INTERFAITH ALLIANCE STATE OF BELIEF RADIO AUGUST 9,

2014
RUSH TRANSCRIPT: Donna Red Wing
Click here for video
Click here for audio
[REV. DR. C. WELTON GADDY, HOST]: Donna Red Wing is a
longtime LGBT activist and leader. She is a dear friend of mine. She
is a newly-elected member of the Interfaith Alliance board. Donna's
also the Executive Director of One Iowa, the states largest LGBT
advocacy organization.

This week, a determined group of activists descended on Iowa as
part of a nationwide tour. As members of the Young Conservatives for
the Freedom to Marry, theyre working to get the GOP to move on
from its intractability on this culture war issue. As the fourth state to
adopt marriage equality, and the place where the primary season
traditionally begins, it certainly makes sense for them to spend some
time there and to meet with the leadership of One Iowa.

For a frsthand look at the initiative, Im happy to welcome Donna Red
Wing to State of Belief Radio.
Donna, thanks for doing this.
[DONNA RED WING, GUEST]: Thank you for having me. Thank you.

1
[WG]: I know you had a chance to meet with Young Conservatives for
the Freedom to Marry. How are they going about working for change?
[DR]: Well, frst of all, it's a very interesting group. The group is led by
Margaret Hoover - Margaret Hoover, the great granddaughter of
President Hoover. And she and the others have what are really
impeccable Republican credentials. These are people who are
conservative in every way imaginable - except they believe that to be
a good Conservative, one must have an inclusive party. And the party
platform - the GOP party platform - excludes those who support
same-gender marriage.
Margaret is interesting: she's a CNN commentator; great Iowa
roots because of her family; and so she and these others - they
included a Mormon, a devout Catholic, a Baptist, Evangelicals - they
had quiet conversations with a great number of movers and shakers
within the Republican Party here in Iowa, and then they also had
some more public events.
[WG]: Donna, do they have a chance?
[DR]: I'd say, never say never. I was privy to some of those
conversations, and I think that who these people are - representing,
one, conservative values, and two, supporting same-gender marriage
- they got to put, I think, a face and a voice to the narrative around
marriage in the GOP that we haven't seen before. They got to sit with
people that activists like me normally wouldn't sit with. And so I think
whether they're successful or not this time around, they are beginning
2
that process. And they are doing it, I think, in a way that is thoughtful,
that is intentional, and that cannot be ignored.
[WG]: Is there room for bipartisan cooperation on this, or, honestly,
would being bipartisan be detrimental?
[DR]: I think this has to be a bipartisan efort. We now have, what, 19
states that embrace same-gender marriage; we're close to having 30
states that will allow same-gender couples to marry. It is the way
things are moving. But in those places that might be a harder sell, in
those places that are much more conservative - I think this needs to
be a bipartisan efort. And even once laws change, the culture has to
change. Hearts and minds have to change. And if we don't extend our
hand to our conservative allies, then we're not very good winners, are
we.
[WG]: Well, we're still a long way 2016. How important is it to lay the
groundwork for a shift in position on marriage equality during a
midterm election year?
[DR]: I think - and this is just given my conversations, my quiet
conversations with some Conservatives here in Iowa - I think people
are looking for a way to make that move in a way that won't hurt their
election prospects. I think what the young Conservatives do, by
talking about a more inclusive party; by talking about a party that
embraces its younger members; by talking about a party that
embraces LGBT people - I think they're beginning to do that. They are
the future of the Republican Party. And that's part of their message.
3
[WG]: I have to apologize in advance to all of my good friends in Iowa,
but I have to ask this question: does Iowa hold special infuence on
the national political parties due to its frst-in-the-nation status during
the caucus and primary season? Or is that just the way it used to be?
[DR]: I think Iowa still holds a very important place. This weekend, the
Family Leader, under the leadership Bob vander Platts, is holding its
annual summit. And virtually every Republican presidential would-be
candidate is here for that. And they're here because the caucus
season has already started. I think if one wants to be president, one
has to spend a lot of time in Iowa.
[WG]: This is a huge thing these young people are trying to do. What
would be a good sign that they're on the right course, and that they're
making progress, as you see it?
[DR]: I think we have to look at what this group of young
Conservatives wants to do, frst of all, in their reform-the-platform
campaign. They simply want to strike existing anti-gay language from
the GOP national platform. They don't want to replace language
around traditional family. They still believe that the GOP can both
embraced traditional marriage and strike anti-gay language. And so I
don't think anyone thinks that over the next two years this group is
going to turn the GOP around 180 degrees on marriage.
I think, initially, their success can be gauged by who's willing to meet
with them; who's willing to hear them; who's willing to have the
conversations with them. And if we can look at what happened in
