A Word on Words; 3109; Karla Drenner

once again our guest is and i welcome your goal of an adored awards season that is greatly heavier talk about one which is your book about your political life it's about life in general what is the focus of a distinction may is your elected year election as a state representative from a great sorry say georgia elena congratulate you on being elected two years ago and let me congratulate you on your recent reelection unopposed first time you were opposed to act tough campaign and that's our very tough can't get that bitter and slowly i have a feeling you don't like her and that she like to see definitely did not like me at all and the first time i met her see ways very threatening to me and warned me that she would run and very tough competitive aggressive cannon of the youth use in bed

yes again i'm gonna be you've been on this is june they can crack her husband was the chairman kent county political organization democratic political organization and she'd been in office four terms and she think she's a cinch to where now she knows at that point you're a gay woman last gas and she must know that they know that i'm gay woman we know mom on land oh i couldn't say georgia yes i'm sure she again what did that have to do we're what you said about being it seemed really never played that card until she threatened to play it at the internet last week candidate right before the election and i'm not sure why she didn't but i had heard that the potential was there but i mean do you think your attitude

i'm a new in the book you explain your mother that too when you founded till you get us a man very negative and remain very innovative and won out through this thing with weather when your opponents are so if you in a sense had to do with the soulful be feeling about who should and should not be in public or i think her animosity towards me was not specifically because i was gay it was because someone was going to run against her and how dare them do that because it was her seat she owned it she'd been there for a while and she had to taken charge of the district and felt like and it was you know a great imposition on her to have to face an unknown opponent the palace story is about politics but

when the very real sense it's about you who you or where he came from what you guys are stealing you call a book all in an email a book with the word war explain to our view the title of the book originated from the slogan that i campaigned on and that was the power of one that i believe that one person can make a difference and it doesn't matter what kind of difference they want to make they can make a big difference or they can make a bad different that they can make a difference and that's how i campaigned that i didn't have a large contingency like she had of supporters and all i had was myself and i went out and i would say that if i could take a hand i could touch your heart and that began the process that one person

can begin to change the planet singlehandedly know as i read it and as ari what you say well look there's almost a spiritual undertone to your use that word one it almost religious and slowly one effect of the foundation of the book is about is about god and for me in order to do this in order to live my life and be who i am i have a very strong state and belief in god which it would be one we're all want and so therefore for me the title of the book just exemplifies more of who i am and or who all of us are were all one because we're all connected now alone won't affect the year of your date

political candidate elected but it is interesting to me that your mother yes by many standards a liberal so it's an activist whose mother had been very clear over for having a black person didn't know your mother had such a problem with its fact dead that you were good at something that she had great difficulty with and still others some difficult and my my mother my mother loves me greatly i know that in my heart and my mother is no different than myself because i am a mother in that she does not want me her daughter to feel the pain of the world and so i think

that is a lot that has been a lot of her reaction to me because she's afraid i have come out and been very comfortable with who i am as a person and that has created a ripple effect you know across the country in and she's afraid for her grandchildren that there are people out there that don't love me there are people out there that focus on hate and therefore i might end up being a target of some of those things and i think the other thing is that almost think that when their children turned out certain ways that somehow they failed and i would say to my mother as i've said many times my mother did not raise me to be gay she raised me to be an upstanding person a principled integrity honesty and caring and committed individual and so therefore my mind gayness has nothing to do with anything that she did or did

not do no you decided not to by name the partner cracked who is in the health care field and you decided not to name your previous partner or mood there was as a decision to separate the previous partner had born a daughter and a son or a daughter and i are and your son is adopted cracked he's from russia right choir decision and i read why but for our viewers you might just say why you decided not to name them in your story and it felt to me that i i am the one that made the decision to make my life public they did not in and out of respect for the dam and out of respect for our

relationships i felt that it was prudent on my part to go to let them remain anonymous and if they choose to come forward it should be their choice it should not be my choice to do so for the businesses have the option of being an immigrant in the end it was in effect for two hours and no actually it was my gift to them because when you cut when you become as public it as i have become with who i am there are cost associated with that and i feel like that i'm the one that should bear the costs so when your party is in a very rules that the goal of your public figure when she is in the balcony when your interviews that first bill for the georgia legislature she in a very real sense was the person was when you finally had to say i'm just going on here one year on followed over nine and said

