The Young Turks - TYT's LGBTQ Pride Month Special: Part 1

Episode Date: June 14, 2021

Part 1: Kick-off LGBTQ Pride Month right with TYT's LGBTQ Pride Special! Panel of guests, including Jason Carter, John Iadarola, Adrienne Lawrence, Daniel Franzese, Plastic Martyr, Canela Lopez, Odessa Kelly, and Rhea Butcher to celebrate progress and discuss the crucial issues facing the community today. 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 to the Pride Month special here on The Young Turks. How's it going everyone? I am your host, Jason Carter. So honored and glad to be joining everyone here tonight for the next two hours.

We're going to be joined by some of the most incredible LGBTQ plus community members, as well as allies and some special guests that are going to be talking about the state of LGBTQ plus culture and community here in the United States across the world as well as other things that are trending in that area. Joining me tonight will be right now for right now as a matter of fact, joining me is actor and comedian. We love him. He's loved the world over. You've seen him in so many great movies, so many awesome moments on television and the big screen as well as he is a host of the yes Jesus podcast. Danny Francazi, Daniel Francizi is in the house and also, of course, a familiar face. John Ayadarola, John, glad to have you here as well, good to see ya. How's it going, Jason? That's going good, man, glad to have everyone here tonight. Let's get into this. Happy pride, everyone, Daniel, I want to start with you because we're going to touch on the subject of religion and the LGBTQ plus community. And earlier this spring, you were very open and very honest about an experience you had with Walsh University. They had booked you for an event,

And then things went left, can you dive deep into that? Yeah, you know, there is this existing problem going on with the state of LGBTQ plus students in Catholic and Christian universities and just checking on their mental health and fairness and just overall inclusion and diversity. And well, I was hired for the Mr. Walsh pageant at the very conservative Catholic University, Walsh University in Ohio. And this is a a pageant where it's scripted. It's basically a male popularity contest, beauty pageant, sort of to like honor students who have been having an exemplary year. And I would, the Vatican made a statement pushing back on the Pope's statement about LGBTQ people. The Pope had originally

stated that no one should be kicked out or made miserable over being LGBTQ that God loves you no matter what. And the Vatican sort of pushed back on that statement by releasing a statement delivered by the Pope that they will no longer bless same-sex unions and that they think that LGBTQ relationships are a sin and therefore they won't bless sin. And hours after that happened, I got fired by the university. So I had made a YouTube video sort of just like stating my case because I was fired specifically because I was gay. Because in these spaces, they don't have any safe spaces for LGBTQ kids and seeing a person like me who's queer up there on stage, Even just like hosting a pageant or just orientation or something is a great thing for students

just to be able to see an LGBT person in a position of celebration or power. But like I guess it didn't work for them and then I received an outpouring of letters from students, former alumni faculty and former faculty, all who have felt that they were mistreated for being LGBTQ on that campus. So I mean, Daniel, you've performed it over 50 universities that are across the nation that are faith-based Christian Catholic. Well, I don't know about all of those being faith-based, but I performed it like easily hundreds of college campuses. My show is PG-13. I don't, you know, I know what my job is, especially when I'm on a religious campus. I have a faith-based podcast. My job is just to, you know, show that LGBTQ people are an example of love and preach that God is love.

Like, just as a general person, and that has nothing to do with my comedy or my ability to literally, you know, be like, Chris Williams is a sophomore, plays football. Like, you know, it's just really like reading cards. But they seem to have a problem with it. But this unearthed a lot, 15 years of students gathering and trying to have an LGBTQ safe space where they can just gather and be okay. They're not allowed to send emails or post flyers or anything that LGBTQ related. There is no place for them to go. They literally have to find each other based on just sheer, you know, profiling and wondering if somebody might be gay or not based on how they look or how they dress.

There's no way for them to gather and organize, which creates a really unsafe environment. And in a lot of these schools, there is a organization called REAP, which is holding a lot of these colleges accountable and now has a joint lawsuit on Christian colleges. together. But a lot of these spaces, they're mistreated. And if they found out that they're gay, they could lose their credit. They could be kicked out of the university. They could be even worse forced into conversion therapy. So this is like a very hot button topic right now that I just happen to step in. I mean, I'm a comedian. I just want to a lot of times when a lot of this stuff happens. I just want to be funny and like, you know, like tell penis jokes. I don't want to I don't even do that. I want to just keep it light and make everybody have a good time and

and unify everyone, but this was something where I had to like, you know, I noticed that when this happened to me that a door had opened and that had previously been closed for over almost two decades. And, you know, there was not another time that I saw that door was going to close again. So I brought all of these accusations from all of the student body and faculty and stuff to the public air again in another video. And this has led to a series of meetings that they've had at the school. They had a student government meeting. They've tried to organize. They're being shut down on every turn when looking for a place to have a club. Even as far as student government law goes, they're supposed to get an answer within 10 days, and it's been well over two months. And there's still no resolution for these students who now have been meeting at a gazebo on campus, which is you don't have to reserve, it's just something that's on campus. So they've turned it into the gazebo. And whenever there's a student, they're on the other side of campus on a little tiny

