Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Joining me in the studio in a gorgeous shade of purple.
Today it is Rich Gougenheim with gays against groomers. I mean,
are you tired of all the winning yet, Rich, because
it feels like, well, and I'm just going to say this,
when I met you several years ago now, and you
were so passionate about protecting children.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
You were so passionate.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
About this cause, and at the time, it just felt
like it was an uphill battle that you were never
going to win. And now President Donald Trump has done
two things in the past week. One is that he
has banned medical gender firming care for children, and that
is huge. I mean, that is going to prevent children
from being permanently harmed and hopefully will allow them to
(00:44):
seek therapy that they could use to become more comfortable
with their own gender and just be who they were
going to be. Right, what is the second thing he
just did.
Speaker 3 (00:51):
He just banned the teaching of gender ideology in schools.
He's going to withhold federal funding from schools who are
teaching gender ideology.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
To me, is the greatest thing ever because the numbers
of young people that are now identifying as either LGBTQ
or trans in our.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
Schools is absurd. It is absurd. And the reason they're
doing this Ask.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
A kid who goes to school, Just asking a kid, Hey,
you're a white boy at school. You are an oppressor
according to all of the literature that's going around your
schools right now. How do you not become an oppressor?
Will you become gay or you become trans? Because it's
trendy and cool, there's flags celebrating it in every classroom.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
Rich that is all going to be banned.
Speaker 4 (01:33):
Now, yeah, and that's great news.
Speaker 3 (01:35):
Unfortunately, if you happen to be in the Durango nine
Arts school district, though, I think that that school board
is going to have to buckle down and be prepared
to face some federal action if you're in Jeffco school board.
Speaker 4 (01:47):
In fact, you know what was really ironic?
Speaker 3 (01:48):
Man? You's speaking on jeff Co. I was at the
Capitol the other day. I was just there for talk
to someone on lunch, and we'll get into that in
a minute. But the president of the jeff Co school Board,
and everybody knows who that female person is with her
crazy colored hair, was there to testify against Senate Bill three.
(02:13):
How does she have time to go to the capitol
and talk about protecting children from gun violence when she
has an epidemic of child sex predators in her school district.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
Yes, but no, No, there's nothing to see there. I mean,
they don't need to talk about that. They do not
need to talk about that. I mean, I always find
it interesting when you get those comments, And it just
happened to me recently on X where I made a
comment about sexual predators because obviously sexual predators aren issue,
and somebody said, well, you need to include the church.
I'm like, oh, no, if we want to make it,
(02:44):
we need to include public school.
Speaker 4 (02:45):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (02:46):
They are always trying to It's classic straw man argument
and they're trying to deflect. And Okay, I mean, if
you want me to go into the churches, I'll be
more than happy to go into the churches, because look
at all of these LGBT, IQA, LMNOP, m AP plus
churches that are now harboring predators, right, And so it's
the open and affirming churches that are we're actually seeing
(03:07):
the harm done. And so these open and affirming churches
have opened the door to become a shelter for the
people who want access to children, and no, you want
me to go after the church's final I'm more than willing.
Speaker 4 (03:19):
To go after the churches. And I have no problem
with religion. I have no problem with churches. Believe what
you want to believe, but leave the kids alone.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
Let me ask you this, because people maybe this is
the first time they've heard you on the show as
a gay man. Why did you start getting involved in this?
What brought you to this mission? That is such an
interesting question, and it is.
Speaker 4 (03:38):
A long journey. COVID.
Speaker 3 (03:42):
It really was during COVID and after COVID and the
center on Callfax that does One Colorado and all of
these organizations in Denver, we're doing some of this semi
virtual Pride stuff, and I was really glad to get
back out, and I went over to their semi virtual
Pride parade slash Lit'll get together here in Denver, and
I just noticed a seismic shift. It was no longer
(04:06):
it was no longer adults. You know, for the longest time,
I would go to Pride and it was a weekend
right fast, It wasn't a whole month. And I just
couldn't understand why were these all teenagers and why were
they all children and what.
Speaker 4 (04:22):
Were they identifying as right? And I didn't.
Speaker 3 (04:25):
I couldn't understand this TQI A twos plus alphabet.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
None of his can, none of us can rich and
it's designed to be that way. I think I follow
some people on X. I follow some gay people on
X who are very much LGB and would be very
happy to separate completely from the TQ.
Speaker 3 (04:48):
I was on a NEWSMAC show with Charles Moran, who
was the president of log Cabin Republicans, and even on
that show, I said, log Cabin Republicans needs to drop
the TQI A plus. There's no reason for us to
associate as LGB with the t and this is conservative stuff,
that this is a conservative group, you know, Honestly, the tea.
(05:11):
By them adopting the tea and bringing in the tea,
they have put a weight around their neck. And I
have no problem with the tea. We have d transitioners.
If you're an adult and you want to do whatever
you want to do to your body and live your life,
live your life is the key. What I have a
problem with is that this stuff isn't about living your life.
