April 24, 2024 • 52 mins
On this special episode of Queer Chronicles, we bring together some notable *adult* guests: actress, activist and drag queen Miss Peppermint; ACLU lawyer and trans rights activist Chase Strangio; and activist, community organizer, drag queen and founder of the non-profit Southern Fried Queer Pride, TAYLOR ALXNDR.
Our roundtable of guests reflect on stand-out moments from our teens this season – and they share their own experiences, insights, advice and solidarity.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:08):
School of Humans.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
This is Queer Chronicles.
Speaker 3 (00:15):
This is my personal entry queer.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
This is Queer Chronicles.
Speaker 4 (00:29):
I'm Raquel Willis from School of Humans, the Outspoken Podcast Network,
and iHeart Podcasts. This is a special edition of Queer Chronicles,
a show where queer folks document their personal lives and experiences.
Speaker 5 (00:46):
In their own words.
Speaker 4 (00:47):
This season, we spoke with a group of teens and
battleground states across the country. But today I'm joined by
three esteemed adult guests to review and key key about
some of the themes and ideas that came up this season.
We're going to get some tea on the ways they're
telling queer stories in the world, share advice for our
(01:10):
youth out there, and maybe dish a little guess too.
Speaker 5 (01:14):
Who knows.
Speaker 4 (01:16):
First, We've got actor activists and self proclaimed horror movie
buff Miss Peppermint Meow and my down home fam coming
in from Georgia. Singer and drag show girl Taylor Alexander
Hi Hi, and a little later, Chase Strangio, attorney for
(01:39):
the American Civil Liberties Union, will be joining us too.
Thank y'all so much for chatting today. How are y'all feeling?
How are you feeling Miss Peppermint.
Speaker 6 (01:50):
I'm feeling good and feeling energized and really happy to
be here with everybody. And yeah, I'm feeling activated and directed.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
Ooh, come on, and what about you, Taylor, I am
feeling caffeinated. I am ready to converse. I am ready
to key key and other words to start with the cussounds.
So yeah, I'm down. I'm ready. Give us like three
more Oh my gosh, qualify, quantify, I don't know.
Speaker 5 (02:23):
Okay.
Speaker 4 (02:24):
So, to set the scene for y'all, over the past
few months, we've been following a group of queer and
trans teens, many of them in Red States, and they
sent us voice memos about their lives, plus they just
kind of gave us the ins and outs of their experiences. Today,
we're going to play you some of the clips from
(02:44):
the show, and you'll get to meet some of the
teens through parts of their stories, and we'll talk about
them and see what comes up for y'all.
Speaker 5 (02:52):
So does that sound good?
Speaker 6 (02:54):
Oh, it's I am ready.
Speaker 5 (02:59):
Okay.
Speaker 4 (03:00):
So one of the last things we discussed on the
show was the experience of coming out or inviting in,
as others might say these days. So we're going to
run the tape from our episode with Sofara. Now so
far is a trans tine from Texas, and she goes
into her experience and her connection with ballroom. So she
(03:25):
got very real about the shift from seeing herself previously
as gay to understanding her womanhood in a more expansive way.
Speaker 7 (03:37):
Yeah, it took me a long time to like find out,
Like I know, like everyone's transitions has their own timeline,
and for me, it wasn't like incredibly vastly apparent that
I was a girl from the jump, you know what
I mean. Like I felt a lot of like comfortability
and like being a gay man. For like a while,
(03:59):
I thought I knew what I was. I thought I
had it fully figured out in the back of my mind.
I remember, like I would probably say, since like fourth
or fifth grade was when I had the first thought of, well,
it would be great if I had if I had breasts,
and it would be great if I was born a woman.
It would be better if I was born a woman.
But I was, like I always literally said, but I
(04:21):
don't want enough to be like trans I don't want
enough to actually go through a transition. And that always
hot back up, like every six months or so.
Speaker 1 (04:32):
So.
Speaker 4 (04:34):
We got into it, and I know, I feel so
much of what Miss Safara is laying down here. I
had plenty of times from childhood to beyond where I
was reimagining my life as the girl or woman I
was finding myself to be. But of course the idea
that coming out piece the feet of it loomed over me.
(04:58):
So I'm curious if any of you resonate with what
missafar is talking about here. What is it bringing up
for you in terms of thinking about being a teenager
and coming to terms with your evolving identity? And Taylor,
do you want to kick us off?
Speaker 1 (05:17):
I can, Yeah, just listening just brought up, you know,
this idea of like the audacity to be yourself and
coming into yourself. And you know, for so many people,
especially like taking my own experience into account, it's just
like the idea of safety. Like, sure, I have these identities,
I have these feelings. I know there are certain aspects
(05:40):
of myself that I want to explore or express, but
there's a certain safety that comes with not pursuing those things,
and so sometimes it keeps us quote unquote in the closet,
It keeps us from you know, really exploring all the
possibilities of who we can become, and so just hearing
about the possibility of you know, beginning to transition and
(06:02):
coming into yourself, but also understanding the more safety of
an identity that maybe isn't home to you. Yeah, that
definitely resonated with me.
