June 17, 2024 • 27 mins
Cathy Renna, Director of Communications for the National LGBTQ Task Force, joins her friend Danielle to talk about the importance of Pride, finding a local Pride event near you - even as an ally, if you aren't LGBTQ+ yourself - and of telling our own stories.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:11):
Good morning, peeps, and welcome to wok F Daily with
Meet your Girl Danielle Moody, recording from the Home Bunker. Folks,
I hope that those of you who our fathers had
a wonderful Father's Day weekend. You know, I was home
on Long Island, celebrating my dad and just spending time
(00:34):
with my family. And you know, I have to say
that one I find and I realize again coming from
a place of privilege, that I love my family. My
family loves me. I enjoy spending time with them. I
am well into, you know, very very adult age, and
(00:57):
I have enjoyed the maturation of my relationship with my parents.
And I just like when I have the opportunity to
go home and visit, which is probably more so than
most people unless you live in the same town. I'm
just able to refocus on what's important and what matters.
(01:18):
Like sure, I will sit and I'll you know, talk
like a little bit of politics, but honestly not really.
The focus is on joy and spending good times together
and creating memories. And I think that it is really
important to remind ourselves that there is only so much
(01:38):
that we can do right. You can post you can share,
you can donate, you can educate, you can try and
push this country your representatives to be better. But in
that pushing, I also want folks to recognize when it's
(01:59):
time to just relax, when it's like, you don't have
to show how woke and conscious you are by making
every single waking moment about injustice, oppression, trauma and all
of these things. I think that the way to also
(02:20):
show solidarity is through joy and through gratitude, right like
living in gratitude. I thought about how many fathers have
been stripped from their families, from their communities, whether it
(02:40):
be through genocide that is happening in Gaza and Congo
and Sudan, whether it is you know, the jail system,
the money making scheme of a system in the United
States that is locked up and stripped more Black men
(03:02):
and Latino men from their families and their communities, you know.
And so it is a point of gratitude to have
a loving, intact family and intact I just mean that,
like we're all still living healthy and I'm grateful for that,
(03:23):
and I'm just you know, I'm reminded as I start,
you know, this week, to even when things are grim
as they are, even when we know that the Supreme
Court has one final ruling that will maybe the death
blow to this country. Hold the people that you love closer,
you know, really be present in moments of joy, like
(03:49):
truly present, because it's what keeps us going and it
is what fuels us. Coming up next, my conversation with
the Communications director to the LGBTQ Task Force on the
responsibility of media, Kathy Renner joins WOKF to continue our
(04:10):
Pride Month coverage. That conversation is coming up next, Folks.
I am very excited to welcome to WOKF Daily. No
stranger to WOKF Daily, actually Kathy Renner, who is a
Communications director at the National LGBTQ Task Force. You all
(04:33):
know this organization as I have had the pleasure to
interview some of your incredible people in the field, your
incredible executive director, and so I'm excited to talk to
you today, Kathy, about you know, it's Pride, right and
you know Pride Month is a busy month. It's usually
(04:53):
a very celebratory month for the queer community. But I
want to know how you and the Task Force are
kind of walking in to this Pride Month where where
your thoughts and kind of feelings are at this moment.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
Thanks Danielle, and we cannot tell you how much we
appreciate you and this podcast and your work. You know,
it's almost like every May of the media wakes up
and says, oh wait, it's Pride again coming. So you know,
there's that annual having to re educate and reframe and
reposition the media because they're always their biggest question is
(05:31):
you know, what are the big issues for Pride this year?
And it's not like they've changed very much right in
the past several years, but I think for the task
Force this year in particular with the election coming up,
as are most folks who are thinking about Pride frankly,
whether it's organizations or Pride organizers or just the individuals
that we're talking to out in the world, they're very
(05:52):
focused on the election like that is looming. And you know,
as you know, I think I've heard this phrase, I
don't know a thousand times in the last few weeks.
Everyone says this is the most important election of my life,
that this is like the sixth of the most right.
So it just keeps happening over and over and the
reality is that we need to be out there. And
you know, I've also worked on Big Prides so well,
(06:15):
fifty Washington, d C. Pride, Prides. You know, prides different
things to different people. But what I always say at
the end of the day is it is our opportunity
to show our power, to show our strength, to show
our diversity, and to show as a community that we may,
even if we don't agree on all things, that we
are unified in wanting to move forward as a people.
(06:38):
And so we were doing a lot of more virtual
online stuff in terms of organizing related to the election
and our career the vote campaign, but that's on hold.
