The Young Turks - TYT’s 2023 LGBTQIA+ Pride Special

Episode Date: June 2, 2023

If you look at the calendar, it’s 2023, but the news makes it feel more like 1823, as conservatives have decided to target the LGBTQIA+ community battleground for a culture war. Less than a decade after winning marriage equality, basic freedoms are now under assault. Join John Iadarola, Adrienne Lawrence, and more amazing guests as we break down, look back, and stand up for what’s at stake for the LGBTQIA+ Community. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to The Young Turks, the online news show. Make sure to follow and rate our show with not one, not two, not three, not four, but five stars. You're awesome. Thank you. Welcome one and all to the 2023 edition of the TYT Pride Special. Thank you for joining us. I'm John Adola, but nobody cares about that. We're joined by a number of awesome guests of course of this hour. joining me right now. We have actor-comedian and host of the Yes Jesus podcast.

Daniel Francazi, welcome back to the special. Yeah, always good to be here. Great to have you here. We spoke last year and I believe at that point I said hopefully next year things will be looking better. And to that I say hopefully next year things will be looking better, but thanks for returning. Exactly, exactly. I mean, you know, as a person who grew up in Florida, I agree with you more than ever. for, come on. But we're also joined by contributor to the breakdown linguist and streamer. Miranda Scholl, welcome to the show. Thanks for having me, good to be here also. Great to have both of you here. We have a lot that we're to be talking about through the course

of the show. And as that intro probably already alluded to, some of it is not going to be the most positive thing in the world, but we should remember that one of the big purposes of this month of the cell, it is celebration. It's supposed to be about something positive. So we're We're gonna get to the negative stuff in just a second, but I wanna start off for both of you, what are you celebrating this month? I am celebrating the fact that despite all the things going on in the news, I have seen more people supporting and coming out and loving themselves through social media than I ever have before. Because no matter what the hate or the spite out there, it only spurs people on to express themselves and love themselves more. And it's

It's just been beautiful to see. I like that. Daniel? I'm celebrating this morning that my 11 year old niece texted me happy pride. I never even knew I could ever be in a place like that when I was 11 that I would be in a position that I'd be like the gunkle of the year or whatever. And I think that's a beautiful thing. Also again, on social media, I've seen so many things that made me laugh and made me cry and made me think. And I think that people know how important it is to show up and show off right now more than ever. Yeah, I love both. I love what both of you said there. And I also love that both of you are

talking about things that should just be the most normal expected things in the world. Being able to express that you love yourself, that you feel comfortable in who you are, being able to be, you know, a family member in that way. But unfortunately the stuff that, you know, is coming at is coming at the LGBTQIA plus community is trying to reject just that normalcy. The fact that- You know, it's actually interesting that you say that, It's interesting that you say that I've been working on this project, prayers from a drag queen. On my show, yes, Jesus, at the end of every show, we have a different prayer from a drag queen.

And I'm going to make like a book, kind of like a drag queen's, you know, prayers for the soul type thing, prayers from a drag queen. I'm going to put all these things together, but in it, I've asked over, you know, 100 drag queens like, what's your definition of queer joy? And the majority of the answer is just being able to walk down the street and not have to worry about anything and hold my partner's hand and have my head up and just breathe and listen to some good music or whatever. The normalcy is what everybody's really craving.

Yeah, yeah, I saw a video that you did where you talked about, you know, every time you hold your partner's hand at having to be a political statement. And it shouldn't have to be. So I love that sentiment. Well, that said, while we will get to more positivity in just a little bit, let's talk a little bit about some of the attacks that have been being lodged by mostly the right over the past, especially a few years. Why don't we start off with this? A woke ideology on our state, and we view that as a significant threat.

This wokeness will destroy this country if we let it run unabated. Can you tell me how much money was given to drag queen's story hour? I'm sorry, could you repeat that? Drag queen story time, where men dress up as women and read confusing books to children. Let's pretend and just say no one, right? No one in drag is a pedophile. Let's just pretend that's the reality. The great suspicion is that in Frozen 4, they'll make also a lesbian.

If they, by the way, if they do that, it is the end of Disney as a company. This is kind of really offensive on the level that we're disrupting these beloved characters. There's no, there's no innocence. Maybe have another, maybe create a state park, maybe try to do more amusement parks. Someone even said like, maybe you need another state prison, who knows? It is like a cartoonish level of evil, often actually about cartoons. Ridiculous attacks, confusion, you saw there, Marjorie Green saying that drag queens were reading confusing books from her that could literally reference any book. It's insane, especially considering how much hypocrisy on some of these very topics we've seen from the right.

