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June 12, 2023 17 mins

In this special Pride Month crossover episode, Carmen sits down with Danielle Moodie, host of WokeAF Daily, to discuss the meaning of pride month to her and how the marriage equality movement differed from the trans rights movement.

Be sure to check out Carmen's interview with Danielle over on the WokeAF Daily Feed, also dropping today!

https://www.daniellemoodie.com/

For more from Carmen and Beauty Translated visit @thecarmenlaurent & @beautytranslatedpod

 

 

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Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Pat Robertson has died during Pride Month, so I think
that makes him an ally, you know, or something. Welcome
Beauty translated listeners to another minisode. This week, we are
doing a crossover with one of our fabulous podcasts on
the iHeart and Outspoken Networks. Today, I have Danielle Moody

(00:24):
with me and she is the host of woke af Daily. Hi, Danielle,
how are you doing today?

Speaker 2 (00:29):
I'm good. How are you doing?

Speaker 1 (00:31):
I'm doing well. It's good to see you again and
good to have you here for this wonderful Pride Month
special that we're that we're doing.

Speaker 2 (00:40):
I'm super excited to be here.

Speaker 1 (00:41):
Yeah, thank you. Danielle. Could you start out by just
kind of telling the listeners a little bit, a little
bit about who you are?

Speaker 2 (00:49):
Yeah, how much time do you have? Just kidding? So yeah.
WOKF Daily is a five day week political podcast that
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

(01:12):
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.

Speaker 1 (01:34):
Yeah, that's that's fantastic because yeah, as you said, there's
crazier and crazier news coming out every day, Especially for
those of us that are a part of the lgbt
Q plus community, it is becoming more and more stressful
and challenging to navigate this world. And it's really great
to have podcasts like yours out there that provide different

(01:56):
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,

(02:16):
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?

Speaker 2 (02:32):
So a little bit about me I am. I guess
how I used to talk about myself as a recovering lobbyist.
I spent a lot of time in living in Washington, DC,
working on Capitol Hill, working for different thing tanks like
the Center for American Progress, and then transitioned into media

(02:55):
when we were kind of gearing up for the marriage
equality fight. So this is like the early twenty tens,
you know, for folks to remember that, you know, marriage
equality was not the law of the land until twenty
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

(03:18):
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,

(03:40):
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

(04:03):
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

(04:25):
registers for them. So that's kind of how I've built
my career through policy, through media and find myself here.

Speaker 1 (04:33):
Wow. Yeah, that is quite quite the background you have there,
and quite the journey you've had. Thank you for fighting
the fight and the marriage equality.

Speaker 2 (04:42):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (04:42):
During that, you know, I was, I was, this is
going to sound crazy. I was in high school when that,
when that happened, and it was, you know, a very
very big deal. I remember, you know, being in Georgia.
People people that weren't excited about it were acting like
the sky was falling, you know, And here we are,
something like more than ten years later, and the sky

(05:05):
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

(05:27):
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?

Speaker 2 (05:49):
Well, the unfortunate difference, and again I don't sugarcoat things,
is the fact that the marriage equality movement was largely
funded by CIS white gay men, right, And so when
you have shoes that are going to impact a double
income oftentimes no kids demographic of the LGBTQ plus movement,

(06:11):
they had a lot of money and put a lot
of money and a lot of funding behind what was
probably the one right that they were not afforded. And
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

(06:33):
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

(06:54):
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

(07:18):
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

(07:42):
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.

Speaker 1 (08:04):
Yeah, we'll come back for the tea later. Which yeah,
which even at the time I remember that being kind
of the feeling I had was like, Okay, well, yeah,
they're not helping me right now, but maybe the later
type of thing. And I think it's interesting because now
we're dealing with all of this, you know, anti trans
legislation and stuff like that. And what's interesting to me

(08:29):
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

(08:49):
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.

(09:10):
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

(09:31):
trans people at the moment.

Speaker 2 (09:32):
Can I just say one quick thingmen, because I think
that it's important. I talk a lot on my show
about my about my family, about my parents, and my
mother is you know, owns a yoga studio out east
on Long Island, and you know, she had, through the
course of like her work and time, had one of
her students were a gay couple queer couple, and then

(09:57):
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

(10:18):
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,

(10:41):
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

(11:03):
have more than enough ability and intelligence to be able
to work themselves through a process to understanding right exactly.

Speaker 1 (11:10):
And it's it's anyone at any age should be able
to should be able to expand their thinking and grasp
these concepts. Thank you for that, Danielle. I'm going to
take us on a quick break and when we come back,
we'll talk more with Danielle and we're back, all right, Danielle.

(11:37):
So I wanted to ask you, as we are talking
a lot about the lgbt Q plus community and just
about Pride Month, what does Pride Month mean to you? Specifically?

Speaker 2 (11:53):
Such a good question because you know, my relationship with
Pride has changed throughout the years, and I think that
it's base on where we are as a country and
overall society. In some years it has just been full
on celebration and you know, rainbows and sparkles and you know,
dance parties and what have you. And I think that
now it is really about using your joy as resistance.

(12:17):
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

(12:38):
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

(13:00):
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.

Speaker 1 (13:09):
So that's kind of the space that I'm in. Yeah,
and it is hard, you know, it is hard to
be joyful in these moments. It's not easy. But I
do believe that part of this whole mission is to
really just like wear us down and make us as
depressed and down on ourselves as possible, And of course

(13:30):
we should take it seriously, but at the same time,
we do have to have the energy and the willingness
to fight back and push back because Pride was a riot. Yeah.
So there's been a lot of news stories going on
in the world. What I wanted to celebrate in this

(13:50):
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

(14:11):
do you call it, televangelist? So, yeah, you have any
thoughts on good old Pat?

Speaker 2 (14:16):
Yeah, good Old Pat is the He was the original grifter.
He was the person that created the playbook for white
evangelical Christians taking over the Republican Party with their hatred
and lies, transphobia, bigotry, and racism. This man had said

(14:36):
some of the most egregious, disgusting things about queer people.
And it's unfortunate that he was able to live to
the ripe old age of ninety three. But I think
that the devastation that he has caused will far outlive him.
And it's important that you know, people say, don't speak
ill of the dead, Well, don't do bad shit when

(14:58):
you're alive. How about that? How about that? Yeah?

Speaker 1 (15:02):
Exactly, Yeah, and I completely agree with that. Yeah, he
was pretty much spent his whole life being, you know,
as evil as he possibly could. Yes, And if you
haven't watched Like the Family on Netflix, I don't know
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

(15:27):
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,

(15:52):
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

(16:14):
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?

Speaker 2 (16:30):
Yes, absolutely so you can listen to WOKF Daily here
wonderfully on iHeart part of the Outspoken Slate. You can
also keep up with me on Danielle Moody dot com,
where you can get connected all over my social media's Twitter,
TikTok and Instagram.

Speaker 1 (16:50):
Beautiful. Thank you, Danielle, and I will be sure to
include links and whatnot and the episode descriptions of be
sure to check those out. Thank you for being here
with us. Today, Danielle, I'll thank you for this Pride
Month special crossover and a Happy Pride Month to you.
Stay joyful as well.

Speaker 2 (17:08):
Yeah yeah, Happy Pride to you and all of the listeners.

Speaker 1 (17:13):
Be sure to check out my interview with Danielle Mudy
over on the LOKF Daily Feed, which also dropped today
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