Video Transcript
Alright, hi, everyone and welcome to the turn up. This is turn up Tuesday brought to you by the leadership conference on civil and human rights and powered by and Soleil our amazing partners in particular turn up Tuesdays brought to you exclusively by sorry And Still I vote it's a lot of different names. I gotta get out and so we're really excited to have our amazing guests celebrating with us today We are talking pride and we're talking about boating in the LGBTQ plus community and some of the barriers. As many of you know who have joined us before welcome back and if you don't know us the leadership conference on civil and human rights is a coalition of over 200 organizations who work to really Center people of color and the people most impacted in the Middle of a lot of legislative and political fights, and so we have been around since the very first civil rights fight and been a player out and we'll continue to so thank you for joining us again. so I'm gonna kick it off to introduce a couple of amazing books But first before I do that. I'm gonna just ask that we please hold on space. For all of the LGBTQ folks who have gone and pass before us whether in particular for those who have been lost to systemic violence and police violence we know that we hear a lot about what is happening in particular to our black brothers and sisters. We wanna make sure that we really do pay attention to trans lives and that when we say black lives matter, we mean all black lives matter and also of course want to pay homage to the wonderful miss. Peter Johnson and Rivera who's kicked all of this off, so thank you all so much. alright and now to introduce some of our amazing guests. First, we have Christian Lovell, who's a Pennsylvania field organizer for the human rights campaign, as well as the first openly gay member of the Pennsylvania State Legislature. Then we have Courtney Siva. did I say that right? Courtney? She's a junior legislative Council of the Human rights campaign. Jason Collins, former NBA player and advocate and the first openly gay man to play on a major American sports team. They get that right great. Thank you so much and then we have a Joe Saunders. Political director for Equality, Florida. Joe is not gonna be here tonight. my name is Brandon Wolfe I use he him pronouns and I am the media relations manager at Equality, Florida. So there you go. Here's with Joe colleagues with Joe No-I. You love Joe too. Thank you sorry about that. this is what happens when you are doing the shows from home everyone. so thank you so much for your patience. so again just to kick it off a little bit. Ask folks to let the of the land What are we looking at? I think when you talk to voters and particularly when you talk to just a common American voter and you ask them what are some of the issues that LGBTQ plus folks have at the ballot box? I don't think they really know I think they feel somewhat stumped and we can spend a whole semester. talking about why that is highly problematic and some of the reasons for that. But I think it's important one of the. We really wanna get across is the wise and then how people can show up in Allyship to be better. so there are systems are better. so Courtney. I'm gonna turn it over to you. can you just give us a wave of the land on what are the issues impacting the queer community? Sure, So I'm Courtney. Thank you so much for having me. I'm happy to be here so I mean right now the way of the land is it's still not very equitable. I mean we. Move past literacy tests and grandfather clauses, but we are still facing a lot of structural barriers to voting. There's voter intimidation. We have strict photo ID laws polling place closures if I'm not mistaken, I think sometime after 2013 around 1600 polling places have closed but I think that one more issue that people don't generally associate with the LGBTQ community. That's a barrier is felony Disenfranchisement and I think that needs a lot. right now all the two States currently restrict the right to vote as a punishment for committing a felony, and this is actually very concerning for the LGBTQ community because LGBTQ people people of color in particular are living at the intersection of racism transphobia homophobia, sexism, and all those things put you in greater contact with law enforcement we have seen some promising state activity on that level in Florida voters passed. A ballot initiative to allow one point five million Floridians with felony convictions to vote but even that had to go through the courts the state Legislature passed a law that thankfully was later deemed unconstitutional that would require people to set a court cost first. So I mean when we're looking at things that LGBTQ people face in court and on the Legislature, I mean the community as a whole is more likely to experience unemployment to. It's homelessness so asking the community to pay these fines after we're allowed to vote is just ridiculous. I also think it's really important to remember Cobain isn't making any of this any easier. the reality is just that the virus disproportionately impacts the community's health and economic security. so research shows the top five industries that LGBTQ people are most likely to work in are hit very hard by. And one in five LGBT Q. People lack health insurance that's a really big deal, so we wanna have as many options as possible that allow people to vote safely. Thank you for that. and I think when we're talking about the impact of all of these on the LGBTQ plus community, we can't put people in a box right. We know that we have to really talk about intersectional policy whether that's homelessness and housing whether that's discrimination. Their employment all of it mental health services you name it, and I think that often times when we talk policy we try to really be. siing folks right and if you're homeless and this is a concern if you're Latina, then this is your concern and so I really appreciate you bringing intersectionality into the conversation and really lifting that up, particularly when it comes to policy and so I'm gonna turn it to Christian who's gonna stay on the phone with us cuz I believe he's in route. And travel and Kristine can you tell