Erickson talks transgender athletes, Donald Trump, Sex and The City

Mayor John M. Erickson recently sat down with YouTuber J.T. Parr for an interview on his Afterschool Program podcast. The mayor answered a broad range of questions, sharing his opinions on truth in politics, transgender athletes and even “Sex and the City.” Here are some highlights:

Do you think that there’s too much cynicism around politics? 

Politicians invite their own cynicism. I think that when you—so my grandmother, uh, taught me to never lie. She was like, you know, if you don’t lie, you have nothing to worry about, right? And so I just really have carried that around with me, and I just, it’s like a part of my personality. Yeah, I’m very honest too, but I still lie. 

Oh, you do? You lie? 

I mean, like, a white lie. I—as an honest person, I have to say that I lie. But I think when it comes down to like looking someone square in the face and telling them like the truth—deal, what the deal is, what’s going to get done, what’s going to happen. Is it going to be good? Is it going to be bad? Like, I think if we started doing that more, people would start believing in government a little bit more. 

Are you afraid of your constituents? 

No. They’re characters, but they’re not scary.

I’ve been to some of your meetings before.

They’re the best part of our meetings.

So oftentimes in city council meetings, I’ve seen mayors from all sorts of cities just get blasted from their constituents.

I mean, when it comes to public, we’re actually amongst the lighter commentary. 

You guys get real direct attacks. How does that feel when people you’re trying to help are just yelling at you? 

I mean, I think the best part of our meetings is when the public can just come and talk to us in the first part of it, and they can say whatever they want. Public comment was described to me when I was an intern because I was really kind of new to what local government was and how it really was being worked out. And someone said for the first 20 minutes, someone could come and talk about whatever they want for 20 minutes. And sometimes they do for 2 minutes. Yeah, and sometimes they do. And I remember the example was she can, someone can come talk about little green aliens and like how they were abducted the last night, or like a tree falling down. It doesn’t matter. They just get up there and speak for two minutes.

I saw you getting blasted at the last meeting for essentially not being gay enough.

Yeah, you know, there’s one in every—there’s one in every bunch.

But I must imagine growing up you were like, I don’t think anyone’s ever going to attack me for not being gay enough.

I really have to up my game, you know? I’m trying to figure out how I can become gayer just to make sure these constituents who are very worried about my gay—my gayness. 

What do you think’s the best part about being gay? You’re just fabulous in every shape and every form.

That’s the best part is being fabulous. Am I supposed to say like having sex with men? 

Do you get annoyed by the grandstanding that happens between politicians when they’re in council or when they’re across each other in congressional meetings and stuff? 

We all do it. We’re all—you know, at the end of the day, grandstanding in some way because we care about the issues that we really—and that’s just part of it. There’s the performance of the issue too. Yeah, I think so. I think when you’re deeply advocating for an issue, you—you perform in a way so that way people can understand your passion.

And did you have to realize at some point that if I don’t perform my belief in this issue, I might not be able to make it happen?

I don’t think it’s if you perform your belief in the issue—I think people can tell if you don’t believe in the actual issue. Yeah, I guess I’ve just seen people who genuinely believed in what they were talking about but couldn’t talk about it in a way that was as compelling as their opposition. Yeah, I—I think that happens with a lot of issues that are maybe sometimes unpopular. 

You know, I mean, talk—let’s just look at like LGBTQ equality in the city. Like, you know, 1984, were people out there like talking and advocating for all the stuff we’re talking about today? 

No, because it wasn’t popular at the time. But I think that didn’t stop people from advocating for a community that, you know, educating people on, changing hearts and minds. And I think gr—if you want to call it grandstanding, but saying like, this is what we believe in and getting other people to believe in it as well. Yeah, you’re your own preacher for your own cause. You have to be. You have to be—that’s the job. That’s filling out the suit. I—yeah, I think you have—if you’re not going to get up in that proverbial pulpit and shout from the rooftops about what you believe in and why, like, why would anyone ever want to vote for you or believe in you? And why are you a politician? 

And why are you a politician, or why do you even want to do the job? 

Like, if you’re just there to like, I don’t know, be a sourpuss. You can’t really do that. That bums me out in politics that you just can’t be a boring sourpuss. Well, some are. Well, yeah. I mean, I think that’s why George Will said Richard Nixon was ill-suited for politics, is because he didn’t like people. You kind of gotta like people. 

It’s part of the gig, right? 

It is. And our great politicians like Bill Clinton, people like that—they have a certain charisma when they’re around people that allows them to facilitate their agenda. 

Well, you have to like people because you want to help people. 

I mean, that’s the job itself. It’s a calling. It’s a duty, right?  It’s an oath you take to your constituents.

What’s the best thing you’ve done as mayor? 

