Democracy Now! Audio - Democracy Now! 2026-06-24 Wednesday

Episode Date: June 24, 2026

Democracy Now! Wednesday, June 24, 2026

From New York, this is Democracy Now. What you all have shown this evening, whether for state assembly... The Democratic Party nationwide, as progressives and DSA candidates endorsed by Mayor Zoran Mamdani, win big in New York. We'll speak to one of those winners, Dalia Liza Villalje. She defeated incumbent Congress member Adriano Espaya. Elliot Page about his new documentary, Second Nature. She's, countries, to gender and sexuality. All these millions of species follow a certain set of rules.

But what if this narrative fails to capture the full spectrum of life's diversity? All that and more, coming up. Do Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org, the War and Peace Report. I'm Amy Goodman. In a major blow to the Democratic establishment nationwide, three progressives backed by New York mayor, Zoran Mamdani, won primary races in New York City. Former New York City Comptroller Brad Lander beat incumbent Congressman Dan Goldman. The 32-year-old Afro-Latina organizer, Dario Lisa Villa Chevalier, pulled off a shocking defeat.

of five-term congressman Adriano Espayat, the chair of the congressional Hispanic caucus. And New York Assembly member, Clarevaldez, who is a former union organizer, defeated Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Renoso to fill the seat long held by Congress member Nydia Velasquez, who had backed Renoso. Dario Lisa Avila Chivalier and Clarevaldez were both backed. by the Democratic Socialists of America, which also played a key role in Mayor Mamdani's election. Landr, Valdez, and Chevalier all ran campaigns criticizing APEC, American Israel Public Affairs Committee. Claire Valdez spoke to supporters in Brooklyn last night.

I will continue to call for Palestinian liberation. We will stand up to the genocide. we refuse to abide by apartheid, and we will use our money to improve lives here instead of destroy them abroad. And I will do everything in my power, every single day in Congress, to give the labor movement the tools it needs

to be a fighting force for the entire working class. New York mayor, Zoran Mamdani, spoke at Valdez's victory party. The old politics that got us to this crisis is not the politics that's going to get us out of this crisis. It's time for working people to be back at the heart of our politics. These are the champions who will do it. In another closely watched New York primary, New York State Assembly member Michael Lashar won the crowded race

to replace Congress member Jerry Nadler. We'll have more on the election after headlines and speak with Darie Lisa Villa Chevalier. On Capitol Hill, the Senate passed a war powers resolution Tuesday, directing President Trump to end the war with Iran. Republican senators Rand Paul, Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, and Bill Cassidy joined Democrats in voting for the resolution. One Democrat, John Federman, voted against it. The measure passed the House earlier this month. The New York Times reports this marks the first time.

since the enactment of the war powers resolution of 1973, that the Senate and House have approved a concurrent resolution directing a president to end a military conflict. Senator Chris Van Hollen spoke ahead of the vote. I also hope, colleagues, we will learn something from this needless tragedy. The calls for military adventurism, the promises of quick victory, the fantasies of regime change. under the circumstances that were deployed and the endless effort to undermine diplomacy led us directly to this disaster.

And we should not repeat those mistakes. We should take a stand today and end this war, and we should finally start putting the interests of the American people ahead of costly and unnecessary conflicts. The Senate War Powers vote came as the U.S. and Iran, continued to dispute key terms of their agreement to end the war. President Trump has claimed Iran agreed to the, quote, highest level, unquote, of monitoring by nuclear weapons inspectors, but Iranian officials have rejected that assertion. Earlier today, Iran's speaker described the U.S. Iran deal as, quote, America's declaration

of defeat, unquote. Meanwhile, Israel and Lebanon have begun a new round of talks in Washington. This comes as U.S. Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, is visiting the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, and Bahrain, three Gulf nations that have expressed concern over the U.S. Iran deal. More than two dozen countries across Europe are under extreme heat alerts today after a high-pressure heat dome settled over the continent, shattering hundreds of temperature records. On Tuesday, France recorded its hottest day ever, with the temperature reaching 111 degrees Fahrenheit in southwest France. At least 40 people have drowned across France while seeking relief from the heat, a number of them teenagers. In the U.K., United Nations Secretary General Antonio Gutierrez delivered remarks to the London Climate Action Week on Tuesday as temperatures outside topped 100. degrees Fahrenheit.