Speaker 6 (06:11):
But so far I had to say, definitely resonated with me,
especially coming from the drag world. And Taylor, what you
said also really it could have been my own words.
I remember prioritizing sort of the comfort of I guess,
the status quo, the people that like weren't trans the
(06:31):
people that were like you know, my parents, the society,
the bullies, prioritizing their comfort over mine. And I was
able to use drag as a tool, especially for people
who are performers. I think we can utilize the space
of performance and work in that context to like temporarily,
(06:52):
you know, sort of satisfy the urge and the need
to like medically transition and at least if not come
out as trans because you can, you know, it's a
there can be an over right. And so for me,
I was like, I considered myself and I thought I
made up a word. I think I might have made
up word a non op trans woman. There was like
(07:13):
and the back in the day people were like prep
post op and I was like, well, I'm non op
and I'm just going to use makeup and that's going
to be it. And so that worked for a while.
Speaker 4 (07:25):
I mean, I hear so much of what y'all are saying.
And for me, there was also like drag as a
performance element was a gateway because I was a drag
performer at school at the University of Georgia, and it
was through that art form that I met other queer
trans people were identifying as gender queer than not non
(07:49):
binary necessarily, but it was such a beautiful gateway into
understanding myself but also understanding that I wasn't alone in
this experience. So can y'all talk a little bit more
about what it was, like how important maybe it was
to find community at that time or in these times
(08:11):
when you were also just trying to figure yourself out
on an individual level.
Speaker 5 (08:15):
Well, for me, it was really different.
Speaker 6 (08:19):
You know, like in the nineties, we didn't even have
the nuance of understanding that we have today, and so
back then people were like, you're either a gay boy
or a transsexual, and we weren't even using the word transgender.
In my at least, what I had access to finding
(08:40):
community is important. It was really ironic in that regard.
Even folks in the gay community and the gay bars
and the clubs that I was working in didn't have
much of a nuanced perspective as well, and so they
were there was some you know, cis sexism happening, and
(09:02):
there was some you know, uh, the misogyny and the
patriarchy was, you know, ever present in the gay bar,
especially in the bars that I worked in, which are
mostly white gay bars, you know, mostly frequented by white men,
white gay men, and so like, there just wasn't a
(09:22):
lot of options. And when I started to explore my
transness and want to connect that to the community that
I had been around for so long, I was met
with toxicity and resistance and sort of threats of losing
my job and so not to be a naysayer. A
community is one hundred percent important, and I think today
what we have to take advantage of is there are
(09:43):
so many more queer people who are expressing their queerness,
which to me has a little bit of a political
context as well, and understanding that we have this larger
community and it's not just focused on the gay white men.
You know, this cis gay white.
Speaker 5 (09:58):
Men, absolutely.
Speaker 4 (10:01):
I mean, I think what I'm hearing here is the
community is right, and also it's not always accessible, especially
in the ways that maybe the most enriching for us,
particularly as trans as non Binaria's agender folks. I want
to shift also to you, Taylor, because I want to
(10:21):
get some of what we just got from Peppermint from
you in terms of what it was like for you
coming into your identity maybe in different spaces.
Speaker 5 (10:33):
So, I know we first.
Speaker 4 (10:34):
Met probably around twenty fourteen, right or was it before then?
Speaker 1 (10:39):
It had to be twenty because it was a Unity conference.
Speaker 5 (10:44):
Oh, it was a Unity conference.
Speaker 4 (10:45):
So we probably met right around the time you moved
to Atlanta, which was like twenty eleven ish.
Speaker 1 (10:52):
M hm, cause I think Unity Conference was my first.
One was twenty twelve, that spring semester. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (10:58):
But I'm curious though, because when I met you, you
were probably just kind of coming out of a similar
space that I was in at a place point of
smaller town Georgia. You were in Griffin and you were
in then in Atlanta, and so can you talk about
a little bit what it was like to come into
your own dealing with kind of the difference in those experiences.
Speaker 1 (11:21):
Yeah, I think a phrase that jumped out in the
conversation is, you know, accessibility to community. So in Griffin,
it's a small town in our south of Atlanta, there
is no visible queer community. Before I moved to Atlanta,
there was no positive use of the word queer, you know,
(11:44):
the whole use of the acronym was not existing. There
just wasn't a visible or physical or even like online
LGBTQ kind of like presence to access. You know, my
understanding of LGBTQ identities came from the Internet, So you know,
I was always on MySpace, I was always on Facebook, Tumblr,
you know, taught me so much. So when I moved
(12:06):
to Atlanta in twenty eleven to go to school at
Georgia State University, I it was just all thrown at me.
Speaker 4 (12:12):
You know.
Speaker 1 (12:13):
The first semester of school, I joined the Alliance at GSU,
which is I still believe, the oldest LGBTQ student group
in the Southeast. I started doing work for different local
organizations that were focused on like HIV AIDS awareness and advocacy,
I finally met trans people, like, you know, before twenty eleven,
(12:36):
there was for me, there was no visible trans community.
