Stand By Your BS

it was Monday night. I don't even know anymore. But when the news broke, when political broke news of Alito's decision to overturn a fifty year old, constitutionally recognized right for a woman and people who are pregnant to have an abortion, it sent shockwaves through the country, through our

legal system, through our government, through our hearts. Because what I have come to really understand about this iteration of the Republican white supremacist cult is that they are held bent on not only their supremacy right through minority rule, which they are instituting and using the courts to apply their will to the American people who largely disagree with their policies, largely disagree with their ideology, and so in order for them to be able to impose right their

theocratic authoritarian ideas is to own the courts, is to place people in lifetime positions and appointments who uphold their white evangelical Christian fundamentalist values, and I realized that the goal is pain, the goal is suffering for anyone that does not adhere to their archaic, misogynistic, patriarchal goals, that if you are not, if you do not submit right

to their will, you will be in danger. My upcoming guest on today's show, Noreene Farrell, is the executive director at Equal Rights Advocates, a group that was started in nineteen seventy four with essentially mirroring the time that Rovie Wade would become law, to uphold and create opportunities for the expansion of gender equity for women and girls in

both schools and at work. They believe and advocate for a culture and a society that allows women and girls to work and attend school free from misogyny, patriarchy, violence,

and harm. Imagine that, Imagine that this freition nation that we live in, that we require there to be organizations and institutions that are put in place to watch out for the Trumps and the Alitos and the Cavanaughs of the world, because their goal has always been to do as much harm as possible and then couch it in our legal system and to say that their desire for erasure,

for control, for supremacy is legally backed. So how dare we right to make us seem as if we are as Marjorie Taylor Green has said, the bawn of Satan right? And what do you do? What have you seen throughout history when people like the Marjorie Taylor Greens and the Trumps, and the Elitos and the Thomases and the Gorseches and the Barrets of the world point fingers at you and say that you are evil. We've seen people lynched, We've seen people burned at the stake. We've seen entire libraries

burned down. We've seen church churches bombed. We've seen gay people, queer people beaten to death, murdered, stuffed into garbage pails. This is the world that white supremacy and white evangelical christiandom creates and has created. Is their history. They were burning crosses on the lawns of black people in this country. They burned the their own cross that they swear to pray to and uphold to. What the fuck does that

say about who they are? So when folks right now on social media they want to say that Oh, this is gonna be it. That abortion somehow is the end of their crusade. I'm like, wake the fuck up, this

is just the beginning. And my guest, Noreene Farrell, the executive director of Equal Rights Advocates, will say she will refer to what the ninety eight page opinion reads as a manifesto of white evangelical Christendom, and that if we are going to live in a society where precedent no longer matters, where laws no longer matter, where the will of five people can be imposed on a nation of three hundred and thirty million plus, where do you think

that this is headed. It's only headed in one direction, and that is revolution. But it's whether or not the people are going to have the will right to rise up. Because our representative, somebody had sent me, and I think it was one of one of my faithful listeners sent me an image of Joe Biden all smiles, with Joe Mansion, Kirsten Cinema, Susan Collins, and I forget who else was in the picture. I think, Kyle, it was you that

sent it to me. And I looked at this photograph and I said to myself, as my mother has been asking me, are they all in cahoots? Are they all laughing at us? We really think that Democrats are on our side, and come to find out that many of them have no desire to codify Roe v. Wade into law. They have no desire to turn over the filibuster in order to preserve civil rights, equal rights, and protection in

this country. So if the people within your own tent don't share the same values and belief that you do, then why are we voting for them? The enemy of my enemy is not my friend, right and when in fact our friends don't even signal that they understand who the fuck the enemy is, that doesn't sit well either. My mother said this also, and again I've been thinking about it, she said, Danielle, you know, I don't mean to sound like a conspiracy theorist. And I said, you're

