Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
All right, we are back and joining me. Now you've
heard him here many times, Rich Guggenheim. He was a
chapter leader for Gays Against Groomers. He has taken on
a new role with that organization. First of all, welcome back,
my friend.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Thanks many glad to be with you.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
So you guys did not quite get the signatures you
needed to get the bal initiatives on the on the ballot.
But remind my listeners which ballot initiatives you were working on.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
We were working on one which is princal notifications for
gender incongruence of children at school, and then the other
one was ballot Initiative one sixty, which would have made
it so that only girls can compete in girl sports.
Speaker 3 (00:43):
How close did you guys come, Rich.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
Well, considering that we only had eighty days instead of
the full six months, I'll just say we were getting
close to about ten thousand signature of the day.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
Oh wow, wow, that's really I have to tell you,
And I've had conversations with John Caldera about this, because
the Independent Institute has successfully launched many, many ballot initiatives
and it is so hard to get it on the
ballot with an all volunteer organization.
Speaker 3 (01:14):
And that's what you guys were.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
What did you what did you take it away from this?
Because what is your new role?
Speaker 2 (01:20):
I Am going to be the director of legislation. So yeah, well,
and I.
Speaker 3 (01:25):
Imagine you learned quite a bit through this process.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
You could say that, yes I have, and you know what,
it's an honor. I will tell you a lot of
people probably assume that we just fight this issue and
predominantly blue states, but that's not the case. Protecting children
is an issue that we have to be fighting, unfortunately
in all fifty states and also at the federal level,
(01:50):
and we're up against a well funded, well established machine
at this point in time, and.
Speaker 3 (01:56):
That you are.
Speaker 1 (01:57):
I just got a question via my text messages from
Ross Commons before you Rich. He said, The question I'd
like to hear the answer to is whether the fact
that they didn't get enough signatures is based on not
having enough money for gatherers or some other logistical or
organizational problem, or that the Colorado public simply does not
support this.
Speaker 3 (02:16):
So which do you think that is?
Speaker 2 (02:18):
Well, I can tell you the Colorado support. The public
definitely supported it. I think that it was just it
was an all volunteer organization. We had no paid petition
circulators at all, and so funding is a big thing.
And as you know, in the United States we had
the best government money can buy. And even at the
grassroots level, it takes three things. It takes money, it
(02:41):
takes messaging, and it takes the masses. And if you
think about in eighty days, we were able to basically
we were building the plane as we flew it. So
I like to tell people that what happened the other
day was not the not the final show, yep, it
was the rehearsal. And in these eighty days, we had
(03:02):
to build the set, we had to audition the cast
and the crew, and we had to film while we
were doing all of that. And so we accomplished a
great deal in that short period of time. We got
the volunteers, we got the petitions in their hands. They
were the ones that were out there hitting the ground
every single day. We were building those coalitions, and it
(03:24):
was truly broad. We had obviously, gays against streamers was
part of it. We had members, We had female athletes
who are supporting this. We had progressives, libertarians, Democrats, Republicans
and conservatives. We had people regardless of the religion or
(03:44):
not religious. And Manby, I'll tell you the women that
were fighting for the girls sports initiatives, we were some
strong like liberal democrats, like they were the you know
what it is rich.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
I think that the the just the fundamental unfairness of
allowing you know, natal males to compete against females. It
cuts across all barriers, and it doesn't mean that there
are not people. There were probably more people on the
left that support this than people on the right, But
there are definitely people on the left that are like
this is crazy. They recognize that that women fought for
(04:23):
the right to have their own sports and to have
it fully funded for a very long time, and this
is literally just crapping all over that. So what is
the next step on these ballot initiatives.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
We are going to be back. I'll just tell you
that we're going to be back, and we're going to
have more initiatives. And I hope that Mark Erskin and
all of the people that he was representing with organizations
like One Colorado and the Colorado PTA really didn't like
what we were doing, and neither did the Colorado Educators Association.
So I'll tell you we're gonna be back. We're gonna
(04:56):
have more, and we're gonna win this because we're gonna
have the full eighty eight and we have created awareness
among the public about what's going on.
Speaker 1 (05:06):
Well, not only that, you now know your ballot language.