I didn't even know the word transgender before I moved
to Atlanta. And that's also where I got involved in drag,
is where I started going to ballroom events, so that
allowed me to just explore so much. You know, the
(12:56):
access to community led to access to language, which I
think is so important, you know, having certain identities to name,
you know, that match these feelings that you have, so
you know, I was like, oh, I'm definitely not assist man.
That is not accurate to my life or my experience
at all. And then that was around the time that
non binary was coming to usage and then accessing drag
(13:19):
and meeting beautiful trans women and transfems who were like, baby,
this is where the hormones are, and then you know,
allowing me to access that. You know, I was raised
in the drag scene by trans women who were showgirls,
point blank period. Like so many amazing people that I
met through the drag scene, through the trans community that
welcomed me and allowed me to manifest my own reality
(13:43):
that never existed before twenty eleven. In Griffin Georgia, Titty Girls,
Titty Girls.
Speaker 4 (13:49):
Yes Girls, And now cha Strangio has joined the chat.
He's an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union.
Speaker 3 (14:03):
Welcome Chaise, Thank you, Rickell, happy to be here.
Speaker 4 (14:07):
So I'm just going to ask you right off the top,
can you tell us a little bit more about young
Chase what it was like coming into your identity and
what were some of the things that you were thinking about,
like as your transness unfolded.
Speaker 3 (14:24):
Yeah, young Chase, yikes. So when I think about young
Chase and what it was like growing up, I didn't
really have any direct sense in my consciousness about what
it would mean to be queer, what it would mean
to be trans. So much of what I think about
when I think about my childhood is lost time, time
where I didn't get to be myself, time where I
didn't even have a consciousness of what was possible to
(14:45):
inhabit my body in ways that felt authentic and liberating
and free. In One of the one of the things
that's so painful for me doing the work that I
do fighting back against all these new forms of restrictions
on access to healthcare for trans adolescents in particular, is
that there was this moment where I wat things get
(15:06):
more accessible, and certainly not in the way I would
want to the extent I would want. And so that
is something I think a lot about in this momentness
that I don't want to take away the more expansive
options that have been evolving over time for the young
people who are coming into their own today.
Speaker 4 (15:28):
Absolutely. Well, that's going to take us into our next
section right after the break, and we're back with Queer Chronicles.
(15:53):
I'm joined by Taylor, Alexander, Miss Peppermint, and Cha Strangio.
So something that came up a lot this season was
acting and the fact that a lot of the teenagers
we've met on the show have been involved in it
in some way from a pretty young age. So we
(16:16):
have Daniel and Libby in particular, who were two of
the masterminds behind trans Prom at the Capitol.
Speaker 5 (16:24):
Most of us on this call.
Speaker 4 (16:26):
Actually were there, and of course, Chase, you supported them
in getting that massive effort off the ground.
Speaker 5 (16:32):
So you know what, We're gonna.
Speaker 4 (16:35):
Jump into a little bit of Daniel's speech from trans
Prom last year, and then we're gonna kick it to
you to give us a little bit more tea on
how all that went down.
Speaker 8 (16:45):
Transprom is a celebration of that, affirming love and support.
It is trans joint and full disclaim. We are proud,
we are visible, we will not be erased, and we
courageously stand here today in defiance of those who say
we are too young to know who. We are here
today because of our friendsgender ancestors who face discrimination and
(17:09):
hate and paved away for us to exist today. We
are the legacy, and we are the future. We are
the future in which trans people will finally achieve liberation.
Speaker 4 (17:19):
So, miss Pepperman and Chase y'all were both so crucial
in the planning of this event. Can you tell us
a bit more about what it was like being involved?
Speaker 3 (17:30):
Yeah, so I can. I can start and just sort
of say, first, trans prom The entire process of planning
it and conceptualizing it was in and of itself such
a beautiful experience for me. I think I've spent the
last few years really inundated with all of the anti
trans policies, litigation around anti trans policies. So my engagement
(17:53):
with young people has always been in the context of
young people having to go testify before state legislatures, are
having to fight back in court, and that's just such
a huge thing to ask for someone to defend their
existence before the government in various halls of power, whether
they're judicial or legislative in nature. And I had known
Daniel and Libby from that type of advocacy and sort
(18:16):
of talking to them, they reached a point in twenty
twenty three where it was just like enough is enough.
It's like how much do we have to say the
same thing over and over again to people who quite
literally don't care and don't want to change their views?
And what does it mean to go back in queer
history and think about the other forms of protests that
our communities have utilized and sort of looking at disruptive protest,
(18:39):
creative protests, protest that is not just about proving that
we're quote unquote just like everyone else or that you
can be comfortable with us, but protests that's grounded in
creative celebrations of how we're different or better or more
extravagant and spectacular. And so that's how trans problem was
(19:00):
really born. And it was such a beautiful, fabulous, perfect day,
and being there was really sort of an antidote to
everything that we're seeing.