coming to the right place, she goes. But don't you think that it's just so interesting that they would leak this statement now, that they would leak this opinion. Now do you think that Republicans are up to something even worse than this? That they just launched this into the sphere to provide like the ultimate distraction? And I said, Mom, You're right. Their whole lives are about distraction, right. It's like, look at this thing over here. Oh my god. The

biggest issue is the leak. It's not the content of the opinion. It's not the fact that Justice Alito has signaled to the country that privacy laws are not foundational to the Constitute tuition and that these kind of you know, rights that we have won over the past six decades, you know, we're just a mere suggestion, and that everything is on the chopping block. Justice Alito, apparently, according to social media, has canceled his public appearances. And I'm like,

why stand by your bullshit? Why would you cancel a public appearance because you what you think You're not going to walk into applause from your Christian fandom. Or is it that you think that maybe, just maybe you may have overreached, that maybe just maybe you may have overplayed your hand. You got Susan Collins saying, oh my god, Gorsich and Barrett and Kavanaugh, they lied to me. No, you lie to yourself, because that's how you are able to sleep at night. You lie to yourself about who

you are and what you stand for. And it's pooh pooh, boo boo. The fool is all of us who believe that Murkowski and Collins are somehow what two moderate Republicans. They are nothing more than the Republican handmaids, right, the mistresses in the big house that stand there and clutch their pearls while they watch Massa in the field, beating, whipping, raping. Right. Oh my god, but he said that he would be nice to them. Those are the Susan Collinses and the

Lisa Murkowskis of the world. Fuck you is what I say to them. Is what I say to our moderate Democrats who still get to hold the title of moderate when there is nothing moderate about the rollback of our rights and the threat of violence that now is hanging over all of our heads who are not white, sith, straight and Christian. I say, fuck you Joe Manchin, fuck

you Kirsten Cinema and these fucking lackluster, backless, spineless Democrats. Oh, we're gonna fight, fight, fight what from the comfort of your million dollar homes, multimillion dollar homes, From the comfort of your ivory tower that you get to sit in, while the rest of us will have to deal with the muck that you are turning this country into because you have a lack of will, a lack of conviction, a lack of strategy, and a lack of vision. We are here because of a lack of courage on the

part of Democrats. We are here because we elected Joe Biden and felt that his moderation and temper temperament was what this country needed. And I will tell you and you all know, he wasn't my first or fifth choice, because I knew that this nation needed an actual fighter, needed somebody who was going to call a spade a spade and go fucking toe to toe. We're all tough talk when it's about Putin and what's happening overseas. Republicans are waging war in America right now, and Democrats are

looking around like, well, maybe next election will win. There is no next election, you fucking idiots, folks. I am angry this week. I am pained this week. I am grieving so many things this week. Every Friday that we get here, I say, I give thanks and gratitude that we have arrived at the end of this week. But my god, I'm tired, as the meme says, of living through multiple historic events, historic catastrophes, one after the other,

after the other after the other. It is exhausting. So, friends, after you listen to today's show and the closing of it, put it down. Put the weight of this week down, Put the misery down, put the frustration down, put the anger down, put the despair down. We need to use each evening, each weekend, each moment that we have to recharge. And how do we do that. We do that solely

through joy. We do that solely through rest, so that we have the ability to lower our shoulders, clear our minds, and be grateful for the small moments that pop up in our lives that allow us laughter and smiles and joy.

We will not allow them to steal that because you know, today, as I was walking around my neighborhood, I said to myself, because I have sometimes deep reflections, which is why I go on my walks and encourage folks to do the same, I was thinking about my enslaved ancestors as I often do. As I often do, and I was thinking about the fact that living in such a day to day horror where they had no control over their bodies, over their lives,

over anything. And I'm going to choke up because I'm trying, friends, to get to a place where I can continue to move through that even in living in such trauma and terror, they create a tradition. They created songs, They jumped the broom to symbolize their love and commitment to one another, because marriages were denied, that they still sold and hummed and found in the pocket of the misery that white

supremacy would wrap around them. That even in that despair of literally not knowing from one moment to the next whether you would be sold, whether you would be hung, whether you would be raped, whether you would be tortured or beaten for somebody else us as joy and pleasure and satisfaction, that even in that they were able to keep pressing on and able to find moments of celebration and joy. And if they were able to do that, then so can we. Coming up next, my conversation with