It's time to get out there. It's time to be
with the people. And so we have already started dispatching
our staff. We've had folks at Pittsburgh Pride and Kissie Pride,
in Miami Beach Pride, and you know, we have an
(06:59):
office in Miami. We do a tremendous spot of work
in Florida. Florida is obviously an incredibly important state for
so many reasons, not just for our queer community. I mean,
our work in Florida is also you know, engaged around
the ballot initiatives, whether the abortunate right extension or the
marijuana legalization. So you know, we're at DC trans Pride, right,
we're working to We're going to Harlan Pride in New
(07:21):
York City. You know, we have well over a dozen
that we're dispatching folks to and they're signing up hundreds
of people. I mean, even in the last weekend, folks
can home super energized because there really is I think
a higher level of engagement than we've seen before. And
look at what we have at stake.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
You know, one of the questions I do want to
ask you as it pertains to pride, you know happening
and you know across the country. Really but when they
think about it, when you mentioned Florida and you mentioned
some other places, I get nervous. I get worried about
those places. So what does it mean to host pride
in places that have become so hostile, right openly hostile
(08:04):
to LGBTQ people, trans people in particular. You know, again,
Pride is about celebration. It is about lifting the self
esteem of the community. It's about showing I think young
people and old people that like there are people who
look like you, love like you that are here for you, right,
that we're not going anywhere, But at the same time,
(08:27):
safety is a real issue. So how do you reconcile
with the reality of that while not dampering this celebration.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
It's hard. I think that Pride organizers have always been
on some level that safety is a priority, But in
the last few years and this year particular, with the
elevated safety concerns that have come out and the warnings
that have come out from the FBI, from the State Department,
you know, and I'm just outside New York City, I
mean New York City. Pride takes precautions that are they're
absolutely necessary for the safety of everyone, folks who are dissipating,
(09:00):
the folks who are doing the organizing, the folks who
are marching, and you know, we take our own precautions,
like we had our staff they were at Pope County
Pride in Central Florida last year. One of the issues
that we have to grapple with depending on again, like
you said, these some of these places which are particularly hostile.
You know, law enforcement may be more supportive of the
folks who are protesting us than us, right, So we
(09:22):
also have to as one of our colleagues chanted at
creating change. You know, who keeps us safe? We keep
us safe, right, So we have to have our own
systems in place as well, and that's as an organization,
like our teams that go out or super connected. We
put locations on our you know, location on our phones.
We have text chains, we do check ins, they're on slack.
(09:44):
Even for those of us who are not physically there,
they need to let their supervisors or department heads know
when they're coming and going. And you know, we have
to do all those things. And it's not just physical safety.
There's also health issues right right, kinds of things. So
those are things that we don't actually talk about a lot.
So I actually appreciate you bringing it up because a
lot of folks just show up at Pride and don't
(10:05):
realize how much work has gone into both on the
organizing side, but also for those of us who are
doing the work and participating and wanting to engage folks.
What has to happen to really be able to not
just be productive and be able to enjoy and participate,
but to actually feel safe doing it.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
I think that it's important to lift up because I
want people to understand. I mean, while we may read
right and see the headlines that tell us that the
times have changed for the worst. But for folks like
yourself that are still organizing on the ground in these
places that are in the headlines because of their anti gay,
(10:47):
anti trans laws, that like this has now become dangerous.
It was never truly safe, but now when you see
the target and you see the lies being sped groom
and these things in these are states where you know,
they love their guns. And so I wanted you to
be able to lay that out for people so that
(11:08):
they can understand that while you know, we love our
rainbows and BoA's and you know, and the dancing and
the celebration, what happens behind the scenes in order to
make that actually happen, you know, is really serious.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
Absolutely more and more. And I think that you know,
we're hearing we've been hearing stories now for several years
that we've got folks who are literally moving. They're leaving. Yeah,
they're leaving where they live, where they have community, where
they have family, where they have their jobs because their
trans kid can't get firming healthcare, because they're afraid because
of the views that they've expressed, or they've been even
(11:45):
targeted by the Proud Boys and other you know, anti LGBTQ, racist, sexist,
you know hate groups that they are are quite literally leave.
I have a friend who moved from Tennessee to upstate
New York and like lives in a safe house. Now
that's a reality. It's painful and hard to talk about,
but we we have to talk about that stuff, and
(12:05):
we have to talk about it when every may in
my position, I get a thousand calls from the media
what are the big issues, what are the stories? And
they always want to talk about progress. And I'm happy
to talk about progress we've made because we're also making progress.
But progress isn't linear, and we are also dealing with
some of the most villil backlash that I've seen. And
(12:27):
I've been doing this for thirty years. Yeah, you know,
there were we had some times. You and I know
we were in d C right when Obama was president
and he's felt bad.
Speaker 1 (12:37):
Old days, old days.
Speaker 2 (12:40):
My daughter says, I thought, you fixed all this stuff.
Let's happen. Yeah, I you know, I think for young
people that's a this is a really important issue because
they do feel safer, they are more out, they are
more expressive, they are more in some ways, like want
to be you know, confronting folks, and for those of
us who've been doing this for a long time, having
(13:00):
to temper that with a message of safety is a
challenge a bit. And so, like I said, I mean,
I've been talking to media now for several weeks as
we've moved into June, and when I talk about what
the big issues are, it's to me, it's really important
that they start not just talking about issues, but talking
about people and telling our stories because there are a
(13:21):
lot more stories to tell and why those stories are important.
You know, there are so many trans youths that we
have worked with now for years. They are being targeted
in an unprecedented way. And what I keep saying to
journalist is we have to stop talking about trans youth
and we have to start talking to trans youth. And
(13:41):
they're but at the same time, being the overprotective media
person and parents that I am, like, we're very mindful
about how to do that safely with folks and families
and what the impact can be. So all of these
things have come into play. So it's made for a
pretty challenging pride But you know, at the same time,
it's more important than ever that we actually make that,
(14:03):
like you said, like that political statement. I mean, I
don't care if your show up at Pride with a
Cosmopolitan in one hand or a picket sign show up, Yeah,
it's just the visibility of the representation does. What I
always say is one of the most important things Pride
can do is that for the folks that may not
be there or it's their first time there, they realize
that they're part of something a whole lot bigger, and
(14:23):
that is what's life changing.