gazebo, handing out flyers and trying to reach each other. But it looks like they're going to try to wait out this student, this school year, and hopefully, hope the troublemakers will graduate or whatever. And it's just, that's just what it seems like. And they're not going to really address it until next year. But on my show, Josh Jesus, we're going to hold them accountable and keep checking it. Well, you definitely held them accountable in your video on YouTube, which I watched multiple times. And I was, you were so visceral and so honest about how you felt about that. And I agree with you when you say that that some of these institutions are, abusing their taxism status and the Religious Freedoms Act to enact discrimination.

As you said, it's a ripple effect. And it's sad because here we are in 2021, right, where we hope that that you see a lot, you see a lot of places, especially like in Los Angeles and religious places that are saying, like, all is welcome, all are welcome. And we thought that we're turning the page and turning the tide when it comes to that, but also living in a bubble of like Los Angeles right here in Miami and other areas that aren't so progressive, the discrimination is probably more prevalent now than ever. And you bring up the Vatican rescinding and go and pretty much rolling back what he said about supporting

gay marriage and supporting same-sex marriage. Because on March 15th, the Roman Catholic Church said they cannot bless same-sex marriage. Sorry, but however, back in 2013, the Pope was quoted saying about members of the LGBT community, quote, if they accept the Lord and have goodwill, who am I to judge them? They shouldn't be marginalized. And then in the 2020 documentary Francesco, he also called for the creation of civil union laws for same sex relationships. And he's quotes saying that homosexuals have a right to be a part of the family. Well, in his in his and jealous address that following Sunday after the Vatican's announcement, the Pope himself had sort of retracted a little bit and had gone and gone back and

said that we need to care with these kind of things in the way of Christ with care and compassion. And I think that that is what, you know, we were holding Walsh accountable to is sort of just saying, You have to, you know, what's interesting about Washington University and a lot of these other universities is there, the people who are graduating there are graduating with degrees in education and mental health, you know, in all kinds of nursing. And so teachers, so you just want to make sure that those people know at least how to coexist with LGBTQ people. This goes back again to the Religious Freedom Protection Act where people sort of can not make us a cake for our weddings or what have you. But this is beyond a cake, you know, kind of a situation. Transparency is key for an LGBTQ person's safety and clarity and mental health. So, you know, if they say gay people, LGBT lifestyle is not permitted on campus on their website, that's fine with us.

We won't go. But instead, they sort of lure students in by, you know, putting with maybe a profiling picture of two lesbians sitting in a field or, you know, have some rainbow. writing and just certain things that go, oh, maybe they are affirming. They're just not very clear on it. You know, they'll show kids with piercings that look alternative. And they say, well, they don't seem so conservative. And then when you look at their mandate on their website, they talk about how they're all about compassion and diversity and inclusion.

And they just don't say sexuality and keep it quiet. You know, that's the problem is that it's not transparent. And, you know, when you make plans to go to like a $41,000 year university with your parents and everything else and you don't want to come out to them maybe and, you know, you've got to deal with all this. There's a lot of pressure. It could be damaging. There's a high, high suicide rate for students that are in pressurized environments like this to begin with. And then when you can add on top of it that they have to hide who they are and have absolutely no way to find an ally. You know, when my co-host of Yash Jesus Azariah Southward did the freedom ride, which was a bike ride to all

the Christian colleges sort of to try to just let the students on each campus know that there's people that love them and that God loves them. They had to literally in some instances stand across the street from the schools holding signs of their phone numbers because they weren't even permitted to like walk onto the grounds or which is so I'm sorry which is so, which which reminds me of discrimination of people of color, you know, 50, 60 years ago. It's it's that in real time and I love how you are, you throw our articulately illustrating, illustrated that with when to lure you said to lure people in it's what they want our pink money they want creativity they want the they want the you know the caring teachers and they want all

of the things that queer people provide about the end of the day they don't want to be accepting and they allude to the fact of that my whole thing is just be out front on your website on the front of your door say no queer is allowed and we won't buy a damn cake from you Right, right. John, I know John Adrola, you are in, you're there, character, chime in? Yeah, actually, I had a question. So look, I know that you, you know, the nature of your podcast and a lot of the schools that you've been to, like, you're steeped in Christianity and like the current state of Christianity. Like, admittedly, I'm not a Christian. I live in Godless L.A. So what I'm curious about is in your video, you talk about obviously the proximity between you losing the job and the statement from the Vatican. And both of you just went through the really interesting back and forth of like a little bit of tolerance. And then they take it back and the Pope's infallible, but apparently he messed up when it came to that.