Around the world, climate disasters are becoming more frequent, more destructive, and more costly. And the World Meteorological Organization has warned we ain't seen nothing yet. El Nino is not just knocking on the door. It risks blowing the house down. Turning up the heat, disrupting food and water systems, and heating the vulnerable the hardest. Meanwhile, a new study published in the journal Nature Climate Change finds global heating has exposed an additional 1 billion people to extreme heat stress each year compared to the 1970s. A federal judge in Texas has handed down prison sentences ranging from 30 to 100 years to a group of anti-ice protesters convicted on terrorism charges in March.

Federal prosecutors had accused the nine defendants of being members of an Antifa terror cell, quote, unquote, for attending a protest outside the Prairland Ice Jail on July 4th, during which fireworks were set off and a police officer was shot and wounded. Among those sentence was Daniel Sanchez Estrada, who wasn't even at the protest. He received a 30-year prison term for conspiracy to conceal documents. after he moved a box containing anti-fascist magazines and pamphlets. Acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche welcomed the unusually harsh sentences writing, quote, Antifa terrorists who attack law enforcement and federal facilities will face swift and uncompromising justice, unquote. Former U.S. Marine Corps reservists Benjamin Song, who is convicted of the shooting, received a hundred-year sentence. In a statement, he said he only fired his rifle because he believed the officer was

about to shoot another activist. Song said others had been punished just for knowing him, adding, quote, this is mass punishment, collective punishment, this is guilt by association, this is injustice, he wrote. The Supreme Court sided with the Trump administration Tuesday in a 63 ruling that will make it easier for immigration officers to deny readmission to green card holders who've left the United States. Following the ruling, immigration officers will no longer need clear and convincing evidence that lawful permanent residents have committed a disqualifying crime before barring them from reentering the U.S. In a dissent signed by her two liberal colleagues, Justice Katanji Brown Jackson wrote, quote, I worry that the court has now handed the government

a massive blank check, unquote. Separately, the Supreme Court ruled six to three against a black former prisoner who sued Louisiana prison officials for handcuffing him to a chair and for forcibly shaving his dreadlocks. Damon Lander is a Rastafarian who had not cut his hair in over 20 years. He unsuccessfully argued prison guards broke a federal law that requires states to protect the religious rights of prisoners. The Trump administration's threatened to withhold tens of millions of dollars in federal homeland security funds from states unless they agree to a sweeping set of changes to how elections are run.

That's according to CNN, which reports several Homeland Security grant programs have adopted new rules requiring states to phase out certain electronic voting systems and to move to handmarked paper balance. Meanwhile, President Trump is set to meet with Republican senators on Capitol Hill today as he seeks to push through the Save America Act. Voting rights experts say the legislation could disenfranchise millions of citizens who lack easy access to what would be required to vote, either a birth certificate or a passport, showing their names assigned at birth.

Some Republicans have criticized the legislation. North Carolina Senator Tom Tillis called it a waste of time, while Senate Majority Leader John Thune has refused to be. Trump's demand he abolished the filibuster to pass the bill. Last week, President Trump called out Senator Thune by name in a Truth Social Post writing, quote, anybody who doesn't want to terminate the filibuster is a fool, unquote. Large-scale firings have reportedly begun at the office of the Director of National Intelligence days after Trump loyalists, Bill Pulte, became the agency's acting director, though he has no experience.

National Intelligence. On Monday, Democratic Senator Mark Warner of Virginia and Congressmember Jim Himes of Connecticut wrote to Pulte, warning him against the firings. They wrote, quote, We are concerned that your record as director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, the Federal Housing Finance Agency, demonstrates a willingness to misuse your position, including your access to sensitive information to pursue President Trump's perceived political enemies and further his retributive political agenda, unquote. Pulte took office last week following the resignation of Tulsi Gabbard. Meanwhile, the Washington Post has published a major expoise indicating Gabbard's political rise was secretly shaped by Chris Butler, the head of a cult-like breakaway Harry Krishna group in Hawaii.

