Queer Joy is Resistance: Winning Big for the LGBTQ+ Community

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I’m Eric Chemi. And this is Politely Pushy. Hey Suzanne. How are you today? >> I’m good. I’m good. How are you, Shaun? >> I am good. I’m ready uh to help lead us

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through along with um uh patients who will also be kind of guiding you through this uh this interview today. Uh but before we do that and jump in, wanted to see if uh just give yourself a quick kind of intro and your background and tell everybody, you know, about yourself.

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>> Hi, I’m Suzanne Ford. My pronouns are she/her, and I’m the executive director of the most iconic queer organization in the world, uh as coined by WindFam, uh San Francisco Pride. Uh this will be I’m in my uh fifth cycle. This will be my fifth Pride in June. Um and um yeah,

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I’ve been most of the time I’ve been here with you all. >> Yeah. Yeah. No, we’ve very much enjoyed the partnership. Uh I can personally say that you are my uh favorite account to work on. Um and I think you know it’s part of because just the the great work

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that uh you and the organization are doing. Uh we’re we’re so happy to be a part of it. Um kind of wanted to jump in right there. You know, for those who don’t know, what is Queer Joy is resistance? You know, we wanted to be able to send a message. We wanted our community to know

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that first of all on Pride Sunday, you you definitely have the right to come together and to have joy. We we can’t miss that in our community. We spend a lot of the year fighting um oppression and fighting, you know, a lot of things. But we want to

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make sure that on Pride Sunday that you could come together and have joy. And then, you know, we have to resist. And so we, you know, we wanted to make sure also that people know that our our heritage is wrapped up in resistance. So you could come together, you could love one

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another, and you could resist at the same time. >> Yeah. And what made it message for the moment? I mean, I think obviously just everything going on with the current administration, um, was the thought to really lean in there and just showcase that you can’t,

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you know, you cannot silence us. right, I mean, we wake up every morning in this country, especially as a trans person, um, facing facing terrible oppression. There’s new legislation or someone’s pulled their support from us. Um this this this political climate has been so difficult

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for our people and we know that uh we know we we are called a lot of times about our opinion or what we suggest should be done and then so so that weekend pride weekend the whole world looks at San Francisco to see what our response is and you know we want to we

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want to make sure that we’re loving our community first. That’s just be our first job is to love our community. uh we have to stand up to that oppression and say it’s wrong, but we don’t want to miss that part where we love our community. >> Absolutely. I think it’s super important

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to always kind of remind uh um that community um that we do love them and we do support them and we are here for them. Uh going into this year’s uh Pride, uh what are your I guess what are you feeling? How are you feeling? >> You know, I feel optimistic in some

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ways. I feel the pendulum might be swinging some. I know that we’ve probably felt that way before uh during this this person’s administration, but I do feel a sense of we’re going to emerge from this. I think, you know, resistance in action is the theme this year and we wanted people

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to have concrete ways that they can get together and that they can express their outrage and and they can express their resilience about how we’re going to move forward. I would like to see it switch more. The the conversation start to be around what are we going to rebuild? How are we

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going to make sure that everyone feels, you know, brought along in recovery? You know, we we were with the mayor of San Francisco recently talking about that. >> Very true. Um, so this past year, um, we, uh, together, uh, SF Pride and, uh, Bospar won the PR weeks US awards 2026

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best in community relations campaign. Um, for the work that we did for last year’s campaign. Uh, really kind of excited, you know, and just happy that that um, that really stood out amongst what, you know, was a very crowded landscape, particularly among the PR entries.