Speaker 5 (19:10):
Okay, come one. I love it. So what was it
like for you, miss Peppermint?
Speaker 6 (19:16):
I wasn't able to be there in person, unfortunately, and
the only reason, the only good reason for me to
miss such a beautiful event and moment that Chase described
was to be working on another trans inclusive piece of art. However,
I was in many of the planning meetings and on
(19:40):
the steering committee. It was great to see trans youth
making trans folks in general, but trans youth making decisions
about what they want to do and who they are
and how they're going to move about the world, and
having control over their own space and also control over
who else enters the space.
Speaker 4 (20:02):
Peppermint Chase, so much of your what y'all are saying
resonates with me. I felt so blessed to be invited
into the space by y'all, and of course I think
by the youth especially, I mean they made a special
invite to me. And then I also had the kind
of other special dynamic of having my mom there because
(20:25):
she was in town, and so just to be there
with my mom in the space, also with chosen family,
and then all of these young people who had their
parents and guardians and adults who loved them there. It
was such a beautiful kind of full circle moment. And
so with that, Taylor, I want to jump to you
(20:47):
because you've been building moments of rejoice, of resilience, of
resistance for years now, most especially through Southern Fried Queer Pride,
which I kind of defined even though it's so many
things as an arts and community building and I'm still
(21:08):
so proud to have been able to witness your unshakable
leadership at the start of it. But baby, y'all have
expanded from that first event into so much more. You
and your team plan upwards of fifty events each year
now all over the South. Can you tell us a
(21:28):
little bit more why these sights of all of these
things that I've discussed are so important.
Speaker 5 (21:35):
For queer and trans people to have.
Speaker 1 (21:38):
I think that in all of the things that we
face as queer and trans people, we have to have
moments of joy of rest of community, just because so
many things that we face on a day to day
basis to just add up based on how marginalized you are,
that you have to have moments where you can just relax,
(22:01):
let go and see yourself reflected. And there's nothing really
like this in Atlanta, and so we treat everything as political,
We treat everything as intentional community organizing. But that looks
like a merry different ways. You know, we can do
a rally, we can do a protest, we can do
a workshop or a town hall. But also a drag
(22:23):
show is political, a dance party is political. You know,
Queer and trans folks meeting up in a public park
just to share food and commune with each other as political.
And it's also moments of joy.
Speaker 4 (22:35):
You know.
Speaker 1 (22:35):
I've had so many people over the years who have
just come up to me while I'm sweating trying to
like put things together for the event, and clearly just
in like organizer mode, who are just like very like
thankful for the work that we do in the spaces
that they that we create, because for them it's sometimes
the only time they can just like exhale and be themselves.
Speaker 4 (23:00):
Yeah, And I think to bring in kind of the
thread that Daniel was sharing with us, right, is that, yes,
things feel especially difficult now, but you know that might
be up for debate. I mean, I'm sure our ancestors
in decades before, centuries before, had it more difficult in
(23:20):
so many other ways, right, But just like us. They
understood that we had to have these spaces of Joey. Now, unfortunately,
you know, let's tap in a little bit into what's
happening politically and maybe legislatively, I know, right, but you know,
(23:44):
Chase to your point, you know, so much of trans
prom was ideated in response to the legislation that's been
moving across the country over the last several years targeting
specifically LGBTQ plus folks. And I say specifically because we've
always had targets on us right just now it's more
(24:07):
fully articulated that they're coming after our people. And so, Chase,
what are some of the specific dynamics around legislation that
are most troubling to.
Speaker 5 (24:19):
You right now?
Speaker 4 (24:21):
And do you have a little bit of a forecast
for us to consider in the near future around these issues?
Speaker 2 (24:28):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (24:29):
Yeah, I mean, it's all very troubling in terms of
what's been going on legislatively, particularly for trans folks, but
for LGBTQ folks who are broadly. We've seen just sort
of a rapid but ever expanding escalation of attacks from
bathrooms to locker rooms, to sports and now much more
expansively attacking adult restroom use. In public healthcare access for
(24:53):
trans adolescents, but also eroding healthcare access for trans adults,
and further restrictions on the ability of young people to
go to school, to be referred to by their names,
and prona to have access to curriculum that reflects their experiences.
If you look at the context of healthcare for trans adolescence,
(25:13):
in a matter of three years, twenty one states banned
care for trans adolescence. That is just such an unbelievably
rapid change in the ability to access essential medical services
with only three years of lawmaking. And so what that
means in a material sense is we also haven't built
the infrastructure to fill in the gaps of what we're seeing,
and so even the clinics and states that do continue
(25:35):
to provide care, they're overrun with patients because there just
isn't an infrastructure set up for this magnitude of assault.
And in terms of what we're going to see in
the future, we just have to keep in mind that
twenty twenty four is a presidential and congressional election year.
