June 12, 2023 • 29 mins
Carmen Laurent, host of Beauty Translated on the Outspoken network, joined Danielle for a timely conversation about the mission and story behind her podcast and her personal experiences as a trans woman. Make sure to catch the Beauty Translated minisode with Danielle up NOW: https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1119-beauty-translated-98308546/episode/minisode-7-beauty-translated-x-wokeaf-117141786/
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
Good morning, peeps, and welcome to WOKF Daily with Meet
your Girl Daniel Moody, recording from the Home Bunker. Folks,
how is this Pride season treating you? I'm really interested
in hearing from all of you who are a part
of the LGBTQ plus community and tell me how you
were feeling about Pride this year. As I stated at
(00:35):
the beginning of the month, WOKF is committed to our
theme this year of you Can't Ban Queer Joy, and
we've teamed up with Glad as well as some of
our friends at Outspoken at iHeartRadio in order to bring
you conversations that are really important. You see now that
the LGBTQ community is in the headlines on a day
(00:57):
to day basis, and it is for nothing that is good.
It is about all of the attacks and cruelty and
legislation that is being passed in this country every single day.
Right now, as I speak, over five hundred pieces of
anti LGBTQ, anti trans legislation have been introduced. Of those,
(01:17):
seventy six have been signed into law. We are at
a really terrible place, and you know in the LGBTQ community,
like we are not strangers right to the ups and
downs of acceptance in this country. But these attacks that
we are seeing are like nothing that we've seen, probably
since the nineteen eighties, probably since this Saved the Children
(01:42):
campaign that labeled us at that time as all pedophiles
in groomers. You see that what is old becomes new
again under new Republican regime and new focus on hate
and cruelty instead of actually working on issues that the
American people care about, like you know, being able to
breathe air and go outside when it doesn't look like
(02:03):
the fucking you know, sunset on Mars, being able to
breathe clean air, drink clean water, you know, combating real
issues like not you know, sending our kids to school
and then having to pick them up in body bags,
or the unrelenting violence against black people in this country.
And you know, there are so many things that could
(02:24):
be tackled, so much attention could be put towards making
our lives better, But instead the Republican Party and the
white Evangelical Christians are hell bent on making the lives
of LGBTQ plus people, but particularly our trans brothers and
sisters hell on Earth. And so I am very excited
to introduce today's conversation with Carmen Laurent, who is a
(02:48):
transactivist and is the host of the outspoken podcast Beauty Translated,
and in this conversation, and I'm excited about it because
we're doing a special crossover where Carmen is airing an
interview with me as a minisode on her show, and
I am airing my interview with her here on WOKF
(03:11):
Daily because I think that it is important again you
know that we are in community with one another, but
that we are really talking to people whose lived experiences
we may not understand or we may not really have
an idea of what is actually happening outside of the headlines,
and so it's important to get to a place of understanding.
(03:33):
You don't have to like me, but you're sure as
fucks should have to respect me. You sure as fuck
should have to respect and provide dignity.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
Right.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
If I give you the tools to be better, then
you shouldn't decide to kick over that toolbox or throw
them away, which is what the Republican Party is doing
with regard to the trans community. You don't have to
be in quote unquote solidarity with us or with the
community at large, but you sure as functions be standing
in people's way of being able to live their full
(04:04):
and complete lives. And so my conversation with Carmen, I think,
you know, brings to light a lot of the experiences
that she's had as a trans woman living in Georgia,
living in Red States and what that has felt like
and what that looks like in real time, and also
(04:25):
providing solutions on how to be better allies, both those
that are in the LGBTQ plus community and those outside
of the community. So I really hope that you all
enjoy this conversation, leave comments, and do make sure to
head over to Beauty Translated and listen to Carmen interviewing
me as well. Both of these episodes are up now, folks.
(04:53):
I am very excited to kick off this Pride Month
with a fellow I Heart podcaster, Carmen Laurent, who is
the host of Beauty Translated and is skin therapist, wonderful
trans woman and the podcast go focuses on the trans
(05:17):
experience in the Southeast United States, and Carmen, welcome, thank
you to the show, and tell us a bit more
about Beauty Translated and why you started this fabulous pod.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
Well, first of all, thank you for having me, and
you know, just to just to talk a little bit
about beauty translated. I obviously I was selected, you know,
I was selected by the Next Up program, which I'm
very honored to have been selected by. They chose my
pitch out of all the other pitches to be a
part of the program, or out of the mini pitches
(05:53):
and everything, and the podcast is basically, uh, you know,
I didn't have an idea of what exactly I wanted
to create when I started the program, but through all
of the coaching and the lessons that we had, I
really started to develop my direction. And I was really
listening to the advice of my mentors and my peers,
(06:16):
and that was just being as true to myself as
I could possibly be, because I turns out people really
like it when you are just authentically yourself. Yes, And
so you know, I started thinking about I started thinking
about the things that make me who I am. And
(06:36):
one of the things that is a part of who
I am is that I'm born and raised in the
South and I've never actually in my life lived anywhere else.
