This is the 22nd and final episode of “Talk It OUT: LGBTQ Voices In A Queer Election Year.”

Last week, we began our look back on the key insights from this podcast’s past six months.

We heard guests talk about the need for concerned voters to take action; the way in which the rise of MAGA has mobilized progressive grassroots activists nationwide; the focus by organizers on the art of persuasion and mobilization; and how in a more fundamental way progressive activism has been supported by building and strengthening community in places where political power and civic infrastructure have traditionally been lacking.

Today, we will look at other critical factors at play in this year’s campaign, including the building of coalitions, in particular those centered around the need to strengthen and protect reproductive freedom in the wake of the 2022 Dobbs decision overturning Roe v. Wade; the ongoing dialogue about whether the Democratic Party can maintain its historically overwhelming strong support in the Black community; how the race for control of the US House and Senate are shaping up and to wh

at degree candidates and issues on the ballot impact the prospects for other candidates up or down the ballot from them; and what conclusions we can draw from the blizzard of polling that we see out there every day and from what for many of us is the confusing phenomenon of the still-undecided voter.

This episode closes with the recognition that we simply do not know what will happen on November 5 — uncertainty that underscores a central truth of our democracy: that we all have a civic duty to hold onto hope.

“Talk It OUT” has been presented by Gay City News and

its editor-in-chief Matt Tracy.

I am grateful for the opportunity to have hosted this podcast.

(Music courtesy of IMG via uppbeat.io.)

This is the 21st episode of “Talk It OUT: LGBTQ Voices In A Queer Election Year,” and we are now just two weeks away from Election Day, when America renders a defining verdict on the kind of country we want to be.

In the final two episodes of this podcast, I will look back on the most compelling insights that my guests have offered about the state of our nation, what’s happening on the ground in critical battleground contests, and what each of us can do to ensure good outcomes for our society and our politics.

In the first episode of this podcast, I talked about a book from 2020 I had just read by Eitan Hersh, a political scientist at Tufts University. The book, “Politics is for Power,” has as its subtitle “How to Move Beyond Political Hobbyism, Take Action, and Make Real Change.”

In that book, Hersh noted that among American voters in 2016 who were alarmed by the rise of Donald Trump and who followed the news closely every single day, less than five percent of them did anything beyond voting to ensure a good outcome that year. 

That insight forms the core of this podcast’s philosophy.

Guests we are looking back on this week include Oath.Vote’s Brian Derrick; Pennsylvania State Representative Malcolm Kenyatta; Shannon Powell from Indivisible Westchester; Boston Ward 5 Democratic Committee chair Bob Binney; Emme Zanotti from Equality Michigan; Nadine Smith of Equality Florida; longtime progressive organizer Dave Fleischer; Adam Barbanel-Fried of Philadelphia’s Changing the Conversation Together; Abigail Swetz and Sean O’Brien of Fair Wisconsin; André Wade of Silver State Equality; Cathy Renna from the National LGBTQ Task Force; Rebecca DeHart of Georgia’s Fair Count; Leo Murrieta from Make the Road Action — Nevada; Denzel McCampbell from Progress Michigan; Marques Thompson from Democracy North Carolina; Raymond Greene, Jr., from Akron’s Freedom BLOC, the Black Led Organizing Collaborative; and Eliazar Posada from Equality North Carolina.

“Talk It OUT: LGBTQ Voices In A Queer Election Year” is presented by Gay City News.

(Music courtesy of IMG via uppbeat.io.)

In the 20th episode of “Talk It OUT: LGBTQ Voices In A Queer Election Year,” we visit Massachusetts, among the least likely of swing states — the only state where bumper stickers could boast, “Don’t blame me, I voted for McGovern.”

Massachusetts is important because it demonstrates what folks in deep blue states can do to pitch in to help secure a Kamala Harris victory on November 5.

That might mean canvassing and driving voters to the polls in nearby purplish New Hampshire.

It might mean traveling to Scranton, Pennsylvania, the weekend before the election to pitch in on two key congressional races (here and here), on Bob Casey’s Senate reelection fight, and in the crucial effort to put the Keystone State’s 19 electoral votes in the Democratic column.

