Tammy and Kim Franklin: EPISODE

TRANSCRIPT:

Bridgett: So  welcome back

Tammy: We’re excited to be back. I mean like to say ten years now

from the five crazy It seems like it’s longer,

Bridgett: I mean, I really feel like we just had you on yeah It seems like you

know, we’re gonna review You know what your journey and what you did, but also

it just seems like when we spoke to you five years ago, it seemed really upbeat.

And now it doesn’t seem as upbeat. So we’re gonna address that as well.

But so yeah, so I knew Tammy pretty much since I was in elementary school.

And to think that I know someone that actually went to the Supreme Court

and actually had the law of the land changed, still like blows my mind.

Tammy- Right? – It blows my mind. Yeah, it really does. – Well, we love friends that

understand that, so that’s good. – Yes. – That’s good. – Yes. – Now we met and, you

know,

reunited again. She worked for my mom.

We started talking again at the store where I worked. Started coming in. It was a

whole flirtation thing. I think it was a flirtation thing when she worked with my

mom but you know back then it was still hush ,hush you know so but it was still

there we still kind of made eyes at each other. I knew I was gay then, just

couldn’t come out ,just there was no way and she was always gay. As we call it what

is a gold star gay!

All: ha ha ha ha ha ha

Bridgett: – Tammy,

when you told me that last interview, I had no idea that you knew your whole life

that you were gay.

Tammy: – And I did, and I had a really horrible childhood, that’s a

whole other story, but so my way of being who I was,

I knew it was easier to get out of my house with a man than it would be to try

to find, you know, and come out. So getting out was my way of getting with men to

get out of my situation, ’cause I knew I was gay and it wasn’t going to be

easier. (to come out as gay.) It’s better to get out first with what I really didn’t want and everybody

else accepted. So I went on with life with that way. But yeah, she,

I knew I had a crush on her when she worked for my mom. And we just, you know,

Came out because you know I had so much built up from my life and I’m like I’m just

gonna diarrhea mouth this whole thing and let her know everything that I’m thinking and

feeling and all that. So, I just wrote a note, got it out so when she was

coming into the store more than usual, so you know I thought well this is this good

you know this is what it’s supposed to be. So I gave her the note and I thought, well, it’s

either going to go bad or it’s going to be good. And she came back the next day

with the letter going, okay, let’s talk. So, you know,

I’m like, oh gosh, and she waited for me to get off work. And that was, that. It was

the start of every day speaking to her, talking to her, connecting with her.

And it was just, that’s how it was. And it fell straight into place.

Colleen: That’s

awesome.

Tammy: Well, gay into place.

Colleen: Place is place, wherever that has to be.

But why, you know, Kim, why was it important for you to have a marriage that was

recognized first by the state and then eventually by the federal government?

Kim: Well, for me and for us, it was about a couple of things. One, from a health standpoint,

If anything were to happen to either one of us, we want to be able to make our

own decisions. Both of our families were supportive of us, but still when it comes

down to it, and there’s maybe some hard decisions that have to be made, it was

important for us that we made them for each other, that somebody else didn’t make

them for us. That was one. The other issue was, I did come out earlier than her.

And it was pretty much known for years that I was gay even before I came out.

And I wanted it to be better for kids behind us. And like she said,

she knew she was gay early on, but didn’t feel comfortable coming out. So we wanted

those who came after us to have an easier path.

And we were at a pride event a couple years ago and somebody introduced us to a

younger couple, younger lesbian couple as the marriage equality plaintiffs and they

really didn’t even know what that meant and the people that introduced us were

shocked and they were shocked at our reaction and they said,

“Doesn’t that bother you all that they don’t even know who you are and we said no,

that was exactly the point that marriage and love was just that. It wasn’t gay

marriage, it was married and the point was that it wasn’t that big a deal so the

fact that younger people didn’t really know who we were, it means that had started

accepting and acceptance of you know, people accepting the whole thing.

Tammy: Yeah, what we wanted.