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um what were you seeing culturally I guess that others weren’t um you know during during last year’s campaign? >> Well, I I think the corporate world obviously there were some pullbacks but I think with Bospar’s help we were able to spotlight that and I think what was

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really important with Bospar’s help we were we were able to call people back into the community. We called out the behavior, but we called the people back in. And I think that model, as long as I’ve been executive director of San Francisco Pride, sometimes we fail. But

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for the most part, for the most part, Bospar’s helped us make sure that we did that. We we have to stand up and say, “This is wrong.” There were some there were some corporations that had let us know they were going to leave and and we called that out. But then, you know, we

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got some call backs after we started talking about this with Bospar’s help. And I think I think we kept a loving attitude. And above all else, I want to do that. We we have to be we can’t be an organization that’s based in hate. It it just doesn’t work. That that’s that’s

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the other side’s job. We have to be an organization that’s based on love. And and I you know, I think that you could see that in all our relationships, especially our relationship with Bospar. We love our teammates at Bospar and they’re part of the family and and that

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comes through I think in the messaging >> honestly right back at you. We feel the same way. It’s it’s more of a family at this point than it is a um a part business partnership. Um, curious uh the of the role the community voices played last year because that was a I think

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that was a big part in really helping the the campaign come to life and showcasing you know particularly as a lot of um you know sponsors that uh you had worked with for years uh backed out how their voices really helped to shape and drive uh the campaign forward in in

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moving the needle. you know, the media. I remember last year when it happened, uh I believe we were on interviews uh back to back, you know, almost every other day um calling it out. I’m curious for those who think that there isn’t something that you can do, you know,

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when you’re sitting there hopeless at home. There is, right? And there’s there is a role that the community can play in really helping to make sure that those voices are lifted and that you do get a um they do have a say. you know, uh, we raised some individual donations. They

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they really came up. Um, it wouldn’t be enough. I mean, in this game and like our budget, it it just you can’t you can’t hardly raise enough individual donations to make up for four or five major sponsors. But through that, through the donations, um, through the support in the

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community, through other there were other executive directors at queer nonprofits in San Francisco that highlighted the issue. Um, my phone wouldn’t stop ringing. If I wasn’t on an interview, somebody was calling me to say, “We’re with you.” Um, I think

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>> Yeah. Yeah. It galvanized the community. You know, even this year going into the cycle, people were like, “Hey, how are those corporations treating you?” I think >> I think people saw that they did have a part in San Francisco Pride. you know, and if if the corporations thought that

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by pulling out they were going to dampen our mood or our support, that’s not what happened. I think it was nothing. We really we more we had to keep everybody like, okay, yes, the these some of these corporations have done some poor things, but the people at the corporations are

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our siblings, so let’s not, you know, it’s always a fine line. And I really felt through the whole thing that the community was pulling for us and that’s extended into this year. >> And I think that was really shown in and in and you know proof forward in the

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queer joy is resistance, right? It’s like you you think you can you may think that what you’re doing is going to hurt or maybe silence, but it’s actually resisting is what’s you know is going to light a fire you know for us and really help drive us forward and and push us to

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go even farther. >> Yeah. Go ahead. Go ahead. Patience. Sure. >> Let me add in also from a media relations point of view. You know, through our collaboration, we’re constantly working with SF Pride from the Bospar side and we saw at the beginning of last year this like real

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cultural uncertainty with what the administration was going to do, what this DEI roll back was going to look like nationwide. And I think that we were able to really hit on some radical honesty to put Suzanne’s face out there and say, “We need community help and

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this is exactly what’s going on inside your favorite organizations and this is exactly what you can do.” And I think, you know, Suzanne, you would have the right number for it, but those community donations really I think were record-breaking or at least near

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record-breaking for last year. Yeah, it was a huge increase over the former year over the prior year. I haven’t seen anything like it. I I hope that we are continuing and I think there’s a lot of momentum this year. Um but for sure being up in the media and

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and talking in a real way was a help to the organization. I think the board, you know, the board members, they volunteer volunteers and for them, I think it was a proud moment that story being up in the media and that they knew that we were fighting the fight. But it all goes

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back to our resilience as a community. We know what this community has faced since, you know, since the dawn of time. But, you know, 70s, 80s, 90s on through, every generation has had their moment in our community. And this is our moment. And I think that this story and and the

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theme just all of that and going to the community and saying this is your pride. I think it really worked. >> I’m curious going into last year because like as you were going in particularly in in the May time frame, right? I mean you were going in with a deficit, right?