We're going to see the rhetoric increasing with the election,
things that are going to impact people in very rapid
(25:56):
and material ways. That's what's at stake right now. And
if we don't mobilize, our lives depend on it. Because
they do, we're going to be in twenty twenty five
and be in big, big trouble.
Speaker 4 (26:10):
Okay, let's just take a breath, all right, Yes, a
little wusa, A little Wusa.
Speaker 5 (26:19):
Well, Peppermint and Taylor.
Speaker 4 (26:22):
I want to get y'all's reaction to that, right, because
so much of this legislation touches on your lives, your passions,
your work, your dreams. Yeah, what is coming up for you?
As you kind of hear this forecast from chaos?
Speaker 6 (26:43):
I mean, my first reaction is, are you kidding me?
Speaker 5 (26:47):
You know?
Speaker 6 (26:48):
I mean I want to curse. I want to you know.
It makes me angry, It makes me feel hurt, It
makes me feel all the things that I guess people
would feel if they're being attacked at the at virtually
every level. And so I'm gobsmacked, I'm befuddled, I'm you know,
stupefied and all of the words. But I think the
(27:14):
only saving grace for me is, like, you know, going
back to my childhood and the earlier experiences that I
had that we were talking about earlier. I didn't have
half these things that were getting ready to lose anyway.
But I was able to do it and manage to
become happy and healthy and joyous without those things, or
(27:35):
at least without early access to those things. And I'm
not saying that that's what we should strive for. But
the one thing that they can't legislate out is my
identity and connection to who I actually am. It's not
so much that we'll be able to just make do without,
it's that we won't give up the fight because we
are fighting for our lives, and in order to survive,
(27:55):
we will just go right back again, and we'll make
sure that we do set up an infrastructure that supports
a move towards progress.
Speaker 4 (28:05):
Yeah. I mean, we have such a volatile landscape, and
what I hear from you, Pepperman, is that we do
have this kind of innate power to know ourselves, to
come together, to build, to create, to generate little pockets
of liberation.
Speaker 5 (28:25):
Even when it seems like those things that are the most.
Speaker 4 (28:32):
Crucial to getting there are being stripped away, we still
have ways to kind of carve out resistance and resilience
in liberation in our lives. Taylor, I want to get
your take as well. What's kind of coming up for
you in this discussion.
Speaker 1 (28:48):
You know, I sitting here and listening, it's definitely brought
up feelings and experiences over the past year and some
change with you know, living in Atlanta, which is in Georgia,
which is the South, which you know, we've seen so
many laws and legislation being volleyed at trans people and
(29:08):
also indirectly but also directly drag performers because we all
know that conservatives don't understand gender in that kind of way.
But I think at the core of it, we have
a history of resistance. We have always existed within society,
but we've also always faced discrimination, terrible legislation, harm and violence.
(29:30):
It's just something that comes with being who we are
as a marginalized people in community. But we've also had amazing,
beautiful stories of resistance, of fighting back, of success of liberation.
And this is just how unfortunately liberation works. You're going
to bump up against obstacles, you're going to feel defeated,
(29:52):
but you're also going to take some time, find some joy,
find some rest, and then fight back and then eventually
it just it gets a little bit easier, but it's waves.
You know, you get something somehow, it's retracted, is taken back,
you fight back, you get a little bit more, and
it's just inching towards that finish line of overall liberation
for all. So that keeps me afloat in times of
(30:15):
kind of despair around what's happening.
Speaker 4 (30:18):
Yeah, I think what I hear is that our destinies
are intertwined and there's a whole lot of struggle happening
all over the country, and we need more spaces like
this where we can kind of compare and contrast our notes,
especially as clear and trans people. So I'm grateful to
(30:41):
be in this space with y'all. I'm grateful for how
y'all are showing up just with candor and strength, and
y'all are going to get some more of that when
we return from the break. So we're back on Queer Chronicles.
(31:05):
I'm here with Chase Strangio, Miss Peppermint, and Taylor Alexander.
So one episode that is near and dear to my
heart is episode five, where we dive into the life
of Indigo, a trans tine in Alabama who expresses his
(31:26):
love for his then girlfriend Alyssa Clocket.
Speaker 5 (31:31):
Then girlfriend, but we'll come back to that later.
Speaker 4 (31:35):
Maybe we ask them to exchange voice memos talking about
their relationship, and it was so beautiful hearing them express
these feelings.
Speaker 5 (31:44):
So let's listen.
Speaker 2 (31:48):
What does love mean to you and what does it
mean to love someone? I think it means choosing to.
Speaker 9 (31:58):
Make the effort every day to talk to them, to
love them, to sort out your problems, to love them
despite their flaws, shit like that. It's a labor of love,
and you're doing this because you want to.
Speaker 2 (32:13):
I completely agree with everything you said, and that's what
I love so much about us, because we're always on
the same page. But for me, what it means to
love someone is just choosing that person every day and
continuing to choose that person. Relationships aren't perfect at all,
but just the fact that we can communicate and talk
(32:34):
out our problems and how we feel and realize ways
that we can be a better partner to each other.
