March 31, 2025 • 10 mins
The fight for bodily autonomy connects reproductive rights and transgender rights as we resist government intrusion into personal medical decisions.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
One of them is protecting women's rights to
access to abortion and the otheris to overturn an action by the
state legislature where theyallocated money from the state
coffers to go to privateeducation.
It's the voucher bills wherethey want to defund public
education and fund religiouseducation and that's
(00:24):
unconstitutional under theNebraska statute.
So that'll be it, but we arealso doing a petition to repeal
the law that enabled it.
So I decided to be my activistself and go to Dundee County and
get signatures in Dundee Countyand, surprisingly enough, I got
quite a few folks signing thesupport our schools and I got
quite a few people to supportthe abortion amendment so that
(00:47):
we can put that on the ballotand let people decide.
And basically, let's put itback to where it was with Roe
and get the hell out of thewomen's lives and let them make
medical decisions for themselvesthemselves.
And we've seen constantlyacross even Republican states
(01:09):
when we do constitutionalamendments to protect the right
to access to abortion.
They get passed and that's whatpeople want and people don't
want the right-wing extremism ofthe doctor in your bedroom, the
government in your bedroom, thegovernment in your doctor's
office, you know the governmentinterfering with your, your,
your prescriptions and so, andbathrooms, and what bathroom you
(01:32):
can use.
It's like the trans I don'twant to say agenda, but the
trans rights and access tomedical care is is so
intertwined with women's rightto abortion and to receive care
in related to reproductiveissues, and what some of these
(01:57):
laws end up doing is hurtingwomen.
There's nothing to protectwomen.
Hurting women there's nothingto protect women.
It causes them to.
You know they refuse to allowan abortion when it's medically
necessary because it will harmthe reproductive system of a
woman who may want to havechildren.
So it's so intertwined withbodily autonomy and trans rights
(02:22):
and it's trying to get thegovernment involved in enforcing
their religious views andthat's not what we do in this
country.
And so it was fun.
I went back, met with a bunchof my high school classmates,
got a bunch of people.
We set up outside the postoffice for part of the day and
(02:43):
got people as they were comingin getting their mail and went
up outside the post office forpart of the day and got people
as they were coming in gettingtheir mail and went up to the
historical society that had someprograms on and sat outside
there and it was good listeningto a lot of the folks.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
Good, good.
So are these your high schoolfriends?
Speaker 1 (02:59):
These are not my high school friends.
After I got done with myreunion, I drove back to LA
picked up some stuff, and I hadto drive hurriedly back to make
it back to Omaha Because, aspart of my getting involved in
politics, I'm actively involvedwith the Democratic Party now in
(03:21):
Nebraska.
I'm on the Douglas CountyCentral Committee.
I'm on the Douglas CountyCentral Committee, I'm on the
State Central Committee and I'mthe vice chair of the State
Stonewall Democratic Caucus, andso we had our first ever
Lavender Gala fundraiser for theStonewall Democrats in you have
a picture for that too, right?
Yeah, and our guest speaker wasDanica Rome, who is state
(03:45):
senator from the Commonwealth ofVirginia.
So Mike and I got to pick her upat the airport and then we had
this fundraiser at theCornhusker Hotel in Lincoln and
that is Danica and I and that'sthe board of the Stonewall
Democrats and we have startedreally getting actively involved
(04:05):
as a caucus in politics.
We were part of the group thatwas behind censoring the state
senator that we did earlier.
There was the reason why LB 574, the gender affirming care ban
and abortion restriction banNebraska was the first one to
(04:26):
actually combine those into asingle bill.
Yes, was passed on a very slim,it was a one, it was a single
vote.
And one of those votes in favorof this, in fact, was a
co-sponsor of these bills, was aDemocratic individual from
(04:46):
Omaha, and so we went to censurehim for what he had done,
basically basic core values oftaking away individuals' rights
to autonomy rights to autonomy.
And so the Stonewall group hasbecome incredibly active on
things, and so we got to do thefundraiser and we got brought
(05:11):
Danica in and she was incredible.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
And she was this one, she holding her shoes.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
Yes, she was talking about when she first ran for the
assembly in Virginia, about theshoes that she had and they
were not very good and how shetotally wore them out by walking
through the district.
And she said, as a queercandidate, you have to put in
(05:40):
the shoe leather, you have toput in the work, and that we can
make it happen.
We can convince people that weare someone who knows right from
wrong, someone who knows how tohelp the community.
And she has been incredible Infact was subsequently elected to
(06:02):
the state Senate there.
So she was an incredible guest.
To have come speak to us wasvery uplifting and helped us
raise $6,000 for our caucus sowe can get out and we can meet
with queer youth and we canstart letting them know that
there's a community availablefor them, that they have
(06:23):
political power, that if we gettogether and we use it, we can
do things, we can make changes,and so it was fun.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
Okay, good so, and thank you for sharing all your
journey this past year, sharingall your journey this past year,
and also, you mentioned thatthings gonna change with your
current career.