This is about compelling my speech. This is about forcing
(05:33):
me to go along with your ideology. This is about
invading women's spaces. And I said the other day when
I was in Wyoming, I said, this is about men
who approximate women, poorly, appropriate their rights, and colonize their spaces.
This is about mutilating and sterilizing children. This is about
indoctrinating children in school and teaching them that there's something
(05:54):
wrong with them and the only way to be fixed
is to sterilize and mutilate yourself. And there's nothing affirming
about that. There's nothing inclusive about that. And this is
what I had a problem with with that led me
to this mission.
Speaker 4 (06:06):
Was I was going to.
Speaker 3 (06:07):
These these organizations and I'm like, okay, so what does
any of this have to do with me being gay?
How are these organizations even representing me as a gay man?
Speaker 4 (06:14):
Well, they're not.
Speaker 3 (06:15):
And you know why, because as a gay man, I
had the same freedom and liberties as all of the
straight people in this country.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
Yep.
Speaker 3 (06:20):
I can get married, I can serve in the military.
I can be missedly miserably in love and lose half
my stuff and divorce, including my house and my dog.
It's I have the same freedom in liberties as everybody else,
and these nonprofits are were a multi billion dollar industry.
They weren't about to turn off the lights, lock the door,
hang up the mission, accomplished mine, and go home. They
(06:42):
quickly pivoted to gender ideology. And that is what this is.
This is gender identity, this is gender expression. And I
still to this day don't know what queer is Queer
They literally tell you it means whatever it means to
the person.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
It means that someone is straight.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
But they want to be part of the cool kids,
so they say that they're queer, though they only date heterosexually.
Speaker 4 (07:01):
Exactly, and so queer is nothing.
Speaker 3 (07:03):
But it's a word that means anything, means nothing, right,
It's just an appropriation.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
I agree with you on all of this stuff.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
And I say this as a super straight person who
was a theater major. So some of my favorite people
in the world are the gays, right, I mean, they're
just It has been really challenging for me because from
the outside looking in, the only association that the T
has with the LGB is that a vast majority especially
of young trans women, who boys who think that they
(07:34):
are female are just gay boys exactly.
Speaker 3 (07:36):
And so that's where it comes back to this being
a modern day form of conversion therapy, where these feminine
boys are these even the masculine girls, and you know
you've got some girls who are just very manage Yeah,
And there's absolutely nothing. There's no wrong way to be
see a boy or a girl.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
That is That is the biggest If I could just
if I could just stress that to all of these
middle school kids and all of these high school kids
who say, I don't feel like a girl, Well, what
does the girl feel like? A girl feels like whatever
you feel like. That's the thing. There isn't some prescribed
box that you must check. Oh, you must play with dolls,
you must do this. It's not that way. And I
(08:12):
don't understand why we have allowed ourselves to get to
a point where people genuinely believe there's only one way
to be a man or one.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
Way to be a woman.
Speaker 4 (08:20):
That's because gender ideology.
Speaker 3 (08:21):
All it does is reinforce regressive, anti gay, anti woman's
gender stereotypes.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
Ultimately, the whole trans woman in sports issue, to me,
has come down to a very simple question, and that is,
why are the feelings of these men matter than all
of the feelings of all of the women.
Speaker 3 (08:41):
And that's an excellent point because if you look at
just what's going on right now over in Denver at
the high school, vps took a girl's restroom away from them. Yeah,
and they are telling girls, under this guise of being
inclusive and tolerant, you have to give up your space
to men who feel to the males who feel a
certain kind of way. If this was the other way around,
(09:03):
You've never seen men being told that they have to
give up their space to.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
The women, and if they do, there's all hell to pay.
Speaker 3 (09:08):
Yeah, it's an always tradition men who are appropriating the
women's rights and colonizing the women's faces.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
I don't understand feminists who grow along with this. I mean,
I would call myself somewhat of a turf. I don't
identify as a feminist, but if I was, I would
be a trans exclusive radical feminist to do these very
same things. So when women's organizations support it, I get
very confused, because now.
Speaker 2 (09:32):
I'm going to use this as an example.
Speaker 1 (09:34):
One of the nominees in the Oscars is the trans
woman who starred in Amelia Perez, which is a very
interesting film that.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
I haven't made.
Speaker 4 (09:42):
It.
Speaker 1 (09:42):
I thought I downloaded to watch on the film on
the flight. I only downloaded the first third of it.
I'm going to go back and watch the other two thirds.
But this trans woman has now been nominated in the
Best Actress.
Speaker 3 (09:53):
So this isacking away an award and recognition from women.
Speaker 4 (09:59):
Yes, that's what this kind of don too.
Speaker 3 (10:00):
This is men taking away recognition and awards from women.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
I'm wondering if Hollywood to.
