April 21, 2025 • 60 mins
Michelle and Ellie talk to Louisiana State Representative Delisha Boyd about her legislation to include an exception in the abortion ban for pregnancies resulting from sexual violence. Sign the petition in support of including an exception in Louisiana's abortion ban.
‘Detention Alley’: inside the Ice centres in the US south where foreign students and undocumented migrants languish
Georgia Woman Arrested for How She Disposed of Miscarriage
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:06):
Welcome to Seriously,
the podcast that dives into the baffling.
The ridiculous.
And downright unbelievable political climate in red states
like Louisiana.
(00:28):
Welcome to Seriously.
We are going to have a really great interview with
representative Delisha Boyd,
a state representative here in Louisiana.
Later in the show.
I'm excited about that.
It's yeah, it's a really great interview.
But before we do that,
was there anything that has happened recently, Ellie,
(00:51):
that made you think seriously?!
I think my seriously moment is going to continue on the
theme of the rule of law that's happening at the national
level,
and also how Louisiana is apparently playing a part in
this.
So I'm talking specifically about what's going on with
(01:14):
immigration and people being just like picked up off the
street and absconded away.
disappeared.
Yes, like people who have not been charged with a crime.
And from what everyone can tell,
aren't actually even accused of a crime,
we just basically like political dissidents are, you know,
(01:38):
being sent to jail, basically to be deported.
And the video that came out recently with the woman in
Boston,
where she's accosted on the street by people who have on
like law enforcement with masks on,
who don't identify themselves,
and then basically just kidnap her.
So that's terrifying enough.
(02:00):
And then people,
if they're not being sent directly to El Salvador,
which that of course is another thing that's happening,
then they're being sent to an ICE detention center in South
Louisiana.
That's what I keep hearing on the news,
is that's where people are being sent.
So I don't know what that ICE detention center is,
(02:21):
but apparently in Louisiana,
then we are complicit in this legalized kidnapping of
people who are being disappeared here.
Completely.
This has really been freaking me out a lot,
but it is no surprise with our governor here who is a
complete Donald Trump sycophant that Louisiana would be a
(02:46):
number one state for carrying out this administration's
presumably illegal.
rendition of people that yeah like they're snatching off
the street.
It's insane.
Yeah I mean people's lawyers don't know where they are,
family members don't know where they are,
you know judges are telling the administration like you
can't move these people and they're moving them anyway.
(03:10):
You know that happened with the folks that were taken to a
prison in El Salvador and then also with this woman
recently in Boston then again a judge in that case issued
an order saying you cannot remove her from the state and
like oh the administration claims go we'd already we'd
already moved her like yeah right yeah and yeah I mean when
(03:31):
Trump was before he took office or when he was taking
office then the governor here made some sort of comments
about that that you know the federal government could use
private prisons here for for ICE detention center for you
know for ICE.
So I don't know if this is a private prison but that's a
whole other issue of course about who's making money on on
(03:53):
these illegal actions.
Right.
So yeah I think this seriously deserves some investigating
about what's going on.
I think we should get to the bottom of it.
So we'll reach out to some of the folks that we know that
are doing immigration law in the state and see if we can't
get them on the podcast later.
(04:13):
What are you seriously concerned or freaked out or pissed
off about Michelle?
God okay.
A 24-year-old woman in Georgia is behind bars after having
a miscarriage.
So this is what happened.
The police in Georgia arrested this young woman after she
(04:35):
was found unconscious and bleeding near her apartment
complex.
They have charged her with two things concealing the death
of another person and abandonment of a dead body.
So, from reporting,
it seems like she was about 19 weeks pregnant and she had
(05:00):
this miscarriage.
She put the miscarried tissue in the trash.
They recovered that, I guess,
from the trash and they did an autopsy on the fetal remains
and the coroner's office did rule that it was a
miscarriage,
there was no foul play or anything like that that the
(05:20):
coroner found.
So, my question is, what the F else was she supposed to do?
Because hospitals are turning away people who are having
miscarriages.
They're not being treated in a lot of hospitals in banned
states.
They're being sent home without any sort of standard of
treatment for miscarriage.
(05:40):
They're told to go home, have the miscarriage at home.
So, what the F was she supposed to do?
Yeah, I mean...
And obviously this is somebody who is in the middle of
medical trauma, medical and probably emotional trauma.
And then we're going to charge this person with a crime on
top of that.
Two crimes.
(06:01):
Yeah.
I mean, and we've seen, you know, for years now,
laws like that being used to prosecute people for pregnancy
outcomes.
But I think it's also interesting and worth noting with
those two crimes that it's also like backdoor into
personhood, right?
(06:23):
They're both laws that sound on their face that they are
supposed to apply to a fully born alive person who then is
dead and what is and is not legal to do with those remains.
So again,
once we start using that to prosecute people for a pre
(06:46):
viability miscarriage, then that's part of the point,
I assume.
I guess so.
Really disturbing.
And this this Georgia case is the most recent example,
but I think that this is happening in other parts of the
state.
And I think that really what it highlights is you can put
(07:08):
into your criminal abortion ban that the pregnant person is
not supposed to be subject to that criminal law.
But there's all kinds of other laws that are on the books
in states that can be used to criminalize pregnant people
for what happens with their pregnancy,
whether it's a they are addicted to they have substance
(07:37):
abuse issues and that led to the end of their pregnancy
somehow or another.
Those laws are very commonly being weaponized again.
against pregnant people in a way that you would not assume
that those laws should apply.
And as people, as some of our viewers know,
(07:59):
Representative Mandy Landry has for several years now
introduced a bill that would try to prevent that,
that would put like an affirmative exception in the law
writ large that people cannot be prosecuted or penalized
for their pregnancy outcomes.
And what is it that we hear, Michelle,
(08:19):
in opposition to that bill?
That there's already that protection in the criminal
abortion ban, so this isn't necessary.
We don't need this.
We don't need this.
Right.
There's already an exception in the abortion ban that says
the pregnant person can't be prosecuted.
So, yeah.
And as we also know, I mean, you know, our legislature,
(08:39):
they only pass bills that are really necessary.
Yeah, that's right.
That's right.
That's right.
That's right.
That's bulls---.
Yes.
Well,
I'm looking forward to talking to Rep Boyd about all of
the f-y going on, um, day in and day out at the Capitol.
Yeah.
Yeah.
She has a lot to say.
(09:00):
Um, yeah, she has a lot to say.
So, uh,
we will be back with that interview in just a minute.
We're really excited to welcome to the podcast state
representative, Delisha Boyd.
She has been a fierce advocate for reproductive freedom and other progressive policies. She's a real firebrand, I would say. Never backs down from a fight with her right-wing colleagues. So Rep Boyd, welcome to the podcast.
(09:32):
Thanks for having me.
Great place to be.
Our first in-person guest.
Yay.
Can I clap?
Yeah.
Thanks for being our guinea pig today.
No problem.
So we have a lot that we would like to talk to you about.
Um, we're really interested in how you see things,
the state of things right now.
(09:53):
We're in abortion ban America here in, in Louisiana.
And we also have, you know,
a MAGA Republican administration.
And I think I just wanted to start by talking about how
Louisiana's abortion ban doesn't include an exception for
people who become pregnant as a result of sexual violence
(10:13):
like rape and incest.
But you want to change that.
Um, so for the last two years,
you've pushed to try to include that exception in the law.
So talk to us about why this is so important to you.
Okay.
Um, so I am basically the product of that.
My mother was 15 and one of her, uh,
(10:36):
family friend was 28 and she was great.
And there's no other way to put it.
You know, um, I used to refer to him as my sperm doll,
but she was 15 he was 28 and in 1968 she didn't have a
choice you know and not to say that they would have chosen
to do that i don't know um i spent most of my life just
(10:59):
pissed so i didn't ask hardly any questions and didn't
think to think of it as a 15 year old girl uh being under
the control of a grown man you know um because i was a kid
myself so i just a lot of stuff i just didn't get and
didn't really care i just was focused on what was happening
(11:21):
to me right and so when i got older and and maybe curious
because it was just never talked about you know that i
don't know if that happens in all families but you know i
hate to make this ratio but in black families that's
usually we don't talk about stuff like that Thank you.
(11:43):
I think that's the same in Jewish families.
It's also the same in Waspi families, so yeah.
Okay, so I'm talking about problems, particularly secrets,
I think is yeah, unfortunately, or fortunately, yeah,
a running theme.
And so I just wasn't talked about, I didn't think about it.
(12:03):
When she died, I moved in with my grandmother, who was,
I guess, hell bent on me and my brother,
who was like five at the time,
taking us in a different direction,
because she kind of just went like a wild child, you know,
(12:24):
probably, yeah,
probably dealing with the demons that she had going on.
You know, at 56, I could see all of that now, but as a kid,
you just see this wild child kind of thing.
And then when I moved in with my grandmother, I was like,
well, she wasn't my grandmother, so she just was a wild,
because we just never talked about it.
So I was just formulating all these ideas of who she was
(12:48):
based on my experience,
based on my experience with my grandmother.
I swear, guys, I swear it was like 40 when it just hit me.
I don't even know why, you know.
I didn't think about it when I turned 15.
I didn't think about it when I turned 28,
because she was 28 when she died.
(13:10):
I thought about how young that really was,
but not the circumstances that probably led to that,
if that makes sense.
Yeah.
And so, you know, as an adult with a daughter,
and my daughter was always every bit of her true age.
She wasn't like 10 going on 20 or 15 going on 21.
(13:33):
And I remember when she turned 15, thinking, oh my God,
she's really young.
Yes.
Right?
It didn't hit me when I, when I turn 15.
They didn't even get pretty old when we turned 15.
Yes.
Well,
at least my grandmother's probably laughing right now.
She always says she had to focus more on my brother because
(13:55):
I came to her as a little adult.
No, because I had like a lot of responsibilities.
Yeah.
With my brother, you know,
who's to this day still calls me his mom, my sister,
sister mile, you know.
And so when Chrissy turned 15,
I remember being overwhelmed with grief because I have been
(14:17):
so hard on my mother my entire life even after she had
died.
Yeah.
You know,
you have been very brave about sharing your personal story,
not just today.
I've seen you share it at the legislature in front of your
colleagues.
This is a different side because I never talk about
(14:38):
me in committee.
I was just talking about,
I don't want this to be about meeting what I endured
because I have survived it and thrived through it.
Right.
She did not.
Yeah, but that's a lot of what's driving you.
How has it been sharing your personal story in that forum?
(15:02):
The first year was pretty difficult because I had not,
not that I was embarrassed by it.
I just lived my life saying I'm not a victim of it.
Yeah.
So I just, you know what I mean?
I don't know if that makes sense to people, but I didn't.
And again, not embarrassed by it,
(15:22):
but I knew at that moment,
because the year before I didn't,
and the spirit was telling me to get up when they got up
and told Pat Moore's story.
Right.
But I had, this was my second session.
We had,
Redistricting was my first session because I got elected
late November in 2021.
(15:45):
So my first session was the Redistricting session.
The next regular session started I think in April.
So I was new,
still trying to figure out my ways and although I was
passing bills,
I did go to the floor and I just talked about what my focus
is.
Little kids, but little girls,
but it's not being strong enough to withstand carrying a
(16:09):
folk.