Noreen Farrell, the executive director of Equal Right Advocacy. Folks, I am very excited to welcome to Woke f Daily, the executive director of Equal Right Advocates Noreen Farrell, who you are a leading voice for gender justice. You have argued before the Supreme Court led campaigns for the betterment of the lives of women and girls. Um, before we jump in, I just want to get your emotion you're feeling when you were made aware of the Scotus Politico leak that we saw, and how it how it hit

you like a punch in the gut. I don't think that what's going to happen to Robie Wade was the surprise. And obviously, you know, the leak is the media's make

a munch of it. But for me, it was the It was the vitriol and the tone and the reasoning of the decision that really focused for me that these conservative justices must believe that they have the weight of the country behind them and they are fair in their power, as you know, five individuals to change the course of not just a single woman's lives, but like the entire progress of the women's movement. And I was, you know, I was devastated and then furious, like much of a

much of the country. You know, Noreene, I am a black queer woman, right, and I have spent a large majority of my career in movement politics, whether it is LGBTQ politics, racial justice. When the women's movement is actually where I started my career, many many moons ago. I have never in my life been as fearful for the

future of this country as I am right now. And when I have talked to over the past couple of days, in the past couple of weeks, with people who have invested their entire lives to bending this arc towards justice, to perfecting our incredibly imperfect union. I always felt that each generation had their job to continue to move the boulder up the hill. But this is the first time that we are taking I mean incredible stuff like the boulder is not only rolled down, but it has flattened

many of us. And so what do you see as a response to this reality? Like, are we even in response mode? Because to your point, we knew that this was coming from the six to three court, I just

don't think we knew how egregious it was going to be. Well, first of all, I just want to thank you so much for so many years of your own great activism, and when you just said just this intersection of gender, racial, LGBT justice all, like, I think that the I think that the decision made clear it's an agenda assaulting all of those Yep, justice Alito is relying on the Court's turntive course in Brown versus Board of Education, which abolish

segregation in this country, to justify this rollback of a constitutional rights. He even though he says this doesn't implicate any other case, we should not believe him. There is a whole line of LGBT rights cases that are implicated by the right of privacy mentioned in this case that are under threat. And so I hope as we get through this initial week of complete paralysis, is that we think about how do we build power in our intersectional movements to really see this decision for what it is.

Abortion access bands is enough, but it is also all of those other things. It's the entire history of our progress together. And I am heartened by the conversations about matching the import of this decision with the energy, the fury, the voting that it deserves. So it you know, it remains to be seen. But I'm trying to channel that power.

You know, I wonder where do you think, Because I'm going to be honest, Democrats made a huge miscalculation, right I wrote about this, you know, in the Daily Beast that I believe that we could have in this moment had remained a five to four court, you know, with a semblance of hope, had the Democrats not foregone the courts. So I want to get your opinion on first the fact that and again I respect her, I respect the

work that she's done. But when the late Justice Ruth Vader Ginsburg was asked to consider retirement in twenty thirteen, when Democrats still held the majority in the Senate at the age of eighty, she said no, Barack Obama at that time could have appointed someone in her image that was literally half her age. Then you had the second misstep, which was no pushback whatsoever to Mitch McConnell in twenty fifteen when he held the Supreme Court seat hostage that

should have been given to Merritt Garland. No pushback, no court case, no campaign, no nothing. As if again the Supreme Court, you get multiple bites at that apple, and so we'll get them next time. What do you think about those two very grave miscalculations and where we are right now? Well, listen, I am somebody in our organization.