They've been nonstop attacking the entire LGBTQ community, but especially drag queens over the last year or so. Despite the fact that we're just going to run through some of the hits of the past year or so, George Santos of course, was a participant. in drag and now as part of a party who of course thinks it's like the single greatest existential threat facing our country. Rudy Giuliani and Donald Trump sure thought it was fun to dress up, you know, in that way. They thought that that was a fine art form for them to get involved in but obviously not for other people. Carrie Lake for a number of years had friends in the community and then realized that she could get more money and more fame by trying to set fire to the entire community. And of course Marjorie Green,

who hasn't stopped talking about drag for the last year, her current boyfriend also engaged in drag. There's right wing pundits as well. So all of them thought that it was perfectly fine for them, something for them to do. But when other people do it, then of course it's a massive problem. This is no surprise to anyone. We've been become very used to this over the last year or two. But I'm curious and I want to start off with with you, Daniel, why all of a sudden Does it seem like this has become such a massive problem to the right? I don't think that they are afraid of drag queens or even really think that drag queens are dangerous. I think that they know that hairspray and some fabrics are really flammable.

And when they talk about it, they could start a little fire that might distract us from the real issues, which is gun safety and the true safety of children. A majority of the states that are now proposing anti-drag ban laws are some of the most popular states for child pageantry, where they're sexualizing young girls and dressing them up. They're also the states where it's legal to marry a minor. They're not really after protecting children. I think what they're after is distracting from some of their more diabolical policies and things to maybe attack the trans community and protect their precious gun laws. I really feel truly just by looking at some of these bills and laws that are being proposed, they're so vague that in actuality, when someone's

living their day-to-day life, walking around the street, they could be in danger just if they're wearing an article of clothing that's the opposite gender. I mean, I'm appearing at Florida Supercon in Miami, which is a convention where people are dressed up like superheroes, and we're tiptoeing around the fact of whether or not I could even have a drag queen like at my booth dressed up like one of my mean girls co-stars. So it's kind of like, it's so, when does it end? You know, does it end when hairspray comes to town or Harry Styles wants to wear a dress? These laws are so vague to begin with. I think that they know that LGBTQ people fight and

people of color fight for their rights. And if they could distract us on other things that we're not going to be fighting for the causes that we really need to be doing to protect children in our country. So very similar to that. I definitely think they don't actually care. They don't actually, they're not afraid of drag queens. They don't actually feel an immense amount of disdain towards gay people. I think it's definitely a distraction. And I like to use the analogy of if you have a box and you put, you feel half of it with black ants and half of it with fire ants, they coexist peacefully. They just go about their day. But if I take that box and I shake it, they'll start attacking each other.

And they think that the other group is the one that caused all this misfortune in their lives. And while they're busy fighting, which they're not fighting me and I'm the one who shook the box, I can steal whatever they have from them while they're distracted. And I think that especially a conservative voter base, they use fear against them. And they say something's going wrong in your life, I'm going to give you an enemy. And I'm going to tell you that that's the enemy that's causing all of the misfortune and all the pain in your life. And then you have created martyrs. And I think that that's what they've done by, you know, there's always an enemy and they rotate. And right now it's heavy on the LGBTQ community, drag queens and trans people.

And that's just where we are at the moment. Yeah, that's an amazing metaphor. I don't know where you found enough fire ants to actually test that, but I appreciate the scientific rigor there. So look, I agree with both of you that it is a distraction. Although, Daniel, as you were pointing out, it's obviously a distraction that has a cost. It has a cost not only in the legislation that's already been passed in many states, dozens of bills currently being considered, you know, normalization of more harassment and violence against drag queens, against trans people, against gay people. So like it's simultaneously a distraction that we don't think the vast majority,

of the elites that are spreading it really give a damn about, but it's also a distraction that we can't really afford to ignore because there's an actual cost to it. And we're never going to change the minds of the elites, because as you guys point out, they don't actually believe it anyway, and you can't change your mind that doesn't actually hold that position. So in the meantime, what do we actually do? Like, there are some regular, probably conservative, some independents or Democrats that are buying into some of this. They might be able to be reached, perhaps. So what exactly can be done while this distraction is going on? How should people's time be spent? What an incredible question to be brought up during Pride Month,

because I really think it's going to rely on our allies. Gay people already, if we are an example of love, then people really can't say much about us, but it's going to take our coworkers to say, I know Daniel, I know Sandra, and they're not like that. They are a loving person to speak up for us outside of our rooms. In working on my project, I've attended so many drag brunches around our country. And they're filled with straight people. They're filled with bachelor parties. They're filled, you know, with people celebrating their birthdays. And it's those people that need to post on Facebook and said, what a wonderful time I've had at this drag show. Like drag is valid. These people are good people, you know. And if not, it'll probably just