Gabbard and her parents are longtime followers of Butler. The Post obtained hundreds of confidential memos from Butler's former secretary that appear to show Butler directly guiding Gabbard's media appearances, social media posts, and legislation when she served in Congress. And the House of Representatives has approved a bill aimed at increasing the supply of homes across the United States. The legislation limits the number of single-family homes. Major investors can purchase while loosening federal regulations to allow for new home construction. The bill does not include any new federal funding for housing. The Senate approved the bill Monday.

President Trump set to sign it into law today. And those are some of the headlines. This is Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org, the Warren Peace Report. Coming up, shockwaves hit the Democratic Party nationwide as progressives and DSA candidates endorsed by Mayor Zohran Mandani win big in New York. We'll speak with one of the Democratic. of those winners, Dary Lisa Villa Chevalier, who defeated incumbent Congress member Adriano Espayat. Stay with us.

Well, I just want to go to work. Get back home and be something. I just want to fall in line and do my time and be something. I just want to prove my worth on the planet Earth and be something. I just want to fall in love and now ruin it and feel something. I don't understand what I am. Treated as a fool, not quite a woman or... I don't know.

I guess I don't understand the plan. ...hypnoticed and hypnotized, be something. Sterilized, dehumanized, I'll be something. Palante, performed by Hooray for the Riffraff at Democracy Now's 30th anniversary at Riverside Church here in New York. This is Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org, the war and peace report. I'm Amy Goodman. Shockwaves have rocked the Democratic Party nationwide as progressives and DSA candidates endorsed by Mayor Zohan Mandani win big in New York. In a major blow to the Democratic establishment, three candidates. back by Mamdani have won primary races in New York City and appear to be headed to Congress.

Former New York City Comptroller Brad Lander beat Congressman Dan Goldman. The 32-year-old Afro-Latina organizer, D'Aelisa Avila Chevalier, pulled off a shocking defeat of five-term Congress member Adriano Espayat, the chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. And New York Assembly member, Claire Valdez, who's a former union organizer defeated Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Renoso to fill the seat long held by Nidia Velazquez. Avila Chevalier and Valdez were both backed by the Democratic Socialists of America, which also played a key role in Mamdani's election. DSA-backed New York State Assembly and Senate candidates also swept their races with nine out of ten candidates on the

DSA slate winning the primaries. Democracy Now was at the DSA watch party for Claire Valdez and others in Brooklyn last night and spoke to progressive streamer Hassan Piker. A decade of socialism. It's coming to a neighborhood near you. When I said, we were going to let a thousand Zoros bloom. This is what I meant. You got Claire Valdez and numerous other wonderful DSA candidates that are outperforming expectations tonight. And that's because the American people are tired of the same whole business's usual politics, the corruption, the ineptitude, the feckless nature of the Democrats that don't want to fight back against the growth of fascism in this country.

This is Americans fighting back. It's only the beginning. Claire Valdez addressed her supporters at the end of the night. My name is Claire Valdez and I am proud to say that I will be our next Congress member. We haven't just won an election. We have declared that this movement is durable. That it is growing and that it will not stop until working people are no longer asked to just build the table. No longer is offered a seat at the table, but will run the table.

And make no mistake, this victory is not mine. is not mine, it is ours. That's what organizing is. It's being asked to do something big, scary, unfamiliar, something that everything inside you says is not for you. It can't be you. But then you take the plunge, you find your power in solidarity. And let's talk about what that ask has now won.

I will lead the fight against ICE's and stand steadfast alongside our immigrant neighbors. They've been demonized, targeted, attacked, and in me they will have a champion. I will stand steadfast alongside our trans siblings, who are the beating heart and will continue to call for Palestinian liberation. We will stand up to the genocide. We will refuse to abide by apartheid, and we will use our money to improve lives here instead of destroy them abroad. abroad, and I will do everything in my power every single day in Congress to give the labor

movement the tools it needs to be a fighting force for the entire working class. Clara Valdez, Democratic nominee for Congress from Brooklyn and Queens. Tuesday's biggest upset was the victory of 32-year-old Afro-Latina Muslim organizer Dario Lisa Villa Chevalier, who defeated five-term Congressmember Adriano Espayat, chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. Mayor Mamdani addressed a roaring crowd of supporters at her watch party in Harlem last night. This campaign began many months ago at the same park that we launched a canvas in today. And at that time, I know that for many it may have felt like a fantasy that Darya Alisa would be here right now. It was never a fantasy for her and it was never a fantasy for all of you.

