Speaker 1: Good evening viewers this week on the nonprofits. We are
Speaker 1: going to start off in Texas, where the LGBTQ community
Speaker 1: and academia just cannot seem to coexist if it weren't
Speaker 1: for the very special right wing folks in control of
Speaker 1: the government. And I'm going to kick it over to
Speaker 1: Aaron Jensen for a greater explanation.
Speaker 2: Aaron, take it away.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Texas State Representative Brian Harrison and about a dozen
Speaker 3: of his fellow lawmakers have quote vowed to take drastic
Speaker 3: action end quote against any Texas public university that offers
Speaker 3: LGBTQ sexuality programs. They're also super grumpy that the University
Speaker 3: University of Texas systems new policy offers free tuition to
Speaker 3: any families making less than one hundred thousand dollars because
Speaker 3: of some very large endowments they've received late recently. Unfortunately
Speaker 3: for Representative Harrison and his friends, the funny they want
Speaker 3: to cut off to the university doesn't actually come from
Speaker 3: Texas State coffers and they can't do anything about it.
Speaker 3: Looks like someone needs to learn a lot how their
Speaker 3: government works. Oh wait, it's more like he's just runing
Speaker 3: to score points from his base right. And this story
Speaker 3: is from the Christian Post by Ian M. Giatti on
Speaker 3: November twenty seventh, twenty twenty four.
Speaker 2: Thank you, thank you.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, I have to chuckle anytime I hear
Speaker 1: these Christian Christian demagogues nowadays having a problem with sexuality.
Speaker 1: I mean, doesn't Christianity have enough sexual problems of its own?
Speaker 1: I mean the book I have heard described as a
Speaker 1: sex manual or a I don't know, do not have sex.
Speaker 2: Manuals, do not sex man do not do not sex manual.
Speaker 1: Right, So to hear them having a problem with anything
Speaker 1: that relates to sex, I have to point the finger
Speaker 1: back at them. But you know, Aaron brings up a
Speaker 1: good point, and Eli, I want to get your take
Speaker 1: on it. Is this only about education, of course, or
Speaker 1: could it relate to something else tax dollars?
Speaker 2: Aaron says, maybe scoring points with his base. What do
Speaker 2: you think?
Speaker 4: Yeah, so it's I firstly, I don't think it has
Speaker 4: much anything to do with the tax dollars. I think
Speaker 4: that it's intended to send a message to LGBTQ plus
Speaker 4: people in Texas universities from you know, from whether named
Speaker 4: Brian Harrison, we are not welcome here. We don't want
Speaker 4: you here. Your experience and your life isn't valid, and
Speaker 4: we don't care. I think that's the message he's trying
Speaker 4: to send, And whether he actually believes that or not
Speaker 4: doesn't matter, because just like Aaron said, he's trying to
Speaker 4: earn points with his base. Politicians have learned that they
Speaker 4: don't have to believe the things that the Christians believe
Speaker 4: or the Whoever's believe. They just have to say the
Speaker 4: things that they believe and get them to agree with
Speaker 4: them for a different reason. So if you know, certain
Speaker 4: politicians want, you know, stricter immigration because it's better for business,
Speaker 4: because it keeps more laborers in other countries where there's
Speaker 4: fewer safety regulations that they don't have to pay them
Speaker 4: as much, they can have their business over there and
Speaker 4: get their borders restricted. By playing into the narrative or
Speaker 4: into whatever, what do you call it, rhetoric that you
Speaker 4: know that their voter base is agreeing with. They don't
Speaker 4: have to agree with what they're saying, they just have
Speaker 4: to say it. And they've learned that, and I think
Speaker 4: that's what's happening.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, And so I guess staying in power probably
Speaker 1: has something to do with this right wanting to stay
Speaker 1: of power, wanting to maintain the status quo of said
Speaker 1: power structure. And we know that Texas is a conservative
Speaker 1: and right leaning state, and so yeah, there are some
Speaker 1: kind of checkboxes that you have to hit in this
Speaker 1: day and age where things are very polarized and people
Speaker 1: are probably as uninformed as they've ever been.