I did talk about that.
And Pat was out for some reason.
I think Laurie Schlegal got up and told her mother,
read a statement from Pat and the spirit was like,
you cannot let that be.
And I didn't say anything.
So that was a huge struggle for me after when I wrote I
(16:31):
Dear Governor a letter.
Our Dear Governor at the time who was a Democrat.
Yes.
You wrote that Dear Governor some.
But to this day, he has never responded to my letter.
So I shared my mother's story for the first time to him and
Matthew Block and I'm still waiting on a response from
(16:51):
that.
Now the next year when I ran the exception he was all,
well I don't need your regular ass now because if you had
taken care of it beforehand.
That might have been, I think that was the year,
I'm trying to remember there were various times that we
were all lobbying the then governor to veto bills but this
(17:15):
might have been then yeah when like the final trigger ban
was passed.
Yes it was.
And when he signed it immediately so that there wasn't time
for people to lobby him to veto it.
It's either that one or maybe that was the six week ban the
year before but I was furious.
I mean I didn't even ask him to veto the bill because I
(17:35):
knew his position.
you have to create an exception
for rape and incest. And this is why. But he knew that that was not in the bill. Exactly. And he signed it anyway. He signed it anyway. So I think, you know, that first year was probably the biggest for me.
I had to call and talk to my brother about it.
(17:58):
I don't know that he knew the full story,
because he was a baby himself.
He knew her struggles.
And he, I mean, he remembers way more than you.
I think my survival was put things in Pandora's box and
lock and move on.
He has always been chatty Cathy.
(18:20):
You want to talk about everything that happened.
And he remembers everything.
I remember when I was in kindergarten,
and remember mama did...
No, I don't remember that.
The younger ones are always bringing up old s---.
And my family too.
And so, talk to him about it.
He was like,
I've been trying to get you to talk about this more.
(18:40):
My brother is an author.
He's writes books and stuff.
So he wanted to do a book about our childhood.
And two years before that, I told him, I said,
I can't do that.
I'm going to support you.
And you're doing it.
But I don't want to relive it. F, it's over.
You know what I mean?
I'm sorry.
You said I could cuss.
(19:00):
You did.
Yeah, 100%.
And so, he asked if he should come down and say,
I'll let you know.
I don't think so.
I wasn't anticipating the people on that committee being as
bad as they were.
But that's what I wanted to ask you about,
because the bills related to abortion all go to the
(19:24):
criminal justice committee and the House.
Which is an argument for me too,
but we'll cross that bridge later.
We're calling it the Criminal Injustice Committee.
It's so hostile.
none of the bills have been given a fair hearing at all.
So you want to talk about just your experience that you had
(19:45):
in that committee?
The first year was very, again, keep in mind,
I was a new legislator at the time.
These are your colleagues.
Yeah,
and although I'd seen some of the faces during the redistricting
session that threw me way,
and I've been involved in politics in some form of fashion
for over 20 years, but to be in it, I was like,
(20:09):
where are we living in this place, right?
And so when it got to the committee,
even leading up to that date,
the tricks that they were pulling,
Oh we can't do it this day,
but they told us like the night before they couldn't do it
that day.
So, you know, people need to put it on next week,
reschedule their dates and putting us on the same day with
(20:31):
right to life.
And just so people understand too then, ordinarily,
the process with all committees is if you are the proponent
of the bill, the legislator who is proposing the bill,
then the committee will work with you to schedule it when
it's convenient for you so that then your witnesses can be
there.
And that courtesy was completely disbanded.
(20:55):
No, not given to us.
And I think it was like the third date just so happened to
be the date of right to life now.
And that's all for this.
When you do me wrong, I am a chosen child.
He will get your ass back.
And it ended up also being Delta Sigma Theta Day.
That's right.
That's right.
(21:15):
That was great.
It's coming back to me.
It was so fabulous.
And I got to talk to the Deltas that morning.
And when I tell you they line that committee,
it was sitting on the floor at one point,
they opened up an overflow room.
Michelle had a survey, remember?
(21:36):
It was just that support for me to get through that.
Because that was the first time I was telling it to the
public, which was very difficult.
And to look at them, not give a frick about it.
It was alarming for me.
I remember that day when you were testifying and then when
(22:01):
other survivors had come to support the bill.
Do you remember like the feed going out three times?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Remember that?
I was like, what the frick are these people?
I remember them just most of the committee not being in the
room.
They literally got up and walked out.
They walked in the back.
Yes.
To not listen to me,
(22:22):
you and others and the other survivors.
Let's listen to some of that testimony now.
Testimonials on behalf of Reverend Denise Robinson.
My daughter was gang raped at the age of 17.
on her way home from school.
She knew one of the boys, she thought they were friends,
but the other boys were his friends.
(22:44):
She kept it a secret,
secret except for telling me she needed to go to the doctor
to think as in addition to the harm she suffered,
that she may have had to parent a child that would have
resulted from this rape was incomprehensible.
She simply would not have survived it.
In this committee a lot,
there is a lot of talk about supporting victims and that
(23:07):
this committee tries to make decisions to support victims.
If you are forcing rape and incest survivors in Louisiana
to carry forced pregnancy, you are not supporting victims.
It was incredibly disrespectful.
It was disgusting.
It was and they always say, I mean,
you know that there's some truth to this that there's
(23:29):
multiple hearings going on, yada, yada.
Not everybody's on the dias at the same time.
They were right in the back though.
It wasn't like they had left the area.
They stayed just in the...
I don't know what they call those holding rooms.
I call it the holding room.
Powering in the corner of the hall basically.
But they were ready to come back in and vote against the
(23:52):
bill.
Absolutely, absolutely.
It was incredibly disrespectful obviously.
But it was also to me,
it was just sitting there watching it.
It was so obvious that they were so uncomfortable.
Many of them wanted to vote against the bill and had no
qualms about it.
But many of them,
(24:12):
I don't believe that that is how they feel.
So the second year,
I know for a fact that that's not how everybody...
I watch Vincent Cox with tears in his eyes.
Right.
And then come to me after so I could make him feel better.
But you still voted.
I'm sorry, what?
You know what I mean?
Yeah, so I wanted to ask you about that.
(24:34):
Because I know that you have had a lot of conversations
with colleagues on both sides of the aisle.
And so how have those conversations gone?
Do you think that there's more support for that bill
than...
Yes, than as shown.
Right.
Absolutely, absolutely.
Now,
what I do know without any hesitation in saying that even
(24:59):
the ones that now get it, if the governor says no,
they're going to vote no.
If you hear what I'm saying, and you know it's a good bill,
then vote for it.
And to me, it's so clear.
And we have talked a little bit about how this is going on
in other red states too,
that they're sending these bills to this committee to die
(25:21):
intentionally.
And the messages being sent to those legislators from the
governor and from the overlords at the right to life.
Do not let this bill or the other ones that we've worked
on...
trying to get, you know, better maternal health exception.
Yeah, absolutely.
Don't let it out of this committee because they know that
if it hits the floor,
like Republicans are gonna be in a huge bind because their
(25:44):
people want to vote for it because the people- Want it.
Like, by huge numbers.
Support, rape, and incest.
Because I think your numbers were like at 60 something
percent.
Higher.
Statewide, I believe it was 73% support.
Somebody from Tulane sent me one too that was a little
(26:06):
higher than yours even.
So I mean,
overwhelmingly people in Louisiana wanted- Including
Republicans.
Well, that's why I'm gonna get ready to go with that.
One of them came and said, look, I hear you.
I get it, but we just got word from the governor.
So I called her, someone changed their age.
They're gonna vote it down.
(26:26):
I really want to make them just look, you know,
because he was point blanked.
they were instructed not to support it.
And they were instructed not to allow any amendments to the
bill.
That was last year, right?
So that's when, yeah,
you changed the age to make it minors,
victims who are minors.
(26:47):
And then also, I remember this was great.
Then, you know,
there's been a lot of policy issues with rape and incest
bills,
whether to have a law enforcement reporting requirement,
as you know, because in real life,
than having that kind of requirement, basically,
like eviscerates at any usefulness.
(27:07):
Yeah, absolutely, yeah, yeah.
But you proposed an amendment and committed them to like,
okay, we're gonna lower the age to be minors,
and we're gonna put in a law enforcement reporting
requirement.
And I mean, that was what it might be.
Well, because I knew that, yes, because everybody else,
and I told them, because I think she was nervous.
(27:27):
I was like, they're killing it anyway.
I just wanna make them look as worse as we possibly can.
They were like, oh, do you remember this yet?
They didn't know what to do.
They were talking to each other.
They were like, oh, s---,
like this is what we've said needs to be in this bill.
And then- And now she's doing it.
Yes, it was really strategic.
(27:48):
I was there, I mean, controlling was good.
But the governor had said, don't allow any amendments.
And so they got real confused up there in the dias,
like whispering to each other, like, oh, s---,
this was our excuse.
Well, and here's the deal when he was like,
I don't want any amendments on it.
Of course you don't, because then you look like a liar,
however, how do you vote down me saying, well,
(28:12):
let's make it for minors?
Yeah.
How do you vote that down and then still have to go back
and vote against the bill, right?
Well, you know- Exactly.
One of the new,
they get one of the new stupid people to say something
about the law part of it.
Well, you stupid for saying it, but since you said it,
let's add that in too.
Yeah, you know, yeah,
(28:34):
there was a lot of f-y that I thought that yes,
you handled that strategically really well,
I was very amused.
But then also, you'll recall, there was like,
there was basically just like a simple drafting error in
terms of what statute had was cited in your bill,
which pissed me off, by the way,
because I'm trying to figure how that happened.
The statute that had been cited in the original bill was
(28:58):
just a little broader than what you had intended.
So it would have been other sexual crimes too.
So they make a big deal about this on the committee.
Like a big deal.
Yeah, we have to move the date.
Remember?
Yeah, that's what pissed me off.
And I remember talking to you in the hallway afterwards
that like, that is a simple drafting here.
I had, when it's another lawyer in my office, like,
(29:18):
look up with the right bill number, text it to me.
We had that within five minutes.
Like calling Zach, like Zach, how do you screw this up,
you know?
Thank you.
But they f-d with you and with us so much that they used
that as an excuse to reschedule the bill for a different
day as opposed to what normally happens,
(29:40):
which is just like on the same day, then we vote.
move it five minutes later in the f-ing agenda and just
like find the right statute number.
It was like they made it seem like, well,
what are we going to do now?
I mean, what are we going to do?
I guess everyone has to come back a different day.
And that is, you know, that's the tactic to do that,
(30:02):
because then you won't have all the support on the second
day.
Well,
I think that one of the things that's been really alarming
and we're seeing how this works nationwide now with the
Trump administration, but, you know,
we've been experiencing this in Louisiana,
which is they're not following the rules, the process,
(30:27):
any of that anymore on nothing.
So we could expect that just across the board,
because the new thing is you do what you want to do in
this.
Oh, I'm sorry.
Later.
And no professional currency.
Not at all.
Republicans now have a super majority in both of our
houses, you know,
in the house and they just go along with the f-ing stuff
like the improper rules, you know,
(30:49):
like just either lie about what the rules are or if they
get called out,
then they're like that their people will vote for whatever
they're being told.