You have willed that dream into a reality. And I was asked time and again, why would I support this campaign? I can think of no better person than the daughter of a single mother caseworker. For working people her entire workers unjustly detained by ICE, who was called for a foreign policy of investing in babies and not bonds than someone of clarity of conscience of conviction to be the next congressperson and it is because you poured your hearts into this because you poured your hopes into this that we are showing there is a new path for politics in our city and in our country. We are showing that last June, a year ago tomorrow, was not an anomaly. It was the beginning. Join me. DSA.A. Elisa Avila Chavalliere then took to the stage and addressed her supporters

in Harlem. We're joined now by the Democratic nominee for Congress in New York's 13th Congressional district, Daria Liza Avila Chavallier. She defeated. five-term Congress member Adriano Espayat. Welcome to Democracy Now. If you could start off by introducing yourself to the country. Hi, Amy. Thank you so much for having me. I am a long-time listener.

So it's such an honor to be here in my first interview after winning here at Democracy Now. I am an Afro Latina, Dominican daughter of immigrants. I am an organizer. I have been organizing my entire adult life around immigration justice, around ending mass incarceration, around Palestine. And it is such an honor to be able to have the privilege of having run a campaign that is centering working people in this district who have for far too long just been ignored by establishment politics.

And I'm so deeply grateful to be here. It is such a surreal experience and truly so excited to get to work and bring the values of working class people of color here in Harlem and Washington Heights and Inwood in the Bronx into the halls of Congress. And talk about what you think are the most important issues that you've represented. And what did it mean to you to upset, to beat this five-term Congress member, head of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, Adriano Espayat? You know, I am somebody who has had to think about whether I can afford to stay in the city that I love.

This is the second poorest congressional district in the state and by some measures the country. and to know that we center the needs of this community at the heart of this campaign, where we are fighting for housing for all, to make sure that we abolish ICE and to have our tax dollars come back home to invest in our babies here and not in bombs abroad, was truly, truly at the heart of everything that our community really needs. We have another statistic that shocks my mind every single time is the fact that 40% of our children here are living in childhood poverty. and for us to tackle that issue, to give our babies all the things that they need to lead dignified childhoods would mean that we would be able to provide for every single person in this community.

And, you know, we have had representation in the past over the last nine years that has really not met those needs where these crises have just grown. And it has been such an honor to work with a coalition with so many organizers on the ground to build a grassroots movement that is really. responsive to working people here that gets to the issues. And, you know, it was, this campaign was a lot of work. It was something that was built from the very ground up. And in the last few weeks, it was really a difficult one because we had so many, so much money and so many smears thrown our way. We had over $7 million in outside spending that was being spent to smear me personally and to use incredibly

racist and anti-black rhetoric. And to know that black residents in this district came out and supported this campaign in that context, in a context where Voting Rights Act is being gutted, where the rights of so many are under attack to know that they came out despite the odds and chose these values really means the world to me. If you can talk about the attacks on you by the Espeat Camp around your background. Talk questioning your Dominican heritage. Of course, the Dominican Republic shares an island with Haiti. And talk about as if to be Haitian is an epithet, but what they were saying, this anti-Hasian rhetoric. Yeah, I mean, it was a bombardment where every time I opened any of our social media accounts, I was inundated.

with rhetoric that was using the term Haitian as though it were a slur. I was inundated with with emojis of monkey and gorilla emojis, of rat emojis, of folks asking me and my family for proof of our birth certificate and where we were born. And, you know, I just think it was really one of the ugliest types of rhetoric that I have seen in a really long time. It really reminded me of MAGA-style politics. And it was just so shocking to see that coming in a heavily blue district and in a district where the city incumbent was a Democrat. And, you know, I'm just so honored to have been able to fight against that with my team,

with my coalition, and to know that voters here in this district rejected that. To know that we have turned a page on the politics of the past and a politics. that is, you know, in so many ways, so divisive and a politics of, of just cynicism. To be able to turn the page on that and to bring forward a politics of hope to center a message that is about a politics of life has really been such an honor and also showing that this is a politic that is popular and that will win, that Americans are tired of this politics of death, the politics of cynicism, and want to make sure that our resources, are coming back to our communities and investing in the life and the needs of the people here.

