SIO371: When Christian Nationalists Crash Your School Board Meetings

Transcript

This transcript was generated automatically and may contain errors — the audio is the record.

0:00:16 Thomas: And welcome to Serious Inquiries Only. This is episode 371. I'm Thomas Smith, and we are back for part two with Adrian Martin. So an interesting story. We didn't even get to her viral moment last time. And so in part two, we try more to get to our viral moment, but there's still so many interesting steps along the way, heart -wrenching ones as well. Well, I think this was just such a fortunate recording, you know, it kind of came out of nowhere.

I didn't really even know how to categorize it, but it was just really interesting on a human level and inspiring too, heard from a lot of people that felt that same way. Like this is, this is what we all need to be doing. Know, we all needs to be getting involved and if you can, and not everybody can, of of course, but for those who want to, or want to feel that positivity of someone who has, it's just been really nice.

So part two, lots more of that in store, we'll get right on overto that. Before we do, just want to give a reminder to pledge on patreon slash serious pod and looks like the bonus for July will be Armageddon with uh one Dr. Brian Gillis, we're gonna find out if the science doesn't work, uh, no, but it's always fun to learn more about why the science is terrible, and sometimes I love doing, I love this format because you get to, yeah, obviously, okay, I'm again the science of stupid, but like often it's are things that you you don't expect that are actually correct and things that you it's think always fascinating to learn with an expert like that and hear, you know, maybe there's some counterintuitive thing where it's actually, this isn't, you know, this part is one, look, it's Armageddon.

So not much is correct. I'm not going to lie to you, but often it's like, oh, this one particular component here that could actually happen if, you know, such and such happened. I love stuff like that. So that one is scheduled. That'll be late July, but hop on over to patreon.com/seriouspod. And that will go out to the second tier and above of patrons. So make sure you hit that second tier if you'd like to hear that. All right. That said, let's get on over. To Adrian Martin. We gotten to your viral video yet? Did we do that?

0:02:22 Thomas: Yeah. Well, was This all I think we Got, oh, that happened later. Oh, okay. Well, I figured this stuff was based on that, but it sounds like it was based, based on you just being the county chair more and

0:02:22 Adrienne: No that happened later yes I filmmakers, they found me on Twitter. So it's just been all this kind of random, just stuff. But I really think like putting yourself out there and speaking out, like I've been doing it for years. But just, I guess because of the story just kind of caught fire. It opened up all this different stuff. So what happened, to go back to the book banning story. Story, um, this group that was kind of behind the scenes pushing, um being the one that I said is now on the school board, uh group of like evangelical extremist Christians, whatever you want to call them, um of them, none in the schools here, um all older. Of them are transplants. They're not from here.

0:02:35 Thomas: Oh, wow. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

0:03:15 Adrienne: Get up every single school board meeting, still a year and whatever later. Get up every single meeting. Are can look them up, Granbury ISD, on YouTube and just go through to the public commenting. I mean, there's high comedy on there if you want some laughs. The stuff they get up and say is just ridiculous, and of course you see that scene going throughout the country, you know. It's been, it's not just us, um.

0:03:41 Thomas: Well, There was one of those things where this was somebody, you know, stood up at a meeting, asked a thing and it was covered like, look at this concerned citizen us and doing the whatever, just And then it was revealed they were like obviously deeply connected to Republicans. You know, it was, I can't remember the story. Maybe I'll find it, but it's that very thing. It's people cosplaying as citizens or whatever. It's AstroTurf, right?

0:04:03 Adrienne: Right.

0:04:03 Thomas: I mean, it's just people. That's interesting to note, though, because on one hand, I was going to comment earlier that, you know, if there are a bunch of people who are getting rid of these books quietly, I don't know how else to explain that other than like, well, I guess they believe this shit, like they're not, seems like they're not doing it to kind of signal anything if they're keeping a little secretive, but so then in one sense it's like, okay, yeah, you're filled, your town, your whatever, your county is filled with with these kind of people. In another sense, they're apparently not the ones at these meetings necessarily. Is it just the case that like maybe there are a few neighbors, citizens, whatever, that you might know, but it's also a bunch of this AstroTurfing to of booster it a little bit. Is that what's happening?

0:04:18 Adrienne: Well, Kind of layer upon layer, and it's, it's kind of hard to explain the way things shifted, but basically what, to to, put it in a, make it a short story, the superintendent started it by removing the books. He was playing into the hands of these people, trying to appease these people. He, of course, I want everyone to know I'm talking about my county, but this is a huge movement and it's funded by big money, and they're, they have training classes on how to push for book bans. They have training classes where they go around the country and teach people how to speak at school board meetings, organized. And that's one thing that the left can, we've never been able to counter how they do this stuff. I mean, it's really well funded. It's well organized. And we just don't have anything that can touch it. My theory is that we're minded enough.

