Get Used to It: Ep. 166, "2011: The State of the (LGBT) Nation"

(typewriter clacking) (upbeat blues music) - Hi, welcome to "Get Used to It." I'm Sheila Kuehl, and as usual, I'm going to guide us all through this fascinating conversation. This is our end of the year, beginning of the year, kind of show, 2010, 2011. What was it about for the LGBT community? What was it about for the rest of the country? And, you know, what's on the minds of these three brilliant people who are my guests. Let me introduce you to them. Javier Angulo is the president, co-founder of HONOR PAC. Welcome, Javier. - Thank you. Phill Wilson, who's the president and CEO of the Black AIDS Institute, Black AIDS Institute, and Torie Osborn, longtime activist and community organizer who's now senior strategist at the California Alliance, which is working on tax reform issues. So welcome all three. Phill, let's start with you. - Okay. - Okay. It was sort of a year, I mean, not just for AIDS issues, but a big year, we could start with that if you want to, and then talk about everything else. What happened in 2010 that was important to us? - Well, you know, no, what a difference a year makes, you know. - Yeah. The Black AIDS Institute publishes an annual report on the state of AIDS in Black America, and we just released our 2010 report and we began the report by saying in 2009, when we released our last report, now, the country was on a wave of optimism of having elected our new president and electing, you know, the first Black president and someone who's gonna commit, be committed to HIV and AIDS, you know. And so, you know, what a difference a year makes, you know, some of the shine and the glow have kinda worn off. We have experienced and are continuing to experience, you know, tremendous economic hardship in the country and that has certainly has negative impact on a lot of important policy issues, and so a lot of things have happened, and I would say that, you know, starting with, you know, the cup is half full, you know, we saw this year, the passes of healthcare reform, which is critically important, I think, for all Americans 30 million new Americans with access to healthcare, for people living with AIDS, particularly the elimination of existing conditions, you know, discrimination, the elimination of lifetime and annual caps, the bringing on of young people that can be carried for a longer period of time on their parents' healthcare, the expansion of prescription drug benefits, all huge wins for people living with HIV and AIDS. The development of a national AIDS strategy. Now, it's funny, you know, when the United States gives money to other countries to fight AIDS, we require that they have a national AIDS plan, and yet, we've never had a national AIDS plan, you know, and as my grandmother used to say, "When you fail to plan, you plan to fail." And so no wonder we've not had the kind of successes that we've needed to have if we're gonna be serious about ending the AIDS epidemic. So now we have a national AIDS strategy that was launched in July of 2010, and we're very excited about that. - Who is responsible for putting that together? - Well, it was a promise that then candidate Barack Obama made and that he honored that promise as president. Now, a lot of community organizations that were involved in that. I'm particularly proud of the work that the Black AIDS Institute did around that effort. We called for a national AIDS strategy early, early, early on. I say, folks that we call for a national AIDS strategy when there were 16 candidates running for president. - [Sheila] Right. (laughter) - So, and when this guy named Barack from, from, from Chicago really didn't have a chance in hell of, of winning. Can I say that on TV? I guess I did. - Yes. (laughter) Yes, you, you definitely can say that on my show. - So. - Was that winning? That was the big word or hell. (laughter) - Either way, actually. So anyway, so now we have a national AIDS strategy and what's important about the national AIDS strategy is that first of all, the administration is saying that we need to focus the epidemic where the epidemic is. You know, I often talk about our kind of Alice and Wonderland school of public policy, where we pretend what is isn't and what isn't is. And now with the national AIDS strategy, president's saying, we're gonna have to, we're gonna have federal agencies that are gonna do what, coordinate their, their activities. Now, you know, go figure. Now that we're gonna, we're gonna focus our resources where the epidemic is most impacted now, and that includes African Americans and Latinos. You know, men who have sex with men, people who live in the Northeast and people who live in the Southeast. That we are really gonna focus on evaluating and, and making our AIDS efforts, you know, scientifically based. And that's critically important, as opposed to kind of being based on, you know, politics or whatever it is that it has been based on in the past. So that's been important. We've had some tremendous scientific breakthroughs in 2010. The identify, the identification of three new antibodies that might lead to development of vaccine. That's huge. You know, this summer at the International AIDS Conference in Vienna a study was released showing the efficacy of microbicides. Women can have better control over protecting themselves against HIV. And just recently released a study that showed that prep, preexposure prophylaxis now has efficacy, which means that potentially we can be moving into an era where you can take a pill a day and actually have protection against HIV. So you combine microbicide, you combine advances in vaccine, you combine prep, you combine condom uses and circumcision. Now we really are moving the ball forward. So that's the good news. The bad news is that we have an AIDS epidemic that continues to move forward in communities, particularly devastating some more than others, particularly in the African American community, in the Latino community, men who have sex with men. We are broke now, and so one of the things that we've certainly been challenging the administration about is know, show me the money, you know, and all of these things without resources, you know, are, are not going to get us where we, we need to go. And then probably as at the end of the year, no, the midterm elections, you know, as I say, you know, you look at your opportunities and threats. And, and I would say that the midterm elections actually, you know, provide both opportunities and threats, you know, clearly- - Well, I see the threats. Can you articulate any of the opportunities? - Well, you know, the only way I get through my day is, is by believing that, that there are opportunities. - [Sheila] Right. - So, well, you know, clear, we all know the threats, you know, that, that everyone is paying attention to the, the tea partiers and the advances they made. But the truth of the matter is, and this is a part that, that we really need to pay attention to, is that the vast majority of