Right, it's the reason Ibrought this up.
I don't know if you want toshare, but but because, since we
(06:52):
were talking about you know,have you start some shows here
and and you also have some otherprojects on the side that
you're I've got a lot of thingskind of going in in in the
burner.
Speaker 1 (07:05):
Um, um.
You know, two weeks ago we hadthe state democratic convention,
right, uh and uh.
I ran for the position ofelector, uh, and as we talked
about the electoral college andall that, uh, I ran to be the
person that signs the ElectoralCollege certificate that goes to
Congress for the secondcongressional district.
(07:27):
And I almost won but didn'tquite get it done.
But I was elected as a delegateto the Democratic National
Convention.
I think I was actually thehighest vote getter in my
district caucus.
So a lot of people were inspiredby what I've had to say and
entrust with me the ability togo to Chicago and uphold the
(07:48):
democratic values that we have.
So that was fun.
So in August I'm going to bespending a week in Chicago at
the Democratic NationalConvention.
And before I had done that Ihave a friend out here who I'm
pretty close with, who when Iwas celebrating her birthday
(08:10):
with her up at Hearst Castle andstuff talked about.
You know I didn't know if I wasgoing to get elected a delegate
or not, but I said, if I do,would you like to go to Chicago
with me for the week and she waslike all for it.
So when I told the folks inNebraska you know I was going to
bring my girlfriend from LA,who is a hair and makeup person,
(08:31):
because that's what she doesand they were like what?
We were just talking, we needto find somebody.
And so I'm like not only goingto go back and do that, I'm
going to make sure that we arethe best coughed delegation in
the entire convention.
So I've been doing that but,yeah, it does look like I may be
(08:52):
having some time on my hands.
My office has decided toinstitute restrictions on
teleworking.
I've been able to telework for13 days a month from my house in
Omaha.
I run a section of the DA'soffice and over the course of
(09:14):
the four years that I've been incharge, I've lost resources,
I've lost people, but the workthat we do is like tripled.
So I've somehow managed totriple my production of my
section with fewer resources,and it's all because we're able
(09:36):
to telework and we're notspending, you know, an hour and
a half, two hours a daycommuting back and forth into
the office.
So we get much more work done.
But they've decided toinstitute that they're only
going to allow a single day ofteleworking a week, and so
that's going to make itpractically impossible for me.
Thank you.
One of them is protecting women's rights to
access to abortion and the otheris to overturn an action by the
state legislature where theyallocated money from the state
coffers to go to privateeducation.
It's the voucher bills wherethey want to defund public
education and fund religiouseducation and that's
(00:24):
unconstitutional under theNebraska statute.
So that'll be it, but we arealso doing a petition to repeal
the law that enabled it.
So I decided to be my activistself and go to Dundee County and
get signatures in Dundee Countyand, surprisingly enough, I got
quite a few folks signing thesupport our schools and I got
quite a few people to supportthe abortion amendment so that
(00:47):
we can put that on the ballotand let people decide.
And basically, let's put itback to where it was with Roe
and get the hell out of thewomen's lives and let them make
medical decisions for themselvesthemselves.
And we've seen constantlyacross even Republican states
(01:09):
when we do constitutionalamendments to protect the right
to access to abortion.
They get passed and that's whatpeople want and people don't
want the right-wing extremism ofthe doctor in your bedroom, the
government in your bedroom, thegovernment in your doctor's
office, you know the governmentinterfering with your, your,
your prescriptions and so, andbathrooms, and what bathroom you
(01:32):
can use.
It's like the trans I don'twant to say agenda, but the
trans rights and access tomedical care is is so
intertwined with women's rightto abortion and to receive care
in related to reproductiveissues, and what some of these
(01:57):
laws end up doing is hurtingwomen.
There's nothing to protectwomen.
Hurting women there's nothingto protect women.
It causes them to.
You know they refuse to allowan abortion when it's medically
necessary because it will harmthe reproductive system of a
woman who may want to havechildren.
So it's so intertwined withbodily autonomy and trans rights
(02:22):
and it's trying to get thegovernment involved in enforcing
their religious views andthat's not what we do in this
country.
And so it was fun.
I went back, met with a bunchof my high school classmates,
got a bunch of people.
We set up outside the postoffice for part of the day and
(02:43):
got people as they were comingin getting their mail and went
up outside the post office forpart of the day and got people
as they were coming in gettingtheir mail and went up to the
historical society that had someprograms on and sat outside
there and it was good listeningto a lot of the folks.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
Good, good.
So are these your high schoolfriends?
Speaker 1 (02:59):
These are not my high school friends.