it's in you do it but but in a virtual sense is she not so in the public domain simply because the two of you are together and raising a family i actually then all changed ii last year she decided then being in politics was not something that she just really cared for and said therefore she is not in the picture anymore yes an associate she did not find public service is appealing as what i did what and continued to do so so that had an iron ms min yes it's operational deeper yes well i like the movie's and latino news about now let's talk about

a story about this georgia legislature your first bill is totally rejected but remember the georgia legislature except one that talk very briefly about what that bill would do that deal was very benign it was an open records exemption for carpooling and other words it was an environmental bill that would encourage people to carpool and so i went down to well to do you know presented to the house and i was not prepared for the fact that the hoa board with ray and you know which meant no and so you stand there and you look up and you're like oh my goodness there's a very clear message to all those notes that i was not an accepted member of the general assembly at that point and then as i turned around and walked away went back to my seat and looked up and looked at my partner the board begin to change

and it always green and so for thirty seconds or so you think i'm never going to fit an they're never going to like me and we're going to be a good legislator and then all of the sudden it's like and then they have to cross your mind will that is pushing the record before i am not who i am absolutely and that crossed my mind a lot because they never a first day they put me next to the most conservative minister in the house that was my seat mate and i thought that was very interesting that they would put me there and then they put me in an office suite where the only county in georgia had an anti gay ordinance they put me in and off this week and i just said well god i guess you put me where i'm needed now just and if that's where i'm supposed to get then that's where i will go were talking to continental justin dehn about her book one

is a gay legislator from georgia the first that we know about i'm sure not the first of just the first two as of this day come out the young the interaction that as you describe it with both go of orange i'm in you know elected in part going too critical of the vote and you tell about your first meeting with him sure there were of years well i thought it was imperative that i meet the governor before the session began just like a speaker because i there have been press about me you know being the first openly gay state legislator in the south and in many people already had stereotypes formed in their in their mind of what my agendas would be and you know what kind of legislation and i would try to pass and so i called and set up a meeting and now when tannin had the privilege of meeting the governor and he asked me how i got elected

and i was very forthright with him i said iran adamantly opposed to your education reform package in his face got beat riyadh and it was it was donovan interesting extras visit a teller is that he got very angry at me and he said will you know tell me why you know you you feel this way and i said well because i think that the deal itself was flawed and that you disenfranchise probably one of the most important players in the education process and that was the teachers and i said i used a very simple model it's a risk communication model cars brisk equals hazard plus outrage and what i did was i just be inserted the variables into these things and created outrage around what you were you were doing and he said well i know when you were doing this i would've squashed you and i it really did i laughed and i said well i'm thankful that you didn't know that i was doing this and subsequently you know he's had to come back and revisit some of the things

that video originally took away from the teachers you're so old there it was in conflict with the speaker was lax over redistricting and you had become jewish and with both of them about that and what's interesting to me about that i love is that it is my sense that that girl on that homophobia is something the society of those were good people think bad things about gay people as you say in the book some people think it's sinful and some people are not convinced that it's something that you can do something about or cannot do something about it and so i mean i'm interested in

considering how politicians who've never had to deal with their own emotions their own feelings their own say it's about this come to grips with a political figure whose votes they may so you just give us a little insight into that conflict between the governor and the speaker on the issue of redistricting well did the governor had one agenda and that you know deep behind redistricting is he who has a gold makes the rules you know drop just to draw the lines in the governor's plan was to maximize his main democratic seat as we possibly could in the speaker's goal was to make incumbents as happy as they possibly can i without taking away or eating at disney republican seats as possible and the governor originally wanted to put me into a multi member state where very homophobic republican and he told me that this would help me because it would

give get me into an area that was that predominantly gay friendly and out of the area that i'm in now which is a minority majority see which i when he told me this lesson that i want here are ready he and he said well you know you still should be concerned about this so the conflict began because the speaker speaker was very much a part of what is it do you want and what will make you happy and the governor was all about is how can we maximize the democratic seats in what ended up happening was that i solicited support nationwide from the gay community to get me out of the mall to member state and ended up back into the single member sleep in along with come to mckinney who came forward to help me we got eighty five hundred emails on was in sell a thirty five hundred phone calls just boom boom boom have three phone calls from our office and so i ended up back into his seat that that i have right now