the, the, the Republicans elected to Congress in this new class coming in are mainstream Republicans. You know? And so it's not, the problem is not just with the tea partiers, you know, and, and, and they're coming in committed to, you know, cutting taxes, committing to, you know, you know, cutting vital programs that are important to people who are disenfranchised. You know, committed to rolling back healthcare reform. Those are real threats, but at the same time, many of them are from the Southeast region of the country where the AIDS epidemic is most heavily impacting. And so we have an opportunity to educate them about why these are issues are important to them, why these issues are important for folks who vote for them, why these issues are important for folks they're supposed to represent. And so I think that, that, that progressive folks and people are interested in HIV and AIDS and LGBT folks know, while we need to understand the threats, that's not helpful, really. You know, we also need to understand the opportunities and we need to be mindful. And maybe the midterm elections will remind us, is that we have to do our work no matter who's in the White House or in the governor's offices, or in Congress. - There are different kinds of opportunities. And I think one of the things that happened in 2010, and I don't know how connected it might be to what happened in the midterm elections, but people started grossing a lot on the Obama supporter side of the aisle, or the Hillary supporter side of the aisle about the president and about what he wasn't doing. And it was, it was an issue for our community and for all communities. And I don't, again, I don't know how much that contributed, but it seemed endemic. - Well, you know, I, I've been pissed off for a long time, you know, and part of it is I think, you know- - [Torie] Pissed off at the president? - No, no, no, not at the president, at the progressive discourse around the president. And I'm like, did we all of a sudden forget what the economy was like on election day? I was in New York, you know, when the, when the stock market crashed, you know, so we have a president who gets elected with, you know, the economy in the toilet. You know, we're fighting two wars that are not of his creation. And we have a Congress that has decided the hell with the country. We're gonna make this administration fail. That's the environment. And yet we have, this has been the most pro, this has been the most productive administration since FDR for Christ's sake. You know. In, in the background of all that. So did we get everything that, that, that, that we wanted, you now, did the president make compromises that I wish he hadn't? You now, would I have liked for him to be more aggressive? Absolutely. On a whole bunch of things. But when you sit down and you look at the facts of it, you know, this has been a very, very, very successful presidency on issues that I think are critically important to progressive folks. And for folks who have historically been left out of the process. - Well, Javier, let me, let me ask you, I mean, one of the news headlines about the midterm elections, at least in California, but not only in California, as you know, better than anybody was the Latino vote. Like all of a sudden everybody woke up and went to the polls or something, but, you know, HONOR PAC has done a really incredible basic work. So tell us a little about HONOR PAC. So for people who may not know out in the rest of the country, and then tell me what you think happened. - Well, thank you again for having me here. - [Sheila] I'm very glad you're here. Thank you. - HONOR PAC is a political action committee that was founded about six years ago. And we were started as a group of Latino young professionals who were involved in politics. We were already involved in some way or others, some in elected, I mean, as working with elected officials, others with nonprofit organizations and others with local city government, and we've, we've came together and we said, there's not enough Latino LGBT representation or voices in politics. And we wanted to fill that void. And we started HONOR PAC to increase the number of Latino, openly gay Latino elected officials, and also to increase understanding within the straight Latino community on LGBT issues. So that was our two main goals. And of course, to create a, more of a bridge between the gay community, the, the mainstream gay community and the Latino community, because at that time, six years ago, it wasn't as, as it is today, where there was communication between both communities. For me, I'll tell you the truth. West Hollywood was very remote. I really didn't get active, or I didn't get involved here. I hardly had any reason to come here really, but with HONOR PAC it allowed me to go out and reach out and reach in to form those alliances and form those coalitions that I think became stronger during the Prop 8 campaign, where HONOR PAC funded an East LA office to do Latino outreach and Spanish language outreach. And we've come to at least this year, I think 2010 was a very critical year for us and also a year where we've achieved a lot. I think from when we started to now, we now have two openly gay Latino representatives in, in Sacramento, of course, speaker John Perez, who is the first Latino gay speaker of the assembly. - [Sheila] First gay speaker of the assembly. - [Javier] Gay Latino speaker. - [Sheila] But first gay. - Yeah, the first gay, I'm sorry, yeah. - Yeah, I just, I was, it's even bigger than that. - So, and it's cherry on top that he is Latino, at least for us. - [Sheila] Yes, absolutely. And also we just elected one of our co-founders Ricardo Lara to the state assembly. - [Sheila] Right. - And it's so interesting that these two state representatives represent East Los Angeles, one in the Southeast Los Angeles and John Perez in Downtown and a little bit east. So when we talk about East Los Angeles not being a favorable community towards the gay community, I think we've just shattered that. The Latino community was willing to forego any of their perceptions or any of their beliefs on the gay community to elect the best person that will represent their interests. - Well that represents the work. I mean, really because people don't just wake up one morning and go, oh, I could have had a gay speaker. You know, I mean, I just, what was I thinking? It really represents the work. - It is. It is. And I think this has really motivated and empowered other, especially younger, Latino, and openly gay Latinos to consider office. We have Bryan Urias who just got elected. He's a water board member who just got elected. And it starts at that level where we support water level. I mean, water boards, school boards, and the young Latino, LGBT talent, who can, we can foster and we can grow with, and they'll be the next generation of Latino leaders. I, I've always said that the gay Latino community has always been there. And including, I could say national nonprofit organization