Yeah.
Absolutely.
It's really just, you know, you know,
the process that makes me, I mean,
the substance that makes me crazy, but the problem, like,
you can't even follow the rules,
they're making them up as they go.
(31:12):
Really?
Well, and I think that's like you have the vote,
like at least follow the rules to make this seem like that
there is some legitimate process.
Yeah.
The lack of just like what the culture and professional
courtesies used to be is gone.
And that's dangerous too.
Let me tell you,
it's dangerous all around not just what I'm seeing with the
(31:36):
Republicans and I'm probably gonna get dawged for this,
but I gotta say it.
Some of the Dems.
Yeah.
You're sitting back like, what the ...
Say it. F. Yeah.
But I'd rather keep them and help me get rid of one of
these 73 who always voted against us.
I agree, but it is hard.
It's hard to do when you're looking at them selling their
(31:59):
soul for a steak dinner.
You get much s--- you don't get.
One of them was like, oh, we're gonna get 1.7 million,
I said I got 4.5 for a sidewalk.
What are you gonna do with 1.7 million?
If you get it,
because it wasn't like they got it immediately,
they're gonna get it the session during the fiscal session.
(32:20):
You want the snake to be something else other than the
snake.
Well, and also, what is 1.7 million?
to your district going to do when people are losing
Medicaid coverage, when people are losing, you know,
public education.
You're supporting their effort to make things worse in your
(32:41):
district.
You should take that $1.7 million and just cut checks to
the people in your district because they're gonna need it.
They need it right now.
They need it before them on points.
Yeah.
You know,
that's been more of a struggle for me than with the
Republicans in the water because I expect nothing less,
right?
(33:01):
And I think I shared that with you last year.
They're gonna be who they are.
They're gonna vote the s--- down anyway.
If this is the next even five years we're doomed,
where the Dems eat each other and they keep thriving on the
Republican side because they will get in a room and they
disagree like we do.
But when they walk out, they don't want to call.
(33:22):
That's right.
I mean, we've seen this somewhat on the national level too.
Yeah, absolutely.
I think people don't realize in the South though, I mean,
there are plenty of Democrats that, you know,
occasionally we can count on them for votes, occasionally.
Because you are doing us a complete injustice because I
(33:42):
believe you're taking back our conversations to them.
Oh yeah, no, there's real trust issues with some folks.
And when we talk about that plenty during this session
about who can we drop?
When are we rolling information out to various people?
Sometimes I'm sitting looking in amazement when we're on
(34:04):
the floor.
It's just more apparent on the floor than it is even in
committee.
And I guess because you're moving around from committee so
you're not privy to every committee hearing and what's
going on.
I'm like sometimes just looking like, wow.
And it's not wild with the Republicans.
I expect them to be exactly who they are,
which is why I'm able to have a conversation with them.
(34:26):
because I know who you are.
You're going to be who you are,
but let's see if we can have some type of civil
conversation about what your thought process is,
how you got there, and what mine is.
But I'm looking at people who are supposed to have similar
values in our deals and are concerned about,
especially here in our city,
(34:46):
42% of our citizens live at or below the poverty level.
What kind of s--- are you voting on?
Really?
So I do want to talk about that.
I was saying to Michelle, Delisha's trying to leave us.
She's trying,
she's trying to leave us for the city council,
which I'm so, I'm so sad that I understand why.
(35:09):
Someone strong enough to fight for New Orleans,
who is not afraid to push back on the governor.
I remember doing the tax session, one of the dams said, oh,
did the governor call you to come up to talk?
I said,
(35:31):
He wouldn't call me because there's no part of his brain
that thinks he can change my mind on anything.
Because you're not willing to take some bullshit crumbs,
yes, or some like vague promises of like, you know,
we'll take care, we'll put you on this committee, we'll do.
I mean, that's what frustrates me the most.
And this is true federally with Democrats that sell out to
(35:52):
you.
It's not like you are selling yourself real cheap, man.
Like you can't trust these things.
You hear what I said, a steak dinner.
Just take me to dinner.
Take them to stabs, and it's all in.
That's needed, you know?
Well, I'm allergic to almost everything,
so I can't eat the shit anyway.
Don't offer to take me out.
You can keep your dinner, asshole.
(36:13):
That's my new life, you know, just allergic to everything.
But, you know,
so I don't suspect that we'll get anything different this
session.
Definitely going to file the exception bill.
Definitely going to file ending employment discrimination
for the LGBTQ.
Yeah, I was going to ask you about that,
(36:33):
because that's also a bill that is incredibly important,
but also contentious, and you've filed it every year.
Yeah.
Well, my niece came to me when she was, I think,
in ninth grade and, you know, told me she was gay.
(36:54):
And I said, okay, well, shit, I love you.
I still love you.
Not that she wasn't getting the support.
And her mother is just not me.
You know, my brother lives in Dallas.
And she had a hard frickin' time in Kenna,
right there in Kenna.
You know, she switched schools three or four times,
and I watched her change.
(37:18):
Just the little girl that she was and how living in this
world as a Black gay, female, changed who she is now.
Because it changes everything about how the world is
treating you.
Yeah, you know,
and I guess just being in Kenner was heightened.
(37:38):
And a couple of times I went to the school,
I told her mom to stop calling me because my mom was like,
I just don't want to make it work.
How can it get any worse?
Just calling, crying every f-ing day.
And you might not fight, but I do.
Like, I actually told one of the principals,
they're not fighters, but I am.
Like,
I would come in and beat their ass and wait for their mom
and dad to come and beat their ass too.
(38:01):
Like, she just wants to go to school.
Yeah, she just wants to learn and get her lesson.
I'm not going to have her calling me horrified,
crying and just making up reasons why she can't go to
school and like every freaking year she would just have
these health things that she couldn't go to school.
But nonetheless, it's I guess last, no year before last,
(38:26):
she's called, she goes, T.C.,
I just want to tell you thank you for loving me.
Well, I'm so emotional today.
Y'all make me sick.
And thank you for always fighting for us, and I will.
Yeah.
I will.
So this is a non-discrimination in employment.
(38:47):
In employment, yeah.
There's just so much wrong in this state that not everybody
will pick that bag up to carry,
but those two are personal for me.
So I'm gonna,
it's never not an option for me with those two.
Well, and as you know, I mean, you're right.
(39:07):
Those are contentious issues,
but you have a lot of support from your people because it's
personal for a lot of people,
either themselves or family members that have seen how
either these abortion bans or how anti-LGBTQ policies,
whether official or unofficial, are really, you know.
(39:27):
You know how people like the testimony against the LGBTQ
community, you gotta know at one time,
that's how they testified against black people,
that's how they testified against women.
Jewish people.
Jewish people, you know,
like it is LGBTQ right now that's holding that torch,
(39:49):
but we're all extensions of that.
And because we're all extensions of that,
we should all be fighting for that.
You can't have one group of anyone that's being treated
unfairly and then think that it won't apply to you.
It's a circus.
And de-humanizing.
You're right, exactly.
It's a fricking circus.
(40:09):
And if it hasn't come to a town near you, it's coming.
The testimony and stories that come out with the rape and
incest bill and the maternal health bills in terms of
what's going on with, you know,
patients and doctors and survivors.
extremely emotional.
But like,
I don't know that I've seen as emotional of hearings as I
(40:30):
have seen at our legislature with the LGBTQ,
the anti LGBTQ.
So it's just, what's his name used to be elected?
Well, short kind of stubby, just mean, hateful.
What's his name?
I feel like that describes so many of them.
He was, he was, he was, he was an elected official before.
(40:50):
Woody?
Yes.
Oh, Woody Jenkins.
Oh, let me tell you the first, my first year, hateful,
hateful person.
Yes.
My first year, his testimony was so,
go back and look at that tape.
It was so funny.
So he's,
you know how you get up from the table and you let the,
so he was, he was just so f-ing wild that I was like,
he's a pastor.
(41:11):
He's like, yeah, he's a former Louisiana representative.
And like, it was so bad.
I was like, F him.
I'm going back.
That's my tape.
So I went and sat next to him and then I spread my elbows,
I was touching him because I was like,
I know this B wants to die right now.
I'm touching him.
He was just so mean and hateful.
(41:32):
A person may choose to have a different gender identity,
but the employer also has rights and gets to choose.
These are choices.
These are not something like race or sex that you are,
it has just fallen in your lap.
We're talking about things like hiring teachers.
We're talking about all the ramifications.
(41:54):
And by the way, if you read the bill,
it absolutely prohibits you from failing to hire someone.
That's the whole purpose of the bill.
So now you have to hire transgender people and people based
on gender identity.
Now, what is their gender identity?
They may be identifying as male or female, right?
You're just opening Pandora's box to tell the,
all the employers,
(42:14):
the tens of thousands of employers in this state and every
governmental body, every school system,
every parish government,
every city government that they can't discriminate based on
what is quite honestly, a mental problem.
But I think everybody was like, Oh my gosh,
she's going to explode because I have, you know,
(42:35):
you've seen this look before.
You can't read what's going on.
I'm just dead face.
But I could not take the things that he was saying.
So I was like, somebody has to make him feel uncomfortable.
And since they won't do it,
let me just get up and push up and sit next to him and
just, what are you doing?
(42:58):
Like, why are you sitting there?
And later I was like,
cause I needed him to know that this was my take.
That's right.
I love that.
You know, I love that.
And when I did it,
he wrapped up his little ignorant s--- and moved on,
but I was like, it was, it was a good play.
Yeah.
Oh my God.
In 2023, that's what 2022 really,
(43:21):
that's where your head is right now.
I know.
No, but can I ask, go home and take care, you know, just,
your days are numbered, you know,
you're already on the other side of 60,
you're gonna be evil all the way till you're dead?
Yeah, and hateful, yeah.
And hateful.
And people, and this is of course, you know,
after people have told harrowing stories, you know, I mean,
(43:43):
personal stories of like their own experience being
discriminated against,
or were the people that saved their lives,
all of that type of testimony from the LGBTQ community.
When I'm like that in committee,
it is because I won't let my alter ego come out.
Delilah would F everybody up all day.
So I'm like in a battle with myself.
(44:05):
Oh yeah, I hear you.
You know what I mean?
You know what I mean?
You know what I mean?
I'm in a battle with myself too, like be professional.
Yes, don't be up here being all crazy,
flipping over tables and shit to down.
You do.
are very good at managing your facial expressions.
I intentionally, when we're in those committee rooms,
(44:27):
I know exactly where to sit to make sure I'm not in the
background on the video feed because I have one terrible
resting bitch face,
but also I just can't stop myself from rolling my eyes,
you know, or I don't have it yet, but it's fine.
Michelle, let me tell you, again,
we kind of talked about this before.
I was a mad f-ing kid most of my life, right?
(44:51):
And even after my grandmother just started trying to take
me back on the side,
so she pulled me out of Samuel James Green and put me in a
little small Catholic school like six blocks from my house.
But even then, like it was a different environment.
I remember thinking to myself back then, like,
(45:13):
why are these f-ing people from there?
And everybody, like today,
I know everybody had some issues going on,
but to come in and to see these people functioning like a
family and what else, like just whatever,
but always just one step away from if you sit around thing,
you're gonna get punched in your face,
(45:34):
kind of.