implode on itself anyway, you know, I know they're all angry about the new diversity, equity and equality and inclusion hire at Chick-fil-A. And now they're all want to, they want to ban their own thing now. So it's just eventually there's going to be nothing left because people are going to demand to be heard and be included of all types. Yeah, I definitely agree with that. And I think that having allies, especially straight allies, and I'm, it's not Florida, but I'm from Ohio. And so I'm surrounded by a lot of similar minded people. And what's really, really helpful is when my friends who are straight talk to their friends. And then they, you know, even more important, they meet someone like me and they're like, oh, you're just another person. And so just being,

bold enough to live your life, to be talk to people to express how you feel when they meet real people instead of just seeing all the fear mongering online, that can do wonders to change someone's mind. And so I think that definitely the allies and then just being bold, living your life, meeting people and allowing them to meet a real gay person is very, very helpful. Yeah, yeah. I want to continue on with that in just a sec. But first, I do want to transition to, we try to remind everyone as we launch into this during each of our specials. Of course, some of the history, the origins of the first Pride marches that happened, Pride Month, and obviously there's only so much history that we can go into in a special like

this. We've gone more in depth in the past and people should definitely do their homework. But if you go back to June 28th, 1969, that was the beginning of the Stonewall Uprising series of events between police and LGBTQ plus protesters, which stretched over six days. What eventually came out of that was horrific violence and a tragedy, but also solidarity, people coming together, not backing down, and a year later we saw the first marches in three different US states. And the sort of repression, the sort of violence that we saw at that time is still very much around these days. But it's also been joined by the casual inclusion of almost constant lower, pettier harassment and that sort of thing.

I wanna give you an example of that that just happened recently. It even comes down to what videos are played in classrooms. Take a look at this. Hi, my name is Jenna Barbie. I'm the teacher that is under investigation with the Florida Department of Education for indoctrination for showing a Disney movie. The reason I was turned in is because one of the split students was a school board member's daughter.

That school board member is currently on a rampage to get rid of every form of representation. out of our schools, she even spent days this past week going to all the high schools to get rid of anything that had to do with representation whatsoever. So I wanted to focus on this story, which we have talked about before, because it's really like the perfect cross section or intersection, I should say, of the fights against representation, but also the focus on what happens in schools. And I understand why this is part of the big distraction from the right, anything that they think they can make about kids is easier to sell to people.

as a threat. But at the same time, I can't help but think, like, we already know how unpopular their positions on things like gay marriage have been historically. This new full court press against anything representative, anything like this, is this not poisoning them for the next to generation and the generation after that? I have to imagine that they're doing long-term damage to their ability to function as a party and as an ideology. Miranda, I want to start with you. What do you think about that? I think that it's a very loud, already, right? And so I think that that's why we hear them constantly over and over and over again. And I think they are doing long term damage because I living in Ohio, I know quite a few Republicans in

my area and they they don't agree with that kind of messaging, right? And so I think that a lot of Republican voter base, they're not agreeing with that message from their party and they're maybe not, you know, getting towards, you know, the undecided voters area yet. But they've been leaning that way and they keep getting pushed further and further by this fringe right that keeps trying to cancel anything that even touches on what could be homosexuality, transsexuality, anything like that. And you're right, we're to the point where you can't even mention it without being demonized. And I think that we don't often hear from the right wing voter base that doesn't really feel like that's necessary and it keeps getting pushed closer and closer maybe to the center.

The stuff that I've been experiencing is I think people don't even really know the whole truth. They're like they don't really want to erase gay people. They don't want his chance, but they're just trying to get it out of three year old classrooms or something. They don't really know the full effects of what some of these bills are going to have a cause and effect for. So I think they're just like ill informed. They're not going to get rid of gay people. We've been around forever. And the last time they try to silence groups like us and erase us from media and stuff,

those were the people that revolted in the 60s and other places. So it's just unsuccessful. And as for trans folks, they don't they don't become trans because they transition. They transition because they're trans. Stopping transitions and stopping that kind of stuff doesn't stop trans people. It only makes them have a really hard life. And trust me, like those people will come back and fight. You can't suppress the people for too long before it explodes.

I mean, history just keeps repeating itself. Yeah, yeah, they some of them I guess are misinformed. They think that if you just, if you make sure there's no representation of movies, if you don't say anything in school, then maybe the next generation won't have anyone that's gay or buy or queer or trans or whatever. That's not how anything works. That's not how literally any of it works. And I think younger people understand that. I think more and more older people understand that at the very least I hope so. Because I'll reiterate what I said at the beginning of the show, I really hope that we do one of these specials someday where we just get to celebrate, talk about the

the victories, you know, talk about fun stories and stuff. That would be nice. We're unfortunately drawing to the close of our time together. Starting with you, Daniel, do you have like a final comment that you'd like to make to our audience, something that's on your mind as we launch into pride? Anything that you want to leave the audience with? I just think that this is a great month to just learn things. You know, everybody knows someone or at least knows someone who's queer.