has a lot of Latino LGBT leadership, but not until now, have we decided that we can come out and it is safe for us to do so. So HONOR PAC is doing a lot of work in that, especially with the founding of its sister organization Honor Fund, which is a 501c3 and we do intend to do a lot more work in reaching Latino's hearts and minds. - Well, it seems that that really, that strategy translated much more broadly as well, because early on in the, in the assembly, when I was first running 16, so years ago, there was a good presence in the legislature of Latinos. And it had grown over the years because of the same kind of community organizing work, but not only the presence of elected but the idea of the electorate, that there would be participation, that people would take it seriously and not feel so hopeless. And it looks like that feeling and that work has grown enormously in California and the rest of the country. Do you see that? - Well, this is a stellar year for Latino, the Latino electorate. Here in California, 22% of the electorate was Latino, which is a significant jump from 2008 and 2004. And the Latino community, and everybody always says the Latino giant has awakened. I don't think we're there yet, but we are making great strides. And I think one of the reasons why we had a democratic slate being elected statewide is because the Latino community voted for democratic the, the democratic party at 66%, at least the exit poll, polling shows that. So I think that is one of the reasons why we have Jerry Brown, Barbara Boxer, Barbara boxer, by the way, who got about 7% of the Latino vote, which is the highest of, of all the statewide elected. But the Latino community is exercising their power. And partly because there was attempts to, to keep Latinos at home, there was an initiative or, or an effort in Nevada asking or encouraging Latinos, not to vote as a protest to President Barack Obama's lack of, of, of progress in comprehensive immigration reform plan. - Sounds like Carl Rove plan really, underneath everything, doesn't it? - It, it was a Carl Rove plan, definitely. And, and here in California, the National Organization for Marriage, they had a campaign to target Latino communities. They spent $1.5 million to encourage Latinos to vote Republican and especially for Carly Fiorina. And that completely backfired completely backfired. Fiorina only got about 20% of the Latino vote. And I, again, I don't think, people may say that Latinos are conservative in a lot of the social issues, but at the same time, we Latinos believe in the rights, especially because we understand how civil rights affects us in every days. And I think if we do a better job in communicating that LGBT rights are civil rights, we can do it much better in the next few years. - It seems like the Republican party really helped though. I mean, they've been very clumsy to say the least and, and antagonistic to say the most in terms of the way they have presented themselves about immigration and most especially immigrants. I wonder what might happen if they suddenly wake up and decide that was not in their interest, and they're going to be more favorable. They're going to be helpful in the next Congress. Do you think the Latino community will say, well, now they're the nice guys? - Well, in California, the, a lot of the editorials up and down the state are saying that the only way that the Republicans are going to come, make a comeback in California is if they outreach to the Latino community, because you won't win any issue, including any ballot proposition issue without the Latino community support. So we know that much. And at the national level or at the federal level, they are going to highlight some of their recent Latino stars. Marco Rubio just got elected as a Senator from my, from Florida. And they are going to put him prominently, they're gonna place him prominently as a Latino spokesperson for the Republican party. And he may do well, he's a good guy. And I, I think he was running to the right cause I know Marco Rubio and I think he was running to the far, right. My sense is that he's going to move to towards the middle and start appealing to Latinos. I wouldn't be surprised if he attempts to lead the discussion on comprehensive immigration reform. Wouldn't be surprised. It would be a Republican version, not the democratic version. - [Sheila] Yes, right. - But he will probably lead that conversation. And then we have two other Republican governors who got elected in Nevada and Arizona. I mean, Nevada and New Mexico. And I think the Republican party is going to put them front and center to our Latino community. But yet again, we'll see what the policies say. We've learned this month that the GMAC is probably not gonna pass, comprehensive immigration reform as, at least as it is proposed by the Latino leadership, it's probably not gonna pass this year and it's not gonna pass next really with the, especially with the Republicans coming in. And that has really disenchanted Latino voters. The question is, would Latinos come out in full force to continue to push comprehensive immigration reform or will they be become apathetic and basically give up on politics? So that'll be the big, big question for 2012. - Well, we've, Torie, we've talked about how people seem to be constantly voting against their own self-interest and how easy it's been kind of to fool people. And I know even finding probably in your own work, but, you know, given what we've been talking about or anything you wanna talk about, what do you think happened in the past year that was interesting to you or- - Well, I think we're still kind of sorting it out, but I think it's interesting that right after the, the vote on the tax cuts for the rich that happened, where many people on the left of the side of the democratic party were very angry at the president. It was sort of the last straw, I think for a whole lot of people in the progressive left. The two issues that were brought to the floor that Harry Reed and others brought forward were, don't ask, don't tell and the DREAM Act. And I think it speaks- - [Sheila] You mean before the whole Congress was adjourned? - In the lame, in the lame duck session of the old Congress. - [Sheila] Right. And I think it speaks to, I mean, obviously the need for the democratic party to try to vitalize, but also where there's motion, where there's movement and where issues that have been at the margins among kind of marginalized communities have become much more mainstream. And I would say that since 2008, the, the mainstream, for lack of a better word appeal of LGBT issues, the ownership of don't ask don't tell, of marriage equality around the American kitchen table is, I mean, it's, I've never seen it. And it's happened since Obama was elected, which goes to the kind of like, you know, rising expectations, bring out people's generosity and move people in progressive direction. The fact that Prop 8 passed, which just pissed off a whole lot of people who were not gay. I