If you can talk about your experience, you're a Columbia alum, you were part of, you protested, the encampments you were a part of, and you actually taught on the West Bank. Talk about your experience as a student there and how that influenced your positions on Palestine in Israel. Yeah, I went to undergrad at Columbia University. And while I was a student there, I went to the West Bank. And it deeply formed a lot of my understanding of global politics, but even my own context here in New York, where I started to see and understand that

the systems that were pressing Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza all over Palestine, and we're also informing our systems here that we're having such a deep harmful impact on so many black and Latino and communities of color here. And as you grow as an organizer, as a person, as you become more educated on these systems, you start to notice that they're not just similar systems.

They are the same system. They are systems that consistently put profit over people that consistently deny people, their human dignity for the sake of capital. And to know that we sent a very loud and clear message yesterday that we will not allow that to continue to be the case, that we will put people first and we will put working people at the heart of our democracy.

It felt really full circle. To know that we can say free Palestine at our party, to know that we can say what is happening in Gaza is a genocide and win and reject the politics of APAC, reject the politics of big money and corporations coming into our politics, is truly, I think, a seismic shift that is happening in our politics. Attendees at your victory party last night included the Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil, the Columbia University graduate student organizer who is detained four months last year. in an ice jail in Louisiana.

Today's win is a big win for New York is a big win for the working class community in this country to have someone like Daria Lisa representing them in D.C., representing the struggles that the daily struggles that this community goes through rather than politicians who are only cashing money for the sake of gaining power and control. I've known Daria Lisa since my first days,

Colombia, and she's been always very supportive. even in my absence when I was in detention. She was there for me. She was there for my family. She was there for my community going in the streets and just like supporting whatever capacity she has. So now I have no doubt that she would continue to do the same in D.C. Can you talk about your organizing around Mahmoud Khalil's detention being held for months

and what he symbolized to you, Dari Elisa, Avila Shalash. of all year. You know, Mahmoud is a friend, but I would have fought for him even if he weren't, because I have been fighting for immigration justice my entire adult life. It is something that is deeply important to me. And when I first got the news of his detention, you know, there was the initial shock of it all, but there was a moment also where my organizer brain just kicked in and I just kind of went into autopilot where I just started writing to make sure that we were spreading

the word about his case and taking control of the narrative as someone who knew him in that time and making sure that we were really putting together movement work that could bring attention to his case. And I was already organizing with fellow organizers around civil disobediences, around direct actions to bring more attention to his case about court support to make sure that we were showing that he has a community. And when the Trump administration said that he would be the blueprint of how immigration enforcement would be conducted going forward. I thought it would be very clear to all our representatives the stakes in his case, not just as an individual, not just on the fact that it was basically punishment for his engagement in free speech around the genocide that was

happening towards his people, but also because of the impact that it would have on every immigrant in this country, on the First Amendment rights of every person on U.S. and to know that our representative, the one that was representing him in that moment, that all he could offer were two words around or two sentences around trusting Trump's DOJ at a time where Trump's DOJ had just violated rule of law by detating him in the first place was deeply troubling. And so, you know, when I was first considering whether or not this was a race I wanted to throw my hat in, I just kept thinking about Mahmoud and the military.

millions of people like him and Noor who are so fearful right now and what it would have meant to them to have a representative who was actually fighting for them. Finally, Daria Lisa Villas Chevalier, your plans for Congress, when what looks like overwhelmingly given your district, you will be elected in November. I'm so excited to fight for the working people of this district to make sure that we can all afford to stay in the city that we love. And I think at the heart of that fight is making sure that we are centering human life. And that means that we need to start divesting from this war machine and reinvesting our tax dollars here in our community, fighting to eradicate childhood

poverty because all of the things that our babies need are the things that everyone in our community needs to be able to lead a dignified life. And as I watched all the news accounts of your incredible upset victory over Espayat, I heard your name. pronounced about 40 different ways. So I was wondering if you could say for the country, in your own words, your own name. My name is Daria Lisa Avila Chevalier. And I'm very grateful to you, Amy, for allowing me to do that. Daria Lisa Avila Chevalier, New York's 13th Congressional District Democratic nominee. Congratulations. As we turn now to John Tarleton, editor-in-chief of the Independent.

