Good morning, peeps, and welcome to OKF Daily with Me your Girl, Daniel Moody recording from the Home Bunker, Folks. Last month, I had the great pleasure to join LGBTQ people from across the country at the National Task Force
Creating Change Conference in New Orleans. And the National LGBTQ Task Force works on a myriad of issues to bring equity injustice to the LGBTQ community, and at the Creating Change Conference, I sat on panels with queer gen zers that are working in states like Florida in order to overturn some of DeSantis' most draconian policies that target trans youth, with everyone from religious figures to grassroots activists to transactivists in battleground states to get a sense of what does
fighting look like on the ground. Oftentimes we hear and see the headlines, but we don't really know who are those people that are staying in these states that are fighting right while the rest of us kind of move on.
And so the LGBTQ Task Force has launched their Queer the Vote campaign leading up to the twenty twenty four election to get as many queer Americans registered to vote involved in our electoral politics and have used their advocacy lens to educate as many people as possible about their power and to utilize the collective power of the queer
or vote. So in a fantastic series over the next couple of weeks, you will be hearing from some of the activists that I spoke to on the ground in our Queer the Vote series that we're going to run over the next couple of weeks, and you'll be hearing from folks in battleground states about what is at stake, what they need support in in order to get the job done, and the job done being that you know, we don't turn America into a fascistic authoritarian dictatorship because
we are apathetic, or because we are tired, or because you know Biden is not perfect, and trust me, he is fucking not. But at the end of the day, folks, I know what is at stake, and it's either we vote for democracy or we vote for fascism. I will keep saying it until the election is done and democracy still stands. That we are not voting for a per We are voting for our freedoms to continue. In that
some elections are just about holding on. So coming up next is my conversation with Jen Scott from Equality Ohio to talk about what is happening in that battleground state and how Equality Ohio is going up against some of the most egregious policies directed specifically at trans youth and
the LGBTQ community folks. I am so excited to be joined on WOKF Daily by Jen Scott, who is a statewide field director at Equality Ohio, an LGBTQ organization that is working to advance equity and justice for folks in the state of Ohio. Jen, we're right now at Creating Change. The Creating Change LGBTQ task Force puts on this conference every year, and this is a big year. It's twenty twenty four, and you know, we are ten months away
from the most consequential election of our time. I want to get a sense from you, what is the vibe on the ground in Ohio. How are you feeling? How is a quality Ohio feeling and dealing with this increasingly fractious hardisan you know, divide that we're experiencing right now.
That's a great question and it's changing daily. The landscape has shifted over the last six months last year, the Reproductive Rights Coalition put together a ballot issue to protect reproductive rights after the fall of Dobs. So there's a petition statewide to add constitutional protection for reproductive rights, and there was pushback. Prior to this, a lot of people looked at Ohio as a solidly read state.
Yes Yes.
This campaign really energized the base to come out and say we want bodily autonomy, we want to be able to control our healthcare choices. Opposition was concerned that this was actually going to pass, so in August they held a special election to change the threshold for the constitutional amendment that was going to be going in November. So they tried to make it more difficult for the November
ballot issue for reproductive rights to pass. They spent twenty million dollars on this special election with only one question on it, hoping to change it make it more difficult. Ohioans came out and voted and voted no on that issue.
Then in November they voted yes to reproductive rights. So that has changed the landscape in Ohio from a view of solidly read to oh people care about bodily autonomy and reproductive rights, and now we're seeing the attack on LGBTQ you escalate even more than what we were already seeing it. Late last year, they the state legislature worked on HB sixty eight, which would ban gender affirming care
for youth. They added on to that banning trans youth from participating in sports, and we were hoping to delay this. Ohio has a two year general Assembly, so anything they introduced in twenty twenty three is still active through the end of this year. So sometimes during the mid year
they don't pass things. But they actively worked to get this pushed through after they saw the election results because they saw reproductive rights as a loss for them, so they came back and said, oh, we need to get something done that shows that we're making progress for them.
So progress for the progress for everybody else.
Yeah, bad phrasing.
I mean, but it's true for them, that is progress. Right to be able to rescind rights and protections and make a target, particularly of the trans community, which I want you to be able to dig into and say, look at what we're doing. Right, look at what we're doing, because I feel like what we see with these states, whether it is Ohio, Texas, Florida, Louisiana where we currently are Alabama, is that the Republican Party is using states
as their patriot dish. Let us test out how far we can go in terms of abusing this community before anybody does anything about it, before there is any type of collective pushback. And do you think now, because of the loss for them in November on the ballot, that they were going to double down even harder with the LGBTQ community.