Speaker 3 (05:09):
Is okay, we do so you don't have to do
volunteers in place exactly. So okay, Rich, when you go
to kick it off next year or whenever? Yeah, are
you when is it?
Speaker 1 (05:19):
Obviously it won't be next year because we don't have
elections next year. So in twenty twenty two, is that
when the next go excuse me, twenty twenty six, is
that the.
Speaker 3 (05:28):
Next go round?
Speaker 2 (05:30):
That will be Yeah, and we're gonna we're gonna start
early too, because we know it takes a lot of time, and.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
Well, you know what, let's be real, Rich, it takes money.
It's gonna I think that that you know, if this
and I'm not telling you what to do, because I
know that there is a you and just so many
other people behind you that that are talking about this
stuff every day. But I think that the next year
should be spent doing nothing but raising money, and then
the following year you you get this, you start marketing
(05:58):
and you start talking and raising awayess so by the
time the petitions hit the ground, the pump is so
primed that it will be no problem at all to
get those signatures.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
And that's one of the things that I am super
proud of was what we accomplished. Oh my gosh, that's
a short time frame.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
I'm we're going to be.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
Able to go back to the donors and back to
the funders and say look, without money and as the
grassroots all into your organization in this period of time,
we accomplished all of this.
Speaker 1 (06:24):
I'm super proud of what you guys did, Regien, and
more importantly, I'm super happy that you and the team
behind these ballot initiatives were the ones willing to stick
your head up and say this is wrong and to
take the grief, because I know you have gotten an
excessive amount of grief from the gay community, which I
(06:45):
think is wrong. Did I remember seeing on your Twitter
that you are now a registered Republican.
Speaker 2 (06:51):
I have changed my party affiliation. I feel like I
just ran out of runway with the Democrats. I have
a strong problem with the fact that it is right now,
the woe homophobia that's coming from it and I'm I'm
sure you're no stranger to it. I mean people like
Kyle Clark and Alan Franklin and these I call them
(07:12):
the normy gay. But the fact that it's the mainstream
media and LGBTQ establishment that are fully engaged in woe
homophobia and mithogyny, they need to be called out on it.
And I cannot like in the last twenty four hours,
I have been called the pickmy, I have been called
to the self loathing gay. It's just the blatant homophobia
(07:36):
coming from the left and coming from the media as
a rich time is absolutely horrendous.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
As a former, as a newly minted Republican, let me
get you hip to some of the things that we Republicans.
Speaker 3 (07:45):
Have known for a long time.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
Whatever you are, or whatever identity group you fit into,
as soon as you move remotely to the right, you
become the devil, and then it's okay to make fun
of you for being gay.
Speaker 3 (07:58):
See that's what they don't tell you when you're on
the left.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
As soon as you say, hey, those Republicans might not
all suck, then it's like, oh my gosh, look at
that weirdo, look at that queer guy, that self loathing
gay I mean, of course that's how it works.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
Well, it's great because I don't have any problem calling
out but hypocrisy and screen capturing what they say and
throwing it out there on social media for I mean, well,
let's just be honest. They're just showing their true colors
right now, and they are showing the entire world what
they're made of. And I have a problem with it,
and that's why I had to switch parties because at
the end of the day, I'm concerned about the fact
(08:34):
that if the Democrats can tell women you're no longer
allowed to consent, you can no longer say no to
a man in the bathroom, and you can no longer
say no to a man in the locker room, they're
not going to stop until they tell a woman you
can no longer say no to a man in the bedroom.
Speaker 3 (08:50):
A fair point.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
And if they can tell gay people that you have
to accept a non biological person in your space and
you have to give up the rights, because at the
end of the day, this is about the abolition of sex.
And if you can erase legal definition of sex, you
erase sex based rights. And what do you think gay
(09:12):
people spent the last fifty years fighting for sex based rights.
It's the same thing with women, and this whole gender
ideology is nothing more than a modern day form of
conversion therapy where they are mutilating and sterilizing gay children.
Speaker 1 (09:29):
Rich Gugenheim is my guest. Okay, we're going to remain
in contact and you give me updates whenever you need to,
because this is too important to let it go.
Speaker 2 (09:38):
Well do, thank you, Mandy.