Speaker 1 (14:25):
Because I think too that you know, for those of
us like me and you how have been in this movement,
in and around this work for decades, sometimes I forget
how important pride is, right. I think that, you know,
prior to the Trump administration and the regression that we're seeing,
I kind of took pride for granted. That was the
(14:48):
beauty of progress, right, was being able to be like, eh,
you know, it's become super corporatized, that it's not you know,
uber necessary blah blah blah. And now recognizing one that
that was coming from a place of privilege, and two
that there are so many you know, young people who
(15:08):
this time that one march that one dance, that one
thing may be their entire experience to carry them through
the next three hundred and sixty four days of the
year where they're invisibilized well.
Speaker 2 (15:22):
And the other thing is that you know, if you're
not a fan of a pride that has corporate sponsors,
they're prides without corporate sponsors. I mean, in New York
we have like, I don't know, like half a dozen
We've got New York City Pride. We've got the Career
Liberation March. We've got the Dike March, which I love, right,
we have Youth Pride. We have all these different events
that have become so much more diversified, which I love.
(15:45):
We have suburban prides. I live in mont Clooney, Jersey.
There's a pride. Literally I will step out of my
building and within a block be at Pride on Saturday
with I don't know, fifteen twenty thousand people, which you know,
those are prides where it's really interesting to also see
and I we've noticed this more and more over the years,
and it's so heartening. It's allies coming out, it's families
(16:05):
with their kids, like we were in because it was
the Task Force's fifteenth anniversary. Last year, we actually participated
in a lot of the big marches and stuff, and
you know, we were in the New York City Pride
March and I can never stay still. I'm running around
talking to people saying hi. And I saw a kid,
he was about thirteen, trans boy with a big sign
that said, this is my first Pride. That makes all
(16:28):
the work of the hundreds of volunteers and the staff
and the folks who do this right. And I said,
make sure you go to Youth Pride, make sure you
go to trans Pride. And he was with his mom
and she had a sign that said my first Pride too.
You know that's the kind of stuff right that that
is super powerful. And it's interesting because I do experience
to this with colleagues, not just the dasports but everywhere.
(16:49):
They get a little jaded. Yeah, Ill stated, you know,
and we get comfortable, and I think you're right. It
can come from a place of privilege or from a
place of just not wanting to participate in that kind
of pride. There's so many options now. That house part
is if they don't want to go to a big event.
Some people don't like crowds.
Speaker 1 (17:09):
Yeah, next.
Speaker 2 (17:09):
Some of our Grand Marshals at New York City Pride
don't like crowds, and they still go because they know
that's important for folks to see them as role models,
as representations. You know. One of the things I love
is that New York City Pride this year some of
the Grand Marshals Miss Major is a Grand Marshal, Rockdelle
willis as a Grand Marshal. But they also instead of
having one youth Grand Marshal, they have three that are together,
(17:33):
and then they have their entire the heritage or Pride
like float that they have is all young people. It's
usually volunteers and whatever politicians. It's all young people this
year front and center, like last year when Robie Wade
was overturned on the Friday before the march and by
Sunday the front of the march was planned Parenthood, Maya Wiley,
(17:57):
all of these other reproductive rights groups, to show the
solidarity that we have at to show that this is
actually not simply for LGBTQ people. Yeah, and that's something
that you know, I just you go to any of these,
any of these events, doesn't matter which one it is.
You're going to see Mama Bear T shirts you're going
to see I love my trans cut T shirts. Allies
(18:19):
are coming out, you know, in lots of different ways,
and that you know, there aren't enough of us to
well maybe there are for something so some elections, but
we need our allies to put us over the open there.
I really do finish line right exactly.
Speaker 1 (18:33):
Because you bring up the election, which is always looming
over us. I want to switch gears and ask you
how the Task Force is preparing for the next five months.
One way or the other, America is going to be
changed greatly by this election. And you know, we know
you said it at the top, every election always the
(18:53):
most consequential. This one we know really is right. It's
the decision between fascism, ormocracy, between you know, white supremacy
or progress. So I wonder do you prepare two paths
if Biden continues with the second term, if Donald Trump
is elected, Like, what does it look like to be
(19:14):
inside of the Task Force right now as we make
the countdown to November.
Speaker 2 (19:20):
Well, I mean we're a C three, so we don't
endorse candidates. But you know, no matter what, and again
in some ways, actually no matter who wins the election,
this is a long fight we have. You know, if
Biden wins and Trump doesn't win, they're still going to
fight for what they want, which is autocracy and fascism.
They're not going to suddenly stop because you know, they
(19:40):
lost an election. You know, they didn't stop last time.
And I think, you know, it's fair that there are
a lot of progressive issues that the Task Force works
on that we are constructively critical towards the Biden administration
about that with our allies, whether it's you know, around
immigration or other things. And again it's it's like what
we talked about at our Korean Change conference, you know,
(20:02):
earlier this year, is how do we find ways to
have these conversations and be in principal struggle and not
cancel each other out right and try and continue to
move forward because I think at the end of the day,
the vast majority of folks have the same goal, right
in terms of where we want to end up as
people from a civil rights perspective, you know, just from
(20:23):
a cultural perspective, from a safety and having you know,
lives where we don't just survive but thrive. Right. So
for us, it's about, you know, given the resources that
we have, just being all in, you know, so whether
it's being at these prides where we can really I mean,
those are the places where you can access thousands of
(20:44):
people at once in person in ways that is they're
impossible otherwise. Right, So it's a it's an organizing tool
that we're going to use not just through June, through
the fall, because the reality is is that prides don't
just happen in June. Again, it's something that you know,
we'll be We'll be at price through October. I mean,
we have our CREA Change conferences in Las Vegas next January.
