bret shuford 0:17
Hi there friends. Welcome back to the creative visibility podcast. This is your host, Brett Shuford. Well, I should officially say, legally, my name now is Brett Hannah Shuford. My husband Steven and I if you don't follow us on Broadway husbands on Instagram or any of our other platforms we just had our first baby. His name is Maverick Hannah Shuford, we welcomed, welcomed him into the world at 1250 on March 26, and Orlando, Florida, where our surrogate, who is a dear friend gave birth and we were in the room and it was just one of us. People say it all the time is it's just Beyonds magical. It's hard to describe. So I'll stop. You can go listen to a bunch of mommy bloggers about that. But that's not what we're here for. We are here. Because this credibility podcast is intended to help you be more visible in your creativity. So you can finally start to make money doing what you love. And if you or someone you know is a creative, who's looking to expand on their personal brand, expand their business and be more authentic online. This is the place for you. So I hope you'll consider leaving a review and subscribing and sharing this with your friends. Now, this is going to be slapped. You know what's happened. In the topic I'm going to talk about today is people have politicised other people's human rights. And it's it's so frustrating. Because I don't want to be political. That's never, I'm not a political person in my branding, but I do believe in human rights. I believe in equity, I believe in standing up for my LGBTQ brothers and sisters. And and as you know, I'm a huge Disney fan. So we're going to talk about what to do when you've aligned your brand, with a company or something that doesn't really did maybe fails you right that maybe misrepresents what you want your audience to know about you. So for me, I love Disney. My whole method, the creative visibility course that I teach is based on the experience of going to Disneyland, right? What does that experience like? And how can you create your own version of that in your marketing and in your branding, and, you know, sale, little sales pitch here. But if you're interested in learning more about that you can always apply for the creative visibility programme. By going to Brett shoe for.com forward slash apply. Of course, I would love to work with you and help you and teach you more about this because marketing and branding and creating content can be really fun, just like going to a theme park. But for me Disney is what I love about using Disney as a teaching tool is that they've always been able to be forward thinking, especially Walt Disney himself. While Disney was a forward thinking human. He knew how to find talent. He knew how to direct them. Maybe not the most, pleasantly most people when I say Disney will throw in anti semitic or racist which is just, to me always very interesting because any company that was around in America during the 1920s 30s 40s 50s would would be seen as anti semitic, especially entertainment companies, and racist because that is a part of that was a part of the American culture and entertainment, unfortunately. But I think that because Walt Disney's name is attached to the company, no one really know who you know, the Warner Brothers were, you know, no one really knew who owned paramount, but Walt Disney was the face and so he gets a lot of flack for that. I have no doubt as a white, straight cisgendered man, he probably had his flaws. But as a we all do, let me let me just own that for myself. I have my own flaws and privilege. And I acknowledge my privilege, and I aim every day to do better than I did the day before. But we don't always get it right. But if we don't try, we never will. So for me, Disney is a company that I've always been inspired by. I grew up watching Disney Channel. I have a brother with special needs, who, you know, the fantasy that Disney could create the experience of us going to a theme park together was always such a bonding thing. And I just love the creativity, I love, the timelessness that they create.
So when you know the new CEO of Disney, not to get into all of this nerdy Disney stuff, which you know, I can, if you want to DME, Bob chapek took over from Bob Iger, it's been a lot of controversy, but nothing more controversial than Florida and Governor DeSantis. Passing what has been called the don't say gay bill, which is actually like, not called that. And every time I make an Instagram post about it, I get some, usually straight woman, not actually always a straight woman, with kids in Florida, explained to me it's not called the don't say gay bill. But ultimately, what the bill does say if you go and read the bill, and not just read headlines, as most of us kind of lazily do these days, especially because we will just get information off of whomever is repeating things. But it allows schools and teachers to be sued. If they bring up gender identity and sexual identity within a kindergarten through third grade school level. It also allows schools to report to parents if their kids are questioning their sexual identity or gender identity, which is unbelievably like, unbelievably scary and dangerous. So you know, the statistics are pretty high LGBTQ children are 40% Most likely to commit suicide goes up even more when you are strictly transgender, or you are you're identifying with a different gender. And the fact that these and I think the most difficult thing for me, and we'll get back to Disney in a minute, don't worry, is that most people are confusing sexual identity, and gender identity with sex or sexuality, right? So sex is not like kids who are kindergarten through third grade. If you tell them someone's gay, they're not thinking about sex, they're not thinking about how does that person have sex or they're not thinking about genitalia? They're not thinking about those things. And so the fact that these parents or these moms or these conservatives, whomever it is that's supporting this bill, are saying that this spares their innocence, to not talk about gender identity, and sexual identity shows how homophobic this bill is. Because as a child growing up gay, I knew I was gay very early, but I could not express it or talk about it when I was six or seven years old. I was we all every single day bear witness to heterosexual relationships. We see it on The Bachelor, we see it on Disney movies. We see it everywhere, right? People can talk about mommy and daddy. That is sexual identity. That is heterosexuality. And the fact that, you know, you can talk about mommy and daddy. And you can talk about even if you say but I tell the different families. There's two dads, right, so two dads is sexual identity they are homosexuals. Right? Second, your gender identity, like someone who's questioning their gender, it doesn't mean that they somehow want to transition and have their genitalia cut off. Or it just means they want to, they want to explore their self expression. And it is so important, especially kindergarten through third grade, that children have a place to explore that self expression because if they don't express themselves at bottles up, and it eats them up from the inside, and thus, the statistics of suicide rates. So the fact that people feel threatened, they feel like it's their job to protect their children from this quote unquote, dangers of losing their innocence. I can't even imagine people I don't want them talking about sex in my school. Of course, what kindergarten teacher is talking about sex? Where can you report that to me?
