National LGBTQ Task Force Launches ‘Movement Moments’ Podcast

Author: Trudy Ring

The National LGBTQ Task Force — the country’s oldest LGBTQ advocacy organization — Friday launched a new limited podcast series in honor of its 50th anniversary.

Movement Moments: The National LGBTQ Task Force at 50 will consist of six episodes and feature deep discussion on issues facing the LGBTQ+ community today, including attacks on the trans community and the role of faith in the movement, while also reflecting on key moments throughout Task Force history.

The anniversary comes as legislative attacks on the trans community, particularly at the state and local level, are reaching all-time highs. In the opening episode, which debuted Friday, best-selling author ALOK and TransLash Media founder Imara Jones discuss current realities for trans and nonbinary people in America on International Transgender Day of Visibility. You can listen to the episode wherever you get your podcasts or at this link.

“Our deep history of activism alongside our trans family guides us as we fight forces who would refuse the right to their very existence,” Kierra Johnson, executive director of the National LGBTQ Task Force, said in a press release. “We can’t stop at visibility, we need to take action. In this episode, we are so proud to highlight the voices of two visionaries, ALOK and Imara Jones, who are doing just that.”

Transgender Day of Visibility, celebrated annually on March 31, is a day to honor trans, nonbinary, and gender-nonconforming people around the world. In Movement Moments, ALOK and Jones discuss both the importance and the limitations of visibility, and how we need to prioritize action to drive progress for trans people in the U.S.

“I’m not sure that visibility worked out for us the way we thought it would,” ALOK said. “We were promised that if we became more visible then there would be more control of rights and recognition, but in fact there’s just been more retaliation, and we’re dealing with some of the most extreme and vehement pushback ever.”

But ALOK remains cautiously optimistic. “I’m into this thing called ‘hope, I guess,’” they said. “And it’s important the record says ‘hope, I guess,’ not just hope.”

In the episode, Jones talked about the power of storytelling, saying, “When I became a journalist, I began to move towards my own gender identity, to remove the calcified layers that I had developed to survive and the limitations that society put on me, mainly through the stories that they told about people like me. As I began to remove those, I understood the power that I had in combining my own personal experience with the power of storytelling to be able to move and shape the world around me.”

New episodes of Movement Moments will be released each month, with upcoming guests including Rev. Nicole Garcia, Mandy Carter, Joe Zuniga, Tanya Domi, and Task Force CEO Kierra Johnson.

Original Article on The Advocate
Author: Trudy Ring