North GA Blue: Getting into Good Trouble

Kathleen Canaday Minor, North Georgia Democratic Activist and Pride Advocate

June 08, 2022 Fannin Co. GA Democratic Party
North GA Blue: Getting into Good Trouble
Kathleen Canaday Minor, North Georgia Democratic Activist and Pride Advocate
Show Notes Transcript

The North GA Blue: Getting into Good Trouble podcast covers democratic politics in North GA, the 9th Congressional District, and across the state of Georgia. The podcast is in Q&A/Interview format with various democratic politicos including county chairs, democratic operatives, politicians, and more. It is our mission to deliver crucial information to our listeners in a timely manner as we fight for community values and principles in the 3rd most Conservative district in the state. Our website is: https://www.fcdpga.com/podcasts

Our guests highlight democratic activities and actions to work toward a Blue Georgia. The 9th Congressional District spans 20 counties across the region and covers a good deal of northern GA including Blue Ridge, Morganton, Fannin, Union, Banks, Athens/Clarke, Dawson, Elbert, Forsyth, Franklin, Gilmer, Habersham, Hall, Hart, Jackson, Lumpkin, Madison, Pickens, Rabun, Stephens, Towns, and White counties. 

Our democratic party podcast also disseminates information and interviews powerful Democrats across the state of GA working to overthrow the suppression tactics of the GOP and ensure democracy and our values, grassroots efforts, and goals remain intact. 

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Meral Clarke:

Hello and welcome back to the North Georgia Blue Podcast produced and distributed by the Fannin County, Georgia Democratic Party. I'm your host Meral Clarke and we're getting into some good trouble today with our guest Kathleen Canaday Minor an out and proud asexual and a romantic individual on the LGBT spectrum. She's also a strong north Georgia Democratic Party activist. So we're thrilled to have you here Kathleen, thanks for being with us today.

Kathleen Canaday Minor:

Thank you for having me.

Meral Clarke:

Well, let's let our listeners know a little bit about you. Kathleen is an out and proud asexual and a romantic woman who lives in Dalton, Georgia. She's a volunteer leader for the Democratic Party of Georgia and she and Leticia Stevens, another DPG volunteer were pictured in Time Magazine for their election work in 2020. Congratulations on that. She is chair of the Volunteer Coordinating Committee for the Whitfield County Georgia Democratic committee and volunteers as a speech and debate coach at Berry College. She uses her speech skills and all she learned in 2020 to give workshops to North Georgians on how to increase voter turnout and bring civility and kindness back to politics. Wouldn't that be nice? She graduated in 2019, from Berry College in Rome, Georgia. So again, welcome, Kathleen. And let's dive right in. You've stated that the power of telling our stories, and coming out as quote, the most political thing you can do and quote per such well known gay activist is Harvey Milk. And you've also use that storytelling as an evolutionary tool humans use or we know that it's an evolutionary tool that humans use to pass on information. Prior to written language. We respond most deeply to stories because storytelling is built into our DNA. So please share your story and tell us why storytelling matters about you're coming out as an aromantic asexual woman on the LGBT spectrum. A row is obviously short for aromantic and so ace, is the shortened term for asexual. Is that correct? Yes. Well tell us about these stories and why they matter. And tell us your story as well, if you would.

Kathleen Canaday Minor:

