, because they want us to be 0:16:48.360 --> 0:16:56.000 silent and ashamed. They talk about silencing us because everything 0:16:56.040 --> 0:16:59.080 apparently that comes out of a mouth that is not white, 0:16:59.160 --> 0:17:02.840 that is not man, that is not sis, is indoctrination. 0:17:04.160 --> 0:17:07.119 But we can't talk about the indoctrination that we've had 0:17:07.160 --> 0:17:12.120 since birth, since the blue beanie or the pink beanie. 0:17:12.560 --> 0:17:16.920 Now it's multicolored, that's nice, but you can still walk 0:17:16.960 --> 0:17:23.400 down a clothing store aisle, a toy ale and see 0:17:23.560 --> 0:17:28.640 the gender separation happening from jump you want to talk 0:17:28.680 --> 0:17:34.119 about indoctrination. Girls play this way, boys play this way. 0:17:35.480 --> 0:17:42.479 So it's this realization that I don't have to gender 0:17:42.520 --> 0:17:46.520 my kids. I can let them like what they like. 0:17:48.280 --> 0:17:50.240 I can love them for who they are and how 0:17:50.240 --> 0:17:54.919 they show up. You know, when marriage equality passed in 0:17:54.960 --> 0:17:59.760 twenty fifteen, the Supreme Court, which this current Supreme Court 0:17:59.760 --> 0:18:03.200 is getting ready to overturn it. But when it passed 0:18:03.200 --> 0:18:07.919 and the White House lit up in a rainbow, I 0:18:08.040 --> 0:18:12.480 was actually in San Francisco, so I missed running down 0:18:12.480 --> 0:18:14.240 because I had at that time, I was still living 0:18:14.280 --> 0:18:17.040 in Washington, DC. Running down the street to the White House. 0:18:17.920 --> 0:18:25.879 That image was so powerful because in the most powerful 0:18:26.640 --> 0:18:33.040 building in this country, not only did they see us 0:18:33.840 --> 0:18:40.000 as queer people, but they celebrated us. I don't want 0:18:40.040 --> 0:18:46.120 people's tolerance. I never understood that to be tolerated. Who 0:18:46.160 --> 0:18:48.520 the fuck wants to be in a relationship with somebody, 0:18:49.520 --> 0:18:51.600 whether it be a person or a country that fucking 0:18:51.680 --> 0:18:56.240 tolerates them. I don't even want to be quote unquote accepted, 0:18:57.119 --> 0:19:00.359 because still that requires some type of exchange, like I 0:19:00.440 --> 0:19:04.000 have to give up something in order to be accepted. 0:19:04.880 --> 0:19:08.639 I want to be celebrated. I want to go where 0:19:08.680 --> 0:19:15.439 I am celebrated. And so this prime month, I just 0:19:15.600 --> 0:19:21.800 ask us all queer or not to really think about 0:19:21.840 --> 0:19:30.359 self love as a revolutionary act, joy as a revolutionary act, 0:19:31.600 --> 0:19:35.200 and think about the ways in which we are actually 0:19:35.320 --> 0:19:40.359 in the midst of a revolution right now. Change great 0:19:40.520 --> 0:19:46.040 changes upon us. We see it, we feel it, and 0:19:46.080 --> 0:19:50.199 we can choose to embrace it. We can choose to 0:19:50.320 --> 0:19:55.880 thank right give gratitude for the great shakeup that we've 0:19:55.920 --> 0:20:00.080 had over the last decade, because now we don't we 0:20:00.119 --> 0:20:02.520 need to smile in people's faces that we know don't 0:20:02.600 --> 0:20:07.040 like us. We don't need to pretend. But it is 0:20:07.080 --> 0:20:14.160 a reminder consistently that we won't find dignity and respect 0:20:14.960 --> 0:20:21.880 outside first, we must find it inside. And in this climate, 0:20:23.640 --> 0:20:31.159 we have got to grow deep, strong roots so that 0:20:31.440 --> 0:20:37.120 nothing that they can throw at us will have us 0:20:37.200 --> 0:20:47.840 uproot from ourselves. Wishing all my queerdos in this country 0:20:48.080 --> 0:20:58.200 around the globe the happiest, most joyful, beautiful, peaceful and 0:20:58.320 --> 0:21:08.320 loving pride sees in this month. Unwokay f we will 0:21:08.359 --> 0:21:10.879 do what we have done for the last couple of years, 0:21:10.960 --> 0:21:16.920 which is sit down, be in conversation with queer folks 0:21:16.960 --> 0:21:20.680 around the country. What does it mean to be queer 0:21:20.760 --> 0:21:26.280 in twenty twenty four, How are we preparing ourselves for 0:21:26.320 --> 0:21:32.040 this election? What does it mean to have honest conversations 0:21:32.119 --> 0:21:36.040 in the media and hold the media to account. What 0:21:36.040 --> 0:21:39.560 does it mean to be queer? And in education? Right now? 0:21:40.680 --> 0:21:43.680 We're going to be digging into all of that throughout 0:21:43.720 --> 0:21:47.520 the month of June. That is it for me today, 0:21:47.600 --> 0:21:52.800 dear friends on WOKF As always, power to the people 0:21:52.960 --> 0:21:57.600 and to all the people. Power, get woke and stay 0:21:58.240 --> 0:21:58.920 woke as fuck.