The X Change Rate: 2020 Pride Month Panel

In "The X Change Rate," award-winning drag queen, entertainer and TV personality Monét X Change brings her signature wit, heart and style to BUILD Series. In honor of Pride Month, Monét hosted a special panel discussion with Diego Sanchez of PFLAG National, Maria Sjödin of Outright International, Alphonso David of Human Rights Campaign and Stuart Milk and Miriam Richter of the Harvey Milk Foundation.

Video Transcript

[INTRO MUSIC]

MONET X CHANGE: Hello, everyone. It's me, Monet X Change. We are here for a very special Pride Month panel with these lovely and amazing foundations-- Harvey Milk, PFLAG, Human Rights Campaign, and also Outright. I'm very excited. It's going to be very fun.

I am Monet X Change. My pronouns are she, her, hers, he, him, his. I live in the binary and I'm proud of it. So I want us all to go around and just say your name, your foundation, and what your pronouns are.

DIEGO SANCHEZ: My name's Diego Miguel Sanchez. My pronouns are he, him, his.

MIRIAM RICHTER: Hi. I'm Miriam Richter with the Harvey Foundation. My pronouns are she, her, hers.

STUART MILK: We actually threw you a loop, Monet, by both being on here. But let me just say, I'm Stuart Milk. I'm with the Harvey Milk Foundation. My pronouns are he, he, him. And actually, I'm pretty open to anything. I've been called everything in the book, and I'm cool with it.

ALPHONSO DAVID: Hi. I'm Alphonso David. I am the president of the Human Rights Campaign. My pronouns are he, him, his.

MONET X CHANGE: Big, gorgeous Maria?

MARIA SJODIN: Well, thank you. My name is Maria Sjodin, and I'm Deputy Director of Outright Action International. And my pronouns are they and she.

MONET X CHANGE: Awesome. So I think I first want to go around find out, how did you all become involved with your organization and the cause? And what moved you to be an advocate for the LGBTQ community rights and equality? Maria, you want to kick us off?

MARIA SJODIN: Sure. I mean, I first joined an organization during Pride over 20 years ago because I wanted to make new friends. But I quickly realized that there is a lot to do to ensure that all of us have the right to be who we are. And that's why I'm passionate about working for a global organization to help accelerate the pace of change. Because we all know there is a lot of resistance to change. And if we work in solidarity, we can make that change happen faster all over the globe.

MONET X CHANGE: Alphonso?

ALPHONSO DAVID: Hi. I've been involved in the civil rights movement for quite some time, about 20 years. I've been litigating cases at Lambda Legal. I was in government for a while. I entered into the advocacy space specifically to help marginalized communities and advance equality and justice for all.

STUART MILK: It's kind of interesting, you know, I actually came out the night my uncle was assassinated. And I was in college in Washington, DC. And Frank Kameny, who was an activist, one of our founders and founding fathers of activism in DC, asked me to speak. And for those of us who knew Frank, you probably wouldn't be surprised that he told me, oh my god, you're nothing like your uncle. Don't do that again. And that devastated me for about five years--

[LAUGHTER]

--because I thought, oh, I'm always going to be compared to Harvey. But I did stay with it. And I actually went to the women's rights movement. And then, obviously, got involved in LGBT rights.

MONET X CHANGE: Diego.

DIEGO SANCHEZ: Thank you so much. Well, I got involved because when I was five years old, I told my parents I was born wrong. And my parents left the room.

MONET X CHANGE: Oh, wow.

DIEGO SANCHEZ: My mom came back, had something in her hand. And I thought I was going to get a spanking. But she just unrolled a magazine. It had the picture of Christine Jorgensen on the cover. And said, I don't know if it's OK for people like you, who was born a girl, [INAUDIBLE]. But this woman was born a boy [INAUDIBLE]. So if it's OK for her, by the time you grow up, [INAUDIBLE] it'll be OK for you. That was in '61, which was 12 years before PFLAG was born. So I've been active in the movement for 40 years. And [INAUDIBLE].