(21:07):
We're at Las Vegas Pride October twelfth, you know, and
so we're going to be right up to the election.
And then the other part we do is the sort
of the digital level organizing is, you know, is reaching
out to folks across the country, working particularly with partners
like our media partners are queer media especially, who are
all in to try and get folks. You know, the basics.
(21:28):
Are you registered to vote if you're not, this is
how you do it. If you are, get ten of
your friends and family and people in your community to
do it too, and if you need information about candidates,
about ballot initiatives, because I think what happens often in
this country is people, especially the media you want to
talk about media, spend so much time on the national
(21:48):
election that what gets forgotten are the local level thing. Yeah,
and that's in your in our day to day lives
for most of us, that's where the the pain points are. Right.
We worked on school board elections in Polk County in
central Florida last election cycle. We didn't win, but we
did everything we could to try and just keep things
(22:09):
moving forward because we're in it for the long game.
We may not have success on some of these balid
initiatives or local you know, quarter bed campaigns or primary
this election cycle, but we're not going anywhere. We've been
around fifty years, We're going to be around another fifty
And the reality is that we have to build the
power locally because it can't be everywhere. And you know,
(22:32):
we partner with local folks. That's the key. We know,
national organization could just walk in and say we're going
to you know, we're gonna help you. That's I mean,
maybe some of them do, but we don't because we
set what do you need? How can we be helpful?
Like for the Summerlee primary, in Pennsylvania. We dispatched one
of our staff and you know, they basically didn't want
(22:54):
to send him home because he did such a great
job literally going door to door and reaching over thousand people.
That makes a big difference.
Speaker 1 (23:03):
That's the basics, right, It's getting back to the basics.
Sometimes it's getting people offline and getting them back into
the real life where you can knock on doors, meet people,
see people, understand who they are, where they're coming from.
I think that we absolutely need to get back to
that place before I let you go. You know, last
(23:24):
question is for people that are feeling hopeless, for people
that are queer, that are feeling like we have betrayed them.
They are things we're supposed to get better and they
seem to be getting worse.
Speaker 2 (23:41):
What do you say, Well, if you can safely go
to a pride event, whether it's a small community event
where you live, or whether you can go to a
you know, something a whole lot bigger, and if not,
if that's not safe, this is where this is where
social media and the Internet can actually be a useful thing.
I mean, you know, what of the challenges, like you're saying,
(24:01):
get out there and be face to face with people.
Taking it out of the abstract of these little like
echo chambers that we're all living in on social media
is absolutely critical because I think that's where a lot
of the hopelessness can come from. You know, if you're
just seeing negative stuff on television, or you're just seeing
negative stuff on Facebook, or you're seeing even worse as
you well know, misinformation, disinformation, hostility and attacks like that
(24:27):
can wear you down and people will either you know,
they'll turn it off, they'll disconnect, they'll feel hopeless. And
I think there are ways that you can connect, and
you know, in person is the best, but if you
if not, you know, one of the things I love
about a lot of a lot of the Prides, but
I know best here in New York City is that
our local ABC affiliate streams yeah the first two hours
(24:51):
of the March. Yeah, so it's online and you can
it is just it's so powerful to see this amazing,
you know, diverse array of folks who are being honored
for work they've done in the community. You know, young
people who are just starting out in are an inspiration leadership,
and then organizations. You know, if you're a person of faith,
(25:13):
you'll feel less alone when you see you know, a
church and a synagogue and a you know, ten different
faith denominations go by that are in the march and
affirming the fact that that's who they are, that they're
er and they're people of faith. I mean, that's that's
a huge issue I think for folks who are who
are isolating our community and have been rejected by you know,
(25:36):
their own faith community.
Speaker 1 (25:37):
Kathy, I thank you so much for the work one
that you've done for decades, but the work that you
continue to do inside of the LGBTQ Task Force. I
think that you know, we need it. We need to
be reminded that there are good people doing great things
and that people can get involved. So please tell folks
how they can get connected to the task Force, how
(25:58):
they can be involved with the Task Force.
Speaker 2 (26:02):
So, I mean, the easiest thing to do to follow
us on social is just to find at the Task Force.
We're on Instagram, we're on x We're on Facebook, we're
on LinkedIn. You can also go to our Queer the
Vote website which is just squere thevote dot org. You
can get all the information around the elections and all
the waste that you can get engaged both virtually and
in person. And our general website is the task Force
(26:25):
dot org. And so you know, we'd love to have
folks join us for again. The great Change Conference can
be a life changing experience. It's like basically like it's
like an activist pride for a week, you know. I mean,
it's true.
Speaker 1 (26:37):
Yeah, it's true. It's true. I've been to my fair share.
Speaker 2 (26:41):
It's not a conference. A Kia Johnson, our executive director, says,
it's not a conference. It's an ecosystem. I always say
it's not a conference, it's an experience. Like we try
and create these opportunities for folks to get engaged and
then have what they need in the support to sort
of grow and you know, really make a difference and
great change.
Speaker 1 (27:00):
Lati Rana, thank you so much as always been making
the time for WOKF. Really appreciate you.
Speaker 2 (27:05):
I appreciate you too, Thanks so much.