I'm just sitting, I'm being very honest.
I'm not proud of it, you know?
So it took me a while not to allow other people to control.
Right, yeah, yeah.
And so, but Delilah's still in there, right?
She's just, she wants to flex sometimes.
So when I get like that with those people,
(45:55):
it's usually because I'm in a struggle,
not to say F you, F you, and F you in my office. Like really, really, it is a struggle sometimes.
So it comes out with me being emotional.
It's different from what you guys just got, just now,
my mom, I'm in a safe space, so to speak.
(46:17):
Yeah, for sure, yeah.
So for me as a lawyer,
then what's so hard with all of this is that, you know,
each of those hearings, it's like preparing for trial,
like where you don't know what the date's going to be.
And you're prepared for a bunch of different trials at the
same time.
You've got to get people there who are ready to speak,
present our side, and then respond to the other side.
(46:40):
But it's a trial that you don't get to cross examine
anybody.
So that's what I'm sitting there being like, oh, just like,
so we have to rely on the committee Yeah,
they're the only people who can question witnesses and at
least if it's your bill, you get to close.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I mean, when we're opposing bills, then I'll go up there,
(47:01):
of course, and be like, this, this that they set us alive,
this that they set us alive.
This was bullsh-.
Here's a bunch of other stuff to know,
which everyone on the committee gets are like, whatever,
you know, who cares?
Whatever.
But then, you know.
Ben Clapper, Dorinda Bordley, you know,
all the people on the other side,
they go back up and just repeat the same lies or say
(47:23):
something that, you know, in response to what I said,
that like should engender more questions.
And it doesn't.
This is where I'm just like, this,
this is the only way this process works is if people on the
committee are paying attention,
well informed and willing to ask questions and push back.
And when that doesn't happen,
then I want to jump out of my skin.
(47:46):
So Ben Clapper, for our listeners,
is the director of the Louisiana Right to Life.
And he basically tells all of these anti-abortion,
conservative, mostly Republicans, how to vote.
Right.
Yeah.
I think you probably do know how many people just don't
even read a bill.
They were actually only able to ask questions because of
(48:09):
Ben Clapper sending the question to them.
They have never.
We send questions too.
Often are not asked.
Yes.
And that's the point of the committee process, right?
I mean, it's,
it's very obvious on the floor a lot of times how shitness
gets to slipping through the cracks, which is worrying,
you know, because,
but that's sort of understandable because there's so many
(48:31):
bills and there's lots of strategy where they're trying to
slip things through the cracks.
But the committee process, like by design,
is supposed to be vetting these things.
And it's not a million bills, you know, I mean, it's a lot,
but depending on the committee, but, you know,
to do your job, you will,
that's all you have to do is note those, those bills.
(48:52):
We disagree with our current governor,
but he was elected without a runoff because people just
didn't f-ing vote.
You cannot run a statewide election from April to October.
No, well,
you also should not be running the year after Roe was
overturned and abortion has been banned in Louisiana and
(49:13):
not ever say anything about it.
that throughout the entire election.
I think that a lot of people who really really care about
that issue would have turned out to vote if they knew that
they were voting for someone that was going to be a
champion.
Yeah I agree with that.
People have people have lots of things to complain about
legitimate things but they don't know who does it.
(49:36):
You know people are like b-g about stuff like putting stuff
on Biden and Kamala but I'm like like pulling stuff.
I'm like dude like this is like this is not the president.
The president doesn't do that.
90% of the calls I get in my office have nothing to do with
what I actually do.
That doesn't that does not surprise me.
But they do have to do with something that somebody does
(49:58):
right.
Yeah and some of that like when you're a statewide you know
a state rep you're gonna get just a lot of like the roads
suck the sewage and water board sucks that kind of stuff.
But like I mean What worries me the most is, as you know,
how much happens at the state level and the local level.
(50:20):
It's why I'm writing for city council,
not at the national level.
So the most of the like meat and potatoes stuff that people
are concerned, it's right.
It don't matter, I mean,
you should vote for the presidential election,
but it doesn't f-ing matter.
You should vote in every election.
And the ones that are here,
who is in Baton Rouge representing us,
(50:42):
without our city council representing us,
that's who's making the policies.
90% of the policies that affect people's everyday lives in
Louisiana are made in Louisiana.
That number might not be quite right,
but I feel strong about that.
It may not be 90, but it's a lot.
I went to the year of the governor's election to a school
(51:02):
in my district to register the 18-year-olds and the 17-year
-olds that would be 18 months in the election.
And just talking to them about this predominantly African
-American church, I mean, school,
about the struggles and what it took for us to even have
the right to vote and not very long before then.
And I started talking about Bloody Sunday.
(51:24):
I asked those babies how many of them had heard of Bloody
Sunday?
Not one.
No way.
One little boy raised his hand and said, Miss Boyd,
you mean Super Sunday?
No, baby, I'm not talking about the Indians.
I'm not talking about the Indians.
And the quantity in that is, yes, you're 17, 18 years old,
but I count that as being in our lifetime because that's 58
(51:50):
years ago.
That means that's maybe your grandma, your mom,
or somebody.
Yeah, there are people that are alive today that continue.
In your family.
100%, yeah.
In your family, that should be telling you.
So we fight the book ban on keeping stuff out of the
classrooms that they ain't learning to s--- anyway.
I'm not saying don't fight the book ban because it's
(52:12):
insane, but I'm saying.
they're already not learning.
So you can't, you, you,
you top that with not teaching civics anymore,
which is really what they want.
They don't want people to understand what it is.
No, it's, I mean, it's, it's a part,
that's why it's really does worry me.
And, and the book bans are part of it,
but it is a part of a long-term anti-democratic,
(52:35):
like small D democratic authoritarian play.
Yeah, yeah.
Like if you have a, a populace that is dumb and disengaged,
you're uninformed and unengaged,
then you can do whatever you want in government.
Yeah.
And that's, that's the game plan.
Yeah.
So you have the less fortunate that don't know anything.
(53:01):
And then you have this middle-class group of people who I
think a lot of them live like that.
That ain't me, though, because my kids go to Country Day,
and my kids go to Newman, or McGee, or whatever.
And so I spoke to some trial lawyers.
(53:26):
It's coming for you.
You could sit around like you're thinking,
I'm protected behind the gate where I live,
and I drive this Mercedes Benz,
and I don't care about the education because my child's at
Newman.
They're coming for you, too, though.
That's the focus today,
but they're coming for everybody until we wake up and
(53:46):
realize that everything is at stake right now.
Money can't buy you your rights.
You can travel.
You'll be far better off than most people.
But I mean, I don't know.
If people aren't waking up, then.
(54:06):
Even if it's not about the money buying you your rights,
if they are going to censor that,
the goal will be they're going to touch something that's
going to be more important to you, too.
When you give the government that much power over what they
can do in your household, it won't be just that.
And I can't get people to understand, yes,
(54:27):
I'm fighting for reproductive rights.
You can't imagine the amount of emails I get, basically,
like I'm f-ing crazy because you wouldn't be here if
abortion was legal.
Well, I didn't ask you if I asked one.
But two,
(54:48):
my experience does not give me the right to dictate what
Michelle has to do.
And overwhelmingly, that's how people feel about it.
Even if they personally would not have an abortion or
opposed to abortion personally,
they do not think that the government should be the one
making that decision for other people.
(55:10):
We didn't really talk about this at the beginning.
But I think that.
it is important.
That's sort of the nuance behind why you decided to share
your story is that, you know,
what we so often hear in an opposition to rape and incest
exceptions is like, don't punish the child, you know,
punish the the rapist,
(55:30):
an exception that would allow people to just decide what's
best for them is like then anti anti child because there's
a pregnancy at stake.
It's simply an injustice to apply the death penalty to
innocent child that may be conceived in these cases.
We believe that the perpetrators of rape and incest should
be prosecuted the fullest extent of the law,
(55:51):
but that an unborn child born in that situation should not
be given the punishment that the rapist should have.
That child that was raped,
where's your pro-life for that kid?
What you want me to do is sit down and basically trade a
life for a life still.
Right.
My mother didn't make it.
You understand what I'm saying?
So you want me to, you want me to tell you that.
(56:12):
I should say F her life because I'm here and also have that
pro life, you know, ignore nuance.
Like that's why I appreciate your story and the way that
you tell it so much because to me that's what's always
lacking from the other side is that it's like it's just
everything is like just black and white right and wrong
that it that ignores what people's actual lives are like
(56:34):
right now and that and that the flip side of course like if
if someone wants to have wants to go through as a pregnancy
keep the baby give the baby up for adoption do whatever no
one's going to stop you from doing that I'm not going to
make the nine-year-old will have the abortion I'm saying it
should be up to that family yes on because ain't nobody
(56:55):
know what's going on in that family
like right nobody knows what's going on but what I can tell
you just the thought of it a nine-year-old I know what is
going on and that the government is going to force that
child and that family to carry a pregnancy to term no
(57:15):
matter why yeah yeah well it won't feed them oh yeah no and
also take their turn down 36 million dollars from the
federal government to feed kids over the south that's right
that's right you know kill the education system my mom
always says this that you know that this sort of the pro
lifers and their notion of like well just carry the baby to
(57:39):
term and give it up for adoption that in addition to you
know the emotional toll that that puts on a person like
these people don't understand what tearing a pregnancy to
term is like yes and particularly if you have other
children people just like ignore that yes we just on a
hundred percent okay well you know give the baby to
(57:59):
somebody else and uh no big deal
Representative Boyd I think we're gonna wrap things up -
anything else you want to tell us before we wrap this will
air after after the pre-filing deadline.
So anything you want to highlight?
You know, I talked about those two bills.
I'm going to also run one for mental health with college
(58:23):
students.
I did a mental health symposium last summer and listening
to all these chances and presidents on these kids having
these mental health breaks in school.
And we're seeing it a lot more than I can ever remember as
a kid with these kids.
(58:43):
And they've been doing a lot, you know,
the pandemic and whatever the reasons.
It's so high right now.
So I'm running that bill.
I switched one out just recently for Caleb Wilson,
the young man that was killed during the hazing.
Right.
Well,
your district and all of Louisiana are extremely lucky to
(59:03):
have you.
And we would love to have you back.
Anytime.
I love it.
It was just like having.
The next time I think I'm gonna have a cocktail too,
though.
It was just like hanging out with some friends.
It was good.
Thanks so much.
Yes.
Thank you.
That's gonna do it for now.
Listeners, please rate, review,
(59:25):
and subscribe to this podcast.
You can follow us at Lyft Louisiana.
It's L-I-F-T.
Louisiana on Instagram, and Ellie,
tell us what else they can do.
Like, send us a voice message to Instagram.
Tell us what made you go seriously.
Yes, please send that.
(59:46):
And also we are gonna put a petition in the show notes if
you would like to sign a petition in support of including
an exception for people who are pregnant because of sexual
violence into Louisiana's abortion ban,
we urge you to sign that petition.
And so look for that in the show notes and we'll see you
(01:00:08):
next week.
A quick update.
Since we recorded this episode,
Georgia prosecutors have dropped all charges against the
young woman who was arrested for how she disposed of her
miscarriage.