and i'm going to which are looked into it sat have been subsequently re elected in a post and i said i feel good about that because i don't think that it's my sexuality that that should drive less interesting thing is the reverse the question that goes book of the governor and the speaker did consider a fight for your day a political candidate in considering that now you mention endorsements and pardons of fascination this story is certain then it runs all away from yard signs they don't vote your bones and then your stolen are stolen they'll walk uses to these rather esoteric issues that are part of the other side of politics and politics people never hear about or about has to do with

redistricting and it affects in a very real way that their representatives are and whether observant jews relate to them to the constituents so i find that that fastening a par with this program deals with is how books or written and gosh you have a collaborator on this book talk a little bit about yes paula paul clear was a collaborator and the producers well i met paul here in nashville and turn asked pride that he and i both her keynote speakers and we managed to reception and we started chatting about some of my stories and he looked at me and he said this sounds like a great buck and so what i'm after pride rescheduled some time to get together and i had the book came to fruition very quickly i think what is missing and the book and why i came together so quickly was because i was ill at the time and

i was not sure what was wrong with me and i've been told of riding a diagnosis and i wanted my children to know why i had done what i had done i wanted him to realize and recognize that their mother one in the world to be a better place and paul also wanted to fulfill their mission is well you tell us about how you work together well he can't he came down to atlanta and we sat for the weekend and we taped we just started talking about the whole story of how it happened now from the moment that i decided to do this and that i am and as i walked and talked and we we came about how many hours worth of tape in the week to come back we

transcribe and then we started an outline together and then it just started to flow from there there is and there is always a disagreement among collectors hunted yours of yours there really were none with us we are we knew we had one or two things about an alarm clock that was in there that i know like the way that that was written in the heat of that was very funny and so really we would discuss that back and forth you know of that additive should be used or this adjective should be used that mostly you know we agreed that the story the story was really about hope that people could live their dreams that they could be who they wanted to be and that they didn't have to be ashamed that they could come forward you very much share decision with me that happiness at the table to change the dialogue that me being there despite the fact that every pass a piece of legislation that has anything to do with the gay community that me having a

conversation on a daily basis daily moment by moment with legislators who knew who i was who knew what my family structure was we begin to change the planet really interesting thing about about the campaign itself was how you turned around the whole idea of endorsements first volume that was really negative points today june fishermen though she'd been a four term thing there were a lot of people like are the police organization whether that then you picked up an endorsement from environmentalists and others began to come along and then cynthia mckinney again to hear about your case the story that she lost her seat in congress for a controversy to contest but but on the other hand i do have a sense that that those endorsements were very meaningful again

more meaningful to you because of quote what you were that it might've been to a candidate who would not call it a caring what some political consultants would call quote that baggage with it with volunteers to do for what some political consultant would say i know parties ms oakland what it of an actor and heard where is this budget up now yes they're very important that they get the gay groups in particular and you didn't mention the fact that i was not endorsed by the gay community and end that was so that was one that hurt now because when you're when you're open and you and you run you expecting that our people it in your community will recognize your courage and your determination your perseverance and come behind to the west than the ways that i they're just like everybody else

they want the most qualified candidate and they take sometimes you know the safe bet the other organizations looked at me and then they were not so much concerned with the safe bets as they were with the potential now offered to the legislature legislator legislate chair somewhere that broke late someone something to you about your children and this is the perforation mayor daley phrase but to something as something to avoid a researcher and a yes i am i did have a conversation with a gentleman he he asked me for you know he was in the red house memo yes it actually we asked me first was he said he had he been thinking a lot about me and you know i was gay and i said how had you know and he says oh that biology all the environmental and i said and he said well what do you think and i asked you i think it's a

choice and he's a choice and i said yes i think i chose were lala jian cai chose my environment and therefore god ultimately had to choose the fact that i was gay and then he said and are saying have children and are you raising him day and i said what i hope not and he said why is that nasa more first of all my mother didn't raise me to be gay and second of all is that my children do not deserve to be treated in the same manner that i'm being treated in at this moment and then the discussion was ever with and i was really dismissed however it did give him something to think about well we've run out of time we've been talking to follow dr carla drama about her book one a new book one interesting thing to call for i was thinking carne you think you got an oil like all you watching on johnson you know foreign own words keep reading