Even though Pride Month is a time to celebrate queer love, it’s also a time to double down on LGBTQ+ activism and progressive policy change. The work is far from over. Human Rights Campaign President, Kelley Robinson, comes on the show to discuss her leadership of the organization one year after declaring a state of emergency for LGBTQ+ people in the United States. She explains why LGBTQ+ rights are a critical voting issue and how allies and activists alike can queer their way toward progress.
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On today’s episode
Our host
Errin Haines is The 19th’s editor-at-large and writer of The Amendment newsletter.
An award-winning journalist with nearly two decades of experience, Errin was previously a national writer on race for the Associated Press. She’s also worked at the Los Angeles Times and the Washington Post.
Follow Errin on Instagram @emarvelous and X @errinhaines.
Today’s guest
Kelley Robinson is the President of the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), she is the first Black, queer woman to hold this position. An influential civil rights leader and advocate, Robinson was named to the 2024 TIME100. She previously served as the Executive Director of Planned Parenthood Action Fund.
Follow Kelley Robinson on Instagram @kelleyjrobinson.
Episode transcript
The Amendment podcast transcripts are automatically generated by a third-party website and may contain typos or other errors. Please consider the official record for The Amendment podcast to be the audio publicly available wherever you listen to podcasts.
Kelley Robinson:
Woo. You know, we’re about to be in Pride season, so it’s a day.
Errin Haines:
Yes, welcome to Pride. Oh my gosh, yes. Let’s do it.
Errin:
Hey, y’all, welcome to The Amendment, a weekly conversation about gender, politics, and power from the 19th News and Wonder Media Network. I’m your host, Errin Haines. So, as you know, June is Pride Month, and here at The 19th, we’re talking a lot about what this month actually signifies. Now, for some people, Pride Month means putting on a rainbow tutu and strutting through the streets in one of the many parades that are gonna be taking place across the country. And while that’s all well and good — we love that — that’s not the only thing this month is about. While queer love is absolutely worth celebrating, we know that the sociopolitical landscape for LGBTQ+ folks is far from just rainbows and butterflies. Just last year, on June 6, the Human Rights Campaign declared a national state of emergency for LGBTQ+ people in the United States. At that point in 2023, there had already been over 525 bills introduced that attacked the LGBTQ+ community, and over 220 of those bills were particularly aimed at trans people. What’s more, that year, 70 of those bills were codified into law. So there’s a very real fight that is still happening on the ground. Organizations like the Human Rights Campaign, or the HRC, are working to secure a better future for LGBTQ+ folks. One year after the HRC’s initial State of the Emergency Declaration, I wanted to talk to Kelley Robinson, current HRC president, about what this Pride Month is all about in a consequential election year that feels absolutely existential for this community. Kelley, welcome to The Amendment.
Kelley:
Yes, happy to be here, Errin, and happy Pride.
Errin:
Happy Pride to you. So let’s get started. As I just mentioned, last year on June 6 the HRC declared a state of emergency for LGBTQ+ people in America. Can you just talk about what statistics and political conversations inform that decision?
Kelley:
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, we were looking at a moment where we had an unprecedented number of anti LGBTQ+ bills not only introduced in states, but passing. We were looking at nearly 600 bills last year. And on top of that, we saw an epidemic of violence facing our community, especially our trans community, especially Black trans women. And then you layer that with the attacks on DEI that were creating headwinds and all the progress that we’ve made from corporations to schools, it was truly an emergency. And, look, you can look at every number that you want, but the emergency became most real to me as I was talking to people, talking to families who were forced to leave their homes because their kids weren’t safe in the midst of “don’t say gay and trans” laws, right? Talking to pediatricians who were receiving death threats for providing life-saving care, talking to drag queens who were being met with AR-15s when they came to do their shows and perform. It was truly a state of emergency, and we needed to raise the level of urgency that we’re addressing it with as a community and especially as a movement.
Errin:
Yeah, I mean, what you’re describing is not normal, but I think, you know, with the volume of that legislation happening — the steady drumbeat of that legislation — I think maybe people outside of the community, for them it might’ve been normalized. And so raising that state of emergency status, it feels like that really kind of sounded an alarm within that community. And hopefully, maybe, sounded the alarm for those outside of the community who maybe don’t necessarily share that identity, but can understand that this is absolutely not a normal situation and that, you know, this is actually a crisis for folks who are on the receiving end of those proposed and passed policies.