The new issue of the independent featured Claire Valdez, D'Ele-Lis-A-Ville-Chevalier, on the cover with the headline, Look Who's Next? And you didn't do that this morning. No, this was weeks ago. John, we were together one year ago with the primary election of Mayor Zoran Mandani, but he wasn't mayor yet. Talk about what this means.

As he said, no, that wasn't the end. This is clearly just the beginning. All his candidates won. Yes, this definitely shows that Zoraamam Dani's victory last year was not a fluke or a one-hit wonder. There is deep support across much of New York City for what he's doing. He's become, I think, a more popular mayor as he went along. His goal to really show that government can serve the people and be an active force for good in the lives of people is succeeding. endorsements were very powerful, and also the endorsements in the incredible energy that DSA gave

this slate of candidates. Zoran endorsed most of the DSA slate, but not all, and there were four assembly races where he didn't endorse, and DSA won three of those four races as well. So really, Zora Mamdani and New York City DSA are now huge powerhouses in New York politics, and it's going to have big national ramifications. And we see a Democratic socialist Nithia Rahman in a runoff in Los Angeles with Karen Bass. She finished a close second behind Bass, but you've got to really feel the wind is at her sales. Kind of another case of a much older politician who's maybe lost support in Los Angeles and Rahman, you know, offering something fresh and new. And there's more primaries to come across the country.

I want to turn to a clip of former New York City controller Brad Lander, who beat Congress member Dan Goldman in New York's 10th Congressional District representing neighborhoods in Manhattan and Brooklyn. What a glorious time to be a New Yorker. Two weeks there has been a powerful energy moving through our city.

A generosity of spirit. A refusal to give up even against very long eyes. And a feeling of joy out in the streets shared by every kind of New Yorker there is. Give it up for the New York Knicks, all right? And for the mayor who brought the first championship to New York City in Wisconsin. Our win tonight, it belongs to those streets as well.

Yes. To the people who organized there, to the people who organized there, who never give up all their neighbors. It was my name on the ballot today, but tonight's victory belongs to all of you. I will be run as the Jewish members of Congress, most willing to stand up loud for Palestinian human rights,

freedom, and against bigestry and to choose as well. That's not two different jobs. That's the same job. That's now the victorious congressional candidate, Bradlander. John Talton, your final comments. I covered protests a couple of years ago outside of Dan Goldman's office, the incumbent congressman where Palestine activists were protesting. He did not meet with them once.

He just like happened with Espiat and Mahmoud Khalil. Dan Goldman was completely supportive of the war in the genocide in Gaza. He would not meet with his constituents, would not hear them. Well, his constituents had the final word last night, a 32-point defeat for an incumbent congressman. Brad Lander almost got double the amount of votes. Yeah, Lander's a long time elected out in Brooklyn, very popular in the Brooklyn part of that district. So a great night for Brad Lander, but also just showing the Democratic Party, if you ignore the cause of Palestinian liberation, you do so at your own peril. and that's going to have big ramifications for 2028.

And this, I think, is going to put more wind at the sales of a potential Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez presidential campaign. You can only imagine if she hits the campaign trail, and Zora Mamdani, you know, is one of her leading supporters. They both come from DSA. You know, it just makes her candidacy look more promising after what happened last night. John Tarleton, thanks so much for being with us, editor-in-chief of the Independent. This is Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org. Coming up, we'll be joined by the actor and author, Elliot Page, about the new film Second Nature, Gender and Sexuality in the Animal World.

Stay with us. Natural phenomenon by Roberto Valleceli. This is Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org, the Warren Peace Report. I'm Amy Goodman. Everything you didn't learn in high school biology. That's the tagline of a remarkable new documentary challenging some of our most deeply held assumptions about biology, gender, and sexuality. It's called Second Nature, narrated by the Oscar-nominated actor, the author, Elliot Page, and directed by Drew Denny. The film explores a growing body of scientific research documenting the extraordinary gender fluidity and sexual diversity

found in the animal kingdom. From same-sex penguin parents to sex-changing fish, to pregnant seahorse fathers, to primate societies where traditional notions of dominance and gender roles simply don't apply. This is the film's trailer. There are approximately 8.7 million living animal species on Earth. For centuries, we have been. been told that when it comes to gender and sexuality, all these millions of species follow a certain set of rules. But what if this narrative fails to capture the full spectrum of life's diversity?