And while that's certainly good news,
she never should have been arrested in the first place.
Seriously.
(01:00:30):
Seriously is presented by Lift Louisiana,
a nonprofit organization advocating for reproductive health
rights and justice.
Welcome to Seriously,
the podcast that dives into the baffling.
The ridiculous.
And downright unbelievable political climate in red states
like Louisiana.
(00:28):
Welcome to Seriously.
We are going to have a really great interview with
representative Delisha Boyd,
a state representative here in Louisiana.
Later in the show.
I'm excited about that.
It's yeah, it's a really great interview.
But before we do that,
was there anything that has happened recently, Ellie,
(00:51):
that made you think seriously?!
I think my seriously moment is going to continue on the
theme of the rule of law that's happening at the national
level,
and also how Louisiana is apparently playing a part in
this.
So I'm talking specifically about what's going on with
(01:14):
immigration and people being just like picked up off the
street and absconded away.
disappeared.
Yes, like people who have not been charged with a crime.
And from what everyone can tell,
aren't actually even accused of a crime,
we just basically like political dissidents are, you know,
(01:38):
being sent to jail, basically to be deported.
And the video that came out recently with the woman in
Boston,
where she's accosted on the street by people who have on
like law enforcement with masks on,
who don't identify themselves,
and then basically just kidnap her.
So that's terrifying enough.
(02:00):
And then people,
if they're not being sent directly to El Salvador,
which that of course is another thing that's happening,
then they're being sent to an ICE detention center in South
Louisiana.
That's what I keep hearing on the news,
is that's where people are being sent.
So I don't know what that ICE detention center is,
(02:21):
but apparently in Louisiana,
then we are complicit in this legalized kidnapping of
people who are being disappeared here.
Completely.
This has really been freaking me out a lot,
but it is no surprise with our governor here who is a
complete Donald Trump sycophant that Louisiana would be a
(02:46):
number one state for carrying out this administration's
presumably illegal.
rendition of people that yeah like they're snatching off
the street.
It's insane.
Yeah I mean people's lawyers don't know where they are,
family members don't know where they are,
you know judges are telling the administration like you
can't move these people and they're moving them anyway.
(03:10):
You know that happened with the folks that were taken to a
prison in El Salvador and then also with this woman
recently in Boston then again a judge in that case issued
an order saying you cannot remove her from the state and
like oh the administration claims go we'd already we'd
already moved her like yeah right yeah and yeah I mean when
(03:31):
Trump was before he took office or when he was taking
office then the governor here made some sort of comments
about that that you know the federal government could use
private prisons here for for ICE detention center for you
know for ICE.
So I don't know if this is a private prison but that's a
whole other issue of course about who's making money on on
(03:53):
these illegal actions.
Right.
So yeah I think this seriously deserves some investigating
about what's going on.
I think we should get to the bottom of it.
So we'll reach out to some of the folks that we know that
are doing immigration law in the state and see if we can't
get them on the podcast later.
(04:13):
What are you seriously concerned or freaked out or pissed
off about Michelle?
God okay.
A 24-year-old woman in Georgia is behind bars after having
a miscarriage.
So this is what happened.
The police in Georgia arrested this young woman after she
(04:35):
was found unconscious and bleeding near her apartment
complex.
They have charged her with two things concealing the death
of another person and abandonment of a dead body.
So, from reporting,
it seems like she was about 19 weeks pregnant and she had
(05:00):
this miscarriage.
She put the miscarried tissue in the trash.
They recovered that, I guess,
from the trash and they did an autopsy on the fetal remains
and the coroner's office did rule that it was a
miscarriage,
there was no foul play or anything like that that the
(05:20):
coroner found.
So, my question is, what the F else was she supposed to do?
Because hospitals are turning away people who are having
miscarriages.
They're not being treated in a lot of hospitals in banned
states.
They're being sent home without any sort of standard of
treatment for miscarriage.
(05:40):
They're told to go home, have the miscarriage at home.
So, what the F was she supposed to do?
Yeah, I mean...
And obviously this is somebody who is in the middle of
medical trauma, medical and probably emotional trauma.
And then we're going to charge this person with a crime on
top of that.
Two crimes.
(06:01):
Yeah.
I mean, and we've seen, you know, for years now,
laws like that being used to prosecute people for pregnancy
outcomes.
But I think it's also interesting and worth noting with
those two crimes that it's also like backdoor into
personhood, right?
(06:23):
They're both laws that sound on their face that they are
supposed to apply to a fully born alive person who then is
dead and what is and is not legal to do with those remains.
So again,
once we start using that to prosecute people for a pre
(06:46):
viability miscarriage, then that's part of the point,
I assume.
I guess so.
Really disturbing.
And this this Georgia case is the most recent example,
but I think that this is happening in other parts of the
state.
And I think that really what it highlights is you can put
(07:08):
into your criminal abortion ban that the pregnant person is
not supposed to be subject to that criminal law.
But there's all kinds of other laws that are on the books
in states that can be used to criminalize pregnant people
for what happens with their pregnancy,
whether it's a they are addicted to they have substance
(07:37):
abuse issues and that led to the end of their pregnancy
somehow or another.
Those laws are very commonly being weaponized again.
against pregnant people in a way that you would not assume
that those laws should apply.
And as people, as some of our viewers know,
(07:59):
Representative Mandy Landry has for several years now
introduced a bill that would try to prevent that,
that would put like an affirmative exception in the law
writ large that people cannot be prosecuted or penalized
for their pregnancy outcomes.
And what is it that we hear, Michelle,
(08:19):
in opposition to that bill?
That there's already that protection in the criminal
abortion ban, so this isn't necessary.
We don't need this.
We don't need this.
Right.
There's already an exception in the abortion ban that says
the pregnant person can't be prosecuted.
So, yeah.
And as we also know, I mean, you know, our legislature,
(08:39):
they only pass bills that are really necessary.
Yeah, that's right.
That's right.
That's right.
That's right.
That's bulls---.
Yes.
Well,
I'm looking forward to talking to Rep Boyd about all of
the f-y going on, um, day in and day out at the Capitol.
Yeah.
Yeah.
She has a lot to say.
(09:00):
Um, yeah, she has a lot to say.
So, uh,
we will be back with that interview in just a minute.
We're really excited to welcome to the podcast state
representative, Delisha Boyd.
She has been a fierce advocate for reproductive freedom and other progressive policies. She's a real firebrand, I would say. Never backs down from a fight with her right-wing colleagues. So Rep Boyd, welcome to the podcast.
(09:32):
Thanks for having me.
Great place to be.
Our first in-person guest.
Yay.
Can I clap?
Yeah.
Thanks for being our guinea pig today.
No problem.
So we have a lot that we would like to talk to you about.
Um, we're really interested in how you see things,
the state of things right now.
(09:53):
We're in abortion ban America here in, in Louisiana.
And we also have, you know,
a MAGA Republican administration.
And I think I just wanted to start by talking about how
Louisiana's abortion ban doesn't include an exception for
people who become pregnant as a result of sexual violence
(10:13):
like rape and incest.
But you want to change that.
Um, so for the last two years,
you've pushed to try to include that exception in the law.
So talk to us about why this is so important to you.
Okay.
Um, so I am basically the product of that.
My mother was 15 and one of her, uh,
(10:36):
family friend was 28 and she was great.
And there's no other way to put it.
You know, um, I used to refer to him as my sperm doll,
but she was 15 he was 28 and in 1968 she didn't have a
choice you know and not to say that they would have chosen
to do that i don't know um i spent most of my life just
(10:59):
pissed so i didn't ask hardly any questions and didn't
think to think of it as a 15 year old girl uh being under
the control of a grown man you know um because i was a kid
myself so i just a lot of stuff i just didn't get and
didn't really care i just was focused on what was happening
(11:21):
to me right and so when i got older and and maybe curious
because it was just never talked about you know that i
don't know if that happens in all families but you know i
hate to make this ratio but in black families that's
usually we don't talk about stuff like that Thank you.
(11:43):
I think that's the same in Jewish families.
It's also the same in Waspi families, so yeah.
Okay, so I'm talking about problems, particularly secrets,
I think is yeah, unfortunately, or fortunately, yeah,
a running theme.
And so I just wasn't talked about, I didn't think about it.
(12:03):
When she died, I moved in with my grandmother, who was,
I guess, hell bent on me and my brother,
who was like five at the time,
taking us in a different direction,
because she kind of just went like a wild child, you know,
(12:24):
probably, yeah,
probably dealing with the demons that she had going on.
You know, at 56, I could see all of that now, but as a kid,
you just see this wild child kind of thing.
And then when I moved in with my grandmother, I was like,
well, she wasn't my grandmother, so she just was a wild,
because we just never talked about it.
So I was just formulating all these ideas of who she was
(12:48):
based on my experience,
based on my experience with my grandmother.
I swear, guys, I swear it was like 40 when it just hit me.
I don't even know why, you know.
I didn't think about it when I turned 15.
I didn't think about it when I turned 28,
because she was 28 when she died.
(13:10):
I thought about how young that really was,
but not the circumstances that probably led to that,
if that makes sense.
Yeah.
And so, you know, as an adult with a daughter,
and my daughter was always every bit of her true age.
She wasn't like 10 going on 20 or 15 going on 21.
(13:33):
And I remember when she turned 15, thinking, oh my God,
she's really young.
Yes.
Right?
It didn't hit me when I, when I turn 15.
They didn't even get pretty old when we turned 15.
Yes.
Well,
at least my grandmother's probably laughing right now.
She always says she had to focus more on my brother because
(13:55):
I came to her as a little adult.
No, because I had like a lot of responsibilities.
Yeah.
With my brother, you know,
who's to this day still calls me his mom, my sister,
sister mile, you know.
And so when Chrissy turned 15,
I remember being overwhelmed with grief because I have been
(14:17):
so hard on my mother my entire life even after she had
died.
Yeah.
You know,
you have been very brave about sharing your personal story,
not just today.
I've seen you share it at the legislature in front of your
colleagues.
This is a different side because I never talk about
(14:38):
me in committee.
I was just talking about,
I don't want this to be about meeting what I endured
because I have survived it and thrived through it.
Right.
She did not.
Yeah, but that's a lot of what's driving you.
How has it been sharing your personal story in that forum?
(15:02):
The first year was pretty difficult because I had not,
not that I was embarrassed by it.
I just lived my life saying I'm not a victim of it.
Yeah.
So I just, you know what I mean?
I don't know if that makes sense to people, but I didn't.
And again, not embarrassed by it,
(15:22):
but I knew at that moment,
because the year before I didn't,
and the spirit was telling me to get up when they got up
and told Pat Moore's story.
Right.
But I had, this was my second session.
We had,
Redistricting was my first session because I got elected
late November in 2021.
(15:45):
So my first session was the Redistricting session.
The next regular session started I think in April.
So I was new,
still trying to figure out my ways and although I was
passing bills,
I did go to the floor and I just talked about what my focus
is.
Little kids, but little girls,
but it's not being strong enough to withstand carrying a
(16:09):
folk.
I did talk about that.
And Pat was out for some reason.
I think Laurie Schlegal got up and told her mother,
read a statement from Pat and the spirit was like,
you cannot let that be.