We litigate in the courts, and I remember being before the Supreme Court in a race and general discrimination case against walmart on behalf of a woman who was a Walmart reader in Pittsburgh, California, Betty Dukes, and a whole class of women. And I just remember looking at that court. You know, It's something about being in there and seeing that lineup, And I would have thought that this was strategy number one, because it's not only at the Supreme Court,

but our federal courts. There was just a complete lack of action. And now in my federal court area in California, which was always a stall wart of progressive cases, we are seeing that tide turn as well and making bad appellate court decisions. I fundamentally think that people in Washington, first of all, they ask these questions, will you reverse

Rob Wade? And they believe them. I think that there is I think there is this white elitist privilege that makes you feel like everyone's going to do the right thing once they're given a lifetime appointment to a court. And now the rooster has come home to roost, because the agenda is not about upholding Supreme Court precedent. It is about dismantling it to the for the intention of

further marginalizing people and their economic power. And so I just think it is the I think it is the blind spot of our major political powers and just a lack of connection to what the power of the Supreme Court can do and what I mean. I think Justice Justice Roberts is all offended about the decorum of the leak. Everyone's thinking about the chorum of the leak and the decorum of the court. The court has no credibility right now.

That should be the last of your worries. And I think that I think that is that is reflected not just in this decision, but in the way our political parties have approached this process and approached its role on the Senate Judiciary Committee, and approached running campaigns to get people on that Senate Judiciary Committee. You know, I think this idea that our courts are going to be the front lines of our civil rights that is dead. And this ninety eight page to Senate decision, God help me,

I read every page. It is a manifesto on why that is so. I think you're absolutely right. Look, yeah, you know, Justice Ginsburg, you know individual, you know individual, you know, nominations like they build. But it is this, it is based in this um is fear of rocking the wrong boat at the wrong time. I mean in President Biden's State of the Union dress, he did not

even say the word abortion. With this decision on the plate of the of the Supreme Court, and so this fear of um, of you know, rocking a midterm and and now they will for sure try to capitalize on this and as we should influence the midterms. But wow, couldn't we have used that bravery and that being out in front of this this issue, um earlier, um. And I mean that's that's the right word, Lauren. Bravery. Bravery, yeah, which I feel like the Democratic Party is lacking in

so many different ways. But you know, you as a person of the Court, as a person that believes I'm assuming in the in the value and the fabric of the Constitution. If we can no longer or hold this up as our living breathing document, if as Justice Alito signaled in what you rightfully call his manifesto, that the Constitution is not a living breathing document as a matter of fact, it is marble. It is a statue. Right because he is saying things about our foundational our foundational rights.

And I'm saying, well, when the Constitution was created, I wasn't considered a person right, I was consider three fifths of that You, as a white woman, were not considered a part of that constitution. You did not have the right to vote, right, And we're seen as a property

thereof your husband or your father. So if this is, if this is his understanding right of the constitution and how it works, where do you see the legal maneuvers that we have always relied on for the past sixty years to get us to the point that we're in. Because I'm going back from row Brown angle vivitally like I'm going to all of these places right Oberfell windsor

every single one of them. So what legal recourts do we have if now Republicans and Conservatives own the court and they have literally told us in a ninety eight page document what's coming next? You know, I look at that from two angles, one as somebody. For example, right now, we have a sub minimum wage for tipped and other workers that is a complete vestige of slavery, where where we decided we weren't going to pay you know, black people wages, we'd give them tips when we felt like it.

That continues today. It is the federal law that states can pay as little as two dollars and thirteen cents an hour for tip workers. And we've been thinking about, all right, well, how do we challenge that constitutionally? You know, how do we say that this has a disparate impact on people of color, on immigrants and women workers. We can't find, you know, we were relying on these long standard traditions of interpreting the Constitution, which does not, in

its expressed language, you know, prohibit sex discrimination. We're we're relying on these precedents to think about how do we challenge unconstitutional laws that is that is under such threat right now. And second, I think the thought was, and you know, this is what a lot of the power is behind, you know, finally passing the Equal Rights Amendment, so we can put our rights on the high shelf, out of the hands of the grubby legislators across the country.