MONET X CHANGE: Thank you, Diego. And this is a question to everyone here. I just want to take a minute to talk about-- with all the recent violence and protest and police brutality, to just check in on the black and minority LGBTQ+ community. And how do we see that they are doing? Maria?

MARIA SJODIN: Sure. I mean, since I work for Outright, which is a global organization, we see this from so many different angles. We see, of course, right now, how the protests across the US are actually amplified around the world. But, I mean, make no mistake-- like, racists and the heritage of colonialism affect people around the globe and make marginalized people even more marginalized. So it's definite-- it's a global-- it's a global pandemic, racists. And we need to fight it as such.

MONET X CHANGE: Alphonso, as you being someone who is-- who is a black man, how do you see the issue at large?

ALPHONSO DAVID: The issue of racial justice generally?

MONET X CHANGE: Yes. And what the intersectionality with that and the LGBTQ+ community.

ALPHONSO DAVID: Well, I think for all too long we have seen them as separate movements, and I think to our detriment, because what it does is further marginalizes people of color. If you're a person of color and you also happen to be LGBTQ, often you are forced to choose which movement you're going to be a part of and which issues you're going to care about.

MONET X CHANGE: Yeah.

ALPHONSO DAVID: And that actually further marginalizes people of color. So I think what we are currently experiencing in this country is an inflection point where people are actually seeing the issues that affect people of color in a very different way, and specifically black people, who have faced racial oppression--

MONET X CHANGE: Yeah.

ALPHONSO DAVID: --faced police brutality. And I'm heartened to see that many members of the LGBTQ community are now recognizing that that struggle is directly intertwined with the LGBTQ [INAUDIBLE].

MONET X CHANGE: We have seen legislative advances to promote equality, non-discrimination, and protections of LGBTQ+ individuals in the US. However, our community still faces a lack of official protection in many states federally. How can the LGBTQ community and advocates work together to help secure laws that protect the rights of LGBTQ individuals?

ALPHONSO DAVID: So I'll say, in answering that question, first, we received a landmark ruling yesterday from the US Supreme Court. And that ruling essentially affirms that LGBTQ people are protected from discrimination in the workplace. Essentially, under title VII, which is a federal statute, it prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex. And the court interpreted sex to include sexual orientation and gender identity. That decision affirms what we've known for the past 20 years-- that LGBTQ people are indeed protected under federal law.

But your point is well taken. In 29 states in this country, there are no state law protections. So we need people to engage to make sure that we have effective state law protections, as well. In terms of our constitutional construct, the federal government provides the floor. States can provide greater protection.

So in many states, they provide more comprehensive protections than the federal government does. But unfortunately, in 29 states, there are no protections. And so what we are doing is pushing state legislatures to pass comprehensive legislation for LGBTQ people. We were successful most recently in Virginia, where we worked to enact pro-equality legislature in Virginia. For the very first time, we have a pro-equality senate we have a pro-equality house of delegates in the Commonwealth of Virginia.

MONET X CHANGE: Amazing.

ALPHONSO DAVID: The first time in the history of Virginia. And as a result of that, they passed comprehensive nondiscrimination protections for LGBTQ people, the first such legislation in the entire South. So I would say if folks want to get involved, they should volunteer. They can volunteer at the Human Rights Campaign. We do political work, we do advocacy work. They can also contact their-- the members of the state legislature where they live to lobby them and engage them as to why protections on the state level is so important. And I would say they can also advocate for additional protections with their congressional representatives, because they represent their interests, as well.

MONET X CHANGE: Thank you. And this is to you, Maria. I mean, and as Alphonso's saying, we have seen advancements locally. But obviously, internationally there is a disparity when you think about places like Chechnya and in Russia. So how can we advocate from in the US to those places internationally?

MARIA SJODIN: I mean, I think there are a few different things. Like, Outright-- We do a lot of work at the United Nations, because when people have no recourse or they have no access to governments in their own countries, they need someplace else to go. And what happens is actually, countries influence each other.