Speaker 4 (10:05):
Achieve that recognition to begin with.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
I'm wondering if Hollywood changes is tuned.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
Oh no, gosh, California is We can't even have a conversation. Now,
let's talk about what you're doing next, because we've now
got the president of the United States. And by the way,
to the Texter who point out this, the schools would
just need to wait out Trump's terament office and then
the next president will undo it all. He's absolutely right,
unless Congress takes action.
Speaker 4 (10:33):
And that's actually right. So this is last night.
Speaker 3 (10:36):
I got to have dinner with an amazing person, Jen
Z with x x X Y Athletics. We're launching a
collaborative product line next week. So we were talking about
this and she was talking about how far it feels
like we've come and I said, yeah, And there's a
lot of people in that room and very great people
that I had a great time last night. But I said,
(10:58):
this is the practice game. Yeah, because what we have
to do is we have to make sure that this
is codified and ultimately these issues, we can codify them
at the at the federal level, the gender firming care ban.
I think what President Trump did is also going to
strengthen our hand with the Scrimmatti case at the Supreme Court.
Speaker 1 (11:17):
But we what is the Screamtti case at the Supreme Court?
Because I'm not going to pretend.
Speaker 2 (11:20):
I know exactly.
Speaker 3 (11:21):
Is that a Tennessee law that bands gender firming care?
Oh okay, So if that's upheld, then that means that
and if they heard that case, they've already heard.
Speaker 4 (11:28):
If they just have an issue in opinion.
Speaker 3 (11:30):
I think the issue and opinion in June, which is
going to be fantastic for Pride Month.
Speaker 4 (11:34):
Oh God, yeah, I'm going to.
Speaker 3 (11:35):
Start bottling up the trans tears of joy God sell
them as a souvenir.
Speaker 1 (11:42):
Rich your work gear has made you very unpopular in
the community that you are a part of, and that
is the gay community.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
Is that getting any better?
Speaker 4 (11:49):
You know, I have people all.
Speaker 3 (11:50):
The time come to me and say, hey, I'm gay
and I completely agree with what you.
Speaker 4 (11:53):
Say, and I'm like, then you need to speak out
and say something.
Speaker 3 (11:56):
But I'll tell you the other day, I had a
Democrat legislator reach out to me because he wanted some
help getting one of his bills through and he needed
help from Republicans. And he's like, I'll be honest with you, you
just don't have a lot of credibility among the Democrats
in the legislature. And I'm like, well, that's fine because
I'm not really looking for credibility from an institution that
I consider morally and ethically bankrupt anyway, rich.
Speaker 2 (12:19):
Really don't hold back up.
Speaker 4 (12:21):
I'm definitely not sugarcoating it.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
Okay, So last election cycle, will you guys gather signatures
to get a bill on the ballot that would have
protected women's sports for women in Colorado? And that was
your first time trying to do a ballot initiative?
Speaker 2 (12:38):
What did you learn? Let's start with that first.
Speaker 4 (12:41):
My gosh, what did I learned?
Speaker 3 (12:42):
Well, the first of all, the Secretary of State's office
is really corrupt.
Speaker 4 (12:45):
No, you don't say so. They like to play games.
Speaker 3 (12:50):
And there's also no there's no transparency and there's no accountability.
Speaker 4 (12:54):
So trying to do anything.
Speaker 3 (12:55):
About it, I was an upward, uphill battle. So it
takes a lot of time, it takes a massive effort
to do it, and let's be honest, it takes money,
and it takes volunteers.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
Yep.
Speaker 3 (13:06):
And this was our first time, and so we were
building the plane as we were flying it.
Speaker 1 (13:10):
Right, Maybe got the best analogy today that yeah.
Speaker 3 (13:15):
We So we were putting together this team of volunteers
and it was all grassroots. So we got roughly eighty
thousand signatures in eighty days because it went through challenges after.
Speaker 4 (13:27):
You know, it was challenged by people like Mark Gruskin.
Speaker 3 (13:30):
If you've ever read the Blueprint for Colorado, I've had
the pleasure of meeting him.
Speaker 4 (13:34):
So and a lot of out of state money.
Speaker 3 (13:37):
We had the Rose Foundation and other organizations from out
of Oregon in fact, donate close to a quarter.
Speaker 4 (13:43):
Million dollars to defeat us.
Speaker 3 (13:45):
There's a lot of out of state money, so dark
money from our state coming in secretly funding one Colorado
who's buying Mark Gruskin to try and and.
Speaker 4 (13:53):
Defeat these issues.
Speaker 3 (13:54):
They're bringing in big bucks, big money, big names, and
it's this little old us. What I learned is we
brought in some moms with their daughters to one of
those committee here the title Board, to one of those meetings,
and that changed the tide for us and a lot
of people get really Teresa Conley, was the chair of
the title Board, was extremely unhappy with us when we
(14:17):
did that, Like she was actually yelling, she was so
mad at us. But this is an open meeting. This
is the people's process. That's why it is called the
citizens' initiative process. And it is in the state Constitution
for a reason because we the people have the right
to petition the government and the governed are the people.