That's what we're seeing. So they pushed through the HB six the past in both chambers, it went to the Governor's desk. Governor DeWine vetoed it and sent it back to the legislature. They're currently as we're recording this, the House has already voted to override his veto. The Senate is going to be hearing it later today. My coworkers are working on that it is likely to be overridden
and go into law. In addition to that, an unexpected to us when we came back very start of January twenty twenty four, Governor Dwine issued new rules for agencies when it came to healthcare, and they're still analyzing. Experts are still analyzing what these rule changes will mean because of the way the wording is. It's similar to what we're seeing across the country. Very vague, very broad wording
that's not well thought out. Even if they are trying to accomplish something that would be helpful for people, they're not because the wording is so vague, and it's going to affect potentially trans adults in addition to trans youth and could have broader implications. The more medical experts look at this, and more specifically their lawyers look at this, it could affect others in the community as well.
Now, when you say that the legislation could affect trans adults, are we talking about access to hormones? Are we talking about access to care? Can you just dig in for us a little bit?
Potentially? Some of the rules specify the eighteen to twenty one year range and are focusing on pediatric hospitals because they serve the populations up to twenty one. It's very similar to the trap laws we saw with reproductive rights, where they weren't officially cutting off access, but they were
making it more and more difficult to get access. And some of the rules require multiple medical professionals and professions that are in limited availability we already might We already know there's problems accessing healthcare in general right, let alone for the trans community without the addition of these roles.
When you look at the success that abortion had in November of twenty twenty three, are there any of the same tactics that can be used as it pertains to LGBTQ rights or do you find that abortion was more of an issue that more people could coalesce around whereas the right Do you feel like are they more successful in terms of demonizing the community so that there are less people to come out in support of.
It's a great question. Higowans have made it clear that they want bodily autonomy. They want to be able to decide their healthcare choices. Abortion we've been talking about for decades. People are more familiar with it, people have been are more comfortable now having conversations with their family about their healthcare choices. Trans issues are more recent in conversation. It's become less it's become easier to talk about because we're taught.
We're enabling our community to talk about it, and we've had a number of amazing activists and advocates come out and to share their stories so we're hoping that that folks are more comfortable talking about this issue. Part of the role we play at a quality of how it is educating the community, the larger public community as well as members of the LGBTQ plus community that don't necessarily understand trans care and what that means and the importance
of it. That's part of our work we need to do this year is get that information out there, get the stories out there for people that are willing to share, feel comfortable sharing, feel safe sharing in an environment like Ohio, and explaining what it actually is and what it is not.
Legislators and politicians are very good at demonizing, stigmatizing, giving that quick, short sound bite that sounds great on you know, newscasts, but really is based in misinformation, based in fear, and doesn't address in any way medical or science based information.
The funny thing is is that I feel the same way that Women's March and different advocacy groups for pregnant people, for people with uteruses being able to say you're a politician, not a doctor. I don't want you in my uterus, want you in my bedroom. I don't want you making decisions. And so I wonder do you feel like, obviously your job at Equality of Ohio is to educate the public. But I'm like, do they need to be educated on anything other than dignity, on anything other than respect? Like
why should the onus? I guess is my thinking be on trans people in the same way to be on people with uteruses? To walk you through my trauma? Shouldn't it be enough that I've made a decision about my life, about my body and I want it to be respected, Like shouldn't that be the education that we're doing?
Absolutely? And I wish we lived in that world.
I know, I know.
It's about that personal connection when you're sharing stories. Yeah, and this is a great place for SIS allies to stand up and have these conversations with people, and you could share your own story, your own journey of being a SIS person that really didn't think about trans issues. Are never really thought about your gender identity until you
started learning more. Until people relate to that personal issue, Until some people relate to that personal story and see how it affects a real human, they don't get it, Yeah, and they're just listening to the sound bites or you know, there's also apathy. A lot of voters aren't paying attention to this issue because they care about jobs or the economy, or you know, many of other things that are going on and are voting that way, not seeing the harm
that's being done or the potential harm. Like they're not going to stop at LGBTQ issues, And this issue affects all of us, Like we all want control of our bodies. We all want to make medical decisions with our providers and our family depending on what the situation is. Those are all personal choices, and all these politicians want to make their own personal choices too. You would think that
would just be, oh, okay, that's your choice. We also have an Ohio a law that passed was snuck into the budget that is a medical conscious bill that allows health care providers anyone from the person's scheduling, your appointment to the doctor, to deny service based on their religious beliefs, their ethical beliefs, philosophical beliefs.