0:05:33 Thomas: Yeah.

0:05:33 Adrienne: Enough, you know, we're all like, well, that's stupid, I'm not sitting, you know, we're also having our own thing going on in our own thoughts, you know.

0:05:40 Thomas: Yeah. There's a lot to it. That's definitely, that's long been, you know, herding cats and all that's a long been a thing. There are so many systemic advantages, and I'm not an expert or anything. This is a question that I think a lot of us on the left have been asking for a long time. And I think there are a lot factors. There is also, it's just so much easier to organize around bullshit, fear and anger than, hey, let's do this like complicated policy thing that will maybe fix this if maybe enough. You know what I mean?

Like our things that we have to rally around often, not all the time, but very often it's like more complicated. It's more like, all right, we need to find a, you know, like a bureaucratic fix to this particular thing that will help X number of people.

You don't have as many of those issues, or not all all the time at least, and it feels like for the right it's almost all of their shit because they don't have a real agenda anymore, they don't know real real policy, like I said the beginning, anymore, really, so

0:05:41 Adrienne: Right. Mm. -hmm, right. Right.

0:06:36 Thomas: It's all it's entire they have this downhill advantage where it's like every single one of their bullshit things is a fake culture war that they're all pissed about so it so easy be like, hey, the trans kids, they're molesting your kids, let's go get them, you know, and then we have have to be like, no, that's not real. But let's all, you know, yeah.

0:06:37 Adrienne: No, they don't Mm. -hm. Mm. -hum, yeah. That's not real. They're they're not, they're not gentle, you know, mutilating children's genitalia, unless you want to talk about circumcision, which, you know, like that actually happens. There's, there's girls that have hundreds, thousands, maybe of teenage girls have a breast augmentation or nose jobs. Like those things actually are happening. Gender surgery for trans kids is not happening, but you know it doesn't, like you said earlier, it doesn't matter. When you tell the truth, it doesn't matter. So sometimes I I just think like, do we just start like do we just start saying some made up shit?

0:07:05 Thomas: Yeah. Yeah, I know. Like, Yeah, well, I don't know. I really don't Know. I think that like, annoying and boring to say, but I think awareness is pretty key. I do think there's still as we've as we mentioned, I think there are a lot of people who aren't paying enough attention. And when, when the left has been winning in certain limited ways recently, I think it is when the right has gone so far that it grabs enough attention. I think a lot of people, I bet a lot of average citizens were very blown away by the fact that Roe v. Wade was overturned. Like, I think that for anyone paying attention, we were like, yeah, of course, that's what the fucking whole design has been.

0:07:32 Adrienne: Mm hmm. Mm hmm

0:08:04 Thomas: But Like, I think there are a lot people are like, well, they wouldn't do that, that's, know, that's way, you know, and and I think when they go so far as to draw that attention it creates a massive backlash. What, how do we keep that going for the things that are not quite that level of horrible but still terrible, you know, like one that minus one, uh, seemingly the, the a lot of the nation is like, yeah, I'm not paying attention, that's not a big enough thing, we need to, that's what we got to do, we got find a way to keep that energy for more things, I guess.

0:08:04 Adrienne: There.

0:08:31 Adrienne: But it didn't like where I'm sitting in Texas. It didn't that didn't even matter, which is so it's so damn depressing. Yeah, It just makes you want to go, well, like what does any of this matter if people don't care? And I had Republican voting women that, you know, they'll seek me out because they're like, guess what, Adrian, like I'm going, going to vote for Beto because of what they've done with abortion. Or, I really don't like this, I'm uncomfortable with this.

0:08:37 Thomas: Roe v. Wade. Really?

0:08:56 Thomas: Mm -hmm.

0:08:57 Adrienne: Like they, they don't, like I said, a lot of people don't pay attention. So it was really shocking with that happened. I have TikTok videos of me saying six months before they're going to overturn Roe versus Wade. They've been trying to do it for years. Trump put those judges in place so that they could do this. Knew because I pay attention, but most people are not paying attention. So,

0:09:02 Thomas: Mm -mm. Yeah. Right? Yeah. An interesting area. I know we're sidetracked, but like, so your impression is that like, why did you say a moment ago that overturning Roe, that didn't even matter in Texas? What kind of, what did you have in mind when you said that exactly?

0:09:30 Adrienne: I try to be optimistic, right? I try, I tried to keep it positive and keep people. My, one of my major things is I want people to vote, right. I want I want people to be comfortable voting. I want people to, because I think the key, now I'm not a political strategist or anything like this. This is just my observation. I think the key that a lot of Texans get wrong want a swing voter. They want a swing voter. It's not a swing They want to turn the rule vote. It's never going to happen. They're too far gone. Get some people, like I said, some women in that, that are going to start voting Democrat maybe sometimes because of Roe v. Wade.

