Welcome back to the Left of Old North. I'm your
host, Adrian. And I'm your other host, CJ. And
today, it is Pride Month. Woo! So for all my
ladies, gentlemen, and everything in between
or outside of that, however you identify yourself,
thank you for tuning in and listening. Again,
my name is Adrian. He, him pronouns. And CJ,
as far as I know, is he, him as well. yes nice
yes so it is june 1st when we're recording this
when we release it'll be june 2nd and across
the country cities are raising rainbow flags
holding parades and spotlighting lgbtq plus stories
and companies are changing their logos as as
they do every year and you know i i sometimes
flip -flop between being like scrolling through
my timeline and thinking oh that's nice they
they changed their logo and when i see like raytheon
do it i've become a little bit less enthused
but naturally the terminally online when they're
not sucking up to elon musk are working in droves
to make pride especially hostile for queer people
online and in north carolina it's only getting
harder to pretend that visibility is enough so
here at left of old north for us pride month
is about resistance just as much as it's about
celebration. So let's be real. Are we ready to
get real, CJ? I think so. I hope so. The NCGOP
has spent the last few years, and I use the term
the last few years very liberally, turning our
state into a testing ground for anti -gay legislation.
Would you say that's true? Oh, yeah. Yeah. especially
especially against the trans youth we we just
have to go back to uh 2016 hp2 yeah and we almost
got a whole redux of that yeah we almost did
uh this go -round uh luckily luckily the new
version of it died which i think we mentioned
a few episodes back but new version of it died
but still the fact that it was even introduced
in the first place again you know says a lot
i mean It's been nine years since HB2. You would
think, or at least would hope, right, that we
as a state, as a society, you know, having the
legislative body that we do, you would hope and
think that maybe we would maybe progress a little
bit. But alas, here we are. We have, you know,
still just absolute, disgusting anti -LGBT legislation
coming out of the General Assembly. Yep. For
every progress, there is regress, unfortunately.
So while corporations are slapping rainbows on
their logos, Republicans in Raleigh continue
to slap bills on Phil Berger and Destin Hall's
desks and ask them to demonize queer people in
criminalized care. and that's not stopping anytime
soon oh no not at all not at all and in the last
few years right because i mentioned the last
few years uh we we just i just want to run down
a couple of the things that republicans have
done to attack the gay community republicans
passed a sweeping slate of anti -trans laws in
2023 banning gender -affirming care for minors
and a don't say gay style law that restricted
what educators could say about gender and sexuality
hb 574 which was the so -called fairness in women's
sport act and and again they don't care about
fairness in women's sports that's not the point
they banned trans girls from competing in school
sports despite zero evidence of it being an actual
issue in north carolina so yeah taxpayer dollars
at work everybody Living in North Carolina and
growing up in a small town, I know all about
the small town network of communication, let's
say. One person on one side of town says something,
someone else on the other side knows about it
in 30 minutes. My understanding, at least, is
the, it was HB 574, the anti -trans youth, or
anti -trans athletes bill. Yeah. My understanding
is that... What happened was, like, there was
a volleyball match, like a high school volleyball
match. A person got, like, knocked down. She
got pissed, started making all these wild -ass
accusations, and it blew up. All because, like,
one person got mad. That was it. At least that's
my understanding of it. Yeah. That sounds about
right. Now, this is such a non -issue, right?
on both a state level and a national level because
we see this conversation happening on a national
scale as well someone put it like this you know
you know i mean like trick like how they put
it then we're like trans athletes competing like
high school sports right now it's like less than
there were kids that elon has you know yeah that's
how it's that's that's very true obviously don't
know the exact number but it's i don't think
elon knows the exact number of kids he has I
don't think he knows what planet he's on. He's
too high on ketamine all the damn time, pissing
himself, apparently, and getting cucked by Stephen
Miller. Oh, shit. No, I think it's the other
way around. I think Stephen Miller is getting
cucked. Oh, yeah, it is. That's right, right.
Okay, fucking Stephen Miller. He's getting clocked
by him, that's for sure. So, bringing it back.