We give our consent to the government government to govern.
(14:39):
So we got to realize that they represent us. They
are our servants, they are not our leaders, right, And
so we did that. We got challenged, We had to
take it all the way to the State Supreme Court,
where we won. But that held it up in the
top of the clock was taking.
Speaker 1 (14:55):
Your energy off of getting that organizational assistant put together.
So you're doing it, Yeah, you're doing this again.
Speaker 3 (15:01):
When what what is this next go round? Going to
look like, and I going to start it in February.
We're going to start filing the paperwork. So the process
entails us going over to the Capital and working with
the Office of Legislative Legal Services to draft it. It's
already drafted, it already went through the Supreme Court. It's
already been approved by the Supreme Court. We're using the
same language, exact, same perfect, so the title Board can't
(15:22):
say that there's any problem with it because it's already
been said by the Supreme Court.
Speaker 4 (15:25):
Yeah, it's fine. So we're going to take it back.
Speaker 3 (15:27):
We're going to run it again, and this time we've
got more volunteers in place, and hopefully donors will come forward.
Because I really believe that with the full six months
to get this stuff, get the signatures that we need
with curing, we'll need about two hundred thousand signatures. I
know we're going to do it, and we're going to
get it on and then the next step is once
we get it onto the to the ballot and it's
(15:49):
granted title and its secured its place campaigning. Yeah, because
we know that all of this dark money from out
of state is going to come in and try and
defeat it, and they're going to label it as anti trends.
But do you know something, people have woken up to this.
And the New York Times did a poll a couple
of months ago, back in November, and even sixty three
percent of Democrats said that men don't belong in sports.
(16:09):
So this isn't a bipartist, this isn't a left versus
rights an issue, right, this is very much Americans across
the board believe this is wrong, and so it's fundamentally unfair.
Speaker 1 (16:20):
It is, and Americans may have a lot of faults,
but if we can make something more fair, we're going
to lean in.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
That direction consistently.
Speaker 3 (16:27):
And you know, one of the things I just want
to say, when are we going to add if you
could see that sixty three percent of Democrats say that
men don't belong in women's sports. Until people from across
the political spectrum are willing to speak up and fight
for the protection of sex based rights, we're going to
continue to see sex based discrimination and it's going to
happen under the guise of inclusivity and equality.
Speaker 4 (16:47):
Do Democrats need to stand up?
Speaker 3 (16:49):
And if you're just a regular voter, you cannot let
the machine talk for you anymore. Right, if you're a
woman voter and you're thinking that it's totally fine for
these men to come in appropriate your rights. Use your bathrooms,
use your locker rooms, go like, use your dressing rooms,
your dressing rooms, go to the be in your prisons
with you. I'm gonna just I just want you to
(17:09):
take a look at the website. Turf is aslur dot com.
Teer f is a slur. These men are men who
already have a mental health problem, are hopped up on hormones,
have the strength of the men, and actually have rage issues.
You can see what they just did in the state legislature.
I believe it was Indiana or someplace back in the
Midwest last week. They shut the system down. These are men, men,
(17:33):
the husbands, the fathers. I just want to talk to
you for a second. Are these the type of people
you want using the restroom with your wife and your daughter?
And if you don't want that happening, you gotta get
up off the couch. You gotta get to the capitol,
and you gotta start talking to your state representatives and
your school boards and protecting the women in your life.
Because these people, these trans people are violent and they
(17:56):
are dangerous.
Speaker 2 (17:59):
I'm out of tell.
Speaker 1 (18:00):
But when you get this started in February, you're going
to come back on the show. And I'm sure that
we're going to get because last time, when you started this,
you were on the show fairly and I don't even
think you had like an organizational structure the first time.
Speaker 4 (18:11):
You were on the show.
Speaker 2 (18:13):
We got it now.
Speaker 1 (18:14):
So because I had a lot of people say, how
can I get petitions? How can I volunteer to go
collect signature?
Speaker 2 (18:19):
So we're going to be ready for that in February.
Speaker 3 (18:21):
And go to Protect Kids Colorado their website and check
it out, stay up to date.
Speaker 4 (18:24):
We're going to have our first meeting on Monday.
Speaker 2 (18:26):
Protect Kids Colorado dot com or org.
Speaker 4 (18:28):
I think it's dot com.
Speaker 1 (18:29):
Okay, I'll find out and i'll put it on the blog.
All right, Rich, good to see you again. And you know,
these are things that are really important to me.
Speaker 2 (18:37):
Not because I have.
Speaker 1 (18:38):
A single thing against any trans woman.
Speaker 2 (18:41):
I really don't.
Speaker 1 (18:42):
I don't have a single thing against you. But what
I do have is something against people who would have
used that to harm me or my child, and I
just have to stop. That's what we're doing. Rich, Googenheim
with gays against rumors. Thanks for all you do. It's
I can't even believe the arc that we have seen
since the first time I met you.
Speaker 4 (19:00):
We're just getting started, all right,
Joining me in the studio in a gorgeous shade of purple.
