Pride Month Special: Beauty Translated x WokeAF Daily

kind of pulls back the curtain on current affairs. We dig into the conversations that you're not going to hear on mainstream media or on cable news and lift up a lot of amazing academics, historians, politicos, you know, folks that really have their finger on the pulse of today's you know, kind of new normal that we are living in, and so I like to think of the show as like a community space so that people don't feel alone in their crazy and in their rage.

and challenging to navigate this world. And it's really great to have podcasts like yours out there that provide different perspectives because, as we know, even lots of the you know, I don't know if this is something you've talked about on your show, but lots of the quote unquote uh you know what what people on the right would consider like leftist media. A lot of that media is run

by Republican CEOs and stuff like that. Yeah, so it's like, what is how do we actually get a different perspective? And a lot of times it's from from these shows that are that are talking outside of the mainstream. So thank you for that. And Danielle, can you tell us a little bit about yourself?

fifteen Supreme Court decision. And you know, at the time, there were lots of people that were talking about marriage equality, but they were white, CIS, gay men who don't invoke a lot of empathy. And so I am ended up ended up entering into that conversation and becoming one of

the spokespeople for marriage equality at that time. And then recognized the power of media, and during the cycle of the twenty sixteen presidential election, realizing like everybody else did, that this country could elect Donald Trump, decided to launch WOKF.

And you know, for me, I see myself as an advocate, as an activist, as somebody who has built a platform, an independent platform on progress, the values and I'm unapologetic about it as a black queer woman living in America, and I think that it is really important to have diverse perspectives and no, you know, no bullshit perspectives on

where were on where we are. Like, you know, I don't I don't sugarcoat things because I think that listeners are smarter than that and they deserve to be spoken to in a way that makes sense, uh, and that registers for them. So that's kind of how I've built my career through policy, through media and find myself here.

still hasn't fallen and everything is fine. But you know, it's interesting you bring that up because just the other day I was having a conversation with a trans man who was talking about kind of the differences or I guess you should could say, like the lack of representation and progression forward in the trans movement versus what we

saw in the marriage equality movement. What do you think And this may be like too big of a question, but you know, let me know, Like, what do you think is different about the times when we were fighting for marriage equality versus today when we're fighting now for trans equality? What do you think is different and what needs to change?

that's just the reality of the situation. And so when you look at where we are in terms of trans rights, there is a lot of transphobia discrimination within the LGBTQ

plus movement. Oftentimes you know, done at the hands of white CISC came in and so you know, it's like I have been in so many rooms where I could not believe my ears and believe what people inside of a community that is already marginalized and oppressed would decide to part and parcel out people who they think are holding them back from full equity and let's just you know,

we'll come back for the t later. Is a thing that I have heard in many of rooms, you know, on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, you know, over the course of my career. And so that's the reason there has been this kind of well, you know, we're trying to assimilate right where the L, the G and the

B are trying to quote unquote assimilate. And marriage was the most traditional thing that you could assimilate into in our society, right and so look, we're just like you, and we want to have kids, and you know, we live these lives and blah blah. It was something that I think the way that marriage was situated was how

it was assimilating into heteronormative culture. And I think that for many folks inside of the LGBTQ plus community, they had not had like I guess seventy percent of the population experience knowing somebody that that is trans, and so it was easy to be like, now, we'll come back later.

legislation and stuff like that. And what's interesting to me is that the American zeitgeist, whatever you call it, whatever, the culture of America has really shifted in the past ten twenty years to be much more accepting of gay and lesbian people and couples and things like that. And it's almost like it's like they draw the line. A

lot of people draw the line at trans issues. I can be accepting of gay people, I can be accepting of lesbians, but I cannot be accepting of trans people and the fact that they want rights, which I find to be, you know, just an interesting observation from my perspective. But thank you for speaking on that, because I definitely

think that's not something that the average person. And when I say like the average person, the average like sis straight person thinks about is how their own perception of gay people has shifted, whereas the media is intentionally demonizing trans people at the moment.

one of them began transitioning. And for my mother, who is in you know, the boomer generation, she really opened up her mind and her understanding into what, you know, what it meant to transition, what it meant to be trans because she already had a queer daughter, but was she was not. It was just like, oh, I just have to expand my thinking, like oh wait, like tell me about how it is your feeling and how I

can better show up and support you. And I think that the purpose of what the media is doing and the purpose of what the Republican Party is doing is to break down those bridges, because it really just is a lack of as you know, a lack of understanding, a lack of narrative like let me ask the wrong questions, not from a place of transphobia or bigotry, but because I'm really trying to understand, right, like let me, let me,

let me walk this path with you. And what they are trying to do is just obliterate that path, that bridge and put fear in its place. And my mother in that generation, so when people say like, oh, they're just old, it's like, no, they're not. They have they have more than enough ability and intelligence to be able to work themselves through a process to understanding right exactly.

It is more so kind of going back for me in terms of the roots and the beginnings of Pride, which was a riot, which was a pushback against police brutality, a pushback against you know, policies that were draconian on their face. And so I think for me right now, Pride is about how can we remain joyful at a time when there are over five hundred anti LGBTQ plus anti trans bills that have popped up around the country,

seventy six which have been passed. You know, how do we remain in a place of joy and use that as a way and as a tool of resistance. And so for me, you know, it is looking at Pride as we're saying on woke Up that you can't ban queer joy, right like our friends at GLAD say, it is you know, and you need to embody that.

in the world. What I wanted to celebrate in this month is that today, as we're speaking to each other, Danielle, is the day that Pat Robertson has left this planet. I just want to celebrate that. I just want to celebrate that Pat Robertson, as we know, very very feverently anti trans, anti gay pastor who is an evangela what do you call it, televangelist? So, yeah, you have any thoughts on good old Pat?

And it's important that you know, people say, don't speak ill of the dead, Well, don't do bad shit when you're alive. How about that? How about that? Yeah?

if you've or any of those. That's a documentary that just kind of it's I love those kind of like docuseries basically breaks down Pat Robertson, Jerry Folwell and how they really meshed with the GOP and the Republican Party to really be a part of their lobbying effort, and it's shaped a lot of the crystal I'm sorry, let me get the words out. The Chrysto fascism that we're seeing today has been shaped a lot by the legacy

of Pat Robertson. So rest in hell, I don't know, rest forever, you know, but not in peace, not in power, because we're we're grateful for that. So let's celebrate that Pat Robertson has left, has left the world on this glorious day. So I'm happy about that. Thank you for sharing your perspective on that too, because he's been around for a long time, and he's a long time and he's been doing bad shit for a long time, so

it's hard to keep up with everything. You know, decades, yeah, decades. Well, Danielle, can you tell the listeners where they can find you, follow you and listen to WOKF Daily?