Speaker 1 (27:11):
That is it for me today, dear friends on wok F.
As always, power to the people and to all the people. Power,
get woke and stay woke as fuck.
Good morning, peeps, and welcome to wok F Daily with
Meet your Girl Danielle Moody, recording from the Home Bunker. Folks,
I hope that those of you who our fathers had
a wonderful Father's Day weekend. You know, I was home
on Long Island, celebrating my dad and just spending time
(00:34):
with my family. And you know, I have to say
that one I find and I realize again coming from
a place of privilege, that I love my family. My
family loves me. I enjoy spending time with them. I
am well into, you know, very very adult age, and
(00:57):
I have enjoyed the maturation of my relationship with my parents.
And I just like when I have the opportunity to
go home and visit, which is probably more so than
most people unless you live in the same town. I'm
just able to refocus on what's important and what matters.
(01:18):
Like sure, I will sit and I'll you know, talk
like a little bit of politics, but honestly not really.
The focus is on joy and spending good times together
and creating memories. And I think that it is really
important to remind ourselves that there is only so much
(01:38):
that we can do right. You can post you can share,
you can donate, you can educate, you can try and
push this country your representatives to be better. But in
that pushing, I also want folks to recognize when it's
(01:59):
time to just relax, when it's like, you don't have
to show how woke and conscious you are by making
every single waking moment about injustice, oppression, trauma and all
of these things. I think that the way to also
(02:20):
show solidarity is through joy and through gratitude, right like
living in gratitude. I thought about how many fathers have
been stripped from their families, from their communities, whether it
(02:40):
be through genocide that is happening in Gaza and Congo
and Sudan, whether it is you know, the jail system,
the money making scheme of a system in the United
States that is locked up and stripped more Black men
(03:02):
and Latino men from their families and their communities, you know.
And so it is a point of gratitude to have
a loving, intact family and intact I just mean that,
like we're all still living healthy and I'm grateful for that,
(03:23):
and I'm just you know, I'm reminded as I start,
you know, this week, to even when things are grim
as they are, even when we know that the Supreme
Court has one final ruling that will maybe the death
blow to this country. Hold the people that you love closer,
you know, really be present in moments of joy, like
(03:49):
truly present, because it's what keeps us going and it
is what fuels us. Coming up next, my conversation with
the Communications director to the LGBTQ Task Force on the
responsibility of media, Kathy Renner joins WOKF to continue our
(04:10):
Pride Month coverage. That conversation is coming up next, Folks.
I am very excited to welcome to WOKF Daily. No
stranger to WOKF Daily, actually Kathy Renner, who is a
Communications director at the National LGBTQ Task Force. You all
(04:33):
know this organization as I have had the pleasure to
interview some of your incredible people in the field, your
incredible executive director, and so I'm excited to talk to
you today, Kathy, about you know, it's Pride, right and
you know Pride Month is a busy month. It's usually
(04:53):
a very celebratory month for the queer community. But I
want to know how you and the Task Force are
kind of walking in to this Pride Month where where
your thoughts and kind of feelings are at this moment.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
Thanks Danielle, and we cannot tell you how much we
appreciate you and this podcast and your work. You know,
it's almost like every May of the media wakes up
and says, oh wait, it's Pride again coming. So you know,
there's that annual having to re educate and reframe and
reposition the media because they're always their biggest question is
(05:31):
you know, what are the big issues for Pride this year?
And it's not like they've changed very much right in
the past several years, but I think for the task
Force this year in particular with the election coming up,
as are most folks who are thinking about Pride frankly,
whether it's organizations or Pride organizers or just the individuals
that we're talking to out in the world, they're very
(05:52):
focused on the election like that is looming. And you know,
as you know, I think I've heard this phrase, I
don't know a thousand times in the last few weeks.
Everyone says this is the most important election of my life,
that this is like the sixth of the most right.
So it just keeps happening over and over and the
reality is that we need to be out there. And
you know, I've also worked on Big Prides so well,
(06:15):
fifty Washington, d C. Pride, Prides. You know, prides different
things to different people. But what I always say at
the end of the day is it is our opportunity
to show our power, to show our strength, to show
our diversity, and to show as a community that we may,
even if we don't agree on all things, that we
are unified in wanting to move forward as a people.
(06:38):
And so we were doing a lot of more virtual
online stuff in terms of organizing related to the election
and our career the vote campaign, but that's on hold.
It's time to get out there. It's time to be
with the people. And so we have already started dispatching
our staff. We've had folks at Pittsburgh Pride and Kissie Pride,
in Miami Beach Pride, and you know, we have an
(06:59):
office in Miami. We do a tremendous spot of work
in Florida. Florida is obviously an incredibly important state for
so many reasons, not just for our queer community. I mean,
our work in Florida is also you know, engaged around
the ballot initiatives, whether the abortunate right extension or the
marijuana legalization. So you know, we're at DC trans Pride, right,
we're working to We're going to Harlan Pride in New
(07:21):
York City. You know, we have well over a dozen
that we're dispatching folks to and they're signing up hundreds
of people. I mean, even in the last weekend, folks
can home super energized because there really is I think
a higher level of engagement than we've seen before. And
look at what we have at stake.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
You know, one of the questions I do want to
ask you as it pertains to pride, you know happening
and you know across the country. Really but when they
think about it, when you mentioned Florida and you mentioned
some other places, I get nervous. I get worried about
those places. So what does it mean to host pride
in places that have become so hostile, right openly hostile
(08:04):
to LGBTQ people, trans people in particular. You know, again,
Pride is about celebration. It is about lifting the self
esteem of the community. It's about showing I think young
people and old people that like there are people who
look like you, love like you that are here for you, right,
that we're not going anywhere, But at the same time,
(08:27):
safety is a real issue. So how do you reconcile
with the reality of that while not dampering this celebration.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
It's hard. I think that Pride organizers have always been
on some level that safety is a priority, But in
the last few years and this year particular, with the
elevated safety concerns that have come out and the warnings
that have come out from the FBI, from the State Department,
you know, and I'm just outside New York City, I
mean New York City. Pride takes precautions that are they're
absolutely necessary for the safety of everyone, folks who are dissipating,
(09:00):
the folks who are doing the organizing, the folks who
are marching, and you know, we take our own precautions,
like we had our staff they were at Pope County
Pride in Central Florida last year. One of the issues
that we have to grapple with depending on again, like
you said, these some of these places which are particularly hostile.
