 and happy Earth Day. I am your host Winston Welton. I am delighted that you are joining us again today for this special edition of Out and About, where every other week we explore a variety of topics, events, organizations, and the people who fuel them in our city, state, country, and world. As a disclaimer, any views or opinions expressed by me are strictly my own and not connected with any organization. That said, joining me today in this studio, it's my great pleasure to have Scott Foster, who is a communications strategy consultant, public opinion management expert, and advocate for the LGBTQ community for decades. So thank you for coming to the show today and being on here and spending your time. Mahalo Winston, it's an honor to be here. Well, you know, this show was, when we originally conceived of it, when we were talking with Jay Fidel, our amazing executive producer, we wanted to talk, one of the focuses we wanted to talk about was LGBTQ areas. And those have traditionally been the most popular shows that I have here. But what I really have intended to do from the very beginning was to have our sage folks who've been on the scene for a long time fighting for stuff that maybe young people don't even know really existed. And the rights that we take for granted today just didn't magically appear. They were hard won battles that go back decades and maybe even longer than that. Longer than that, yes. And so you are one of those luminaries who I think deserves a tremendous deal of credit and respect. And when I was doing some research for the show and at scottfoster.org, so if you guys want to go there and learn about a wonderful guy doing a lot of great stuff over the decades and continuing to do amazing things, go to scottfoster.org. I found that you, I don't know, would you say that you became an accidental advocate? Or how did you get started in the whole movement of let's concentrate specifically on LGBT rights? Or maybe in those days we just maybe said A rights. Well, quickly, I'm from Oklahoma originally. I grew up there. I was there when I was 42 years old. And that Oklahoma was the buckle of the Bible belt, as they call it. And we had, we were all very closeted, had to be. But there was a large, very active LGBT community there. And I'll use the term gay with the capital G, LGBTQ, whatever, whatever banner you stand under, gay is shorthand. OK. When Stonewall happened, that was the first really, it opened all of our eyes that we were not alone. Because Stonewall was the first time in history that gay people had actually stood up and fought, or they're fought back against the police. And fought back against the police for what? For those folks that don't know what Stonewall is, which there's a number of them out there. What was that? The Stonewall Bar was and remains, in fact, President Obama was talking about making it a national monument. I don't know if that happened or not. I don't think so. But it's still there in New York City, in the village. And it's the day, coincidentally, of Judy Garland's funeral. The very day. The very day of Judy Garland's funeral. The cops raided the bar. Now, in those days, you could be arrested for just being in a gay bar. Stop there, or start there. And it was a large group of TVTS people and drag queens. And just everyday gay people stopping on their way home from Garland's funeral for a drink. And all hell broke loose. The fight went on. And I mean, it was a street fight. Police cars set on fire, pulled up in the bar for two days. And by the time that was over, the police had learned, maybe we better start taking a different tack with gay people. And this is what year? It was, overall, 660. I've forgotten, 6868, I believe. 6869. So that message went off, went around the country. The next thing that happened was there was a lady by the name of Anita Bryant. She was Miss Oklahoma. She was the darling of the nation. She had a great singing voice. It was very, very popular. She became the spokesperson for the orange juice industry in Florida. And she was also a radical Christian fundamentalist right. And she started a proposition in Florida to fire all of the gay school teacher. The cause of Stonewall, I believe, for the first time, gay people around the country rallied and sent money to Florida to help. This is before the internet? No, yes. Before the fax machine. Yes. Right. Before cell phones, they took out a paper check and maybe saw an ad in the Advocate magazine or some local publication and said, this is where you can send money. So that started it. Well, somewhere in there, Harvey Milk had been elected a few years later. Harvey Milk had been elected in San Francisco. And the gay community was really on a political role. We defeated Anita Bryant. And this was a big deal. I mean, this was like taking down a saint. Yes. This was a big deal. And then the same thing, he moved her focus on California. They tried to do the same thing there. And again, the community around the country rallied and we stopped it. Now, I was in Oklahoma City. There was a great gay community there, but you still couldn't be out. I started on the road traveling. My original career was in the entertainment industry. I managed, well, the music industry actually, pop music. I managed the sales and marketing of 105 different labels, including all of Motown and London Records and Atlantic. And I had all the big pop hits of the late 60s and 70s. So I was sort of out of Oklahoma until my parents' health started failing and I had to come back. And then AIDS hit. And our community was organized well enough by then to bring a very prominent doctor whose name escapes me from California. The show is Slides of Carposi-Sarcoma. Shortly after that, now we're talking about 85. I moved to LA. I was there for two years in the entertainment industry. It was a very sad time to be in California. In Los Angeles, people were dying right and left. You'd meet someone or close a deal on something. And the next thing you know, they were in the hospital or dead. So I moved to Honolulu, basically, to get away from as much of it as I could because I'd been very involved with the movement on the mainland to do something about AIDS. The government was ignoring us. And I got to Honolulu and there wasn't even a newspaper here. So this is about 88 or something like that? No, this was 85. 