For those in Minnesota-born Winstead’s job, it’s no surprise that she rose from a politically minded stand-up to an activist leader. “She’s just one of them — you meet them all your life — boundless energy, tense, talks really fast, gestures wildly, kind of people,” said Cross, a friend of more than 30 years.
Johnson, the comic who has been with the organization since its inception, said, “I think she’s a non-somniac, like Obama a non-somniac, to be able to do all the things she does. Her brain is constantly worrying – since 2016 her hair has turned white.”
Even for Abortion Access Front, whose allies had long known that reproductive care and women’s rights were under attack, the weeks since Roe v. Wade’s overthrow had been, as Winstead said, heartbreakingly surreal and destabilizing. “I’ve always felt unsafe in this country,” said Johnson, who is black, “but now it’s almost a slapstick level of unsafe. It’s chaos.”
Winstead said, “This is almost our last chance, because we’re burned out — and it’s designed that way.”
But this moment has also sharpened activists’ focus and expanded their tent. Since Roe was overthrown, “I talk about it every chance — you’re going to hear abortion, abortion, abortion out of Joyelle’s mouth,” Johnson said. “I’m doing it for the women in the audience who aren’t as liberated as I am, those women who can’t tell their closest relatives. I hope it liberates some people.”
Viva Ruiz, an artist and activist whose group, Thank God For Abortion, is involved in Sunday’s training session, said: “Everyone has to use their own way – the more variety there is, the more tactics, the more successful we can be.” She added: “The point is, just don’t stop. To keep appearing.”
Together, Winstead agreed: “We are more motivated to fight and stay in the fight. And be ruthless.”