Iowa, you know, there was some real success here. They'll be going
4
to other states around the country, and I think over the next few
months we'll see what kind of conversations take place. So that's the
frst gauge, I think, of success.
But I think the second is if this conversation becomes bigger than
they are. If this is a conversation that other members of the GOP
have in their quiet conversations, right? As they look at the party -
and the future of the party - they need to think about who it includes,
and who it excludes. And so I think another gauge of success - which
is one I'll never be privy to, but somebody will - is in those quiet
conversations that members of the GOP and GOP leadership have.
Certainly if there's any shift in the platform - and that could be a very
slight shift or a very large one - but any shift in the platform, I think,
could be considered a success.
Five years ago, three state embraced same-gender marriage. If
anyone said we'd be celebrating 19 and looking at 30 fve years later,
we would have said that's impossible. So I don't think it's impossible
to make those small but profound shifts in the platform.
[WG]: You know, Donna, I don't even know whether this is a relevant
comment or not, but it seems to me that these people are up against
something that is even more difcult than what was formerly in the
Republican Party. I remember, and you would too, Interfaith Alliance
working very closely with Log Cabin Republicans, the Republican
party members who were advocating gay rights then, and they had a
respectable place in the party. That was no longer true the last time
around, and so what they're facing is a heavily-entrenched
Republican Party that is non-inclusive.
5
[DR]: Well, but what I think they bring to this conversation - you know
they're not RINO's; they're not Democrats in GOP clothing - these are
truly Republicans. These are people who on every other issue are in
lockstep with the Republican Party. And I think here they have had
conversations with two diferent kinds of Republicans: they've had
conversations with Republicans whose understanding of religious
liberty and religious freedom is more in line with Interfaith Alliance -
so I think there can be movement there.
Then they've had conversations with Republicans who are really
theocrats; people who look at that three-legged stool of church-family-
government: church number one, family and government completely
intertwined, and see no separation of church and state. And I think
that's where there will be little or no movement. I don't know if
that's the majority of the Republican Party. I think it may not be.
[WG]: Well yeah, and that's actually where I was going; because
you've already brought this up, but I want to bring it up again, and
elaborate on it a little bit - I mean, people who don't understand Iowa
scratch their heads at what a hotbed for politics it is in a presidential
election year. But even in an of year - this weekend, as you just
pointed out, the Family Leadership Summit is occurring in Ames, and
the high profle Conservatives have just run to Iowa to be a part of
that. Cruz, Perry, Huckaby, Jindal, Santorum - it never stops, Donna!
[DR]: Right, and if you looked at the lineup of media that is queuing
up, it is international media; national media. The eyes of the world will
be on Iowa this weekend.
[WG]: You know, I didn't see your name on the program.
[DR]: Yeah, well, you're not going to.
6
[WG]: Well, with religious right fgures so entrenched in conservative
politics, it is a huge task to take on, to say we're going to diminish the
role of culture wars on the issues that are important during an
election year; but I'm glad these people are working at it. I'm glad they
have your kind of encouragement and support.
I want to just make the observation, it is an important week for
marriage equality advocates: the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals this
week heard challenges to marriage bans in Ohio, Kentucky, Michigan
and Tennessee. We're taping this conversation too early to know what
the ruling may turn out to be; but we do know that in the next few
weeks, Indiana, Wisconsin, Idaho and Nevada will all be trying to
defend marriage discrimination in the courts. Donna, where do you
think things stand?
[DR]: I think we're winning. I know that we're winning. And here's the
thing, and I think this circles back to these young Conservatives: the
LGBT community and all of those of us who have fought for quality -
we are winning. And the question is, what kind of winners are we
going to be? Are we going to draw a line in the sand and say, "This is
us, and those people over there are somebody else"? Or are we
going to extend our hand to them?
I think what this group of young Conservatives is doing is kind of
bridging the LGBT movement and the GOP. And that's absolutely
necessary.
And if I may say, today this group of young, serious, passionate
Conservatives - they're all at the State Fair. They're eating God-
knows-what-on-a-stick, and they're enjoying the beautiful butter cow
and everything that's a part of the State Fair.
7
[WG]: That sounds exactly like the Donna Red Wing that I know and
love and respect for her work. Donna Red Wing is Executive Director
of One Iowa, a board member of Interfaith Alliance where she has
held several key positions over the years. This week her organization
met with members of Young Conservatives for the Freedom to
Marry. I'm sure the young people went away inspired and
encouraged.
Donna, thank you so much for being with us today on State of Belief
Radio.
[DR]: Thank you so much, Welton.