Okay, so I think you just gave pretty good definitions of asexual and aromantic and something that I've learned in politics is when we start using terms that some people don't understand which I mean, in politics, that's a pretty regular occurrence. But in this growing world of the LGBTQ plus, there's a plus now community. There's a lot of terminology that's just really new to people. And I've had to explain stuff like my parents are asking questions, and my brother asked questions, and so I kind of want to give a couple of definitions really quick. So LGBT Q plus, that's just a term that we use to describe everybody that's not straight. It's everybody represented under that big rainbow pride flag. The L stands for lesbian, G gay be bisexual, T transgender, que means queer, and the list just goes on. And then asexual. We're gonna get into that a little bit later. It's a weird term. But the easiest way to understand it is when you think about hetero, sexual or homosexual, that means sexual attraction to the opposite sex or to the same sex, a sexual means without sexual attraction. And then a romantic, same way that a is without so without romantic feelings. So I, as an asexual and a romantic person, don't experience sexual attraction, and I don't experience romantic feelings. So that's just a couple of definitions. So the power of stories, Harvey Milk, who we talked a little bit about, he was the first openly gay elected official in California. And he had this quote, he said, the most political thing you can do is come out and he said that because when he was in politics in the 70s, gay was this weird label was the scary thing that was being used as almost a weapon. And gay as a label is a really easy thing to attack. But when gay becomes a person, that's not so easy to attack. So Harvey Milk said, you know, when you come out gay goes from being a label to being your brother, or your sister, or your cousin or your best friend or this than the other. And, you know, it's really hard to push for rights for a label. But when you're pushing for human rights, that changes a lot of stuff really quickly. And so Harvey Milk argued that coming out is the most political thing you can do. And then Dustin Lance Black, who's probably a little bit less known, he wrote the screenplay for the movie Milk, about Harvey Milk came out in 2008. Excellent movie. And Dustin, Lance Black said that telling our stories of coming out and being LGBT Q, he said that that was the most political thing that you could do. And he used his filmmaking skills and his filmmaking community to this was in 2008, when or 2007 and 2008, when Prop Eight was in California to ban gay marriage. And he used his filmmaking skills to like get a bunch of people together and have them tell their coming out stories. They got those stories out to as many people as they could they use that to change public opinion. Because when you start telling your stories, people relate to stories, right? Like before we had written language, all we could do was sit around the campfire and like, tell these stories. And that's some of those stories that we've been telling for generations are still here. Because they go down from one generation to the next, we retain information that comes to us in stories. And so with filming these stories of gay people all over California, Dustin, Lance Black, helped overturn Prop Eight in California, because that pushed public opinion, gay was no longer a label, but it was all of these human faces.

Meral Clarke:

And that always makes a difference when you equate a term with an actual human being right?

Kathleen Canaday Minor:

Yes, it's really easy to hate a label, but it is really hard to hate your brother or your best friend, or cousin. And so that's kind of the power of stories in like the coming out community. And I've been reading a lot of Brene Brown lately. I don't know if you've heard of her. Yes, her TED talk on shame and vulnerability is one of the most watched TED talks of all time, it's fantastic. And she talks about this fear we all have of being vulnerable. And you know, coming out is one of the most vulnerable things that you can do. We fear being vulnerable. But vulnerability is what makes us human. And we have this tendency to hide our stories, hide these things that make us really who we are, because they're full of imperfections. And they're full of these messy things. And a lot of us are really weird when we like, get really honest. But those imperfections are what make us human. And they allow us to connect to other humans. And she's got this quote, in the Gifts of Imperfection. She says we can only belong when we offer our most authentic selves. And when we're embraced for who we are. And she doesn't say who we think we're supposed to be. She says who we are. She doesn't want us to fit in. She wants us to belong fitting in is trying to be straight when you're not straight. Belonging is realizing that you are gay, or asexual and being open about that.

Meral Clarke:

And it's scary sometimes, especially when you're coming out to family and friends. Oh, definitely. who may not know and may or may not be supportive. Yeah, not everyone is

Kathleen Canaday Minor:

Yeah. And when I was coming out, I have a very liberal, forward thinking family. And even when I was coming out, I realized this kind of sucks. Because even when you've got parents that, you know, they're going to be fine with it. You don't know what they're going to say. And I also realized, you know, straight people don't have to do this. It's just everybody that's not straight. And we don't have to do it once we have to do it over and over and over and over again. I came out to my brother and then to my parents and to my best friend and then my other best friend and I came out on the internet and I'm talking to this person in my personal life that doesn't use the internet that I'm going to have to come out to them at some point and it just keeps going on.

Meral Clarke:

So tell us about coming out why you decided to come out when you did and what that experience was like for you on a personal level.

Kathleen Canaday Minor:

Well, the reason that I came out when I did publicly online I did, I came out

Meral Clarke:

I know I saw it on Facebook.