You know, law enforcement may be more supportive of the
folks who are protesting us than us, right, So we
(09:22):
also have to as one of our colleagues chanted at
creating change. You know, who keeps us safe? We keep
us safe, right, So we have to have our own
systems in place as well, and that's as an organization,
like our teams that go out or super connected. We
put locations on our you know, location on our phones.
We have text chains, we do check ins, they're on slack.
(09:44):
Even for those of us who are not physically there,
they need to let their supervisors or department heads know
when they're coming and going. And you know, we have
to do all those things. And it's not just physical safety.
There's also health issues right right, kinds of things. So
those are things that we don't actually talk about a lot.
So I actually appreciate you bringing it up because a
lot of folks just show up at Pride and don't
(10:05):
realize how much work has gone into both on the
organizing side, but also for those of us who are
doing the work and participating and wanting to engage folks.
What has to happen to really be able to not
just be productive and be able to enjoy and participate,
but to actually feel safe doing it.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
I think that it's important to lift up because I
want people to understand. I mean, while we may read
right and see the headlines that tell us that the
times have changed for the worst. But for folks like
yourself that are still organizing on the ground in these
places that are in the headlines because of their anti gay,
(10:47):
anti trans laws, that like this has now become dangerous.
It was never truly safe, but now when you see
the target and you see the lies being sped groom
and these things in these are states where you know,
they love their guns. And so I wanted you to
be able to lay that out for people so that
(11:08):
they can understand that while you know, we love our
rainbows and BoA's and you know, and the dancing and
the celebration, what happens behind the scenes in order to
make that actually happen, you know, is really serious.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
Absolutely more and more. And I think that you know,
we're hearing we've been hearing stories now for several years
that we've got folks who are literally moving. They're leaving. Yeah,
they're leaving where they live, where they have community, where
they have family, where they have their jobs because their
trans kid can't get firming healthcare, because they're afraid because
of the views that they've expressed, or they've been even
(11:45):
targeted by the Proud Boys and other you know, anti LGBTQ, racist, sexist,
you know hate groups that they are are quite literally leave.
I have a friend who moved from Tennessee to upstate
New York and like lives in a safe house. Now
that's a reality. It's painful and hard to talk about,
but we we have to talk about that stuff, and
(12:05):
we have to talk about it when every may in
my position, I get a thousand calls from the media
what are the big issues, what are the stories? And
they always want to talk about progress. And I'm happy
to talk about progress we've made because we're also making progress.
But progress isn't linear, and we are also dealing with
some of the most villil backlash that I've seen. And
(12:27):
I've been doing this for thirty years. Yeah, you know,
there were we had some times. You and I know
we were in d C right when Obama was president
and he's felt bad.
Speaker 1 (12:37):
Old days, old days.
Speaker 2 (12:40):
My daughter says, I thought, you fixed all this stuff.
Let's happen. Yeah, I you know, I think for young
people that's a this is a really important issue because
they do feel safer, they are more out, they are
more expressive, they are more in some ways, like want
to be you know, confronting folks, and for those of
us who've been doing this for a long time, having
(13:00):
to temper that with a message of safety is a
challenge a bit. And so, like I said, I mean,
I've been talking to media now for several weeks as
we've moved into June, and when I talk about what
the big issues are, it's to me, it's really important
that they start not just talking about issues, but talking
about people and telling our stories because there are a
(13:21):
lot more stories to tell and why those stories are important.
You know, there are so many trans youths that we
have worked with now for years. They are being targeted
in an unprecedented way. And what I keep saying to
journalist is we have to stop talking about trans youth
and we have to start talking to trans youth. And
(13:41):
they're but at the same time, being the overprotective media
person and parents that I am, like, we're very mindful
about how to do that safely with folks and families
and what the impact can be. So all of these
things have come into play. So it's made for a
pretty challenging pride But you know, at the same time,
it's more important than ever that we actually make that,
(14:03):
like you said, like that political statement. I mean, I
don't care if your show up at Pride with a
Cosmopolitan in one hand or a picket sign show up, Yeah,
it's just the visibility of the representation does. What I
always say is one of the most important things Pride
can do is that for the folks that may not
be there or it's their first time there, they realize
that they're part of something a whole lot bigger, and
(14:23):
that is what's life changing.