0:09:42 Thomas: Yeah. Yeah. Oh, you're saying they want a vote flipper. Like someone who's like, oh, I was a Trump supporter, and now I'm going to, yeah, okay, I see what you're saying.

0:10:15 Adrienne: Right, right. They're, thinking that's the key to changing Texas and turning Texas blue. Texas has not had a Democrat in statewide office for over 20 years. We've been singularly run by Republican, which is one of the funny things about the books. It's like, Like they've been in charge of education for decades, but they let those quote unquote porn in the schools. So basically I'm in a place where, because of this last election, I'm not feeling really optimistic. Depressing. It's frustrating when you, you work. And it's even if you lose, you if you play the game of politics, you pay attention to it, you get involved in it. You have to be comfortable with not getting what you want, right? Because most of the time you're not going to get what you wants.

0:10:20 Thomas: Yeah, yeah. Mm -mm. Mm -hmm. Yeah, Yeah.

0:11:03 Thomas: Especially if you're a Democrat in, what? Glenn, Glenn, Barry, Glenn Gary, Glenn Ross, I'll never get it. Something Barry, Confederate Asshole Racist Texas is what I remember.

0:11:06 Adrienne: There you go. That's it. But we can make change on a smaller level, like through the demonstrations, through those kids contacting me. I'm like, okay, I can remember that. I know that I helped and made an impact, right? But on a larger level, you know, Texas is a non -voting state. People are not, I've had other people tell me that have moved here, that they were like shocked at the level of non -political engagement there is here. Hopefully And change with younger people getting older. You know, is not a red state like people think it is. It's voters are majority Republican, right? But we have thousands upon thousands upon dozens of potential voters. I think it was, don't quote me, but I think we had 9 million registered voters last election that that did not vote. They were registered. So it's, including the people that haven't even registered about. So how do you get those people to vote? I don't know. Like I wish I did, but the Republican party is definitely, you know doing their damnedest to make it harder to vote. Texas is the hardest place to

0:11:20 Thomas: Yeah. Right.

0:11:40 Thomas: Interesting.

0:12:09 Thomas: Yeah. Yeah.

0:12:24 Adrienne: Get registered. Um, Know, and there's a combination of different reasons why people don't vote. Um yeah, it's just distressing. It's like we had the freeze here where we lost electricity. You know, people died.

0:12:36 Thomas: Oh, God. Yeah. I forgot about all that. Jeez.

0:12:38 Adrienne: Yeah. I mean, like Abbott is just legit the worst. Like people don't even really like him. Like Republicans don't really. There's no like Abbott fans, you know. But,

0:12:49 Thomas: Exactly. But they hate some other group more. There's always the fear. Well, if we don't vote for him, then, you know, the the trans people will be president of the world. I don't know. Some stupid crap, you And it's, it's yeah, hard. I don't think of us, again, we're not strategists, but yeah, I think at the very least, like what you're doing, you're sort of being that guy with the sign that gets people, you never know who you're going to inspire. Fire. So even in these dark red areas, you never know what support you might be able to pick up with that. But try to get back to your story here.

0:12:55 Adrienne: Yeah. Yeah. I know. I told you we could do a series on it.

0:13:22 Thomas: No, it's all right. I know.

0:13:24 Adrienne: It just goes off in so many directions. Like, for example, the lead book banner lady, she's an evangelical woman. She homeschools her nine children.

0:13:24 Thomas: Yeah. No, totally. Oh God. How is she the lead lead? That's not the guy who wrote the letter. Now, who are we talking about? Position is she in that she's okay

0:13:40 Adrienne: I'm talking about my camp, my school district. She lives here. And she just took it upon herself. Made a website. On a crusade.

0:13:42 Thomas: Okay. You say she's homeschooling so this she has an absolutely no Like Skin In This game, yeah, okay, that

0:13:52 Adrienne: Correct. Correct, no Children Right She's not from here, she moved here like a couple years ago, she's made her own, she's the director of her own Christian school, so maybe by trashing the public school she can get some more students I Don't know

0:14:06 Thomas: Is Absolutely Their goal, yeah, no, if they kill public education then you know more People They get To have, yeah

0:14:11 Adrienne: Right Right Which Is a whole nother thing which Is behind a Lot of this, I mean That's what it's all, it's all about vouchers, it's All About Anti-Public Education, it's, that's why I said we could have a whole series just on one Little part of this, what's going on with this movement, um, it's all Christian nationalism, um The woman, we'll just call her Jane Doe, um, on a crusade, you can go on YouTube, you can find her, it's wild, um, get up and she'll, she'll read from books and she's like, "He put his dick in her pussy," whatever, and in a school board meeting and It's just, oh my God, it's, it's funny if it's not so sad, but so I had clips of her, somebody else did, on Twitter, and um, were months old, and then one day, in fact, it, it was while we were shooting the HBO show, there's a response on there and it says, "This is my mom."