We'll see if this stays in the episode or not.
Yeah. But... No, it will. It will. That's going
to be a TikTok. Anyway, so, like I said, HB574.
It is such a non -issue. But as we've said before,
Republicans know their regular policies can't
pass or aren't popular. So they have to focus
on those kind of cultural issues. And what happens
in that is the people who tend to be knocked
down the most in general just continue to be
piled on. Right. And used as scapegoats and used
to create the fear of the other, essentially.
And like with... senate bill 49 the don't say
uh gay bill right so this is what it says it
says it targets lgbtq plus youth by limiting
instruction on gender identity and sexuality
in k -4 classrooms and requiring schools to inform
parents about changes to a student's name or
pronouns right bans curriculum on gender identity
sexual activity or sexuality in kindergarten
through fourth grade okay I could be wrong. I
don't remember hearing a lot about sex in K -4th
grade to begin with, but that's just a whole
other thing. But, like, you know, this also filters
down simply to say, you know, to, you know, a
teacher saying, hey, or a male teacher saying,
hey, my husband and I went and did this the other
day. Or, you know, a female teacher saying, my
wife and I, or whatever. You know, it has...
these consequences, you know, this law, this
law can be violated super easily in the most
innocuous sort of way. Right. But also one thing
that bothers me immensely about that bill and,
you know, other bills like it throughout the
country is it turns teachers in this sense into
mandatory reporters. Yes. Obviously, you know,
everyone deserves to be loved. and accepted for
who they are, regardless of gender identity,
regardless of sexual orientation, all that. But
you are forcing teachers to out students, students
who might not be in a safe environment. Yeah.
That's dangerous. You say you care about the
students, you care about the kids, but then you
go and risk them being in a dangerous situation
by outing them. Right. And on the flip side of
that, it is targeted erasure of a person's sexual
identity just because you're explicitly saying,
I have a husband or I have a wife and you are
of the same sex. But it's literally no different
if there is a same -sex couple and they mention
their husbands or their wives. It is entirely
the same. And if conservatives are so worried
about their kids asking questions, then they're
going to really need to explain to them. Why
Stephen Miller is getting... That cannot stay
in the episode. I'm going to have to cut that
out. Anyway. If conservatives are so concerned
about kids asking questions in the classroom,
they're kind of missing the point of what school
is. I mean, not only is it about education, but
it's about socializing with your peers. Like
they want, at some point, and this may be a little
bit too like 1984 brained, but do they just want
everybody to have like blinders? Would they prefer
for all kids to just be in cubicles and like
have an iPad with their teacher's face on it?
And the teacher isn't actually a real teacher.
It's just an AI teacher. And then like the curriculum,
I'm not trying to give them any ideas here. But
we're already pretty close to that. And despite
the fact that they want to tout that they're
raising teacher pay, the fact of the matter is
that we have already lost a lot of great teachers
in this state specifically because of these types
of bills. And if we want to go even harsher,
yeah, conservative lawmakers have floated even
harsher measures like forcing teachers to out
trans gay youth to parents. And they've already
done that to a certain extent. it seems innocuous
right if there's a name change it's like well
wouldn't you want your parents to know that's
not the point though and you know that it's not
because one of the only reasons that a teenager
would change their name is because they want
to be referred to as something else rather than
their gender assigned at birth name right exactly
it's bills like this are dangerous and some of
them are you know gussied up they're like disguised
to, you know, look innocuous. Well, they're trapdoors,
right? Yeah. The intent behind them, though,
is a sinister one. Yeah. It really is. And what
I mean by trapdoors is it's a way to bait people
on the other side of the issue to support, you
know, by proxy, support something that is inherently
bad, right? A good example would be, oh, so you
are pro -philia because you support this bill.
And it could be anything. Democrats do it too.
There have been many instances of that where
parties will create trap doors within bills so
that if you are supporting this thing that you
are obviously morally wrong in some cases, it's
just politics, baby. That is what these bills
are, because then you can just pull the rug out
and be like, yeah, but that means that you're
sexualizing children. And then it becomes an
issue that they can run off of in the next cycle.