So oh, it's kind of borne out of that, like
kind of limited perspective of what you know, what all
is out there, and just to remind people that trans
(06:57):
and queer people exist in all places, not east in
large metropolitan cities. And you know, even with season two,
I have moved moved on from you know, the Southeast,
and I'm even talking to people that are in rural
more rural areas that are you know, outside of the
Southeast as well, And so yeah, I'm really just trying
to get as many different perspectives as I can, and
(07:21):
I love to just let my guests speak authentically about
what they're what they're experiencing. So that's what the show's
all about.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
That's wonderful. And I think that you know, I know
that you've said that you've since moved on from just
the geographical focus and have branched out, but you know,
I do want to give you an opportunity to speak
on you know, what it is like, right because for
many people I think that listen to wok F have
(07:50):
a different idea about what it means to be queer
where queer people exist, even though we say queer people
and trance people are everywhere right in rural places, in
cities and suburbs, what have you. But in a lot
of ways, the Republican Party and conservatives have made it
(08:11):
so that, you know, we only exist in these you know, uh,
devil bastions of blue cities that are running up with
crime and all of these things. And so can you
talk about what your experience has been like living in
the Southeast as a trans woman, as a queer person
(08:33):
and how that may be different from other people that
you talk to and have interviewed who live in uh,
who live in other geographical areas.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
There's a lot of differences. I mean, the first and
foremost is, you know, we live in places that are
actively legislating against us at the moment. You know. That's yeah,
that's one thing. But surprisingly, in my experience, you know,
just in all of the years I've lived here, in
all of the years I've lived as a trans woman,
(09:02):
the the it's surprising, you know, I think the right
will have you think that, you know, like you said
that cities are these horrible places with crime and gay
people and whatever whatever is going on, and uh, that
we don't exist outside of outside of those areas. But
in reality, most people that I encounter in my day
(09:24):
to day life are happy. You know to to meet me,
They're usually not rude to me. And that being said,
I'm far into my transition now many people may not
even recognize the fact that I'm that I'm trans when
I'm meeting them. But early on, you know, I faced
a lot of issues in school. I faced a lot
of issues with uh, you know, authority figures so to speak,
(09:48):
in school that wanted to essentially, you know, force me
to live as male. And so I will say it's
gotten a lot better since I left high school. You know,
shortly after I left high school, Obama signed the or
the memo he released on transgender students and used in
the bathroom, and that made me cry, you know, just
(10:09):
because finally somebody in an official capacity was acknowledging the
experience that I had gone through and I'd been suspended
over and over and over again from schools just for
needing to go to the bathroom. So it's gotten better.
But in a lot of ways, I feel as though
with this current wave of anti trans legislation that we're
(10:29):
all living through, I think it has increased the publics,
you know, disdain for queer people, and so I often,
you know, I have a little dog, you know, I
have a little puppy that people are very excited to see.
(10:50):
I'm always nervous, you know, when it's kids and stuff
like that, because the second somebody recognizes that I'm trans
and they're talking to my to their kid is talking
to my dog, you know, am I going to be
you know, targeted as a quote unquote groomer or whatever.
So it's it's very you know, uh, you just take
(11:11):
it day by day.
Speaker 1 (11:13):
Yeah, I've been talking a lot about, you know, the
fact that there are human beings that are behind the
headlines that I cover on a regular basis. Right, all
of the terrible things that Ronda Santis is doing in Florida,
what is happening in Texas, What is happening in Alabama
(11:34):
and Mississippi and Tennessee and all of these you know,
red states, And I feel like people become really detached
from the fact that whenever when they continue to see
that there is a bathroom band, when they consider to
see that there's a book band, when they are seeing
that there are no more safe stickers right that were
(11:56):
once in schools and on classroom doors that would let
a queer youth know that this this space, this teacher,
this administrator is safe that when those things are removed,
you're creating such a hostile, terrifying environment. And so, you know,
(12:17):
Carmen as somebody who is living inside of a state
that is actively legislating, you know, against against you against
and it's particularly yes, it is the LGBTQ community at large,
but is specifically it is specifically targeting at trans people
(12:37):
and trans youth. You know, how do you maintain your
mental and emotional well being and how do you express
to others that this isn't just another piece of legislation,
that this is really about right your ability to exist
(12:58):
as a full and complete human being and citizen.
Speaker 2 (13:02):
Part of that is just connecting with people, hopefully even
through my podcast that learn about the experiences that we
have and learn that, you know, we are real people
who need this type of care in order to you know,
live our full, happy lives. And if we don't have
access to that, you know, we're no longer being welcomed
(13:26):
where we are. And so I know a lot of
fellow you know, queer people from here in the South,
and I want to acknowledge also that Atlanta is relatively
liberal compared to the rest of the South, you know,
and so I have it pretty easy, you know, compared
to somebody who say lives in like Minnesota or I'm sorry,
(13:48):
Minnesota is a good state. Sorry Missouri the other in state.
If somebody lives in Missouri, then you know, yeah, I
have it a lot better. But people are looking at
fleeing their homes now because we're feeling more and more
like the writings on the wall that were that we're
not welcomed here. And I just think more people who
(14:10):
are our cis need to I need to see that
and recognize that we're under attack and we're feeling threatened
and we don't feel safe in our own homes anymore.
And nobody should have to go through that, you know.
