Activist, Author and Entrepreneur Jodie Patterson joins Laura and Johnnie to speak about the #AllBlackLivesMatter movement, which includes the lives of Black LGBTQ+. Jodie also explains why she’s raising her own 5 Black children to be activists, including her trans-son. She reveals details of her own divorce, and she predicts that the current generation of children is the “...last generation to be f#C%ed with," as they mature and demand social changes that their parents were unable to accomplish. Jodie and Laura also discuss cisgender and white privilege and what white women can do now to move the conversation forward with their children about racial inequality. 

Highlights of what we discuss on this episode include the following:

• Kelly Chauvin, The wife of now-fired police officer Derek Chauvinhas filed for divorce — and petitioned the court to allow her to revert to her maiden name (Mrs. MN 2018)
• From Multiple outlets, including people & CNN (6/3/20)
  • CNN Title: Derek Chauvin’s Wife Requests to Change Last Name in Divorce Filing
  • Summary: In her filing for divorce Kellie Chauvin requested a last-name change and the titles to both of their homes. She is not seeking spousal support according to the filing, and they have no children. The filing cites an irretrievable breakdown of the marriage that was beyond saving.

• Title: Why We Need French Style Divorce for Lockdown Breakups
• Publication: TheConversation.com
• Summary: With the predicted spike in divorce filings due to the coronavirus lockdown, following the simple and inexpensive model of divorce in France could reduce the emotional toll of divorce in other countries like the UK, Ireland and China

About today's guest Activist Jodie Patterson

• She went to Convent of the Sacred Heart, an all-girl’s high school in NYC, then Spelman College, an all-women’s college in ATL. 
• She is one of 4 daughters in a family of matriarchs.
• Former circus acrobat who performed with the Big Apple Circus.
• The Pattersons are a tribe of unapologetic Black matriarchs, scholars, financiers, Southern activists, artists, musicians, and disruptors
• She grew up with Gil Scott-Heron, (poet and musician who composed and performed the famous 1971 song The Revolution Will Not Be Televised – he died in 2011).
• He’s the father of her cousin and was the lover of her Aunt Lurma
• She’s the mother of 5 children Early Life & Family (from PenguinRandomHouse & her website)

• Life before advocacy (from Shondaland.com)
  • Eight years ago, anyone who knew Jodie Patterson would have told you there was nothing this woman could not handle.
  • She had co-owned the downtown New York nightlife institution Joe's Pub; served as PR director for fashion designer Zac Posen; founded her own boutique PR agency working with such non-niche concerns as Nike and Virgin Records; and launched a pair of beauty brands, including the all-natural skincare range Georgia by Jodie Patterson — all while managing a brood of five children.
  • But when her third child, Penelope, exhibited behavioral issues she'd never faced with her other children — aggressively pushing siblings and friends; battling tooth brushing, hair brushing, dressing and even diaper changes— Patterson was at a loss.
  • She has spent the near-decade since talking nonstop — at home, but also in schools, on panels, on TV, and in interviews — about her experience as the mother of a trans child, a journey she documented in, The Bold World: A Memoir of Family and Transformation.
• LGBTQI Advocacy (from her website)
  • Recognized for activism by Hillary Clinton, GLAAD, etc.
  • Speaker at national and international conferences on a variety of topics including identity, business, parenting and gender.
  • 2017 TEDx Talk in Germany entitled, Gender is Obsolete.
  • Board Director with the Human Rights Campaign, which is the largest civil rights organization working to achieve lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer equality.
• Her Book The Bold World: A Memoir of Family and Transformation (from PenguinRandomHouse)
  • Inspired by her transgender son, Penel, activist Jodie Patterson explores identity, gender, race, and authenticity to tell the real-life story of a family’s history and transformation.
  • From Georgia to South Carolina, Ghana to Brooklyn, Patterson learns to remove the division between me and you, us and them, straight and queer—and she reminds us to celebrate her uncle Gil Scott Heron’s prophecy that the revolution will not be televised.
  • It will happen deeply, unequivocally, inside each and every one of us.
  • Transition, we learn, doesn’t just belong to the transgender person.
  • Transition, for the sake of knowing more and becoming more, is the responsibility of and gift to all.
• Jodie Patterson Contact Info
  • IG = @JodiePatterson
  • Blog and Website = georgiany.com
  • Human Rights Campaign = www.hrc.org