us a little bit with the recent decision for trans workplace protections? what else can be done with this ruling and what does that mean for just folks living their lives today? Yes. Thank you so the ruling you know has been considered somewhat of a victory saying that those who are part of the LGBTQ plus community cannot get fire. do to your identity right and you know there are you know always loopholes when policies are presented so you know this doesn't apply to smaller companies So if a company has I believe less than 15 employees they can still discriminate this ruling doesn't apply to religious entities so they are. allowed to discriminate and I also you know feel you know. I wanna point out that you know just because folks now technically can't get fired. it doesn't mean that more LGBTQ folks are being hired so when it comes to you know black trans folks, you know I'm a black trans man and myself. we are this impacted and I think you know we're trying to create policies that promotes Economic Justice and policy that truly impacts and transforms the lives of marginalized communities. We also have to look at who's being hired as well. Yeah. Thank you so much for that No Doubt absolutely and I think we get a little bit more into some of those policy pieces in this discussion about what more can we do and also the call to vote Right-why. Does it matter that the LGBTQ plus community votes right? What is? sorry did you wanna go ahead and yeah, I just wanted to add the jump in and just say yeah, But if Donald Trump is in office, four more years that he will appoint will probably appoint one or two Supreme Court justices and that's a huge issue for the LGBTQ community. We do not want that happening. So whatever we can do to get Joe Biden in office and so that he is the one appointing those next. Justices I think that will be huge for the LGBTQ community. Yeah when we talk about we talk about voting from not just the presidential, but folks need to really exercise this muscle that it is the school board right we know that LGBTQ plus and trends children are impacted by some of these localized policies right and so when we talk about how do we vote we talk about school boards, City Council County Commissioner, right and a lot of folks. Learning don't understand that when you vote for your city Council, you're also helping appoint the sheriff or you're also helping point the chief of police and so throughout this time we've seen folks kinda have that aha moment and you know we're really happy to support folks at all levels and so let's like let's just get into that. Brandon can you tell us a little bit about the work that you have been doing and how local elections also are impacting folks in statewide elections. Yeah. Thank you for. it's really important, you know I I would be remiss if I didn't acknowledge that this is the last day of Pride Month and Pride Month is a lot of things for our community right. it is a celebration of the progress that we've made. It's a celebration of the progress of the LGBTQ Liberation movement a celebration of marriage equality in 2015. It's a celebration of a surprise I think for many people's Goss ruling to hear Neil Gorsuch say out loud trans rights in 2020 was not on my apocalypse. Card but here we are living that reality but pride is not only a celebration for our community. Pride is also a protest and it was born out of violent protests against police brutality. it is a moment for me at least to reflect on the sacrifices that have been made to get us here and to recommit to the fight to ensure that you know, Justice and equality are not slogans or bumper stickers, but actual institutions that are held up for all people. you know I don't need to tell folks on this call and certainly not. We are listening that protest is more relevant and resonates more now than ever right We are in the midst of a National revolution against centuries of White supremacy and systemic racism. we are in the midst of a protest to reject police violence. We are in a midst in the midst of a National dialogue to declare that in order for all lives to really matter Black lives must matter right. so I think for us in this conversation we have to ground ourselves in you know where. Where are we coming from what is pride actually mean to our community? so your question was about the importance of local and state elections. You know we are celebrating some court victories some again surprise court victories. We're celebrating a victory onda celebrating a victory LGBTQ workplace discrimination celebrating a victory on reproductive rights, but the but the reality is these civil rights issues should not be in the hands of men like Brett Kavanaugh or Neil Gorsuch to begin with they need to be. Into law and that starts on the local and state level right, we need federal laws Yes, but the but the local and governments have immense impact on on the lives of LGBTQ people all the time you know we can do a lot of work on our own. We can organize on the ground but we need allies in positions of power. so when I think about the work to be done in the state of Florida, you know our practice does not endorse federal candidates. We do all of our work on the local and state level. We know what's at stake right now, in fact on June twelfth to March four years since the shooting at Pulse nightclub took 49, mostly the LGBTQ people of color equality, Florida launched launched the largest selections program run by a state of equal group in our country's history. That's because we know what's at stake in the state of Florida, we've identified 500000 pro quality voters here in our state that may not turn out unless they get the right treatments from us. So we're all in. we're giving all the resources. We've got we're mobilizing our grassroots force of over a half a million folks here in Florida because we know what's at stake if we're really gonna pass comprehensive non discrimination law on a state level, we need to fight for it if we're really gonna protect transgender people specifically black trans women, we need to fight for that. if we're gonna update HIV law removes stigma bring the law to match the science. We're gonna have to fight for that. We're gonna create a