So, I mean, the decision from the US Supreme Court yesterday-- it's going to have an influence across the world. And we saw in the decision in India a couple of years ago that decriminalized same-sex relationships for, you know, over a billion people that they quoted UN documents in several places, including, actually, a paragraph that Outright had originally written. So we can make change that have ripple effects. So that's one thing.

And the other thing is, of course, there is something that corporations and companies can do, as well. I mean, many of them are global. And they should also speak up and be visible and ensure that they promote inclusion across the countries where they work.

MONET X CHANGE: This is to you, Diego. You know, we all know COVID-19 is a global pandemic. It has devastated the world. But we see that there are a lot-- the black community, most-- also the LGBTQ community, it has affected us disproportionately. What is your organization's approach to addressing the needs and issues of LGBTQ people affected?

DIEGO SANCHEZ: That is such an important question to raise, and I thank you so much. At PFLAG, we operate in three areas. One has to do with support, so the support groups we do across the country, in every little zip code. Also education-- helping schools get right, helping libraries [INAUDIBLE] welcoming LGBTQ people, including we of color, including myself, who's an immigrant, as well, and adopted.

The third area [INAUDIBLE] so what we've done for COVID-19 is that we have [INAUDIBLE] which has given remote access through Zoom to all of our chapters for them to do their meetings remotely. What we've found is that they have picked up people in rural areas who may have had no other support, and are finding that they can [INAUDIBLE].

In addition to that, we've done very strong [INAUDIBLE] to make sure that we are letting legislators and the administration know where funding needs to occur to fight for making COVID-19 [INAUDIBLE] and also making people safer. We know that the LGBTQ people plus people of color, Native Americans, API people, Latinos, African Americans are more disproportionately affected by COVID-19 than others. So it is our issue across the board.

MONET X CHANGE: And to Stuart and Miriam, you know, I mean, your organization, obviously, has worked a lot to advance a message of inclusion and equality and civil rights. What are some new challenges as we are-- well, not approaching. We are in a new decade-- that-- that we can start to focus on in the LGBTQ community?

STUART MILK: Well, you know, I think that the-- I actually say that they're the same challenges that we've had. So I think we we can look at some of the challenges in a new way. But two key points, especially for our work at the Harvey Milk Foundation, is visibility and self-interest.

So, I mean, for instance, the major ruling that we had under the [INAUDIBLE] case-- Justice Bader Ginsburg was asked if this would have happened earlier. And she said no, because she knows some justices who only recently got to personally know LGBT people. And we know around the world that that's the case.

Maria mentioned India. When India recriminalized-- they actually recriminalized, eight years ago, their LGBT community. When they did that, I got to speak with some of the Supreme Court justices in the-- who had recriminalized. And they told me, we wouldn't do it if we had LGB. They didn't recriminalize the T because third-gender people are known in India. She said, we have them.

So it's the message that my uncle gave his life for. It's that message of visibility. When you know, personally, LGBT people, then all the lies, mythis, and innuendos about LGBTQ people are destroyed. And that's the-- and that's done by everyday heroes who have those difficult kitchen table conversations with their parents, like-- you know, like all of us here have had at some point with someone in our life.

And then the second point is self-interest. And let me tell you, I was 25-- and this really points to the moment, I think, in the time where we are today. I got to go to Nairobi, Kenya, to the closed-in conference for the UN Decade for Women. And I was working in the women's rights movement. And I met someone who's become a friend. Her name is Lilla Watson. She opened that conference. Most people had my colored skin there, but Lilla was an Aboriginal leader-- still is-- in Australia. And she opened the conference saying, look, if you've come here because you want to help women, if you've come here because you want to help people of color, if you've come here because you want to help indigenous people, pack up your bags. Go home. We have nothing to do together.

And you could hear a pin drop. Those 3,000 people just sat there. I mean, they traveled thousands of miles. They sat there with their mouths open. And she let that silence hang there. And then she said, but if you've come here because you understand that your liberation is bound with mine, then let us work together. If your-- if you-- and we have to understand that, that our liberation is bound together. And we need to do it out of a self-interest.