And I didn't say anything.
So that was a huge struggle for me after when I wrote I
(16:31):
Dear Governor a letter.
Our Dear Governor at the time who was a Democrat.
Yes.
You wrote that Dear Governor some.
But to this day, he has never responded to my letter.
So I shared my mother's story for the first time to him and
Matthew Block and I'm still waiting on a response from
(16:51):
that.
Now the next year when I ran the exception he was all,
well I don't need your regular ass now because if you had
taken care of it beforehand.
That might have been, I think that was the year,
I'm trying to remember there were various times that we
were all lobbying the then governor to veto bills but this
(17:15):
might have been then yeah when like the final trigger ban
was passed.
Yes it was.
And when he signed it immediately so that there wasn't time
for people to lobby him to veto it.
It's either that one or maybe that was the six week ban the
year before but I was furious.
I mean I didn't even ask him to veto the bill because I
(17:35):
knew his position.
you have to create an exception
for rape and incest. And this is why. But he knew that that was not in the bill. Exactly. And he signed it anyway. He signed it anyway. So I think, you know, that first year was probably the biggest for me.
I had to call and talk to my brother about it.
(17:58):
I don't know that he knew the full story,
because he was a baby himself.
He knew her struggles.
And he, I mean, he remembers way more than you.
I think my survival was put things in Pandora's box and
lock and move on.
He has always been chatty Cathy.
(18:20):
You want to talk about everything that happened.
And he remembers everything.
I remember when I was in kindergarten,
and remember mama did...
No, I don't remember that.
The younger ones are always bringing up old s---.
And my family too.
And so, talk to him about it.
He was like,
I've been trying to get you to talk about this more.
(18:40):
My brother is an author.
He's writes books and stuff.
So he wanted to do a book about our childhood.
And two years before that, I told him, I said,
I can't do that.
I'm going to support you.
And you're doing it.
But I don't want to relive it. F, it's over.
You know what I mean?
I'm sorry.
You said I could cuss.
(19:00):
You did.
Yeah, 100%.
And so, he asked if he should come down and say,
I'll let you know.
I don't think so.
I wasn't anticipating the people on that committee being as
bad as they were.
But that's what I wanted to ask you about,
because the bills related to abortion all go to the
(19:24):
criminal justice committee and the House.
Which is an argument for me too,
but we'll cross that bridge later.
We're calling it the Criminal Injustice Committee.
It's so hostile.
none of the bills have been given a fair hearing at all.
So you want to talk about just your experience that you had
(19:45):
in that committee?
The first year was very, again, keep in mind,
I was a new legislator at the time.
These are your colleagues.
Yeah,
and although I'd seen some of the faces during the redistricting
session that threw me way,
and I've been involved in politics in some form of fashion
for over 20 years, but to be in it, I was like,
(20:09):
where are we living in this place, right?
And so when it got to the committee,
even leading up to that date,
the tricks that they were pulling,
Oh we can't do it this day,
but they told us like the night before they couldn't do it
that day.
So, you know, people need to put it on next week,
reschedule their dates and putting us on the same day with
(20:31):
right to life.
And just so people understand too then, ordinarily,
the process with all committees is if you are the proponent
of the bill, the legislator who is proposing the bill,
then the committee will work with you to schedule it when
it's convenient for you so that then your witnesses can be
there.
And that courtesy was completely disbanded.
(20:55):
No, not given to us.
And I think it was like the third date just so happened to
be the date of right to life now.
And that's all for this.
When you do me wrong, I am a chosen child.
He will get your ass back.
And it ended up also being Delta Sigma Theta Day.
That's right.
That's right.
(21:15):
That was great.
It's coming back to me.
It was so fabulous.
And I got to talk to the Deltas that morning.
And when I tell you they line that committee,
it was sitting on the floor at one point,
they opened up an overflow room.
Michelle had a survey, remember?
(21:36):
It was just that support for me to get through that.
Because that was the first time I was telling it to the
public, which was very difficult.
And to look at them, not give a frick about it.
It was alarming for me.
I remember that day when you were testifying and then when
(22:01):
other survivors had come to support the bill.
Do you remember like the feed going out three times?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Remember that?
I was like, what the frick are these people?
I remember them just most of the committee not being in the
room.
They literally got up and walked out.
They walked in the back.
Yes.
To not listen to me,
(22:22):
you and others and the other survivors.
Let's listen to some of that testimony now.
Testimonials on behalf of Reverend Denise Robinson.
My daughter was gang raped at the age of 17.
on her way home from school.
She knew one of the boys, she thought they were friends,
but the other boys were his friends.
(22:44):
She kept it a secret,
secret except for telling me she needed to go to the doctor
to think as in addition to the harm she suffered,
that she may have had to parent a child that would have
resulted from this rape was incomprehensible.
She simply would not have survived it.
In this committee a lot,
there is a lot of talk about supporting victims and that
(23:07):
this committee tries to make decisions to support victims.
If you are forcing rape and incest survivors in Louisiana
to carry forced pregnancy, you are not supporting victims.
It was incredibly disrespectful.
It was disgusting.
It was and they always say, I mean,
you know that there's some truth to this that there's
(23:29):
multiple hearings going on, yada, yada.
Not everybody's on the dias at the same time.
They were right in the back though.
It wasn't like they had left the area.
They stayed just in the...
I don't know what they call those holding rooms.
I call it the holding room.
Powering in the corner of the hall basically.
But they were ready to come back in and vote against the
(23:52):
bill.
Absolutely, absolutely.
It was incredibly disrespectful obviously.
But it was also to me,
it was just sitting there watching it.
It was so obvious that they were so uncomfortable.
Many of them wanted to vote against the bill and had no
qualms about it.
But many of them,
(24:12):
I don't believe that that is how they feel.
So the second year,
I know for a fact that that's not how everybody...
I watch Vincent Cox with tears in his eyes.
Right.
And then come to me after so I could make him feel better.
But you still voted.
I'm sorry, what?
You know what I mean?
Yeah, so I wanted to ask you about that.
(24:34):
Because I know that you have had a lot of conversations
with colleagues on both sides of the aisle.
And so how have those conversations gone?
Do you think that there's more support for that bill
than...
Yes, than as shown.
Right.
Absolutely, absolutely.
Now,
what I do know without any hesitation in saying that even
(24:59):
the ones that now get it, if the governor says no,
they're going to vote no.
If you hear what I'm saying, and you know it's a good bill,
then vote for it.
And to me, it's so clear.
And we have talked a little bit about how this is going on
in other red states too,
that they're sending these bills to this committee to die
(25:21):
intentionally.
And the messages being sent to those legislators from the
governor and from the overlords at the right to life.
Do not let this bill or the other ones that we've worked
on...
trying to get, you know, better maternal health exception.
Yeah, absolutely.
Don't let it out of this committee because they know that
if it hits the floor,
like Republicans are gonna be in a huge bind because their
(25:44):
people want to vote for it because the people- Want it.
Like, by huge numbers.
Support, rape, and incest.
Because I think your numbers were like at 60 something
percent.
Higher.
Statewide, I believe it was 73% support.
Somebody from Tulane sent me one too that was a little
(26:06):
higher than yours even.
So I mean,
overwhelmingly people in Louisiana wanted- Including
Republicans.
Well, that's why I'm gonna get ready to go with that.
One of them came and said, look, I hear you.
I get it, but we just got word from the governor.
So I called her, someone changed their age.
They're gonna vote it down.
(26:26):
I really want to make them just look, you know,
because he was point blanked.
they were instructed not to support it.
And they were instructed not to allow any amendments to the
bill.
That was last year, right?
So that's when, yeah,
you changed the age to make it minors,
victims who are minors.
(26:47):
And then also, I remember this was great.
Then, you know,
there's been a lot of policy issues with rape and incest
bills,
whether to have a law enforcement reporting requirement,
as you know, because in real life,
than having that kind of requirement, basically,
like eviscerates at any usefulness.
(27:07):
Yeah, absolutely, yeah, yeah.
But you proposed an amendment and committed them to like,
okay, we're gonna lower the age to be minors,
and we're gonna put in a law enforcement reporting
requirement.
And I mean, that was what it might be.
Well, because I knew that, yes, because everybody else,
and I told them, because I think she was nervous.
(27:27):
I was like, they're killing it anyway.
I just wanna make them look as worse as we possibly can.
They were like, oh, do you remember this yet?
They didn't know what to do.
They were talking to each other.
They were like, oh, s---,
like this is what we've said needs to be in this bill.
And then- And now she's doing it.
Yes, it was really strategic.
(27:48):
I was there, I mean, controlling was good.
But the governor had said, don't allow any amendments.
And so they got real confused up there in the dias,
like whispering to each other, like, oh, s---,
this was our excuse.
Well, and here's the deal when he was like,
I don't want any amendments on it.
Of course you don't, because then you look like a liar,
however, how do you vote down me saying, well,
(28:12):
let's make it for minors?
Yeah.
How do you vote that down and then still have to go back
and vote against the bill, right?
Well, you know- Exactly.
One of the new,
they get one of the new stupid people to say something
about the law part of it.
Well, you stupid for saying it, but since you said it,
let's add that in too.
Yeah, you know, yeah,
(28:34):
there was a lot of f-y that I thought that yes,
you handled that strategically really well,
I was very amused.
But then also, you'll recall, there was like,
there was basically just like a simple drafting error in
terms of what statute had was cited in your bill,
which pissed me off, by the way,
because I'm trying to figure how that happened.
The statute that had been cited in the original bill was
(28:58):
just a little broader than what you had intended.
So it would have been other sexual crimes too.
So they make a big deal about this on the committee.
Like a big deal.
Yeah, we have to move the date.
Remember?
Yeah, that's what pissed me off.
And I remember talking to you in the hallway afterwards
that like, that is a simple drafting here.
I had, when it's another lawyer in my office, like,
(29:18):
look up with the right bill number, text it to me.
We had that within five minutes.
Like calling Zach, like Zach, how do you screw this up,
you know?
Thank you.
But they f-d with you and with us so much that they used
that as an excuse to reschedule the bill for a different
day as opposed to what normally happens,
(29:40):
which is just like on the same day, then we vote.
move it five minutes later in the f-ing agenda and just
like find the right statute number.
It was like they made it seem like, well,
what are we going to do now?
I mean, what are we going to do?
I guess everyone has to come back a different day.
And that is, you know, that's the tactic to do that,
(30:02):
because then you won't have all the support on the second
day.
Well,
I think that one of the things that's been really alarming
and we're seeing how this works nationwide now with the
Trump administration, but, you know,
we've been experiencing this in Louisiana,
which is they're not following the rules, the process,
(30:27):
any of that anymore on nothing.
So we could expect that just across the board,
because the new thing is you do what you want to do in
this.
Oh, I'm sorry.
Later.
And no professional currency.
Not at all.
Republicans now have a super majority in both of our
houses, you know,
in the house and they just go along with the f-ing stuff
like the improper rules, you know,
(30:49):
like just either lie about what the rules are or if they
get called out,
then they're like that their people will vote for whatever
they're being told.
Yeah.
Absolutely.
It's really just, you know, you know,
the process that makes me, I mean,
the substance that makes me crazy, but the problem, like,
you can't even follow the rules,
they're making them up as they go.
