Mechanisms of Disruption

out of control and hopeless. And I just want to remind you that that's the point, right that when Steve Bannon, you know, said that the far right strategy was going to be to flood the zone with shit, what we are experiencing right now is his strategy come to life. And so in order to not become literally covered in all of their bullshit, we must create mechanisms of disruption, and that will look different for each of us, but we have to create them, and we have to do

them every day. And that doesn't mean just burying our heads in the sand. It means actually searching out the good, finding what is working, what is lifting us up, what is bringing us joy. And so I want to open the show up with my experiences earlier this week, that have really given me some renewed energy and excitement about where this country is headed. And so I want to talk today about two events that I had the great

fortune one of attending and the other of hosting. And the first event that I want to talk to you about is Family Equality. Family Equalities Night at the Peer is an event that happens every year at the Chelsea Peers and it is the Family Equality Organization's New York City gala, and I want to tell you a bit about Family Equality, which you may have heard from their CEO Stacy Stevenson, who has joined WOKF before. She is a friend and former client, and Family Equality over the

last forty years has just been doing God's work. But over the last two I've had the ability to work with them as Stacy Stevenson came on as their first black woman CEO. The organization is dedicated in creating spaces for families, queer families to feel safe, to feel welcomed. They work on everything from policy to family practice to

creating events for LGBTQ families across the country. And you know, over the last several months, we've talked about the unrelenting anti LGBTQ and anti trans policies that have passed, and there have been over four hundred and fifty bills, if you really want to put a number on it, over four hundred and fifty bills have been passed to limit the presence, existence, and bodily autonomy of queer people in this country, and namely they've been going after queer children

and Family Equality is suing Rondi Santis and the State of Florida. They are part of many groups that are suing Rondasantis and the State of Florida for putting literal targets on the backs of trans children and the LGBT

community at large. And during this amazing night that was set with the theme of love, family freedom, which I had the great honor to be able to craft during my work and time with Family Equality, it was so inspiring to listen to stories of the journey that queer parents have taken in order to create their families and how much love and how much patience and how much fortitude these people had to have in order to create

their families. And as I'm listening to stories that range anywhere from surrogacy to adoption to you different fertility journeys. And I'm thinking to myself, who would go out of their way to deny people who want to create a loving union, who want to be able to share that love with children, Who would deny them the access and ability to do so. Who would make it so that these families no longer feel safe in their communities and have to find ways, if financially possible, to relocate from

their home states. And so when I sat there listening to stories of resilience and fortitude and people saying things to the effect of, I'm not leaving. I'm not leaving my state. I'm not going to be run out of my city. I'm not going to be run out of my town. I'm going to stay and I'm going to fight, and I'm going to fight for what is right. I'm going to fight for myself, for my family, for my friends,

and for my loved ones. And these are people who live in places like Florida and Texas, Tennessee and Alabama who were being recognized for their incredible work in their communities. Young people being able to be cheered on and celebrated in the room as opposed to being jeered and having to hide the very existence of their families at school.

And it reminded me that the headline stories that I bring you, and that I share, the statistics that we discuss on this show and that I write about, there are real people that are attached to this, and sometimes I can get so caught up in the battle, in the fight and in names like Ron DeSantis and Matt Gates and Ted Cruz and Marjory Taylor Green and the rest of the band of fucking idiots that I forget about the real people and the real consequences and the

real fighters that are on the ground that while I get to and maybe some of you do too, live in for right now, what is considered a safe haven of a blue state. For right now, I will reiterate that that there are too many that wake up every day in these red states and they don't know whether

or not their marriages are going to be nullified. They don't know whether or not their children are going to be taken away, they don't know whether or not they're going to need to figure out how to fundraise and how to move so that they can get to a place of safety and literally find asylum. I am not talking about people crossing the border in Mexico. I am talking about LGBTQ people having to cross borders, state borders in order to find asylum within America. It is absolutely

fucking crazy. But there are incredibly courageous people that are fighting the hard fight, face to face, toe to toe with these horrible right wing bigots, right that we get to shut our computer off and shut our minds off and not bother with, but that they have to deal

with on a regular basis. And so when I was sitting at this gala and listening to these stories and listening to Stacy Stevenson, the CEO of Family Equality, I said to myself, you know, I really need to remind myself that we are fighting for real people, and that each of us, inside of our own communities can find the local organizations, the grassroots organizations, go through the national ones, if that's all you know, and get to the local

folks to feel like you we're doing something, to actually be doing something. It is important for us to stay informed, absolutely, but it is also incredibly important for us to turn that information into action and into purpose. And it isn't okay for us just to sit back and rage and say, well, I just feel helpless because there are people that are on the ground that could use your talent, use your treasure, and use your time to be able to go toe to toe with these bigots that show no sign of

slowing down. And so Monday night was a wonderful reminder for me to be able to continue the work that I am doing and really focus on the people and the spirit and the fight and how people are doing so in a joyful way. Right. That it isn't oh, let us pause and do this work and then go to this you know gala and dress up and what have you know. It is to remind ourselves that being

in joy is so part of our resistance. And somebody in the room that the Family Equality gala was talking about queer joy and that's one of the themes that we are going to be talking about next month all month during Pride Month on WOKF is queer joy right? That you can't ban that right, You can't ban people's happiness, you can't ban joy, right, And so how do we do this work in community where we can have safety in numbers, where we can help others feel seen right

and be heard. And so it was just a beautiful reminder on my night of who we are all fighting for and what we are fighting against, and I just encourage each and every one of you if you don't have money, but you have time, if you don't have time, but you have some talent to be able to look and see what is going on in your community, and you know, how can you help in these red states?