85, OK. So I volunteered with what was then the Lesbian Day Community Center. And that's when I began my writing in earnest. I'd always been a pretty good writer. But all of a sudden, I was writing about AIDS. We were doing fundraisers. We were going to the Capitol. We were lobbying for money. And Hawaii suddenly became very well-organized politically. Unfortunately, we lost many of those people during the pandemic before the cocktail. But our little newsletter with the Gay Community Center and Lesbian and Gay Community Center went from, I think, 400 a month in a little paper newsletter to an 18,000 12-page tabloid in 18 months. So your communications expertise was definitely utilized there well. My writing was appreciated. And all of a sudden, people volunteered and got involved. And we had a real newspaper story. Do you think that it was actually AIDS that really, so we have the BRiggs Initiative in California and then with Anita in Florida Orange, she used to kick her off being spokesperson. Harvey Milk was murdered. Harvey Milk was killed. And so you have some awareness at Stonewall. And so this is the 70s in an era of freedom overall and testing boundaries all across the place, whether it was women or ethnic minorities or whatever it was. You had this sense of maybe freedom and chaos at the same time. And then AIDS hits hard. And do you attribute really the galvanization of our modern LGBT or gay identity that the shorthand gave to the pandemic at that time? More than that, actually. To me, in fact, we were talking earlier about that film. When We Rise. When We Rise. Yeah. I saw it. And this is what came out in that film was it was the rise of the women's movement, the continuation of the black movement, peace movement, Martin Luther King, et cetera, et cetera, and then the gay movement coming together that created the modern democratic party. We all joined forces under the party. Now, in Hawaii, what was a wonderful thing happened because up until some point, everyone thought that AIDS was just a gay male disease. And then women started getting it. And that's when, to their great credit, the lesbian in Hawaii for the first time began communicating closely and working with the men's community. Because as you probably know, we tend to be in two separate groups, which is too bad. It's not like it once was. They certainly, the millennials, doesn't make any difference to them. But at that point in time, that was a big thing. The women coming together and did heroic work right along with the many heroes of that day. And I think that was true nationwide, that we saw especially lesbian women stepping up and saying, these are my gay brothers. And we are both oppressed in our different ways. But these folks need help right now. And we can identify, sympathize with them more than your average Joe. Absolutely. So the modern coalescing and bringing together of what you think of the modern democratic party, the peace movement. Real. Certainly the peace movement was part of it. African-American women, Chicano movement, even at that point, Latino. It was different names. Hispanic. It was fledgling. Fledgling and the gay movement. And so you have all these things stirring together and creating a rich soup of liberation. And then we get into the 90s with big hair, a little bit more repression. President who doesn't mention AIDS until, the word AIDS until what, 87 or something crazy like that? I mean, it was many, many years until Ronald Reagan mentioned that. I don't think Reagan ever mentioned. It was Bush, the first, was the first mention. And I think Barbara had her picture taken with an AIDS baby. That's right. Yes, I do remember that photo where she had her picture taken with a baby. And that's how they sort of humanized it. This was a gay disease. This was a human disease. We created this chapter of the NAMES project, which is the AIDS Memorial Quilt for those that are too young to remember that. That was a huge, made a huge difference. Do you remember what year the AIDS Memorial Quilt was out? About 88 or 89, something like that? Somewhere in there. Somewhere in there. In fact, Hawaii was the first state in the nation to bring the entire quilt and put it on display by ourselves. They sent two people over from San Francisco to help us put it together. And I've forgotten how it was at the Blaisdale Center, the old arena, not the arena, but the exhibition hall. And it covered the entire floor. And what was awe-inspiring to me about it was standing back and looking at the crowd coming through. It was young couples with babies and strollers. It was grandmothers and grandfathers. There was people of all ages, all races, and all descriptions. And that did a lot to help us in Hawaii. As did Governor John White A.E. He was so far ahead of many of the other governors. And he created an organization called the Governor's Committee on AIDS. And I was able to work with them to pass a Hawaii's needle exchange program, which was age prevention. And that was the first needle exchange program in the country that was passed by a legislate. It's incredible to think of something just so recently. Well, now we're looking at probably 30 years ago for that. And it's still controversial in some areas like Indiana, where we saw Governor Pence preventing needle exchange, and then we have mass outbreaks of hepatitis HIV inside of those counties where they don't have access to that. You have so many things that you've done over the years with needle exchange, working for advocates' rights for consumers, for insurance