Kathleen Canaday Minor:

Did this big post on Instagram and Facebook and I just threw it at the world from it. I told my story and it actually went really great but the reason I did this in January I was gonna wait until Pride Month but I did it in January because you know the don't say gay legislation. I was going through Florida. And I just, you know, for a very long time, I didn't have the language to describe who I was, I thought I was straight until I was 26 years old. And when I finally had that word, a sexual that changed my whole life, it was like this 20 pounds, weight just got lifted. And I was like, Oh, my God, I'm not straight. This is incredible. And this Don't say gay legislation is so dangerous to me. Because you're taking away the language for these kids to explain who they are to other people and to themselves.

Meral Clarke:

It's going to result in a lot of kids being extremely confused, extremely hurt. There's no doubt about it.

Kathleen Canaday Minor:

Yeah. Because when you don't know who you are, when you think there's something wrong with you, I grew up with these boxes that I wanted to check. I wanted to go to school, get married, have kids in that order, because that's what I saw all the adults around me doing. That's what I saw my parents and grandparents and all of these adults had done all these things. And so I thought I'm supposed to do those things. And I got to college, and I was desperately trying to date and it really didn't go well at all. Oh, it's okay. The last time that I tried to date somebody, we went to a movie, and the movie was fine. And then we were texting all week. And then I have looked up on the Internet, what are you supposed to do on dates, and I read that you were supposed to go to coffee shops, and I was like, I don't even like coffee. And I was like, Oh no, I have to go to the coffee shop with them. And I was standing in my parents kitchen and freaking out about it. I don't want to go to the coffee shop. And my mom's like, What are you talking about? And she was like, Well, you don't have to date this person. And I was like, No, I do have to date this person. I'm 22. And I've never dated anybody successfully. And she was like, Kathleen, you date when you're ready. And I was like, No, I have to make this work. I gotta check my boxes. And my mom just hugged me. And she was like, Listen, you date when you're ready to date and I'm in my head thinking I'm never gonna be ready. So it was like a Hallmark movie driving back to campus. Because I was in my car. It was pouring down rain. I'm sobbing on the interstate. And I get back to my dorm room. And I just write this long, terrifying breakup text like this poor boy. And it had like three crying face emojis. And by the way, we had only been on one date that ended by terrible, horrible, no good, very bad dating history. Because two weeks later, Jericho Brown, this wonderful, amazing human being and poet, he won the Pulitzer Prize came to campus. And he changed my life. I was here for a poetry reading and a q&a. And he was answering questions in our class. And this girl asked this question, and I didn't think anything about it, because she was using language that I had always used. Like, when we're kids, we're like, when I get married, I'm gonna have this at my wedding. Or when we're in high school, we're like, when I have kids, I'm going to raise them this way. So this girl asked this question, and she said the words when I get married, blank, and then she started to ask a question. But Jericho just started laughing. And we all got quiet. And we were like, What is he laughing about? And then he said, When I get married when I have kids? And he looked at all of us, and he said, Do you realize what kind of a commitment that is? And I just sat there like a fish for the rest of the q&a. I have no idea what else was said, because he was laughing at all of these boxes that I was trying to check.

Meral Clarke:

Well, they're all cultural expectations. Yeah, we're all expected to check those boxes and to follow that lead. And that's not true. It's not reality. And

Kathleen Canaday Minor:

I had been trying to do all of these things, because everybody else was doing them. And that's a terrible reason to do anything. And so I sat there in class, just having this paradigm shift with my mouth wide open, going, I don't want to get married. I don't want to do any of this. I'm never dating again in my life, because that sucks. And I just don't want to do it. And so I went through the rest of college thinking, I don't have to check these boxes. This is awesome. But I also still think I'm straight. And I don't check any of the boxes. And I felt so out of place. I was happier. But I felt so out of place. And by the time the pandemic rolled around, like I graduated, and the pandemic rolled around, and we're all doing a bunch of self evaluation during this pandemic, because what else are you supposed to do when you can't leave your house? And these feelings of being out of place? Why is nobody else like me? Why can everybody else fill check these boxes? Because I mean, I'm on Facebook and all these girls that I grew up with, they've got two kids, they're working on a third they have a mortgage, that husband and all of this stuff, and I'm like, I don't want to do any of that. And so these feelings that kind of started to become this bitterness and this frustration like why am I the only one and I was sharing all of this with one of my best friends and they stopped me and they were like, Kathleen, are you asexual? I flashed back to 2011. I saw this coming out video on YouTube. And I saw the term a sexual back in like 2011. And I was like, What is this? And I watched that whole video of this girl being really brave and coming out and being herself and telling her story and being authentic. Watch the whole video. And back in 2011 This was my reaction. You ready for this? I said she's just confused. He doesn't know who she is. That's not a real thing. This term doesn't exist anywhere else. She just hasn't found her person yet. She hasn't checked her boxes. And when she checks her boxes, she'll be happy.

Meral Clarke:

You weren't ready to embrace the concept.

Kathleen Canaday Minor:

Yeah, absolutely not. And then my friend said something that changed my life. Again, after the Jericho moment. They said, asexuality is a spectrum. I had no idea what that meant. And so I said, Okay, hold please. And I went and did an hour of research. I read everything. And I went on this deep dive and I went to the Trevor Project, which they have excellent resources, if you ever have any questions about any of this stuff, and I learned what this asexuality Spectrum was. And this is the problem with asexuality. A lot of the terms under the pride flag, LGBTQ when you look at gay and bisexual, those are defined by you're sexually attracted to people of the same sex you're sexually attracted to men and women. But asexuality has this weird definition. It's a lack of not of sexual attraction, but a lack of the same level of sexual attraction that most gay, bisexual straight people experience. I did all my research, I read all of the things and I came back 30 minutes later, and I said to my friend, dude, I'm asexual. And they were like, congratulations. And it was like this weight got lifted off my shoulders. And I was like, I don't have to check these boxes. Because these aren't my boxes to check.

Meral Clarke:

You have different boxes, which is perfectly fine.

Kathleen Canaday Minor:

Yeah, everybody's got their own boxes.

Meral Clarke:

There's nothing wrong with that. And it makes us all individuals and who we are. So basically, your friend asking you that question was the impetus for you to realize who you are? Yeah. Which is a wonderful thing. Sometimes our friends know us better than ourselves.

Kathleen Canaday Minor:

Oh, for sure. My friends know me way better than I do. And I was just like, could y'all know I have told me this, like years ago, this would have helped me so much in college?

Meral Clarke:

It takes time. And you're extremely fortunate to be living in an era where you have the opportunity to explore all these different definitions and explore your sexuality or asexuality and to be open about it. Because certainly, when I was growing up, that was not the case. We're so lucky to be in this era now. And I'm so happy for millennials and Gen Z to be able to come out and be fierce and be brave. Thank you for your bravery. You've also stated that asexuality is the black sheep, quote, unquote, on the LGBTQ plus spectrum. And while it doesn't have a clean cut definition, there is a gray area, which you've mentioned. And while Love is love has become the rallying cry recognition of asexuality is oftentimes overlooked. Why is this? And what can we do to change that perception?

Kathleen Canaday Minor:

Well, so the definition that I just gave of asexuality was a pretty long definition. Like if you're gay, you can say to a straight person, well, I'm attracted to the same sex where you're attracted to the opposite sex, that's really easy to understand, because the language is very similar. But a sexuality the language is different. And there's a spectrum. And there's a lot to it when I started looking for a definition, because I came out to my brother. And he was like, that's really cool. I don't know what that is. And I stopped and I was like, I don't really know what that is either. And so I started looking for a definition, and I couldn't find one, the definitions are different everywhere you look. And the best one that I could put together for myself was, it's a lack of the same level of sexual attraction experienced by most straight gay, bisexual, etc. People. I mean, just the language is a little bit harder to understand. My brother and I sat there for three hours that night that I told him, and he would send me articles, and I would answer questions, and I would send him stuff. And he would say, okay, so this and I would be like, Yeah, this, and it took us three hours together to kind of explain it to each other. And if we had a better definition that was just across the board, like if the Google definition and the Trevor Project definition and all of these definitions was the same thing. I feel like that would kind of clean things up a little bit.

