Who Belongs?

In this interview, Reverend Laura Randall and Heather Vickery of the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee describe their work with the Pink Haven Coalition — a network helping trans and gender expansive people relocate from legislatively hostile states to safer ones. Drawing on UUSC's origins aiding people from Nazi-occupied Europe, they reflect on mutual aid, faith-rooted resistance, and what sustainable coalition building actually requires.

Around the world, communities and organizations are developing strategies to confront the weaponization of gender and build a future rooted in belonging and pluralistic democracy.

In this special subseries of Who Belongs? from the (En)Gendering Authoritarianism project, we speak with individuals and groups at the forefront of this work. Each interview offers an inside look at how they navigate the political and cultural terrain — what approaches they use, what they've learned, and what gives them optimism for continued action.

In this episode, we hear from Viktória Radványi, president of Budapest Pride. She reflects on how her organization defied a government ban to stage the largest anti-authoritarian mobilization in Hungary since 1989, drawing 350,000 people. She explains how decades of movement-building, internal trust, strategic coalition work, and communication rooted in Hungarian values turned a Pride march into a mass democratic resistance — and what civil society organizations facing similar authoritarian pressures can learn from it.

This series is hosted by Míriam Juan-Torres and Laura Livingston.

Learn more about the (En)Gendering Authoritarianism project at https://belonging.berkeley.edu/engendering-authoritarianism

Find out more at https://who-belongs.pinecast.co

In this episode of Who Belongs? we hear from OBI Director john a. powell and Assistant Director Stephen Menendian about the recently released book they co-authored, called Belonging without Othering: How We Save Ourselves and the World. The interview was conducted by Ivan Natividad, who is OBI's assistant director of communications. Learn more at belonging.berkeley.edu/whobelongs.

For a transcript of the episode, please click here: https://belonging.berkeley.edu/podcast-belonging-without-othering

This episode is part of a series of talks and panel discussions recorded during the breakout sessions of our Othering & Belonging Conference that took place in Oakland this past April. This session is titled "Land, Culture, and Belonging: Place-based Community Advocacy." It looks at the redevelopment of the Henry J. Kaiser Center in Oakland, which was the location of our conference. A private developer who was granted a long-term lease by the city to reopen the venue had negotiated a community benefits agreement with a coalition of local artists. And some of the artists and leaders involved in that process are among the panelists invited to discuss the issue and how it speaks to broader issues of land, culture and belonging. Panelists include Nikki Bas, who is the President of the Oakland City Council; Thomas Cavanagh from the group BANDALOOP; Cristy Johnston-Limón, who leads the City of Oakland’s business development activities; Ayodele Nzinga, who is an artist, actress, playwright, and poet; and Kev Choice, who is a pianist and community advocate. The session was moderated by Eli Moore, who directs OBI's Community Power and Policy Partnerships Program. Eli co-curated this session with OBI's Sarah Crowell. You can find more episodes from this podcast series on our website at belonging.berkeley.edu/whobelongs.

For a transcript of the episode, please click here: https://belonging.berkeley.edu/podcast-land-culture-and-belonging-place-based-community-advocacy

This episode is part of a series of talks and panel discussions recorded during the breakout sessions of our Othering & Belonging Conference that took place in Oakland this past April. This session is titled "Leaning into Paradox: How We Can Block, Bridge & Build Our Democratic Future Together." It includes two speakers from the Horizons Project who engage the audience on those three seemingly paradoxical approaches: how to come together to block the threats to our democratic values; the need to bridge across differences to foster broad-based movements, and to build together the future we want to see. Those speakers are Julia Roig, who is the Founder & Chief Network Weaver at the Horizons Project, and Jarvis Williams, who is the organization's Director for Race and Democracy. You can find more episodes from this podcast series on our website at belonging.berkeley.edu/whobelongs.

For a transcript of the episode, please click here: https://belonging.berkeley.edu/podcast-leaning-paradox-how-we-can-block-bridge-build-our-democratic-future-together