industry, the drug policy, medical marijuana issues, saving Waimea Valley, Hawaii Symphony, working with the Nurses Union, Director of Communications for Governor Cayetano, so many different things. And then all of the LGBT stuff that you've done here. We've got to take a short break, and we'll come back and talk about maybe some of those. Obviously, we're going to have to continue this conversation because your list is incredible, and I want to do it and do justice as best as we can. But as you can see, we are talking with the luminary in the field of human rights. We can call them gay rights, but we'll call them human rights because we're humans. And when we liberate ourselves, we're liberating everyone. I'm with Scott Foster today, a communication strategy consultant, public opinion management expert, and advocate for the LGBT community. We'll shorthand for gay for decades. We'll be back in a minute, so stay tuned for more of the story. And you can follow along with us if you want to go to his website, scottfoster.org. See you. Aloha. I'm Gwen Harris, the host here at Think Tech Hawaii, a digital media company serving the people of Hawaii. We provide a video platform for citizen journalists to raise public awareness in Hawaii. We are a Hawaii nonprofit that depends on the generosity of the supporters to keep on going. We'd be grateful if you'd go to thinktechhawaii.com and make a donation to support us now. Thanks so much. Hi, I'm Rusty Komori, host of Beyond the Lines on Think Tech Hawaii. My show is based on my book, also titled Beyond the Lines. And it's about creating a superior culture of excellence, leadership, and finding greatness. I interview guests who are successful in business, sports, and life, which is sure to inspire you in finding your greatness. Join me every Monday as we go Beyond the Lines at 11 a.m. Aloha. Aloha, we are back and we're live here on Earth Day 2019. I am Winston Welch, and this is Out and About on the Think Tech Live streaming network series talking with Scott Foster, communication strategy consultant, public opinion management expert, and advocate for the LGBTQ community for decades. So, as we mentioned right before the break, you'd had this sort of background working with the community and in various facets without specifically going into some of them, but one of the things, I was curious about, did you ever come out to your parents and talk to them about that? Was that a discussion you were able to have? Most of my current friends don't believe it when I tell them that I was a real bisexual. I had great relationships with women. I mean, very enjoyable to the point of near marriage once, and the only reason I didn't is I met Charlie, and I'll leave it at that. But I knew that I didn't want to ruin her life, and it was a very, very unhappy breakup, but I didn't tell her. I just kind of broke it off. As far as my parents were concerned, in those days, if you didn't have to, there was no reason to, because they wouldn't have understood it, and I just didn't. I had come out to myself though, which is the most important part of it. And how were you when you were able to make that realization? 22, 23. Okay, and that's the most important one, like you said. And there's a certain generation where they just couldn't understand it. Does that mean you're gonna put a bowl on your food, and that's around in a tutorial? What does that exactly mean? And I think probably, as we all know by now, everyone is somewhere on the Kinsey scale of that. I think he does a two to seven, but I would maybe shrink it from a one to seven, but maybe it's really a two to five on there. You all can decide for yourselves where you are on the Kinsey scale. But that's why we have this acronym of the LGBTQ, or as we were saying during the break, the new one is the SOGI, Sexual Orientation Gender Identity, because the young people today, and you probably didn't see this one coming, is the younger than the millennials, are the millennials and younger the zinnios, like I'm not sure what we're calling them. They're not even identifying as a gender, or their gender fluid, or a gender. They don't wanna be put in any sort of box that all went together at all. But for our generation, I think it was important that you classify yourself as one thing. So while you may identify with the B in LGBT, you politically had to identify with the G. Well, Hawaii was and remains very unusual in that people used to say that the only gay leadership in Hawaii were allies from the mainland, because they could come out, their families were on the mainland. The locals in Hawaii, very difficult, depending on the community you're from. So that has always been a difficulty in Hawaii, and still is. Now, maybe the millennials won't have that problem quite as much. We have changed public perception, thank goodness, to the point that the day will come. But with this new right-wing administration in Washington, I read just yesterday there are three day cases headed to the Supreme Court right now that could take away job protection, for example, and begin chiseling away, not only that, but women's rights as well, and the women are gearing up for that fight. Well, you said this with the transgender being, we went from don't ask, don't tell in the military to it's okay to be gay, and then transgender folks too, oh, yes, proudly serve your country, and then you have that flipped on your head and say, so let's not be complacent here, folks. Your rights are, if you're not fighting for them, then they're gonna be lost, because it's all about public perception and how easy it is for someone to manipulate your thinking here. So as someone who has managed public opinion, you can also see that the Constitution's only as strong as we all stand up and make it as strong as it can be. I put it this way, to quote myself, if you're not playing the great game of politics, then you're being used as a pawn by someone who is. Well, we