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And you were and we were seeing corporations pulling out when did you start to feel the the tide starting to shift? Well, when the a few of them returned, I I mean, from a corporate standpoint, it did shift and we we from a corporate standpoint, we were okay. Individual

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donations, we were okay. Uh last year was a tough year as far as as receipts from the event itself. Uh we lost some funding in the mayor’s office. So, that that debt carried on into this year. We’re still facing. It’s I hate I I hate the fact that we’re still in a

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precarious situation. The story last year did its job, but there were some other areas where we couldn’t control with our story and that debt carried on into this year and it’s it’s making us it’s I didn’t want to be talking about it this year. I just wanted to be talk

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about the success of that campaign. But we’re still in a very precarious situation. uh normal people would just pack it up and leave town. And I’ve thought about it, but but um you know, we yeah, we need to tell we’re you know, you all know we’re back in and we need to

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tell that story again in a new it’s and it’s different. It’s a different story. Um >> it’s not just about corporations pulling out. This story is about city funding. This story is about making sure that individuals know that that San Francisco Pride is still it’s still very fragile

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and you can’t take it for granted. I know that every year you cannot take for granted that it’s going to happen. It’s right now it looks tough. Um I think it’s it’s April 21st. We have to you know we really have to and we really have to to find about $800,000 in about six weeks.

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I’m curious what did what in your perspective what do you think that the media got wrong about the story last year and what are you hoping that they it comes across better this year that they get right? I think it’s it’s more it’s it’s it’s not an easy story. There’s not as simple

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as bad corporation, good, you know, it’s it’s just not that. It’s a very new it’s we have a very nuanced argument about corporations and how they should be involved. But I think what gets left out is is our our queer siblings that work at those corporations. I, you know, I I’m in

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touch with that given what’s happened over the last, you know, couple of weeks. But it really, this story misses out sometimes on all those queer employees that work at places like Apple or Amazon or, you know, plug anybody in there and the story becomes about the

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corporation in San Francisco Pride and they’re not there and and San Francisco Pride. Obviously, we’re responsible to our community that sometimes criticizes the corporization of pride, but we’re also responsible for those those queer people that work at those corporations and that

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they felt that they feel seen and heard. And I think that that that’s that’s really we sometimes San Francisco Pride, we have to be reminded that they’re our job, too. And that’s a balancing act for you because you really have to you really have to juggle multiple things at

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once and hold multiple things to be true, right? You know, you can’t just say, “Oh, this is, you know, we’re giving up on this organization because of this one.” When you know that there’s, you know, good people working at the organization that they just may not have

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that, you know, say in the in the decision- making. >> And sometimes sometimes it, you know, there were corporations last year that gave us money that told us not to tell anybody. >> Yeah. Okay. And you could see why people would criticize that. But then, you

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know, a few years ago, there were a lot of people that were angry that people would give us money and you’d see their logo and shirt everywhere. And so, it’s it’s but that’s my job really. I I don’t want to I’m not whining. My job is to absorb that and do the right thing for

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the platform to make sure that in 50 years from now that there’s an executive director at San Francisco Pride who’s trying to balance all these interests and absorbs it when absorbs it when there’s no person that could really balance all that and get it all right. We just can’t.

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>> Curious what do you see as more was last year your hardest year or do you think that the years ahead are? That’s a great question. I think in 2022 was the hardest year if I had known what I was facing. I was kind of ignorant and I got the job in February and we had $100,000 committed

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to us and it was the first pride out of the pandemic and I didn’t know anything I was doing. But that that ignorance was bliss really to tell you the truth because if id have really known what we were facing I don’t think I would have said yes I can do it.

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Um, so I think that should have been the hardest year, but maybe maybe it wasn’t. Um, last year was really difficult. I I had to go away after after the event and really consider if I could keep going forward. Um, especially, you know, we had a tough financial year. It still

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was a difficult year financially. So, I I guess last year was was very difficult. This year, this year I have a team, you know. I I always have Bospar, which is great to get on a call and have four or five people there that are that are pulling for you and doing the work. This year I

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have, you know, I have a consultant for for grants and for individual donations. Gell Roberts, I have WinFam’s helping me with sponsorship. Now, we just hired hired two new members, uh, Abby and Sydney. And we have Greg and Marsha as contractors. I mean, it’s I told