Donna Red Wing, Guest

Donna Red Wing served as Executive Director of Grassroots
Leadership and as Chief of Staf at Interfaith Alliance, Walter
Cronkites organization in Washington, D.C. She was one of three
members of the Obamas kitchen cabinet on LGBT concerns and was
Howard Deans outreach liaison to the LGBT communities. Red Wing
has also held leadership positions at the Gill Foundation, the Human
Rights Campaign and the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against
Defamation. While directing the Lesbian Community Project in
Oregon, Red Wing was featured in a Sundance Award-winning flm
about the 1992 struggle against the anti-gay Ballot Measure 9.
8
Red Wing was the frst recipient of the Walter Cronkite Award for Faith
& Freedom. In contrast, during the Dean campaign the Christian
Coalition called her the most dangerous woman in America.

About the Show

State of Belief is based on the proposition that religion has a positive
and healing role to play in the life of the nation. The show explains
and explores that role by illustrating the vast diversity of beliefs in
America the most religiously diverse country in the world while
exposing and critiquing both the political manipulation of religion for
partisan purposes and the religious manipulation of government for
sectarian purposes.
Each week, the Rev. Dr. C. Welton Gaddy ofers listeners critical
analysis of the news of religion and politics, and seeks to provide
listeners with an understanding and appreciation of religious liberty.
Rev. Gaddy tackles politics with the frm belief that the best way to
secure freedom for religion in America is to secure freedom from
religion. State of Belief illustrates how the Religious Right is wrong
wrong for America and bad for religion.
Through interviews with celebrities and newsmakers and feld reports
from around the country, State of Belief explores the intersection of
religion with politics, culture, media, and activism, and promotes
diverse religious voices in a religiously pluralistic world.

9
Rev. Dr. C. Welton Gaddy, Host
Author of more than 20 books, including First Freedom First: A
Citizens Guide to Protecting Religious Liberty and the Separation of
Church and State, the Rev. Dr. C. Welton Gaddy leads the national
non-partisan grassroots and educational organization Interfaith
Alliance and serves as Pastor for Preaching and Worship at
Northminster (Baptist) Church in Monroe, Louisiana.
In addition to being a prolifc writer, Dr. Gaddy hosts the weekly State
of Belief radio program, where he explores the role of religion in the
life of the nation by illustrating the vast diversity of beliefs in America,
while exposing and critiquing both the political manipulation of religion
for partisan purposes and the religious manipulation of government
for sectarian purposes.
Dr. Gaddy provides regular commentary to the national media on
issues relating to religion and politics. He has appeared on MSNBCs
The Rachel Maddow Show and Hardball, NBCs Nightly News and
Dateline, PBSs Religion and Ethics Newsweekly and The Newshour
with Jim Lehrer, C-SPANs Washington Journal, ABCs World News,
and CNNs American Morning. Former host of Morally Speaking on
NBC afliate KTVE in Monroe, Louisiana, Dr. Gaddy is a regular
contributor to mainstream and religious news outlets.
While ministering to churches with a message of inclusion, Dr. Gaddy
emerged as a leader among progressive and moderate Baptists.
Among his many leadership roles, he is a past president of the
Alliance of Baptists and has been a 20-year member of the
Commission of Christian Ethics of the Baptist World Alliance. His past
leadership roles include serving as a member of the General Council
of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, President of Americans United
10
for Separation of Church and State, Chair of the Pastoral Leadership
Commission of the Baptist World Alliance and member of the World
Economic Forums Council of 100. Rev. Gaddy currently serves on
the White House task force on the reform of the Ofce of Faith Based
and Neighborhood Partnerships.
Prior to the fundamentalist takeover of the Southern Baptist
Convention (SBC), Dr. Gaddy served in many SBC leadership roles
including as a member of the conventions Executive Committee from
1980-84 and Director of Christian Citizenship Development of the
Christian Life Commission from 1973-77.
Dr. Gaddy received his undergraduate degree from Union University
in Jackson, Tennessee and his doctoral degree and divinity training
from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville,
Kentucky.
11