Meral Clarke:

But let me ask you this, how can it be the same thing when the spectrum is so wide and diverse?

Kathleen Canaday Minor:

You really do have to teach these things in schools and you have to have the language to describe, okay, this is a spectrum. How are you supposed to describe that to a person that only understands gay and straight or even just straight? I think that there's a spectrum to how you can experience being straight. I think there's a spectrum to how you can experience being gay. At the end of the day, I'm attracted to this kind of person. And asexuality is just there's a lot that goes into it. And I think the way that that changes, is there, so little representation of us in media and TV and movies. And the thing that movies and TV are so good at is telling stories visually. In the 90s when the movie Philadelphia with Tom Hanks, when that came out, I wasn't alive quite yet. But I would assume there were a lot of people that were like, Yeah, Tom Hanks is playing a gay person. This is great representation. And not just a gay person, but a human being that has to deal with the struggle to live with AIDS when there was no cure. And it was this very human story, when people who maybe think that this is a really weird label, and they see that movie, that movie and telling that story makes it a little bit easier to understand, oh, this is what gay is?

Meral Clarke:

Well, that circles back around to the storytelling. I mean, it's important to tell these stories. So more folks are aware and cognizant of this segment of the population. So let me ask you this. Are any of the major LGBTQ groups out there? Like, say, the Human Rights Campaign? Is this something that they're working on? Is this something that they're planning to highlight? So more asexual and a romantic people can come out and be free to tell their stories? Do you know?

Kathleen Canaday Minor:

I'm pretty new to this community. From what I know, I know, there's an ace week ace is short for asexual. It's at the end of October, I think. And that's kind of celebration, more on the internet, I think of the asexual community. And I know that the Human Rights Campaign has resources. When I came out, I posted in the comments and the descriptions a link to the Human Rights Campaign article on asexuality. That was a pretty good overview of what this is. But as far as planning things to make it easier for asexual people to come out. I'm not entirely sure I can't answer that question. As well as I would like.

Meral Clarke:

So you mentioned that asexuality is the black sheep on the LGBTQ plus spectrum. Does that mean that gay people look askance at asexual people or that gay lesbian, bisexual, transgender or what have you also don't understand the term or what it means?

Kathleen Canaday Minor:

Well, so when I was researching this, and debating when should I come out? How publicly should I come out? The thing that kind of worried me a little bit as I would watch all these videos, and read a lot of articles and asexual people would talk about how even within the LGBTQ plus spectrum, asexual people were kind of this weird third party, because love is love is love is love. Lin Manuel Miranda kind of coined that term during the Tony Awards a couple of years ago. And that kind of became the rallying cry of the LGBTQ community. But asexuality is a lack thereof.

Meral Clarke:

What about self love? Isn't that included?

Kathleen Canaday Minor:

You know that now that you say that? I'm thinking? Of course.

Meral Clarke:

Of course it is. Hi,

Kathleen Canaday Minor:

I'm reading Brene Brown and self love is still very new to me. I'm gonna write this down.

Meral Clarke:

Because it's true. And that just occurred to me when you said Love is love. But self love is probably the most important love that we have. And without self love, how can we possibly love anyone else? And that just occurred to me right now, as we're talking about it. So that should be included in the love is love rallying cry for everyone, regardless of sexuality or a sexuality.

Kathleen Canaday Minor:

It seems really easy, okay, I can love other people even if love is just as a friend and things like that. But I think we have the most trouble loving ourselves and loving our stories. And this is what Brene Brown keeps talking about, like we got to embrace our story and own our story because that's what makes us human. That's what makes other people love us is these things that make us us. So love is love also includes ourselves. Yes, this is awesome.