Homosexual behavior in nature is one of the best kept secrets. It's absolutely everywhere. Not only do many species illustrate homosexuality and gender multiplicity, they also illustrate sex transition. Biologists now know sexuality is fluid and that all of that is normal. I don't know any species where homosexual sex or gender non-conforming

is a taboo or cannot be done except when it comes to humans. There have always been scientists who have been willing to stand in opposition to the existing worldview and there are consequences for that. I was completely

unprepared as a scientist. to deal with this. We learned what we learned in school and we want to believe that it's true and it's messy to now say, oh, it wasn't really that way. I realized it can't be the people who are defective. It's got to be the science. If we understand same-sex behavior better, we're also going to understand different sex behavior better. We're just going to understand the sexual lives of animals better. There is endless diversity in nature and the old stories we've been taught deserve a second look. The trailer for the new documentary Second Nature, the film partly inspired by the trailblazing work of trans evolutionary biologist Dr. Joan Ruffgarden and her groundbreaking book Evolution's Rainbow, Diversity, Gender and Sexuality, and Nature and People.

The film arise amidst ongoing attacks on transgender rights, censorship of school curricula, and attempts to ban LGBTQ affirming. books, but the film is less interested in politics than the wild, rumpus, raucous world of animal, sexual, and gender diversity. But perhaps there's a lesson in there for us humans, too. For more, as we mark the end of Pride Month, we're joined now by the film's director, Drew Denny, and executive producer and narrator, Elliot Page. Elliot Page is an Oscar-nominated actor, producer, and author of his memoir, Page Boy. Drew Denny, Elliot Page, welcome to Democracy Now. Elliot, talk about the significance of this new documentary, Second Nature, why you got involved with it. Gosh, I mean, I got involved because I was so just, I was so moved by it and found it so affirming as a trans and queer person.

I mean, quite frankly, I felt very silly for not assuming this all to be true already. And what just was so exciting to me was how well made it was, of course, how informative it was, but also just how funny and expansive. And it's one of those things that even if I wasn't involved, I'd be telling everybody to see. So, yeah. I want to go to a clip from the film Second Nature. This is about seahorses. Perhaps one of the fiercest challengers to our assumptions about sex roles is the seahorse.

It's the males who take on one of the biggest chores of procreation, pregnancy. After a mating ritual, female seahorses deposit their eggs into the male's pouch where he fertilizes them. About 30 days later, he gives birth to up to 1,000 baby seahorses. Fregnant male seahorses, Drew Denny. Just a little introduction to this incredible film. Talk about how you got involved and why you directed this. Thank you so much. First of all, it's a huge honor to be here.

I've been so inspired by your work, and you're one of the reasons I went into journalism and became a documentarian, so thank you. I decided to make this movie because I grew up in Texas being told that females are naturally inferior to males and that queerness is simply unnatural. In my public high school biology class, students were invited to walk out of the class if they were offended by evolution. But none of us girls were asked if we were offended by sexual harassment and assault that we survived at school. And none of us queer kids were ever asked if we were offended by the relentless bullying that we faced every day. So it wasn't until I grew up and read Dr. Joan Ruff Gardens book and learned about gay penguin dads and birthing seahorse dads, for example, and gender queer chimps and our other closest relatives bonobos who are matriarchal that I finally felt in my body for the first time that I belong here on earth just like anybody else. And it may sound silly that it's the queer animals that did that for me, but that's what it took.

And I love that you shared the Seahorse Dad clip because I think it's just a great example that proves that all of these binaries we've been told are just natural law are completely false and made up by humans. Let's go to another clip from Second Nature about reef dwelling fish, the Bluehead Rass. Bluehead Rass can change from female to male. There's one male in the group. In the same day he dies, the largest female starts to change her behavior. She stops making estrogen and starts making androgens.

Ovaries that produce eggs turn into testes that make sperm. Then that fish is the male of the group and can procreate with the remaining females. So if you've been diving on a coral reef, you have seen sex-changing fish. And the phenomenon of sex change in animals is not rare. Bluehead Rass, clownfish changing sex from male to female, albatross, penguins and swans parenting in same-sex pairs. Bonobos, as you said Drew, were just as closely related to us as chimps as matriarchal, having same-sex sex sex every day.