Speaker 1 (14:25):
Because I think too that you know, for those of
us like me and you how have been in this movement,
in and around this work for decades, sometimes I forget
how important pride is, right. I think that, you know,
prior to the Trump administration and the regression that we're seeing,
I kind of took pride for granted. That was the
(14:48):
beauty of progress, right, was being able to be like, eh,
you know, it's become super corporatized, that it's not you know,
uber necessary blah blah blah. And now recognizing one that
that was coming from a place of privilege, and two
that there are so many you know, young people who
(15:08):
this time that one march that one dance, that one
thing may be their entire experience to carry them through
the next three hundred and sixty four days of the
year where they're invisibilized well.
Speaker 2 (15:22):
And the other thing is that you know, if you're
not a fan of a pride that has corporate sponsors,
they're prides without corporate sponsors. I mean, in New York
we have like, I don't know, like half a dozen
We've got New York City Pride. We've got the Career
Liberation March. We've got the Dike March, which I love, right,
we have Youth Pride. We have all these different events
that have become so much more diversified, which I love.
(15:45):
We have suburban prides. I live in mont Clooney, Jersey.
There's a pride. Literally I will step out of my
building and within a block be at Pride on Saturday
with I don't know, fifteen twenty thousand people, which you know,
those are prides where it's really interesting to also see
and I we've noticed this more and more over the years,
and it's so heartening. It's allies coming out, it's families
(16:05):
with their kids, like we were in because it was
the Task Force's fifteenth anniversary. Last year, we actually participated
in a lot of the big marches and stuff, and
you know, we were in the New York City Pride
March and I can never stay still. I'm running around
talking to people saying hi. And I saw a kid,
he was about thirteen, trans boy with a big sign
that said, this is my first Pride. That makes all
(16:28):
the work of the hundreds of volunteers and the staff
and the folks who do this right. And I said,
make sure you go to Youth Pride, make sure you
go to trans Pride. And he was with his mom
and she had a sign that said my first Pride too.
You know that's the kind of stuff right that that
is super powerful. And it's interesting because I do experience
to this with colleagues, not just the dasports but everywhere.
(16:49):
They get a little jaded. Yeah, Ill stated, you know,
and we get comfortable, and I think you're right. It
can come from a place of privilege or from a
place of just not wanting to participate in that kind
of pride. There's so many options now. That house part
is if they don't want to go to a big event.
Some people don't like crowds.
Speaker 1 (17:09):
Yeah, next.
Speaker 2 (17:09):
Some of our Grand Marshals at New York City Pride
don't like crowds, and they still go because they know
that's important for folks to see them as role models,
as representations. You know. One of the things I love
is that New York City Pride this year some of
the Grand Marshals Miss Major is a Grand Marshal, Rockdelle
willis as a Grand Marshal. But they also instead of
having one youth Grand Marshal, they have three that are together,
(17:33):
and then they have their entire the heritage or Pride
like float that they have is all young people. It's
usually volunteers and whatever politicians. It's all young people this
year front and center, like last year when Robie Wade
was overturned on the Friday before the march and by
Sunday the front of the march was planned Parenthood, Maya Wiley,
(17:57):
all of these other reproductive rights groups, to show the
solidarity that we have at to show that this is
actually not simply for LGBTQ people. Yeah, and that's something
that you know, I just you go to any of these,
any of these events, doesn't matter which one it is.
You're going to see Mama Bear T shirts you're going
to see I love my trans cut T shirts. Allies
(18:19):
are coming out, you know, in lots of different ways,
and that you know, there aren't enough of us to
well maybe there are for something so some elections, but
we need our allies to put us over the open there.
I really do finish line right exactly.
Speaker 1 (18:33):
Because you bring up the election, which is always looming
over us. I want to switch gears and ask you
how the Task Force is preparing for the next five months.
One way or the other, America is going to be
changed greatly by this election. And you know, we know
you said it at the top, every election always the
(18:53):
most consequential. This one we know really is right. It's
the decision between fascism, ormocracy, between you know, white supremacy
or progress. So I wonder do you prepare two paths
if Biden continues with the second term, if Donald Trump
is elected, Like, what does it look like to be
(19:14):
inside of the Task Force right now as we make
the countdown to November.
Speaker 2 (19:20):
Well, I mean we're a C three, so we don't
endorse candidates. But you know, no matter what, and again
in some ways, actually no matter who wins the election,
this is a long fight we have. You know, if
Biden wins and Trump doesn't win, they're still going to
fight for what they want, which is autocracy and fascism.
They're not going to suddenly stop because you know, they
(19:40):
lost an election. You know, they didn't stop last time.
And I think, you know, it's fair that there are
a lot of progressive issues that the Task Force works
on that we are constructively critical towards the Biden administration
about that with our allies, whether it's you know, around
immigration or other things. And again it's it's like what
we talked about at our Korean Change conference, you know,
(20:02):
earlier this year, is how do we find ways to
have these conversations and be in principal struggle and not
cancel each other out right and try and continue to
move forward because I think at the end of the day,
the vast majority of folks have the same goal, right
in terms of where we want to end up as
people from a civil rights perspective, you know, just from
(20:23):
a cultural perspective, from a safety and having you know,
lives where we don't just survive but thrive. Right. So
for us, it's about, you know, given the resources that
we have, just being all in, you know, so whether
it's being at these prides where we can really I mean,
those are the places where you can access thousands of
(20:44):
people at once in person in ways that is they're
impossible otherwise. Right, So it's a it's an organizing tool
that we're going to use not just through June, through
the fall, because the reality is is that prides don't
just happen in June. Again, it's something that you know,
we'll be We'll be at price through October. I mean,
we have our CREA Change conferences in Las Vegas next January.