And it's kind of like, go to one of the drag shows if you're questioning something, see it for yourself, know what, know what's happening. I just think there's a lack of knowledge here and a big spread of misinformation. So I agree. Knowledge is power. Everyone's against this. Everyone on the rights keeps talking with the woke ideology. But woke is a term, you know, coined by Erica Badu, that just literally means to be awakened to other people's feelings, awaken to the things that are happening around you and keeping your eyes focused and on. And that's really what we have to be, It's just, you know, vigilant and looking forward to finding ways to show ourselves and be proud of ourselves in the future. Yeah, I love that so much. And I agree. And I think that, you know, if they're telling you not to watch something, not to go to something, not to read something, they're banning books.

That's the information you want to consume. And so I think, absolutely, month to educate yourself. If they've banned books at your school because they have gay representation, read them, see what's wrong with them. What could be wrong with what's not wrong with them. You know, exactly, go to a drag show, talk to someone you wouldn't normally talk to you and then make your mind after that, you know. So it's definitely if it's being pushed away from you, seek it out. There's a reason they're trying to keep it from you. So educate yourself and learn. 100%.

Also quickly, I'd like to add, if you'd really like to piss Christians off, then go to church. God is for you too. Like I have my podcast, yes Jesus, like really like it works both ways. No one should be able to have to choose between gay and God, no matter what they tell you. I love it. Everyone check out Yes Jesus, check out Miranda on the breakdown as well as on Twitch. Thank you to both of you for joining us. It was a pleasure. Thanks for having me. Thank you. And finally as we end my section of the panel, I was lucky enough to be able to sit down once again with Representative Zoe Zephyr,

who of course was attempted to be knocked out of the Montana legislature not too many weeks ago. We spoke about pride, some of the challenges that await us. So here is that conversation. Representative Zoe Zephyr, thank you so much for joining us. We really do appreciate it. Thank you for having me today. Very glad to have you here. I wish that it was just good news that we'd be talking about today. Maybe we can get to a little bit of that. But I did want to start off with, I know, we had spoken several weeks ago about your own travails with the transphobia of the legislature in your state. I saw that about a week ago, the governor Gianforte signed the binary bill.

And I saw a great quote from you responding to their ability to define a gender binary legislatively. I just wanted to give you a chance to talk a little bit about what's going on your state. So that bill is a bill that misdefines sex. They attempted to define sex as binaries on three separate occasions, revised it throughout the process. And each time the The medical community came in and said, this is an accurate. You can't define sex in this way. You're excluding trans people, non-binary people, a variety of intersex folks.

And what I said in that hearing, the quote you're referencing, I said that you could not legislate that sex is binary anymore than you could legislate that the earth is flat. Now there might be some people on the other side in that legislature that would like to do that as well. So be careful what you wish for, but yeah, it's nonsense. I'm curious, because I've seen a lot of people give their reactions as to why, I'm curious what you think, why do they care so much? Why is it so important to them that they misdefine it as a binary? Well, there's an attempt to make a bogeyman out of trans people. And that is something we've seen in a bill like Senate of Bill 458.

We saw it initially in the sports bands when they were trying to get folks to accept some sort of asterisk about trans people. trans women are women except for sports. Trans people deserve health care except for youth. Trans stores are valid except for the memoirs that talk about real moments in our lives. These kinds of attempts to create boogeyman are designed to drum up a base, are designed to create control of the right wing of the party and allow authoritarianism to take root. And it's why that's important we fight against it. You know, you reference there, I think some of the book bans that we've seen, and certainly

there's been a lot of that going around. It feels like over the past couple of months, it's gone a lot broader than just books. I don't know if maybe some activists got bored with just banning books. Now they want to ban entire product lines, entire stores. We've seen with Bud Light and anyone who's ever acknowledged pride and Target apparently is the worst company that's ever existed. So we're seeing like a lot of these calls for boycotts just for acknowledging that people in the LGBTQ community exist. What do you think about that all of a sudden becoming so in vogue on the right? When you talk about bands on books and bands on art forms like drag, it's important to remember that those are bands for our individual and collected histories

as queer people in this country. And it's also important to remember just like it's not true that when they came for trans sports, they said it's about sports. What it's about is about eradication of trans people from public life entirely. And that's why you see them not willing to see us on beer cans in media or in our daily lives. Yeah. Yeah, I don't, I'm like on the edge of my seat trying to find out which brands they're going to have a problem with next. I saw that even Chick-fil-A, which had been very popular on the right now, is considered too woke for many of them. I'm hoping that this is just a thing that's become popular that will eventually get past. I don't know if it's because we're gearing up for presidential race.