Yeah, it does. It forces you into a situation
where you have to explain. And in politics, if
you are constantly explaining, you are losing.
Yeah, exactly. And unfortunately, it's a sort
that cuts both ways. Right. This is why this
is part of why Mark Robinson lost his bid for
governor, because he had so many, so many clips
of him just being outright anti -gay, like could
not defend it. Anti -gay calling LGBTQ plus people
filth, the scum of the earth. I may be paraphrasing
a little bit, but that is the gist of it. And
those clips were played over and over and over
and over again. So at some point, you're going
to be embarrassed. Everybody has a friend or
a loved one or a co -worker that's gay or that's
trans or bi. Maybe not everybody has one that's
trans, but everybody has somebody that they know
tangentially within their lives, within their
circle. that falls in this category so it becomes
something that's really difficult to tell yourself
like i'm okay with voting this for this person
when he keeps talking about stuff like that it
tanked him both in polling and at the end of
the year with the election but the problem is
that that's one guy and the legislature is stacked
with extremists that are more interested in targeting
kids than fixing real issues more interested
in targeting trans people and drag shows than
they are in fixing the damage wrought by Hurricane
Helene in Western North Carolina, which we can
talk about in a minute because we'll get to that.
People are, you know, the trans community is
demonized, but you're more likely to be assaulted
by some straight white Christian male than you
are someone who's trans. I mean, it's true. And
this isn't all to say this Pride episode. this
right at the beginning of pride month is meant
to be like well look at all the bad things that
have happened because all the bad things that
have happened to gay and queer people and trans
people in the past it's to show that celebrating
pride celebrating this month of june is more
than just celebration it is about bonding together
continuing to organize continuing to educate
both ourselves and each other and To fight back.
Yes. I do want to point out, you know, the fact
that some Republicans like to try and make this
into a, oh, well, you know, there weren't any,
you know, gay people when I was growing up. No,
there were. Queer people have always existed.
And they always will. It's like, yeah, man. Because
if they were, they'd be ostracized. Yeah. And
I mean. Some were, despite, you know, some of
the things that they've done. One of the first
people that comes to mind is Alan Turing. Yes.
You know, he was a mathematician who essentially
broke the German code machine in World War II.
And then what happened? He was, you know, I think
chemically castrated. He was chemically castrated.
Yeah, chemically castrated. ostracized from society
despite saving thousands upon thousands upon
thousands of lives with his work. These are our
friends. They're our neighbors. They're people
that we work with. And there are kids that are
born right now that are going to be gay or trans,
bisexual, lesbians. It happens. We're here to
let you know that As long as there is a fight,
we will be in it. And so this month, we are going
to be interviewing some people. We're going to
be digging into the history of LGBTQ plus issues
in North Carolina. We're going to be talking
to some folks who are a lot more educated on
these subjects than we are and asking them some
questions. And I hope you'll stick around with
us. Um, before we move on to our next topic,
just want to say that if you have anything that
you'd like to express to us, make sure to email
us, send us a message on any of our socials.
We're at left of old North on pretty much everything.
We'd love to hear from you and have a very, very,
very happy pride month. So, you know, we just
talked about a lot of bad bills that the general
assembly has had in the past. But that doesn't
say there is any shortage of bad bills coming
down the pipeline. And we'll get to one specific
one here in just a moment. But first, I just
want to talk about, you know, as we are recording
this, as we mentioned earlier, it is June 1st.
So it's a Sunday. And this past week, the General
Assembly has been on a break, right? Just a little
legislative break. Essentially, what they did
was they said, hey. We got our two biggest bills
this session. We voted on them. We've sent them
over to the Senate. So we're going to peace out
for a week. And those two big bills were Hurricane
Helene relief, which I've gone through literally
every page of that, and it's actually a pretty
good bill, not going to lie. It's surprisingly
not sketch. Kudos to Republicans for doing something
right. Not too many of them, though. Yeah, true.