mean, it just brought our allies out. The activism around the country, the million people that hit the streets in November. So, so, but I, I think it's, it's, it's, it signals to me is, you know, the need to keep organizing base building, remembering that there is a, that there's an audience, that there are people who may not always come out to vote. Didn't come out to vote in the midterm elections in enough numbers, you know, young people, the next generation, and for whom the immigration issue is a key. Certainly the DREAM Act, the DREAM Act is, is a popular act and the, and comprehensive immigration reform, which has not been, it's been an issue that the bulk, that the majority of Americans have not owned. It's beginning to move in that direction. And Don't Ask, Don't Tell already is, and marriage equality already is. So my point is just simply, you know, in some ways what's happened to me, you know, you had this huge civic uprising, Phill and I walked the dusty streets of Henderson, Nevada, had extraordinary experiences- - [Sheila] For Barack? For Barack Obama. I mean, I've talked about it before on this show, it was an extraordinary experience because of how many people who had never been involved before were engaged in 2008 in California. So if you look at the midterm elections where the national headline is something like the empire struck back, you know, the, the, the, 88% Latinos that turned out for Harry Reed at the beginning dissed by that idiot on the other side. - That's right. - And, and the Latino firewall and the senators who Colorado and elsewhere, who, who kept their seats, it was the Latino vote, just, just really having power for the first time. But, but the so, and, and I've actually said that my major critique of the president, I think he under, has consistently underestimated his enemy. He has underestimated the power of the right wing in America. And there's a lot of reasons for that, that, that I won't go into, but the right wing is organized. They've, they have been coming into power and exercising power ruthlessly with the willingness to lie in and infinite amount of money and a base underneath them, and a multi and a variegated social movement. They're the most powerful, successful social movement to emerge out of the sixties. They learned everything from the rest of us, from the civil rights movement and the other movements, you know, from direct action to start with the school boards to have, and they learned about media and messaging better than we've ever. We meaning progressives and broadly defined. The gay community's actually better on that than, than many other communities. But anyway, so, so they, when, when Obama was elected, when president Obama, I hate it when people just call him Obama, when President Obama was elected, he demobilized his own base, which I think was a mistake. And the tea party came into the void while OFA and while we were all sort of trying to figure out what, what to do to support the president, despite demobilizing his base, I'm, I'm totally with Phill healthcare reform, largest piece of social legislation in 40 years. And I can tell you, because the homeless poverty policy's been my issue, I can tell you what's happening on homelessness, what he's, what they're quietly doing, integrating what HUD does and HHS does. And going after a hundred housing, a hundred thousand chronically homeless and veteran in five years. This is like. this is like revolutionary stuff in the world of homelessness. You know? And, and that's just one little issue where I happen to know a little piece about it, or a healthcare reform that allows you to have universal healthcare if you can get it, not just, you know, single payer in California or universal healthcare in the county of San Francisco. There's plenty of space for progressive experimentation within the healthcare reform act along with everything that Phill said. So, so there's been huge, in two years, there's been huge motion forward, but the enemy is far more powerful and we are fragmented. We are still, we meaning sort of the progressive side- - Well not only that but notice, remember we were talking about how people seem to hunger for what they call either moderation or bipartisanship. They call it a lack of gridlock, you know, in Congress or whatever. And so they never give the president credit for anything that he's done. He's, you know, he gave all these tax cuts, which he thought all the moderates would like, and all the people who don't register for one party or the other would like, but everybody still thinks that all they did was raise taxes. - Well, yes, but you know, part of it, you know, maybe the White House isn't as great at doing their message out. I mean, but it's really about the enemy is so powerful. And when I see the enemy, I mean, kind of the radical, right. I'm not talking, they've taken over the Republican party. So it's in the it's, it's- - It's not your father's Republican party. Or not your- - It's not my father's well Republican party. But I mean, you made me lose my track. - No I didn't. I know you're right on it. - No. Well, let me go back to the other thing that I was gonna say, which was that if the headline was the empire struck back, the, the re mobilization of the right, the new expression of the right they've built themselves a right flank, right? Every movement needs an act up. The act up of the right is a tea party. And, you know, the headline in California was when people of color vote, progressives win. None, Boxer, Brown, none of them got the white vote and we moved and in a, in an electorate in California, and this is an important lesson for the rest of the country, because as goes California demographically, so goes the rest of the country. And I wanna say that with all due props to the Latino vote, because it moved between 2006 and to 2010 in California, it went from 20 to 22% of the vote, which is significant even while the overall electorate was 62% white and more male and richer than the demographic representation, it still was four points less. It was 66% white in 20. So in, in four years, the, the electorate is less white. It's more Latino, but it's twice as African American twice. And, and nobody's been talking about this, but the Black vote went from four and a half percent to 9%, which is why Kamala Harris is attorney general today. Thank you very much. But, but, and, and the Asian vote went down a little bit, but the Asian vote moved progressive by 25 points. So even though it's only 5% of the pie, it, the vote radically changed within the API community. So what's happening in California. And I wanna give perhaps to the ground game, there was huge voter turnouts, all that built on that civic uprising in 2008. So my point here is where local communities or states, or nonprofits or movements are able to build, over time you can actually make some real long term progress. So in California, the civic uprising in 2008, that got Barack Obama president, but in California built this kick ass field