Pattie Gonia

And I think that's something we can all get around.

And I'm really excited for us to also reframe the climate conversation away from these abstract things that I don't think people can hold on to and instead reframe it as, do you want to breathe some clean air?

Yeah, I want to too.

Do we want to eat healthy food?

I think we all want that.

Do we all want like a lower cost of living?

I think we want that too.

I think those are things that not only me, but maybe my Republican neighbor in Oregon can get behind and realize that we have way more in common between me and someone who people in power want me to hate than we do with the people extracting from people and planet all for the sake of profit.

Everyone pointing fingers at the other person.

Exactly.

You know, I think neither came first.

I think healing myself came first.

I think when Patti was born, it was an invitation for me to see the world in a completely new way than I was raised with.

You know, I'm from Nebraska.

I'm from a really conservative family, a really religious family.

And there was so much internal homophobia, hatred of myself inside of me, because even though I was out, when I came out of the closet, I feel like I went further back into the closet because what happened to me was I was told, hey, we love you, but never paint your fingernails, never do drag, never ever be friends with trans people or consider transitioning.

And what Patti offered me when she was born was a way to say, how would you actually live your life if you were to live it for yourself?

Yeah.

What does actually healing yourself look like?

Maybe it looks like leaving some toxic relationships behind.