Speaker 2: They just hear the buzzwords and they keep going.
Speaker 1: And you know, Kelly, I want to get your take
Speaker 1: on how this power structure in Texas can be challenged
Speaker 1: by a more expansive education, if that's possible.
Speaker 5: Texas does have your reputation for leading an individual liberty,
Speaker 5: freedom and limited government according to them, So I don't
Speaker 5: know how you can expand And honestly, I think this
Speaker 5: is one of the problems that the left has had
Speaker 5: over the last few years. We're not standing up to
Speaker 5: misinformation and bullying enough, and I think that's one of
Speaker 5: the reasons of the left maybe had lost the last election.
Speaker 5: So I don't know if I can say that right not.
Speaker 5: I'm hoping I can.
Speaker 2: But uh, I think we're good. I think we're good. Cool, Yeah,
Speaker 2: I thought so.
Speaker 5: I'm pretty good at walking right up to the line. Yeah,
Speaker 5: I'm not sure. I because we've been talking about educating
Speaker 5: the public about these issues, and I think we we
Speaker 5: have at least put those issues out there. We've talked
Speaker 5: about them. But the misinformation just like snowplowed right over
Speaker 5: us and we couldn't see. I'm from the north, so snowplow. Yeah,
Speaker 5: and we didn't fight back enough, I don't think.
Speaker 2: And that's I think.
Speaker 5: So I don't know. I'm not really sure how we
Speaker 5: can well educate people more, right, misinformation? What what kind
Speaker 5: what examples of misinformation should we be fighting back against
Speaker 5: or should the left be fighting back against? You know,
Speaker 5: one of the goofy crazy things that I seen on
Speaker 5: social media was and and was actually repeated by some
Speaker 5: politician was that kids were going to school and have
Speaker 5: gender reassignment surgeries at school.
Speaker 6: Donald Trump said that. Donald Trump said, not going to
Speaker 6: name any names. Okay, Okay, I will, I will. I mean,
Speaker 6: that's not a criticism. I mean, this is what the
Speaker 6: guy said. He said that, he clearly said that it's wrong.
Speaker 6: Uh yeah, but you're right.
Speaker 1: I mean, I think there has to be some kind
Speaker 1: of public outcry against this stuff, right, and.
Speaker 5: When you get and then when you get you know, well,
Speaker 5: the problem is we're dealing with the Carlin effect, right,
Speaker 5: George Carlin at average intelligence isn't really that smart, and
Speaker 5: half the people are dumber than that.
Speaker 2: So when you when you.
Speaker 5: Say things like what Trump was saying, people will kind
Speaker 5: of latch onto these ideas because they're already anti trands
Speaker 5: to begin with. So here's this person in authoritious authority
Speaker 5: figure who is just telling me what I want to believe.
Speaker 5: So of course I'm going to believe it because he's
Speaker 5: you know, he's the man.
Speaker 2: So much to unpack there.
Speaker 1: We could take this conversation in so many directions just
Speaker 1: based on that. But yeah, I want to stick to education.
Speaker 1: I want to jump over to Aaron Aaron stunning introduction.
Speaker 1: Thank you very much for taking us down this path.
Speaker 1: You like the idea of free education. Does Brian Harrison
Speaker 1: actually have a point though? I mean, should these studies
Speaker 1: be reserved for private institutions those of us that uh
Speaker 1: want to see Christianity and other dogmas kept in their churches,
Speaker 1: kept in their homes? Should we not be surprised?
Speaker 5: Right?
Speaker 2: Should we?
Speaker 1: Should we be saying, okay, well that applies maybe to
Speaker 1: gender studies or LGBTQ studies.
Speaker 2: Why is it? Why is it not fair?
Speaker 5: Uh?
Speaker 2: With the shoe on the other foot, Uh, well at all.