And the other is the budget for the next two
years. The next two years are called the biennium,
so the next biennium's budget. They voted on
it, and they sent it over to the Senate, and
word on the street, so to say, is that Phil Berger
really has no interest in passing a budget. Really?
Right. Yeah. So he, it's Phil Berger we're talking
about. You know, he's not the most small -D democratic
person, let's say. Sure, yeah. He is very much
a person who, he would rather stall the budget
and use the previous by Indian's budget. He would
rather do that and, you know, enrich his, you
know, handful of, you know, rich friends than
help the entire state of North Carolina. That's
the kind of person he is. He is willing to put
his one singular person needs before the entire
state. Now, I would ask why, but it's almost
self -evident why. He is like this villain out
of some 1980s kids movie. He's pulling up a bag
of cash and taking candy from a baby. That's
the type of person he is. Of course. He's the
Burgermeister. He's Phil Burger, Burgermeister
from Santa Claus. Oh, that's good. That is good.
I like that. So, part of me does wonder if one
of the reasons he doesn't want to pass the budget
is because, one, he just doesn't want to put
in the work. He doesn't want to put in that effort
because he has to negotiate with House, essentially.
They have to kind of find a middle ground. And
if we look at stuff like, say, teacher pay that
the House passed versus what the Senate was looking
at, the House was doing like an 8 .2 % raise
in teacher pay, I think. The Senate was like
2%. Yeah, it was like four times the amount.
Yeah. Yeah. So part of me just wonders if he's
like, well, there's not going to be any middle
ground here, so fuck off. That's great. Now I'm
going to have to blur that. Thanks for making
more work for me. You're welcome. You're welcome.
Anything I can do to help. So, who knows the
absolute true reason? I mean, like you said,
I think it's kind of self -evident at this point.
It really is. I mean, what other conclusion could
you draw? What other conclusion could you draw,
you know? Yeah, true. But it is a disservice
to the people of North Carolina. It really is.
You know, the people of North Carolina, or at
least his district, voted him in to represent
their interest in work for them. Yeah. Right?
Supposedly. Allegedly. He doesn't care. Why should
he? The Senate has a super majority. Why should
they have to do shit? Yeah. It's the same reason
why some of these GOP lawmakers are just straight
up not showing up to their town halls. It's going
to be interesting to see what happens. It really
is. But, I mean, if this is the route that he
goes, then it is a slap in the face to literally
every North Carolinian. It truly is. Yeah. I
mean... So here's the thing that I'm concerned
about, too, is we know that this Hurricane Helene
Part 2 bill, that's separate from the budget.
Yes. Is there any kind of resistance that is
going to be seen from when it comes through the
House to when it goes to the Senate? Not that
I know of, not that I've heard of, not that I
suspect, actually, because this, the Helene bill,
like I said, it actually seems... legitimate
you know that's that's not what i'm worried about
i'm saying that like if phil burger is such a
penny pincher is this is this has uh as you just
mentioned it is a quality bill and that already
makes it much more suspect for me that it's going
to actually pass the north carolina senate that's
fair i i do think it will ultimately because
i mean i don't think there's gonna be any choice
additional a from dc is not coming it's literally
all on the general assembly at this point. That's
it. Yeah. That's just the facts. Yeah. Trump
is not going to come and save us. Trump said,
North Carolina, you know, you're on your own.
Yeah. So it's up to us. That's all it is. It's
up to us. And so I do think it's interesting.
And maybe this is just being grasped on straws.
It might be. I do think it is interesting that
they did do this as two separate bills. And part
of me wonders if they did it in hopes that, you
know, we less likely be voted down because if
it was the whole stuff was worked into the budget,
then there is always a chance of it just not
being passed at all. Like what you said. I think
that that's part of it for sure. I mean, just
like you were saying, it is entirely possible
that this bill will pass through, but if they're
already penny pinching over little things like
teacher pay. like road repair like all these
tiny little things that they're like we're probably
not even going to pass a budget because it doesn't
include provisions for this it doesn't give more
tax breaks to corporations it's not giving um
wasn't there something in there about how like
they want to give more tax incentives to duke
energy yeah there was Something about that, yeah.