0:14:13 Thomas: Yep Yep Yeah Yep Yeah Yeah Yeah. Oh,

0:15:06 Adrienne: I'm, shocked. He said, I am a gay man and she has excommunicated me from the family because I'm gay,

0:15:07 Thomas: Wow. Oof. So this is one of her nine kids.

0:15:17 Adrienne: The oldest. I was just like, oh my God. Like, so his story made national news, news. A journalist, uh, Mike, I might say his name wrong, he's with NBC national news, uh, Hicksonbaugh, I think, um, he wrote a story, uh, her son and how he grew up and, um, being homeschooled by her and getting no real education, um, then when he, he came out as gay, uh, released him from the family and he

0:15:17 Thomas: Yeah. Wow. Wow, Yeah, God, that's

0:15:51 Adrienne: Is not, he, he can't have any contact with his siblings. Him and I have actually become good friends. So He lives in California and he's, oh my God, he's awesome. He's so smart.

0:15:51 Thomas: Horrible. That's nice. Oh he does, that super cool,

0:16:02 Adrienne: Yeah. Yeah, yeah, he-

0:16:03 Thomas: Yeah. I also do, I show with two other guys called Dear Old Dads and got to say, after becoming a parent, maybe before, but once I had my precious babies who I'd do anything for, when you hear these stories and you're like, really, you excommunicated your kid so you didn't love your kid.

0:16:08 Adrienne: -hmm. Oh, I know, mm. -hm. Mm.

0:16:21 Thomas: You're a piece of shit who never loved your kid, if your love was dependent on what they're doing with their genitals, then you're a piece of shit parent and you don't actually love your kid? You might think you do, but you don't. Cannot believe it. Like there's nothing, there's no consensual choice that my kid could make where I'd be like, well, I'm never talking to you again. Like what the fuck are you talking about?

0:16:24 Adrienne: -him, no, Yeah, I had a visceral reaction to this woman, like, and I'm used to that, but people like her, but there was something about her that just bugged, and after I found out about him, I'm like, that's what it is, like, I could just sense it on her. So Rejected your own child, you treat your ownchild like that, yet you want to come in my school and determine what my kid does?

0:16:45 Thomas: Ugh, yeah, yeah. Yeah.

0:17:05 Adrienne: What, Like, what planet is that? Or what, what gives you the audacity to think that's okay? Um, no kidding. Yeah, definitely caucasity for sure. But so that's that little side story with them.

0:17:08 Thomas: Yeah. Yeah. The caucasity. As you might say, yeah? Oh,

0:17:20 Adrienne: Um, he he actually came down and spoke at a school board meeting and she was sitting right behind him filming him. I, and he said, he's, I mean, you could look it up. Like it, was amazing. Like I had chills.

0:17:25 Thomas: Wow. Wow. That is, ugh. Yeah.

0:17:35 Adrienne: He got up and said, like, "You, I grew up in this house where I was not exposed to anything. I was completely sheltered. You know, I didn't wasn't allowed to talk about sexuality whatsoever, and basically I still turned out gay, and don't listen to these people," you about his family, and it was just really, really amazing, um.

0:20:46 Thomas: Her right there, and she's not, what, not acknowledging it at all, or what, oh, it's so disturbing, I

0:20:50 Adrienne: She sat, she sat and live streamed or filmed on her phone, and then afterwards oh she sat and and and then, um, there were some local reporters there because the school board meetings are so batshit crazy. Like, there may be reporters there. There may not, depending on what, what's going on. So, um, there was some local reporters afterwards that wanted to talk to him. I don't know if the footage even ever aired anywhere, but, um, was talking to him outside of the building, and she came up with standing two feet and just filmed him the whole time. And, and we were standing there watching and we're like, is she going to go up and hug him? Him, is she gonna go, no, she just filmed him and then she turned, him walk away, it's so sad

0:21:31 Thomas: Just so sad, I mean it's just so sad. It's so disturbing, it's like Black Mirror level shit, like I don't, what is happening, like there's no hate, like Christian love or whatever, or yeah

0:21:34 Adrienne: Right and he's such, he's an amazing person, he's blows me away because I'm like, you've got this person that just grew up with basically no education, uh you know, no socializing, and he just a really, really special, amazing person, um, and he is living a good life, he's happy, so, so I'm like really lucky to get to know him. So I'll, basically, at point in August, I think, I got up and spoke against, and I do not like public speaking. So I've actually only spoken at the school board twice. I go to all the meetings. So I have actually only spoke twice. And it's like, if I really feel like I need to say something, I will do it. But I try

0:21:45 Thomas: Yeah right well that's good

0:22:23 Adrienne: Not to.