operation, 10 million phone calls and a million volunteers. And we were all turning, you know, Colorado, New Mexico and Nevada blue. But what it did to our lives made me wanna run for office. I mean, it changed my life permanently. And when I, and when we, the group I'm working with now is doing voter education on tax reform, when we're in San Bernard Bernardino and when we're in Ventura county, which by the way, voted on Prop 25, yes. By 300 points, hello. - That is to reduce the vote on the budget- - To reduce the vote- Majority vote in the state. - Progressive reform. A huge progressive. - To make the budget a democratic process. - Right. Go figure. - With a small d. - That's right. Yes. - But it had been a two third super majority since 1933, and nobody thought it would pass. This was a big lift. I mean, two years ago we thought, oh, we can never get this. We got it. We got it by 55% in California. We got it because places like Ventura and San Bernardino, either in Ventura's case voted yes or in some of these other places, the margin was much less. How did Gavin Newsome win the inland empire? How did Gavin, well, I can tell you right now, it wasn't voters. It wasn't white, older male, richer voters. It was young voters, it was people of color, even in an electorate that was skewed. So the headline is in, in California, I think, and I don't wanna be California centric, but there are models both in terms of kind of organizing and HONOR PAC, I want to give props to Javier and HONOR PAC because it, it makes me, to get an email where the DREAM Act and Don't Ask, Don't Tell are the double, sort of the double ask. It's like finally, you know, real bridge building, real linking together to put immigration reform and LGBT rights in the same package. You know, this is just, it just brings tears to my eyes. And it's been a long time coming. - Well, let me ask a hard question then of all three of you, cause where you do community organizing and all of you do, you have an idea of then of an outcome that you want and although there's never perfect agreement in any community on what the outcome should be still, there is a thought about what it should be. I wonder, let's talk for just a few minutes about the LGBT community, not only in California, but in the nation and whether we have that kind of community organizing. Now, marriage has become, something seems very commonplace perhaps for us, we have states that now allow it. So there must have been something going on and not just in California, you know, but other places, other issues, family law issues, et cetera. So do we have a message that we've organized around and do we get our people out to vote? - [Torie] Well- - Or ourselves? - Well, I, I think that, that the challenge for LGBT folks right now is who are we? And in some ways it's time to grow up. I mean, Torie talked about the president underestimating the power of the right, but I also think the president, no did not have sufficient enough faith in the left and progressives, you know. That one of the reasons why he, he believed that he needed to, to compromise so much is because he didn't trust that we were going to be there, you know, and maybe he was right. But, but, but, but, but, but, but that's a mistake. So I would say the following things, I would say for LGBT people, you know, that A, marriage is a done deal. I mean, when it happened one place, it truly was a done deal. I mean, there's still work to be done. You get, but it's a done deal. You, you, can't kind of unring that bell. Don't ask, don't tell is a done deal. So the question is now, who are we really? You know? And so who we should be really, if we are adults, is that know that the DREAM Act and Don't Ask, Don't Tell should be at the same time, you know, because that's a part of being truly progressive folks. That's a part of not just being special interests. The other thing that quite frankly, we have to get accustomed to is that we actually are the ones we've been waiting for. You know, that, that that one of the advantages of being young and marginalized is that it can be enough just to throw stones. It's no longer enough to just to throw stones because we are in fact, the ones who are running things, you know, and we need to take ownership. And there's a responsibility that comes with actually being in leadership. Now, whether we're elected or not, you know, we are now the generation that's running this country, you know, and, and, and, and, and that's probably been an awakening for me as well. Part of it out of, you know, the election that, that prior to the election, I always thought about being an advocate to get other folks to, to implement policy. No, but the truth of the matter is even before I realize it, I've been a policy maker for a long time for- - [Torie] And he's on the presidents- - Right, right, exactly. And so, so it is no longer my job to advocate policy, it is my job to implement policy. And I think that's the other reality that LGBT people need to deal with. And so the relationships that we have, you know, around what's important to us, you know, education should be important to us, civil rights of all folks should be important to us. The DREAM Act definitely should be important to us. Because quite frankly, now the, the economy of California and the country is determined by people living up to their potential. Some of us are employers, some of us are doing, and we need folks to be able to, to reach their aspirations. So I think that's part of the challenge. And that would be part of our message. - I wanna just build on that and, and tell a story. I sit on a board of the Center for Community Change, which is a, Bobby Kennedy actually started it- - It's a national- - It's a national policy organization, and also supports social movement building. And we had a board meeting that happened to be that weekend in March, that the healthcare reform vote took place. And there also happened to be kind of ill timed as you know, but, but a immigrant's rights March, rally that same weekend, one was on Saturday one was on Sunday. I think the healthcare reform vote was on Sunday. Well, the, the newly kind of energized LGBT community activists who were working for repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell, happened to choose that weekend, to sit in on Nancy Pelosi's office and to chain themselves to the White House fence. And I was sitting here in this board meeting where they were like calling in, you know, we just got this vote on and Nancy Pelosi's like out there trying to twist arms to get the votes on healthcare reform, this massive piece of social legislation and then there's this immigrants rights march. And I'm thinking like, why is my community chaining themselves to the White House fence this weekend, instead of going to the immigrants rights march and, and demonstrating for healthcare reform. And, and I, you know, I, I thought to myself, you know, just, this is just really bad timing, and I know sometimes you can't unroll the, the timing