Meral Clarke:

Yes, first and foremost, as far as I'm concerned, so good. I'm glad I could contribute. Let's put that into the definition because it needs to be there. So, circling back around to the don't say gay legislation and its role in the midterms and how it significantly affects the LGBTQ plus generation just starting to reach voting age. So we're talking about Gen Z. Can you expound on that and how it's affected if folks your age, or perhaps younger than you who may just be turning 18 19 20 21? And figuring out who they are themselves? Can we talk about that for a moment?

Kathleen Canaday Minor:

I think about this in terms of like, if Harvey Milk were around today, I think he would just be appalled that we're still having to do this. So back in the 70s, Harvey Milk, he was an elected official in the late 70s. And this Don't say gay stuff, back then was kind of the majority opinion of the US like we hadn't embraced at asexuality was definitely not a term back then I'm just gonna assume but like, right now, we're in 2022. Man, like my generation and the generation that's coming after me Gen Z, they're overwhelmingly just embracing everybody. Because we're all just humans, this whole divisive nature of politics right now. And Democrats versus Republicans and straight people versus not straight people and abortion versus pro choice. I don't talk to many people my age that relate to any of that. I'm a very hopeful person, it's sometimes the noise the people around me who want to worry and complain about things which I can understand. But I don't think it's gonna be a positive thing for the GOP and the people that are pushing this legislation, because all these gay kids that are being told that there's something so wrong with them, that they can't even be talked about in schools, and the public officials have to vote to make sure that we can ever talk about them. They have the internet now. And they have access to the Trevor Project. And they have access to definitions and they have access to the language, they have access to allies. It's not like it was in the 70s, where you had to meet people and talk to them on the telephone, you can literally get on YouTube, I learned what transgender was by watching a couple of transgender YouTubers talk about their lives. And I saw that YouTube video from an asexual person, I wasn't ready for it back then. But we have all of these outlets to find this language, even when we're not allowed to use that language in the schools. And so to me, these don't say gay bills that are one went through Florida, and they're going through Georgia, me as a really hopeful person. I hoped that encourages these young people, this affects their human rights. And I think that's going to encourage them to say screw you old people, we're going to get out to the polls, and we're going to make our voices heard.

Meral Clarke:

I would love to see that happen.

Kathleen Canaday Minor:

Me too. Because there's all this talk about in 2016, there was all this blame that was put on my generation, where we were the age group that turned out the least like we had the lowest voter turnout. But my generation is angry. We're just angry. All of these things are taken away from us. And we've been called violent and angry and useless. And we're also called clueless. And we don't do our research. We've reached voting age, man. voice heard

Meral Clarke:

Yeah, absolutely. So what do you believe is fueling the resurgence of anti gay rhetoric and bills? And how do we fight it?

Kathleen Canaday Minor:

It all comes down to voting, what I think is leading to this, I'm a history nerd. So the GOP, the grand old party, means the Republican Party traditionally benefited the very wealthy, very religiously conservative, and those with a deep love and respect for the military. There's nothing wrong with any of that. But as we have progressed through the ages, there's fewer and fewer really wealthy people, there's fewer and fewer really religiously conservative people, like a lot of people my age don't go to church anymore. And they have a much more open view of what religion is and spirituality. And so there's fewer and fewer of these people that traditionally benefit from GOP policies. And so in the 80s, the GOP had this moment where they could either change their policy or apply their policy to more groups or try and reach more groups I should say. So rather than changing policy, they said, well, let's reach out to these fringe groups. So they started reaching out to the anti abortion and the gun rights groups and as they reach out to these fringe groups, these other people that are still holding on in the GOP are like hmm, I don't know how I feel about this. So more people leave the GOP. And so the GOP reaches out to more fringe groups, and more people leave. And so they reach out to more fringe groups. And this kind of goes in this vicious cycle. And now it's kind of become the party of the fringe groups rather than the party of policy, because GOP policy no longer really affects anybody. It affects the really wealthy people. And that's kind of it. And so the GOP policy that used to benefit quite a few people, there's so few of those people left, that the GOP can't focus on policy anymore, because it doesn't bring in enough voters, they have to focus on these other things, these cultural issues. At this point, the GOP is reaching out to people that I don't think in any other regular circumstance, they would vote, because they're not policy voters, they are reactionary voters, is what I call the reactionary Yes.