Talk about this and the groundbreaking trans scientists that inspire this. Yeah, I mean, Joan Roughgarden and all this investigating she's done and discovery has just led to, I think, one of my favorite lines in this documentary is something she says in terms of looking at nature as if it's some sort of cis-heteropatriarchal structure is absurd and that this, you know, gender binary that we've created is nothing but a quaint little myth. And I think, you know, her work and this documentary really, really shows. that what we have been taught in school in regards to these structures, men being superior, women being inferior, you know, submissive or what have you, it being this, yes, heterosexual existence is just completely false. And I think what's so wonderful about this documentary is it really illustrates, you know, why that information has been so suppressed.

and how important it is for us to all learn about this and how it's only expansive and exciting all of this information. I want to go to the Golden Lion Tamarans. The Golden Lion Tamarans are amazing species for many reasons. This is a species where females have harems of males. So we call that polyandry, where one female has a number of males as a mate, and they live together in a group.

She mates with all the males in the group. All of them have a chance to sire offspring. So the males are unrelated. They're unrelated, yeah. We think it might have evolved because this is one of the few primate species where females have more than one baby at a time. They tend to have twins.

Each baby is 25% of the mom's body weight at birth, so there's no way she can carry them around herself. So the babies travel with dad and they just come to mom to nurse after they're born. So in order to produce the brood, you need males. Yeah. And they're playing a really important role here as caregivers. This is a fabulous case. Polyandri, it's not an incidental byproduct of anything.

It's a full-fled social system. That's right, yeah. This kind of polyandrous species, it really helps us to understand the variety of mating systems. So that's Dr. Joan Roughgarden and Dr. Amy Parrish. Drew Denny, talk about the backlash against these scientists. So unfortunately, each of the scientists in the film has faced severe backlash from their research. So Dr. Amy Parrish, who you just saw speaking, was one of the first people to publish that bonobos are matriarchal. And people lambasted her.

They said she had a feminist agenda. And they suggested that it wasn't matriarchy. It was, in fact, strategic, maimabasterical. male deference. Now, one of the reasons Amy hypothesized that bonobos were matriarchal is because the females commit acts of violence against males, including biting their penises in half. And she asked, what kind of strategy is that? Not a good one. And that no one has ever suggested in a patriarchal species that it's strategic female deference. We're just assuming that patriarchy is the norm and anything other than that must be a really brilliant strategy by

the males. I want to go to one more clip, and this is the clip about baboons in the new documentary Second Nature. There is a very famous scientist from Stanford University named Robert Sapolsky, whose groundbreaking research on baboons in Kenya was featured in a National Geographic documentary. Baboons are known to be quite violent, particularly the alpha males. Robert had a situation where he was in the field and the baboons in his group discovered a garbage pit behind a hotel. And so the baboons are really excited

about this wealth of free food. But it was only the roughest, toughest, males who could feed in there because they were all fighting with each other over access to this food. And so all of his alpha males were the ones who were feeding there and not the other baboons.

Unfortunately, they caught a human disease by eating the half-eaten food. They caught tuberculosis, which is fatal for baboons. And so the baboons were in the really unique situation of losing all of the alpha males at once. What were left were the low-ranking males and the females. What happened next was absolutely revolutionary. They forged a new society.

It was a society where males didn't have to fight as hard to get in, males were nicer to females. It's much more peaceful. It's much more calm, less stress. They're all getting along much better. Today, many years later, it's still organized on the same way so that new social system lasted. A clip from Second Nature as we wrap up in these 30 seconds, Elliot Page, what you want people to take away from this. And I should say that you're going to be here starting on Friday at DCTV. our beloved Firehouse Cinema, where democracy now used to broadcast from with all sorts of scientists doing Q&As. Gosh, well, I mean, I hope this film for everyone, but, you know, for queer and trans people right now, specifically could make you feel, one feel less alone in this world and more a part of this world when we're told we're, you know, not natural or something's wrong with us or what have you.

and to learn about all this information that's been, you know, purposefully kept from us. We have to leave it there. Oh, sorry, sorry. People got to see the film. Elliott Page, Oscar-nominated, actor, producer, author of Memoir Page Boy, and Drew Denny. Second Nature. I'm Amy Me Goodman.