Kelley:
Exactly. And I think the other thing that resonated for me was that people were really becoming very aware that if this could happen to the LGBTQ+ community — if they can come after our kids, especially our trans kids — they could come after any of us. And you had our opposition weaving our stories together so eloquently. I remember the moment when Ron DeSantis stood up and said that he was not only moving the “don’t say gay” bills, but he was also gonna be coming after African American studies, remember, and trying to ban that from our classrooms. And he said, I mean, he weaved it so eloquently, right? From attacking African American studies to also coming after queer theory.
Errin:
Yeah.
Kelley:
They were doing intersectionality and we needed to respond in kind. And since that moment, since then, I do think that you’ve seen our communities come together in a powerful way — understanding that an attack on one of us is truly an attack on all of us.
Errin:
Yeah, I believe it was the great Imara Jones from TransLash Media who taught me that certainly conservatives can work intersectionally even though they don’t necessarily wanna talk about intersectionality. So to your point, well, you started talking about this, but I just want you to expand on kind of how the political and social landscape for LGBTQ+ folks has evolved since that initial state of emergency declaration. Like what strides have been made towards equality? Where is there still more work that needs to be done?
Kelley:
Yeah. You know, and I think when we announced the state of emergency, it was really a story of heartbreak.
Errin:
Mm-Hmm.
Kelley:
In the years since, it has been a story of powerful and defiant resilience and resistance against forces that wanna push us back into the closet.
Kelley:
I mean, when we launched the state of emergency, we had hundreds of thousands of people start to take action in different ways. We saw school board meetings in places like Oklahoma be flooded with supporters. We saw people show up in the state capital of Georgia to protest against anti LGBTQ+ laws that were passing. So much so that we’re starting to see some elements of the tide shifting. You know, in Georgia, they weren’t able to get a single anti LGBTQ+ piece of legislation out of a legislature this year. That is a powerful win in places like Florida and West Virginia.
Kelley:
They barely got one bad bill across the line. That’s because people rose up and said no. And even in a place like Arizona, we had so many people turn out they were trying to get an anti-trans ballot measure on the ballot for this year. And people stood up and said no. They didn’t just talk to the Democrats, they came to the Republicans, too, and found a way to stop some of these bad pieces of legislation from moving. So, to me, I’m feeling hopeful because when you look at the demographic that’s coming, we can tell that they are overwhelmingly LGBTQ. Right? Nearly 30 percent of Generation Z identify as a member of this community. That means they got mamas and daddies and uncles and aunties and cousins that also care about our issue. So, in this moment, we are actually starting to see people understand that attacks against LGBTQ+ community are really fundamentally attacks on all of us and attacks on our democracy. And that’s why people are showing up the way that they are. So we still have a long way to go in addressing the state of emergency and the real impact that it’s having on people. But I’m so proud to say that, that if you look ahead, the tide is beginning to turn and people are showing up.
Errin:
You know, what I’m hearing you say really is that from, you know, last year during Pride being in the state of emergency, to this year that state of emergency evolving to a place of empowerment. I mean, I think about as part of that state of emergency status that you declared, there was also, you know, this map of resources so that people knew kind of what the landscape was. It gave them information, the awareness that that led to action, not just among the LGBTQ community, but really kind of creating a coalition that was aware that this is and should be an intersectional issue because, you know, what affects one affects all. I also wanna just kind of ask you about much of that lawmaking that has been aimed at trans people specifically. So when North Carolina passed a bill banning trans people from bathrooms that aligned with their gender identity, that was 2016, businesses boycotted the state, right? But now lots of states have such laws and business is at least mostly continuing as normal. So can you talk about maybe what seems different now? What is different now?
Kelley Robinson:
Yeah. And, you know, when I really look back at that story of 2017, sure, we lost the battle in a lot of ways in North Carolina, but we won the war. I mean, coming out of that, you see a chilling effect on anti-LGBTQ+ laws being introduced in states across the country for the next three years. You had a governor there, Governor McCrory, who had aspirations of being President of the United States, and I couldn’t tell you where he is today, right? Because the community stood up and made a point that this was not going to be a political issue.
Errin:
Mm-Hmm.
Kelley:
So in a lot of ways, I think that was a story of a win and a victory that came out of that state that really shifted the tide on what could be attacked from our community. Unfortunately now, especially after Roe v. Wade was overturned, especially in the wake of, you know, abortion and the right to bodily autonomy really being profoundly positive in terms of electoral outcomes in states, they were trying to find a new way of attack.