And for committed activists looking to contribute while staying in their own neighborhoods, it might mean spending Sunday afternoons writing letters and postcards to Democratic-leaning voters in swing states.

I speak to Bob Binney, a retired owner of a financial software company who first became involved in politics out of his despair over the results of the 2016 election.

In the eight years since, Bob has become the campaign treasurer to Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, who made history in 2021 by becoming the first woman and the first person of color to lead that city. Bob is also the chair of the Ward 5 Democratic Committee.

The phrase Boston Ward 5 Democratic Committee might conjure images of political machines and big city bosses, but what Bob describes is a picture of concerned citizens finding camaraderie in devoting hours to reaching out to fellow Americans hundreds or thousands of miles away to protect our 250-year-old democracy.

“Talk It OUT” is presented by Gay City News.

Subscribe now on Apple, Spotify, and other podcast platforms.

Music courtesy of IMG via uppbeat.io.

In the 19th episode of “Talk It OUT: LGBTQ Voices In A Queer Election Year,” I welcome back Dr. Patrick Egan, a political science professor at New York University who studies and writes about American public opinion and the influence it has on policy, partisanship, and identity.

With the election just a month away, Patrick helps guide us through the thicket of public opinion polls, discusses some of the unique ways Kamala Harris is tackling the challenges she faces in taking on Donald Trump, offers insight on the impact of down-ballot races and referendums, and gives an interesting take on which recent presidential election he sees as most comparable to this year’s contest. 

Patrick also delivers his assessment on the value and limitations of betting markets that take wagers on the presidential and other election contests,

In next week’s episode, which goes live on Wednesday, October 16, I speak to a Boston Democratic activist who first got engaged in his local ward committee in the wake of the 2016 election when his frustration and anger about the rise of Donald Trump convinced him it was time to do something in support of his beliefs. 

Bob Binney’s story is probably a lot like that of many other voters. The story of the leadership role he has taken on in Boston’s Ward 5 Democratic Committee and the work he has led in reaching out to thousands of voters in swing states is a timely lesson in what we can all still do in the weeks left in this year’s presidential contest. 

“Talk It OUT” is presented by Gay City News.

Please subscribe now on Apple, Spotify, and other podcast platforms.

Music courtesy of IMG via uppbeat.io.

In the 18th episode of “Talk It OUT: LGBTQ Voices In A Queer Election Year,” we take a look at Texas, a Republican stronghold for decades.

But this year, Texas is worth watching because of the potential vulnerability of two-term Senator Ted Cruz, who is facing a spirited challenge from Dallas-area Democratic Congressman Colin Allred, a former NFL linebacker and civil rights attorney.

Cruz breezed to his first Senate victory in 2012 with a 16-point margin over his Democratic opponent, but six years ago, Beto O’Rourke trimmed Cruz’s victory margin to just two and a half points.

Recent polling in the Cruz-Allred contest has ranged from giving Cruz a four-point advantage to showing Allred up by one.

It’s not just Democrats who see Allred as having a shot at toppling Cruz. 

Several weeks ago, Chris LaCivita, Donald Trump’s senior campaign adviser, took to X to lament, “What the hell is wrong with the Senate race in Texas?”

And since then, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee has announced plans for a multi-million dollar spend in support of Allred. 

Despite its reputation as a deep red stronghold, Democrats have shown signs of growing strength in Texas in recent years. 

In 2012, Mitt Romney won a commanding 16-point edge over Barack Obama. Four years later, Trump bested Hillary Clinton there by nine percent, and Joe Biden narrowed that gap to five and a half points. 

Recent polling in the presidential contest in Texas has shown Trump up over Kamala Harris by roughly six points.

I speak to Johnathan Gooch, communication director at Equality Texas, that state’s LGBTQ rights group.

Equality Texas has faced tremendous odds in recent years against the Republican-controlled Executive and Legislative branches of state government in Austin, which have pursued increasingly hostile and radical anti-LGBTQ agendas — agendas out of step, however, with public opinion in the state. 