0:22:23 Thomas: Well that gotta be stressful as hell, what a, that's not just public speaking, yeah, that's also just horrible, yeah yeah

0:22:25 Adrienne: It is because you're in that room. Yeah. And you know, like, they're just, we had a guy with a gun up there one day. And he was there one of the days that I spoke. I'm like, God, he was sitting right behind me with agun in my backs to him like, and, he was taken out of the meeting. And you get some some of them are really, they're kind of scary. The way these people act is unhinged. Like they'll get up there and yell, they're cussing, just bizarre. Not a one of them is a parent.

So they get up one another and they're kind of like, I think, like, okay, what's their motivation? What are they doing? Like, they're getting off on the, the attention they're getting from each other because they get up and say the same stuff, and they have taken over the meetings, they push and push and it's never enough, and I think it is so ironic, funny, whatever you want to call it. Now the board and the superintendent, it's kind of like, you've reaped what you sow because you started this, you engaged with this, you danced with this, and now they've taken over and they can't be satisfied, and

0:22:42 Thomas: I bet I bet, yeah oh really

0:23:39 Adrienne: They've met

0:23:40 Thomas: Is it, the shark has turned on, what, the monster has turned down the scientists that try to, what's happened to this, uh, to this, this attendant.

0:23:40 Adrienne: Yes yes yes well okay, get to my speech part and then I'll go through that I'm like, uh, trying to go through chronological order uh almost at the end, or be continued, because it hasn't really ended yet, still going on. But, um, I got up and I had my little speech written out what I wanted to say. And, um. Basically I was, I was talking to these people that were getting up one after another and, uh, they get every single one of them gets up and says, I'm a conservative Christian. I'm going to do that. Y'all are doing this wrong. This is how you need to be doing it. And, you, as somebody that has critical thinking skills, it's so frustrating to sit and listen, and I'm like, my kid actually goes to school here

0:23:49 Thomas: Okay, sure. Yeah, sure, of course, yeah.

0:24:14 Thomas: Yeah. Yeah

0:24:26 Adrienne: Like, this is public school, this is not like a church like, why do you think that we care what you think, like why do you feel like you are the moral authority in this room, in the school district. So I added on at the end of my speech, while I was listening to them, because they're all getting up saying, I'm pastor, I'm just, I'm, I'm such a great Christian. So I said, at end of my speech, I said, those of you that are getting up and talking about what great Christians you are, go tell your pastor.

0:24:31 Thomas: Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah yeah.

0:25:01 Adrienne: And then I said our schools are not your church. Went crazy viral.

0:26:03 Adrienne: Then I'm getting like contacted by all these different, um, separation groups, atheist groups, like, I was on, uh, what is it, Midas Touch or whatever, YouTube, it's not Midas Tech, it's like Media Touch or something, there's some YouTube, you know you've seen it a million times yeah they put me on there, and then it was on, um, MSNBC's home page, um yeah

0:26:08 Thomas: Yep, yep. Yeah I think I know what you mean. Yeah so went viral for For a very good speech you gave in the heat of the moment, which

0:26:27 Adrienne: And was like, "Mom goes nuclear on school board," so the stuff of it is so funny, but, um, and then I was given an award, uh, Freedom From Religion Foundation, uh they had me at their national convention, uh, October, and I got to give another speech, um, of public speaking, and um the award they gave me was the Strong Backbone Award, um, that was really cool, um, then the TV show came out, so that, that was really fun, exciting when the HBO show came out, was a lot of, obviously, attention there. I had like a little bit of a crash after New Year, because this, that, basically I've gone through with you my whole year, last year, what it was like. And then it was just like, oh, we're just back

0:26:31 Thomas: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The FFRF. Yeah.

0:26:52 Thomas: Yeah.

0:27:18 Thomas: Go

0:27:18 Adrienne: To normal life. We've, yeah, we're just, just doing hair and losing elections. That's what we're doing here. So and then, you these horrible people in Texas won the elections in November. We did not get one win. Beto lost worse this time than he did when he ran against Ted Cruz.

0:27:18 Thomas: Back to doing hair. Yeah. Right. Sure. Yeah.

0:27:36 Thomas: Yeah.