Kelley:
They were looking for a new community to try to marginalize to get votes on their side. And they found, — there’s record of this where the American Principles Project had a meeting where someone from their organization said, and I quote, that they were throwing ideas against the wall — and attacks on trans kids is what stuck. So I wanna be really clear that this wave of attacks that we’re seeing about the trans community, it’s not about helping kids. It’s not about supporting families. It is a political maneuver from our opposition to try to find an element of the community that feels most vulnerable and launch a political attack against them. So I’m saying that because it’s important for us to understand why this is happening and what is actually taking place, and really to be clear that this isn’t about helping anyone. And when we’re clear about that, I think we can also be clear about how we have to mobilize together as a community to fight back. We have to make it clear that we’re not gonna create any space between lesbian, gay, bi, and folks and our trans community. We are one community and we’re gonna lock arms with other issues that matter, like the fight for racial justice and economic justice to really create a coalition that can fight back.
Errin:
Yeah. I mean, what I hear you describing is really, you know, that backlash against the progress that’s been made around LGBTQ+ plus rights around, you know, racial equality, all of it, right? And a huge part of this fight, just to stick with talking about the business community, is also about these corporations that show up to support people in their rights. But it feels like some of that support has kind of waned as companies are facing this backlash from the Right. How can businesses actually do more to further the cause rather than to just exploit it for profit?
Kelley Robinson:
Yeah, and the backlash is real and intentional, right? ‘Cause we also have to be clear that the same folks that funded, you know, the Dobbs decision that overturned Roe v Wade were funding the 303 Creative decision that created legal loopholes to discrimination for the LGBTQ+ community, and were funding the anti- affirmative action decision that really has created somewhat of a chilling effect in the corporate space, even though it does not apply to corporations and business.
Errin:
Yeah.
Kelley:
So, when I think about what’s happening in companies, you gotta look at both what they’re saying and what they’re doing. So it is true that I think publicly we’re seeing companies take a more conservative posture to talking about things like diversity, equity and inclusion. But it’s also true, if you look at our corporate equality index at HRC LEAD — it’s the benchmarking tool for the country for companies and businesses to say that they have inclusive LGBTQ+ policies — that has had the highest level of participation that it ever has had.
Errin:
Hmm.
Kelley:
Nearly 1500 companies participated last year in the survey, and they represent 29 million employees across this country. So companies understand, at the end of the day, when they look at the future of the workforce, it is LGBTQ+ and growing. When they look at the economic power of our community representing almost 1.1 and a half trillion dollars of economic impact in this country, they understand that the consumers and their employees require them to prioritize LGBTQ+ issues. So now it’s time for us to figure out how we bridge the gap between what they’re doing and what they’re saying.
Errin:
Yeah. And it sounds like that work absolutely continues for for y’all over at HRC. Well I know, to that point, that HRC compiled a big report about corporate citizenship that highlights these six main pillars called six pillars for emerging best practices and allyship. So how do these pillars, particularly the ones about products and services themselves and how they’re marketed, encourage corporations to interact with LGBTQ+ rights on a more meaningful level?
Kelley:
Absolutely. So the Corporate Equality Index is really about a company’s internal business practices and their policies related to their employees. We felt it really necessary, especially at this moment, to look at how companies are behaving out in the world because the corporate equality index is great, but if you’re out here giving political money to, you know, our opposition, you’re not actually moving forward the cause. So the corporate citizenship report is really meant to give folks a tool to look at their business practices in a 360 way to figure out how they can advance inclusion. So it looks at everything from things like political giving to their marketing practices and how they’re creating inclusive narratives around their marketing practices. Not only, um, lift up our community, but lift them up in a positive light. It looks at their products and services, it looks at their supply chain, which is really important, especially since most of these companies have a global supply chain that’s not only based in the United States but in places that are hostile to our community. But we’re using that as a tool to help corporations really close this allyship gap ’cause there are a lot of people in companies that want their corporation to be the best, right? To be as inclusive as possible to help to advance equality. But they don’t always have the tools or the ability to do that. The corporate citizenship report is supposed to help them close the gap around where they are and where they wanna be.
Errin:
Yeah. That’s an interesting phrase to think about somewhere that, uh, closing the allyship gap. So I mean, where can allies and activists show up this pride month to actually make a difference for LGBTQ+ folks beyond going to parades? Like how are you seeing folks pushing back against efforts to target the community?
