 So a couple of weeks ago on the show I talked about how multiple congressional Democrats have stated that they have no plan on Responding to the GOP's anti LGBTQ plus hate campaign Because why respond when nobody takes them seriously? I mean when Marjorie Taylor Greene calls LGBTQ plus people groomers People just look at that and laugh and even members of Democratic Party leadership like Hakeem Jeffries have vocalized this position And I explained why that's very clearly a bad idea and apparently a Michigan State lawmaker named Mallory McMarle agrees with me Because this is how she responded when one of her GOP colleagues called her a groomer. Take a look I didn't expect to wake up yesterday to the news that the senator from the 22nd district had overnight accused me by name of grooming and sexualizing children in an email fundraising for herself So I sat on it for a while wondering why me and Then I realized because I am the biggest threat to your hollow hateful scheme Because you can't claim that you are targeting marginalized kids in the name of quote parental rights If another parent is standing up to say no So then what then you dehumanize and marginalize me you say that I'm one of them You say she's a groomer. She supports pedophilia She wants children to believe that they were responsible for slavery and to feel bad about themselves because they're white Well, here's a little bit of background about who I really am Growing up my family was very active in our church. I sang in the choir My mom taught CCD one day our priest called a meeting with my mom and told her that she was not living up to the church's Expectations and that she was disappointing My mom asked why among other reasons she was told it was because she was divorced and because the priest didn't see her at mass Every Sunday, so where was my mom on Sundays? She was at the soup kitchen with me My mom taught me at a very young age that Christianity and faith was about being part of a community About recognizing our privilege and blessings and doing what we can to be of service to others Especially people who are marginalized targeted and who had less often unfairly I learned that service was far more important than performative nonsense like being seen in the same pew every Sunday or Writing Christian in your Twitter bio and using that as a shield to target and marginalize already marginalized people I also stand on the shoulders of people like father Ted Hesburgh the longtime president of the University of Notre Dame Who was active in the civil rights movement who recognized his power and privilege as a white man a faith leader and the head of an Influential and well-respected institution and who saw black people in this country Being targeted and discriminated against and beaten and reached out to lock arms with dr. Martin Luther King jr. When he was alive when it was unpopular and risky and marching alongside them to say We've got you to offer protection and service and allyship to try to right the wrongs and fix injustice in the world So who am I I am a straight white Christian married suburban mom who knows that the very Notion that learning about slavery or redlining or systemic racism Somehow means that children are being taught to feel bad or hate themselves because they are white is Absolute nonsense No child alive today is responsible for slavery. No one in this room is responsible for slavery But each and every single one of us bears responsibility for writing the next chapter of history Each and every single one of us decides what happens next and how we Respond to history and the world around us. We are not responsible for the past We also cannot change the past. We can't pretend that it didn't happen or deny people their very right to exist I am a straight white Christian married suburban mom I want my daughter to know that she is loved supported and seen for whoever she becomes I want her to be curious empathetic and kind People who are different are not the reason that our roads are in bad shape after decades of disinvestment Or that that health care costs are too high or that teachers are leaving the profession. I Want every child in this state to feel seen heard and supported not marginalized and targeted because they are not straight White and Christian We cannot let hateful people tell you otherwise to scapegoat and deflect from the fact that they are not doing Anything to fix the real issues that impact people's lives And I know that hate will only win if people like me Stand by and let it happen So I want to be very clear right now call me whatever you want. I hope you brought in a few dollars I hope it made you sleep good last night. I know who I am. I know what faith and service means and what it calls for in this moment We will not let hate win That right there is what being a good ally looks like not just passively supporting the rights of marginalized people But actually standing up and defending them vocalizing your intent to defend them perpetually That's what allyship is and supposed to be now There's a couple of lines from that speech that stood out to me that I wanted to highlight She said people who are different are not the reason why our roads are in bad shape or our health care costs too high Or that teachers are leaving the profession that is exactly right It's obvious at this point that the GOP continues these culture war issues because that's the one thing that they use to draw in voters They prey on people's reactionary instincts They get people to vote based on hate and not based on economic policies and that's how they continuously win So to not address that is just to surrender to them She also said hate will only win if people like me Stand by and let it happen and she is exactly right Marginalized minorities They're minorities So you need others to stand up in order to win in a democratic society You need others to speak out on their behalf Saying I will stand shoulder to shoulder with everyone who's marginalized and I will fight for them I will not let you scare me