on, on these kinds of direct action things but to me, it really raised a question about the gay community that LGBT sort of mainstream's the wrong thing, but sort of white majority and whether established or not, because these were some of the new radical activists that had come off the streets. This wasn't HRC that was doing this right. Kind of like, again, replicating this single issue. My issue comes first rather than a, an alliance building or a what the heck else is going on before I put my issue up front. - And how do they fit together? I mean, that's- - [Torie] Exactly. what you were saying. - [Javier] Yeah, actually, especially my, the foundations are coined right now through a process of really determining what the future of the LGBTT movement will be. Especially now that marriage equality is moving itself forward through the courts. And a lot of the organizations are scaling back in their marriage equality work, and our fear, at least in my circle of friends and my colleagues, is that the fund for, or the, the funds to do LGBT outreach will be drying up. And the, the, the work is just beginning in our community. We need to do a lot more work to win our community support so that we can be able to walk in the streets and feel safe, so that we can build those alliances, so that we can have better communications and be visible in media. And our concern is that people will no longer see LGBT issues as important. So we're getting that sense. And I'll tell you that we have looked into several foundations who have said we're shifting priorities, or we're not investing as much in this community. So we're very concerned about that. But in, in terms of building those bridges, that's gonna be so key and so important. And I hate to bring this up, but there was an incidence with the Gay and Lesbian Center here in Los Angeles, where they had an event at a, a hotel that was listed as do not patronize as part of Unite Here. And I think that really raised a lot of issues. I, there was Latinos on both sides of the aisle. Some people that were supportive- - To clarify Unite Here is the labor organization for hotel workers. - The labor organization. And there was people on both sides of the aisle saying that we need to continue this event so that we can provide vital services towards low income people, many of them who are Latino, but at the same time, Unite Here represents a very important union to many Latinos because majority of Unite Here's memberships is Latinos. And I think it's a missed opportunity for both the Latino community, Latino leadership. A lot of the organizations who were fully opposed to the Gay and Lesbian Center stance, it was a missed opportunity for both to really talk about it and discuss it and, and engage in conversation about it. But it didn't happen. There was a firm stance by the LA Gay and Lesbian Center to say, to do this and even with my Latino counterparts, they didn't, they just fully went, you know, press release. I don't think they communicated beforehand with the LA Gay and Lesbian Center and they went on attack. So it was essentially a fight that shouldn't have happened. - Well, it's kind of a tin ear thing. I was thinking about it Torie, when you were talking about how we don't all hear each other, and of course I've known the LGBT community better, because that has been sort of my community. I'm not in communities of color as a, as a member, shall we say. But it always seemed to me that there was this well, I mean, they shouldn't be feeling that way kind of thing. And I'm sure everybody says the same thing about us, but this, it's this tin ear aspect and it's interesting, because you said marriage equality, that's a done deal. You said there's still a lot of education that needs to go on. I would think in the Black community, they're not like a hundred percent in favor either, they seem to be a little- - Well, no, I mean, let's, let's be clear. We, we haven't won the battle, you know, but it truly is a matter of time, I mean- - I agree with you, history's arc or whatever. - That's right. That's right. The long arc of history is done. And so, so that's kinda the, the reality of it. But, but I didn't say that to suggest that the work isn't, that the work is done, it's not done by a long shot. We experienced that with, with HIV, you know, that all of a sudden there, there were meds and that, and, and people who had resources, had access to the meds and then no, mission accomplished. And yet every day I get calls from people who are newly infected with HIV. I get calls from mothers who are in distress because they just lost their child. I get calls from young Black men who just found that they're HIV positive. AIDS is very much alive and killing in Black America and Latino America. But, but the problem that happens is that when those who have largely been the face of an issue, you know, get theirs, if you will, the question is what do you do then now? And so while it may be increasingly safe to walk the streets of west Hollywood, increasingly so, LGBT people won't be living in west Hollywood because LGBT people will be the people who live in East Los Angeles and South Los Angeles. And if we really care about what's happening to LGBT people, we need to care about them, whether they live on Santa Monica Boulevard or whether they live on Caesar Chavez Boulevard or whether they live, you know, somewhere, no, in, on, in South Central. - Well, but see that's when- - Because that's who we are, but, but what happens on the question of race and sexual orientation, we still think that there is a them and us, you know, and, and it's been something that I've been yelling and screaming about my entire career, that folks, you know, it's not like I'm Black on Mondays and gay on Tuesday. I don't get the privilege of, of, of, of deciding which of the, which of the issues impact my life. HIV impacts my life every single day. You know, the question of race impacts my life every single day. And the question of sexual orientation impacts my, my life every single day. I don't get to choose a them and us on these issues because they're intertwined. - Let me, let me present an opportunity. There is a movement right now to push back against the student bullying at schools and Latinos now make up the majority of students in California, meaning that it is likely that Latinos would probably feel the brunt of the bullying. And there's an opportunity for the LGBT community in the Latino community to jointly work together. And of course, other communities, African American community and, and Asian American communities to work together to stop this heinous practice and this heinous essentially bullying that is going on. And it, we need to look at that, those opportunities where we can work together. And I think especially with the DREAM Act, I think that was very, I, I think we did a good job in, in doing work together. - The students have been seeing the connections and I was interested Torie in what you thought of what, I'm sorry, were you about