But even that, even that theory is now threatened because the Constitution can be reinterpreted and ambassadized in such a way, you know, by the court in a case like this, and so we can't we can't rely on this precedent to challenge on you on constitutional laws. But we can't even rely on passing new amendments that will protect our rights.

And so I just think we need a radical reimagining of our strategies and and and how we build power in this country because I think the only thing that has mattered more than rob weighed in the law about abortion access has been economic privilege, right. I mean, even though rover Way was passed, the High Amendment assured that poor women and black women and other women who can't afford that abortion don't. So we haven't had abortion access for a good part of the country in a long time.

And so, you know, I think we have to um challenge ourselves. You know, I think I think a lot of people are sitting in the legal space right now thinking, oh, oh no, we need to reimagine these strategies in a very radical way. That's the challenge, because if you can't rely on laws to protect you, you can't rely on the United States Supreme Court to defend those laws, and then you can't rely on the Constitution as a way

to keep them out of the hands of legislators. What you know, what do you have on our legal system? And it is going to be is the challenge of our times that has been hopefully energized by what we saw this week, what will be the mantle the cause that your organization Equal Right Advocates takes up? Like, what if we are reimagining because I believe that dismantif esto by Alito was a sex was essentially a declaration of war.

That's what that's that's how I see it. This was a declaration of war against women, against people of color, against queer people, against immigrants, um, against you know, people who pray differently. What then, how? How? What? What do we imagine as a new strategy. Well, I think that there's obviously immediate, short term, short term, long term, you know, over the next decade term. Um. I think in the immediate, I've I've I've had some people nay say this on me,

But I feel like we've got this leaked decision. Can we use this six weeks to say, get those privacy references out of this decision right, try to claw back the scope so that we're not looking at a basis that then opens up all these other use these other rights. Now. Can can we do it? I don't know, but by God, let's get up there and and and shout from the rooftops to try. Um. I think that we unfortunately and

my organization, Ego Rights Advocates, we've been doing this. We have essentially just been abandoning Congress for some years now, just sort of waiting, waiting for them to catch up and whatever, get it. And we have been working at on the states and it's it is an exercise of both hope and frustration. But clearly we're going to have to get back to the states. Yesterday or two days ago, Government Newsome announced a constitutional amendment making sure that it

shows up in our state constitutions. So there's going to be a state by state strategy as much as we can. But let's remember thirteen states had trigger pocisions visions in their anti abortion laws. Twenty six I think we're up to have you know, they're either in or ready to go. So we're talking about you know, over half the country. UM. You know, we have some hope if we can change the change the composition of the Senate. You know, Congresswoman Barbara Lee has had you know, an amazing bill that

got through the House of Representatives protecting abortion access. So galvanizing ourselves for the elections. UM, we are curious about the engagement of corporate America on some of these issues. Uh, your folks, your folks should check out this site called Don't Fan Equality, where they're gathering not just corporations that are saying, oh, we're going to make sure we give you contraception, but we are actually taking a policy decision on these anti abortion fans. We will not set up

shot shop in those states. We will, you know, put our money where our mouth is in terms of state and federal policy or reform on this um. I think it's interesting they've been very quiet this week, which isn't surprising. I don't think most corporations would be blasting a draft,

you know, Supreme Court decision. But I think I think when you think about the unfortunate disproportionate power of corporate America on politics and elections, you can't rule them out as a player and a potentially powerful unlikely ally and some of this, but ultimately the long term, we've got we've got a we've got forty eight voter suppression laws in states across the country. You know, we need to

be building back our voter power. By the way, given the green light by the Supreme Court in their shadow docket, ye and yep, And so we need to be really focused on voting rights, and for us, we also need to be talking about the context in which these abortion bands happen, and that is in a country without universal

pay leave or childcare. You know, the highest black woman mortality rate, you know during pregnancies, um, you know, income inequality, you know, all of the things that make the economic context of this more dire. And also be focusing on building up that economic power right and building up the wealth of women, queer, black, BIPOC people who so they can build influence and and really you know, change the