Stuff like that I really appreciate and it's what makes
me fall in love with you every day.
Speaker 3 (32:48):
All babe.
Speaker 9 (32:49):
I'm so locked in for real, Like we basically kind
of said the same thing, but I'm really glad that
we're on the same page. Anyways, love you bye.
Speaker 4 (33:06):
So with that, I want to delve into y'all's experiences.
I mean, when did y'all first experience affirming queer love
in your life? It could be platonic, it could be romantic,
you know, but what was that like? And what did
it teach you?
Speaker 6 (33:28):
Y'all are making me sweat, darling.
Speaker 5 (33:32):
I wasn't ready for it. I never look.
Speaker 4 (33:36):
Our teens were brave and they went there.
Speaker 3 (33:40):
All well, they maybe didn't grow up with as much
internalized shame as we did.
Speaker 4 (33:46):
Shame.
Speaker 5 (33:47):
Hello, oh my good grief.
Speaker 3 (33:52):
I'll be serious. I'll be serious, but someone else wanna
go first?
Speaker 5 (33:55):
Before chase go ahead, I will say.
Speaker 3 (33:58):
Like once I came to terms with my own queerness,
because I think for me that was the biggest struggle
was that I was so repressed that there was I
was just like not able to access things until the
second I graduated from high school and felt liberated from that,
and then I was like, oh, I'm so queer. But
then what I think finding queer community was to me
(34:21):
like the ultimate life saving experience. And I think the
thing that was harder perhaps for me over time, was
to love myself enough to let someone else love me
romantically and not accept shit, because I think that that's
been a lifelong struggle, and I think it's tay. I'm
forty almost forty one years old, and I feel like
(34:41):
I'm just starting to understand that type of intimate love.
Speaker 6 (34:47):
Well, I mean I as adults and trans adults, we
and queer adults, we come oftentimes come into ourselves a
little bit later in life, or at least people that
are the age that we are now, people who are
of adult age now probably had a bit of a
coming out process and a bit a journey to get
to where we are. For me, it was about like
(35:08):
forcing queer community or queer queer affirming spaces and romantically
really defining figuring out what that was. It was it was,
it was a bit of it was difficult for sure.
I identified with my transness very early. I came out
(35:29):
to the first person in second grade as different and queer.
I didn't use the word queer, but they understood what
I was talking about and they were like, I support you,
And so that was, you know, unusual for me. But
I I knew that even though I wasn't out as
(35:49):
trans per se and hadn't begun my medical transition, the
men because I'm begrudgingly attracted to heterosexual men gender men,
trying to change that, but it's not working. These guys,
(36:09):
the folks who were attracted to me and would come
around me, were attracted to whatever feminine energy I was
putting out. And so I learned really early, and I
knew really early like what the story was. It was
just how it was going to be told. And I
wasn't really able to articulate it in the way that
I am today until I was much older and in college,
(36:31):
and then I went to an art school, so then
you know, the rest is her story.
Speaker 4 (36:36):
Come on, all right, Taylor, what's the tea?
Speaker 1 (36:41):
So I'm thinking about platonic queer and trans love and
also like romantic queer and trans love, and I think too,
I think from a very young age, I was already
like dead set on never having a relationship. It maybe
(37:01):
it's the Aquarius in me, but I was like, I
don't need it, I don't want to. I'm fine by myself.
I'm the focus. I'm in love with myself. Let's keep
it that way. And I think over the years for
me was really learning who I call family, who I
call community and who I allow to love me. And
it's been a process of like defining that and redefining
(37:23):
and redefining that. And I think for me, the biggest
saving grace, both platonically and romantically is you know, just
giving myself fully to more like tea for tea relationships.
And you know, that went from dating and surrounding myself
with CIS gay men, to queer people, to trans people,
(37:44):
and it's just developed into such a beautiful experience where
I'm surrounded by family and friends, platonic lovers, romantic lovers,
to my current relationship where I am engaged to another transperson,
to a trans man who absolutely affirms me and adores
(38:04):
me in ways that I can never possibly have fathoms
as a younger person. So, you know, from going to
being okay, from completely just being alone furtherest in my
life with like three cats in my mansion, to you know,
now being like you know, in a tee for t
relationship surrounded by amazing trans people and trans community.
Speaker 5 (38:25):
It's just you know, and how many cats?
Speaker 1 (38:28):
Okay, So I have two cats and one dog zoo
and my own house.
Speaker 5 (38:36):
I love it. Well.
Speaker 4 (38:38):
I appreciate y'all for going there with me. I, you know,
but I think that these conversations are so key because
these young people, again have so much language and access
that many of us didn't have. But I think what's
healing about hearing their experiences is that it gives us
(39:03):
a vision of like the path that maybe was laid
for them by some of us who had, you know,
few tools, broken tools, but still believe that they deserved better.
Speaker 5 (39:17):
So I think that that's beautiful.
Speaker 4 (39:18):
And I think we've got some beautiful kind of nuggets
here that maybe will inspire some of our peers to
feel a little bit less triggered and traumatized by love.