Give me one example where someone's talking about intercourse or any sort of act of sex in a class room with a kindergartener third grader that is completely unacceptable. Does it need to be a state law that this is the thing, that should be the law. You cannot talk about sex, pornography, anything like that. In a classroom great. But sexual identity and gender identity are not sex. And that is so frustrating for me. Because I, five days ago, gave birth to my first child. And if my child cannot talk about his dad's in school, if my child runs the risk of being made fun of or diminishing his worth, because the teacher says, nope, nope, nope, we can't talk about that. Then he is left to feel like an outsider. Right, he is left to feel abnormal. And that's not cool. So if you're listening to this, or if you know someone who's listening, who is confusing sex with sexual identity and gender identity, just remember, when you fill out a form, it says, What is your sex male or female? That is your sexual identity, right? Your, your, your gender identity, excuse me. And when you fill out a form and you say you're married to man, like or you say you're married to a woman, you're talking about your sexual identity. You're no one who's five years old, is correlating that with actual sex, only you are. And if you're thinking that that's not true, or that's not homophobic to think so I just want you to remember, I want you to start to clock how many times in your day, you see man and woman, kissing, getting married, engaged the bachelor, I don't know, whatever else BS, you know, heterosexual heteronormative shows that are on your watching, I want you to clock it. And remember that someone like me, and my husband has had to watch that day and day and day and day in day out since we were children. And that makes us feel abnormal, that ruined our innocence. Because we were not able to express ourselves. And so this bill, the don't say gay bill in Florida takes away the rights of people who are a part of a marginalised community. And that's not cool. And so what happened is Disney being in Florida having a huge presence and for the largest employer in the state of Florida. This came out that Disney had funded, this article came out, Disney funded many, many, many of the politicians who were in favour of passing this bill. And in the three months or however long they were debating the bill on the floor, Disney never spoke up. They never said anything they didn't until the governor DeSantis signed it. And the bill became law. And now Disney is saying after much protest, Disney cast members actually doing walkouts, Disney saying that they are going to fight to appeal this law. And of course, in the lovingly Christian way that so many conservatives do, they're being vindictive and threatening to take away Disney's basically, their whole business of operation in Florida, they have a company called or the Reedy Creek organisation is who Disney basically has their own zoning within their 40 acre, what is it 40,000 acre land in Florida. The Reedy Creek organisation is how they run their fire departments, their police departments, and they're, they're able to sort of run everything with their pyrotechnics, and all that stuff. And Governor DeSantis and his cronies are threatening to take away Reedy Creek to make it much more difficult for Disney to be able to operate the way that they do. In because Disney finally, finally, after a very long time spoke up and said we don't think this is right. So I'm talking about this because when it comes to branding, this situation, which has turned political, which is really sad.
I have aligned myself with Disney and so much of my content. And I talk about Disney and all my content. And it just every time I would go to make some sort of post about Disney. It didn't feel right. It just felt not in service of my community. In fact, I had a friend comments on a reels I made on Instagram, and I'd made it before all this went down. Kind of saying I can't believe you're promoting Disney. They're homophobe. Look. Alright, so this is a very liberal left's this is like New York City, homosexual, like, friend. And I was like, Listen, you know, here's the thing, right? I took a pause from posting content on Disney. This is one of the beauties of what I've built in my marketing is that I talk about many things, I don't just talk about Disney. So I, if I do take a pause on Disney, I can still make content in other ways. It's one of the reasons one of the things I teach people, right. But I also told them, like I made that post way before, I'm not gonna apologise for it. And also, Disney didn't give money to these people. Because of the bill, they had given the money to these politicians before the bill was passed. And I don't I knew Disney would eventually come forward, having worked for them having done performances for them, I knew they would do the right thing. It was just very frustrating at how long it took. And that was the frustrating part. Well, this guy kept coming at me, right. And this is what this is one thing I want you to learn, people will come at you, people will come at you on social media when you are present. And when you are authentic, and when you are real, and you're posting stuff. And I usually when someone's coming at me, I'm like, Great, I'm pushing buttons. I'm challenging people. And I don't want to just challenge people who don't agree with me, I want to challenge the people who do agree with me or people who are on my side. Because that's how we grow. Right? I always tell my, my private clients, if you aren't uncomfortable, you aren't growing. And that is my goal in, in helping people that's my goal in my life is going to be my goal in my son's life, how do I help him grow. And I don't want him to just always be comfortable, I want him to challenge himself so that he can really meet his potential. Because if we're just comfortable, we're never going to push through those, those boundaries in those walls. And I've learned that to be true. I mean, it's taken me four years to become a dad. And there were a lot of obstacles that got in the way. And the fact that it's happened, it