Meral Clarke:

And let's face it, the GOP doesn't have a policy. I mean, they don't have a platform.

Kathleen Canaday Minor:

It is really, really easy to be really angry at these Republican voters. But I always try to remind myself not to misplace my anger, because it's not the Republican voters that are causing these issues. It's the leadership of the party. It's the Mitch McConnell's. And it's the people that are creating these issues to trick people into voting for them. They've convinced a group of people that don't benefit from those policies to vote for them anyway. And so those poor and those rural, and those very conservative voters who vote for these people thinking, Oh, they're going to help me out, they're going to bring me up, because I'm in a really bad position. And I want somebody to help me. And so they're hearing these leaders like Marjorie, Taylor Greene and Donald Trump, who say that they care about them. And these people vote for them. And then when these people's lives don't improve the rhetoric is, well, it's because of the other side, you've got to continue to vote for us so that we can help you. Right now we look at some of these voters in GOP and we're like, how can you possibly believe that, but 30 years ago, this person, we're going to call this person, Bob, 30 years ago, Bob believed just about what you and I believe. And then Bob was asked to believe this one thing that was a little bit different from what we believe. And he said, Okay, I believe that and then building on that they said, Okay, now believe this other little thing that's not that different from this thing that you just agreed to, it's like going up the stair steps, right? And Bob says, Okay, that makes sense to me, too. And then like building blocks, you go up a step, and you go up a step. And Bob believes this. And then Bob believes that and all of these things make sense to him, because he slowly worked his way up the steps, right? And you and I are over here, we come in. And we see Bob way up at the top of these steps. And he's talking about the stuff that makes perfect sense to him. And we're at the bottom of the steps. And we're like, how did you get up there? Yeah. And so to me, when I look at these Republican voters that are voting against their own self interests, I am not angry at these people at all. I'm just angry at the leadership, who has abused this group of people for so long. They've tricked these people into voting for leaders that don't benefit them at all that make their lives harder.

Meral Clarke:

The Republicans are masters at being able to persuade people to vote against their own self interest. Yeah,

Kathleen Canaday Minor:

I do these political workshops where I tell people take the words Democrat and Republican out of your vocabulary, because a lot of people don't know what the words Democrat and Republican mean. They just know that they are parties that fight with each other. And when we use that Republican word, it's a big group of people that are inside of that word, and it's maybe not as diverse as the Democratic Party. I mean, we've got everybody from Joe Manchin to Bernie Sanders, right. But within that word, Republican, there's also some really great people in there, like John McCain was in there. And I didn't agree with many of his policies, but he was a good person. And I have a lot of family members that are good people. And they're Republicans. And I don't like to use that word, because it lumps all of those really good people in with the Mitch McConnell's. Sure. It's divisive. It's very divisive. And when I would say, well, Republicans are awful people, I was inadvertently calling really great people in my family, terrible people when I met the party. And so I try to be really specific when I use those words and say, I'm really angry at this particular Republican leader.

Meral Clarke:

So that leads me to another topic that you had brought up politics versus policy, and the role it plays in voter turnout. How can we ensure that Democrats show up in droves other than the Politico story about the Supreme Court How can we ensure that Democrats show up this year like they did in 2020? Because we need all hands on deck.

Kathleen Canaday Minor:

I think we do it by not focusing on turning out Democrats with that sounds really, really weird, but I'm gonna try and explain what's in my head. So politics versus policy. We have this idea. And it's we've gotten more and more into the square politics. We look at that. And we think politics means Democrats versus Republicans. And what that does when we talk about Democrats are better, you need to vote for Democrats and Republicans suck. In this kind of rhetoric. You and I know what the word Democrat means we know the policies that it stands for. But a lot of people in our party has just started using the word Democrat. And to a lot of the people that see those words. They don't know what the word Democrat means. They just think it means a political party. And they see Democrats fighting with Republicans and Republicans fighting with Democrats and to a person that doesn't have that political background that you and I have, there's no discernible difference between the parties to them.