Speaker 3: Now, these studies definitely belong in public universities because it's
Speaker 3: a university. The point of going to a university is
Speaker 3: to get a degree, and that degree certifies that you
Speaker 3: have specific knowledge. And if your degree it relates to
Speaker 3: LGBTQ and sexuality, you're going to need to take lgbt
Speaker 3: sexuality classes to gain that knowledge. And that's just for
Speaker 3: people that are majoring or minoring in those kinds of things.
Speaker 3: There's an expected level of knowledge you're going to need
Speaker 3: to know when you graduate. And by taking those classes out,
Speaker 3: what they're doing is saying, anybody that's going to have
Speaker 3: any kind of major in this area, go somewhere else,
Speaker 3: go to some other university, go to some other state,
Speaker 3: which I guess that's his prerogative to do. But what
Speaker 3: they're really doing is they are absolutely terrified of education
Speaker 3: because when people get educated, they become a little more skeptical,
Speaker 3: they take a little more rationally, and that slowly eats
Speaker 3: away at religion. Religion. The number of people that identify
Speaker 3: as non religious is increasing every year in the United States.
Speaker 3: I think we're now twenty five percent of the United
Speaker 3: States population people identify as none, and that terrifies religious people,
Speaker 3: and so they are trying whatever they can do to
Speaker 3: activate their base, activate the people, do whatever they can
Speaker 3: to force their religion down because they can see that
Speaker 3: their religion is dying. Not only that, I think rationally,
Speaker 3: they know that their religion doesn't have a leg to
Speaker 3: stand on. And when you're out there in the world
Speaker 3: and you're listening to the nuns, to us out there saying, well,
Speaker 3: this is why your religious ideas are kind of iffy.
Speaker 3: You know, these are the reasons why the Bible maybe
Speaker 3: not might not be trusted because half of it was
Speaker 3: made up. We don't know who wrote, you know, the Bible.
Speaker 3: When they're confronted with these kind of facts, what are
Speaker 3: their choices, Well, their choices are to either accept it
Speaker 3: or double down. And so they're just they're doubling down.
Speaker 3: This is their ever to double down, and they're doubling
Speaker 3: down by trying to exclude LGBTQ studies from our universities.
Speaker 1: You know, I saw an excellent clip today and something
Speaker 1: I really am not exposed to a whole lot, but
Speaker 1: There was a guy on a video I was watching
Speaker 1: that had a Bible from I think it was eighteen
Speaker 1: twenty three, and a lot of the verses were not there,
Speaker 1: like some things were not there, you know. And it's
Speaker 1: so interesting that bibles, how often Bibles can change. I
Speaker 1: don't think that people realize that that Bibles are crafted
Speaker 1: to fit a certain model.
Speaker 3: And look at the Bible in Oklahoma. This isn't biblical.
Speaker 3: This isn't biblical. But the Bible that Oklahoma trying to
Speaker 3: roll on schools contains the US Constitution, except it doesn't.
Speaker 3: It contains some of the amendments are missing from the Constitution.
Speaker 3: And you think, well, why would you do that? This
Speaker 3: is just what people do.
Speaker 2: They that's a good segue.
Speaker 3: They exclude this stuff they don't want anymore.
Speaker 5: Before we move on real quick, I wanted to point
Speaker 5: out that you think of these classes as like somebody
Speaker 5: majoring in LGBTQ issues, But there's other people who are
Speaker 5: taking these classes for information too, like counselors and psychologists.
Speaker 5: And this is saying that you know, you cannot study
Speaker 5: these things to deal with a lot of the people,
Speaker 5: because let's face it, a lot of these people go
Speaker 5: through traumatic experience in their lives because of their identities,
Speaker 5: and we're taking we are literally taking away the education
Speaker 5: of the people who would be able to help them.
Speaker 2: Yeah, tramatic experience.
Speaker 1: If you were to ask these people, they would act
Speaker 1: as if these courses are being jammed down every throat
Speaker 1: of every person studying every major. And what you don't
Speaker 1: understand is that gender studies, LGBTQ studies are humanity studies.
Speaker 1: I mean, these could go along with a degree in
Speaker 1: biology or in anthropology, in sociology. There are a lot
Speaker 1: of good reasons for a lot of different minds, people
Speaker 1: focused on different types of educations. To have a little
Speaker 1: hint of that, I went to college at a Catholic college,
Speaker 1: not because of the religion. I was already almost an atheist.