I don't know if it's because we're moving, you know, we're in Pride Month or we're moving towards it when we're recording this. I don't know if maybe that's what it's about. Do you think, but basically I'm curious how you think this, this Pride Month is going to go with so much anti-LGBQ sentiment out there. First off, the history of this country is one of marginalized communities standing up and saying we deserve our rights. We want to be treated as equals and that we belong in our communities. And we are working to make that happen. So this pride month, I think you will see celebration. You will see defiance of the people who want us to go back into the closet. And you'll see us taking sanctuary in one another.

You know, I love that because again, as I said when I launched us into this, I don't want to just focus on the negative. So let's talk about celebration, let's talk about defiance. What sort of forms would you like to see that come in this pride month? So in terms of sanctuary and celebration, it's making sure that we turn to one another and recognize that we are the people, they can do all these bills to target us. But if we take joy in ourselves and love in our in our communities, they cannot take that away from us. And if we hold onto that, we will get through the hard times. And then in defiances, you look

at bills that say drag is not allowed. I think in Missoula Pride in my in my town, you'll see you'll see the drag queens in the street as well. And we'll be unafraid. We will say you cannot put us back in the closet. You know, looking forward, obviously, I like you seem hopeful about this period that we're in this pretty dark period. Are we going to look back in a few years and be able to breathe a sigh of relief that this sort of renewed anti-LGBT sentiment might might someday be pushed out of the right wing limelight? Do you have hope for that? I am nothing but an endless source of hope. There is the quote that the moral arc of history is long but it bends towards justice.

What I see is communities across this country standing up together and bending the arc of history towards justice with one another. And that's cause for hope. I like that. I could use the hope. I'm sure many people in our audience could use the hope. And it's great to get that from you. It's great to get a chance to talk to you. Thank you so much representative for giving us your time. Thank you for having you. Thank you. And thank you everyone who's been watching for this first half hour of the special. We're going to take a short break and be back with a whole new panel. Hello and welcome in to the second half of TYT's Pride Special,

2023. I'm Adrienne Lawrence, an often host that you see on the network, as well as someone who is behind the camera, who you may not see very often, is joining me. That's Marissa Matthew, she is a TYT producer, and then someone who you definitely know and you know quite well. That's a breakdown host, Benny Corolla. Thank you so much for joining us today. Thanks so much. I'm so excited to be here, and talk to everyone. Yeah, it's great to be here.

Absolutely, because this is important conversations we need to have. And it seems that we are having them just about every day given the news cycle. As we see the fact is that instead of really focusing on uplifting our country, so many conservative lawmakers across the nation are really fighting, and they're fighting to eradicate the trans community. And they're doing this really under the guise of saving the children, primarily passing legislation that undermines access to health care, particularly gender affirming care. And if you are unfamiliar with that term, what we know, and hopefully

you know by now is that gender affirming care, as defined by the World Health Organization encompasses a range of social, psychological, behavioral, and medical interventions designed to support and affirm an individual's gender identity. When it conflicts with the gender, they were assigned at birth. Now this intervention, these methods, these options, these opportunities, They help trans people in particular align with various aspects of their lives and to live more comfortably in their own skin. And types of interventions include counseling, also changes in social expression, also medications such as hormone therapy, surgery, which is rarely, rarely ever provided to individuals under the age of 18, even though we know that conservatives love

to push the narrative and complete, I would say largely myth otherwise. And we also do know We also do know that nearly 30 states have now either banned gender affirming care up to the age of 18 or are considering banning it. And this is again a part of this larger effort to eradicate the trans community. And I'd love to jump to this graphic here where you see the map of where gender affirming care bans have been passed or are being considered. And one place in particular you can see there is Kentucky. It's among the states that bans gender affirming care. And fortunately today, the DOJ, Department of Justice announced in its Civil Rights Division, where I used to work, that it is challenging Kentucky's law. And this comes a month after DOJ had inserted itself in the conversation in terms of Tennessee's law.