Kelley:
Everywhere. I mean, we really need allies to step up. I’m sure you saw that, um, earlier this month there was a report released from the FBI really saying that this Pride Month they expected increased levels of threat against some Pride activities. Again, let’s be clear, that is intentional. That’s how political extremism works. When they try to scare us back into the closet. We cannot let that be the case. So I’ve been encouraging folks this Pride season to be vigilant, but not to be afraid. Look, there are kids out there, there are people out there, that need to see that they’ve got strong allies that are ready to support them being out loud and authentically themselves. So yes, that means showing up at Pride, but also means telling your story about why your allyship matters. And that certainly means getting ready to vote this November ’cause we gotta make sure that we’re putting people in office who represent our pro equality values.
Errin:
Yeah. Strength in numbers and affirming folks in this moment feels pretty urgent and really important. So Kelley, I wanna get a little bit more into your background and approach to leading the Human Rights Campaign. Why does this work matter to you personally? And and what’s motivating you to do this work every single day?
Kelley:
It always comes back to my kid and my family. You know, I was at Planned Parenthood Federation of America for about 13 years before I came to the Human Rights Campaign. Um, and when I came here, it was right after Roe v. Wade was overturned. And I remember that moment when Clarence Thomas said the quiet parts out loud, right? That next, he encouraged the courts to come for Obergefell and Lawrence and Windsor — key court cases that had affirmed our basic right to love who we want to love in this country. And for me, not only as a person, but as a Black person, it became clear how fragile, how fragile all the rights are that we’ve gained not only the last 20 years or 30 years, but over the last 400. And I wanted to fight for my family and for our futures in a different sort of way. Um, and I was excited to come to the Human Rights Campaign to do just that at such a critical time.
Errin:
Yeah. I mean, you’ve had also just this really interesting career path and personal story. Your family was the first freed Black family in a small Iowa town. You grew up on the south side of Chicago. You’re an MMA fighter. I know a lot of people don’t know that. Uh, you were an Iowa organizer for Obama. Like you said, you were the Executive Director of Planned Parenthood, and now you are the first queer Black HRC President. How do you see all these different sides of yourself converging in your role as president at the HRC?
Kelley:
You know, for me, I believe that change is happening and that it’s possible. You know, I always say if somebody got a time machine, I don’t wanna get in it because even though things are challenging right now as a Black queer woman, things today are still the best that they’ve ever been. I mean, to think that my, you know, I talk about my great Aunt Bert a lot ’cause she was a matriarch of our family and she passed away a few years ago at the age of 102. And I got to hear firsthand the stories from her of what it meant for her to sit at the footsteps of people who were born into slavery, right? To talk to them within her lifetime. To think that we could go from that just two generations ago to now be in a position where I get to lead the Human Rights Campaign, but even more importantly, I get to talk about what it means for us to build a democracy that has our people and our voices and our lives at the center of it is transformative. So for me, if that was possible in the course of two generations, I have hope and I have faith. And I believe that even more transformation could be possible two generations from now because of the things that we choose to do today. And that is the essence of movement building.
Errin:
Wow. Aunt Bert, what an inspiration. Like so much progress that she saw over her lifetime and really just a reminder that that, uh, folks are not interested in going back, and that the history of this country overwhelmingly is about moving forward and really making this democracy more free and fair and equal and inclusive for everybody. So a huge north star for you in your leadership at HRC is this idea of, kind of, growing your people power. What does that mean? How is the HRC showing up for queer people and activists on the ground?
Kelley:
You know, for me, I came up and learned to organize in labor in the Obama campaign. And they used to always say, if it’s something that you can do alone, that’s just something on a to-do list. That’s a task. If it requires you bringing in other people to achieve the goal, then that’s why you have to build movement. That’s community-based organizing. And I think right now is such a pivotal moment for us to be in that really shows what’s possible with people power, because we’ve got institutions that weren’t set up for us and are operating in kind, right? An institution that has allowed someone who’s now a 34 time over convicted felon to be the likely nominee of the Republican party. We’ve got to do something to make sure that the institution actually shifts and acts in our interests. The only way to overcome the power as it is, is to build collective power to have the people be a part of this.