So, but what I'm curious is like as an outsider, those are the sorts of statements I look to to try to understand some version of where Christianity stands on the LGBTQ community. But I'm curious, when you're interacting with people, either the audience of your podcast, you're going to the university, how strong and direct is the relationship between official pronouncements of either the Vatican or the Pope or any particular cardinal or anything like that. Look, at the end of the day, I put my nephew to sleep every night singing in the song like, you know, this faith of mine, the world didn't give it to me. The world doesn't supply this kind of thing that I need. I don't need it from the Vatican. I don't need it. I get it from God. And I think at the end of the day, you know, we hold so many things dear to us, whether it's our favorite pop star or Louis Vittaker. baton bag and we'd never let anybody like take our Louis Vuitton bag, you know, and just

give it away. But as soon as we declare that we're gay, we allow people to take our God away. And I think that that is something that should be so much more precious to us. And if you did grow up with God and it is some, a God is something that has made, done works in your life that made you feel great. Why should you be forced to make a choice between the two because a human told you to? Yeah. Yeah. And so yeah, sort of what I'm wondering is like let's say Let's say the Vatican keeps messing up, doesn't evolve, doesn't really change on this. Like, for a lot of like either younger Christians or, you know, members of the LGBTQ community who are Christians, does that really matter? Like, is it changing a lot regardless of that

here in America? It does for the, it does for the queer people. I mean, we want our allies and we want our family members to say, hey, we're not gay, but we're not going to give our money every Sunday to a church that doesn't support my cousin or my brother or my family or whoever. Yeah. You know, a lot of these churches, especially these young Christian progressive churches, they love to come up with names that make them sound like gyms. They sound like energized or like, you know, like fierce church or whatever. They come up with these like kind of names that make them sound like hip and cool and young. But they're all governed by bigger organizations that don't welcome LGBTQ people into their spaces. So they might have like a gay couple in the front

of the pews holding hands, but at the end of the day, gay people can't rise to leadership within that church. Their children can't go to their schools. But they'll take their money and they'll say, hey, you guys, and give them a hug on their anniversary, but they won't marry them, they won't baptize them. It's like, so I think, you know, there's a good website called church clarity.org that we always recommend to people to just see which churches are exactly queer affirming. And I think it's going to take a pregnant mom who's gay affirming to say I'm gonna raise my if my kids gay I love them anyway and are you gonna raise your kid in the church yeah I'm gonna raise my kid in the church well what if the

what if you kid at 13 14 16 tells you they're gay and the church doesn't accept them well I'll take them out of that church well then don't have them in a church that's not gay affirming when they're young like you know we need to be in a place where a gay person could be a Sunday school teacher or could be an elder or a treasurer or a janitor just you know if they're not allowed to work for the institution No, I don't really want to worship there. Right, right. Just in conclusion to what the Vatican had said about same-sex marriage, in an interview with NPR,

when asked if the church does have the power to give the blessing of unions, a persons of same-sex, the answer was negative. And also the church says the Vatican does not and cannot bless sin. Back to what you're saying, Danny, about making church seem cool. And then them having as kind of like this guise of like coolness of having an LGBTQ plus couple in the front, it's very indicative of just, you know, just taking this outside of religion, just how for marginalized groups of people, when people who don't support marginalized groups of people want to gather and reap the benefits of showing that they are allies and their performative allieship, they get you, they get you in the door. But then when you're inside the house, they mistreats you. And I think that's that's it's it's it's one of the it's like working. for a company that's all about inclusion. Sure, they hire the black guy, but then when the black guy's hired, they, what do they do with him? They sideline him or have him not even engaged in what he's there to do. So we got to, we got to be very vigilant with that.

Want to talk about the youth and LGBTQ plus, because you mentioned, you know, that kids at at Walsh University are young. We have, we have Gen Z millennials that are very impressionable and they have access to so many. There's kids nowadays have access to. This is so much more than the generation before as far as with social media and and the internet. And it's, I want to talk about identification in regards to, to how these students are so smart. And they are so exciting. This generation excites me every day. You know, one of the students was telling me how she, when she was trying to find out if Walsh was affirming or not, how she kept searching things like LGBTQ in Walsh.

And I was like, I was like, well, that Google hit certainly hits different now. But like she was searching things, you know, to try to find out. And she found an essay written by a student in a class that was opposing an idea that was sort of like, they were saying something that was LGBTQ positive. And that gave her hope. So it just really doesn't even matter. It's real like, like even it could be an essay that helped this girl get through a couple of years where she felt really alone at the school.