world where LGBTQ young people. Can go to school without fear of violence or discrimination? We're gonna have to fight for that and the only way we can fight for that is allies by our side and that includes on the local and state level. Yeah. Thank you so much and you have had some wins in Florida, including with the restoration bills and yeah it's moving forward. so thank you for that as well. Alright I'm gonna turn over to Jason Jason. You have such a large platform and you have an opportunity to speak about a range of issues can. US a little bit about why voting is so important to you. Voting is so important to me because I remember my grandmother telling me how difficult it was for her to vote. she grew up in the segregated South and upstate Louisiana Jim Crow. she grew up with the Jim Crow laws and hearing her speak. on. what she went through and the outright racism and everything you know having to prove who she is, You know all the hurdles that were put in front of a black folk in the South. It's one of those things like you know, I love my grandmother's a matriarch of our family and when I hear that sacrifice and you also hear stories of people who have died so that I have the right to vote and folks who look like me have the right to vote. It's psychic I have to honor them. I have to honor their sacrifice and I have to use my vote to make sure that I put people in office who can make the path easier for folks like us. It's. And when we talk about voting right now, a lot of folks are lifting up vote by mail and we certainly support vote by mail, but also believe it has to be vote-by-mail plus right you shouldn't have to sacrifice your health to cast your vote at the same time. We know that Vote By Mail doesn't necessarily work for all folks, whether it's a very transient community right who don't have stable addresses whether it's folks living with disabilities who may need some assistance. We know these things that there's not one pena when it comes to voting and we also know that voting is not necessarily gonna be the magic wand and that the day after the election, all of our troubles go away, but we gotta take it step by step and so just can you tell me a little bit about your experience with book by mail? Yeah because I traveled so much playing for the NBA I sometimes would be on the road in November. Election Day and voting by mail just became the easier way and I love taking my time I love being able to research each and every option so that you know I'm not rushing. I feel like sometimes when in the past when I would when I did go vote in person that I felt like I needed to rush just because I know that there's a line out there and I don't wanna be you know taking someone else's time and then. But the scary thing is is some of the we saw with Stacey Abrams like what the State of Georgia is doing she tried to vote by mail and then you hear the story about her trying to hold her envelope over like some steam to try to get it to open yes, I've never had go through that in California it's it's very easy to vote by mail if if you don't follow to a certain category. About I've always enjoyed being able to take my time and know that I don't have to be rushed and that I will have plenty of time to fill out my ballot. put it back in the mail and and it's pretty easy. Yeah. it's great. I also do it and for folks, please make sure that you are registered to vote in time you can look at your Secretary of state's guidelines and this timelines You can also go to sites like and vote or voting is local and to make sure. Find out ways to register to vote in your state so we have a question from a viewer so I'm gonna kick this over to Courtney I would like to know how these States get away with blatant voter suppression purging voters and voting machines not working in my minority towns and cities that is not a coincidence. How are they getting away with this? It's I'm sorry. I'm so I'm turned up on turn up to it's. it's not a. Incidents at all but I mean what what you basically have is. It's a very partisan issue and it should not be a partisan issue. democracy only works when everybody has an equal opportunity to vote and so what these people do on one side of the aisle is that they try to ensure that people typically for marginalized communities have no access and so you can put that undercover of voter fraud. So gerrymandering redrawing districts to make sure that these representatives are technically voting in themselves and they're not being checked by other people. So these are the kind of ways that people get around it and it's why it is so important for us to advocate that these barriers are knocked down and to continue to do these things even after the November election, we have so many more elections that we have to prepare for because as you all were saying. in school board elections grassroots mobilization is so important It starts at the bottom and so when you do that you make sure that your local officials are pro equality upholding civil rights basic democracy principles access to voting. So yeah, that's how they're allowed to get away with it and we're working as hard as we can. but it is an uphill battle It really is and it's really I just basic democracy That's what we're fighting for basic democracy. there's no reason. People should have been banging on glass in Kentucky you know just to get the right to vote and again as our questionnaire said it is explicitly in black and Brown communities and so we can't let that go either. I would just like to to add that I just saw in the news that the Atlanta Hawks are gonna turn State Farm a voting precinct in Atlanta and Fulton County. so there'll be the largest voting precinct in Fulton County. So that's really cool to see that the Atlanta Hawks. Up that way that is fantastic. Yeah, we'll definitely look into that Christian. I wanna give you a chance to get in here. Can you talk a little bit about what are the issues that you feel are coming to the forefront for the LGBTQ community. In terms of voting the voting polls, yeah, sure well I I I would like to speak more so if I can just the trans experience but I know a lot of folks you know every year when they go to the polls. I always hear complaints