Kelley:
And I think right now the fight for LGBTQ+ equality is not only about our issue, it’s actually a fight fundamentally for our democracy. ‘Cause right now there are 75 million people across the country that prioritize LGBTQ+issues when deciding who to vote for. Right now, every day in the United States, 2,200 LGBTQ+ young people are turning 18 years old. Those are facts that excite me, but make our opposition so afraid. Those are facts that tell me that if we actually mobilize the power of our people, we can win. We can be the difference-maker in this election. We can get the Equality Act over the finish line in Congress. We can be the people that win ballot initiatives all across this country, but we’ve gotta come together and do the work.
Errin:
Yeah. And what you’re getting at is really the idea of “queer” as a verb and LGBTQ+ rights as a voting issue. So I wanna talk a little bit more about that and get into queer activism. What queer activism looks like in practice. What does it look like to do activism that centers queerness?
Kelley:
Oh, I love it. And I identify by queer, and it’s definitely on purpose. It’s not only a testament about how I live and who I love, it’s a political positioning, right? Like for me, when I think of queer, I think of it as embracing our difference as our superpower. And there were some, you know, times in our movement, history, times in many movement histories, where folks thought that the goal was to be just like everybody else, right? “If only I could get X right, I could be just like everybody else.” I could have, you know, two and a half kids and a Kia — an electric Kia — or whatever you wanted, right? But in reality, I think that what we’re fighting for right now is to assert that equality does not have to require uniformity — that what we are trying to embrace is that our difference should still allow us to get to the same level of laws and protections as anybody else without conforming to the systems as they are. So I’m excited about thinking about queers not only as an identity, but as a political posture because I think it forces us to reimagine some institutions that were never built to serve us in the first place.
Errin:
Yeah. Being queer is absolutely political, right? The identity is political as so many of the identities that we hold are. You mentioned the thousands of young queer people that are going to be eligible to vote by this fall. What has been the most effective strategy for reaching those young queer voters now?
Kelley:
Two things, I think. One: we gotta listen to people. You know, I hate it when people are expressing their real concerns and we try to meet them with a fact or a memo or a one-pager that we saw online, right? Like that’s not the way to do it. I can acknowledge that two truths are true at the same time — that we are in a state of emergency where queer people across this country, transphobes, are feeling a high level of fear. And also say that there’s work for us to do to fight together to make the world better. And I think we’ve gotta do that. And I also think that we have to be able to present a hopeful path for folks, which is why I’m so excited about the We Show Up campaign that Human Rights Campaign launched just a couple weeks ago. ‘Cause what it says is, “Look, when we show up, we win. Full stop. Period.” And there are so many of us that if we can get that kind of energy that reminds us of our own power, we can win. And when I talk to young people, they wanna be on the winning team. They wanna be part of a movement that feels optimistic and feels hopeful and still recognizes how far we have to go to actually get free. That’s what we have to create for folks. That sense of energy, that sense of urgency and excitement about what could be possible if we work together.
Errin:
Yeah. Listening and a message of empowerment really resonating with young folks in this moment. That certainly sounds like a strategy that, you know, might be something that can resonate with them. I wanna ask you more specifically about, you know, or queer or queering as a verb, rather than just that single part of one’s identity. I’m thinking about, you know, the way that Bell Hooks defined queer as not being about who you’re having sex with, right? That can be a dimension of it. But as being about the self that is at odds with everything around it, and that has to invent and create and find this place to speak and to thrive and to live. Obviously, like, there’s also, like you said, a political aspect to this. It is not just about, you know, your identity. It is about action.
Kelley:
Absolutely. And you know, I also, the other thing that comes up for me when I think about what it means to think about queer as a verb is Du Bois and the double consciousness that we often live in as Black Americans. And I feel like for me, especially as a Black queer woman growing up, it was like, you know, you never felt quite Black enough with the Black kids. You never felt quite queer enough with the queer kids. You never felt like the way I was performing my femininity fit in with the girls that were around the block, right?
Errin:
Mm-Hmm.
Kelley:
And I think part of my growing and understanding, especially my queerness not being isolated in a bucket over here, but it is possible for me to be wholly Black, wholly queer and wholly woman in whatever way I define, right? And accept that as something that makes me powerful.