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everybody yesterday, we were on a meeting and I had all those people in one meeting and I was like, I’ve never ever had a meeting at San Francisco Pride and had this kind of team assembled. I just hope that I can find the dollars to to keep everybody in place and keep

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the doors open because I think we’re on the verge of really having we’re I haven’t been a great builder, Sean. I uh you know I’ve been a great crisis executive director. I think I have faced things that most people would maybe would have ran from, but I have not been

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a great builder and I’ve let Chris have a bigger Chris Roberts have a bigger role this time. And we’re on the verge of building something that I think I I could say, okay, this is it’s okay place. I’ll I’ll um let a new person with new ideas come in, but

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I just have to make sure here in the next six or seven weeks that we can find we can find some money and pull a miracle out of the hat. See, I push back on that you’re not a great builder because I feel like you’re constantly having your your your your legs cut out

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from under you, right? So, like it’s not that you you are not a a good builder. I feel like it’s that as you build you’re constantly have that resistance and things that are coming at you that you’re having to rebuild. Um but I do agree that right you know it’s always

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better to have more team and I think that’s as that’s a lesson that you’re learning right you know that’s the the more team the better because then you know multiple builders multiple people are building you’re going to build more. It just has to translate into dollars.

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You know, that’s the thing. We’re waiting on a a large grant, possible grant award, waiting on that decision right now. Um, you know, we have the June 10th Pride Kickoff at the Castro Theater. We’re having a fund raise. We’re having a having a VIP party, a

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donor party, uh, up on the mezzanine before that. I’m really looking forward to that. Um, some friends are holding a a private fundraiser on May 14th on my birthday. Uh, in a very beautiful apartment looking overlooking bridge. >> Yeah. >> So, there’s some good things coming. We we

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we continue to talking to corporations. I’ve got wind now that things are happening like right now there’s things going through my email that wind’s taking care of is so great. So, yeah. Um I we’re going to find a way. There’s just no other choice. Um but I really just

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I hope next year both parts telling a different story that we we are telling the story of how the campaign this year led us to not only last year’s last year’s theme, last year’s event was so unifying. I thought it was the most unifying day I’ve ever had in the city

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of San Francisco. I really think at the event that Sunday, people I have joy everywhere. I It was just everywhere I looked, people were relieved like we’re together today. San Francisco pride is still happening. We have we are like the constant, you

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know, you’ve we have San Francisco, we have this city where those values are still they still mean something and we have San Francisco pride and we have each other. Um, so I felt that I felt that I think that’s the number one job, but we got to translate that into financial success

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and that’s that’s what we’re working on now. >> Absolutely. I’m curious, were you were you surprised at how much the campaign broke through last year? >> I was. I really was. I uh, you know, Wall Street Journal was was sitting here interviewing me. Uh yeah, we were in uh I think there

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Tokyo’s leading newspaper interviewed us. We were on the German version of the BBC. They interviewed us. I I was surprised. Um I’m glad that it I’m glad that it came in what my fourth pride so that I had had some a little bit of practice with local media and it

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it didn’t really didn’t freak me out. I really enjoyed it to tell you the truth. Um, but I was shocked that that I almost don’t like it. I wish some other things would reach them other than the demise of of, you know, the possible demise of San Francisco. Maybe

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that’s maybe, you know, you all know better than me, maybe that’s what sells is a possible demise of a of a longtime organization of what I thought was hopeful was that the push back, right? like while the while you’re it’s it’s very easy to get get caught up in the

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sort of the hopelessness of right when you look at like the current um policies coming towards the community and just always being under attack. It what I think was hopeful for me was that we were able to see a little light at the end of the tunnel. It’s like no, I don’t

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think we’re all alone, right? I I I think that there’s more of us out here that do believe in the in the right thing and doing the in doing the right thing. And I think that was reflected in not maybe not necessarily the media as they were just sort of telling the story

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of you know um corporations pulling back but as we started to see some of these corporations come back and you know and and those individual donations that you mentioned which reached an all-time high. >> It was it was reassuring even the people that interviewed us you could feel a