Speaker 1: I went there for other reasons. Good programs otherwise. But
Speaker 1: they make everybody study at least fifteen credits in or
Speaker 1: excuse me, at least nine credits.
Speaker 2: In religious studies. And you know, why would that be important?
Speaker 1: You know, obviously there's a little bit of a difference
Speaker 1: there because that wasn't a public college, but it's.
Speaker 2: All the same. Like I got a little bit out
Speaker 2: of that. In fact, I would say contributed to me
Speaker 2: being an atheist.
Speaker 1: In any case, I want to stick with the idea
Speaker 1: of religion and politics that Aaron so eloquently laid out,
Speaker 1: and I want to go to Eli, Eli, Why do
Speaker 1: you think there is such a tendency for the Right
Speaker 1: and for Christianity to coalesce so often in so much
Speaker 1: What are your thoughts on that.
Speaker 4: I think it sort of has to do with kind
Speaker 4: of what I was describing earlier, Like basically, you have
Speaker 4: you have these two parties that at this point are
Speaker 4: just kind of dedicated to opposing each other essentially on
Speaker 4: almost all topics just for the purpose of opposing each other.
Speaker 4: So one side picks one platform, the other side picks
Speaker 4: another platform, and then they start appealing to the groups
Speaker 4: that agree with them, they're electorates, and that just so
Speaker 4: happens that the Right found a lot of common and
Speaker 4: ground with, you know, some with with a lot of Christians,
Speaker 4: and that's who they started appealing to, and it's kind
Speaker 4: of just snowballed from there, I think, I mean, I
Speaker 4: think that that might primarily have a lot to do
Speaker 4: with it. It just seems to with when you look
Speaker 4: at the idea of being traditional being you know, conservative being.
Speaker 4: You know, I don't know where the idea of you know,
Speaker 4: like how like having that there are some things that
Speaker 4: I think don't really quite mesh well with Christianity, but
Speaker 4: I think they found enough common ground that they're just like,
Speaker 4: this is who we're going to appeal to, and started
Speaker 4: doing a pretty good.
Speaker 2: Job of it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, I feel like it's Christianity is so lazy,
Speaker 1: you know, because it doesn't take a whole lot of
Speaker 1: effort to be a Christian.
Speaker 2: You just say the things that people tell you to say.
Speaker 1: If you walk around pretending that you read the good book,
Speaker 1: you haven't read the book.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 2: I get into arguments and people.
Speaker 1: Say, well, I've read a good bit of it, and
Speaker 1: I'm like, yeah, that means you haven't read it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, you haven't read it.
Speaker 4: Right.
Speaker 2: It's so it's so lazy, and it's so disc forgiveness,
Speaker 2: that's how yeah, right.
Speaker 1: And I feel like there are a lot of aspects
Speaker 1: on the you know, with the with with conservative agendas
Speaker 1: really that also allow that.
Speaker 2: You know, it's kind of.
Speaker 1: Like the government saying we're going to stay out of
Speaker 1: your hair and you can do whatever you want, and
Speaker 1: there will be less rules and will take less of
Speaker 1: your money, and it's kind of more of a free
Speaker 1: for all that if the Democrats or the Liberals, depending
Speaker 1: on where you know, where you're at, you know.
Speaker 2: We're in control anyway.
Speaker 1: I don't know I see a dichotomy there, but I
Speaker 1: do see the hatred of religion coming out a lot
Speaker 1: when it comes to Republicans. And and we we have
Speaker 1: talked about this before the weaponization of the Republican Party.
Speaker 2: You know, a lot of that hatred comes from the Bible,
Speaker 2: comes through Christianity, and it's kind of filtered through the
Speaker 2: Republican Party.
Speaker 1: And Aaron, I just wanted to kind of get your
Speaker 1: take on that, Like, do you see more hateful rhetoric
Speaker 1: nowadays because of the alignment between you know, Conservative America
Speaker 1: and traditional religious outlets.