Kelley:
Not less than — but more powerful than you could ever believe. And I think right now, especially when I think of the leadership that’s happening across the movement, with a lot of Black queer folks or folks of color who are queer, trans people of color and the challenges that we’re facing, I think that we have a superpower. I think that we can actually see how the intersections of our identities give us new imagination for what needs to be true in policy and politic that just wasn’t possible before. And this is a unique moment where I think we need to lean into that. And especially when you’re looking at generations to come, they see that even more clearly than we do, right? Like, I’m excited about the ways that our youngest generation, Gen Z, is really pushing us, right? Pushing us. We’ve done a lot of conversations to understand what they care about, especially when it comes to democracy. And the number one thing that they come back to us and say is, “Look, I don’t know about restoring democracy. It feels like it’s working the way it was supposed to work,” right? With, you know, some people hoarding elements of power. But what they can be on board with is reimagining democracy, right, in a way where everyone truly has a voice. That, in its essence, is queer theory. That, in its essence, is the politic of queering institutions — making them differently by designing them in ways that actually put different identities at the center.
Errin:
Yeah. Even the acronym LGBTQ+, like, that has a way of flattening things, right? Like, we know, just like we say Black people are not a monolith, we say women are not a monolith, queer folks are not a monolith. And we should be talking about the many different ways that people are showing up as queer. The many different ways that people can be queer, to your point as as queering as a verb.
Kelley:
Absolutely. And I also think if we don’t, our opposition will, right? Like the reason that they’re saying horrific and horrendous things about trans people is ’cause we haven’t left enough room for everyone to be wholly themselves in the movement. That is changing and it’s changing right now. And I’m also very clear, like, especially when I talk to our leaders across the country, that every attack that they’re launching on trans lives today, we have seen it against us before. The same horrific things they’re saying about trans people today, they said about people living with HIV and AIDS, right, 40 years ago. And we came together, we created a different kind of visibility. We enlisted companies like Levi Strauss and Nike to highlight people that were living with HIV and AIDS. We changed the dynamic and now we’re within arm’s reach of ending the epidemic in our lifetime, in our generation. It’s happened to all elements of our community. And right now we need to come together in the same way.
Errin:
Yeah, it sounds like part of queering as a verb is also about bringing people in.
Kelley:
Mm-Hmm.
Errin:
Instead of othering people…
Kelley:
Right
Errin:
…within the group. So to touch on the 2024 of it all, okay, why should people care about queer rights from a voting perspective? You’re talking, I’m hearing you say a lot about the connection between queer rights and democracy. Why is this an issue that should be prioritized in this presidential election?
Kelley:
First off, I gotta say the community is powerful. I mentioned it before, but I gotta say it again: 75 million voters across this country prioritize LGBTQ+ issues when deciding who to vote for. Seventy-five million. That’s more than the number of registered voters in every battleground state combined. And when you look at a state like Arizona, right, where the outcomes of the 2020 election were determined by about 10,000 voters for the presidential [election] — Joe Biden won Arizona by about 10,000 voters. You’ve got 1.4 million equality voters in that state alone. So from a power perspective, there’s a unique opportunity in front of us to talk to this group of voters about issues that matter to them and to their families. And that 75 million, they’re not all LGBTQ, they’re allies too, but they’re people that care about this issue. So I have to say that first. And then there’s the dark side of it all.
Kelley:
Okay? Like when we look, especially at the presidential and these two candidates, Donald Trump versus Joe Biden, you are not just talking about choosing between two candidates. We’re talking about the difference of choosing between two countries, two different visions of what our future should be in front of us. I mean, Joe Biden has led the most pro-equality administration that we’ve ever seen — signing the Respect for Marriage Act into law, putting in place historic protections for LGBTQ+ people from schools to workplaces, appointing the most out administration that we have ever seen. I’m talking about Karine Jean-Pierre at the podium, secretary Pete Buttigieg leading transportation, LGBTQ+ judges appointed and confirmed. Like, this is huge. And you’re talking about a record like that against Donald Trump who has led the most anti-LGBTQ+ administration that we’ve ever seen. I mean, it’s been horrific. And you don’t have to wonder what he would do as president — one: because he has already done it in his first term.
Kelley:
And two: Because Project 2025 tells us what his intentions are moving forward. He was the same president that banned trans people from serving in the military. He was the president that encouraged businesses to hang up “we don’t serve your kind” signs to say that they wouldn’t serve LGBTQ+ people. He was the same president that called neo-Nazis marching in Charlottesville, “Good people.” That is not somebody that we can trust with the future of our country and the outcomes for my community, for LGBTQ+ people. I can’t even begin to articulate what the harm would be.