She knew that she was able to connect through this essay, this guy wrote, to find out about a secret little society they were having, you know, like getting together and watching movies. And so, like, you represent, it doesn't matter who you are if you just shine a little bit of your light, like, and just like let people know a little bit about who you are. Someone could find that. And these students are way more savvy than that. They're mobilizing. One girl told me, she's like, I have two more years here at Walsh. And if it's, if we don't have an LGBT club by then, I'm going to stay here and get my mask. She's like, I'm going to keep fighting.

I'm going to stay at the school and make it my mission. And they have that kind of a heart. It's going to take that kind of a heart to break down these barriers. It's going to take the heart of allies to say, you know what? We're not going to donate our money here, even though if it is my alma mater, if you know, you're not going to allow everyone and really preach that God is love. Right. And I would agree with you that these, this younger generation, there, there is, I don't

want to say that they're stubborn or entitled, but and I'm, but there's a little bit of entitlement that's good, right? They feel, I think the older generations, we were told about to, I hate to say older generations, like I'm some boomer, right? But I'm not, but about respect though. Like we, I don't think we were as allowed or we felt that we were entitled to be as loud as these new kids. Because growing up, all we saw on television was any, any kind of view of LGBTQ plus, anything on TV was either hyper-stereotypical, really, really effeminate men, which there's nothing wrong with that, but that was a stereotype. Or people dying of AIDS, or you had people that trans experience being murdered in the street, which is still happening now.

But there was nothing that there was nothing that was, as you said, affirming in a positive way. But now more than ever, we're seeing what shows like Pose and so many avenues and so many different ways for us to be exposed to the beauty and the strength of the LGBTQ plus community that these younger generations are way more emboldened and feel like, well, yes, I'm going to flip every table, bust down every door, who's with me? They created a t-shirt, they chalked loving messages all over the school. They started a change.org. They've 200 people showed up to the student government meeting, which is usually 50.

You know, I actually was able to watch with a closed camera on the student government meeting. And I remember the president of the black student union saying, you know, we've had similar problems in the past here of failing discriminated against. And we offer our place to you. We don't even have hell, we don't even have to be there. He was like, you can be here and tell your stories, you can feel safe, you can come with us. We'll change our name to the minority students union if that's how you feel and you don't feel welcome here because we love you. And it's students like that and it's young, it's people like that who are going to, it's going to take to step forward to sort of just like, you know, crack this open. Because right now these private universities have a little gate and there's like these little fantasy worlds that go on behind those gates where they could control, you know, their students,

their students and say whatever they want. I mean, they even told their students that if they got sick with COVID, that they would have to go home and they would lose their to it. They would still have to pay for housing. Wow. Like this is a school that has control to do whatever they want when they're private, privately on. You can do whatever you want. So we need to make sure that these students are safe.

Imagine a situation where an LGBTQ couple was maybe like in a domestic violence situation. And, you know, the victim of the relationship wouldn't be able to speak out to, you know, to anyone because for fear of losing all of their credits, you know, and so they would be living in maybe like a potentially dangerous situation. That's just one example of why there needs to be a safe space that these kids can even go to. Even in the student government meeting, there were people chiming in and yelling expletives and stuff on there. And it just goes to show that they can't even have a student government meeting where they

could just be themselves. Well, and in a place where, where there are mature adults that could that besides these young adults that are that could govern this and make sure. that the safety of whoever's there should be protected, because at the end of the day, that's what they should be doing on a positive note because we've been talking about something that are less than favorable when it comes to religion and private institutions. The U.S. Lutheran Church has elected their first openly transgender bishop Reverend Megan Roar. They were elected as bishop to the Sierra Pacific Sanad, which is based in Sacramento

and includes 200 congregations in California and Nevada. And she says, quote, I'm so proud to be a Lutheran. And I pray that my election by the faithful people of the Sierra Pacific sign on will become a constant reminder that God's fabulous love is never limited by the opinions of legislation or others. That's incredible. That's incredible. You know, the conversation, this is something that we can talk about for a long time because I think people, people have very staunch and very concrete views on religion and LGBTQ plus. But it is safe to say that there are people who, like yourself, Danny, I'm sure lots of people watching right now that do have faith, that do have faith that are not LGBTQ plus, but realize that, hey, we deserve love

and all the same privileges and rights, if you will, as cisgender and non-LGBQ plus people do. Yeah, I'm not a preacher or a teacher, I'm a comedian and a sinner and just a wonder like everyone else. And that's what we say in the show, we don't Bible study, nobody knows the answers. If you do tell us, we're all looking for it. Like I feel like some of the churches and some of the organizations are reading the Bible and feeding it to you when it should be something you go and explore yourself. Right, and I've been to so many churches where it sounds like one big long script that's been rehearsed for weeks. It's like, and then when they end, just off just one time I went to a sermon and I could, and the guy messed up and he's like, wait, let me take that back. Let me start again. And it was just

like, all right, man. They do need to take it back a little bit, you know, just one little note because I know running at a time, but like if you think of Josephian his amazing Technicolor dream coat, right? Joseph's coat, the original translation from 46 AD was Ketanit Pasim, which only appears one other place in the Bible and that's for a virginal princess dress. They keep teaching us it's a coat. It's a coat. It's a coat. It's a coat and everyone was jealous of it. But when you read it this way, and from the original translation, you realize it was a dress. And Joseph was genderqueer and if anything, maybe even a trans woman of color.