Oh my goodness. I—I honestly think the minimum wage is something that I, um, am extremely proud of. You know, I—I—I mean, it’s the highest minimum wage in the country. It’s—it’s not just that, right? It’s, um, historic, personal, um, it’s vacation and sick time as well. When you think about, um, having the ability to still get sick on your job at an hourly rate and not lose it, um, or take a vacation, it’s all accrued, of course, like a normal job would be if you’re salaried. Um, but I think when I think about the minimum wage, it goes back to, uh, a long time ago when I worked at the city, um, and I remember, uh, a year later, the City Council didn’t, uh, raise the minimum wage to $15. Um, and it was something that I’ll never forget. I remember sitting in that meeting not understanding why they didn’t do it, you know?  Big business interests just kind of won the day in that way. Um, and I remember looking at my former partner at the time who was like, really? Like, over 30 cents? Like, this is—do people know what it’s like to make $15 an hour? And I promised him right then and there that if I ever got elected, I would do something about it. 

Can you talk about the Saddle Ranch’s contribution to American culture?

Cotton candy, the bull, and obviously the “Sex and the City” episode.

Yes, “Sex and the City.” Who’s your favorite of Carrie’s boyfriends?

I loved Aidan.

The LA Sheriff’s Department has a notorious history of gang affiliation within its membership. Does that history affect your relationship with them as the primary law enforcement provider in West Hollywood? 

We want to ensure that there are no gangs in any of our stations. I actually—two or three years ago, we did like an audit, um, I don’t remember the actual, uh, what we called the item, um, but we wanted to look into, were there deputy gangs at our station, ‘cause that’s a serious accusation. And we know it’s out there, right? We know it’s happening, ‘cause there was a whistleblower that went to the LA Times about something going on. And so we really looked into it as a city, because that’s a serious accusation. No, it feels about as serious as it gets. Currently, our new sheriff, Robert Luna, is working really hard to weed out that type of serious corruption that’s going on. And they might have been isolated incidents. It might not be a systemic issue. I think it’s a systemic issue still. I think that we need to still be working to make sure that there’s no gangs in any matter of policing.

But we— But actively you think there are?

I do, because there’s researched evidence out there right now.

What do you think are the macro factors for why Donald Trump is the next president? 

Well, I’m going to work like hell to make sure Donald Trump isn’t our next president, but I think it’s—if you look at the ways that he’s been allowed to succeed, he’s a—a rich, privileged white man who’s never been told no his entire life. But it must be more complicated than that because he’s doing well with bases that don’t represent that. Well, he’s doing well with people that, I think, find a grievance with government in whatever way. I mean, you look at how government can be used for people, which I think is what we do in local government a lot of the times—streets, trees, sidewalks—and then I think you find other issues as you get bigger, right? And government can be seen as being used against someone. And, you know, a lot of people don’t like government telling them what to do. Um, but I think when it comes down to an issue of equality and making sure everyone just lives their full and happiest lives, I think that’s where we start seeing the differences come out with what’s at stake and who’s really on the ballot. 

So, do you work at Planned Parenthood?

I do. 

What do you do for Planned Parenthood? 

I’m the vice president of public affairs, communications, and marketing. And what does that entail? What does that entail? So I work a lot with local governments, um, elected leaders, policymaking. So when you look at right now, the world that we’re in, um, we have a hostile Supreme Court, uh, that likes to play politics with people’s lives and, you know, deny care for services for people wanting to come to California to get a procedure that might be denied in their own state. And so how do we create better laws and policies and education and advocacy around making sure that anyone that comes through our doors, um, no matter where they are, who they are, can get full access to healthcare. 

Do you have a perspective on transgender athletes and sports? 

I think that, um, individuals that are working as hard as they are to play in whatever sport they identify on—they should be able to play in that sport. Yeah, it’s hard for me—I think—I—I don’t know if I’ve ever said this publicly, and—and I— 

Well, do you think it makes someone transphobic if they disagree with that? 

I believe gender is a construct. I think that, um, when we’re looking at transgender athletes, we need to be supporting individuals even at a younger age so we don’t create sex or gender into boxes that people live in. And, you know, why are we having these conversations when people are, you know, 16, 17, 18, or even older, right? Like, shouldn’t we be working so kids feel comfortable in their bodies early on? And I think, you know, I think a lot of stuff is done through education and advocacy. 

But can’t you do both?

Do what? 

Can’t you make sure that there’s like a smoother, um, like, exploration, understanding, and—and—and like a community for young trans people but also keep sports, um, as like fair as possible based off competitive advantages that could come from your, uh, given birthplace? 

Well, I’ve seen a lot of athletes, no matter how they identify, being very good. There’s a lot of, uh, uh, female, cisgendered, or female-identified individuals that play a lot of sports that are a lot better than I could ever be in any of these sports. And I think that it’s just—it’s sports. People are having fun, and people are playing competitively.