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sense of community with them. They were there to tell the story because they cared. I know that they they knew that they would get a lot of clicks and all that, but you could tell that people were there interviewing us. They cared. A lot of people, a lot of those people

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were our siblings. And I could tell if we didn’t matter, it just wouldn’t have been a big story. You could tell that people were it just that we there’s so many things right now competing for people’s attention when it comes to organizations that need help and support. It’s really

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hard. I think you all did a tremendous job. I don’t know how you did it, but we rose above all of it. And it didn’t just it wasn’t just for a day. I I think, you know, I’m seeing that with what’s going on now, like how long are we going to be able to elevate this? How long do people

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want to talk about this? This story would not go away last year. And that I really appreciate that. >> And I think we’re starting to see that this year as well. And then that’s what I’m curious like where does Queer Joy Resistance go from here. Do you want to

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talk about uh this year’s campaign? and or this year’s theme coming up early and you know what’s plans? >> Well, resistance in action. We wanted uh we wanted some continuity between last year’s theme and this year’s theme. The artwork is similar. Um we want that

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feeling of of queer resistance of of queer theory if you want if you want to say. We want we want that so that everybody knows we’re we’re scrappy and resilient. We’re still we’re still here. We’re still fighting, but we’re still loving. And you know, I think that that

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I think the ability to do both those things is what sets us apart. And that’s what I hope this year’s theme, you know, we’re going to resist together. We’re not going to resist. We’re not going to resist individually. You know, we’re going to see everyone during the process.

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I think I think what you saw the motto with Phil’s Coffee just you know just last week we they they make an announcement they’re going to take away the flags in their stores. Well, we resisted in a loving way though. I Shaun, one of the best things about that

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uh protest and it was just a small it was like 15 people, indivisible SFs and some people and but before we started, I went into the store and told the I told the store that told the workers, I said, “Listen, we’re not mad at you. We’re here to support you.” And then we did the we did

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the protest. I went back in the store and said, “How are you all doing?” and and talked to them for a few minutes. And I’ve been in that store before. I’m not but I’m not I don’t go in every every day or every week. And so then the following week when we met with Mahesh,

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the CEO, I run into the store and I was going to tell the workers like, “Hey, your CEO is coming.” He was already there. He was standing behind the counter. So they witnessed uh Jupiter and I sit down with their CEO. They watched it. You could I could feel

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them. They were working and they were watching us talk to their CEO about this policy. And you can bet they work in the Castro. A bunch of them were queer. And then on Thursday, I came back in and met the met the CEO and we, you know, it was evident that he was going to change

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the policy. And they were so happy. Uh then the next day I was down there. I did three or four TV interviews in front of Phil’s again. Went in there. They had my drink sitting up on the counter and they were so happy that we cared. And then if you go on social media, not

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everybody’s happy that we cared. You know, there’s there’s different opinions, but I know the opinions of those of those people that work at this Castro store. And I’ve got a feeling that’s that’s been replicated in many many stores. And that’s the thing

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that’ll keep me going like and I think should keep and you know it should inform everything we do together at Bospar and SF Pride when we’re when we’re crafting our stories and when we’re trying to get attention is that this the look on those people’s faces to know

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that we cared we and think about that too Shaun we in the middle of everything in the middle of needing $800,000 the next right thing to do was to stop and run down there and have a protest at 4 p.m. on a Friday and then you know that took I’d say you know 8 to 10 hours

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of the net following week to get that agreement and that’s valuable time. Um, but you know, I’m meeting with their CEO today and there’s possibility that we interview him on the stage at the Commonwealth Club for the Human Rights Summit and there’s a possibility that Phil’s

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that Phil’s helps with some of that $800,000 and and they’re we’re going to talk about a possibility of a sponsorship today. All of that is a result of doing the next right thing and telling the story and telling the story in a loving way. If we if we had bad

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>> that’s that’s to me what makes you so good at your job because yes, you have this monumental goal that you have to you have to raise this money for the upcoming Pride, but you you never lost track of the script, right? You know that the at the overall goal is to make