0:27:37 Adrienne: I'm just like, are you like, can we get a break? Anything? So, yeah, I had a little bit of a funk there for a couple of months, just just kind of stopping and crashing down. But what happen to school district, to the superintendent, is the ACLU filed a investigation report, I don't know what you call it, with the Department of Education Civil Division, I think. Um, they were successful in getting uh in the school district for civil rights violations against LGBTQ students um for the book removal and for what he said on tape um standing Supreme Court ruling on removing library books um And it seems to have been forgotten in all of this, um, you cannot remove a book for ideas, ideas that are in the book. A book is in a library, public school library, or a public library, you cannot remove it because you don't like what's in it.

0:28:21 Thomas: Oh. Right. Sure.

0:28:38 Adrienne: Can remove it because it needs to be quote unquote weeded. So he is in violation of that. The school district is in relation to that. Here's the deal. Now they're changing the law. If somebody wanted to challenge it, which I, talked to librarians, you are different association. And what I've been told is that nobody's challenging it through removals, the removes, But yes, that too. I mean, that, that will happen too. It hasn't passed, past yet, but it will. But if somebody wants to challenge it, let's say a civil rights organization wants to a challenge, uh, wants to sue my district for taking the books, like, would move up the court system, and guess what, it gets to the Supreme Court, what do you think is going to happen?

0:28:48 Thomas: Mm.

0:28:59 Thomas: Sorry, the new, the new, they pat, what are the, challenging what the law they just passed? In Texas? Oh, the removals, okay. Yeah.

0:29:25 Thomas: Yeah.

0:29:25 Adrienne: Same thing, same thing that happened with Roe, and then they'll be able to do whatever they want, so that's the reason you're not seeing these books removals getting challenged in court, court, it's because people know what the end would happen if that happened, if they were to do that, yeah, so

0:29:31 Thomas: Hmm. Yeah. I mean, that is a questionable strategy though, because you're just giving up ahead of time, because don't know, I've part, think you just need to get people on the record, you know, like, they're effectively censoring anyway, because you're not challenging it, then, and what's the, what's harm in making them actually do it publicly? And then perhaps it'll motivate people.

0:29:59 Adrienne: Don't know, I guess, to, it's maybe the thinking is you wait it out till we have a better balance on the court, I mean, that's that would be my Guess.

0:30:06 Thomas: Hmm. That'll be like 70 years. Yeah,

0:30:10 Adrienne: I know, no, we'll all be in the ground.

0:30:10 Thomas: Sure. Well, regardless.

0:30:13 Adrienne: But yeah, but basically with the school district, we're kind of, the people are continuing to come to the meetings, rant and rave each meeting. Come and still complain about the books. School district has said, you keep people from public commenting about whatever they want. So they can't stop people from doing it. But they're like, basically, we're not doing anything with the books, like we're under investigation so so

0:30:14 Thomas: Yeah. OK. Yeah. Oh, OK. Of that, it kind of froze the whole process. Well, that's cool. Well, can we just do investigations everywhere and freeze the whole process?

0:30:41 Adrienne: Right yeah well Hey, look into the, there's... there's lots of them going on in Texas, right now for sure, because there's loads of violations going on and there's the ACLU of Texans if people want to donate to them, like, they've worked in Granbury, a a lot.

0:30:50 Thomas: Good. That's a good that is a good point. Yeah. Yeah. That's maybe a good, good use of donation money right now. Yeah. Well, that's a small, small victory, I suppose.

0:31:00 Adrienne: Absolutely. Yeah. It's pretty big.

0:31:08 Thomas: Did the comeuppance of the, of the you know, you said kind the superintendent losing control of the people. Exactly.

0:31:08 Adrienne: So they've turned on him, the yeah, yeah, they get up and complain, they because he didn't, he hasn't removed enough books.

0:31:15 Thomas: Oh, they did. Oh, cause he's been stuck with, because of this investigation thing.

0:31:21 Adrienne: Right, he's trying to appease the woke ACLU instead of doing what's right, according to them.

0:31:25 Thomas: Yeah, the leopards ate my face does always hold true. You know, it all you You try, it's at every level, you an out of control, irrational hate mob, and then you think that you're going to be able to like, oh, well, I'll just kind of, you know, use it how I want. And it's like, no, I don't think that's sustainable. That's never, it never works.

0:31:32 Adrienne: Yeah, yeah, yeah, It's been pretty pleasurable to watch, be honest, like, to see that come full circle, not that I want to give these people any power, but I'm like, told you so, like, I want to be like, told you so. I told y'all that, because every time I've gotten up and spoke I've been like, y'all need to quit letting these people have what they want because, because it's not stopping them. It's just feeding them.

0:31:50 Thomas: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, appeasement is not working. It's just not like it. I don't know when we're going to learn this lesson.