So whether it's someone being brutalized because of the color of their skin or someone being persecuted because they have a faith that's a minority, we are all-- it's in our self-interest that that does not happen. And so even though we are at this important moment in time, I think that message still has to get out there. It is in all of our self-interest that nobody is treated unfairly, that no one is treated unequally, that no one is marginalized. And I think that that message needs to continue.

MONET X CHANGE: Mm-hmm. Now, something that we've all talked about here-- we've been touching on, like, the big-picture policies and, like, big things we can do to advocate-- to advocate for change. But for someone who may be watching this program now who may not be LGBTQ, can you guys talk about how-- like, what being a good ally looks like? And also, for people who may be queer-- sometimes queer people need to know how to advocate for each other, as well. Can you talk about what that is and how that looks like? Alphonso.

ALPHONSO DAVID: Well, I've said recently that I think it's important for us to really rethink how we're using our power and how we appear. I understand that we often talk about allies. And I think that's very important. But I would suggest that we start thinking more in terms of advocacy. There's a difference between serving as an ally and serving as an advocate. And I think it's important for non-LGBTQ people to serve as advocates for LGBTQ people or for non-marginalized communities to serve as advocates for marginalized communities.

In large companies all over this country, we know that racial minorities are in the minority. And in many instances, they face microaggressions. They face racial discrimination. Or they may just face oppressive policies and practices. They are often the ones who have to stand up. They are often the ones who have to rise up to say, this is wrong. And if we have others who are stepping up, who are standing up and rising up to say, I saw what happened and I think that is not consistent with our values, that is not consistent with our policies, then we have true advocates who are advancing justice, who are advancing equality for all. So I've been more about ow we restructure and sort of deconstruct this concept of allies and think more in the concept of advocates.

MONET X CHANGE: Maria or Diego or Stuart-- anyone?

MARIA SJODIN: Yeah, sure. I mean--

DIEGO SANCHEZ: Oh, go ahead. Go ahead, Maria. I'll go after you.

MONET X CHANGE: Yeah.

MARIA SJODIN: Thanks, Diego.

[LAUGHTER]

I mean, I think one of the things--

MONET X CHANGE: Sorry. Thank y'all-- by the way, thank y'all for sticking through this. This is so difficult. This is so crazy. But thank you all for being patient.

DIEGO SANCHEZ: It's all good.

MONET X CHANGE: OK. Go ahead, Maria. Sorry.

MARIA SJODIN: Absolutely. I mean, I think one is-- one thing is to think globally. We touched a little bit about the COVID pandemic and its effect, as Diego has noted, in the US. But we see so many harsh effects to our LGBTIQ communities around the globe. So Outright, in response, launched an emergency fund to respond to it.

And we have seen, like, so many people stepping up to support it with gifts and by sharing that information. And I think that these are things that people are not necessarily thinking of. It's like, everyone is, of course-- and I think it's driven, also, by the pandemic. Everyone is very locally focused. But I really want to encourage people to think globally, to learn more, to share that information so that more people are aware of what the situation is like globally. That's really what I would want to see from allies and our own communities both.

DIEGO SANCHEZ: So at PFLAG, which we're the nation's largest organization of LGBTQ allies, parents, families, and people who are queer themselves-- we say that ally is a verb, not a noun. Don't be an ally, but ally with them. And we find that, like Maria was saying, even globally-- six years ago we had [INAUDIBLE] Uganda [INAUDIBLE]. And they were telling us how difficult [INAUDIBLE] that they wanted us to help them [INAUDIBLE] an LGBT organization. And we said, we are driven by [INAUDIBLE] not [INAUDIBLE] to allies. Use the verb. If you can post parent or family members who are not queer who stand with you, come back.

Well, they have. And they have tremendous [INAUDIBLE] and in other parts of the world. But we think that people must make it a verb, not be a just [INAUDIBLE]. And it's true across all cultures and all ethnicities, because the truth is, when we're looking for things that affect LGBTQ people-- justice, we do it. Myself, you know, or anyone [INAUDIBLE] or native [INAUDIBLE] there's usually a room with [INAUDIBLE] or more people who don't look like us than who do. So we need to make sure that we're mobilizing [INAUDIBLE] to join with us and treat it like a verb.

