In today’s video, I will be reenacting a CNN interview with three characters: CNN reporter Brian Stelter, who is bald, Kamala Harris, wearing a blue shirt, and Lydia Brown, wearing a dark blue shirt.  

Did you hear about the vice president’s blue suit this week?  If so, it all stems from a video I’m about to show you - a video that was tweeted by the Republican National Committee’s research Twitter account.  

(Kamala Harris): “I’m Kamala Harris.  My pronouns are she and her, and I’m a woman sitting at the table wearing a blue suit.”

Brian Stelter: “That little clip of Kamala Harris doing a self description during a disability rights meeting on Tuesday caused days of right wing media reaction and mockery.  S the RNC posted the tweet.  It went viral on Twitter and it inspired segments on channels like Fox News and Newsmax.  It caused so much mockery from people on the right I wondered, was there any follow-up news coverage?  Did anybody actually interview anyone who was in the room?  Does anybody actually know what this story was all about?  So we decided to book somebody who was there - an attendee at this event marking the anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act.  Let’s go ahead and bring them in now.  Lydia Brown was in the room.  They are the director of policy, advocacy, and external affairs for the Autistic Women and Non-binary Network.  Lydia, welcome to the program.  I love the blue suit.”

Lydia: “Thanks, Brian.  It felt like an appropriate choice.”

Brian: “Tell me why Kamala Harris described what she was wearing.  What’s the actual reason?”

Lydia: “For many blind people and people who have a variety of vision disabilities, giving a visual description can help provide important context that sighted people automatically have.  Not every blind person benefits, but plenty of blind people do, and have asked for that accommodation.”

Brian: “In the meeting, was this a big deal?  Wa this a big moment?”

Lydia: “Absolutely nobody was thinking much about it at all, besides what are we doing to ensure that our conversation is accessible to anyone who might be tuning in?”

Brian: “Afterward, this becomes a viral moment and they’re making fun of her on Fox and elsewhere.  How did you feel about that news coverage?  Well, I won’t call it news… media coverage?”

Lydia: It wasn’t media coverage so much as it was a temper tantrum, just a terrible reaction to a meeting where we should be talking about real issues, about disabled people at risk of severe complications and death from pregnancy, disabled people dealing with forced sterilization, disabled people having children taken away, and, and instead, all that’s happening is this ridiculous criticism of a very basic practice of accessibility and inclusion.”

Brian: “There are some Republicans like Adam Kinzinger who tweeted, “Hey, Democrats!  Save this moment!  This is why you lose elections.  Do you buy into that argument at all that by naming pronouns and by saying what you’re wearing, someone like Kamala Harris is hurting the Democrats?”

Lydia: “We should care a lot more about what our political leaders are doing or failing to do t help real people than about whether or not we are able to recognize who we are.  Just stating what my pronouns are shouldn’t be a big deal.  It’s just a statement.  If you don’t care, you don’t care, but what we should care about are, again, the real issues and the real conversation we have.  If you don’t recognize my pronouns, that’s on you, but if you are ignoring the reality that disabled people are more likely to die because of lack of access to reproductive care, that disabled and trans people are more likely to experience discrimination or even outright violence, then that matters a lot.  It says a lot to me that this public conversation is fixated on the vice president acknowledging her pronoun and mentioning what she was wearing, instead of about what we, a group of five disabled people, came to the Wjhite House to talk about.”

Brian: “To the credit of the website, the Nineteenth, the Nineteenth interview, did you get any other calls from any other media outlets as this right wing viral thing went on?”

Lydia: “I did not, and you know the Nineteenth hired a disabled reporter, Sarah Luterman, for the Nineteenth, is openly disabled, and that representation matters in terms of who is thinking about the real issues.”

Brian: “Great point.  Lydia, Thank you for coming on the air and bringing that up.”