Equality Texas works with volunteers across the state and in partnership with allied groups such as Planned Parenthood and GLAAD to stave off some of the worst that the state GOP has tried to throw at them.

“Talk It OUT” is presented by Gay City News.

Please subscribe now on Apple, Spotify, and other podcast platforms.

Music courtesy of IMG via uppbeat.io.

As we come down to the final six weeks in the election campaign, the 17th episode of “Talk It OUT: LGBTQ Voices In A Queer Election Year” takes us back to Pennsylvania to talk to an organizing group we first met in one of our earliest episodes.

I speak with Adam Barbanel-Fried, the director of Changing the Conversation Together, a group working to mobilize voters in low-turnout neighborhoods in Philadelphia — by making use of an intensive door-to-door voter outreach technique known as deep canvassing.

This past Sunday, a few days before speaking with Adam, I traveled to Philadelphia to spend the day canvassing with the group alongside nearly a hundred other volunteers. 

I learned first-hand how challenging that work can be but also how thoroughly Changing the Conversation Together trains its volunteers to have the sort of in-depth and authentic conversations with potential voters shown to be the single most effective way to increase turnout.

Maximizing voter turnout is a vital factor in an election expected to be very close and one in which Pennsylvania could well decide the outcome.

Adam and I talk in detail about the training involved in doing deep canvassing and what a volunteer can reasonably expect to encounter.

We also discuss Changing the Conversation’s plans for the final six-week stretch of the campaign and most importantly how you can help.

“Talk It OUT” is presented by Gay City News.

Please subscribe now on Apple, Spotify, and other podcast platforms.

Music courtesy of IMG via uppbeat.io.

In the 16th episode of “Talk It OUT: LGBTQ Voices In A Queer Election Year,” we revisit the election scene in Florida.

In August, I had a very engaging conversation with Nadine Smith, the executive director of the LGBTQ civil rights group Equality Florida.

Nadine described in vivid detail the way in which Florida is already living with what Project 2025 threatens for the whole nation.

But she also talked about the impressive surge in progressive activism fighting back against the agenda Governor Ron DeSantis has implemented there.

Though Florida is not typically talked about as a potential swing state, there are important opportunities on the ballot there.

An abortion rights referendum that would restore the protections of Roe v. Wade in response to a draconian six-week abortion ban is mobilizing voters across the state.

And Rick Scott — a Republican US Senator with very low approval numbers who has been a staunch opponent of LGBTQ rights and reproductive freedom as well as a threat to the future of Social Security and Medicare — is locked in an increasingly tight reelection battle against Democratic challenger Debbie Mucarsel-Powell.

This week, I speak to Cheyenne Drews of Progress Florida and Anders Croy from Florida Watch about the abortion rights push, about Rick Scott’s record, and even about the wave of enthusiasm that Kamala Harris has brought to Florida.

“Talk It OUT” is presented by Gay City News.

Please subscribe now on Apple, Spotify, and other podcast platforms.

(Music courtesy of IMG via uppbeat.io.)

In the 15th episode of “Talk It OUT: LGBTQ Voices In A Queer Election Year,” I speak once again with Brian Derrick, who appeared in our debut episode in May.

Brian is a political strategist who co-founded OATH.VOTE, a web tool that allows political contributors to maximize the impact of their dollars on the issues and causes they care most about.

Brian and I talked one day ahead of the critical September 10 presidential debate, and we discussed the prospects and path forward not only for the campaign of Vice President Kamala Harris but also in the battles for control of the US House and Senate as well as in state legislative and state supreme court contests.

He argues passionately that all of these races are important not only in advancing progressive policy goals but also in the more basic defense of our democracy.

Brian is also persuasive in making the case that the best way to enhance the prospects for electing progressive candidates — up to and including Kamala Harris — may not lie in repeatedly opening up our wallets for the presidential ticket but instead in generating enthusiasm for candidates whose names may appear well down the ballot.

“Talk It OUT” is presented by Gay City News.