Speaker 3: I think this this started back from what I understand, Yes,
Speaker 3: it seems like the rhetoric is more intense, it's more bigoted,
Speaker 3: it's more divisive than it ever has ever been. But
Speaker 3: I could just be that I'm paying more attention to it.
Speaker 3: I don't know. From what I understand, this kind of
Speaker 3: all started with New Gingrich in the nineties. This this
Speaker 3: slow descent into fanaticism, the divisiveness, taking advantage of the
Speaker 3: Christian the Christians as part of their base. I think
Speaker 3: what the Republican Party did a really good job of,
Speaker 3: and now this is what they're suffering from, is they
Speaker 3: turned their voters into single issue voters where the only
Speaker 3: issue that matters is abortion. Right soon and as soon
Speaker 3: as you turn somebody or as soon as you become
Speaker 3: a single issue voter, it no longer matters who you
Speaker 3: vote for. You're only voting for a party, and suddenly
Speaker 3: you become party over country. And that's exactly what that
Speaker 3: and that's what Donald Trump exposed. You know when he
Speaker 3: said in the first election, I could shoot someone on
Speaker 3: First Avenue and I would lose it.
Speaker 2: He votes fifth Avenue, Aaron, fifth Avenu.
Speaker 3: Sorry, fifth aven I would lose it. He votes. He
Speaker 3: was true because his base are are Singlish voters. It
Speaker 3: doesn't matter what Donald Trump does, They're voting for him.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Right, And you know what that speaks to kind of
Speaker 1: the conversation that that Kelly and I had a little
Speaker 1: bit earlier. So you know, the power structure, right, Christians
Speaker 1: are upholding this thing because, like we've alluded to in
Speaker 1: this conversation, they are losing ground, they're losing their influence. Aaron,
Speaker 1: you you showed or talked about the rise of nuns,
Speaker 1: and how's that for? Uh?
Speaker 2: Transgender? I never thought I would consider myself a nun,
Speaker 2: but here I am. You know, so anyway, Uh, you
Speaker 2: know the.
Speaker 1: Rise of people claiming to be non religious or atheists.
Speaker 1: You know, I think that speaks to what happened if
Speaker 1: people actually get an education and at Kelly, I want
Speaker 1: to get your take on that. You know, what happens
Speaker 1: to the citizens of Texas or to the Texas government
Speaker 1: if people get an education on sexuality and gender studies?
Speaker 5: What happens to the government. Oh my gosh, they might
Speaker 5: might actually be helping somebody in the community. I think
Speaker 5: what would happen in the long run if we would
Speaker 5: actually get this pass through being able to have these
Speaker 5: classes and actually teach people this kind of thing. I
Speaker 5: think we would have better health care. I don't know
Speaker 5: how much it would affect the educational system. I know that.
Speaker 5: I mean, people are going to take the classes for
Speaker 5: the career that they want, that they want. They're not
Speaker 5: going to just take this class for the fuck of it.
Speaker 5: For the most maybe somebody will I used to take
Speaker 5: classes like that sometimes, But I mean, this is not
Speaker 5: something that everybody's going to be forced to take. If
Speaker 5: you're going to be an accountant, you don't have to
Speaker 5: take this class. Right, You've got a business degree, you
Speaker 5: don't have to take this class. So I don't know
Speaker 5: that it's going to affect the educational system that much.
Speaker 5: But what it could do is it may affect social standards,
Speaker 5: like people will start to accept the LGBTQ community instead
Speaker 5: of ostracize it, which is happening really really really badly now.
Speaker 5: As Aaron mentioned earlier, it's gotten worse, and that's because
Speaker 5: they want abortion now. They need a single issue again,
Speaker 5: and that issue is the LGBTQ community, and they're coming
Speaker 5: out full strength against them. And it's scary, wow, because
Speaker 5: this is I mean, like you can't. I mean, we
Speaker 5: saw what happened some violent things that happen with abortion clinics,
Speaker 5: But you're talking about adults, right, so adult Like it's
Speaker 5: easy to attack an adult instead of a building. See
Speaker 5: one couple of gay guys walking home one night boom, right,
Speaker 5: And this is the kind of thing that I worry
Speaker 5: about when we ostracize the community and they're making that
Speaker 5: the one single issue, just like they did with abortion.