And the thing is we need so many more, so many more powerful authorities out there pushing back because this is problematic. We know that by the numbers, this is what we're looking at when we're talking about trans youth. It's more than 300,000 high school aged trans youth are in the United States. Oh, just over 91,000 trans youth age 13 to 17 live in states that have passed bans on gender affirming care. 40,000 some trans youth are living in states considering bills to ban gender affirming care. This is a problem and it is, it's dire because of what will happen in the event that these individuals do not get the care, the health care access that they need. is that we know that there are higher rates of suicide among trans youth and addition to a whole host of other issues that are life changing and game

changing. I know we all know it's completely and totally, it's completely and totally unacceptable, but I want to hear from you all, Marissa, Benny. What do you have to share on this topic? Yeah, first and foremost, I think the most important thing to understand about this is that when it comes to gender affirming care for trans youth. A lot of people have ridiculous misconceptions about like what hormone replacement therapy actually is. So let's just get the record straight. What this is fundamentally about is just the simple idea that children should be allowed to go whichever through whichever puberty they're the most comfortable with at the normal puberty age. And anybody who wants

to sit and fearmonger about the risks of hormones or this, that of the other thing, it's the same hormones that operate in anybody's system, right? It's either estrogen or testosterone. And so if you want to talk about risks, well, guess what? So if a trans woman is going through puberty, it's a normal puberty age, right? They're going to have some of the same health risks that a cis woman is going to have. That's the whole point, is that it is literally just about bringing their body in alignment with their gender identity. And it's not that complicated. So like, and anybody wants to say like all about permanent changes, this, that the other thing, I have news for you, puberty has permanent changes.

Those are permanent changes that everybody at some point in their life will be subjected to what, like when they go through puberty. And so it is just about making sure that that puberty is one that is an alignment with who somebody actually is. Because if you as a cisgender person, we're forced to take the wrong hormones for your body, it would take, it would cause you an immense degree of distress, an immense degree of distress. But that is exactly what these conservatives want to do is they want to make people's lives intentionally miserable. Because I'll go one layer further, they're going much further than just banning gender affirming care for trans youth. Both Florida and Missouri at this point are doing everything they can to take

away options for adults as well by creating basically arcane bureaucratic systems where they say they're not fully banning it, but effectively banning it by making it unavailable in any like the overwhelming majority of providers that people actually use. And so this is something from the Republicans that is very much about like causing suffering specifically to queer people. Absolutely. The attacks on marginalized groups in our society. We see this happening every day, but the particular level of error that they're taking at the trans community is it's absolutely disheartening, Marissa. Yeah, that's exactly it. And it feels like every morning when I wake up and I read the news, it's like Republicans come up with a new way to make trans people's lives more

difficult. And what I think about is these Republicans who have children themselves and how they can create such hateful legislation that impacts other people's children when they have children of their own and how would they feel if their children didn't feel safe or loved? That's, it just, it blows my mind that this can continue. And that's what makes this pride particularly this year so unfortunately somber. Yes, somber and also so incredibly important. that we push through, that we push back, that we raise our voices, we show up. We not only just show up to show up at these events, but we show up for each other in spaces because we're seeing these attacks go on and they are going on in a very public level.

We are witnessing this in the retail commercial sector. As we see a lot of businesses move toward pride, really that rainbow laden beauty and merchandising hitting the market. We're also seeing conservatives launching these boycotts and bullying behavior directed toward brands. One of the targets in particular is Target. Check the sound. ugly shirt I've ever seen. OV, you take your kid to target. This is cool, queen, queen, queen. Queens take care of each other.

Where's the straight section for straight kids? Indocination of kids and you're like the These attacks, again, they are completely and totally unnecessary. They're reflective of hate and really just wanting to pigeonhole our society into one type of person that will be uplifted and that will be praised, but is not truly reflective of the breadth of diversity and beauty that is within our society. It's just, again, it's extremely distressing, but we're seeing a lot of brands that are capitulating to it, unfortunately, and not necessarily pushing back.

And as we understand, Target did end up pulling some of its merchandise in some of the stores. And as much as people had said that Target really seemed to give in, then, you know, I believe there were Target team members who are of the queer community. He said, actually, they're putting us in a position where they're now protecting us because they don't want these individuals to come into these stores. And I'd love to hear your thoughts, Benny, on did you see this situation with Target as more of Target giving in much like Bud Light did? Or did you see it more as a protective measure or something else? I definitely saw it as giving in because to be entirely honest, like Target is a big corporation.