I mean, it's just like, Jen, you say this to me, and I'm just like it's so fucking absurd because I'm like, then, become a clergyman, do you know what I'm saying? Don't be a doctor, don't work at a pharmacy don't work in general population. If your quote unquote religious moral and morals and I use deep quotation marks with that are preventing you from providing services to people through the lens of dignity and respect, then you're in the world profession right.
And I just it makes me crazy because I feel like we on the left, or just we on earth one, as I like to say, I feel like we give too we seed too much ground to these people, and we're always in a defensive posture of see me as a human, give me my dignity, all of these things. And I'm just wondering, in your mind, is there a
pivot that we need to make. I know the power of stories, I do it for a living, But I'm wondering, is there a pivot that we need to make where if you can't provide birth control, if you can't provide hormones over the counter to a patient, to a customer, then maybe you're in the wrong profession.
I agree. And many of these associations and organizations that you know provide accreditation have rules around this, and they were already in place. There was no reason for the state legislature to put this in place. Or other states that are considering similar actions. And yes, if you're not willing to help people and meet their needs, why are you in healthcare? Or we could also say if you're not willing to represent the people running right, like?
Yeah, that I mean basic baseline, right, Like, you're not just ranting to represent a certain constituency. You're running to represent the district, the county, the school district, the state that you are are running to represent, which is inclusive of everyone that is there. My question for you as we're wrapping up, too, is what is a quality Ohio?
What does a quality Ohio need from people in order to get the word out, to get the message spread on the ground in Ohio about what is at stake in twenty twenty four.
That's a nice easy question, Go ahead. There's a lot. It really matters who the decision makers are. A lot of people are disillusioned by our election system, right and I completely agree with them. Voting is not going to solve everything, yep, right now, voting is harm prevention. We need to get the less bad individual in place.
I'm going to steal that because here's the thing, and I don't you know where again, we're here at creating change at the LGBTQ Test Force conference in New Orleans, and a lot of young people and a lot of people of color are telling me that I'm not voting for Biden or I'm not voting in this election because I'm tired of picking the best of two evils. I'm tired of not being able to vote my values. And I hear them, Jen, and I understand the pain, the frustration.
I've been doing this work in and around movement for close to two decades. What do you say to those people who right now on social media, ten months out, who some may be walking around this conference that are just like, I'm going to throw out my hands for this one. I'm going to kiss this one up to God, the universe of whomever.
What do you say? I say that making real long term change takes coalition work. We need to support each other across the intersections of our concerns and our identities. There are three hundred and sixty six days this year, because it's a leapier two of those days, I need you to show up. I need you to go to your primary, and I need you to go to the general election. I need you to make a choice. The less bad choice, good choice, depending on your candidates. Make
sure you vote down ballot too. Because state elections are important, local elections are important, school boards are important. We're seeing more attacks at the school board level. Show up the other days of the year. If you want to do other things to be an advocate in your area, whether that's sharing stories, learning, educating yourself, running for office, being a staffer, providing information, or just supporting your community or
supporting other activists. Some of the most amazing people I know that are supporting the work are just babysitting kids of other folks that are out there, you know, running protests or running mutual aid campaigns, or small nonprofits that are doing amazing work. All of us every day can do small things to make a change, and it's going to take all of us doing that to move the country forward in a way that is better for all of us. Because one of the thing is our site.
We care about everyone on our side. We want to protect the people that are actively supporting us, and we're also not trying to cause harm to others.
Please tell people how they can get involved with Equality Ohio, where they can sign up, volunteer, donate. If there don't live in this state and they have the means to do so.
Sure. We have a website at Qualityohio dot org. We're also on Facebook and TikTok.
Brilliant Jen, thank you so much for making the time to Joan wokf really really appreciate you. Appreciate Equality Ohio. Appreciate all of the.
Work that you are doing. Thank you for having me.
That is it for me today. Dear friends on wokay f as always, power to the people and to all the people. Power, get woke and stay woke as fuck.