These are perspectives that LGBT people need to see. Yeah, yeah. John, any last words? Yeah, well, I mean, I know that there's some stuff that we weren't able to get to that was positive news. The study that you had broken out some elements of about, you know, LGBTQ youth finding so much more acceptance online than a lot of them unfortunately still like in their local area. like in their local areas are able to find. And for someone like me who I see the often corrosive negative effects of certain groups organizing more online, you know, obviously there's a lot of

like white supremacist neo-Nazi Q and on all of that, you see it and you see the effects on politics, you see the effects on social media and on YouTube and stuff like that. Like seeing it have a positive effect is really like reaffirming. Like I've seen so much bad negative organizing, Negative both societally, but also seemingly breaking down the individuals and turning them into, you know, shells of their former selves. Seeing it actually helping people who are experiencing like a complete or near complete lack of empathy in their own lives, whether it's at their universities, whether it's coming from their student governments, whether it's coming unfortunately from their families or even from some of their churches, seeing them able to find something to hold them over online is very positive. Yeah, it is. The internet does always have to be a scary place. And I think that the more time we have say the more the more safe spaces for these people that they can discover the better they're giving me the one a minute rap Danny Danny where can they where can they

listen to your yes Jesus podcast and where can they discover and love you and experience you on the internet come wonder with us at yes jesuspod.com and you can find me anywhere on the the internet and what's up Danny? That's what's up. Welcome back to our Pride Month special here on The Young Turks. I'm your host, Jason Carter, and I'm happy to be joined by John Adderall, of course, familiar face on the Young Turks. I want to welcome to the panel, Odessa Kelly, and she is running for Congress in Tennessee's 5th District. Odessa is a lesbian who calls for the passing of the Equality Act and denounces anti-LGBQ discrimination. And she wants to ensure that the voices of LGBTQ Americans are represented in every policy

conversation. Odessa, welcome to the show, glad to have you here. Hey Jason, I'm glad to be here. What's going on, guys? What's going on? What's going on? Let's get into this. What inspired you to run for Congress? That's, you know, people don't just wake up one day and say, hey, I want to run for Congress. Absolutely, it's not the way that I woke up, you know. I feel like I didn't have a choice, You know, and I as an organized in the past six or seven years, we have protested, we have marched, we have organized, we've advocated, we've done everything that we possibly can to work, the 90, helped 99% of this country, the working class, the working core, you know, to move the

needle inch, but it's not enough. In this past year the pandemic, there were so many opportunities at the congressional level, but not just to help us here in Nashville, but across the country, you know, people are feeling the same urgency as desperation and not being met, you know, and the reasons why we're missing the mark is because people are not listening to people. And that takes a special quality. And as an organizer, I have those special skills. So I couldn't sleep night without running. There you go, there you go. So what are the issues that you are running for? And what do you want to see change when when you do get in office? Well, yeah. I mean, it being pride

with as an openly gay black woman, you know, LGBTQ is, you know, it's not just sexual classification, but it's your identity. And it's also intersectional, you know. As the LGBTQ nation, You know, we are tired, we flawed, you know, with a working class, with the working poor, you know, we're the ones that are catching as much as housing injustice as anyone else. You know, we care about the earth. So I'm pushing for the Green New Deal. The reason why I love the Green New Deal is because as a black woman, you know, and a person who's struggling always working check to check, you know, we have never had a chance to, like, really chime in. But I care about the earth just as much as the next person does. So it gives the opportunity to take care of the Earth, and it builds pathway out of power.

Poverties are so many groups. You know, another thing that I'm running for is housing justice. I'm running for healthcare, you know, I think health care is something that we care about a lot in the LGBTQ community. Something I thought about as a metro employee, I worked for the city of Nashville for 14 years. You know, and eight years in, in 2014, 2015 is when they started having domestic partnerships. You know, and that's really when we start thinking about how you got to have carry me and my partner at the time. you know, two health insurances and all these different things, and that's a cost as well.