Bridgett: It’s so interesting that I mean, you know, when you look at

it like that, and I feel like Colleen and all we say, even in the menopause world,

we want our people to know, oh, yeah, that’s easily talked about. Like, yeah, we

know what that is. That’s not hush -hush. And this should not be hush -hush. It’s always puzzling to me that people are so

concerned about what happens in another couple’s personal life.

Tammy: Yeah, that’s what Kim

doesn’t get, you know, it’s like the part that we do in our bedroom is not even

us, it’s just, I mean, it’s not what we were trying to show the world.

Colleen: That shouldn’t even be a thought in people’s head.

Bridgett: Right. I’m like, it’s, you

know, as long as nobody’s being abused, then it’s none of our business.

It’s none of our business. You

know, Colleen and I live outside of Nashville

and even where we are some of the,

neighbors that are gay, I know it’s very hard for those

couples in our neighborhood.  It just blows my mind. I know uh that this is a very religious area where I live.

Somehow that is becoming a conflated with everything,

when these people who are against this have no idea that that these are the most loving kindest people

they would do anything for you.

Tammy: We are so many things right here, and I’m very country.  I preserve food.

I’m a cook. You know, I love the old vintage things. I love antiques.

Bridgett: Oh, so if

The you know what hits the fan, We’re heading to their house!

Tammy: but people don’t know that most of the time or she works in a majority man’s

world, you know, a railroad, it’s so seen as one note that they don’t

even try to get to know us or know more about us or that we’re allowed to be

versatile. I’m allowed to be country.

Bridgett: It’s amazing Colleen you and I who we have met in this space that

when they hit a certain age, they feel free. There’s just something that

happens within them, that they’re like, I think I’m attracted to this person now. And

I think I just love this person regardless. You know, it doesn’t matter if it’s a

man or a woman. And we have talked to a lot of people and that’s just come up

lately that maybe things change during menopause, but it doesn’t always, it happens to

younger people too.

Tammy: – They just feel freer. – And fun in there, we were stuck in a man -woman thing,

but also you love this way, you love that way. But the younger ones are finding

ways that even I thought back in the day of, it doesn’t have to be about sex. They think pansexual. I just love that person’s heart. It’s not

about sex of any sort.

Kim:  – Right. –  you know, and we thought like that,

but we didn’t have labels, and we didn’t have names, but the kids are finding more

and more ways to even just be trans or be pansexual,

be asexual or anything. And I think we knew about that and we thought that way.

We just didn’t label it.  We didn’t have a name for it.

Colleen: We’re

talking about being in a very country situation, where neighbors know their neighbors.

And then all of a sudden, you two are on the steps of the Supreme Court with

Obergefell making marriage equality the law of the land. What was the reaction from

people going, is that you? Like Kim, is that you? Tammy, is that you?

Kim: I think for

me, like I said, I’ve been out for years. I’m out at work, you know,

my family, everybody that knows me knows, and everybody knew about the court case in

our family and most of our friends. So for me, it was people were keeping up with

it, people were watching, and there was excitement for us. And I think for her,

she can talk more directly to that, but we have run into a few people mainly her,

because I’m relatively anti -social, but when we go out, you know,

being in a small town, it’s like a family reunion. Every time she goes to any of

the local stores or, so she’s more out and extrovert,

and I’m not. That’s our ying and yang part of it. But for me, it was, everybody

was happy for us. Everybody was excited. Everybody knew about it, but her

Tammy: – – I

think People thought, okay, that’s where we’re up over the hill. It’s finally,

is in our face. They brought it out. We didn’t know how to deal with it.

They have brought it now. We can all just sigh relief and go on with our lives of

adjusting to that and enjoying it and having the emotions of it and feeling free.

Like Bridgett said, having that oh here we are now, the girls have brought it out

and we can all relax now because we knew good changes were going to come with

different presidencies and we knew that Obama was on board and we knew different

people were just so elated because it’s the time ,change and that’s when we thought

oh my god we’re here people are celebrating, we’re going to all be celebrating here,

there on out because we’re going to have cool presidency, we’re going to have cool

people, we’re going to have acceptance. And then it just got knocked us completely

straight down.