I mean nobody should have to consider, oh, well, I'm
going to have to uproot my life and relocate. Because
the honest truth is is that the majority of people
(14:31):
who are going to be the most affected by these
things can't uproot themselves and leave. They are stuck here. So,
you know, I try to use my voice as much
as I can with the podcast, and you know, I
do a weekly news I do a weekly news episode.
I could do a daily news episode just because there's
(14:51):
so much going on, but I have to keep it
till weekly because it really does exhaust me keeping up
with all of the anti trans news that's going on.
I mean, I'm already keeping up with all the other
crazy news that's going on, plus adding in this wave
of anti trans stuff, and it's yeah, it's not looking great.
(15:14):
And I personally, you know, talking about Rhondasantis, I think
that twenty twenty four is going to be a hard
time for all of us trans people, queer people, because
we are going to be the only, the only thing
that the Republican Party has to run off of in
this next presidential campaign. It's all going to be fear
(15:37):
mongering about, you know, the LGBTQ community. And I just
have to say, you know, what gets me through it
is looking to my elders and looking to the people
who have been through worse than this, and that paved
the way for us. So when I look at you
know what a lot of the elders have to say,
(15:58):
you know, they tell us that it's been a lot
worse and we're going to be okay. And so I
I appreciate my elders and moments like these.
Speaker 1 (16:08):
And I think that that is so important because I
worry so much for trans youth. I am like really concerned.
You know, A couple of years ago, right the campaign
came out it gets better told, you know, we all
(16:28):
did like little videos I did I did, you know,
a couple and interviews of you know, trying to as
you know, as a as a as a black queer woman,
you know who's systs, but trying to use my experience
of you know, living at the intersection of multiple identities
to say like, look, you can work in government, be
(16:49):
on TV, do these you know, have these jobs. Like
it's your world is bigger than people around you are
trying to, you know, squeeze you into these boxes and
squeeze you and bully you into not wanting to exist. Right.
But now, you know, fast forward, it's just been a
(17:11):
handful of years since that campaign originated, and I can't
honestly say that things get better because that's not how
it feels. Yeah, right, And so you know, how what
kind of support can people provide who even are both
(17:35):
inside of the community and outside of the community to
youth specifically, you know, who don't have the recourse because
they don't have the vote, they're not old enough yet, right,
and they don't have a voice, and so we must
then be their voice.
Speaker 2 (17:54):
Yeah, I say that Really, the best I think the
best tool for somebody to be an alli asi is
per to be an ally for trans people is to
really educate yourselves on the misinformation that's that's going around.
And so a lot of the misinformation regarding trans youth,
and I speak as somebody who was at trans youth,
(18:14):
a lot of the misinformation regarding trans youth is very
to the average person, it's very vague, you know, we
even you know, a couple of weeks ago, I saw
a news clip of It'll come to me who it was.
But they were talking on the news like asking another
trans when what is gender affirming care? Because they keep
(18:35):
talking about gender affirming care and they don't actually know
what gender affirming care is. And the reality is that
for trans youth, the majority of gender affirming care that
takes place is not medical. The majority of it that
takes place is going to be social, which is like
you know, changing clothes, hair pronouns, things like that, not
necessarily you know, you know, going and chopping boy. You know,
(19:00):
they like to say mutilation and stuff like that. Those
kinds of words are all like you know, red flags. Obviously,
if somebody is you know, using any type of word
like mutilation or anything like that to describe the trans experience,
be prepared for a lot of misinformation. Because we don't
talk about people having c sections as mutilation. We don't
talk about teenage girls having breast and plants and nose
(19:23):
shops as mutilation. But when it comes to trans people,
it's it's it's painted in this very dehumanizing light. And
I'd like to also point out the biggest straw man
argument with all of or I think with all of this,
is when you bring up intersex children into the picture.
Intersex children are born with genitals that do not match
(19:47):
the you know, either male or female sex characteristics, so
the doctor decides for them right then and there whether
they're going to be a male or a female for
the rest of their life. And it turns out that
lots of intersex children that have under that have been
forced into these you know, operations, have ended up growing
up and not identifying with the gender that the doctor
(20:09):
assigned them with. But nobody cares about about that conversation
about mutilation quote unquote mutilation when it comes to intersex children.
And you know, that's just another another interesting thing that
I notice a lot in these conversations.
Speaker 1 (20:29):
You know, one of the things that I also find
really troubling is this idea that young people shouldn't have
any agency over their bodily autonomy. Right that we're we're
seeing legislation, you know, hundreds of bills, as we've covered
on this show have been passed, but particularly around denying
(20:50):
the access to hormones until you're eighteen, right until until
you're eighteen years old? Can you speak to why that
one is problematic? Right, if you're choosing to take hormones,
why pushing that off in terms of age is a problem.
And also too, just speak to the lack of agency
(21:12):
that we you know, that one we give people just
in general, those with wombs, particularly in this country, don't
have any agency over their bodies anymore in a lot
of these red states. But why that is important for
young people to have that agency? Well?
Speaker 2 (21:27):
Yeah, I think young people we realize who we are
at much younger ages than adults. The adults around us
think we do. You know, I remember realizing that I
was a girl when I was around seven or eight
years old. My mother told me it was just a
phase and that it would go away. And by the
time I was experiencing puberty, I was having one of
(21:49):
the first traumatic experiences of my life. And it was
a very long drawn out experience to be forced to
experience a male puberty until I was, you know, eighteen
years old.