And give you your time, your money and just connect with folks so that they know that they are not fighting alone, because I believe that there are more of us than there are them, and we just need to be activated in our power and remind ourselves that we are not powerless. The second event that I had the ability, the great honor, the great honor to be able to host, was the Misfoundation's fiftieth Anniversary of Visionary Women, and I serve on the Misfoundation board. I've served on the board

for a few years now. I've been involved with MISS for at least the last seven, but I think that I have been on the board for at least the last three or four. And the Misfoundation is an extraordinary organization that again is really about is really about advancing right, is about building women's collective power in the United States to advance equity and justice for all, And this is

what they say on their website. We achieve our mission by investing in and strengthening the capacity of women led movements to advance meaningful, social, cultural, and economic change in the lives of women. And it is an incredible, incredible organism that believes in creating a safe world where power and possibility are not limited by gender, race, class, sexual orientation,

gender identity, disability, or age. We believe that equity and inclusion are the cornerstones of a true democracy, in which worth and dignity of every person, of every person are valued. And so in this room filled with some of the most brilliant, beautiful, thoughtful, brave women and non binary people who are leading, leading in places like Texas, in places

like Tennessee, it was truly truly inspiring. And particularly I want to talk about two of the young women who I had the opportunity to shake their hands, and it was really, really, really something you know too often, right, we talk about Generation Z, Right, we talk about Generation Z and the fact that oh, these young people they're just on TikTok, They're just on this, they're just on that they're lazy, they don't want to work, blah blah blah, blah blah. And the truth is, ain't none of that

true because I met too extraordinary Generation Z leaders. And if we just look at what has been happening in Tennessee, is what has been happening in Florida, with these young people walking out of schools, them taking over state houses, with them saying that they are not going to go

quietly into the good good night. They are not going to surrender their civil liberties and this democracy into the hands of people who would rather see them shot to death with AR fifteen's in their classrooms right than they would see them safe, see them with books that are not banned, and live in a gun free, a gun violence free society. And so the first young woman that

I had the opportunity to meet was Olivia Juliana. And Olivia Juliana is if you recall last year when Olivia Juliana went on social media to talk about the abortion bands and talk about the rollback of Robi Wade, and and that Gates, a representative of Congress, used his platform to fat shame her, to body shame her, and fat shame her and say all of these despicable things, this grown ass man to this young woman. And what did Olivia do? She turned around and she ended up raising

two million dollars for REPO rights and justice. And so she was honored last night at the MS Foundation for her extraordinary, extraordinary work. And I just when I listened to her speech, I was so in awe. I got up on stage and I said, I want to live in her America. I want to live in an America, she said, where I don't want to be equal to men, because I don't want the power to oppress and disregard

and overlook and command with force. I want to create a better future for all of us, regardless of gender. She talked about shared power. She talked about her passion and desire to lead, and particularly to do so in her state of Texas, and I just I gotta tell you that I was absolutely absolutely taken aback by her brilliance and her fortitude and her just conviction about who she is, who this generation is, and what they are

coming for. And it made me feel like, oh, we're going to be okay, right, because this next generation coming up behind us and the one coming up behind them, they are so fucking activated. It is a gorgeous thing to see. The next young woman that I had the ability to meet was Rebecca Breezenhoff. Rebecca Breezehoff went viral when she was I think around between twelve and sixteen years old, where she was holding up a sign at a march that said, I'm the scary trans kid that

Republicans are trying to warn you about. She is fierce. She is using her platform and her talents to build camaraderie and community in her school, in her community, and her neighborhood. She has become an outspoken activists on trans kids' rights and trans kids want nothing more than to just

be kids. It was extraordinary because, honestly, I couldn't tell you a time that when I was there ripe young age having the ability to articulate my power and my purpose and my path in the way that they did.

There were so many beautiful moments from last night, as well as being able to meet with, not meet with, but actually meet and take a photo with the Duchess of Sussex, Megan markle But she was honored last night for her work on racism and sexism and mental health, and to listen to her beautiful speech and words about again the power of being able to use your platform

turn your pain into power wherever you are. Just it hit the room in so many different ways, and so again I encourage you that if you're interested in learning more about the misfoundation about family equality, that head to each of their sites. If you're looking and you're finding yourself in this moment of great turmoil, just you know, spinning out of control. Everything is bad, everywhere is bad, and just wanting to turn everything off. Sure you can

turn off the news, but tune into something good. Tune in to the people that are actually on the ground fighting, look for those good stories and lift them up, and look to be a part of taking real action and not just being a part of the reactionary tornadoes of

social media. Because I think that what I experienced this week was just a re energizing that I didn't know that I needed to be in community and to be in celebration with people who are really truly doing things that are just admirable and necessary, and that we are not alone in our outrage, and we are not alone

thinking that no one else is woke. Because I met hundreds of them over the last two days and it has been an extraordinary reigniting of a fire, the fire of possibility that I wanted to share with all of you today. So do make sure to check those organizations out. And folks, we've almost made it to the end of the week and bore, do I have a fucking Friday for you. It's coming later. That is it for me today, dear friends on woke a app. As always, power to the

people and to all the people. Power yet woke and stay woke as fuck.