And gender and sexual politics are kind of in this larger context. I think it does. One of the things that is interesting about the president , coming out the freedom to marry or what seemed like the Vice President accidentally coming out in a way. [laughter] but whats really to your point, while these things are very important and i think that they have a clear role in places like maryland where the marriage referendums on the ballot. The timing was the backlash about what i care about. And that happened early to get the, you know, what is going to happen when my oneman or support of lgt whites come out, how will this impact the election . There was an early test and we got a chance to get those issues out of the way so that they were not the things we were talking about. It was almost as though the last election was one in which barack obama and his very embodiment challenged about blacks and every time he referred to the single mother, they would blink and say oh, its not a black single mother, to white single mother. And every time they talk about a father, it was a delayed response to some after they didnt know quite where to fit in. Ultimately, at the same time, there was a longer conversation with wes warriors what needs to be single mother who is not black and so i think there was a real wine. I was afraid there would be a backlash and all of us were feeling. They were putting forth the same effort they put forward for years. The prejudices and they never really reexamine what it would mean to reconsider those tropes in those slightly shifted things. And so when you had todd akin, well really have to think a lot about, is that religious religion, or is it really deep and historical sense of oneness . My own little theory is that it became until recently, people like strom thurmond, the fact that so many white men, historically in this country pulled themselves that they were not the product of race and so this invisibility of the product of race is not the product of the women who mustve really wanted them. Otherwise it is it is very clear that some parts operate at a distance. I would also, speaking to your question about whether this is about action or reaction, and of course, i think it is all part of this so that everything is constant in action and reaction one thing i want to point to, i think when we talk about these kind of race comments on the contraceptive comments are so outrageous over the past year, we think of it as a republican blood of stupidity. In fact, one of the interesting things is that it was prompted by unusual behavior on the part of the democrats. The democrats, while being the party of women, and about the time as soon as they started counting the gender gap, which really wasnt until 1980, they got labeled the mommy party. So for all of there being a party of women, they have kept silent on the issue of womens rights. And they have not uttered words like abortion very often. Something happened, and i think it was in this particularly small cycle. It was a susan g. Koman decision on planned parenthood outside of the president ial cycle. There is such a strong backlash that was visible to everybody that there is such a tremendous backlash on the side of planned parenthood and Reproductive Health. And also freedom. That something clicked. Im not saying thats the only reason, but democrats are speaking very differently on these issues. People talking about abortion people were talking about a run amok. I had not seen that at a Democratic Convention in years and years. In part it was democrats coming on strong on these issues that prompted it. It was because within the debate context and the media context, it was prompted rights. Democrats are being called to explain their views. That is what forced a lot of the comments that felt this incredible flood coming in. You know, this was crazy on rape and contraception in matters of science. It was brought on by democratic action. They went viral. There were these wonderful names that popped up all over the country. This is one of the things and you should look it up because they are hilarious. On the pages of the republican senators who wanted to defend planned parenthood or who are making outrageous statements, people started they caught the sarcasm bombings these legislatures. So your people on the public facebook was over at kerry or whoever saying, i need an appointment. Since you estimate that willies house, at this stage. And people were so funny and creative and that helped. Its the spirit and technology of the internet. And i suppose everybody saw this going on amazon. Com and look at every binders in the thousands and thousands of comments. This finder just doesnt hope my comments. Priority for standardized effect is. There are no women in it. Was speaking associate media, one of the questions is prompted by treat from election evening. When we realize we had part of the historic results of this last week where he had 20 women in the u. S. Senate, and historic number and rebecca rightly reminded us that it was in part because of things like emilys list that i want to have a conversation about the kind of institutions and the organizations that have been working quiet they all this time to make this moment possible. I dont have to Say Something about emilys list. Families list within washington politics, it is an incredibly powerful force. At some point they were the largest organization. I dont know if thats still true, in the day of the super pacs, they are not the largest anybody. So emilys list is an organization that supports democratic prochoice women for all kinds of offices around the country. They are very powerful and have been working really hard for a long time to get more women effect did. Other celebration about the creator of the woman, sometimes you want to say this is terrific progress in other times you say wow, 20 . But its very, very hard work getting women elected. So i cited emilys list because theyre the biggest. But theres grassroots organizations, places like the white house project to go around trading at women, which is one of the biggest problems in terms of electing women. You know, organizations like sam bennett wins that campaign for him. All kinds of organizations support getting women into