Meral Clarke:

No, there is they think it's two sides of the same coin. I actually had a highly educated person say that to me that Biden and Trump were just two sides of the same coin. And that's not true.

Kathleen Canaday Minor:

Yeah. And they say that, because we've gotten away from talking about our policy, the difference between those political parties is policy based. And it was very policy based back in the 80s, like the difference between Democrat and Republican was who was going to be taxed, the parties agree that somebody had to be taxed, the Democrats said the upper class has to be taxed. The Republican said, the middle and lower classes need to be taxed this whole trickle down economics idea. And so there was this very clear choice that you made when you went to the polls, what kind of policy am I going to support? But now it's are you going to support a Democrat? Are you going to support a Republican, and we've gotten away from talking about our policies, our policies are awesome. When you start talking about well, we want to make sure there's not potholes on i 75, that are the size of cars. And we want to make sure that there are counties in Georgia that don't have hospitals. And if you have a heart attack, and the closest hospital is 35 minutes away, what are you supposed to do, and making sure health care is affordable, those are policies, when we start talking about policy, everybody in the room understands what that means. That's universal language, politics, political language, is very exclusionary language. And the way that I define it in my political workshops is think of exclusionary, this political, exclusionary language think of like doctors, when they start talking to each other. My dad's a doctor and my brothers in medical school. And when they're both home, they start talking about medical stuff. And I know that they're speaking English, but God knows what they're talking about. When that happens, I don't want to sit there and feel stupid. So I just leave the room. That same thing happens in politics. And the problem with that is when we start using this political language, the people around us just leave that conversation, right? They just tune out. Yeah. And the problem with that is when they leave that political conversation, they end up not voting and not taking part in our democracy.

Meral Clarke:

We have to make sure that we reach that entire segment of voters who don't understand or potential voters who don't understand that it is about policy and policy does affect their everyday lives. Honestly, Kathleen, I could talk to you all day, you are just a font of information. And this is so great that we have the ability to speak about this as we celebrate Pride Month. If someone out there one of our listeners is struggling with their sexuality or a sexuality as it may be, where would you send them to get help? And to obtain those resources that were so important for you? Would you send them to the Trevor Project?

Kathleen Canaday Minor:

I think so. They have excellent resources. When I was looking at the asexuality spectrum, there were pictures that literally explained to me, this is what this looks like. And I'm a visual learner. And so that was excellent. Definitely go to the Trevor Project, read everything. I think that'll help a lot.

Meral Clarke:

Since our listeners are Democrats and tend to be a bit more open minded, it might be helpful for some of them to understand that they're not alone. Well, finally, Kathleen, I ask all my guests this question, tell us a fun fact about yourself something not necessarily related to your democratic activism for which we thank you profusely, something not related to necessarily pride month for which we also thank you for all of your activism there. Something fun just about Kathleen.

Kathleen Canaday Minor:

I am a fourth degree black belt in Taekwondo.

Meral Clarke:

Wow. And you're tiny. Yay.

Kathleen Canaday Minor:

I'm tiny. I'm a taekwondo master when I go to taekwondo. They call me Master Kathleen, which took a lot of getting used to, but it's also kind of cool.

Meral Clarke:

It's very cool. Well, that's great and surprising. I didn't see that one coming. So good for you it just goes to show that you don't have to be big and tall to be powerful, which you obviously are. Well, thank you, Kathleen for joining us today and sharing more about your critical work to support the LGBTQ plus community and ensure equity and equality. I'm Meral Clarke and on behalf of our team, I'd like to thank everyone for listening to the North Georgia Blue Podcast. Join us next time when we chat with Austin Heller LGBTQ plus activists former Cobb County School Board candidate and current member of Georgia representative Park Canons reelection campaign. To learn more about us in the work that we're doing, visit us online at Fannin County, Georgia democrats.com. Share the North Georgia Blue Podcast with your friends and family be sure to subscribe and follow and if you enjoy our podcast be a founding patron and friend of the show at North Georgia blue podcast.com/patron. Now with three different giving levels to choose from offering cool swag recognition on the show and website and valuable gift cards to help us continue getting into more good trouble.