Colleen: I can’t even imagine your reaction. I mean, we were angry just from

a personal perspective of it wasn’t who we had chosen, but this affects your life.

Like all that you have done and achieved,

what was your first reaction when this election was finished and you knew who the

president was?

Tammy: Well, we cried, we, you know, we thought about our kids,

you know, and our grandkids. And it still tears me up today because it’s like,

I cannot believe it happened. You know, it can’t believe that this many people in

the world in your face accepts you, But deep down,

we didn’t realize that as much as we do now, that people don’t want to admit

That That they could have a better life and change and make changes through the,

you know, Democrat, Republican. They didn’t realize that they were selling themselves

out. They were selling themselves short of evolving and finding people that they

love, but they don’t want it politically correct. They don’t want it, they didn’t

want us to exist. There’s people that do not want us to exsist.

And for me, it, it came out with disbelief and went through all the emotions,

really.

Kim:  But mine comes down to, we fought this fight once, we’ll fight it

again. You know, we’ve done been down this road, we’ve fought this fight. Now,

will it be harder this time? I don’t know, but we fought it once. Yeah. If we

have to, we’ll fight it again. And that’s where I’m at with it. You know that, yes

it’s not ideal. It’s people coming after us in negative ways, but

we’ve been down this road and we fought this fight and we won it and if we have

to, we’ll do it again and I feel like we’ll win it again. Now it’ll be a different

fight, maybe harder, but that’s okay. We’ve been down this road before, we have to go

again. Let’s go.

Tammy: Yeah, we have to. I mean, we don’t have a choice, but because of

our all life and others, but we’re not going to just  go away.

Bridgett: That was, yeah, that’s what I was going to ask.

Kim: Yeah. Well, I just, just, I just saw email pop up on my phone.

There’s a local museum in Louisville that’s doing a marriage in Kentucky exhibit that

we’re going to be part of and I just got an email from them. I’ll send you the

link in there.

Bridgett: Oh, cool. Oh, my gosh. That’s great. Yay, Louisville.

And like you said, we’re going to have to fight again.  We just had

Elizabeth Perkins on, and she was just talking about just healthcare. And I know

Tammy that you have diabetes. She does as well.

Tammy: – I

have a rare disorder, yeah.

Bridgett: – And she was just talking about insulin, the cost of

insulin. And she was just said, we’re just gonna have to get out there and fight.

Our fight’s not over as women, as people that are a part of the LGBTQ

community. You know, just all of these, we’re gonna have to fight. And I know,

you all have gone all the way to the top of

the hill. Right. You’ve gone to the mountain and, and it’s like,

yes, it can be exhausting and you all know that better than anybody that that is

exhausting. But it’s like, here we go, we’re going to have to go again.

Colleen: When the

opinion came out and Clarence Thomas said, oh, I think we should revisit Obergefell,

what was your reaction to that? Because that just blew in the face

of everything the Supreme Court had said previously.

Tammy: Well, like I had said,

I said once he’s in, I had this thing about reading people and I have a savant of

whatever Kim freaks out about it all the time. But soon as we realized he won,

I was like, “Oh my God, we’re in trouble. Like we’re in major trouble.” Because he

pinpoints what is the good of,

you know, that has happened. Like he pinpoints where the sources of what he thinks

he can demolish because he knows so many people want it. It’s like he set out to

hurt, not only destroy, but hurt certain ones just because I think he literally knew

where to pinpoint things ,coming

after the Obergefell, coming after trans health.  He knows it’s gonna hurt people. He knows

there’s so many other people involved with trans and LGBT

and he can’t stand it. He can’t control it and I think that hurts us the

most because we knew right then, what they were going to go after.

Bridgett: I mean what they did to the abortion case you know what they did there. I

remember getting the text from Colleen that day that they came out with that.