And the point being that Duke Energy fleeces
its customers because it's basically a monopoly
out here. And we have experienced markups over
and over and over again in energy bills because
we don't really have anywhere else to turn to.
There's not a competitor out here, even though
it is a private corporation. But anyway, my point
being that... Yeah, entirely possible that they
split up this bill on purpose because they knew
Destin Hall would pass it, even if Phil Berger
won't. Or, on the flip side, the House Republicans
talked and they were like, look, we have a better
chance of this passing if it's not even in this
bill. Like, let's not make it an omnibus spending
bill. Let's make it something different. Not
omnibus, but let's not make it a catch -all spending
bill. Let's make it something more like... We're
spending for this, and this is ancillary spending
specifically for Helene. And if that is the case,
I think that has very interesting implications
on House Republicans' views of Senate Republicans.
I must say, I think it's pretty fair -ish to
say that the Senate Republicans are definitely
more conservative than the House Republicans.
Not to say that the House Republicans are any
Marxist type of thing. Not at all. But they're
obviously definitely way too far to the right.
But I think the Senate is definitely a couple
of notches further. Interesting. We need to grade
some of these people on a scale. Do like a Locke
Foundation kind of thing. And just look at each
individual. All, what, 200 and some odd members
of the General Assembly here in North Carolina.
Rank them. Coming up on a future episode. You
know, people have suggested to us to put some
kind of collaborative tool out there. That might
be something that we should look at doing. It's
like, hey, you don't know who your representative
is? Do you want the biased version of that? Well,
here you go. Oh, let's see. Your representative
is blah, blah, blah. Oh, so sorry. Cue the sad
bright music. sorry you got phil burger so all
this to say it's gonna be interesting to see
what happens but you know those are definitely
the two big bills that i think everyone is going
to be focused on yeah and because they are focused
on that that allows some other bills to kind
of sneak through a little bit yeah and one i
think that we really need to talk about is house
bill 127 so this is a big one strap yourselves
in folks yeah if you look it up on the general
assembly's website the name of the bill is a
voter registration drive form all right i am
going to try and quickly go through this bill
summary that the unc school government put together
but it's not great so essentially requires the
State Board of Elections to develop a sample
voter registration form, right, to be used for
organized voter registration drives. And that
form should look clearly distinguishable from
an actual voter registration application form,
right? The disclaimer saying that is not an actual
registration form for voting purposes, right?
Already confused. include information on where
you can obtain an actual voter registration form,
where to return that actual registration form,
how to register online with a list of important
days, including the deadline for registration
and vote, blah, blah, blah, blah. I'm going to
skip ahead to the most important thing, right?
So what this does, ultimately, is... It prevents
organized voter registration drives offering
the voter registration form, like the actual
official form. And it says that violation of
that is a Class 2 misdemeanor. So just kind of
giving you an idea of what that is in North Carolina.
You know, it is up to like a $1 ,000 fine. It's
trying to find where it says, I think you have
to do usually like 75 hours of community service
for a dismissal, that kind of thing, right? Some
other class two misdemeanors in North Carolina
includes disorderly conduct, a failure to report
an accident, false police reports, trespassing,
harassing phone calls, resistant officers, street
racing. Things like that, right? Jeez. But in
the grand scheme of things, it might not seem,
you know, that bad, so to say. Right. But the
fact is they are trying to criminalize voter
registration drives. Now, here in North Carolina,
you can be registered to vote when you go to
the DMV, for example, right? Whenever you renew
your driver's license or you, you know, get your
driver's license for the first time or whatever,
you know. You can renew it. So that is one way
that people do. Some people will just straight
up go to the board of elections and say, hey,
I just moved here. Let me sign up. But a lot
of people, a lot of people registered to vote
through better registration drives. And this
is going to be a little anecdotal right here.