I'm already just on the city salary. So, you know, those type of things are what's important to me. When things are hitting home, especially in the fifth district, what are some of the issues that are facing the fifth district and where you want to represent? A lot of issues. I mean, the state of Tennessee has been horrible. It's been very discriminatory against LGBTQ people. You know, one of the things that happen here in the state of Tennessee this year is that they decided that LGBTQ history or issues cannot be taught in the public school system, you know, and frankly did the same thing for black people that say can't teach critical race theory here either. So when I win this race and I make history, they won't be

able to teach about me in the history books, you know, so it's really just trying to retard some of the issues of legislation is coming down from our state level. On the personal level, though, I'm sure there's people watching right now that are interested in hearing about your coming out story. I think I always find it so inspiring as well when you hear, because everyone, we all come from different walks of life, different experiences. And you know, some people have, some people have, you know, coming out stories that aren't as, I would say, bad as the next. But for yourself, what was your coming out story like for you? Yeah, my coming out story, I guess, was funny or comical. You know,

I think it happened in two different ways. My first coming out, I think I was in fourth grade, And I was in school with a bunch of friends and I told this girl she had to be my girlfriend. She put her hand on my she was like, she's gay, you can't be gay or whatever. And I was like, but you gotta be my girlfriend. So at the lunch table we had like this huge argument and everyone was included in it about whether this girl should be my girlfriend or not. It's 50-50, you know. And then again, when I was 16, 16 and a half, I told my parents, you know, I was like, hey, I like girls and they were like, we've been doing that, we're just waiting on you to say something.

It's pretty much it, you know. I mean, that's so funny. Similar with me, my mom, she was like, okay, are we going to have lunch now? I mean, this is not breaking news. We're just waiting for you to have a news flash and, you know, for you to get it together. But what that said though, you know, I've talked, you know, John Ida Roll is here as well. Me and him have both talked about about LGBTQ plus issues and about me being black in the LGBTQ plus and just the just the juxtaposition of not. Non, non, non, non, PLC, and PLC, LGBTQ plus issues.

And for us, Odessa, or for yourself, what do you find difficult about being gay and black? Do you think it's more within our community or do you think it's outside of our community or is it a mixture of both? I think it's very hard to be gay and black in the black community. And now more than ever, I've experienced homophobia, homophobia, who am I, homophobia, homophobia in a time where on social media. online. In conversation, we're all trying to assemble like the Avengers and fight Thanos, this horrible evil people that are trying to take down marginalized groups of people, be at in our own backyards, our own homes and our own communities, which that is the black community, we're treated even worse. Has that been the same for you? No. Yeah, I do recognize

it for black men, you know, for gay black men, for trans men, you know, especially in transgender community, you know, it's horrific, you know, amongst black people and how and how they're treated. But I would say the biggest issue that I've had is I will say fighting for the working class, you know. There's still like this, I mean, anti-blackness runs in everything, you know, when you start to talk about it. And when it intersects into like what are good business practices, you know, sometimes that can also intersect into like LGBTQ issues, you know, when we start thinking about it that way. I think that's been one of the hardest areas for me to break into is literally. just fighting for equality because as you know, as a as a LGBTQ man, you know, you're not just that.

You're so many other things, you know, like all the other justices, they affect you as well. So when we start talking about raising wages, when we start talking about putting regulations on corporations who have these oppressive laws that are coming down on working class people, on working poor people, you know, I think it gets really hard because sometimes it's like if I have to ever take up. off my black hat to put on my LGBTQ hat, then there's an injustice within that as well, right? And it's the same thing with my advocacy hat, you know, like advocating for what's right, it's just advocating for what's right. Regardless of gay, black, white, straight. Yeah, John, John, I, it's, we're having the blackest conversation with John Ida roll in I'm just glad to be apart. What's up, John? Um, it hardly the time for me to try to make this about myself. So I'm not going to

to do it. So, but but you're you're talking about Thanos and there's these looming threats and everything like politically, recently it seems like the Republican Party, it's always an open question. Who are they going to make their existence about hating? And lately it seems to be, they've decided over the past year, BLM, anyone advocating for racial justice is openly an enemy. You hear Marjorie Green just say BLM terrorists constantly. And over the past, you know, few months especially anti-trans legislation is everywhere. It's like 80% of what the Republican Party is doing when they're not trying to stop generally black people from voting. So, and by the way, Tennessee has had multiple, Odessa, you mentioned the curriculum bill. They've also got the requiring

businesses to post this misgendering information, you know, forcing, there's things about obviously student athletes. Tennessee is like almost ground zero for these issues. What do you think? think about that, about this new phase of the culture wars, really demonizing the transgender community and in particular younger transgender individuals? I mean, it's frustrating, you know, especially as a person who literally works with LGBTQ youth all the time. You know, some of these are just plots, employees that have ginned up by the Republican Party, you know, just to like keep us distracted from what the real issues are, you know, and the real issues are that we have are the ones that I just talked.

about, you know, if I sit down and I talk to my friends who also identify, you know, as LGBTQ member or LGBTQ, you know, we're talking about, you know, being able to pay our rent and also be able to pay all of our bills and, you know, where are we going to be able to live? Because gentrification is a real thing, not just, not just in Nashville, every urban metropolitan our city across this country, you know, so those are the things that we are talking about. So when they gin up these things like that, it's just an extra barrier, which is more motivation to run, you know, and to make sure that, you know, we have representation that is fighting back and not just giving into that. Right. Well, John, you entered politics into the conversation. Let's talk about that because we want to move into the Biden administration, how they're doing as far as the LGBTQ plus community so far in 2021 since he's entered office. And I mean, a question is how has the Biden administration been doing? Is it enough? I'm glad the gay and lesbian alliance against defamation, released a pull of 800. LGBTQ adults of their thoughts on Biden's overall job performance since being in office.