into being silent. I will not quietly support LGBTQ plus rights I will be vocal and be an ally to them and push back against these disgusting smears that the GOP continues to wage against them and as Brian Butler put it don't dodge the culture wars win them And here's why that's right the culture wars is the only thing that the GOP has Once you win the culture war you win the political war as well Because if the GOP actually has to talk about economic issues and what they do or wouldn't do to fix healthcare Which is nothing by the way, then what voter is going to find what they say reasonable The main way the GOP continues to cultivate support election cycle after election cycle is by praying on hate Their strategy is evident and they just switch it up by changing the target One year it's immigrants the next year. It's black and brown people the next year It's LGBTQ plus people but the strategy remains the same And so democrats who refuse to fight them the democrats who back down like hockey and jeffreys and tim ryan They are cowards They are cowards and you are surrendering you're waving the white flag But the problem is that a lot of democrats they're spineless and they say well look It's easy for you to say that it's easy for people like aoc in Super blue districts to stand up and be accused of you know being too woke But in my purple district, I can't do that except mallory addressed that she explained why it is absolutely still A losing and spineless strategy If you back down in spite of the fact that you may exist in a red district And perhaps if you speak out on behalf of trans people you might be called woke Here's why she says that's a bad strategy. Uh, so I flipped a district when I ran for the first time in 2018 So I represent what was a republican district. I'm a democrat and It is this exact tone that the people I represent I represent mit romney's hometown Want balanced budgets and want the government to work and want us to attract and support businesses and don't want to hate people because they are different and There was an opportunity for the republican party to go back to debating, you know, how we spend tax dollars But instead it is full fringe Q and on hateful hateful rhetoric with no actual policy So that you know, I see it every day But part of the reason that I really wanted to identify myself Is because this moment is going to require straight white christian suburban moms To stand up and get uncomfortable and say this is not okay because odds are, you know A lot of us are probably pretty comfortable and okay, but that doesn't mean that this is okay And we can't stand back and let it happen She's exactly right to not push back is to give them an automatic win and I love mallory. She has something that I don't think many democrats have And that's balls. She's actually fighting against the GOP I don't know why whenever the GOP starts screaming about cancel culture or woke Democrats and liberals in general, they just instinctively retreat And they buckle. No, I'm not woke. I promise you. I'm not woke I mean, do you really care what these reactionary dipshits think defeat them fight them And win don't just retreat. Don't be cowards. I wish that democrats in congress Understood what mallory was saying here. There's things that they can do to fight the GOP They can introduce legislation to counter the nearly 250 different anti lgbtq plus bills Proposed in state legislatures across the country which disproportionately target trans people I mean, they could pass the equality act, but they couldn't even get that done But I mean at the bare minimum pushing back rhetorically is the least consequential thing that you can do But we don't really even see democrats Do that. I mean, how many elected democrats have you seen respond to these claims of grooming? I mean the GOP is literally reviving the gay predator myth And they're saying that lgbtq plus representation is grooming and the democrats at the national level Are silent. I don't know if they're not paying attention I don't know if they're hearing this talk and they think oh, I don't want to wait into that conversation because I don't want to be deemed to woke But I mean as mallory said you have to be uncomfortable make yourself uncomfortable because that's what being a good ally is Sure, currently if you stand up for trans people or lgbtq plus people or other marginalized groups It may be the case that currently you feel uncomfortable and you're ostracized But this cost that you're paying now is more of an investment It's a down payment to a better future that you can say you helped build when society inevitably progresses in the correct direction So don't be a coward democrats be like mallory Okay, if you're worried that one of these right wing freaks will call you woke because you stand up for lgbtq plus people or other marginalized groups Then wear that like a badge of honor You say in response. Okay, well if standing up for trans rights makes me woke then damn fucking right i'm woke if me standing up For disadvantaged people means that these fuckface fundies see me as a cancel culture degenerate snowflake Then boo fucking who i'll cry myself to sleep knowing that these right wing freaks think poorly of me. Oh, no Democrats lose when they retreat democrats lose when they don't fight and they've retreated from how many battles at this point So it's time to stand up stop being cowards and actually lead by example like mallory is doing But odds are people nationally elected to congress democrats They don't really think about the bigger picture picture. They just think about what's going to get me from election a to election b What's going to help me win and if anyone perceives me to be a little bit too woke then maybe you know, uh, my voters won't like me Why did you run in the first place take a fucking stand and stop being weak? So i absolutely applaud mallory for doing what democrats should be doing Sometimes all it takes is one person to stand up and be bold and i hope that what she does has a domino effect