After I got done with myreunion, I drove back to LA
picked up some stuff, and I hadto drive hurriedly back to make
it back to Omaha Because, aspart of my getting involved in
politics, I'm actively involvedwith the Democratic Party now in
(03:21):
Nebraska.
I'm on the Douglas CountyCentral Committee.
I'm on the Douglas CountyCentral Committee, I'm on the
State Central Committee and I'mthe vice chair of the State
Stonewall Democratic Caucus, andso we had our first ever
Lavender Gala fundraiser for theStonewall Democrats in you have
a picture for that too, right?
Yeah, and our guest speaker wasDanica Rome, who is state
(03:45):
senator from the Commonwealth ofVirginia.
So Mike and I got to pick her upat the airport and then we had
this fundraiser at theCornhusker Hotel in Lincoln and
that is Danica and I and that'sthe board of the Stonewall
Democrats and we have startedreally getting actively involved
(04:05):
as a caucus in politics.
We were part of the group thatwas behind censoring the state
senator that we did earlier.
There was the reason why LB 574, the gender affirming care ban
and abortion restriction banNebraska was the first one to
(04:26):
actually combine those into asingle bill.
Yes, was passed on a very slim,it was a one, it was a single
vote.
And one of those votes in favorof this, in fact, was a
co-sponsor of these bills, was aDemocratic individual from
(04:46):
Omaha, and so we went to censurehim for what he had done,
basically basic core values oftaking away individuals' rights
to autonomy rights to autonomy.
And so the Stonewall group hasbecome incredibly active on
things, and so we got to do thefundraiser and we got brought
(05:11):
Danica in and she was incredible.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
And she was this one, she holding her shoes.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
Yes, she was talking about when she first ran for the
assembly in Virginia, about theshoes that she had and they
were not very good and how shetotally wore them out by walking
through the district.
And she said, as a queercandidate, you have to put in
(05:40):
the shoe leather, you have toput in the work, and that we can
make it happen.
We can convince people that weare someone who knows right from
wrong, someone who knows how tohelp the community.
And she has been incredible Infact was subsequently elected to
(06:02):
the state Senate there.
So she was an incredible guest.
To have come speak to us wasvery uplifting and helped us
raise $6,000 for our caucus sowe can get out and we can meet
with queer youth and we canstart letting them know that
there's a community availablefor them, that they have
(06:23):
political power, that if we gettogether and we use it, we can
do things, we can make changes,and so it was fun.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
Okay, good so, and thank you for sharing all your
journey this past year, sharingall your journey this past year,
and also, you mentioned thatthings gonna change with your
current career.
Right, it's the reason Ibrought this up.
I don't know if you want toshare, but but because, since we
(06:52):
were talking about you know,have you start some shows here
and and you also have some otherprojects on the side that
you're I've got a lot of thingskind of going in in in the
burner.
Speaker 1 (07:05):
Um, um.
You know, two weeks ago we hadthe state democratic convention,
right, uh and uh.
I ran for the position ofelector, uh, and as we talked
about the electoral college andall that, uh, I ran to be the
person that signs the ElectoralCollege certificate that goes to
Congress for the secondcongressional district.
(07:27):
And I almost won but didn'tquite get it done.
But I was elected as a delegateto the Democratic National
Convention.
I think I was actually thehighest vote getter in my
district caucus.
So a lot of people were inspiredby what I've had to say and
entrust with me the ability togo to Chicago and uphold the
(07:48):
democratic values that we have.
So that was fun.
So in August I'm going to bespending a week in Chicago at
the Democratic NationalConvention.
And before I had done that Ihave a friend out here who I'm
pretty close with, who when Iwas celebrating her birthday
(08:10):
with her up at Hearst Castle andstuff talked about.
You know I didn't know if I wasgoing to get elected a delegate
or not, but I said, if I do,would you like to go to Chicago
with me for the week and she waslike all for it.
So when I told the folks inNebraska you know I was going to
bring my girlfriend from LA,who is a hair and makeup person,
(08:31):
because that's what she doesand they were like what?
We were just talking, we needto find somebody.
And so I'm like not only goingto go back and do that, I'm
going to make sure that we arethe best coughed delegation in
the entire convention.
So I've been doing that but,yeah, it does look like I may be
(08:52):
having some time on my hands.
My office has decided toinstitute restrictions on
teleworking.
I've been able to telework for13 days a month from my house in
Omaha.
I run a section of the DA'soffice and over the course of
(09:14):
the four years that I've been incharge, I've lost resources,
I've lost people, but the workthat we do is like tripled.
So I've somehow managed totriple my production of my
section with fewer resources,and it's all because we're able
(09:36):
to telework and we're notspending, you know, an hour and
a half, two hours a daycommuting back and forth into
the office.
So we get much more work done.
But they've decided toinstitute that they're only
going to allow a single day ofteleworking a week, and so
that's going to make itpractically impossible for me.
Thank you.
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