Colleen: – When we had more rights, when the women

sitting here have more rights than our children do, there’s something seriously wrong

that people need to stop and say, what is happening? – Well, women in general, you

know, thank you guys. – Exactly, we’re not going back to the 40s or 50s so they

need to get over that one. But, you know, when Oftentimes,

if something bad happens, you can look to all the people who are creating the

horror. But I always think back to Mr. Rogers saying, look for the people who are

coming to help. Who have been those people coming to help you? Have you seen a

younger generation kind of step up and say, no, we are not going back to this?

Who’s coming?

Tammy: – We did first, especially with Shelby County Pride. Bridgett, you

probably know, ’cause it was a friend of ours had started the first

one you knew who she was. Then the younger girls that we know are so well started

it and it became the second one, then the third one. It was getting so big and it

was so nice, and I was so excited. The two girls that started it are just amazing.  She was

reserved a little bit. She didn’t like the ruffle feathers of the certain people in

town. –

And so she would come with me and I’d be on the board with her and we would talk

and I would tell her different things, you know? And then all of a sudden it just

pushed them back. It pushed them out. They stopped. We’re not even

doing pride this year. They’re so pushed back. And they’re like, we can’t keep fighting

it like that, money wise, support, you know, we did a parade and nobody was

hardly there, you know, and it’s like, we were trying to do the things that we to

push through to show that we’re still here. But you’ve got to, you’ve got people

that take it away and they’re scared to push it any further. So we suffer with

that.

Kim: And I think the younger people, there’s a in any community and in any issue,

yeah, there’s a core group that want to push it forward, push it forward.

And, you know, it gets down to, and you hear this referred to other things, is it

a moment or a movement?  And,  we have more moments in our case than

movements. Will that change at some point? I don’t know. You know, they’ve came for

other people, other groups, you know, they’re coming for transgender and, you know,

what do they care?

Tammy:  I think what Kim said too, when the Congress in two years or a

year now can change maybe something, that might be another leap, to start back to

getting the young people and everybody seeing that there’s change in, ’cause if they

don’t see it, they’re so visual, the younger kids, if they don’t understand a lot

of the politics or, you know, listen and take time. So visually,

I don’t think they see it, so they back off. And I think maybe once visually, if

maybe the Congress changes in a year, that is a start. – That maybe it’ll be

accepted. –

Bridgett:  I know Colleen, you shared the clip of the man addressing the Texas legislature saying something to the extent of,

you’re gonna bully transgender, you’re gonna bully

the LGBTQ community. Before you were bullying women, then you were bullying black

people. Then, you know, so it’s like you’re just keep trying to find someone to

bully. – Which it is bizarre to me, the humanity part of it all.

Um, before all this happened, you all got

to go to the White House. So we’re going to talk a little bit about, yeah, you

got, it was it. How many years ago, that was like one or two years ago.

Tammy: It was

the Respect for Marriage Act. 2022 maybe.

Kim: It was when I broke my ankle.

– I have to remember things in my head by stupid things I did to hurt myself.

– Oh, don’t worry, don’t worry, I had a broken ankle so it was in 2022. – It was

before the broken ankle, okay. – But when that happened, I actually was at a

doctor’s appointment and my phone rang and it was a weird number and it said DC,

but it didn’t have a name just in Washington, D .C. area code. And I just hit

mute. I muted it and it called again. I hit mute. And I was about 10 minutes from

finishing my appointment. And I don’t know, it was like 4:30 or something the

afternoon. And as soon as I got out of the appointment, Tammy had texted me while

I was in there. “Call me as soon as you can.” So as soon as I got out, I called

her. And she’s like, “Did you get a phone call?” I said, “Well, I got a couple,

but I just muted them Because I didn’t know who it was. It wasn’t the number I

recognized. She said that was the friggin White House! They called me too. I said,

what, you know, what did I do?

And I’m so dyslexic. If I get going fast, I mean, I can, I can talk your head

off, but I am so dyslexic. So she was giving me all this information. I was like,

oh my God, I gotta have Kim. Where’s my Kim?