Today it is Rich Gougenheim with gays against groomers. I mean,
are you tired of all the winning yet, Rich, because
it feels like, well, and I'm just going to say this,
when I met you several years ago now, and you
were so passionate about protecting children.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
You were so passionate.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
About this cause, and at the time, it just felt
like it was an uphill battle that you were never
going to win. And now President Donald Trump has done
two things in the past week. One is that he
has banned medical gender firming care for children, and that
is huge. I mean, that is going to prevent children
from being permanently harmed and hopefully will allow them to
(00:44):
seek therapy that they could use to become more comfortable
with their own gender and just be who they were
going to be. Right, what is the second thing he
just did.
Speaker 3 (00:51):
He just banned the teaching of gender ideology in schools.
He's going to withhold federal funding from schools who are
teaching gender ideology.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
To me, is the greatest thing ever because the numbers
of young people that are now identifying as either LGBTQ
or trans in our.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
Schools is absurd. It is absurd. And the reason they're
doing this Ask.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
A kid who goes to school, Just asking a kid, Hey,
you're a white boy at school. You are an oppressor
according to all of the literature that's going around your
schools right now. How do you not become an oppressor?
Will you become gay or you become trans? Because it's
trendy and cool, there's flags celebrating it in every classroom.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
Rich that is all going to be banned.
Speaker 4 (01:33):
Now, yeah, and that's great news.
Speaker 3 (01:35):
Unfortunately, if you happen to be in the Durango nine
Arts school district, though, I think that that school board
is going to have to buckle down and be prepared
to face some federal action if you're in Jeffco school board.
Speaker 4 (01:47):
In fact, you know what was really ironic?
Speaker 3 (01:48):
Man? You's speaking on jeff Co. I was at the
Capitol the other day. I was just there for talk
to someone on lunch, and we'll get into that in
a minute. But the president of the jeff Co school Board,
and everybody knows who that female person is with her
crazy colored hair, was there to testify against Senate Bill three.
(02:13):
How does she have time to go to the capitol
and talk about protecting children from gun violence when she
has an epidemic of child sex predators in her school district.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
Yes, but no, No, there's nothing to see there. I mean,
they don't need to talk about that. They do not
need to talk about that. I mean, I always find
it interesting when you get those comments, And it just
happened to me recently on X where I made a
comment about sexual predators because obviously sexual predators aren issue,
and somebody said, well, you need to include the church.
I'm like, oh, no, if we want to make it,
(02:44):
we need to include public school.
Speaker 4 (02:45):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (02:46):
They are always trying to It's classic straw man argument
and they're trying to deflect. And Okay, I mean, if
you want me to go into the churches, I'll be
more than happy to go into the churches, because look
at all of these LGBT, IQA, LMNOP, m AP plus
churches that are now harboring predators, right, And so it's
the open and affirming churches that are we're actually seeing
(03:07):
the harm done. And so these open and affirming churches
have opened the door to become a shelter for the
people who want access to children, and no, you want
me to go after the church's final I'm more than willing.
Speaker 4 (03:19):
To go after the churches. And I have no problem
with religion. I have no problem with churches. Believe what
you want to believe, but leave the kids alone.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
Let me ask you this, because people maybe this is
the first time they've heard you on the show as
a gay man. Why did you start getting involved in this?
What brought you to this mission? That is such an
interesting question, and it is.
Speaker 4 (03:38):
A long journey. COVID.
Speaker 3 (03:42):
It really was during COVID and after COVID and the
center on Callfax that does One Colorado and all of
these organizations in Denver, we're doing some of this semi
virtual Pride stuff, and I was really glad to get
back out, and I went over to their semi virtual
Pride parade slash Lit'll get together here in Denver, and
I just noticed a seismic shift. It was no longer
(04:06):
it was no longer adults. You know, for the longest time,
I would go to Pride and it was a weekend
right fast, It wasn't a whole month. And I just
couldn't understand why were these all teenagers and why were
they all children and what.
Speaker 4 (04:22):
Were they identifying as right? And I didn't.
Speaker 3 (04:25):
I couldn't understand this TQI A twos plus alphabet.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
None of his can, none of us can rich and
it's designed to be that way. I think I follow
some people on X. I follow some gay people on
X who are very much LGB and would be very
happy to separate completely from the TQ.
Speaker 3 (04:48):
I was on a NEWSMAC show with Charles Moran, who
was the president of log Cabin Republicans, and even on
that show, I said, log Cabin Republicans needs to drop
the TQI A plus. There's no reason for us to
associate as LGB with the t and this is conservative stuff,
that this is a conservative group, you know, Honestly, the tea.
(05:11):
By them adopting the tea and bringing in the tea,
they have put a weight around their neck. And I
have no problem with the tea. We have d transitioners.
If you're an adult and you want to do whatever
you want to do to your body and live your life,
live your life is the key. What I have a
problem with is that this stuff isn't about living your life.