Speaker 5: It's kind of scary.
Speaker 1: It is scary, and this is why after the election
Speaker 1: so many people felt a sense of hopelessness for such
Speaker 1: a while. I think, I think generally the aura is
Speaker 1: improving and people you know, are kind of accepting their
Speaker 1: new reality and you know, not so down in the dumps.
Speaker 1: But it is scary. Nonetheless, you know, I want this
Speaker 1: country to make progress. And on that note, I think
Speaker 1: what I want to do is a little lightning round here. Gentlemen,
Speaker 1: I'm going to go down the strips, starting with Eli
Speaker 1: and Aaron and Kelly.
Speaker 2: Let's give it about thirty seconds. Each most important thing
Speaker 2: you took away from this article, go ahead.
Speaker 4: I think it's that, well, from the discussion more than
Speaker 4: the article, that when people start to get into areas
Speaker 4: where they're experiencing diversity and experiencing people that aren't like them,
Speaker 4: that hold that like conservativism has on people kind of
Speaker 4: sense to like fizzle out. And that's what taking away
Speaker 4: the you know, these types of studies is going to
Speaker 4: take away from that or is going to strengthen that
Speaker 4: whole that conservativism has on those minds because they're not
Speaker 4: being exposed to other ideas.
Speaker 2: Okay, excellent, Aaron.
Speaker 3: My big takeaway from this book is, and to quote
Speaker 3: Sean Connery from Indiana Jones, the last crusade that goostepping
Speaker 3: morons like these people should try reading books instead of
Speaker 3: burning them. Maybe they should go take an LGBTQ sexualities
Speaker 3: class instead of trying to ban them. Or maybe they
Speaker 3: just say I'm not interested in taking an LGBT class,
Speaker 3: but other people can do what they want to do.
Speaker 3: Maybe they should be stand for individual liberties like they
Speaker 3: supposedly are, instead of cramming their morality down everybody's throat.
Speaker 3: What are they so angry and scared of? Anyway? We
Speaker 3: should not be scared of knowledge, Kelly.
Speaker 5: Two things stood out to me. One the hypocrisy of
Speaker 5: Christian nationalism. Quote from Harrison. I'm sick of my constituents
Speaker 5: tax dollars being weaponized against them, their values, and their children.
Speaker 5: But it's okay for him to weaponize it against people
Speaker 5: he doesn't agree with. That was a number. Two was
Speaker 5: another quote for him. Leftives have been put in charge
Speaker 5: of our public universities and the inmates are now running
Speaker 5: the asylum. This guy actually thinks public schools are in asylums,
Speaker 5: So why why is left wrong? Why is right right?
Speaker 5: And right right? And it was a kind of a
Speaker 5: Freudian slip an idea which is embodied in this bill
Speaker 5: also taking away d I DEI funding, so it's not
Speaker 5: just l DBTQ studies but the DEI funding as well.
Speaker 5: See the new things that stood out to me.
Speaker 2: Yep, the other boogeyman like you talked about and you know,
Speaker 2: you mentioned weaponization this and that's what I was trying
Speaker 2: to get to earlier when I mentioned the weaponization, because
Speaker 2: this person using this hateful rhetoric just goes to show
Speaker 2: you how religion can be weaponized through the use of government.
Speaker 2: And you know, folks, we here at the nonprofits, we
Speaker 2: talk about this stuff because it's important to spread awareness
Speaker 2: about what the LGBTQ community and other other folks that
Speaker 2: are going to be on the receiving end of the
Speaker 2: rat of the religious right are going to experience. And
Speaker 2: you know, LGBTQ rights are human rights. It's good to
Speaker 2: have an education against them. So what excuse me an
Speaker 2: education about them? And so what if you learn something,
Speaker 2: you'll actually be way better off than if you hadn't