– And like I said, it was like 4:30 and I was like 25 minutes from home and

Tammy’s like, we’re supposed to call them at five o ‘clock. And this was like a

Friday afternoon. We gotta call them at five o ‘clock and tell them whether or not

we’re interested. And it was gonna happen, I think on like a Tuesday or Wednesday,

the next week. So we had no time really. So I’m like, okay, I’ll be home,

I’ll be home right at five, but I’ll go on and call them and tell them that we’ll

call them back when we get together. So I’ve rushed home

and so it turned out to be that we were being invited, it was real short notice.

And of course we scrambled, I called my boss that same afternoon about 6:30 or

something and like, look, I’m gonna need some time off and here’s what’s going on.

And he’s like, oh, yeah, do what you gotta do.

Colleen: – Who

would say no to the White House? –

Bridgett:  I would right now.

Kim: – You know, we

scrambling, are we driving, are we flying? I gotta get hotels and, you know, it was

just a mad scramble for a few days.

Tammy: But it was the most amazing thing to just be in

there, just to be on those steps and walk in there of the utmost respect,

you know, at that time, I was just in awe, you know. I’m very respectful to things like that and it

was so nice and he you know we got to meet him he is the most fit yeah back

then yeah and I didn’t realize how tall he was!

Kim: He’s tall, he’s tall.

Tammy:  after the

signing we got to stand out there, and he wanted to meet the Obergefill plaintiffs.

And you know there was five sets of, four sets of us there. Four. And we waited

in line and they said wait right here, he’s going to come around.

He took my camera and did the selfie of himself. He’s real tall was real fit,

he gave me a hug oh my god and I’m like I just respect you so much you just

don’t know and he shook my hand patted me you know though you can feel the ground

like a like a yeah like a dad or something. Yeah, yeah, you know and then Jill Dr.

Jill she came and she shook her hands up.

We got to see Mary Bernardo who actually

did our case at the Supreme Court read our case off,

right? And we got to meet her and she hugged us. You know, we had seen her

before, but in that atmosphere, it was different.

Colleen: As the as the 10 year mark

starts coming up, what are your thoughts now? Versus when we talked to you five

years ago? Do you feel like it’s you’ve taken a

step back?

Kim: And like you say, there’s so many

younger people now, and LGBTQA, trans, everything.

Tammy: There’s so much more that we feel like we’re like stepping back a little,

not really stepping back for the rights and the fight. But our life is a little

different than the young ones and we can run around and do everything and we can

go everywhere. We can meet at everything. And now we’re just trying to enjoy, what,

20 years that we might have together as a gay couple, the best we can without

feeling like we’re watched, scared. You know, this year’s Pride.

I’m kind of scared. You don’t know. It’s really scary.

Bridgett: We had to fight in Franklin

where we are too. We had to fight like they weren’t going to do Pride.

Tammy:  Right, that’s the worst part is

that people are afraid to be around because they don’t know what’s going to happen.

Colleen: And I think for our pride, um, they actually, the two biggest funding companies

pulled out, that was the biggest problem. And that makes me sad when corporations.

Yeah. Because the DEI and it’s pulling so many people.

Kim: – Tammy has a vanity plate that references equality.

And she’s like, I don’t know if I want to keep that vanity plate. I think I just

want to go back to regular license plate.

Tammy: – Just people revving their motors up, truck

driver. – Yeah. – Truckers, you know.

Bridgett: – Vandalize your vehicle. – Yeah.

Tammy:  – It’s kind of scary, you know, driving down the road and

then revving up the motor. I’m thinking, is it because of my plate? Is it, you

know, I got gay things hanging from it. You know, I’m a Jeep, I got a Jeep girl,

you know, I got gay ducks on my dashboard, you know? So it’s like, are they gonna

pinpoint me? –

Bridgett: I guess we just have to keep

fighting and getting out there, but safety is a scary thing.

Tammy: Like we’re scared, like

you said, you’re scared too, you’re nervous to go to Pride because of safety.