(21:07):
We're at Las Vegas Pride October twelfth, you know, and
so we're going to be right up to the election.
And then the other part we do is the sort
of the digital level organizing is, you know, is reaching
out to folks across the country, working particularly with partners
like our media partners are queer media especially, who are
all in to try and get folks. You know, the basics.
(21:28):
Are you registered to vote if you're not, this is
how you do it. If you are, get ten of
your friends and family and people in your community to
do it too, and if you need information about candidates,
about ballot initiatives, because I think what happens often in
this country is people, especially the media you want to
talk about media, spend so much time on the national
(21:48):
election that what gets forgotten are the local level thing. Yeah,
and that's in your in our day to day lives
for most of us, that's where the the pain points are. Right.
We worked on school board elections in Polk County in
central Florida last election cycle. We didn't win, but we
did everything we could to try and just keep things
(22:09):
moving forward because we're in it for the long game.
We may not have success on some of these balid
initiatives or local you know, quarter bed campaigns or primary
this election cycle, but we're not going anywhere. We've been
around fifty years, We're going to be around another fifty
And the reality is that we have to build the
power locally because it can't be everywhere. And you know,
(22:32):
we partner with local folks. That's the key. We know,
national organization could just walk in and say we're going
to you know, we're gonna help you. That's I mean,
maybe some of them do, but we don't because we
set what do you need? How can we be helpful?
Like for the Summerlee primary, in Pennsylvania. We dispatched one
of our staff and you know, they basically didn't want
(22:54):
to send him home because he did such a great
job literally going door to door and reaching over thousand people.
That makes a big difference.
Speaker 1 (23:03):
That's the basics, right, It's getting back to the basics.
Sometimes it's getting people offline and getting them back into
the real life where you can knock on doors, meet people,
see people, understand who they are, where they're coming from.
I think that we absolutely need to get back to
that place before I let you go. You know, last
(23:24):
question is for people that are feeling hopeless, for people
that are queer, that are feeling like we have betrayed them.
They are things we're supposed to get better and they
seem to be getting worse.
Speaker 2 (23:41):
What do you say, Well, if you can safely go
to a pride event, whether it's a small community event
where you live, or whether you can go to a
you know, something a whole lot bigger, and if not,
if that's not safe, this is where this is where
social media and the Internet can actually be a useful thing.
I mean, you know, what of the challenges, like you're saying,
(24:01):
get out there and be face to face with people.
Taking it out of the abstract of these little like
echo chambers that we're all living in on social media
is absolutely critical because I think that's where a lot
of the hopelessness can come from. You know, if you're
just seeing negative stuff on television, or you're just seeing
negative stuff on Facebook, or you're seeing even worse as
you well know, misinformation, disinformation, hostility and attacks like that
(24:27):
can wear you down and people will either you know,
they'll turn it off, they'll disconnect, they'll feel hopeless. And
I think there are ways that you can connect, and
you know, in person is the best, but if you
if not, you know, one of the things I love
about a lot of a lot of the Prides, but
I know best here in New York City is that
our local ABC affiliate streams yeah the first two hours
(24:51):
of the March. Yeah, so it's online and you can
it is just it's so powerful to see this amazing,
you know, diverse array of folks who are being honored
for work they've done in the community. You know, young
people who are just starting out in are an inspiration leadership,
and then organizations. You know, if you're a person of faith,
(25:13):
you'll feel less alone when you see you know, a
church and a synagogue and a you know, ten different
faith denominations go by that are in the march and
affirming the fact that that's who they are, that they're
er and they're people of faith. I mean, that's that's
a huge issue I think for folks who are who
are isolating our community and have been rejected by you know,
(25:36):
their own faith community.
Speaker 1 (25:37):
Kathy, I thank you so much for the work one
that you've done for decades, but the work that you
continue to do inside of the LGBTQ Task Force. I
think that you know, we need it. We need to
be reminded that there are good people doing great things
and that people can get involved. So please tell folks
how they can get connected to the task Force, how
(25:58):
they can be involved with the Task Force.
Speaker 2 (26:02):
So, I mean, the easiest thing to do to follow
us on social is just to find at the Task Force.
We're on Instagram, we're on x We're on Facebook, we're
on LinkedIn. You can also go to our Queer the
Vote website which is just squere thevote dot org. You
can get all the information around the elections and all
the waste that you can get engaged both virtually and
in person. And our general website is the task Force
(26:25):
dot org. And so you know, we'd love to have
folks join us for again. The great Change Conference can
be a life changing experience. It's like basically like it's
like an activist pride for a week, you know. I mean,
it's true.
Speaker 1 (26:37):
Yeah, it's true. It's true. I've been to my fair share.
Speaker 2 (26:41):
It's not a conference. A Kia Johnson, our executive director, says,
it's not a conference. It's an ecosystem. I always say
it's not a conference, it's an experience. Like we try
and create these opportunities for folks to get engaged and
then have what they need in the support to sort
of grow and you know, really make a difference and
great change.
Speaker 1 (27:00):
Lati Rana, thank you so much as always been making
the time for WOKF. Really appreciate you.
Speaker 2 (27:05):
I appreciate you too, Thanks so much.
Speaker 1 (27:11):
That is it for me today, dear friends on wok F.
As always, power to the people and to all the people. Power,
get woke and stay woke as fuck.
Host
Danielle Moodie
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