Exactly. This is going to be anecdotal, but I'm
wearing my iHeartApps shirt, right? When I was
at App State... Folks, this will not be the first
nor the last time that CJ... Brings up that he
went to App State. It has a point. So when I
was at App and was working with them talking
to them, they were notorious for their voter
registration drives, right? I mean, between like
August and October, they regularly register like
1 ,500 new voters. Oh, wow. It's an insane number.
It's always an insane number. It's impressive.
And it's, you know, freshmen coming in and whatnot,
you know, who want to register to vote for the
first time. Again, that's kind of anecdotal,
but the point is, like, these registration drives
have a lot of people sign up. Yeah. And what
this bill does is it criminalizes that. Not only
that, but if you are having a voter registration
drive, it's not allowing you to actually sign
people up. It's telling you, hey, you can only
give out information about how to register to
vote, which purposefully... creates unnecessary
confusion. Purposefully creates unnecessary confusion.
But it also desensitizes that person from taking
that next step and registering. Yeah. You might
have some random person go, hey, yeah, no, I
want to register a vote. I've never done this
before. What all do I need to do? Oh, well, you
see this voter registration sheet. That's what
it will look like. Here you go. Here's information
you need. And they'll think, oh, well, this is
what I need to fill out, and that's it. Or they'll
be like, oh, well, I'll do it later, toss it
aside, and it never happens. This is very much
a dangerous bill. I'm very much a voting rights
person. Oh, wow. That's a bold stance of you.
I know, right? In this day and age, apparently
being pro -voting is like a crazy weird lib.
You want people to vote? Ew. How dare I? I think
I will say one of the newest, actually, I think
the newest member of the state house, Phil Rubin
did a video about this bill the other day. Sure
did. This bill is going to be heard in the election
committee, election law, like house standing
committee on Tuesday, the third at 10 AM. Right.
Yep. And he said, you know, his video. There
is reason to suspect that at the very last minute,
they are going to drop a new version of the bill
and that it could potentially be worse. So who
knows what that's going to look like if it happens.
But even as is, this is a dangerous bill. I can
only imagine what a worse version of this is
going to look like. I mean, I can imagine, but
we'll have to wait and see, unfortunately. And
in the meantime, what can we do to like, what
kind of action can we even take? to try and fight
against this. Honestly, you know, this sounds,
you know, cliche, but it's true. Call your representative,
right? Because if this gets out of committee,
then it's going to go to the floor from votes
and whatnot. Call your, a member and keep on
calling, call them, email them, write them, show
up to the general assembly building, you know,
make sure that people know that this shit cannot
stand. Make sure that they know, that you think
this is a dangerous bill that make sure they
know that you believe that we should be making
it easier for people to register to vote not
harder yeah and and if you have somebody in your
orbit that is a republican or that supports this
kind of push remind them that volunteer driven
voter registration drives are a lot of the time
done by churches and local civic groups that
are non -partisan This should be a non -partisan
issue. Actually, this should just be a non -issue.
You should be allowed to help people register
to vote. The fact that they want to criminalize
that, I would be shocked if some third party
here in North Carolina does not sue to try and
bring this to court. Because this, to me... someone
who is not at all qualified to judge these things
but to me as somebody who has looked at a lot
of election law and has looked at a lot of supreme
court cases this seems right up the alley of
something that should be challenged in court
that hey you can't stop people from being able
to register other people to vote there is no
law that says that people can't there's nothing
in the constitution that says that people cannot
assist other people in voting they're not doing
anything illegal but you want to make it illegal
this should be challenged in court and i think
what what you said i think is a better first
step to to rely upon which is we need to call
our representatives we need to let them know
that this shit cannot stand and if it does if
it does make it out of committee You can be rest
assured that we will be, if not part of the organization
of getting people to the Capitol to stand in
the gallery and shout our frustration, then...
we will certainly be there. Yes. And one other
thing I want to suggest that people do, I know
I said call your representative, right? I want
y 'all to also call the sponsors of the bill
itself, even if they're not your representative.