Bridgett: – That’s it, yeah. – Because of safety. I mean, like I had my signs up in my

neighborhood and it was a little bit nerve -wracking because where I live, it’s very

different. They would get on families that had their their rainbow flags up.

Yes. And in our neighborhood, I mean, it’s like so silly, like this whole HOA

thing. People can lose their life over it. Absolutely. Yeah. And that’s that kind of

thing is very scary. And I don’t know, do you know of anything that’s like any

groups that we can, I know there’s pride, but do you know of anything that people

can do to stand behind you.

Kim: We can’t just go out of state and find people and do things because we’re older.

You know, we’ve got kids, we’ve got grandkids, we’ve got two great grandkids now.

Colleen: Congratulations. Yeah, and our life has evolved around that, but we want to help the

others, but there’s no one around here. So, you know, as far as I say,

other people that aren’t in a red state, you know, pull from your fairness campaign,

you know, campaign, pull from any kind of group, trans group that helps the trans

with like Fairness and ACLU for there what they do.

But it’s so big that they expect the town or the states to help with that.

But when you’re in a red state, state, you don’t have choice. And the schools, you

know, the gay alliances and schools, make sure they are supported.

Colleen: But when you’re

in a red town, what kind of stuff are we getting? What does it look like, you

know? Yeah. And that’s when the local, you know, so many kids are getting their

news from TikTok, Instagram and this is when local elections,

County elections, they matter. –

Kim: – I don’t think

anybody realized that until it goes bad. – That elections have

consequences, huge consequences, even local elections. elections, because local and then

you get into state elections, they can set laws that if they aren’t fair,

then you got to fight them, whether it’s the state Supreme Court or federal Supreme

Court. And that’s typically a long drawn out fight. Ours was very expedited.

And people even made that comment when it was going on, is that the Supreme Court

took our case very quickly.  But it doesn’t usually happen that way. It’s

usually a sometimes even a generational thing. That’s why we thought it would always

go so well because it was that way. But if we slide back, then we got to fight

it again. That’s why I say go into the schools and back to the young men,

typically young white men. And I think it’s a couple of things going on. One,

I think it’s a bullying that if they don’t let their testosterone show that they

get bullied and they get called names and they don’t want to do that and they want

to be part of something that that Joe Rogan group that’s a UFC it’s a it’s a part

of something that feels manly to them. we’ve got a nephew that is just out of high

school, getting ready to move to Vegas. He wants to anyway, to be a UFC fighter.

Now, he’s not that way, but he has a way about him that he can stand up to

people. Most young men won’t. So even if they show any kind of thought or

consideration to another group, let’s say a gay kid, then they get bullied.

Colleen: And that’s what you’re saying, it’s representation. Representation matters so

much. It’s the people like Taylor Swift, Bruce Springsteen, that are coming out and

getting bullied for it, but they don’t care because they have huge platforms.

Kim: Everyone was like

you gotta stand, up you gotta stand for something or you’ll fall for

anything.  You know when Tammy talks about. we’re not

doing that much, it’s not that we’re not trying to do as much as we can, but we’re also

trying to be supportive to those that come behind us. We fought this fight,

we’ll fight it again if we have to, but it’s it’s really becoming your fight too.

Bridgett: Passing the baton.

Tammy: Yeah. Right.

Kim: We’ve got 20 years or so probably left in our life,

at least 20 reasonably good years. You’ve got 50 or something. Yes.

Go for it. Your turn. Yes. We’re right here and we’ll be right here beside you and

behind you, but you gotta stand up too and that’s I think where we’re at too. Yeah

just passing the baton and show it.

Colleen: We need a lot more Kims. We need more Kims

in the school system and in government.

Bridgett: We do. Yeah we certainly do because

that’s what’s happening right now and Tammy like you said this oppression that’s what

I feel like like that there’s just something like you try to go on to your day.

You try to be happy, but you can’t,  I can’t be 100 % happy.

And, like my little, whatever life, I’m in cocoon.