Speaker 3 (09:39):
All right, thanks Rich, Tell your dad, I said, Hi. Okay, bye,
All right, we are back and joining me. Now you've
heard him here many times, Rich Guggenheim. He was a
chapter leader for Gays Against Groomers. He has taken on
a new role with that organization. First of all, welcome back,
my friend.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Thanks many glad to be with you.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
So you guys did not quite get the signatures you
needed to get the bal initiatives on the on the ballot.
But remind my listeners which ballot initiatives you were working on.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
We were working on one which is princal notifications for
gender incongruence of children at school, and then the other
one was ballot Initiative one sixty, which would have made
it so that only girls can compete in girl sports.
Speaker 3 (00:43):
How close did you guys come, Rich.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
Well, considering that we only had eighty days instead of
the full six months, I'll just say we were getting
close to about ten thousand signature of the day.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
Oh wow, wow, that's really I have to tell you,
And I've had conversations with John Caldera about this, because
the Independent Institute has successfully launched many, many ballot initiatives
and it is so hard to get it on the
ballot with an all volunteer organization.
Speaker 3 (01:14):
And that's what you guys were.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
What did you what did you take it away from this?
Because what is your new role?
Speaker 2 (01:20):
I Am going to be the director of legislation. So yeah, well,
and I.
Speaker 3 (01:25):
Imagine you learned quite a bit through this process.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
You could say that, yes I have, and you know what,
it's an honor. I will tell you a lot of
people probably assume that we just fight this issue and
predominantly blue states, but that's not the case. Protecting children
is an issue that we have to be fighting, unfortunately
in all fifty states and also at the federal level,
(01:50):
and we're up against a well funded, well established machine
at this point in time, and.
Speaker 3 (01:56):
That you are.
Speaker 1 (01:57):
I just got a question via my text messages from
Ross Commons before you Rich. He said, The question I'd
like to hear the answer to is whether the fact
that they didn't get enough signatures is based on not
having enough money for gatherers or some other logistical or
organizational problem, or that the Colorado public simply does not
support this.
Speaker 3 (02:16):
So which do you think that is?
Speaker 2 (02:18):
Well, I can tell you the Colorado support. The public
definitely supported it. I think that it was just it
was an all volunteer organization. We had no paid petition
circulators at all, and so funding is a big thing.
And as you know, in the United States we had
the best government money can buy. And even at the
grassroots level, it takes three things. It takes money, it
(02:41):
takes messaging, and it takes the masses. And if you
think about in eighty days, we were able to basically
we were building the plane as we flew it. So
I like to tell people that what happened the other
day was not the not the final show, yep, it
was the rehearsal. And in these eighty days, we had
(03:02):
to build the set, we had to audition the cast
and the crew, and we had to film while we
were doing all of that. And so we accomplished a
great deal in that short period of time. We got
the volunteers, we got the petitions in their hands. They
were the ones that were out there hitting the ground
every single day. We were building those coalitions, and it
(03:24):
was truly broad. We had obviously, gays against streamers was
part of it. We had members, We had female athletes
who are supporting this. We had progressives, libertarians, Democrats, Republicans
and conservatives. We had people regardless of the religion or
(03:44):
not religious. And Manby, I'll tell you the women that
were fighting for the girls sports initiatives, we were some
strong like liberal democrats, like they were the you know
what it is rich.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
I think that the the just the fundamental unfairness of
allowing you know, natal males to compete against females. It
cuts across all barriers, and it doesn't mean that there
are not people. There were probably more people on the
left that support this than people on the right, But
there are definitely people on the left that are like
this is crazy. They recognize that that women fought for
(04:23):
the right to have their own sports and to have
it fully funded for a very long time, and this
is literally just crapping all over that. So what is
the next step on these ballot initiatives.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
We are going to be back. I'll just tell you
that we're going to be back, and we're going to
have more initiatives. And I hope that Mark Erskin and
all of the people that he was representing with organizations
like One Colorado and the Colorado PTA really didn't like
what we were doing, and neither did the Colorado Educators Association.
So I'll tell you we're gonna be back. We're gonna
(04:56):
have more, and we're gonna win this because we're gonna
have the full eighty eight and we have created awareness
among the public about what's going on.
Speaker 1 (05:06):
Well, not only that, you now know your ballot language.
Speaker 3 (05:09):
Is okay, we do so you don't have to do
volunteers in place exactly. So okay, Rich, when you go
to kick it off next year or whenever? Yeah, are
you when is it?