And 78% say Biden is doing an excellent or good job as presidents. And they go on to say the LGBTQ plus adults express concern when the US Senate's ability to pass pro equality legislation came to pass 70% reported being very or somewhat concerned that the filibuster could block legislation like voting rights, immigration reform and gun safety and LGBTQ equality measures. 47% of LGBTQ plus American state the Senate should end the filibuster. This is all according to Glad.

So the question is point blank period is Biden, the Biden Harris administration doing enough for LGBTQ plus? Is it too, is it too soon to say only six months and seven months into his administration? I'm setting a good precedent. I'll say that, you know, that first of all, they overturned a lot of the restrictive laws that were put in place by the Trump administration.

Sure. So that's one critical piece that they've already started, you know, making sure that they have representation within their cabinet and some of the higher offices, you know, it's like setting a precedent for where we can go. There's so many more possibilities and things that could be done as well, you know. But yeah, it's a good start. I will say, you know, just a hundred days in, it's a little early, but I think they made a good effort in getting, you know, a president of an expectation, you know, to like normalize

again, you know, what it means to actually fight for equality, not to have it, but to actually fight forward and what it looks like to be intentional about inclusivity and how it should show up in everywhere, not just in representation of an individual, but how does it show up in policies as well, right? How does it show up and how we govern and interact with each other? So it's a good president that they're setting. Well, you mentioned that he appointed a record number of LGBTQ plus officials to administration. That's great to have people inside the house that can make change. But some people feel that the Biden administration isn't doing enough for anti-trans, anti-trans violence last year surpassed.

Of course in 2019, 44 trans people were reported killed according to the human rights campaign. So so far in 2021, at least 17 people of the trans experience have been killed with more than half of them being black trans women. And there's been nine anti-LGB plus bills that have been signed into law in 2021, putting the year on track to become the worst year for state legislative attacks against LGBTQ plus people in history. So I mean, the thing of the, yeah, you know, it's it's hard to ask, I mean, you said the president has a great has gone off to a great start, right? But it's it you can't, it's hard to ask someone to fix four years of complete direct in just a hundred days or even in a year. You know, it's going to take it's going to take more than that. But at least, at least he is aware and openly speaking about it. And that's that says a lot about I think Biden for and in my opinion. Yeah, absolutely. And I also think that, but I mean, that's also correct, right? You can't skip that number. The 17 people have already died, you know, and I think that goes back to, you know, I put my advocating in my organizing hat on. You know, I would tell everyone out there, do not stop doing what you're doing at the grassroots level and to keep the pressure, you know, only by the administration, you know, don't let the pressure off them, you know, so far. We have to keep pushing it until we get to a place that we're all safe and comfortable.

Seven states, Arkansas, Mississippi, Tennessee, Alabama, West Virginia, South Dakota, and Idaho have banned trans athletes from competing on school sports teams that align with their gender identity. That conversation, I've had that conversation openly with people, and I, and it's a very, it's a very hot one. What is your, what do you feel? What is your, I mean, one, keeping it 100. It is ridiculous. Again, like, you know, I don't know where this issue has even come up anyway for it to be, you know, legislated on in the first place. And second of all, why put more barriers and create more harm? You know, even if we look past just an identity issue, it's hard enough for young people, teens, you know, who are trying to find themselves to find themselves, you know, and to put one more piece of legislation in place that creates another barrier or a hurdle for them to

jump. It's just creating more harm, you know, and it's just hateful. That's all it is. It's It is 100% hateful, you know, I don't know, I don't think, I don't think anyone has really the words to explain it. You know, I can say again, same thing I just said, you know, we have to keep advocating and fighting at the grassroots level to not accept this whatsoever, you know. Yeah, okay, so I couldn't agree more obviously that there has to be that in terms of both, you know, helping people who are struggling with an unimaginably difficult circumstance that's becoming, marginally more difficult with the efforts of these Republican state legislatures, that that's totally necessary. But it also feels like, like you have all these different states that have decided, okay, we got to get our base fired up. We don't really want to talk about Biden's agenda, because we don't want to support more infrastructure or aid for families, but we don't want to