STUART MILK: And to add into that and maybe tie it together, you know, I think it's very important that we see ourselves as being global citizens, as Maria mentioned, and that we also do not think so American-centric. The reason I say that-- we just came off of the fourth anniversary of the massacre at Pulse, which is very close to me, because I'm close to the Orlando community. And the-- and our global community, both LGBT and ally, had an immediate response, which was this eloquent response of wonderful-- from all corners of the globe standing with the community.

But one of the things that I said that got lost in it, and that was a little-- that was really upsetting to me-- I had just come from Cuernavaca where we did our first national meeting of LGBT activists in Mexico. And a month before Pulse, 19 young people were killed at [INAUDIBLE] Bar outside of-- outside of Cuernavaca. Nobody was reporting on that. Nobody felt the outrage. Why? I mean, these were 19--

MONET X CHANGE: Wow.

STUART MILK: --incredible souls who were killed a month before Pulse.

MONET X CHANGE: Yeah.

STUART MILK: And so as much as I am in favor of us memorizing and memorializing those that we lost at Pulse, we lose people all over the world. We have incidents like that that happen all over the world. And we must stand together as a community. And this is not just for LGBT people who are attacked. Any minority that has that type of an assault, we should be having a global community that speaks with one voice.

MONET X CHANGE: Love that. Thank you, Stuart. One thing I do want to-- I know we're getting close to time. Look, now that we are in June, and this is Pride Month, you have lots of people who-- because of COVID-19, lots of people who don't know what to do, how to celebrate. Like, what-- how they can-- how they can lend their voice in-- when they-- when people are still social distancing and not being able to go to Pride parades. What is-- how can you advise young folk or people who don't know what to do in this month to still be prideful and to still share the sentiments of Pride Month? Maria? Alphonso?

ALPHONSO DAVID: Maria, why don't you go, and I'll go after you.

MARIA SJODIN: Sure. I mean, don't we all just go to social media? Isn't that what we all do? Like, you said young people.

[LAUGHTER]

MARIA SJODIN: So, I mean, I think that me, at my age, you know, I'm on Facebook. But, I mean, other people are on Instagram or Snapchat. I think that-- I mean, finding community, seriously, is what we need to do in times like these. And that's where I think that I'll be turning, and I think a lot of other people should be turning.

MONET X CHANGE: Yeah. Yeah.

ALPHONSO DAVID: I would say for Pride, for young people, it's important for us to learn from our history. Many-- I don't want to just say it's limited to young people, but I think many of us within the LGBTQ community may not be aware that we have a movement because of black and Latinx transgender women who fought against police brutality in California and New York, from Compton's Cafe to Black Cat to Stonewall.

We have a modern LGBTQ civil rights movement because of those women, because of transgender and gender-nonconforming people who fought against police brutality. So in this time, this difficult time where we are unable to convene or we're unable to march and participate in Pride the way we normally do, I would suggest taking a look back and thinking about our history and having it inform how we think about our advocacy moving forward. And hopefully, that sparks some young people or others to really engage in the movement more actively.

DIEGO SANCHEZ: I really think that for young people, the most important thing during Pride is to be safe. To be safe and to make sure that if they're in their families, it's safe. And if it's not safe, find a way, through social media, to get safe.

The other thing is, mothers of Stonewall-- I'm probably older than I look, but they were my friends. And-- literally. And I think about what, today, we can do. One thing that we all do [INAUDIBLE] ourselves [INAUDIBLE] we believe in the power [INAUDIBLE] we know everyone's going to need to vote. We hope they vote every time that they've got a ballot, we hear them, they encourage everyone around them to do that. But also to make sure that you're telling your story, because there's so many legislators. All they need to know is how your family's affected. And that can connect with them, because they have a family, too. So Pride is about strength. It's also about resistance. But it's also about community and connection.