to say something? - Well, I was just gonna say that I, I'm really struck just cause my work with the Center for Community Change and work that I've done, you know, the last few years on economic and racial justice, I'm very struck by how many out LGBT folks are at the forefront of the immigrants rights youth movement, the youth wing of the movement or whatever you wanna say. The young people that are coming up that are incredible, or the LGBT folk, kids of young kids, sorry, young people of color, youth of color who are, who are the leaders of the students protesting. - [Javier] We need to call them kids because they are kids. - They are. They're kind of like my grandkids (laughter). - [Sheila] People are 40 they're kids to us now. - [Torie] I know (laughter). But who are in the forefront of the protests against the hikes on, tuition hikes. And I think there's an integration going on with the new activists that are coming up. Now, I don't think we get them to vote as often as they need to. They there, there's still that acculturation into a kind of that piece of civic engagement, but you know, I think there's something happening. I, I also was gonna say that, that in this last year I went to a forum in Long Beach that was organized by, I think it was Unite Here organizers. An LGBT forum for the LGBT community on labor LGBT issues and it was a singularly, honest, open dialogue about the lack of consciousness of labor rights issues within the LGBT community. It was not finger pointing, it was not, you know, class, you classist racist, you know, it wasn't the old confrontational sort of identity based model. It was really like, how did this happen when we all remember the Coors boycott, those of us who were old enough to remember the Harvey milk days, you know, the Coors boycott and there was a lot of sort of pro labor. I remember when the LGBT, the Gay and Lesbian Center was unionized, you know. There was many of the leaders in the gay community were labor people, the founders of HRC, Steve Andeen and Vic Basil were labor guys. I mean, so there's a long history of pioneering pro labor, LGBT, you know, just organic linkage that's just been gone. I'm sorry. It's been gone. So anyway, so what I'm saying is that I think that there are new conversations happening that, that, you know, we're not maybe lifting up enough or we're not having and in, in Los Angeles, certainly if you're gonna talk about building labor building, sorry, building Latino gay ties, you're talking about the labor movement, So you better get wise to labor issues. - Well John Harris came out of the labor movement. - Right. - I want in the little time remaining, I want to talk about what's, what's possibly coming up. I mean I was struck by your saying the foundations, if they stop being interested in marriage, it's gonna dry up money, you know, just when we need it in our communities. And I'm thinking maybe the more generalized approach, which is what we've generally taken on bullying, where we don't name the community, that can't be bullied, but we just say, here's what bullying is. Here's what it does. Don't do it. And it tends to benefit, you know, our kids and our kids. But okay, 2011, what do you see for this year for our community, for even, you know, for all the communities, what do you see coming up or what needs to be done? Kind of, I it's, you know, it's only about 10 minutes remaining, but hey you can sum this up in 10 minutes. I know you can. What's on your minds for 2011? Maybe I should put it that way. - Well, I, I think for, for us, there are very, there's a few Latino organizations that are starting up, there's Honor Fund, but there's also the Latino Quality Alliance, which is an excellent organization, coalition, organizations, Latino organizations coming together to do more work. And I see the energy and I see the passion to continue to do this. And I think it's, it'll be a good year for overall the Latino gay and lesbian community. With immigration reform, that's kind of where it's gonna get interesting because I actually attended an immigration rights conference about a week ago. And I can tell you, I can swear that I felt I was there in 2002, the same discussions, the same predictions. And I really don't think that we're gonna move the needle. So the question, I guess, for us, Latino gays is what should we focus on? And I think the student bullying would be a good opportunity, but continue to push the envelope on immigration rights. There's a, especially on immigration equality, there's a lot of issues. There's amnesty issues, there's you know, the, the, a partnership and asylum issues, but again, without comprehensive immigration reform, I don't think any of that would be able to move forward. So I would say probably education would be a very, very important focus overall for our community and education in, in, in terms of public education, improving public education. - [Sheila] Right. Making it better for openly gay students to be fully accepted and successful. - Next year is the 30th anniversary of the first diagnosed cases of HIV in this country. - [Sheila] Wow. - And so where are we now, 30 years later? And, and, and, and how are we progressing toward ending this AIDS epidemic, and how does that fit into a larger both LGBT movement and a larger social justice movement? I think there are gonna be lots of opportunities to have, you know, these crosscutting conversations in, in that regard. Certainly, you know, we have a new Congress and, and, and what's, what's, how are we gonna be treated? And, and how are we going to take action and mobilize in new, new Congress? Now, are we gonna make sure that healthcare reform doesn't get rolled, rolled back? I think that that is gonna be a critical issue in, in 2011. And how do we look at some of the real issues around turning our economy around? You know, now they, they're talking about tax cuts now at the same time and, and, and unemployment, unemployment benefits are probably the single biggest stimulus to the economy that we possibly could have, because people are unemployed. Those, that money is gonna go right back into the economy and, and, and progressive folks having their voice, you know, getting better at this communications I think is really, really critical. - Torie? - Well, you know, I mean, I believe that the economic divide is the core moral issue of the day as I have for several years and it's gotten much worse and the tax cuts haven't helped. The tax cuts are job killers, you know. - [Sheila] It's too bad we don't actually say that. - There's a book that's been very influential to me by Jacob Hacker called Winner Takes All Politics, about the concentration of wealth at the very, very tippy top in a globalized economy where, where the financialization of the sector of the economy, the power of big banks basically and Wall Street, to effect the economy and the influence on politics, both the Democrats and the Republicans. And, you know, it's kind of beware the military industrial complex. I mean, I