politics. And the same thing is true for. We have the victory fun working for a long time. Our key tap that is simple in some ways we used to say that knowing someone is enough to the folks, but then we learned something and this is a big issue for this election that we can see the value in the spirit we learned you have to do more than just know someone who is. You actually have to have a conversation. And this is scary for some of us, right . And then they learn not only did have a conversation, but shifted a conversation about who you are and who you love. So you have to have a conversation you have to get to the point of saying to someone, you know, what do you think about this . Let me tell you about my you dont have to be queer or a person who is lgbt, but having a conversation about why this matters in how this is like any other family and why its about a common humanity. We had persuasion campaigns going on for years and years. Anyone know with them losing the plot. We are peeked down, right . But this has finally come to the point where we could actually stand up for campaigns at the same time, but not because they cycle one. We were working in maine in 2000. We have 1. 7 million conversations of people in maine just a cycle. So this is about having deep conversations about who we are and who we love and being a person of the people around us so people can say okay, right, youre actually having the same issues they have. We both have problems with garbage pickup. I think we should stand with you. Either way, will you support Marriage Equality . Ill help you with that garbage. [laughter] a lot of spent on the ground. Obviously the lgbt task force is one of them, but many others could be said of freedom to marry and solely focused on that issue. Then organizations like slb and the work solely on dont ask, dont tell. Its been a lot of groundwork, but i do think the online outlets are important. I thought they were so brilliant and just miraculous how quickly they organize around womens issues and important of us not allowing some of the commentary around abortion Rights Center of personhood in particular. I thought they got messages to all kinds of people. What they did was have the list of people working with from the move on days and the old list and pull those less forward, including folks on emilys list to make a current sort of vibrant communication, where everybody could get the message that its not okay. I agree with you, rebecca it wasnt about voting. Its not okay for you to make this kind of commentary about our lives at this time. He didnt have to be during the election, so i thought that was great. A mention of emilys list made me remember it sounded and. And just last year, anita hill published a book about the disproportionate effect of the housing crisis on women and that makes me think theres Something Else going on in the last four years, which is the feminization of poverty and the tremendous impact this debt crisis, particularly subprime mortgages is disproportionate when men come away when an minority women and i think is the kind of invisible force as well as the ballot casting choice. The reality of this lgbt been completely lost in that picture. A lot of times people talk about single mothers and in fact, these are people who have families and partners. People dont recognize that. Its why they think it is so important that the Administration Agencies have working to change regulatory policy and not just focusing on legislation because things like how you define family in agencies like how that are critically important to women who have issues with passing and women who Face Even Greater discrimination. I love this point about you having been working since 2000. There was a way in which some of us so underestimated but was possible in this moment that on Election Night it felt like magic. I want to raise the institutional question to underscore that people have been working really hard for years and decades to do this. So one of the great successes that they mentioned at the last week was that we now have 20 women in the senate and lots more women of color in the house of representatives, the way very few women of color in the senate. Very few black women were elected in this election cycle although there are games where asianamericans in the tenets and so i wondered if any of you i dont know which you might have to say about that, but what do we think about an organization that begins in the wake of the anita hill controversy and the dancer produces to see if its a factor are not producing black women intellectual politics in a particular sort way. First of all, i should announce myself as a member of the proper demographic. So the gender gap as far as voting goes his huge this year. It is thicker than in 2008 after many predictions of his going to narrow. However, white women voted for mitt romney. When you broke down and women devoted other race, it is just sending. Unmarried women made up 22 of the electorate. But they voted 70 to 30 democratic. One of color, latina women, black women that this is how barack obama won the presidency in races were decided. White women were not on that side of the vote. I would say that what i hear often, and this comes to issues of getting more women to run and more women of color to run is everybody will tell you its a pipeline problem. If theres too many bylines from women or women of color in the media, everybody says women never pitch. And so thats something you hear. For me, one of the stars of this political event was nina turner and ohio. As youll see in television doing incredible work on Voter Suppression staff in ohio. She was not up for election, but she was a star and is everybody talks about the other person that the person was nailed for, a republican black woman who just barely lost to elect for a moment like she was going to win her house seat. This is a problem within the feminist movement and has been always. The question of moving forward, but not just for one kind or a couple of kinds of women. These are issues that are very much in play in our activism. I think also, black women face the intersection of prejudices. On the one hand, theres too much criticized for being aggressive because of the stereotype of black men