Speaker 3 (22:03):
And so.
Speaker 2 (22:06):
You know, it causes a lot of It causes, you know,
a lot of issues. And I don't necessarily think it
depends on how you look at it, you know, through
a positive lens, like I don't necessarily think having masculine
features is anything to make you at all less of
a woman. But the more you are stuck in that
(22:30):
male or female puberty, your body develops in that direction,
and then you already have a lot more work done
in order to reverse those changes. So if I had
started hormones, say when I was like fifteen or sixteen,
I probably wouldn't needed to have under I mean, I'm
still undergoing laser hair removal and electrolysis on my face.
Wouldn't have had to deal with all of that, wouldn't
(22:51):
have to shape my face every day like I still do,
and I wouldn't need to, you know, save up for
facial feminization surge. You know, uh, you know, all of
those secondary sex characteristics would have been put to a halt,
which would have saved me a lot of you know,
time and money as an adult. And what a lot
(23:12):
of people don't realize is like most people my age
are buying houses. I mean maybe maybe not.
Speaker 3 (23:17):
Like houses in this economy, not in this economy, yeah exactly,
but like most people in my at my age, I'm thirty,
are you know, looking at settling down and establishing their
lives and all of that.
Speaker 2 (23:30):
And what they don't realize is that the majority of
trans people, even those of us that have been transitioning
since we were teens, unless we had like super supportive parents,
which I did not, then you're having to focus on
all of those things first. And now I you know,
I've put I've put off so many priorities. I've put
(23:52):
off buying a car so that I could afford to
have surgery, because you know, it's more important to me
to be able to to feel comfortable in my own
body than to be able to even go in my
car whenever I want, you know, get in my car
and go somewhere.
Speaker 1 (24:06):
Yeah, I appreciate that because I think that I don't
feel like enough people, particularly those that are on media right,
those that have have microphones like the two of us,
do really are sharing the narrative in a holistic and
real way that people can understand and are just throwing
(24:30):
around words without necessarily connecting them to meaning and connecting
them to real people's stories. So when I think about,
you know, the conversation around gender affirming care and a
majority of people having no idea what that means, right,
And when I think about you know, talking about hormones
and denying people and mutilation and all of you know,
(24:52):
it's just this hodgepodge of words and you're not attaching
real people and the day to day lived experience. So
my last question for you, Carmen is you know, what
is it that needs to change in our responses to
(25:14):
disrupt the mainstream media's miscommunication? Like what needs to be
the shift? You know, it has been that politicians on
you know, the side of progress Democrats have not wanted
to engage in the culture. We're not engaging in the
culture wars, right, We're above that. And they've allowed the
(25:38):
right to clearly run amock and lead the narrative right
that now you're being forced to defend. So what is
it that needs to shift?
Speaker 2 (25:48):
You think, Well, that's a great question, and I've been
thinking about that a lot lately because what I think
I see happening so much lately is we're please with
these hateful people to see us as human, you know,
we're pleading for these people to recognize our humanity and
(26:10):
our right to exist. And I think we really have
to stop being so respectful, you know, and stop being
so polite, and stop being so you know, like you said,
not wanting to engage in that, because the reality is
is we're expecting the Republican Party to play by the
(26:33):
rules that the Democratic Party is playing by. They don't
play by those rules now, and we have to really,
I mean, we have to really step it up in
terms of just our response because I feel like as
a community, we're pleading for our right to exist, but
we really need to say we are here and we're
not going away, and we need to stop I think,
(26:55):
begging these people to recognize our humanity. I don't know
if that's quite a solution, but I think if we
can be just a little more, I don't know how
to say, like I guess aggressive however, you whatever the
word is that I'm looking for, but just a little
more forceful with what we're going through, I think we'll
(27:16):
see a lot more success. I don't know, but that's
just me. Yeah, no, And I agree.
Speaker 1 (27:24):
I agree with the fact that, you know, we are
assuming that people have a moral compass, We're assuming that
we can make pleas to people's hearts and minds. And
I say, you know, you can't shame the devil. So
at some point in time you have to change tactics.
It's you want to see a different result.
Speaker 2 (27:46):
Yeah, you can't. You can't negotiate or compromise with fascists,
you know you can't. And so the response has to
be a little bit more aggressive, I think, in order
to show that, like we really we were really dealing
with not just a difference in opinion. We're dealing with
a difference in our right, you know, our opinion and
(28:08):
our right to exist, which is totally different than than
an opinion, you know, and should not be up for debate,
exactly exactly.
Speaker 1 (28:17):
Carmen, tell people how to find you and to find
beauty translated.
Speaker 2 (28:22):
You can find me on Instagram where I am, Uh,
you know, I post memes all day long. You can
find me on Instagram at the Carmen Laurent that's Lauren
with a tea at the end. And you can listen
to Beauty Translated wherever you get your podcasts on the
(28:43):
Outspoken Network, So check out Beauty Translated.
Speaker 1 (28:46):
Thank you so much for making the time for WOKF.
Speaker 2 (28:49):
We really appreciate you. I really appreciate it. Thanks for
having me, Danielle.