(31:12):
Really?
Well, and I think that's like you have the vote,
like at least follow the rules to make this seem like that
there is some legitimate process.
Yeah.
The lack of just like what the culture and professional
courtesies used to be is gone.
And that's dangerous too.
Let me tell you,
it's dangerous all around not just what I'm seeing with the
(31:36):
Republicans and I'm probably gonna get dawged for this,
but I gotta say it.
Some of the Dems.
Yeah.
You're sitting back like, what the ...
Say it. F. Yeah.
But I'd rather keep them and help me get rid of one of
these 73 who always voted against us.
I agree, but it is hard.
It's hard to do when you're looking at them selling their
(31:59):
soul for a steak dinner.
You get much s--- you don't get.
One of them was like, oh, we're gonna get 1.7 million,
I said I got 4.5 for a sidewalk.
What are you gonna do with 1.7 million?
If you get it,
because it wasn't like they got it immediately,
they're gonna get it the session during the fiscal session.
(32:20):
You want the snake to be something else other than the
snake.
Well, and also, what is 1.7 million?
to your district going to do when people are losing
Medicaid coverage, when people are losing, you know,
public education.
You're supporting their effort to make things worse in your
(32:41):
district.
You should take that $1.7 million and just cut checks to
the people in your district because they're gonna need it.
They need it right now.
They need it before them on points.
Yeah.
You know,
that's been more of a struggle for me than with the
Republicans in the water because I expect nothing less,
right?
(33:01):
And I think I shared that with you last year.
They're gonna be who they are.
They're gonna vote the s--- down anyway.
If this is the next even five years we're doomed,
where the Dems eat each other and they keep thriving on the
Republican side because they will get in a room and they
disagree like we do.
But when they walk out, they don't want to call.
(33:22):
That's right.
I mean, we've seen this somewhat on the national level too.
Yeah, absolutely.
I think people don't realize in the South though, I mean,
there are plenty of Democrats that, you know,
occasionally we can count on them for votes, occasionally.
Because you are doing us a complete injustice because I
(33:42):
believe you're taking back our conversations to them.
Oh yeah, no, there's real trust issues with some folks.
And when we talk about that plenty during this session
about who can we drop?
When are we rolling information out to various people?
Sometimes I'm sitting looking in amazement when we're on
(34:04):
the floor.
It's just more apparent on the floor than it is even in
committee.
And I guess because you're moving around from committee so
you're not privy to every committee hearing and what's
going on.
I'm like sometimes just looking like, wow.
And it's not wild with the Republicans.
I expect them to be exactly who they are,
which is why I'm able to have a conversation with them.
(34:26):
because I know who you are.
You're going to be who you are,
but let's see if we can have some type of civil
conversation about what your thought process is,
how you got there, and what mine is.
But I'm looking at people who are supposed to have similar
values in our deals and are concerned about,
especially here in our city,
(34:46):
42% of our citizens live at or below the poverty level.
What kind of s--- are you voting on?
Really?
So I do want to talk about that.
I was saying to Michelle, Delisha's trying to leave us.
She's trying,
she's trying to leave us for the city council,
which I'm so, I'm so sad that I understand why.
(35:09):
Someone strong enough to fight for New Orleans,
who is not afraid to push back on the governor.
I remember doing the tax session, one of the dams said, oh,
did the governor call you to come up to talk?
I said,
(35:31):
He wouldn't call me because there's no part of his brain
that thinks he can change my mind on anything.
Because you're not willing to take some bullshit crumbs,
yes, or some like vague promises of like, you know,
we'll take care, we'll put you on this committee, we'll do.
I mean, that's what frustrates me the most.
And this is true federally with Democrats that sell out to
(35:52):
you.
It's not like you are selling yourself real cheap, man.
Like you can't trust these things.
You hear what I said, a steak dinner.
Just take me to dinner.
Take them to stabs, and it's all in.
That's needed, you know?
Well, I'm allergic to almost everything,
so I can't eat the shit anyway.
Don't offer to take me out.
You can keep your dinner, asshole.
(36:13):
That's my new life, you know, just allergic to everything.
But, you know,
so I don't suspect that we'll get anything different this
session.
Definitely going to file the exception bill.
Definitely going to file ending employment discrimination
for the LGBTQ.
Yeah, I was going to ask you about that,
(36:33):
because that's also a bill that is incredibly important,
but also contentious, and you've filed it every year.
Yeah.
Well, my niece came to me when she was, I think,
in ninth grade and, you know, told me she was gay.
(36:54):
And I said, okay, well, shit, I love you.
I still love you.
Not that she wasn't getting the support.
And her mother is just not me.
You know, my brother lives in Dallas.
And she had a hard frickin' time in Kenna,
right there in Kenna.
You know, she switched schools three or four times,
and I watched her change.
(37:18):
Just the little girl that she was and how living in this
world as a Black gay, female, changed who she is now.
Because it changes everything about how the world is
treating you.
Yeah, you know,
and I guess just being in Kenner was heightened.
(37:38):
And a couple of times I went to the school,
I told her mom to stop calling me because my mom was like,
I just don't want to make it work.
How can it get any worse?
Just calling, crying every f-ing day.
And you might not fight, but I do.
Like, I actually told one of the principals,
they're not fighters, but I am.
Like,
I would come in and beat their ass and wait for their mom
and dad to come and beat their ass too.
(38:01):
Like, she just wants to go to school.
Yeah, she just wants to learn and get her lesson.
I'm not going to have her calling me horrified,
crying and just making up reasons why she can't go to
school and like every freaking year she would just have
these health things that she couldn't go to school.
But nonetheless, it's I guess last, no year before last,
(38:26):
she's called, she goes, T.C.,
I just want to tell you thank you for loving me.
Well, I'm so emotional today.
Y'all make me sick.
And thank you for always fighting for us, and I will.
Yeah.
I will.
So this is a non-discrimination in employment.
(38:47):
In employment, yeah.
There's just so much wrong in this state that not everybody
will pick that bag up to carry,
but those two are personal for me.
So I'm gonna,
it's never not an option for me with those two.
Well, and as you know, I mean, you're right.
(39:07):
Those are contentious issues,
but you have a lot of support from your people because it's
personal for a lot of people,
either themselves or family members that have seen how
either these abortion bans or how anti-LGBTQ policies,
whether official or unofficial, are really, you know.
(39:27):
You know how people like the testimony against the LGBTQ
community, you gotta know at one time,
that's how they testified against black people,
that's how they testified against women.
Jewish people.
Jewish people, you know,
like it is LGBTQ right now that's holding that torch,
(39:49):
but we're all extensions of that.
And because we're all extensions of that,
we should all be fighting for that.
You can't have one group of anyone that's being treated
unfairly and then think that it won't apply to you.
It's a circus.
And de-humanizing.
You're right, exactly.
It's a fricking circus.
(40:09):
And if it hasn't come to a town near you, it's coming.
The testimony and stories that come out with the rape and
incest bill and the maternal health bills in terms of
what's going on with, you know,
patients and doctors and survivors.
extremely emotional.
But like,
I don't know that I've seen as emotional of hearings as I
(40:30):
have seen at our legislature with the LGBTQ,
the anti LGBTQ.
So it's just, what's his name used to be elected?
Well, short kind of stubby, just mean, hateful.
What's his name?
I feel like that describes so many of them.
He was, he was, he was, he was an elected official before.
(40:50):
Woody?
Yes.
Oh, Woody Jenkins.
Oh, let me tell you the first, my first year, hateful,
hateful person.
Yes.
My first year, his testimony was so,
go back and look at that tape.
It was so funny.
So he's,
you know how you get up from the table and you let the,
so he was, he was just so f-ing wild that I was like,
he's a pastor.
(41:11):
He's like, yeah, he's a former Louisiana representative.
And like, it was so bad.
I was like, F him.
I'm going back.
That's my tape.
So I went and sat next to him and then I spread my elbows,
I was touching him because I was like,
I know this B wants to die right now.
I'm touching him.
He was just so mean and hateful.
(41:32):
A person may choose to have a different gender identity,
but the employer also has rights and gets to choose.
These are choices.
These are not something like race or sex that you are,
it has just fallen in your lap.
We're talking about things like hiring teachers.
We're talking about all the ramifications.
(41:54):
And by the way, if you read the bill,
it absolutely prohibits you from failing to hire someone.
That's the whole purpose of the bill.
So now you have to hire transgender people and people based
on gender identity.
Now, what is their gender identity?
They may be identifying as male or female, right?
You're just opening Pandora's box to tell the,
all the employers,
(42:14):
the tens of thousands of employers in this state and every
governmental body, every school system,
every parish government,
every city government that they can't discriminate based on
what is quite honestly, a mental problem.
But I think everybody was like, Oh my gosh,
she's going to explode because I have, you know,
(42:35):
you've seen this look before.
You can't read what's going on.
I'm just dead face.
But I could not take the things that he was saying.
So I was like, somebody has to make him feel uncomfortable.
And since they won't do it,
let me just get up and push up and sit next to him and
just, what are you doing?
(42:58):
Like, why are you sitting there?
And later I was like,
cause I needed him to know that this was my take.
That's right.
I love that.
You know, I love that.
And when I did it,
he wrapped up his little ignorant s--- and moved on,
but I was like, it was, it was a good play.
Yeah.
Oh my God.
In 2023, that's what 2022 really,
(43:21):
that's where your head is right now.
I know.
No, but can I ask, go home and take care, you know, just,
your days are numbered, you know,
you're already on the other side of 60,
you're gonna be evil all the way till you're dead?
Yeah, and hateful, yeah.
And hateful.
And people, and this is of course, you know,
after people have told harrowing stories, you know, I mean,
(43:43):
personal stories of like their own experience being
discriminated against,
or were the people that saved their lives,
all of that type of testimony from the LGBTQ community.
When I'm like that in committee,
it is because I won't let my alter ego come out.
Delilah would F everybody up all day.
So I'm like in a battle with myself.
(44:05):
Oh yeah, I hear you.
You know what I mean?
You know what I mean?
You know what I mean?
I'm in a battle with myself too, like be professional.
Yes, don't be up here being all crazy,
flipping over tables and shit to down.
You do.
are very good at managing your facial expressions.
I intentionally, when we're in those committee rooms,
(44:27):
I know exactly where to sit to make sure I'm not in the
background on the video feed because I have one terrible
resting bitch face,
but also I just can't stop myself from rolling my eyes,
you know, or I don't have it yet, but it's fine.
Michelle, let me tell you, again,
we kind of talked about this before.
I was a mad f-ing kid most of my life, right?
(44:51):
And even after my grandmother just started trying to take
me back on the side,
so she pulled me out of Samuel James Green and put me in a
little small Catholic school like six blocks from my house.
But even then, like it was a different environment.
I remember thinking to myself back then, like,
(45:13):
why are these f-ing people from there?
And everybody, like today,
I know everybody had some issues going on,
but to come in and to see these people functioning like a
family and what else, like just whatever,
but always just one step away from if you sit around thing,
you're gonna get punched in your face,
(45:34):
kind of.
I'm just sitting, I'm being very honest.
I'm not proud of it, you know?
So it took me a while not to allow other people to control.
Right, yeah, yeah.