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sure the community is seen, right? and that you’re fighting the the the battles along the way, you know, of of getting um to the larger goal. And I think that’s what was so important. And I think that this lesson of of what happened with Phil’s is a great lesson

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going into Pride Month, right? It’s really that it’s never too late to do the right thing. And that what you always say, we’re not calling you out, we’re calling you in. So to any corporation that’s, you know, looking to get in there and, you know, say, you

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know, maybe we made a mistake last year or maybe, you know, we have said things that, you know, we we don’t believe now. It’s never too late to change. >> Yeah. And you know, you and patients will be, you know, obviously this I think today we have a meeting and we’ll

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be talking about the story going forward and how we’re going to use this story to call more people in. You know, that’s our job now. But I love, you know, Bospar and us, we’ve developed that language. We don’t have to spend a lot of time. >> Yeah.

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>> Uh debating, you know, the language. We we know each other now and you all been doing this with us long enough. And you know, you’ve helped you helped the fledgling executive director. I can’t you know, if I look back at 2022 and I think about doing media interviews and

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uh I was I was still like struck by the bright lights a little bit like, oh wow, they want to talk to me. I don’t feel that way now. Like I feel now like they should talk to me and I’m not talking to them about Suzanne Ford. I represent I represent the LGBTQ community

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>> and not just in San Francisco. You know, is obvious we we we had a meeting this morning. It was kind of tense and I could feel the power of saying >> uh that’s not good behavior and we’re not going to stand for it. And not because it offends uh me personally

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because it doesn’t see it doesn’t see our community. It doesn’t it doesn’t acknowledge the work we’re doing and the people we’re representing. And that’s that’s incredible. What a what an opportunity to get to do that work. >> I love >> I like that you say more than just San

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Francisco. You know, Suzanne, I’m thinking of an interview we had just earlier this year with a reporter in middle America who was grateful for your voice, your determination to be constantly in action, constantly resisting because it gave her space to continue to write stories about

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something that needed visibility. And I think that that’s a really interesting note that we’ve heard back from journalists is your willingness to call people in, to call people out when needed. and to keep speaking on these issues means that there are more people

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paying attention, gives them space to be more visible. Um, I don’t know if you want to add anything else about your journalist interactions, but I found that so interesting >> I think that was a story in Kansas probably. They’re they’re they’re Yeah. Um, that was incredible to be talking to

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a reporter in Kansas about something that happened the day before in their legislature, their terrible, terrible two laws that they passed and the 1,700 people that received notices that their IDs were no longer valid. Um, the platform at San Francisco Pride is

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what’s important. I understand people can do different things with the platform. You could if you say, “Okay, we’re protesting Pride or we’re protesting a corporation involved with Pride.” That’s fine because you can use the platform of San Francisco Pride to

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highlight what your your you know I respect that when people do that but that platform is real like that I think there were a lot of times in our history at San Francisco we didn’t we didn’t do that interview with uh the reporter in Kansas and we missed an

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opportunity and then I think also being the trans you know the first transgender executive director I’m acutely aware of I’m a transgender ambassador. I I probably get in places that a lot of transgender people don’t get. Um, you know, Bospar was, you know, with HRC Fertility

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made sure that I was at the media gala last year and I was the I I looked around there were there were no other trans women in that in that room and that was like 500 media people in San Francisco. And I think that that so it’s I think it’s people may ask why do we why do we

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say anything about something that happens in Kansas? That’s the reason uh we want to use our platform to say and and defend and we also want to we want people to see trans people in leadership positions and we want to stand up for the right thing and we want to do it in well I

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won’t say the right way. We want to do it in a certain way. I I think it’s just we want to do it in a loving way. I I don’t want to be like the other side and always be full of venom. And I think so I think it’s great that we got to do that story in Kansas. I wish we could do

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more. I think that’s the importance of this team and finding the dollars. It will allow us to do more of that and and I think, you know, we could be doing a ton of it and and we’re not able to yet because of the financial situation. So I I hope that You know, I think maybe we

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should use that you all. Maybe we should use that in a story. Maybe that should be something we can call on donations with this Phil’s thing. Like we want to do more of this work that we did at Phils. Calling out behavior, calling in people, finding resolution,