Speaker 1 (28:57):
That is it for me today, dear friends. Woke a
up as always, Power to the people and to all
the people. Power, get woke and stay woke as fuck.
Good morning, peeps, and welcome to WOKF Daily with Meet
your Girl Daniel Moody, recording from the Home Bunker. Folks,
how is this Pride season treating you? I'm really interested
in hearing from all of you who are a part
of the LGBTQ plus community and tell me how you
were feeling about Pride this year. As I stated at
(00:35):
the beginning of the month, WOKF is committed to our
theme this year of you Can't Ban Queer Joy, and
we've teamed up with Glad as well as some of
our friends at Outspoken at iHeartRadio in order to bring
you conversations that are really important. You see now that
the LGBTQ community is in the headlines on a day
(00:57):
to day basis, and it is for nothing that is good.
It is about all of the attacks and cruelty and
legislation that is being passed in this country every single day.
Right now, as I speak, over five hundred pieces of
anti LGBTQ, anti trans legislation have been introduced. Of those,
(01:17):
seventy six have been signed into law. We are at
a really terrible place, and you know in the LGBTQ community,
like we are not strangers right to the ups and
downs of acceptance in this country. But these attacks that
we are seeing are like nothing that we've seen, probably
since the nineteen eighties, probably since this Saved the Children
(01:42):
campaign that labeled us at that time as all pedophiles
in groomers. You see that what is old becomes new
again under new Republican regime and new focus on hate
and cruelty instead of actually working on issues that the
American people care about, like you know, being able to
breathe air and go outside when it doesn't look like
(02:03):
the fucking you know, sunset on Mars, being able to
breathe clean air, drink clean water, you know, combating real
issues like not you know, sending our kids to school
and then having to pick them up in body bags,
or the unrelenting violence against black people in this country.
And you know, there are so many things that could
(02:24):
be tackled, so much attention could be put towards making
our lives better, But instead the Republican Party and the
white Evangelical Christians are hell bent on making the lives
of LGBTQ plus people, but particularly our trans brothers and
sisters hell on Earth. And so I am very excited
to introduce today's conversation with Carmen Laurent, who is a
(02:48):
transactivist and is the host of the outspoken podcast Beauty Translated,
and in this conversation, and I'm excited about it because
we're doing a special crossover where Carmen is airing an
interview with me as a minisode on her show, and
I am airing my interview with her here on WOKF
(03:11):
Daily because I think that it is important again you
know that we are in community with one another, but
that we are really talking to people whose lived experiences
we may not understand or we may not really have
an idea of what is actually happening outside of the headlines,
and so it's important to get to a place of understanding.
(03:33):
You don't have to like me, but you're sure as
fucks should have to respect me. You sure as fuck
should have to respect and provide dignity.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
Right.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
If I give you the tools to be better, then
you shouldn't decide to kick over that toolbox or throw
them away, which is what the Republican Party is doing
with regard to the trans community. You don't have to
be in quote unquote solidarity with us or with the
community at large, but you sure as functions be standing
in people's way of being able to live their full
(04:04):
and complete lives. And so my conversation with Carmen, I think,
you know, brings to light a lot of the experiences
that she's had as a trans woman living in Georgia,
living in Red States and what that has felt like
and what that looks like in real time, and also
(04:25):
providing solutions on how to be better allies, both those
that are in the LGBTQ plus community and those outside
of the community. So I really hope that you all
enjoy this conversation, leave comments, and do make sure to
head over to Beauty Translated and listen to Carmen interviewing
me as well. Both of these episodes are up now, folks.
(04:53):
I am very excited to kick off this Pride Month
with a fellow I Heart podcaster, Carmen Laurent, who is
the host of Beauty Translated and is skin therapist, wonderful
trans woman and the podcast go focuses on the trans
(05:17):
experience in the Southeast United States, and Carmen, welcome, thank
you to the show, and tell us a bit more
about Beauty Translated and why you started this fabulous pod.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
Well, first of all, thank you for having me, and
you know, just to just to talk a little bit
about beauty translated. I obviously I was selected, you know,
I was selected by the Next Up program, which I'm
very honored to have been selected by. They chose my
pitch out of all the other pitches to be a
part of the program, or out of the mini pitches
(05:53):
and everything, and the podcast is basically, uh, you know,
I didn't have an idea of what exactly I wanted
to create when I started the program, but through all
of the coaching and the lessons that we had, I
really started to develop my direction. And I was really
listening to the advice of my mentors and my peers,
(06:16):
and that was just being as true to myself as
I could possibly be, because I turns out people really
like it when you are just authentically yourself. Yes, And
so you know, I started thinking about I started thinking
about the things that make me who I am. And
(06:36):
one of the things that is a part of who
I am is that I'm born and raised in the
South and I've never actually in my life lived anywhere else.