This is about compelling my speech. This is about forcing
(05:33):
me to go along with your ideology. This is about
invading women's spaces. And I said the other day when
I was in Wyoming, I said, this is about men
who approximate women, poorly, appropriate their rights, and colonize their spaces.
This is about mutilating and sterilizing children. This is about
indoctrinating children in school and teaching them that there's something
(05:54):
wrong with them and the only way to be fixed
is to sterilize and mutilate yourself. And there's nothing affirming
about that. There's nothing inclusive about that. And this is
what I had a problem with with that led me
to this mission.
Speaker 4 (06:06):
Was I was going to.
Speaker 3 (06:07):
These these organizations and I'm like, okay, so what does
any of this have to do with me being gay?
How are these organizations even representing me as a gay man?
Speaker 4 (06:14):
Well, they're not.
Speaker 3 (06:15):
And you know why, because as a gay man, I
had the same freedom and liberties as all of the
straight people in this country.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
Yep.
Speaker 3 (06:20):
I can get married, I can serve in the military.
I can be missedly miserably in love and lose half
my stuff and divorce, including my house and my dog.
It's I have the same freedom in liberties as everybody else,
and these nonprofits are were a multi billion dollar industry.
They weren't about to turn off the lights, lock the door,
hang up the mission, accomplished mine, and go home. They
(06:42):
quickly pivoted to gender ideology. And that is what this is.
This is gender identity, this is gender expression. And I
still to this day don't know what queer is Queer
They literally tell you it means whatever it means to
the person.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
It means that someone is straight.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
But they want to be part of the cool kids,
so they say that they're queer, though they only date heterosexually.
Speaker 4 (07:01):
Exactly, and so queer is nothing.
Speaker 3 (07:03):
But it's a word that means anything, means nothing, right,
It's just an appropriation.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
I agree with you on all of this stuff.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
And I say this as a super straight person who
was a theater major. So some of my favorite people
in the world are the gays, right, I mean, they're
just It has been really challenging for me because from
the outside looking in, the only association that the T
has with the LGB is that a vast majority especially
of young trans women, who boys who think that they
(07:34):
are female are just gay boys exactly.
Speaker 3 (07:36):
And so that's where it comes back to this being
a modern day form of conversion therapy, where these feminine
boys are these even the masculine girls, and you know
you've got some girls who are just very manage Yeah,
And there's absolutely nothing. There's no wrong way to be
see a boy or a girl.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
That is That is the biggest If I could just
if I could just stress that to all of these
middle school kids and all of these high school kids
who say, I don't feel like a girl, Well, what
does the girl feel like? A girl feels like whatever
you feel like. That's the thing. There isn't some prescribed
box that you must check. Oh, you must play with dolls,
you must do this. It's not that way. And I
(08:12):
don't understand why we have allowed ourselves to get to
a point where people genuinely believe there's only one way
to be a man or one.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
Way to be a woman.
Speaker 4 (08:20):
That's because gender ideology.
Speaker 3 (08:21):
All it does is reinforce regressive, anti gay, anti woman's
gender stereotypes.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
Ultimately, the whole trans woman in sports issue, to me,
has come down to a very simple question, and that is,
why are the feelings of these men matter than all
of the feelings of all of the women.
Speaker 3 (08:41):
And that's an excellent point because if you look at
just what's going on right now over in Denver at
the high school, vps took a girl's restroom away from them. Yeah,
and they are telling girls, under this guise of being
inclusive and tolerant, you have to give up your space
to men who feel to the males who feel a
certain kind of way. If this was the other way around,
(09:03):
You've never seen men being told that they have to
give up their space to.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
The women, and if they do, there's all hell to pay.
Speaker 3 (09:08):
Yeah, it's an always tradition men who are appropriating the
women's rights and colonizing the women's faces.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
I don't understand feminists who grow along with this. I mean,
I would call myself somewhat of a turf. I don't
identify as a feminist, but if I was, I would
be a trans exclusive radical feminist to do these very
same things. So when women's organizations support it, I get
very confused, because now.
Speaker 2 (09:32):
I'm going to use this as an example.
Speaker 1 (09:34):
One of the nominees in the Oscars is the trans
woman who starred in Amelia Perez, which is a very
interesting film that.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
I haven't made.
Speaker 4 (09:42):
It.
Speaker 1 (09:42):
I thought I downloaded to watch on the film on
the flight. I only downloaded the first third of it.
I'm going to go back and watch the other two thirds.
But this trans woman has now been nominated in the
Best Actress.
Speaker 3 (09:53):
So this isacking away an award and recognition from women.
Speaker 4 (09:59):
Yes, that's what this kind of don too.
Speaker 3 (10:00):
This is men taking away recognition and awards from women.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
I'm wondering if Hollywood to.