Errin:
Yeah. So I actually just wrote, in a recent edition of my newsletter — also The Amendment — about how the 2024 election is also about two very different, two very contrasting examples of masculinity, right? If we assume that we are gonna get the nominees that we are gonna get for both parties and how, you know, that masculinity in terms of who is going to be president matters, not just in terms of who they are, but also in terms of how that masculinity impacts other people — women, people of color, LGBTQ+ folks, other marginalized communities. I mean, I just wonder if you agree with that, and if that is also kind of how you see the stakes of this election.
Kelley:
I 100% agree. I think the kind of faux dictator strongman that Donald Trump is presenting himself as being is scary. And honestly, I think it’s covering up a lot of insecurities that he actually has about his own masculinity, if we wanna tell the truth. But when I think about them as leaders, it is about the policy, but it’s also about what it means for us to lift who they are up as leaders for our kids and the young people that are watching them. And that part is scary to me to think that we could lift up again Donald Trump and all the horrific things that he has done to women, to people of color. I think about the Central Park Five, right? To have someone that’s been convicted 34 times of felony, to have someone that continues to undermine the institutions of our democracy — from the courts to our ability to vote — to have that be a model of leadership for our kids, I can’t imagine the damage that’ll do to future generations. So it feels like there are so many ways that this election represents a crisis for us, an urgent moment for us. It’s about who’s gonna be president, it’s about the laws and policies. It’s also about what we are modeling to generations to come about what it means to be a leader.
Errin:
Yeah. Um, well you mentioned the “We Show Up” campaign. I wanna talk to you about that and just what the HRC is doing to energize these 75 million LGBTQ+ equality-focused voters that you mentioned. Are there specific examples that you can give me?
Kelley:
Look, we are gonna be out here doing the work. I mean, we are knocking on doors. We are making phone calls. We’ll have ads up all across the country highlighting the power of our voters. And we are gonna be out at, you know, hundreds of Prides around the country. Um, and I think that this is a moment for us, again, to remind people of their own power so that they know that when they show up that’s the way that we’re going to actually move equality forward. And one thing I’m very clear about is what our opposition is trying to do is they’re not trying to win our votes. They’re not trying to get us to come over to their side. They’re trying to give us enough fear and enough doubt to get us to stay home because they know that if all of us show up to the polls, we will be the deciding factor. So that’s what we’re doing the work to make very clear to folks and for people that are feeling afraid right now: I say the antidote to fear is getting involved and taking some action. So I encourage folks to visit us as at HRC.org/weshowup. There are so many ways that you can get engaged and make a difference this year.
Errin:
It’s time for allies to get out of the closet and get off the couch.
Kelley:
Come on out!
Errin:
And get out here. So in the spirit of “queer” being a verb, what actions can our listeners take to make progress on queer rights right now?
Kelley:
The first one is: Believe that change is possible. I feel like so much of what our opposition is trying to do is to make us so afraid that it creates a paralysis in our ability to take action. So believe that change is possible and remind yourself of your own power. Two: Get out and do something about it. When I was coming up, they said, “If you care about something, you gotta give of your time, your talent, your testimony and your treasure.” So think about how you can do that. Give of your time and your talent by volunteering with organizations like mine or with candidates in your area. Tell your story. The number one way that we move people to take action is by telling our personal stories. Whatever your story is, it is valid and it needs to be heard. And then finally, give up your treasure. Find ways to donate to causes and organizations that speak to things that you care about. It truly does make a difference. Every dollar matters, especially in an election cycle like this one.
Errin:
Well, I think that’s a great note to end on. Kelley, I will be seeing you on the campaign trail and maybe I’ll see you, uh, out there, uh, for Pride Month.
Kelley:
Not maybe! I expect to see you, Errin!
Errin:
I expect you probably will. Thanks so much for joining us today. Take care.
Kelley:
Thank you.
Errin:
That’s it for this week’s episode of The Amendment. The Amendment is a co-production of the 19th News and Wonder Media Network. It is executive produced by Jenny Kaplan, Terri Rupar and Faith Smith. Wonder Media Network’s Head of Development is Emily Rudder. Julia B. Chan is the 19th editor-in-chief. The Amendment is edited by Jenny Kaplan, Grace Lynch and Emily Rudder. And it is produced by Adesuwa Agbonile, Grace Lynch, Brittany Martinez and Taylor Williamson with production assistance from Luci Jones and post-production support from Julie Bogen, Victoria Clark, Lance Dixon and Wynton Wong. Artwork by Aria Goodman. And our theme music was composed by Jlin.