So oh, it's kind of borne out of that, like
kind of limited perspective of what you know, what all
is out there, and just to remind people that trans
(06:57):
and queer people exist in all places, not east in
large metropolitan cities. And you know, even with season two,
I have moved moved on from you know, the Southeast,
and I'm even talking to people that are in rural
more rural areas that are you know, outside of the
Southeast as well, And so yeah, I'm really just trying
to get as many different perspectives as I can, and
(07:21):
I love to just let my guests speak authentically about
what they're what they're experiencing. So that's what the show's
all about.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
That's wonderful. And I think that you know, I know
that you've said that you've since moved on from just
the geographical focus and have branched out, but you know,
I do want to give you an opportunity to speak
on you know, what it is like, right because for
many people I think that listen to wok F have
(07:50):
a different idea about what it means to be queer
where queer people exist, even though we say queer people
and trance people are everywhere right in rural places, in
cities and suburbs, what have you. But in a lot
of ways, the Republican Party and conservatives have made it
(08:11):
so that, you know, we only exist in these you know, uh,
devil bastions of blue cities that are running up with
crime and all of these things. And so can you
talk about what your experience has been like living in
the Southeast as a trans woman, as a queer person
(08:33):
and how that may be different from other people that
you talk to and have interviewed who live in uh,
who live in other geographical areas.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
There's a lot of differences. I mean, the first and
foremost is, you know, we live in places that are
actively legislating against us at the moment. You know. That's yeah,
that's one thing. But surprisingly, in my experience, you know,
just in all of the years I've lived here, in
all of the years I've lived as a trans woman,
(09:02):
the the it's surprising, you know, I think the right
will have you think that, you know, like you said
that cities are these horrible places with crime and gay
people and whatever whatever is going on, and uh, that
we don't exist outside of outside of those areas. But
in reality, most people that I encounter in my day
(09:24):
to day life are happy. You know to to meet me,
They're usually not rude to me. And that being said,
I'm far into my transition now many people may not
even recognize the fact that I'm that I'm trans when
I'm meeting them. But early on, you know, I faced
a lot of issues in school. I faced a lot
of issues with uh, you know, authority figures so to speak,
(09:48):
in school that wanted to essentially, you know, force me
to live as male. And so I will say it's
gotten a lot better since I left high school. You know,
shortly after I left high school, Obama signed the or
the memo he released on transgender students and used in
the bathroom, and that made me cry, you know, just
(10:09):
because finally somebody in an official capacity was acknowledging the
experience that I had gone through and I'd been suspended
over and over and over again from schools just for
needing to go to the bathroom. So it's gotten better.
But in a lot of ways, I feel as though
with this current wave of anti trans legislation that we're
(10:29):
all living through, I think it has increased the publics,
you know, disdain for queer people, and so I often,
you know, I have a little dog, you know, I
have a little puppy that people are very excited to see.
(10:50):
I'm always nervous, you know, when it's kids and stuff
like that, because the second somebody recognizes that I'm trans
and they're talking to my to their kid is talking
to my dog, you know, am I going to be
you know, targeted as a quote unquote groomer or whatever.
So it's it's very you know, uh, you just take
(11:11):
it day by day.
Speaker 1 (11:13):
Yeah, I've been talking a lot about, you know, the
fact that there are human beings that are behind the
headlines that I cover on a regular basis. Right, all
of the terrible things that Ronda Santis is doing in Florida,
what is happening in Texas, What is happening in Alabama
(11:34):
and Mississippi and Tennessee and all of these you know,
red states, And I feel like people become really detached
from the fact that whenever when they continue to see
that there is a bathroom band, when they consider to
see that there's a book band, when they are seeing
that there are no more safe stickers right that were
(11:56):
once in schools and on classroom doors that would let
a queer youth know that this this space, this teacher,
this administrator is safe that when those things are removed,
you're creating such a hostile, terrifying environment. And so, you know,
(12:17):
Carmen as somebody who is living inside of a state
that is actively legislating, you know, against against you against
and it's particularly yes, it is the LGBTQ community at large,
but is specifically it is specifically targeting at trans people
(12:37):
and trans youth. You know, how do you maintain your
mental and emotional well being and how do you express
to others that this isn't just another piece of legislation,
that this is really about right your ability to exist
(12:58):
as a full and complete human being and citizen.
Speaker 2 (13:02):
Part of that is just connecting with people, hopefully even
through my podcast that learn about the experiences that we
have and learn that, you know, we are real people
who need this type of care in order to you know,
live our full, happy lives. And if we don't have
access to that, you know, we're no longer being welcomed
(13:26):
where we are. And so I know a lot of
fellow you know, queer people from here in the South,
and I want to acknowledge also that Atlanta is relatively
liberal compared to the rest of the South, you know,
and so I have it pretty easy, you know, compared
to somebody who say lives in like Minnesota or I'm sorry,
(13:48):
Minnesota is a good state. Sorry Missouri the other in state.
If somebody lives in Missouri, then you know, yeah, I
have it a lot better. But people are looking at
fleeing their homes now because we're feeling more and more
like the writings on the wall that were that we're
not welcomed here. And I just think more people who
(14:10):
are our cis need to I need to see that
and recognize that we're under attack and we're feeling threatened
and we don't feel safe in our own homes anymore.
And nobody should have to go through that, you know.
I mean nobody should have to consider, oh, well, I'm
going to have to uproot my life and relocate. Because
the honest truth is is that the majority of people
(14:31):
who are going to be the most affected by these
things can't uproot themselves and leave. They are stuck here. So,
you know, I try to use my voice as much
as I can with the podcast, and you know, I
do a weekly news I do a weekly news episode.