will consign him. Its certainly true that black women when they been expressive in the senate coming in now, who was it that couldnt get him, she had dreadlocks, maxine waters. They kept asking her for idea and arrested her because they didnt recognize here. She was mocked endlessly for her assertiveness basically. The same thing that Elizabeth Warren faced in scott brown, which was to sneer at her as an elite professor, which really got to me. It means we started teaching about the same time. For women of color and the entire United States teaching the, two blacks, one nation, one latina. And that is not so long ago. A few years afterwards i went into the classroom and having mostly men in a classroom, most of whom on Election Night before the election was decided i had to turn us in a classroom and was filled with that romneys. I woke up to a brandnew world. This is the way law schools looked when i was coming out. When you first started teaching to the woman, when he lived in massachusetts he didnt just say professor, he said blake though you could really profess anything. I really rocketed me back. So i think in addition to the mockery generally and the electorate, in addition to the demeaning of women generally, you sort of have a celebrated when were hired, but its also a double whammy in a political setting. Im in washington. Its an interesting place. I love d. C. , but when you look at the washington that we are talking about, when you actually go into the halls of congress and have a visual, the next time you look at something going on mtv that is showing one of the halls, just take a look at it. It will look different from this room. Its almost like a reverse of what we have heard about were the demographics of this country are going. So i just wonder how attached we are just thinking about what happened in the election this time. Its almost like read a sense, but what is actually occurring in terms of the change in the nation. When it comes to said seven people, we have the unique position in opportunity because we cut across all these demographics. The issues of race and class and inability to actually have any real conversations. I do think its very difficult for people in positions of power in terms of legislators to take a look. If you dont have do until this moment, whats really changed . When the electorate actually really does seem to be changing in terms of the demographics, then why would you do history we have . Why would you do anything different . Now we are at the point where this election, was to learn more about what happened will be a turning point for us to determine whether or not our electorate has changed enough, the democrats have changed enough that people are voting enough that we really need to make significant changes in the next opportunity for us to do with that issue is going to the midterm elections. Not 2016, the midterm elections. The other thing thats going to be happening in coming elections and the reason why it matters is the 17 to 20 women. By sir paley mattered, why barack obama matters. But we are in the process of doing is expanding our idea of a leadership could look like if this is crucial to the question of how we view and why there are more women of color, were men of color. We have to imagine what a candidate could look like. So if there is a young white man in college and graduate school and is particularly smart and inspiring and excited and committed to doing good public work, batman will be sold you should run for office. If there is an equivalently inspiring, exciting, smart women of any color, it is much more common to say wow, youd be great in politics. You should manage the campaign. That is one of the reasons it matters as soon as we begin to see that young women when that young men of color leadership, that is part of why it matters barack obama is our president. A generation of children for thinking of president looking that way. People who grow up in states with women governors, you know, Tulsi Gabbard whos going to be sworn in in hawaii. She was just elected the other night. Then it makes a much more likely at the earliest asian people are going to enter a list of public politics for the people around them to say hey, you should run, which is that crucial thing to get people at the beginning so they can amass the power to get the big jobs in the most powerful parts of their lives. And lets not leave out Tammy Baldwin. The person happens to be. I was just about to raise the question about Tammy Baldwin, another first come the first lesbian, the first gay center in american history. What special expectation or constrictions are possibilities might come with her being the first lesbian in the senate. I wonder if she might experience the same catch22 that president obama experiences, where on the one hand hes not being as forceful as the black agenda, but on the other hand hes had for doing such things. Im wondering if senator Tammy Baldwin will face pushed from one constituency that shes not sane to advance a queer agenda and on the other hand saying he represents all of us in this content. You should be pushing such an agenda. I think yes, she is going to have to face that. On the other hand coming to recognize shes coming for being a representative to being a senator, so she has a lot of exareas and relationships on the hill. I think shes very much aware of the dynamics that shes going to have to save, especially going onto the senate side, which is obviously very, very different. I believe tammy has the kind the way she ran her campaign, the kind of levelheadedness and clarity. What i love is the clarity of focus with which her leadership on the lgbt caucus. Shes very clear, very focused and she recognized the dilemma she sang, dynamics at play and shell walk the line quite carefully. When youre in these rules come its easy to talk about what they do and what they dont do. You dont get to say whatever you want. You do represent a broad constituency thats an array of people. It is your responsibility to them that will make sure whatever youre doing is actually reflective of the broad constituency you actually represent. So its not just about lgbt issues. I think its going to be a challenge, but theres no one better, so thats exciting, too