have a master communicator right now in the White House. He is able to get into the psyche of people and really, I don't know how he does it, I would say hypnosis, but he's hitting the nerve of people so that still, it doesn't matter what he does, he's got solid 40, maybe more 50% of the White House. I showed her to think that we may be in, you know, this is an easy re-election, unless the Democrats can't get their act together, and maybe that's something that you're thinking about all the time too. Well, that debate, of course, is going on as we talk, what they plan on, how they plan on moving forward. I don't know, I was with an old school friend, actually, who was over visiting last week, and she has her PhD in psychology, but she's also was a teacher. And she taught, she began teaching in Arkansas, and we were discussing this very thing. Why are they attracted to Trump? He pointed out, in addition to, there've just been a lot of people left behind. NAFTA, so many factories closed, the Rust case and the Rust belt, nothing took their place, the so-called flyover states. Rise of minority power. Yes. All of those things. And the uneducated, who don't read those papers and only walk the talk to the news. It's, they've been there all along. It's just, someone came along like Donald Trump, who could, as you said, reach them. And speak to them very clearly, and I think it's important, I think, to realize that these are people of goodwill, and are quality people that, that they're seeing something in him that we need to address, and not in the bad way, but in the good way. And I think that Pete Buttigieg, who is now number three in the polls. Amazing. Quickly rising. I think he's gonna pass Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden pretty clear here. And he says the same thing. He was reelected 80% in a red state in Indiana, right? And 80% of his electorate, after he came out, reelected him mayor, which I think just shows you how far we've come as a people that maybe the gay issue isn't important as we thought it was. I don't know what his chances are, but he says, these are good people. They voted for the Donald for different reasons, and those reasons are the reasons we have to address, not the Donald himself. And I think that that might be true. Let's not forget the Catholic Church and the Mormon Church, especially in Hawaii, especially in Hawaii. Well, you know, and again, on those things, we've seen religions changing too, even the Mormons, they've been changing their opinions over time very slowly and not to our satisfaction, but it has shifted as you've seen as well with all mainstream denominations. And I think to this point where the Methodists are gonna split off and create their own American version of it because they just said, we can't stomach this discrimination and hatred anymore because that's what we're really looking at. And you've been involved in this long enough. I just wonder, what are your thoughts about Pete Buttigieg? I wanted to get that out there because do you think that he stands a fighting chance? Is he too young? Is he too not gay enough, too gay? What do you think about it? The one thing I know is I don't have a clue simply because things are changing so quickly. The very fact that he exists and is out there saying the things he's saying, brilliant young mind, handsome, able to have his husband there with him, all of those things, we'll see. We'll see. I would vote for it. Yeah, well, you know, I think I read one thing. What is it that we like about him? Yes, of course, the American people were reasonably shallow people. I said, it depends on your neck, tie color, it has to be blue or red, solid colors, don't do pinstripes or stripes or pinwheels or anything, it's just solid colors there. So he's got the looks, the charm, the brains, adoring spouse, right? And he's also so articulate. He's a veteran, he's a Rhodes Scholar. And he's got this executive experience. I'll be excited to see where this goes. We've got so many great candidates in the field. Let's see if any of them can rise up against us because all the things that you've worked on and I would love for you to come back another time and talk about more of what you've done because we just have barely touched on this but I want you to talk about your mentors. When we have another show, you've mentioned Joe Napoliton and A.Q. McElthrath and others who have been influential on you and I would love to talk about that another time but for right now, I know you wanted to give a shout out to lgbthawaii.com, so folks go to lgbthawaii.com. It is the state's oldest and largest LGBT community political action organization and Scott is the founder of that. You can find out more about Scott at scottfoster.org and unfortunately, as our think tech, those are always too short. We are out of time for today. So when you come back again and talk more about this and many other issues that are in your heart and in your mind, I would love that. So thank you so much for being here today and like I said, you're someone I can look up to and admire as a role model for me so I appreciate you setting an example. Thank you so much, you're very kind. Well, it's meaningful and important and unfortunately, we are out of time and we have to wrap it up there with Luminary in our Human Rights Arena here. I'm Winston Welch, this is Out and About on the Think Tech Live Streaming Network Series. We have been talking just a little bit with Scott Foster, communications strategy consultant, public opinion management expert and advocate for the LGBT and human community for decades. We thank you for tuning in, we welcome your feedback, our awesome thanks to broadcast engineer, Robert McLean, floor manager, the awesome Eric Belander and to J-Fi Della, our executive producer who put it all together. I'll see you here every other Monday at three for more of Out and About on Think Tech Hawaii. Have a happy birthday, aloha everyone.