is just that's another episode. So Disney. Yeah, it's disappointing. And it's hurtful. I think it really hurt a lot of people, I think it really hurt a lot of people who work for Disney that are on the LGBTQ plus spectrum. And that's why a lot of them did walk out from work. And I supported that. And I made some content about it. You know, just saying, if you think that don't say gay Gable isn't homophobic, then there's something really wrong with you. Because if the bill strictly said, you know, the bill is vague, and I think it's vague for a reason, but the fact that they have to write a bill for something that isn't really even an issue, but it's specifically without saying it targets LGBTQ plus and transgender community. And then now you see politically, you see, you know, the the right wing people sort of spinning this as the Gay Agenda again. So we're back in like 1993. And, you know, also now that I live in Texas, I think about the there was a bill passed here, that basically bans parents from being able to help their children do any gender transition, hormone therapies or
anything like that. Otherwise, the parents could be brought up against child protective services as child abuse. And that is just so heartbreaking. These parents are trying to keep their kids alive. They're not trying to keep their kids, like change their gender, they're just trying to keep them alive. And it is just heartbreaking. So how do you handle this? I stayed myself, I was not going to sit there and apologise to a member of my own community and say, Oh, I'm so sorry, Disney, you know, I'll stop posting Disney stuff. No. What I said is when you love something, when you believe in something, you know, it can be its best self. You know, it needs to meet its potential. So I will continue to make content that holds Disney accountable. that educates my community. If you've ever listened to me talk about what type of content to create. If you don't want to get political, that's okay. But just remember human rights are not politics. The fact that people take people's human rights and legislate them that they make it political, which is which is unfair. So I post about human rights. I post about my community, I want people to feel seen and I also the three things you always have to do when making content, educate, inspire or entertain. So my goal is to inspire to educate people who don't know much about LGBT LGBTQ plus issues to help people see like hopefully through listen to this podcast, oh my gosh, gender identity is and sexual identity is not the same. The only people thinking about genitalia are Anyone who understands what genitalia does, and that's no one over under the third grade level, let's be honest. So can we all get over that? Can we all just say like a child's innocence is being protected if we're not talking or showing them sexual things? And also, can we just talk about the fact that every day on TV video games, they are being exposed to sexual identity and gender identity every single day, and if they don't have a place to go talk about it? If they can't talk about it at home, school is the next best place. And if they can't talk about it at school, especially with a teacher and somebody that they can trust, where are they going to go? Who can they talk to about it? I know that Disney's gonna fight this. I mean, you don't want to mess with Disney anyway, I don't know what the governor of Florida is thinking. Cuz he doesn't, you can pay anybody to replace them. Fingers crossed. But please, if you're somebody who thinks that this bill is somehow protecting, it's an it's a non issue. At this point, there's no experiences where a child has come home and learn and lost their innocence, because they're talking about gender identity, or sexual identity. And if anything, you're helping other kids be able to find how to express themselves. If you don't want to talk to your kid about this stuff. Well, number one, what are you doing with a kid? Your job is to answer your kids questions. Your job as a parent is to guide them, not your like, not protect them from things that aren't an issue. Right? So, talk to someone who's gay, talk to someone who's transgender, ask them Hey, can my kid talk, ask questions? Can I, my kid, talk to you? Where can I learn more about this, right, so that I can approach this in a way that feels good to me, that doesn't threaten my beliefs, right? Because let me say we were all gifted by God to be on this planet, every single one of us deserves to be here and to be exactly who we want to be. And my existence does not encroach on yours, because you don't feel comfortable with who I choose to love, and how I choose to express myself. So just remember, like, innocence is only lost when we take away a child's ability to express who they truly are, at all times. So I want to encourage you, if you're somebody who's making content, who's maybe afraid you're aligning yourself with something, really dig deep into that, but also make content about that. I've made Instagram reels and posting. I don't know how I feel about this. I'm confused. I believe Disney will do the right thing. But if they don't, what am I going to do? And of course, they're coming through and I do think they're going to do the right thing. But what if they didn't, then I'd have to really come out and have a discussion about what to do in that situation. So I hope this podcast helps you.
I hope it helps you think through not only understanding this bill and what's happening in Florida and taxes, but also to think through okay, you know, if I don't believe in something, if I think something's wrong, how do I educate, entertain and inspire my audience to do the right thing. And secondly, do not be afraid to lose followers. Do not be afraid to lose followers, this person who I've known for years unfollowed me after that conversation because I wasn't going to buy into his fear mongering, which I would call it because I I didn't agree with him and I believed in this. So stand up for what you believe in, keep going and keep being courageously creative. Talk to you in the next episode. Bye
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