Uh, yeah, things aren’t directly affecting me. Well, they are, cause I’m a woman,

but, I cannot be truly happy when I see this happening to other people and it’s it’s mean and

it’s bullying it’s mean it’s affecting your health, it’s affecting your life. 

Tammy: I know my mind is because my first reaction was, we’re getting the

hell out of here, we’re gonna move.  But then that, where does that

leave us? We lose our kids, they can’t follow us. And are we gonna be happy

because we’re so emotionally attached to life and what we’ve accomplished,

but yet we’re gonna have to run?

Colleen: – And you shouldn’t have to go

anywhere. You shouldn’t have to. – You shouldn’t have to. – You have. –

Bridgett:  You have to

stay married.

Tammy: – We’ll never get a divorce.

two or three years we may have to

just take a long vacation somewhere. A friend of mine did move to Portugal

and she is so happy. It believed me.

Bridgett: – I know, and it’s just, you

know, I think about like if your health insurance, I think about if you should one

of you goes in the hospital or something happens.

Tammy: Right. Because we don’t know what the freak is going to happen to us.

Bridgett: Right. And that’s, that’s the thing that, that kills me about all of this is so

many people, what is happening to so many people. And then I worry so much about

the younger people that wanna feel safe and they wanna be seen.

we don’t want suicides we don’t want them to feel

different to people themselves because of it. – And about age and stuff too.

Tammy: – Right. – People think these older people, all the old people so they don’t get it.

My son’s friend I they have come out as transgender and they’re in their 30s

and the first thing he said was to my son Sam was I want to come over dressed a

certain way but I don’t want to be disrespectful or I don’t want them to be tell

me no. And I’m like, Sam, you go get that boy right now and bring him in this

house, bring them in this house of however they want to be in this house. Because

that his first initial thought was, well, you’re older, they may not get it. Don’t you feel one second that you’re not welcome in this house and everyone should

welcome you, whoever you present yourself as.

Kim: And they, they even said that to me

one time they came up the steps, but they stopped and, you know, I could hear from

where I was sitting movement coming up the steps. And finally they came right to

the top of the steps, but they heard voices in the house and they said, well, I

didn’t know if, if I could, you know because they were dressed the way they felt

comfortable. I didn’t know if I could come up here, I said let me tell you

something in this house if anybody makes you feel uncomfortable or not who you want

to be, I’ll make them leave. They will leave so just know that you can be

whoever you feel like you want to be in this house.

We’ve got other kids

in our family that are transgender and  within this house we can tell

them

you’re safe here.  You can talk. You can tell us whatever, and

you know typically they’ll talk to Tammy more than they will me and because she’s

the emotional one and that’s fine I don’t have an issue with that, but within this

house we definitely want to make sure they know they’re safe, but once they walk out

this front door and go down this driveway I can’t control that. They always know

they can come back here. They always know they’re safe here but the world and the

county and the city and the state doesn’t make them feel that way, so we, you know

we talk about young people suicide, that’s gonna change because we went through

whatever we went through or our generation went through, you know the kid being the

nasty bully. I think that’s kind of thing that people just won’t accept.

No matter where it is.

Tammy: Sometimes, people can change, especially if someone they love

dearly, you hope that if they, if it’s someone they love dearly and they see and

it breaks through and they change. Sometimes that doesn’t happen. Sometimes I wish I could fix them

all and tell them all that.

Bridgett: I know, I know, it’s a, it’s a scary time.

Tammy:  It’s 10 years. Still legal right now.

It’s gonna remain still legal.

Kim: But never doubt that we’ll fight this fight again.

Don’t take our kindness for weakness.

Bridgett: Kim, you have the best

quotes. Oh, my God.

Colleen: We know which clips we’re picking, right?

Bridget: I got chills just But thank you guys so much for coming on the show.

We appreciate it.

Tammy: You guys, we love your

podcast. We love what you all do and the people that you all have pulled in for

your sake and for everybody’s sake. I love seeing who you have on here.