0:32:08 Adrienne: Yeah. The districts that are like in the cities, not they're having these issues. Because their superintendents know better than to wade into it. It's political. It's, want this kind of attention. They don't wants the negativity. They don't want investigations. Hopefully he's learned some lessons. And maybe he would do things differently, uh, he could go back, I don't know, but he's certainly open to can of worms that's not going back anytime soon.

0:32:39 Thomas: Where does this leave you, our main character for this episode? For sure. You I have mean, anything else in the works? Are you still in that kind of lull you were talking about, or what?

0:32:41 Adrienne: I'm Trying get out of it and try to get more positive and get ready for the elections next year. It's a presidential, so of course that's, it's a big, huge, it's a lot of work. It's just working on election stuff and campaigning. That's kind of what my focus is. As far as I know, I'm not going be in any more HBO shows or anything like that.

0:33:08 Thomas: Yeah.

0:33:08 Adrienne: So I'm trying to, you just keep it afloat. That's what we try to stay. We just try to stay afloat and that's good. Um,

0:33:15 Thomas: I mean, much has this helped with sort of the Democratic organizing on the ground where you are? I mean, does this, this help, does bring attention to that? Have you noticed any swelling numbers or anything, what?

0:33:25 Adrienne: What I was able to do, um, not necessarily with the Democrats, the thing that, um, TV show, the HBO show, did feature the club a little bit, and so we got donations from all across the, the country. That was really cool, um, because we're a small group, you know, um. What I was also able to put together was just a group basically for LGBTQ people here and allies, because the casting director for the HBO show told me, like, this is the first town that I've started looking. She's like, I always start with the organizations, the LGBTQ organizations, like you're glad, or, or like every town has those. And she's Like, y'all have none.

0:34:04 Thomas: Think. Oh, wow.

0:34:06 Adrienne: I thought, Oh, I need to do something with that. So um, still working it and growing it, but we're, we've started to have monthly like meetups, um, that we can have an LGBTQ community here that feels supported. Um, we didn't have that before and everybody kind of felt like they were on their own island. So that's been really cool to watch and try to try to grow and, and see, like, like a positive change that can actually, you know, help people and make people feel good and make people feel safe here. You, everybody wants that, everybody. And there's gay people everywhere, there's trans

0:34:09 Thomas: Yeah. Yeah, of course.

0:34:45 Adrienne: People everywhere and

0:34:46 Thomas: I think Iran, was that where they said? Well, we don't have any gay people here. I'm pretty sure that was that. Yeah except that one place, I suppose. That's the one. Yeah.

0:34:49 Adrienne: Right yeah exactly Well, that's why the show is called We're Here. Because it's basically like a double thing, like we're hearing your town but also we're Hear everywhere, yeah. Um, that's, I've been working on that. Um, yeah, just working being a mom.

0:34:57 Thomas: Yeah. But We're here and then we're queer and We're, yeah, yeah. Yeah, but overall the message is you just start getting fucking involved and then shit, you know, like there's so many opportunities that came, you never know when those opportunities are going to come. And, and even forget, just like personal opportunities, just you never know who you're helping when you're just providing support, you know, like you did with the LGBT kids, you know, who knows. I just think there's a lot of, and I feel it too, there's a lot of apathy, or if not apathy, there's not apathies, there's a lot of just defeatism, there's a lot of feeling like ah, just fucking, there's nothing you can do exactly Especially in a super red place where you are.

And I wanted to have you on, tell your story, because it just seems like such a great counterexample to that. You know, you're in the reddest of red play. You're in a place where fucking people like Stuart Rhodes move to be more, like, more comfortable. You know, you're in one of the worst places, you know, it just, in terms of that, in terms of politics and, but yet still, you, you've just made a lot of positive change for people. And, and if not as though you've elected a entirely blue city council or some

0:35:37 Adrienne: Right. Especially in a red county, yeah.

0:36:11 Adrienne: Right.

0:36:11 Thomas: Shit, but like, you knows, what a difference you've made to that, that a kid who might not have felt like they had any support, not even from their own family, so I just think that's so cool. Exactly.

0:36:19 Adrienne: That What I try to focus on is, um, the people, uh, how people are affected and, and that I'm the only person here. I mean, there's, there're lots of great people here that stand up for what's right. Um, we work with each other, we inspire each other, and yeah, if you put yourself out there, you're, it's kind of amazing what can happen. And not just what's happening to me, but what, how I've seen that work affect other people. That's what's important to me. Sure.

0:36:49 Thomas: Well, do you have any advice for people who want to get involved where they are?