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moving on to the next thing, but we can only do that if people support us. So maybe that’s I’ll let you all you’re the messaging experts. But it’s also about keep what I loved about that is it’s getting your message out there to the people who need it the most, right? You

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always tell the story of growing up in Kentucky, right? You know, San Francisco Pride was that shining beacon of hope, you know, and you are continuing that legacy by by paying that forward to others, you know, who are, you know, scared and who maybe don’t know, you

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know, that life can be better. >> Yeah. We I’m going to speak at the human rights summit at World Pride in Amsterdam. I don’t know if you all know that. Um, and what I’m going to speak on is what’s next for the American Pride movement because there is

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there USA Pride and Inner Pride just announced yesterday that they no longer have a cooperating contract between each other and that’s going out of there have been some hurt feelings on both sides. But there are some USA Prides that are saying, “Listen, we don’t have the

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resources. We need to concentrate on our on ourselves here. We’ve got to fight here. And I’m going to I’m going to fight I’m going to say the exact opposite. And and that’s what’s important too about the success of San Francisco Pride because we support Inner

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Pride and we support USA Pride. But I’m going to say the exact opposite. American Prides need to lean into the international movement. No matter what, no matter what we face here, we still have more resources. We still have more reach. And San Francisco Pride’s going

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to be on the side of liberating people all over the world. I I know when we go all over the world, we were in Medigene last year, Guadalajara. When we go walk in the room and and they say, “Oh,” or we introduce ourselves, and we say San Francisco Pride, everybody in the room

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goes, they all look up. They know they know it’s us. >> Yeah. >> And we’re not gonna we’re not going to back away from that responsibility. In fact, we’re going to lean into it more. And I want every little kid when I walk down Market Street, that crazy tall redhead trans woman.

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It’s so important. I love it first of all. But when I walk down that parade route in the front of the parade, all the people that see me have seen me on TV or they see because of you all. If you go if you you should be with me that day. You both you all should come and

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watch. But when I go down that, people scream Suzanne. Oh, it’s the woman on TV, Suzanne. And and that’s that’s powerful, you know? That’s first of all, it’s good for my ego. But, you know, just kidding. the power of a trans woman leading that parade down Market Street and what that

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says to the world is is so important because the little kid like you said, a little kid in Kentucky, the little kid in Kentucky shouldn’t be here doing this. She, you know, and it’s all because of that reach of San Francisco pride of knowing that smart,

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creative people come to San Francisco to be who they are. And then once you do that, then you you get this responsibility like, oh, okay, I’ve reaped all the benefits. I have a big life in San Francisco. That means I have to be responsible for giving that back.

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And we take that seriously. I every day, you know, we we we encounter that. >> Yeah. I’m curious, what do you um as I love all that, what do you hope your legacy is? Well, I think calling people in. I think standing up in love. I, you know, I lost my composure a

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little bit yesterday on a meeting with several other organizations about our Saturday march. And uh I don’t want that to be my legacy, but once in a while that comes through. Really, I really I want the legacy to be that some little kid from Kentucky who never

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thought she would get to be her true self came to San Francisco and felt the magic of San Francisco Pride and then lived up to the responsibility of of the life she got. I think, you know, I want Yeah. And I am a transgender ambassador. I know that, you know, even even in the

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trans community sometimes I catch a little grief. Uh sometimes I’m seen as too moderate or but I know I speak a lot of different languages because I lived I lived a different life until I was 45 years old and I was in a lot of business rooms where it was a bunch of white men.

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And but I hope that I’m making up for that time that I hid. I’ve got a lot I still got a lot to do to make up for that time that I wasn’t that I wasn’t standing up for trans people that I was hiding. So, I don’t know. That’s a long answer to your question, but

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>> I think that little kid in Kentucky would be very proud of of where you are. >> Thanks so much for joining us, Suzanne. We’re so happy to have you here. Hope you have a great day. >> Have a great day, Suzanne. We really appreciate it. >> Thank you to my guest and thanks for

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listening. Subscribe to get the latest episodes each week. And we’ll see you next time.