I could do a daily news episode just because there's
(14:51):
so much going on, but I have to keep it
till weekly because it really does exhaust me keeping up
with all of the anti trans news that's going on.
I mean, I'm already keeping up with all the other
crazy news that's going on, plus adding in this wave
of anti trans stuff, and it's yeah, it's not looking great.
(15:14):
And I personally, you know, talking about Rhondasantis, I think
that twenty twenty four is going to be a hard
time for all of us trans people, queer people, because
we are going to be the only, the only thing
that the Republican Party has to run off of in
this next presidential campaign. It's all going to be fear
(15:37):
mongering about, you know, the LGBTQ community. And I just
have to say, you know, what gets me through it
is looking to my elders and looking to the people
who have been through worse than this, and that paved
the way for us. So when I look at you
know what a lot of the elders have to say,
(15:58):
you know, they tell us that it's been a lot
worse and we're going to be okay. And so I
I appreciate my elders and moments like these.
Speaker 1 (16:08):
And I think that that is so important because I
worry so much for trans youth. I am like really concerned.
You know, A couple of years ago, right the campaign
came out it gets better told, you know, we all
(16:28):
did like little videos I did I did, you know,
a couple and interviews of you know, trying to as
you know, as a as a as a black queer woman,
you know who's systs, but trying to use my experience
of you know, living at the intersection of multiple identities
to say like, look, you can work in government, be
(16:49):
on TV, do these you know, have these jobs. Like
it's your world is bigger than people around you are
trying to, you know, squeeze you into these boxes and
squeeze you and bully you into not wanting to exist. Right.
But now, you know, fast forward, it's just been a
(17:11):
handful of years since that campaign originated, and I can't
honestly say that things get better because that's not how
it feels. Yeah, right, And so you know, how what
kind of support can people provide who even are both
(17:35):
inside of the community and outside of the community to
youth specifically, you know, who don't have the recourse because
they don't have the vote, they're not old enough yet, right,
and they don't have a voice, and so we must
then be their voice.
Speaker 2 (17:54):
Yeah, I say that Really, the best I think the
best tool for somebody to be an alli asi is
per to be an ally for trans people is to
really educate yourselves on the misinformation that's that's going around.
And so a lot of the misinformation regarding trans youth,
and I speak as somebody who was at trans youth,
(18:14):
a lot of the misinformation regarding trans youth is very
to the average person, it's very vague, you know, we
even you know, a couple of weeks ago, I saw
a news clip of It'll come to me who it was.
But they were talking on the news like asking another
trans when what is gender affirming care? Because they keep
(18:35):
talking about gender affirming care and they don't actually know
what gender affirming care is. And the reality is that
for trans youth, the majority of gender affirming care that
takes place is not medical. The majority of it that
takes place is going to be social, which is like
you know, changing clothes, hair pronouns, things like that, not
necessarily you know, you know, going and chopping boy. You know,
(19:00):
they like to say mutilation and stuff like that. Those
kinds of words are all like you know, red flags. Obviously,
if somebody is you know, using any type of word
like mutilation or anything like that to describe the trans experience,
be prepared for a lot of misinformation. Because we don't
talk about people having c sections as mutilation. We don't
talk about teenage girls having breast and plants and nose
(19:23):
shops as mutilation. But when it comes to trans people,
it's it's it's painted in this very dehumanizing light. And
I'd like to also point out the biggest straw man
argument with all of or I think with all of this,
is when you bring up intersex children into the picture.
Intersex children are born with genitals that do not match
(19:47):
the you know, either male or female sex characteristics, so
the doctor decides for them right then and there whether
they're going to be a male or a female for
the rest of their life. And it turns out that
lots of intersex children that have under that have been
forced into these you know, operations, have ended up growing
up and not identifying with the gender that the doctor
(20:09):
assigned them with. But nobody cares about about that conversation
about mutilation quote unquote mutilation when it comes to intersex children.
And you know, that's just another another interesting thing that
I notice a lot in these conversations.
Speaker 1 (20:29):
You know, one of the things that I also find
really troubling is this idea that young people shouldn't have
any agency over their bodily autonomy. Right that we're we're
seeing legislation, you know, hundreds of bills, as we've covered
on this show have been passed, but particularly around denying
(20:50):
the access to hormones until you're eighteen, right until until
you're eighteen years old? Can you speak to why that
one is problematic? Right, if you're choosing to take hormones,
why pushing that off in terms of age is a problem.
And also too, just speak to the lack of agency
(21:12):
that we you know, that one we give people just
in general, those with wombs, particularly in this country, don't
have any agency over their bodies anymore in a lot
of these red states. But why that is important for
young people to have that agency? Well?
Speaker 2 (21:27):
Yeah, I think young people we realize who we are
at much younger ages than adults. The adults around us
think we do. You know, I remember realizing that I
was a girl when I was around seven or eight
years old. My mother told me it was just a
phase and that it would go away. And by the
time I was experiencing puberty, I was having one of
(21:49):
the first traumatic experiences of my life. And it was
a very long drawn out experience to be forced to
experience a male puberty until I was, you know, eighteen
years old.
Speaker 3 (22:03):
And so.