0:36:53 Adrienne: People ask me, how did you do this? How'd you get involved? There's different roads to it, but if you're in a town and you just don't know, let's say you're not aware of anything going on politically, you would look, for first, probably your Democratic Party, your precinct chairs, county chairs, reach out to those people, volunteer, if you can find clubs, and it doesn't have to be Democrat, I mean, it could be with anything, um, the bigger your city, the more groups there's going to be.

But most of the time people to have volunteers now, that's, and that's a very privileged position, I want to state that to you, you know, not everybody can volunteer, but I'm in a position where I can and do that. Um, volunteer, uh, working your elections is a great way to get involved, especially because the, just the election process has gotten so quote political, and, know, the stop the steal and all that. So we need good, honest election workers that that aren't, you to bring guns. That was one of the bills. I don't know if it passed that election workers would be able to have guns in Texas.

0:37:19 Thomas: Yeah.

0:37:45 Thomas: What the fuck

0:38:00 Adrienne: Like, I, I don't know, I guess to steal the, shoot the illegal voters.

0:38:00 Thomas: What for what, just have guns everywhere and then that will, will probably make people scared, and then they vote more right wing because they're scared

0:38:07 Adrienne: Yeah. Then they don't, they don't vote because there's people out there with guns. I mean, that's happened in Arizona. I'm sure it's happened to you. It's happened. It's happening in Texas too.

0:38:12 Thomas: Yeah it really just does seem to be a Mad Libs with add guns to it, like, just fucking take a thing and we want gun sandwich shops, we want guns in the sandwiches, and you're like, why, I don't fucking, because we love guns and we won't go, it's so, it's insane, I know, you know, that's my complaint about the fascist takeover and the end of our republic as I, didn't know, know it'd be this dumb, like, I just didn't, I didn't Think it would be this dumb, I should have known. It's, it's even dumber than I could have possibly imagined, but that doesn't make it any less dangerous. Yeah.

0:38:21 Adrienne: You're right. Right. It's also absurd that it's, like I said, it would be funny if it wasn't so horrible. But, It is just dumb. That's of the parts that gets, like, the whole book thing. It' s like, we're arguing about books. Have you seen what's on your kid's history, on their, their phone, I mean, like, get real, like, are you kidding, like, books, like, these kids don't even want to read, like, you're lucky if your kid goes in and reads a library book. Uh, anyways, we're getting sidetracked again.

0:39:13 Adrienne: But, um, it was, it's been really fun talking to you. Um, Would say, join your clubs if you can, volunteer, um, paying attention to the people that are in office where, where you live, a lot of people do not even know who their local officials are. And if you want something, press for it. You would be, I'm always surprised on movement can be made just because you asked for something.

You know, like, one our Democrats is an 80, an 81 year year old woman who grew up in Texas as black woman. And she had a bookmobile that came to her neighborhood, and she taught her brother to read with those books. And she came to our local commissioner's meeting and asked for a book mobile, and her story, and now next week we have the grand opening of her bookmobile.

You know, like, just stuff like that, stories like that are so cool, because it's like she just thought, I'm gonna do this, and she did it. And anybody can do that, so we all have a lot more power than we actually think. Um, it's intimidating, but the stupid people, the assholes, like, they're getting up and talking.

0:38:55 Thomas: Yeah right yeah yeah yeah they don't have any chill they're not they don't have that imposter syndrome, there's like, yeah, I should be in charge of what your kid is reading for some fucking reason, yeah.

0:40:30 Adrienne: So we have to too right right Right, it's the denning kruger effect, so yeah we don't have a choice to sit on the sidelines anymore, really, like have to do it because these people are taking over, one by one, they're taking over our school boards, they're taken over our elected positions, and just scary, and we have to fight back

0:40:40 Thomas: There you go yeah yeah I think your dog wants this podcast to end. So I'm going to say that's fair enough. It's been a nice of to give me so much of your time. And do you want to point people to anything of yours, any TikTok, any of your things you're doing?

0:40:56 Adrienne: Yeah it sounds like it Sure, um, on TikTok, I'm, you look up the Mighty Quinn, Quinn is my middle name, Adrian Quinn, uh, should come up on, I'm Blue Quinn Texas, and I'm on Twitter too, but I don't remember my handle, if you just look up Adrian Quin, I'll probably come up or my video that viral video deal will come up or something. So you, yeah, you can pretty easily find me.

0:41:22 Thomas: Sure. I can pop Well, thank you so much for coming on.

0:41:29 Adrienne: And people have questions about voting, uh, like that, I can usually help them or point them in the the, right direction. So I'm here for that also because I want everybody to vote.

0:41:39 Thomas: Excellent. Right. Thanks so much, Adrian, for coming on. And what an inspiring story. And at it, you know, maybe we'll hear from you again sometime. All

0:41:47 Adrienne: You, Thomas. I enjoyed talking to you. Yeah, absolutely.