Speaker 5 (39:30):
Love don't last, you know.
Speaker 4 (39:32):
I think as we kind of move into wrapping up,
I want one kind of last moment here where we
can get some knowledge from everyone, you know, for our
LGBTQ plus youth and really anyone out there who's listening.
(39:54):
What is maybe one piece of advice I mean, y'all
would give folks who are exploring their identity trying to.
Speaker 5 (40:02):
Navigate the world. Yeah, I'm curious about that.
Speaker 4 (40:08):
And then I'll have one more question, but we'll leave
it there because that's already a big one.
Speaker 6 (40:14):
I have an answer to that, in spite of every
bit of cynicism you may have heard from me on
this conversation, especially in the wake of what we may
be getting ready to experience, hopefully not, but we should
prepare in terms of all the discrimination and anti LGBT
(40:35):
and anti trans legislation that's surging through the country. I
remember specifically, I remember how crucial my medical transition was
to me at a certain age. And I know that
there's times where folks in our community focus mostly on
the medical transition side of things, which is very important.
(40:58):
Again it is, it is crucial, and I remember how
much how much weight I put into my medical transition
and how much I focused on it. And so Cecilia
gent Tilley, who was my counselor at the Center when
I first started my medical transition, you know she I was.
(41:19):
I remember saying, I have to get on these hormones,
and I have to get this things, and I need
to get that to had a list, and she was
just like, girl, there's no race. You know, there's no race,
there's no finish line. You're never going to be finished.
Like transforming who you are and even medically, you know,
once you start down that road, you may or may not.
(41:39):
You may stop, you may start, you may all these
different things. And so it really is about just like
sitting with yourself and evolving as a person. And again
that's not to say that we shouldn't have access to
the things that we need, like hormones and surgeries and
all the different things medically. But I am still a
(42:00):
woman regardless of access to these things. And that wasn't
that's not something that I like anyone goes out of
their way to tell you, you know, and so I
was really grateful for that.
Speaker 4 (42:15):
Hey, y'all, really quick note. We recorded this conversation just
months before the passing of Cecilia Genteeli in February twenty
twenty four, and with that beautiful nod from Peppermint, our
Queer Chronicles crew knew we had to pay a deeper
tribute to her. If you didn't know Cecilia well, she
(42:39):
was an iconic Translatina activist who fought for immigrants, sex workers, and.
Speaker 5 (42:45):
All folks on the margins. She was a titan and.
Speaker 4 (42:50):
Unapologetic example of joy and power. We get to relish
in her words eternally through her memoir Faltas, her appearance
and documentaries like The Stroll and episodes of FX's Pose,
and all all the videos and photos of her one
woman performances scattered over the Internet. I was always in
(43:14):
awe of how vulnerable she was and grateful to hear
her life's testimony.
Speaker 5 (43:19):
On more than one occasion.
Speaker 4 (43:22):
She loved our people out loud, and she made us
burst out and laughter all the time. She also made
us take ourselves seriously and not so seriously all at once,
and she mothered in every sense of the word. Rest
powerfully and peacefully. Santa Cecilia, and go Kiki with the ancestors.
Speaker 5 (43:47):
You deserve eternal pleasure.
Speaker 4 (43:51):
And with that, let's get back to the conversation, Chase,
do you have some words here?
Speaker 3 (44:00):
I was pretty inspired by by what Peppermint just said
in terms of, you know something I've been thinking a
lot about. And this is maybe not like advice, but
more sort of a shared reflection. I'll say, like people
my generation, there was no puberty suppression, there was no
access to healthcare when we were younger, and I think
(44:21):
something that I think a lot about is we get
to decide the contours of what it means to live
in and habit a sex body So the truth is,
you can change in all sorts of ways. You can
decide what it means for you to be a man,
to be a woman, to be transd to be non binary, like,
all of that can evolve. And so I just I
want people to know that as we battle through this
(44:44):
future time, that we will always find a way to
get each other what we need. And that's it's okay
if it doesn't look exactly how we envision. There's no race,
there's no rush, and there's nothing that we're measuring ourselves against.
It's our beautiful ability to continue to evolve and define
who we are on our own terms.
Speaker 1 (45:04):
Okay, Taylor, Well, I think really I just want to
echo the previous sentiments. I think my advice is really
to explore and rest and give yourself time. I really
want younger folks to just explore. I think the beauty
(45:26):
of our community as we have, like you know, grown
and we have access to more identities and more spaces
and more representation, is that we don't have to rush
to fit ourselves in boxes. I love that this younger
generation is just like I don't really know, it's kind
of just a vibe I wish I had that energy
when I was younger, because it would have saved me
(45:47):
so much time and stress. And don't let anyone try
to tell you how to move, how to identify, how
to transition, how to express yourself, how to love. It's
all up to you and your own experience. So do
with it what you will.