And so, but Delilah's still in there, right?
She's just, she wants to flex sometimes.
So when I get like that with those people,
(45:55):
it's usually because I'm in a struggle,
not to say F you, F you, and F you in my office. Like really, really, it is a struggle sometimes.
So it comes out with me being emotional.
It's different from what you guys just got, just now,
my mom, I'm in a safe space, so to speak.
(46:17):
Yeah, for sure, yeah.
So for me as a lawyer,
then what's so hard with all of this is that, you know,
each of those hearings, it's like preparing for trial,
like where you don't know what the date's going to be.
And you're prepared for a bunch of different trials at the
same time.
You've got to get people there who are ready to speak,
present our side, and then respond to the other side.
(46:40):
But it's a trial that you don't get to cross examine
anybody.
So that's what I'm sitting there being like, oh, just like,
so we have to rely on the committee Yeah,
they're the only people who can question witnesses and at
least if it's your bill, you get to close.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I mean, when we're opposing bills, then I'll go up there,
(47:01):
of course, and be like, this, this that they set us alive,
this that they set us alive.
This was bullsh-.
Here's a bunch of other stuff to know,
which everyone on the committee gets are like, whatever,
you know, who cares?
Whatever.
But then, you know.
Ben Clapper, Dorinda Bordley, you know,
all the people on the other side,
they go back up and just repeat the same lies or say
(47:23):
something that, you know, in response to what I said,
that like should engender more questions.
And it doesn't.
This is where I'm just like, this,
this is the only way this process works is if people on the
committee are paying attention,
well informed and willing to ask questions and push back.
And when that doesn't happen,
then I want to jump out of my skin.
(47:46):
So Ben Clapper, for our listeners,
is the director of the Louisiana Right to Life.
And he basically tells all of these anti-abortion,
conservative, mostly Republicans, how to vote.
Right.
Yeah.
I think you probably do know how many people just don't
even read a bill.
They were actually only able to ask questions because of
(48:09):
Ben Clapper sending the question to them.
They have never.
We send questions too.
Often are not asked.
Yes.
And that's the point of the committee process, right?
I mean, it's,
it's very obvious on the floor a lot of times how shitness
gets to slipping through the cracks, which is worrying,
you know, because,
but that's sort of understandable because there's so many
(48:31):
bills and there's lots of strategy where they're trying to
slip things through the cracks.
But the committee process, like by design,
is supposed to be vetting these things.
And it's not a million bills, you know, I mean, it's a lot,
but depending on the committee, but, you know,
to do your job, you will,
that's all you have to do is note those, those bills.
(48:52):
We disagree with our current governor,
but he was elected without a runoff because people just
didn't f-ing vote.
You cannot run a statewide election from April to October.
No, well,
you also should not be running the year after Roe was
overturned and abortion has been banned in Louisiana and
(49:13):
not ever say anything about it.
that throughout the entire election.
I think that a lot of people who really really care about
that issue would have turned out to vote if they knew that
they were voting for someone that was going to be a
champion.
Yeah I agree with that.
People have people have lots of things to complain about
legitimate things but they don't know who does it.
(49:36):
You know people are like b-g about stuff like putting stuff
on Biden and Kamala but I'm like like pulling stuff.
I'm like dude like this is like this is not the president.
The president doesn't do that.
90% of the calls I get in my office have nothing to do with
what I actually do.
That doesn't that does not surprise me.
But they do have to do with something that somebody does
(49:58):
right.
Yeah and some of that like when you're a statewide you know
a state rep you're gonna get just a lot of like the roads
suck the sewage and water board sucks that kind of stuff.
But like I mean What worries me the most is, as you know,
how much happens at the state level and the local level.
(50:20):
It's why I'm writing for city council,
not at the national level.
So the most of the like meat and potatoes stuff that people
are concerned, it's right.
It don't matter, I mean,
you should vote for the presidential election,
but it doesn't f-ing matter.
You should vote in every election.
And the ones that are here,
who is in Baton Rouge representing us,
(50:42):
without our city council representing us,
that's who's making the policies.
90% of the policies that affect people's everyday lives in
Louisiana are made in Louisiana.
That number might not be quite right,
but I feel strong about that.
It may not be 90, but it's a lot.
I went to the year of the governor's election to a school
(51:02):
in my district to register the 18-year-olds and the 17-year
-olds that would be 18 months in the election.
And just talking to them about this predominantly African
-American church, I mean, school,
about the struggles and what it took for us to even have
the right to vote and not very long before then.
And I started talking about Bloody Sunday.
(51:24):
I asked those babies how many of them had heard of Bloody
Sunday?
Not one.
No way.
One little boy raised his hand and said, Miss Boyd,
you mean Super Sunday?
No, baby, I'm not talking about the Indians.
I'm not talking about the Indians.
And the quantity in that is, yes, you're 17, 18 years old,
but I count that as being in our lifetime because that's 58
(51:50):
years ago.
That means that's maybe your grandma, your mom,
or somebody.
Yeah, there are people that are alive today that continue.
In your family.
100%, yeah.
In your family, that should be telling you.
So we fight the book ban on keeping stuff out of the
classrooms that they ain't learning to s--- anyway.
I'm not saying don't fight the book ban because it's
(52:12):
insane, but I'm saying.
they're already not learning.
So you can't, you, you,
you top that with not teaching civics anymore,
which is really what they want.
They don't want people to understand what it is.
No, it's, I mean, it's, it's a part,
that's why it's really does worry me.
And, and the book bans are part of it,
but it is a part of a long-term anti-democratic,
(52:35):
like small D democratic authoritarian play.
Yeah, yeah.
Like if you have a, a populace that is dumb and disengaged,
you're uninformed and unengaged,
then you can do whatever you want in government.
Yeah.
And that's, that's the game plan.
Yeah.
So you have the less fortunate that don't know anything.
(53:01):
And then you have this middle-class group of people who I
think a lot of them live like that.
That ain't me, though, because my kids go to Country Day,
and my kids go to Newman, or McGee, or whatever.
And so I spoke to some trial lawyers.
(53:26):
It's coming for you.
You could sit around like you're thinking,
I'm protected behind the gate where I live,
and I drive this Mercedes Benz,
and I don't care about the education because my child's at
Newman.
They're coming for you, too, though.
That's the focus today,
but they're coming for everybody until we wake up and
(53:46):
realize that everything is at stake right now.
Money can't buy you your rights.
You can travel.
You'll be far better off than most people.
But I mean, I don't know.
If people aren't waking up, then.
(54:06):
Even if it's not about the money buying you your rights,
if they are going to censor that,
the goal will be they're going to touch something that's
going to be more important to you, too.
When you give the government that much power over what they
can do in your household, it won't be just that.
And I can't get people to understand, yes,
(54:27):
I'm fighting for reproductive rights.
You can't imagine the amount of emails I get, basically,
like I'm f-ing crazy because you wouldn't be here if
abortion was legal.
Well, I didn't ask you if I asked one.
But two,
(54:48):
my experience does not give me the right to dictate what
Michelle has to do.
And overwhelmingly, that's how people feel about it.
Even if they personally would not have an abortion or
opposed to abortion personally,
they do not think that the government should be the one
making that decision for other people.
(55:10):
We didn't really talk about this at the beginning.
But I think that.
it is important.
That's sort of the nuance behind why you decided to share
your story is that, you know,
what we so often hear in an opposition to rape and incest
exceptions is like, don't punish the child, you know,
punish the the rapist,
(55:30):
an exception that would allow people to just decide what's
best for them is like then anti anti child because there's
a pregnancy at stake.
It's simply an injustice to apply the death penalty to
innocent child that may be conceived in these cases.
We believe that the perpetrators of rape and incest should
be prosecuted the fullest extent of the law,
(55:51):
but that an unborn child born in that situation should not
be given the punishment that the rapist should have.
That child that was raped,
where's your pro-life for that kid?
What you want me to do is sit down and basically trade a
life for a life still.
Right.
My mother didn't make it.
You understand what I'm saying?
So you want me to, you want me to tell you that.
(56:12):
I should say F her life because I'm here and also have that
pro life, you know, ignore nuance.
Like that's why I appreciate your story and the way that
you tell it so much because to me that's what's always
lacking from the other side is that it's like it's just
everything is like just black and white right and wrong
that it that ignores what people's actual lives are like
(56:34):
right now and that and that the flip side of course like if
if someone wants to have wants to go through as a pregnancy
keep the baby give the baby up for adoption do whatever no
one's going to stop you from doing that I'm not going to
make the nine-year-old will have the abortion I'm saying it
should be up to that family yes on because ain't nobody
(56:55):
know what's going on in that family
like right nobody knows what's going on but what I can tell
you just the thought of it a nine-year-old I know what is
going on and that the government is going to force that
child and that family to carry a pregnancy to term no
(57:15):
matter why yeah yeah well it won't feed them oh yeah no and
also take their turn down 36 million dollars from the
federal government to feed kids over the south that's right
that's right you know kill the education system my mom
always says this that you know that this sort of the pro
lifers and their notion of like well just carry the baby to
(57:39):
term and give it up for adoption that in addition to you
know the emotional toll that that puts on a person like
these people don't understand what tearing a pregnancy to
term is like yes and particularly if you have other
children people just like ignore that yes we just on a
hundred percent okay well you know give the baby to
(57:59):
somebody else and uh no big deal
Representative Boyd I think we're gonna wrap things up -
anything else you want to tell us before we wrap this will
air after after the pre-filing deadline.
So anything you want to highlight?
You know, I talked about those two bills.
I'm going to also run one for mental health with college
(58:23):
students.
I did a mental health symposium last summer and listening
to all these chances and presidents on these kids having
these mental health breaks in school.
And we're seeing it a lot more than I can ever remember as
a kid with these kids.
(58:43):
And they've been doing a lot, you know,
the pandemic and whatever the reasons.
It's so high right now.
So I'm running that bill.
I switched one out just recently for Caleb Wilson,
the young man that was killed during the hazing.
Right.
Well,
your district and all of Louisiana are extremely lucky to
(59:03):
have you.
And we would love to have you back.
Anytime.
I love it.
It was just like having.
The next time I think I'm gonna have a cocktail too,
though.
It was just like hanging out with some friends.
It was good.
Thanks so much.
Yes.
Thank you.
That's gonna do it for now.
Listeners, please rate, review,
(59:25):
and subscribe to this podcast.
You can follow us at Lyft Louisiana.
It's L-I-F-T.
Louisiana on Instagram, and Ellie,
tell us what else they can do.
Like, send us a voice message to Instagram.
Tell us what made you go seriously.
Yes, please send that.
(59:46):
And also we are gonna put a petition in the show notes if
you would like to sign a petition in support of including
an exception for people who are pregnant because of sexual
violence into Louisiana's abortion ban,
we urge you to sign that petition.
And so look for that in the show notes and we'll see you
(01:00:08):
next week.
A quick update.
Since we recorded this episode,
Georgia prosecutors have dropped all charges against the
young woman who was arrested for how she disposed of her
miscarriage.
And while that's certainly good news,
she never should have been arrested in the first place.
Seriously.
(01:00:30):
Seriously is presented by Lift Louisiana,
a nonprofit organization advocating for reproductive health
rights and justice.
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