Speaker 2 (22:06):
You know, it causes a lot of It causes, you know,
a lot of issues. And I don't necessarily think it
depends on how you look at it, you know, through
a positive lens, like I don't necessarily think having masculine
features is anything to make you at all less of
a woman. But the more you are stuck in that
(22:30):
male or female puberty, your body develops in that direction,
and then you already have a lot more work done
in order to reverse those changes. So if I had
started hormones, say when I was like fifteen or sixteen,
I probably wouldn't needed to have under I mean, I'm
still undergoing laser hair removal and electrolysis on my face.
Wouldn't have had to deal with all of that, wouldn't
(22:51):
have to shape my face every day like I still do,
and I wouldn't need to, you know, save up for
facial feminization surge. You know, uh, you know, all of
those secondary sex characteristics would have been put to a halt,
which would have saved me a lot of you know,
time and money as an adult. And what a lot
(23:12):
of people don't realize is like most people my age
are buying houses. I mean maybe maybe not.
Speaker 3 (23:17):
Like houses in this economy, not in this economy, yeah exactly,
but like most people in my at my age, I'm thirty,
are you know, looking at settling down and establishing their
lives and all of that.
Speaker 2 (23:30):
And what they don't realize is that the majority of
trans people, even those of us that have been transitioning
since we were teens, unless we had like super supportive parents,
which I did not, then you're having to focus on
all of those things first. And now I you know,
I've put I've put off so many priorities. I've put
(23:52):
off buying a car so that I could afford to
have surgery, because you know, it's more important to me
to be able to to feel comfortable in my own
body than to be able to even go in my
car whenever I want, you know, get in my car
and go somewhere.
Speaker 1 (24:06):
Yeah, I appreciate that because I think that I don't
feel like enough people, particularly those that are on media right,
those that have have microphones like the two of us,
do really are sharing the narrative in a holistic and
real way that people can understand and are just throwing
(24:30):
around words without necessarily connecting them to meaning and connecting
them to real people's stories. So when I think about,
you know, the conversation around gender affirming care and a
majority of people having no idea what that means, right,
And when I think about you know, talking about hormones
and denying people and mutilation and all of you know,
(24:52):
it's just this hodgepodge of words and you're not attaching
real people and the day to day lived experience. So
my last question for you, Carmen is you know, what
is it that needs to change in our responses to
(25:14):
disrupt the mainstream media's miscommunication? Like what needs to be
the shift? You know, it has been that politicians on
you know, the side of progress Democrats have not wanted
to engage in the culture. We're not engaging in the
culture wars, right, We're above that. And they've allowed the
(25:38):
right to clearly run amock and lead the narrative right
that now you're being forced to defend. So what is
it that needs to shift?
Speaker 2 (25:48):
You think, Well, that's a great question, and I've been
thinking about that a lot lately because what I think
I see happening so much lately is we're please with
these hateful people to see us as human, you know,
we're pleading for these people to recognize our humanity and
(26:10):
our right to exist. And I think we really have
to stop being so respectful, you know, and stop being
so polite, and stop being so you know, like you said,
not wanting to engage in that, because the reality is
is we're expecting the Republican Party to play by the
(26:33):
rules that the Democratic Party is playing by. They don't
play by those rules now, and we have to really,
I mean, we have to really step it up in
terms of just our response because I feel like as
a community, we're pleading for our right to exist, but
we really need to say we are here and we're
not going away, and we need to stop I think,
(26:55):
begging these people to recognize our humanity. I don't know
if that's quite a solution, but I think if we
can be just a little more, I don't know how
to say, like I guess aggressive however, you whatever the
word is that I'm looking for, but just a little
more forceful with what we're going through, I think we'll
(27:16):
see a lot more success. I don't know, but that's
just me. Yeah, no, And I agree.
Speaker 1 (27:24):
I agree with the fact that, you know, we are
assuming that people have a moral compass, We're assuming that
we can make pleas to people's hearts and minds. And
I say, you know, you can't shame the devil. So
at some point in time you have to change tactics.
It's you want to see a different result.
Speaker 2 (27:46):
Yeah, you can't. You can't negotiate or compromise with fascists,
you know you can't. And so the response has to
be a little bit more aggressive, I think, in order
to show that, like we really we were really dealing
with not just a difference in opinion. We're dealing with
a difference in our right, you know, our opinion and
(28:08):
our right to exist, which is totally different than than
an opinion, you know, and should not be up for debate,
exactly exactly.
Speaker 1 (28:17):
Carmen, tell people how to find you and to find
beauty translated.
Speaker 2 (28:22):
You can find me on Instagram where I am, Uh,
you know, I post memes all day long. You can
find me on Instagram at the Carmen Laurent that's Lauren
with a tea at the end. And you can listen
to Beauty Translated wherever you get your podcasts on the
(28:43):
Outspoken Network, So check out Beauty Translated.
Speaker 1 (28:46):
Thank you so much for making the time for WOKF.
Speaker 2 (28:49):
We really appreciate you. I really appreciate it. Thanks for
having me, Danielle.
Speaker 1 (28:57):
That is it for me today, dear friends. Woke a
up as always, Power to the people and to all
the people. Power, get woke and stay woke as fuck.
Host
Danielle Moodie
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