Subscribe now on Apple, Spotify, and other podcast platforms.

(Music courtesy of IMG via uppbeat.io.)

In the the 14th episode of “Talk It OUT: LGBTQ Voices In A Queer Election Year,” we talk about Ohio, a Rust Belt Midwestern state with 17 electoral votes that Donald Trump won comfortably in both 2016 and 2020 — each time by about eight percent.

Ohio is important this year because it might help decide control of the US Senate next year. Three-term Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown is up for reelection, and faces Bernie Moreno, a businessman who made his money owning car dealerships and now a blockchain technology company.

Moreno once described his opposition to abortion rights as absolute — allowing for no exceptions — a position he has modified in this election contest to carve out rape, incest, and the life of the mother. Last year, he contributed $100,000 to the effort to defeat Ohio’s successful abortion rights referendum.

Even though Moreno has talked openly about his gay son, during this year’s campaign he has accused LGBTQ advocates of a “radical agenda of indoctrination.”

I had hoped to speak to Equality Ohio, that state’s LGBTQ civil rights group, about this year’s election, but multiple efforts to enlist their participation have fallen short.

It’s timely and important, however, to bring you my interview with Raymond Greene, Jr., the executive director of The Freedom BLOC, the Black Led Organizing Collaborative, a group out of Akron that works to build power among black and other marginalized communities in order to create progressive change across Ohio.

Ray talks about his group’s goals and approach to registering voters, particularly in communities with histories of low voter participation, and he discusses key issues and ballot questions that are driving enthusiasm in Ohio this year.

Those include State Supreme Court elections and a ballot measure aimed at ending Republican gerrymandering. Both are seen as important in protecting hard won civil rights gains, including last year’s abortion victory and the recent legalization of recreational marijuana.

Ray also said that the reelection campaign of Sherrod Brown — whom polls have consistently shown holding about a five-point lead over Bernie Moreno — is generating strong voter interest.

I spoke to Ray the day after the Democratic Convention concluded, and he noted the surge in voter excitement about the Harris-Walz ticket, going so far as to predict that Kamala Harris could beat the odds and carry Ohio this year.

“Talk It OUT” is presented by Gay City News.

Subscribe now on Apple, Spotify, and other podcast platforms.

(Music courtesy of IMG via uppbeat.io.)

In the 13th episode of “Talk It OUT: LGBTQ Voices In A Queer Election Year,” we’ll be discussing the political battleground of North Carolina, the nation’s ninth largest state with 16 electoral votes.

In recent weeks, as Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign has caught fire and generated widespread excitement, North Carolina has reemerged as a critical swing state.

A Democratic presidential candidate has not won North Carolina since 2008, when Barack Obama bested John McCain there, but in the 2020 contest, Joe Biden came within 1.4 percent of Donald Trump, the narrowest margin among all the red states that year.

Polls over the past several weeks have shown the Harris-Trump contest in North Carolina a virtual dead heat, and the vice president’s campaign has made clear that the state is now among its highest priorities.

Politics in North Carolina this year are also enlivened by a governor’s race, in which the Democratic attorney general, Josh Stein, is facing off against Republican Mark Robinson, the current lieutenant governor — and a firebrand who makes even MAGA hats look pale red.

On repeated occasions, Robinson has used language like “filth” and “maggots” to refer to LGBTQ people, has denounced women’s reproductive rights as well as their participation and leadership in the workplace, and has denied the reality of the Holocaust, terming it “hogwash.”

Yet, as one of my guests warns, there is excitement and enthusiasm on both sides in North Carolina in the race for November.

I’m joined today by Eliazar Posada, the executive director of Equality North Carolina, that state’s LGBTQ civil right rights organization.

And I also speak to Marques Thompson, the organizing director at Democracy North Carolina, a group that works to build power among disenfranchised communities across the state — by strengthening democratic structures and the confidence that people have that the political process can work for them.

“Talk It OUT” is presented by Gay City News.

Subscribe now on Apple, Spotify, and other podcast platforms.

(Music courtesy of IMG via uppbeat.io.)