Speaker 1 (05:19):
Obviously it won't be next year because we don't have
elections next year. So in twenty twenty two, is that
when the next go excuse me, twenty twenty six, is
that the.
Speaker 3 (05:28):
Next go round?
Speaker 2 (05:30):
That will be Yeah, and we're gonna we're gonna start
early too, because we know it takes a lot of time, and.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
Well, you know what, let's be real, Rich, it takes money.
It's gonna I think that that you know, if this
and I'm not telling you what to do, because I
know that there is a you and just so many
other people behind you that that are talking about this
stuff every day. But I think that the next year
should be spent doing nothing but raising money, and then
the following year you you get this, you start marketing
(05:58):
and you start talking and raising awayess so by the
time the petitions hit the ground, the pump is so
primed that it will be no problem at all to
get those signatures.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
And that's one of the things that I am super
proud of was what we accomplished. Oh my gosh, that's
a short time frame.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
I'm we're going to be.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
Able to go back to the donors and back to
the funders and say look, without money and as the
grassroots all into your organization in this period of time,
we accomplished all of this.
Speaker 1 (06:24):
I'm super proud of what you guys did, Regien, and
more importantly, I'm super happy that you and the team
behind these ballot initiatives were the ones willing to stick
your head up and say this is wrong and to
take the grief, because I know you have gotten an
excessive amount of grief from the gay community, which I
(06:45):
think is wrong. Did I remember seeing on your Twitter
that you are now a registered Republican.
Speaker 2 (06:51):
I have changed my party affiliation. I feel like I
just ran out of runway with the Democrats. I have
a strong problem with the fact that it is right now,
the woe homophobia that's coming from it and I'm I'm
sure you're no stranger to it. I mean people like
Kyle Clark and Alan Franklin and these I call them
(07:12):
the normy gay. But the fact that it's the mainstream
media and LGBTQ establishment that are fully engaged in woe
homophobia and mithogyny, they need to be called out on it.
And I cannot like in the last twenty four hours,
I have been called the pickmy, I have been called
to the self loathing gay. It's just the blatant homophobia
(07:36):
coming from the left and coming from the media as
a rich time is absolutely horrendous.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
As a former, as a newly minted Republican, let me
get you hip to some of the things that we Republicans.
Speaker 3 (07:45):
Have known for a long time.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
Whatever you are, or whatever identity group you fit into,
as soon as you move remotely to the right, you
become the devil, and then it's okay to make fun
of you for being gay.
Speaker 3 (07:58):
See that's what they don't tell you when you're on
the left.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
As soon as you say, hey, those Republicans might not
all suck, then it's like, oh my gosh, look at
that weirdo, look at that queer guy, that self loathing
gay I mean, of course that's how it works.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
Well, it's great because I don't have any problem calling
out but hypocrisy and screen capturing what they say and
throwing it out there on social media for I mean, well,
let's just be honest. They're just showing their true colors
right now, and they are showing the entire world what
they're made of. And I have a problem with it,
and that's why I had to switch parties because at
the end of the day, I'm concerned about the fact
(08:34):
that if the Democrats can tell women you're no longer
allowed to consent, you can no longer say no to
a man in the bathroom, and you can no longer
say no to a man in the locker room, they're
not going to stop until they tell a woman you
can no longer say no to a man in the bedroom.
Speaker 3 (08:50):
A fair point.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
And if they can tell gay people that you have
to accept a non biological person in your space and
you have to give up the rights, because at the
end of the day, this is about the abolition of sex.
And if you can erase legal definition of sex, you
erase sex based rights. And what do you think gay
(09:12):
people spent the last fifty years fighting for sex based rights.
It's the same thing with women, and this whole gender
ideology is nothing more than a modern day form of
conversion therapy where they are mutilating and sterilizing gay children.
Speaker 1 (09:29):
Rich Gugenheim is my guest. Okay, we're going to remain
in contact and you give me updates whenever you need to,
because this is too important to let it go.
Speaker 2 (09:38):
Well do, thank you, Mandy.
Speaker 3 (09:39):
All right, thanks Rich, Tell your dad, I said, Hi. Okay, bye,
The Mandy Connell Podcast News
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