They have a high budget. They can afford to deal with things because fundamentally we need to understand that at the root of all of this transphobic nonsense that these Republicans are pushing is a deeply anti-Semitic conspiracy theory, quite literally the whole line of grooming is something that comes directly out of Nazi Germany. What they unironically believe is that there's some secret group of Jewish people that is turning people gay and trans as part of a larger plot to replace white people. It is deeply, deeply unhinged. And it's also fundamentally dangerous, because what we are seeing right now is the beginnings of this brown shirt movement across the country, quite literally using the exact same tactics. And if you capitulate to them, it creates this

false sense of both power for them when they don't have it yet. And at the same time, it gives a sense of legitimacy to the claims that they're making about queer people across the board. And so fundamentally, we need to understand how dangerous these people are, because they will not stop here. Because unfortunately, what we are seeing is we're seeing some of the same patterns of behavior that we saw, which led to the overturning of Roe v. Wade, which fundamentally was Democrats basically sitting around doing nothing, saying nothing, as an issue becomes controversial, Well, unhinged right wingers literally commit terrorist attacks across the country. That's what they did when they were like bombing Planned Parenthoods and threatening doctors.

Now they're doing the same thing. And so having corporations back down fundamentally endangers everybody. And so while I feel for the employees of individual targets, this is something that is far bigger than what I think most people realize. Yes, in a particular store, absolutely. And it almost speaks to our society given way to a certain demographic, just like we saw on 1-6 where a certain demographic was able to engage in all sorts of behavior that was not only illegal but extremely problematic. We're seeing this in these videos where we have a certain demographic enjoying the ability to engage in these terroristic behaviors in a commercial space and not facing any real consequences. Marissa. Yeah, I'm really glad that you brought that up,

Benny, because this is all rooted in a campaign of mis and disinformation to villainize a group of people that these people are afraid of. The people in that video that you showed, Adrian, they're all losers and they have way too much time on their hands to go into a target and harass people and destroy a display. It just doesn't make any sense to me why these folks are doing this besides disinformation and misinformation. Absolutely, and they know that they're going to get away with it, that any kind of prosecutorial takes on it will probably be very light-handed, and that they're going to end up generating a lot more fear and hatred,

then they're going to end up generating condemnation for their behavior, which is really scary. And I know we only have a few minutes left. And so I want to give you an opportunity, Benny in particular, if you would like to share any notes or any thoughts on pride or the community or what efforts people can engage in to make meaningful change. Yeah, look, I think the most important thing of pride this year is that pride is confrontational and extends far beyond June, because that is fundamentally what we need right now.

These people are going out and they're harassing people in the streets. I mean, I literally got harassed by somebody's streets just the other day, right? So fundamentally what we need to do is we need to be bold, we need to be confrontational and we need to be clear because we have the majority, the overwhelming majority of people support trans people's right to exist. We just need to give people the power of social truth to recognize the reality that we do all agree that trans people should be allowed to exist. And these unhinged freaks that want to ban our existence are in the extreme minority. And we need to make sure that they know and feel like they are in the extreme minority on this

issue. Absolutely without a doubt. Marissa. Yeah, I mean for me pride is it extends beyond June. It's it's 365 days a year. And we need our allies to speak up. We need people to understand that this is a fight. And it's it's all year long. And we're not going to take rainbow capitalism. We need people to be loud. We need people to be there for us and support the LGBTQIA plus community all year. Absolutely. And to those out there, you may not be trans. You may not be queer. But this is still your fight because all of the systems of oppression are intertwined. So if you're sitting here, saying that doesn't impact me. You are so woefully wrong. And you're going to find out the hard way

unless you use your voice and stand up now. Because once a particular group is targeted, then they move to the next and the next. And it's all interwoven as Benny has mentioned. And the thing is, is we need more people to stand up and to actually take action. And so, Benny, what can people do? Are you aware of any campaigns, any movements, any conversations that people really need to be plugged into? Honestly, I would just find whatever local community group is like in your area that is showing up whenever these like right wing brown shirt types try to show up at any type of like pride event or even like you know like gay bar stuff like that they've been organizing those protests it is so important that we have lots of

cisgender allies showing up that are willing to physically place themselves between the people who are trying to harass and exterminate trans people and queer people and the queer people who are just trying to exist in peace so really this has to be hyper local and your community has to feel the presence of people who support trans people. Absolutely, and don't be afraid to get involved. Like Benny said, putting herself in between in the situation, I know we're not supposed to support violence, but hey, sometimes it's like punching a Nazi, you just got to get in there and make it happen.

And I really, really am grateful for you all for joining us so we could make this conversation happen. Again, that's Marissa Matthews, TYT producer and Benny Corolla, breakdown host, and you will see much more of Benny's work. And you will hear much more of our voices as we continue this conversation for our 2020-T Pride Special. We'll be back. Welcome back to the 2023-T Pride Special. It's Adrienne Lawrence. And now I have for you an incredible guest who you need to support, learn more about, and really just get behind. That's maybe Pablo, aka maybe a girl's progressive Democrat for the U.S. House of Representatives running for

The 30th district out in California, maybe. Thank you so much for joining me. Thank you so much, Adrian. I'm so excited to be here. Yes, and I'm excited to have you here. And also I'm excited to have you in positions of power, you know, being the first drag queen who has ever been elected to public office. And I know you are currently serving right now as treasurer and at large representative for the Silver Lake neighborhood council in Los Angeles. And I'm sure it's very difficult to watch all these attacks on the drag community, the trans community, and so many other queer communities across the nation. What is this, how is this impacting your role in what you do as a leader?