about you know people being turned away because their I D that's not match what they look like you know or you know just people be. based on ID checks. gender name does not match a person's appearance. so that's literally every year. I do not Philadelphia it's gotten so bad that you know community has come together and we've created you know Esports. We put our posts on social media if anybody you know once an escort or somebody to accompany them to the poll you know that that service is there, but you know that's. you know run by community and led by community our city our state has not done anything really to make voting for trans people easier the forms are very binary. and poll workers are not trained on trans experiences and identities. so that is a constant you know barrier that you know prevents a lot of people from casting their votes. Yeah absolutely. Again access to basic democracy so when we fight against these things to get back a bit to the intersectionality right when we're talking about doing a way with voter ID laws right, this is a clear example of a community who is held back because somebody decided to voter ID. law was a good idea right and we know that that is absolutely not the case. We also know that is engineered for a very specific reason and so we really encourage folks to please. thinking about the issues you're gonna come out with a wide lens and a wide perception and think about all of the people that is impacting even if it is not you yourself right, it will be impacting someone you know so when it like, I said, one of the last things that we talk about here on Turn Up Tuesday is what gives you hope because we can all use a little bit of hope these days so I'm gonna ask my guests to just take a take a couple of seconds and think about it and think about. Throughout all the amazing activation all the protests all the pushing the surprise Supreme Court decisions, which which I will be Frank. I think many of us were surprised as well on all of them so far but they're going our way and so in all of this, it feels like we have a little bit of break in the long fight ahead of us so we need to keep powered up for that big fight so Courtney. What gives you hope? What is giving me hope right now is that people are having these conversations as a community the movement at large as we talked about earlier, it has to be intersectional. it has to be inclusive and I see that in the protest I see that in activism and it really brings me happiness to see all these people coming together. So I think sometimes we can look at voting rights issues as the black issue and. Talk about that what that really means and bring all these different people together from different backgrounds and make it a one of one group issue. It's just really really brings me happiness. That's great. Yeah and we've set the name the word intersectionality intersectionality a lot and so I just wanna call in to this space the amazing Doctor Kimberly Crenshaw who black academic who actually coined the term. if you don't know who she is make sure that you all look her up. She's got some great writings on it. Alright. I'm gonna kick it. And Brandon, What gives you hope these days? I'll tell you it is young people that give me hope have had the distinct honor and pleasure of doing a lot of work with the students out of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School who unfortunately suffered a similar trauma that we did here in Orlando in 2018 and I think I felt a lot of things when I first met them, I felt disappointed that we as a society have let them down. I felt afraid for. Pain and suffering they were going to experience as they move on from this trauma, but they have taught me so much in the last couple of years about resilience about the power of optimism about you know to Courtney's point the power of community and when I look and I see you know the protests on the ground when I see who is organizing in a grassroots fashion when I look and see who is driving the conversation nationally around issues of civil rights and voter suppression. Young people it's not surprising to me that it's young people but it does give me a ton of hope. I'm really excited to see what you know the next future generations. Do I think they're gonna propel us into a beautiful new future where we finally live up to our values. We're Justice inequality mean something they're not just sloan's so I'm finding a lot of hope in future generations right now. Thank you so much I agree and so do so many of our guests. It's it's always a young people who will lead us in the right direction. Jason. What gives you hope these days? well? Courtney and Brandon I want to echo what they said. but I guess I'll add seeing the sports community also step up seeing more and more folks finally understand what Colin Kaepernick was talking about what what he was doing and. even we can take Drew Brees for, for example when he I'll say that he misspoke originally and then the. Day-I had to apologize that a lot of folks reached out to him and said you need to fix this and and he did he did fix it and so seeing and then you have LeBron James and a lot of other people stepping up to use their platform to get people to register to vote to get people excited about voting so that gives me hope seeing how the sports world I think it's finally getting it. What what Colin Kaepernick Was' was. And talk about all those years. Yeah, very true. Thank you and Christian. I'm gonna ask you what gives you hope these days. Do we leave you? We may have lost Christian. Alright Well, I'm gonna go ahead and we are a minute. to so I wanna say thank you so much to all of our guests again. Thank you to everybody who has turned up with us today and the previous Tuesdays be sure to come back every Tuesday from here until the election for Turn Up Tuesday brought to you by And Still I vote, which is powered by the leadership conference on civil and human rights and all voting is local again. check us out. We have a lot of resources for you. We have a lot of policy and program resources that you can use for the local level. All the. The federal level, so thank you all again so much I appreciate your time and have a wonderful week. Bye.