>> Very excited to welcome our next guest to the show, actress and singer Peppermint.
Welcome to Damage Report. >> Hello, thanks for having me.
>> Very glad to have you on. You came very highly recommended a couple of weeks ago,
by one of our previous guests, Bob the Drag Queen.
So we're very excited to talk to you about some of what you've been up to. And it appears
that despite the fact that it's a pandemic, and people can't really go anywhere, you've
been up to a lot over the past few months >> Is it fair to say that?
>> I think it's fair, you know, all things considered. That's like the T-shirt that we're
using for 2020. >> Exactly, so let's quickly run through just
a little bit. So you're very active in a number of different circles. But just since the pandemic
began, you recruited your castmates from Head Over Heels to help raise funds for the Ali
Forney Center.
You're doing a virtual college speaking tour with Sasha Velour. You recently hosted the
first black queer town hall with Bob the Drag Queen. And to top it off you have a new album
that is coming out next month. And I know that like everybody, like it's sort of a thing
where we compete to say how little we're getting done during the pandemic.
But I try to make sure that I get dressed each day. So congratulations on what you've
been able to accomplish. >> Yeah getting dressed is still actually
a challenge for me. I won't pan down. But yeah, all of those things are things that
it's always great to kind of look back in retrospect and be like, wow, I have been busy
over the past few months.
But, of course, at the beginning of the pandemic, I was pretty much sitting around watching
Tiger King like everybody else. And in terms of, I think one thing that's really unique
about this moment in time, the pandemic. And sitting, everyone being sort of on lock down
at one point or another, is it really provided time for us to have conversations.
And witness certain aspects about our society that have always existed. And so when you're
stuck at home, and you have nothing to do but look at the internet, and social media,
and things that are coming in. When the messages that are coming through are people being killed,
and beaten, and murdered by the police, and all this injustice.
Then most of us have wanted to do something about it. Which is why I think the Black Lives
Matter movement is credited as being one of the largest movements in American history.
But yeah, I have been busy. It was so great to get my cast mates from Head Over Heels
back together.
Especially given that the pandemic has basically cancelled Broadway for the next, for about
a year. It looks like for the foreseeable future, which is a major loss in jobs, and
revenue for the state of New York, and live theatre in general all over the country. Yeah,
yeah, and LA hard hit in that area as well.
My wife is an actress. And there are still jobs technically, but it's a very small percentage
of what it once was. So tell me about the conversations that people have had enough
time now to, some people are leading these conversations, some people are being exposed
to these conversations.
What have you made of this moment? You described Black Lives Matter as one of the most successful
social movements basically in American history. And I certainly agree, it's been massive,
and very inspirational. But there is obviously there are some people who are attempting to
distract from that conversation, to twist it.
That fight, has it been successful? What's been learned in your estimation? I think one
thing that's being learned, obviously, is that everyone has a different experience.
Especially when we're in the context of Black Lives Matter. Black folks and white folks
in this country have very different experiences. White folks have a different experience than
people of color in general at some point or another.
And I think that's something that has just been brought to the surface. That's more undeniable
in a way that it may not have been in the past for a lot of people. I think we were,
many people weren't happy saying, you know, I'm a nice person, I'm not in the KKK.
And I think we should have peace for the world. And and we had a black president. So we're
good, business as usual. But I think people are starting to see the systems for what they
are. The systems of oppression, racism, misogyny, sexism. And then all of the sub systems like
the phobias, the transphobia, the homophobia.
Colorism, which is a sort of racism that exists within certain communities of color. And we're
seeing all of these different things. Of course, socioeconomic disparities, which are that.
And so the theme of that of 2020, I think, is intersectionality. People are realizing
that there's different factors that affect folks differently.
And that even though we all live in the same country, and we all might want the same things,
the ways that we can get them or the access to those things, is very different depending
on who you are. >> Yeah, and I've been glad to see that while
there's obviously there's this overarching conversation.
But that it's many different groups, many different individuals. And that there has
been room for conversations about some of the more specific areas dialled in that that
you mentioned. And one of them that I've seen especially early on in the movement was an
acknowledgement that black people are being killed.
But black trans people are also being killed at even higher rates. And 2020 is on track
to be the deadliest year yet for the transgender community. Despite the fact that people can't
really go anywhere, still incredibly dangerous. >> Yeah, that was one of the things that was
really interesting that we were able to see the beginning of the pandemic.
At least hearing stories that nature was sort of rebounding from the effects of climate
control. Which is something I'm hoping everyone was happy to hear. Because of the impact of
people was less on our environment. But to kind of juxtapose that, very early on in the
pandemic and in the lockdown there were murders.
There have been continuous murders of black transwomen, and transwomen of color, and white
transwomen, in general. And hearing that there's people who've been murdered, and left decapitated,
dismembered, put in a box, and dumped into the river. Or a suitcase and dumped into the
river, all during the pandemic really highlighted that we can't even be protected in our own
communities if we're at home, or wherever we are.
And I was hopeful that people would respond to these stories the same way that people
have responded to seeing the horrible video of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and hearing
the stories like Breonna Taylor. But I think what two things have occurred to me, which
is not a surprise.
But seem to maintain that despite our blackness, our femine-ness, our female-ness, our woman-ness,
puts us in a position where we seem to be less worthy of attention from public. Breonna
Taylor, we're still trying to figure out why can't, I know we've been talking about it.
But and I think that the fact that this was a woman is a factor in this situation.
In terms of the outcry, the outrage, and all of that. And for black transwomen, and murdered
transwomen in general, where's the outcry? Where's the rage? What we get in place of
the rage, the general rage outcry is not only a complacency. But people looking at these
videos that do surface of seeing transwomen being beaten up by a group of people like
we saw in Texas last year.
Iyanna Dior, which we saw during the pandemic in Minneapolis, the same city as George Floyd
being beat up. Luckily she wasn't murdered. But you know, people were sharing this around,
and kind of making comments, and laughing at it. And so it just shows that there's a
lot more work to be done.
And I think that the pandemic, of all of the horrible things that the pandemic has delivered
to us, has just highlighted the importance of that. And I'm determined to really continue
that conversation. So that as we continue to talk about Black Lives Matter, which I
won't stop talking about.
Then we will also continue to talk about trans lives that are being taken in the wake of
of all of that.