Speaker 4 (10:05):
Achieve that recognition to begin with.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
I'm wondering if Hollywood changes is tuned.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
Oh no, gosh, California is We can't even have a conversation. Now,
let's talk about what you're doing next, because we've now
got the president of the United States. And by the way,
to the Texter who point out this, the schools would
just need to wait out Trump's terament office and then
the next president will undo it all. He's absolutely right,
unless Congress takes action.
Speaker 4 (10:33):
And that's actually right. So this is last night.
Speaker 3 (10:36):
I got to have dinner with an amazing person, Jen
Z with x x X Y Athletics. We're launching a
collaborative product line next week. So we were talking about
this and she was talking about how far it feels
like we've come and I said, yeah, And there's a
lot of people in that room and very great people
that I had a great time last night. But I said,
(10:58):
this is the practice game. Yeah, because what we have
to do is we have to make sure that this
is codified and ultimately these issues, we can codify them
at the at the federal level, the gender firming care ban.
I think what President Trump did is also going to
strengthen our hand with the Scrimmatti case at the Supreme Court.
Speaker 1 (11:17):
But we what is the Screamtti case at the Supreme Court?
Because I'm not going to pretend.
Speaker 2 (11:20):
I know exactly.
Speaker 3 (11:21):
Is that a Tennessee law that bands gender firming care?
Oh okay, So if that's upheld, then that means that
and if they heard that case, they've already heard.
Speaker 4 (11:28):
If they just have an issue in opinion.
Speaker 3 (11:30):
I think the issue and opinion in June, which is
going to be fantastic for Pride Month.
Speaker 4 (11:34):
Oh God, yeah, I'm going to.
Speaker 3 (11:35):
Start bottling up the trans tears of joy God sell
them as a souvenir.
Speaker 1 (11:42):
Rich your work gear has made you very unpopular in
the community that you are a part of, and that
is the gay community.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
Is that getting any better?
Speaker 4 (11:49):
You know, I have people all.
Speaker 3 (11:50):
The time come to me and say, hey, I'm gay
and I completely agree with what you.
Speaker 4 (11:53):
Say, and I'm like, then you need to speak out
and say something.
Speaker 3 (11:56):
But I'll tell you the other day, I had a
Democrat legislator reach out to me because he wanted some
help getting one of his bills through and he needed
help from Republicans. And he's like, I'll be honest with you, you
just don't have a lot of credibility among the Democrats
in the legislature. And I'm like, well, that's fine because
I'm not really looking for credibility from an institution that
I consider morally and ethically bankrupt anyway, rich.
Speaker 2 (12:19):
Really don't hold back up.
Speaker 4 (12:21):
I'm definitely not sugarcoating it.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
Okay, So last election cycle, will you guys gather signatures
to get a bill on the ballot that would have
protected women's sports for women in Colorado? And that was
your first time trying to do a ballot initiative?
Speaker 2 (12:38):
What did you learn? Let's start with that first.
Speaker 4 (12:41):
My gosh, what did I learned?
Speaker 3 (12:42):
Well, the first of all, the Secretary of State's office
is really corrupt.
Speaker 4 (12:45):
No, you don't say so. They like to play games.
Speaker 3 (12:50):
And there's also no there's no transparency and there's no accountability.
Speaker 4 (12:54):
So trying to do anything.
Speaker 3 (12:55):
About it, I was an upward, uphill battle. So it
takes a lot of time, it takes a massive effort
to do it, and let's be honest, it takes money,
and it takes volunteers.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
Yep.
Speaker 3 (13:06):
And this was our first time, and so we were
building the plane as we were flying it.
Speaker 1 (13:10):
Right, Maybe got the best analogy today that yeah.
Speaker 3 (13:15):
We So we were putting together this team of volunteers
and it was all grassroots. So we got roughly eighty
thousand signatures in eighty days because it went through challenges after.
Speaker 4 (13:27):
You know, it was challenged by people like Mark Gruskin.
Speaker 3 (13:30):
If you've ever read the Blueprint for Colorado, I've had
the pleasure of meeting him.
Speaker 4 (13:34):
So and a lot of out of state money.
Speaker 3 (13:37):
We had the Rose Foundation and other organizations from out
of Oregon in fact, donate close to a quarter.
Speaker 4 (13:43):
Million dollars to defeat us.
Speaker 3 (13:45):
There's a lot of out of state money, so dark
money from our state coming in secretly funding one Colorado
who's buying Mark Gruskin to try and and.
Speaker 4 (13:53):
Defeat these issues.
Speaker 3 (13:54):
They're bringing in big bucks, big money, big names, and
it's this little old us. What I learned is we
brought in some moms with their daughters to one of
those committee here the title Board, to one of those meetings,
and that changed the tide for us and a lot
of people get really Teresa Conley, was the chair of
the title Board, was extremely unhappy with us when we
(14:17):
did that, Like she was actually yelling, she was so
mad at us. But this is an open meeting. This
is the people's process. That's why it is called the
citizens' initiative process. And it is in the state Constitution
for a reason because we the people have the right
to petition the government and the governed are the people.