I want you to make sure they know how bad this
bill is. They know how bad this bill is, but
they need to hear it from you as well. And so
just so y 'all know who all is involved, we have
Donnie Loftus, we have Jonathan Allman. We have
Hugh Blackwell. Where are these guys at? What
counties? We've got Burke County. We've got Gaston.
We've got Cabarrus. Let's see. Who else is there?
There's Echevarria, who is, let me find it again.
He is Cabarrus as well. And he's also a freshman.
He's a freshman member. And then we have your
bestie, Adrian, Bill Ward. Every fucking time.
Any bad bills that you're going to see go through
the House, I can guarantee that he will be tangentially
related. Just making sure I have all the information
for y 'all. Bill Ward, he's Camden, Gates, Hertford,
and Pascotank. But, like, all these sponsors,
again, they know what's in this bill. They know
it's a bad bill. They will, if it gets out of
the community, if it gets to the floor, they
will defend it and say, try to spin it as, It's,
you know, some sort of big win for democracy.
It is something that is going to only empower
the voters or some absolute fucking bullshit
excuse. You know how they're going to spin it,
which is that we're preventing voter fraud. Which,
okay, okay, okay, okay. Voter fraud, voter fraud
is such a fucking rarity. It shouldn't even be
a blip on the fucking radar. do we need secure
elections yes of course we do of course we do
voter fraud happens so rarely and in such low
numbers there was a study that came out through
uh i think it was washington's or it was in washington
state in 2020 they found that over an eight -year
period out of 4 .5 million votes only 14 cases
popped up where there's a case of possible voter
fraud right that was insane right it's simply
just it doesn't happen on the scale that republicans
are talking about much like the trans issue it
just simply does not happen on the scale that
they are trying to paint it as right but they
are able to paint like that because they know
that people are you know so busy with their lives
that they might not necessarily know what the
actual numbers are yeah they paint it that way
because they know it makes a good sound bite
and it's fear You're able to control the narrative
by fear. Fear that some dark entity is taking
over our elections. That people who aren't actually
real are voting. Dead people are voting. Millions
of immigrants are voting. And not only are they
voting, they're turning your kids trans. And
then they're going to compete in sports and beat
girls in swimming. And it's like, all of this
ties together. It's different issues. We managed
to tie a nice little... bow around both of the
topics that we talked about today. But all that
being said, there's a lot of action to be taken
on both of these fronts. So above all else, we
are action -oriented on this show. Call your
legislators. Call your state senators. Call your
county commissioners. Seriously, there are tons
of... ways that county commissioners and city
councils can actually get involved and make sure
to plant their flag, so to speak, plant their
big gay flag and let people know that they support
the LGBTQ community. In fact, one of the first
towns, one of the first cities in my county this
week is going to be declaring a pride. support
statement a declaration of pride that it's the
first time that's ever happened in this county
ever and that's a step in the right direction
if i if i may say so myself but it's planning
a flag nonetheless go to community meetings you
know go to like your state board of elections
meeting or not state board county board of elections
meetings you know get involved on a micro level
if you can Just be in the room, if anything.
Yeah. You know, by you being in the room, it
shows that the people who are doing the work
there, it shows them that they are not doing
it without witnesses. Yeah. People say they want
to be in the room where it happens. And in some
rooms, it is incredibly easy to get in there.
So get in there. What are you waiting for? And
I hope that while you're doing that, You continue
to listen to us on this podcast, Left of Old
North. Also, we're going to be posting a lot
more on our sub stack. We've got a lot of newsletter
type stuff coming down the pipeline. Let us know
if you want to see more video, if you want to
see more of our TikTok. Yes, we do have a TikTok.
If you haven't checked it already, you should.
We are also on all socials as Left of Old North.
So make sure to go and follow us. If you cannot
make an actionable action within this week, make
sure to go and follow us. So you stay in the
loop and you can always reach out to us and ask
questions. We're more than happy to get involved
and engage with you. So if you want to reach
out to us, left of old north at gmail .com. Yeah.
Send us an email. Say, Hey, say what's up and
let us know if you're going to stay with us here
on the left of old north. Thank you, everybody.