You know, it's been such an interesting journey, Adrienne. You know, this is my third time running for Congress. I ran in 2020. I ran in 2022 and I'm running in 2024. I came really close last year. I ended up being in second place out of nine candidates. And you know, LGBTQIA issues have always been an integral part of my platform. But it just seems that in the past year to two years, three years, we've been seeing such an increase in anti-LGBQIA legislation being introduced on levels all across the United States on the state level and now on the federal level. And when I started running, you know, again, LGBTQIA issues, huge part of my platform. But now we're at this point where it's a life or death situation for a lot of folks.

And we're we're being attacked right now. Folks like myself are being attacked. And so it's become even a bigger part of my platform this time around. You know, in fact, a lot of folks ask me, you know, what would be the first piece of legislation that you would introduce if you're elected to Congress? And I have a bill that I would introduce that is a bill that would provide sweeping federal protections for LGBTQIA people in the face of all of this anti-LGBI LGBTIQIA legislation. Yes, and that would be something that would be very much welcome as far as I'm

concerned in thinking in most parts of California. But we do know that there are plenty of areas in California as well as throughout the nation that are anti-drag, anti-trans. They are largely filled with ignorance and hate. And so I'm wondering how do you see the future of drag given the current climate? You know, that's such an interesting question. First of all, you know, Drag performers, we've always been activists. We've always been at the forefront of, you know, LGBTQIA activism and more so when it comes to trans people, trans people have always been at the forefront of LGBTQIA rights.

And so I hope that a lot of people start to pay attention and get involved. You know, one of the big reasons that I'm running, well, first of all, let me say a lot of folks think that I, you know, am running just on an LGBTQIA platform, which that's a huge part of my platform, but it is not the only part. It's, you know, I have an intersectional humanitarian platform. Everybody should be getting involved. You know, we want to be protecting human rights across the board, you know, health care for everybody, housing for everybody, education for everybody, racial justice, environmental justice, you know, it's all intersectional. And so I hope

that we will get a lot of folks involved. And you know, there's never been a trans representative federally elected to our government. And I always like to say, as a good friend of mine, says, if you are not at the table, then you are on the menu. And queer people are very much on the menu right now. Drag is a part of that, but drag is for some people, that's what they do, but trans is who you are. That's part of your identity.

And the thing that a lot of folks aren't talking about is how these anti-drag bills are actually anti-trans bills. You know, when you make laws saying that you can't go out in public, dressed as the gender that you weren't assigned at birth, that not only affects drag performers, that affects trans people directly. Absolutely, and the sexualization of just the existence of someone. And it just, it really feeds on this puritanical nonsense that also should be interwoven with this Christian base. But either way, it's very, very problematic. And I know we don't have very

much time left. And I'm, I'm really grateful for the time I've had with you. But if you wanted the viewers to know one last thing, not necessarily just limited to your run, for the 30th district there in California. But in terms of this fight on the larger platform against these anti-trans, anti-drag measures, what would you say? I would let folks know that this is happening everywhere. This isn't just happening in red states. We're seeing this happen in states like California.

Anti-trans legislation is being introduced here. In fact, right next door in my district in Glendale, folks have been infiltrating the school board with anti-LGBQIA rhetoric, In fact, there's going to be a school board meeting next Tuesday, and I hope that folks will show up to support queer people because it's expected that the proud boys and gays against groomers will be there. So I hope folks will show up for that. Absolutely. Show up, show out. Please use your voice, push back and also support maybe.

Maybe Pudlow. Thank you so much for joining us. Maybe a girl who is running for California's 30th district. That election is March 5th of 2024, but between now and then put in the work to back maybe. and her good work that I know she will do if elected to Congress. And I want to thank you all so much for joining us for the TYT Pride Special for 2023. I know we talk about issues impacting queer, trans, drag communities all year long. And we need to keep up that conversation. So please do join us,

support us, and use your voice and lead with us. Thanks so much and enjoy the night. Thanks for listening to the full episode of the Young Turks. Support our work, listen to ad-free, access members-only bonus content, and more by subscribing to Apple Podcasts at apple.com slash t-y-t. I'm your host, Shank Huger, and I'll see you soon.