don't know how we're gonna get out of these wars. I don't know how we're gonna get out of the prison industrial complex in California. There's big issues of priority that I think go to the soul. It's what Phill was talking about earlier, to what is America about? You know, the American dream, the California dream in California, the very basis that people strive and struggle and has been undermined by this 30 year assault on government, on education, on the safety net, on the things that allow, I mean, government is the ally to people's individual dreams. Nobody makes it a alone and it's just a lie, sorry, but it's a lie. And so to me, these are kind of issues about kind of the, the distribution of resources globally, who has access to which dreams, the DREAM Act, writ large for all of us. Who's' going to deal with, I, I don't think there, I, I think Carl Roves called bipartisanship date rape. That's what the Republicans think of bipartisanship with, you know, and I mean, I'm a strong supporter of the presidents. I think, I hope this has been a wake up call, but I think that there are deeper issues of a kind of a vision re, re envisioning what this country means, what its higher promise is and what the role of all of its citizens legal or not are. And I think that each of us in our work and in our communities is kind of contributing to that. I actually think we're kind of in the desert for a new emerging vision. I'm hoping in 2011, there's more clarity and more coming together and more building on it because if we don't have that movement, we are the ones we've been waiting for. And if we don't have that movement, the president cannot move any further. He's done a lot. And the rest I think is up to us to push them and pull them and, and help craft a new vision or a renewed vision of what this country means and frankly, what, what the world, where the world is going, you know. With all of this migration, 50 million people in motion seeking a better life because of destruction of indigenous economies, corruption, AIDS, all of these reasons. I mean, puts tremendous pressure, globalization, concentration of wealth at the top, the top 1% controls so much power in this country. We have to have a little bit of a revolution in the next few years. So we're gonna build towards that. - Sheila, before you close, can I say one thing? - I'm not gonna close, we still got five minutes. - Earlier you said that, that, that, that John Perez and being speaker house is the result of, of hard work and that's true, but what you didn't say and, and I think that this is even truer is that John Perez is the speaker of the assembly today because Sheila Kuehl was a member of the assembly and a member of the California Senate. And that needs to be said now, because the role you played when you were in those bodies, you know, and the work you did set the stage and had that not happened, you know, had that not happened, there would not be John Perez as speaker of the assembly today. - Not to mention writing the model code on bullying with the William Institute at UCLA. - Well, thank you so much. I really love the credit. And I that's what made me think about this sort of general thing. And I, I have to say Phill you're right, until the first person is there everybody says, gee, I never met one. Well, nobody could ever say that again in the legislature, but I have to tell you when the organizing first began to talk John Perez into wanting to be speaker, it was the women's caucus. It was the women's caucus. And I'm not saying Latinos lagged very far behind, although there was, you know, some competition for it, shall we say, and that was, that was a good thing. But this kind of coalition that you're all talking about, you know, is what it takes. You also talk about revolution. - Of the heart, let's just be clear. - I know. I understand. Revolution of the heart. - We all like to see people out on the street saying, what's, you know, I wish somebody would say, there's something wrong going on here. So what would you say in the remaining four minutes to our viewers that they should individually do this year to be a part of it? A lot of our viewers are LGBT people, a lot are not, but what would you say they need to do sort of a, a one minute wrap up of your, your wish for their activism? Javier. - [Torie] Ed- - Okay, Torie. - Well, I was just gonna say, educate yourself. You know, break through the denial, learn, read books, go online. Number one, learn what is really going on. Whatever, wherever your passion leads you. Number two, volunteer, do something for somebody else, whatever it is, go do something in a community you've never done anything. Work in a food bank somewhere, something like that. Give back. And number three, don't forget to vote. It makes me crazy. And, and don't ever do a protest vote. This notion that you vote to throw the bums out. This gets us in trouble, whether it's Gray Davis in California or whether it's people in, you know, Karen Bass said that when she, she went back, you know, of the 60 people on the Republican side that were elected to Congress, 51 of them are tea party members, nine Democrats, 60 Republicans, 51 are tea party members. This happened from organizing and from people turning their base out to vote. And from a bunch of people in the middle saying, throw the bums out, protest votes are kind of a stupid idea. - [Shelia] Don't be fooled. Don't be fooled. - [Sheila] Got it. - You know, Maya Angelou said, "When you know better, you do better." So I definitely agree with Torie that we need to educate ourselves about the, about what's really going on, about what's really going on. And, and what they say is going on is not necessarily what's really going on and, and show up, you know, wherever you are, whoever you are start there, you know, that, that we have to take responsibility. We have to be accountable, you know. We, we are at a point in our organizational development and our community development and our movement development that it's not enough, you know, just to complain. It's not enough to gripe. It's not enough to just be mad and sit home and cross your arms while the entire country goes under. Because whether or not you are, whether or not you are out there or not, if the, if the entire country goes under you drown as well. And so we have to be involved. And if we are not involved, you know, we as, we are as big of a part of the problem as those who we define as being the enemy now. And so I would say show up and show up and show up and show up until it's the world that we want it to be. - I would like for the community to have or, to grow the empathy and compassion between the joint struggles of the immigrant rights and the LGBT, because coming out as an undocumented person is almost as difficult as coming out as a gay person. So let's have empathy. - Thank you all very much. I love this show. I hope you liked it too. Oh yeah, you guys too. And remember, this is your country. This is your time. Get used to it. (upbeat music)