MONET X CHANGE: So as we are on the last-- as we're closing out, the last thing I wanted to say is, if you had one call of action to people watching this broadcast or people who may watch it later or who may watch it five years from now, what is your one call to action that you would say? Let's start with Stuart and Miriam.

STUART MILK: Well, I mean, the-- it's what I said before. It's why my uncle gave his life, is to be visible so as to be an everyday hero. You don't have to be-- I mean, my uncle said it best. You don't have to be marching in the streets. You don't have to be-- you need to be authentic. You need to take off your mask. And you need to stand up.

You know, we-- I tell people all the time that they can be sheroes and heroes by simply standing up to bullies on a playground, in a corporate suite. Any time you hear a sexist, a xenophobic, a racist remark, you're standing up for our community, because they are members-- the step-- we are all interconnected. The LGBT community is every race, every faith, every political background. You can be an everyday hero, an everyday shero. And so stand up, whatever you hear.

You know, we've got people like Alphonso and we've got people like Diego who can take on the bullies that may be sitting in Pennsylvania Avenue. We're not asking everyone to do that. But we've got bullies that-- you know, that we can see in our everyday life. And if we all speak up, then those bullies lose their power. They lose their voice. They can't separate and divide. We stand together.

MIRIAM RICHTER: I would also like to add, talking about history is-- hear those words from Harvey himself. If you're looking for something to do at home, rent "The Times of Harvey Milk." Hear his speeches. See how-- what he accomplished. It's something, also, a lot of the younger generation of our community does not know who Harvey is. And we need to remember history, because otherwise we are doomed to repeat it. And that's something very easy that people can do. And they can learn. And Harvey-- Stuart has totally inherited the same genes that Harvey had. But-- but to hear Harvey give his speeches is very, very empowering.

MONET X CHANGE: Yeah.

DIEGO SANCHEZ: And would say not just to look in our community. I mean, Cesar Chavez is one of my heroes who worked intersectionally. And I think the one thing I would say-- not be out, but be out if it's safe. That would be my one thing, because some of us don't mind risking our lives every day, but some kids are in danger in their own homes. And we owe it to them not to ask them to risk it all, but to save themselves so that the rest of us can make tomorrow the world that deserves [INAUDIBLE].

ALPHONSO DAVID: I would say use your voice. There are so many ways that you can use your voice. One is voting. Make sure that your voice is heard at the ballot box. Make sure that you're holding your elected officials accountable. Make sure you're using your voice to rise up when you see oppression and discrimination. Make sure that you use your voice when you need to educate others who are not informed about LGBTQ oppression, are not informed about LGBTQ discrimination. Use your voice.

I think we all have to remember our capacity and what our capacity is. And our voice is just a component of our capacity. So I would ask people to use your voices. Make sure that your voices are used for good. And make sure your voices are used to further advance the movement for equality.

MARIA SJODIN: I agree with everything that the other distinguished panelists have said. But I also want to say that, I mean, I think have an intersectional approach. Like, you can be-- you can promote the rights of LGBTIQ people. You can be feminists. You can be anti-racists. You can be all of these things. You don't have to choose and just be one. Stand up for equality for everyone and think globally. That would be my call to action.

MONET X CHANGE: I love that. Yeah, people think they can only do one thing. Honey, you can have McDonald's. You can have Chipotle. You can have all the thing. Do all of it.

Thank you guys all so much for this chat and for this talk. I mean, I know someone will watch this. You guys have given us information and tools to hopefully go out into the world and be activists-- be allies for ourselves and to other people intersectionality-- LGBTQ, black, brown, purple, pink, whatever. We can all be that. So thank you all so much.

DIEGO SANCHEZ: Thank you.

MONET X CHANGE: Happy Pride to all of you.

DIEGO SANCHEZ: Happy Pride, everybody.

MONET X CHANGE: And Alphonso and Diego, keep up the good work down there in DC. Let them have it. Stuart, muah. Maria, thank you guys so much. Miriam, thank you guys so much. Have a good day.

DIEGO SANCHEZ: And you.

[INTERPOSING VOICES]

MONET X CHANGE: Bye.

DIEGO SANCHEZ: Thank you.