long game of this. And you know, we've got to have our hands on all of those strategies right now. Let me ask you this last question to um, what do you think all things continue on the course you're not able to clawback the privacy nods that were made

in Alito's decision. What do you think that the timeline is for a case for against Oberfell, against loving against you know, what do you like because all of these things, I mean Griswold like, there are there are so many, and we're already seeing Tennessee trying to rewrite their state constitution so that one they clearly want child brides down there but also to ensure that same sex couples cannot marry, and knowing that there will be multiple challenges to that

with the hopes because the goal is to make it to the Supreme Court to overturn it. Um nationally, what is the timeline you think? I think the timeline is

the next ninety days. You know, you know, after Rob Wade came down, the Christian Right started immediately and they were incredibly effective at limiting access you know, high to men, etc. So you know, I think that there's a there's a there's a political sculation of how much the Supreme Court will stand too soon, But it'll take several years for those cases to start to make their way through state courts.

And so even if they start in the next six months, um, you know, they can imagine that they're going to be giving the Supreme gorda a little past break on them and that they'll reach them in several years. But I I don't think it is an overstatement to say that this this this continued calculation to deprive people in this country of their humanity and their autonomy and their right to thrive. Um will I mean they wind is at their back, and um we are readying for these these

legal challenges. But also it's um it's the sanction by a Supreme Court for violence against women circling clinics that not just provide a portion, but give conscious steps about give give kids, notice, give sexually abused you know, young women,

connections to other supports. So you know it is it is also that that is going to start immediately, and is the broader impacts not to mention right one and four working women will have an abortion some point in their lives, and you know, the autonomy that you have to take a job and progress and make decide weather and if to have children. All of those things have very profound I think implications in the next several years

about the participation of women in the workplace. So I think we should, you know, we should be ready for those those awful constitutional cases for coming after all sorts of reproductive healthcare and then just the broader economic rights and human rights of the communities that we all serve. Oh God, Marian, well, look this is I think. I think, I think we need to be real. But I think that helps energize I hope, I hope it helps energize money.

I hope it starts energizing people to run for office. I hope it starts energizing people to you know, get themselves out of the poll if they're not other otherwise redistrict or suppressed. You know. I think it is a siren call, as you know, as we've seen in the past several years with black lives and so many and so many important issues that, UM, this is the reality when you don't, when you lay down and you just

put your head in the sand and you don't. But it isn't doesn't have to be the reality if you don't do that. And that's and that's why this podcast, your continued calls to action I think are really empowering. UM. And just let's just be really be realistic, be real and then let's just let's just go after it. If people who are listening today want to get involved with your organization and others, can you tell them what what they can do to feel less hopeless and less powerless,

UM and and be associated with your great work. UM. Absolutely, UM. Anybody could go to our website which is www dot equal rights dot org. We have a community action team, and look, we don't do all the things, but we UM, we will connect people to those that are doing it best. Um. We have you know, five hundred plus partners who are experts in their different spaces, and we want money to support to go to the right organizations for the right things.

But if you connect with us there you can follow our actions or community actions which are always accompanied by who's leading them and um, and you know, just just stay connected. We have a lot of campaigns that give people voice and we'd love to have more people involved Green for All. Thank you so much for your work, for your time. UM, I really do hope that we can stay in touch and that you will come back to wok a F too to keep us up to date with what is happening and kind of work us

through that legal ease. Yeah, that makes sense of this nonsense. We're going to set some big goals and we'll keep on coming back together and check on them. So I would love that. Thank you for having me appreciate you. That is it for me today, dear friends on this will gay F. That is it for me this goddamn week. I wish you all a RESTful, joyous weekend. For those of you who are mothers, I wish you a happy

Mother's Day. For those of you who have done mothering without giving birth to your own children, and regardless of your gender or identity, I wish you a beautiful celebratory weekend. For those of you that have lost your mothers are never had ones that you would have celebrated anyway, I wish you peace and light as always, dear friends. Power to the people and to all the people. Power, get woke and stay woke as fuck.