We give our consent to the government government to govern.
(14:39):
So we got to realize that they represent us. They
are our servants, they are not our leaders, right, And
so we did that. We got challenged, We had to
take it all the way to the State Supreme Court,
where we won. But that held it up in the
top of the clock was taking.
Speaker 1 (14:55):
Your energy off of getting that organizational assistant put together.
So you're doing it, Yeah, you're doing this again.
Speaker 3 (15:01):
When what what is this next go round? Going to
look like, and I going to start it in February.
We're going to start filing the paperwork. So the process
entails us going over to the Capital and working with
the Office of Legislative Legal Services to draft it. It's
already drafted, it already went through the Supreme Court. It's
already been approved by the Supreme Court. We're using the
same language, exact, same perfect, so the title Board can't
(15:22):
say that there's any problem with it because it's already
been said by the Supreme Court.
Speaker 4 (15:25):
Yeah, it's fine. So we're going to take it back.
Speaker 3 (15:27):
We're going to run it again, and this time we've
got more volunteers in place, and hopefully donors will come forward.
Because I really believe that with the full six months
to get this stuff, get the signatures that we need
with curing, we'll need about two hundred thousand signatures. I
know we're going to do it, and we're going to
get it on and then the next step is once
we get it onto the to the ballot and it's
(15:49):
granted title and its secured its place campaigning. Yeah, because
we know that all of this dark money from out
of state is going to come in and try and
defeat it, and they're going to label it as anti trends.
But do you know something, people have woken up to this.
And the New York Times did a poll a couple
of months ago, back in November, and even sixty three
percent of Democrats said that men don't belong in sports.
(16:09):
So this isn't a bipartist, this isn't a left versus
rights an issue, right, this is very much Americans across
the board believe this is wrong, and so it's fundamentally unfair.
Speaker 1 (16:20):
It is, and Americans may have a lot of faults,
but if we can make something more fair, we're going
to lean in.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
That direction consistently.
Speaker 3 (16:27):
And you know, one of the things I just want
to say, when are we going to add if you
could see that sixty three percent of Democrats say that
men don't belong in women's sports. Until people from across
the political spectrum are willing to speak up and fight
for the protection of sex based rights, we're going to
continue to see sex based discrimination and it's going to
happen under the guise of inclusivity and equality.
Speaker 4 (16:47):
Do Democrats need to stand up?
Speaker 3 (16:49):
And if you're just a regular voter, you cannot let
the machine talk for you anymore. Right, if you're a
woman voter and you're thinking that it's totally fine for
these men to come in appropriate your rights. Use your bathrooms,
use your locker rooms, go like, use your dressing rooms,
your dressing rooms, go to the be in your prisons
with you. I'm gonna just I just want you to
(17:09):
take a look at the website. Turf is aslur dot com.
Teer f is a slur. These men are men who
already have a mental health problem, are hopped up on hormones,
have the strength of the men, and actually have rage issues.
You can see what they just did in the state legislature.
I believe it was Indiana or someplace back in the
Midwest last week. They shut the system down. These are men, men,
(17:33):
the husbands, the fathers. I just want to talk to
you for a second. Are these the type of people
you want using the restroom with your wife and your daughter?
And if you don't want that happening, you gotta get
up off the couch. You gotta get to the capitol,
and you gotta start talking to your state representatives and
your school boards and protecting the women in your life.
Because these people, these trans people are violent and they
(17:56):
are dangerous.
Speaker 2 (17:59):
I'm out of tell.
Speaker 1 (18:00):
But when you get this started in February, you're going
to come back on the show. And I'm sure that
we're going to get because last time, when you started this,
you were on the show fairly and I don't even
think you had like an organizational structure the first time.
Speaker 4 (18:11):
You were on the show.
Speaker 2 (18:13):
We got it now.
Speaker 1 (18:14):
So because I had a lot of people say, how
can I get petitions? How can I volunteer to go
collect signature?
Speaker 2 (18:19):
So we're going to be ready for that in February.
Speaker 3 (18:21):
And go to Protect Kids Colorado their website and check
it out, stay up to date.
Speaker 4 (18:24):
We're going to have our first meeting on Monday.
Speaker 2 (18:26):
Protect Kids Colorado dot com or org.
Speaker 4 (18:28):
I think it's dot com.
Speaker 1 (18:29):
Okay, I'll find out and i'll put it on the blog.
All right, Rich, good to see you again. And you know,
these are things that are really important to me.
Speaker 2 (18:37):
Not because I have.
Speaker 1 (18:38):
A single thing against any trans woman.
Speaker 2 (18:41):
I really don't.
Speaker 1 (18:42):
I don't have a single thing against you. But what
I do have is something against people who would have
used that to harm me or my child, and I
just have to stop. That's what we're doing. Rich, Googenheim
with gays against rumors. Thanks for all you do. It's
I can't even believe the arc that we have seen
since the first time I met you.
Speaker 4 (19:00):
We're just getting started, all right,
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