say that we don't want to do that. So we're going to make it all about trans youth. We're going to demonize them. And so they're doing that. They're doing that in Texas and Tennessee and in Florida, Literally this morning, the first day of pride, Ron DeSantis signs one of the sorts of bills that we're talking about here. And like, I guess the Democrats quietly are a little bit better on the issue, but they're not saying anything about it. They're not trying to pass any bills to protect this community. Biden's not making big speeches. Like, it feels like it's just silent surrender and retreat as more and more states, like predatorially like attack this. group and it feels like, okay, yeah, you know, if you were to really ask some of these Democrats

what they think, maybe they'd answer right, but they're not really doing anything with their positions, even in states where they control the legislature, they have the White House, they have the Senate, they have the House. I feel like they could be at least trying to do more to show the community that they have their backs and not just silently, not just sort of in the shadows. Yeah, I agree. I think that, again, it goes back to what you said, you know, There are a lot of issues out here, a lot of things that are going on, and I think it is shows like this bringing attention to it, you know, and giving voice to where we see there being an urgency and need for there to create legislation and protective laws, you know, but it also can't just happen there too. It's got to happen at the local level. It's got to happen on the state level. It's got to happen at the grassroots and organizing and advocacy level as well, you know, to make sure that we keep the pressure on them to change some of these things, you know, to every LGBT. youth out there, you know, I got your back. And there's so many other people out here that got your back on this.

So do not fret over this thing because you got people who are going to be fighting for you day in and day out. You know, even if you can't see the change now, the change is coming. It's coming. It's coming. It bows my mind that these are young. These are young people. They're not, you know, they're not, I mean, I guess they're young adults, but I'm in the grand scheme of things in your life cycle. These are young, young teens.

You know, they're kids that are, as John, as you mentioned, are going through something that, something that isn't that not everyday people go through and it's painful, being ostracized from family members, being ostracized from the community, trying to, trying to reconcile who you are in addition to fighting for their life and then having having people that they don't know also villainize them has to be a lot. And I, and I'll just I can agree with you more that there are people there that are willing. As I said, using my, John, I hate to bring in Marvel comics again. I've been on a Marvel comics thing all week, but we're assembling like the Avengers to fight

And Thanos is what we just talked about, these evils that are that are plaguing marginalized groups of people. But it's on a positive note, let's let's have a little levity here. It is Pride Month. How are you going to be celebrating this year? Like I always celebrate Pride Month. You know, I go get on my rainbow unicorn and I ride around the universe, slaying injustice wherever I can find it.

Yeah, I just like every other day. But this is a fun month, you know. We pushed our prize celebration back to September, just to September just, you know, to be sure everyone is safe, given that we just came out of pandemic. But yeah, you know, my clothes are already bright and wonderful, but, you know, I don't know. You're like, Pride, Pride month is every month, 365 days a year, 24-7, I fill you on that. John, any last words? You know, at the risk of possibly making this just slightly negative for just a second, I just want to focus on Adessa's

campaign because obviously, you know, as we spoke about when you're on my show, like you're going up against a Democrat who, you know, he likes to say in this area of issues that he has the right positions. But we've talked a lot about leadership. Like, can you talk to me a little bit about like that gap potentially? Like obviously you're running against him. You feel like it's not quite there. Tell me a little bit about him in that role versus you potentially taking over. Yeah, again, I think it comes back to who. is actually tuned in and is an accurate representation of what we have here in Nashville, you know, as a city and who we are, but also to across this country. You know, I have spent

six years, you know, being blessed enough to travel across this country and listen to people and hear what the issues are. The same thing to here are in Nashville. You know, if you look at my record in Nashville, look at what we've done in two years. You know, we've brought housing back to the urban core in this city, you know, we've put worker issues and racial issues at the forefront of how we create and make policy, you know. And if you can see that, is that exactly what's missing at the congressional level. And I think it's going to take a person who can actually have the shared perspective of everyday people. I feel what you're going to. I know what it's like to wake up and have to decide which bill you're going to pay.

You know, I know how it is to have the cops behind you, knowing that you ain't done anything wrong, you know. And I know what it feels like to be in love with the person and not know what are you going to be able to, like, marry that person in the state that you represent, that you come from. You know, so all these things intersect. And when I say we talk about leadership, it's going to take a person who can understand all those things to make sure that we can have it trickle down and people actually feel the effect of it who need it the most. Yeah, great. Well, they're giving me the five minute, the five minute mark. Odessa, you have been incredible. It's been such a pleasure to talk to you here on the Young Turks.

Wishing you all the best in your campaign. I'm gonna follow you on Instagram so I can see the, so I can see the campaign party on Instagram because I know you're gonna get in office, it's gonna be a wonderful thing. Please do and thank you for having me on to both of you. Absolutely. All right guys, we want to take a break more from our TYT Pride Month special. When we come back, stick around.

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