Speaker 4 (46:04):
Yeah, Yeah, y'all are so powerful. Yeah, I mean I
think everything that y'all have discussed, our thoughts and ideas
that come up all throughout this season. I guess for
(46:25):
me what always feels important is for our queer and
trans youth to remember that they have a story worth
telling and that their story is a superpower. And you know,
you have a responsibility not to weaponize that story. You
(46:48):
have a responsibility to fully invest in that story, find
ways to be generative, and leave the door open more
with that story. At least, I think that's what we
all kind of do on this call.
Speaker 5 (47:06):
And so with that, we have one last question. What
is one.
Speaker 4 (47:16):
Thing someone can do today to protect queer and trans
youth in their community.
Speaker 3 (47:23):
My favorite thing this day to say, and this is
not just to protect queer and trans youth, this is
to protect us, Saul, is to stop overly gendering everything
from the moment of conception. In every single thing you do.
You can listen to this. It's it's very revelatory. But
you can ask someone about their kid without asking if
(47:44):
it's a boy or a girl. And I think if
we change our norms around this, we're going to open
the door to much more joy and expansive and disruptive
ways of living in this very toxic society. So just
keep it simple and be better.
Speaker 6 (47:58):
I agree. You don't know yet until someone tells you
whether they are trans, are queer, or questioning or something thing.
And so if it's important for you to provide a
safe space for those people, then you can sort of
advertise that these spaces are free of some of these
really oppressive like gender norms and boxes and spaces, and
(48:20):
so speaking in a way that is inclusive of gender expressions,
sexualities and things like that. It's just communicating two things
to the people who are, you know, just there, that
they might be able to do this work as well,
to provide a safe space and an open and an
understanding inclusive space for queer people. And then you're definitely
(48:41):
communicating to the queer people who haven't yet told you
who they are, that this is a safe space for them.
Speaker 5 (48:48):
Agreed.
Speaker 1 (48:49):
I think I think on the other side of that coin,
or maybe like in tandem with it, is as much
as you are doing those things, also do some self
interrogation and really look into yourself and maybe analyze how
the world has gendered to you, how maybe you have
(49:10):
or are currently perpetuating gender stereotypes or gender norms that
aren't healthy. Because as much as like you know, trans
people are creating ourselves and coming into ourselves in certain ways,
redefining gender and how it's viewed in the world, I
think a lot of CIS people don't understand how gender
(49:30):
has affected them and how gender has sometimes harmed them.
You know, trans people are simply trying to create space
to exist in this world. And I think that CIS
people who are trying to include grand trans people more
or be like in an ally role, need to analyze
and figure out how they can change the world that
(49:52):
trans people are trying to be a part of, how
they can help create more inclusive, affirming spaces, and yeah,
just do some deep work on yourself.
Speaker 4 (50:06):
So with that, I want to thank you all for
joining me today. You're all incredible ferocious, gorgeous, stunning, and
your work is so vital right now and beyond.
Speaker 6 (50:22):
So thank you, we love you, Thank you so much
for having us.
Speaker 3 (50:27):
Thank you, bye, y'all, Thank you.
Speaker 4 (50:35):
Queer Chronicles is a production of School of Humans, The
Outspoken Podcast Network and iHeart Podcasts. I'm your host, Raquel Willis.
You can find a list of resources in the show notes,
including trans Lifeline and.
Speaker 5 (50:52):
The Trevor Project.
Speaker 4 (50:55):
This show was written by Jordan Bailey et Alise Perez,
Aaron Edwards, and me. Our story editors are Aaron Edwards
and Julia for Long. Produced by Jordan Bailey, Julia Farlan
and Edalis Perez. Our senior producer is Amelia Brock, directed
(51:16):
by ediis Perez, Sound design and mix by mv al Rahie.
Theme song composed by Jesse Niswanger, Casting by Jordan Bailey
and Julia Furlan, Fact checking by Savannah Hugley. Our production
manager is Daisy Church. Special thanks to Beheed Fraser and
(51:41):
Casey Petgram for engineering support and our special guests, Miss
Peppermint Taylor, Alexander and Chase Stradio for joining our roundtable.
Executive producers include Jay Brunson and Me from The Outspoken
Podcast Network, Michael Alder June and Noel Brown from iHeart Podcasts,
(52:04):
Virginia Prescott, Brandon Barr, and Elsie Crowley from School of
Humans and The Cats Company. This series was recorded at
Cdium Studios, Citybox, and iHeart Studios in New York City.
If you're enjoying the show, please share it with friends
and family, and don't forget to rate and review in
(52:26):
your favorite podcast app. Thanks for listening.
School of Humans.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
This is Queer Chronicles.
Speaker 3 (00:15):
This is my personal entry queer.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
This is Queer Chronicles.
Speaker 4 (00:29):
I'm Raquel Willis from School of Humans, the Outspoken Podcast Network,
and iHeart Podcasts. This is a special edition of Queer Chronicles,
a show where queer folks document their personal lives and experiences.
Speaker 5 (00:46):
In their own words.
Speaker 4 (00:47):
This season, we spoke with a group of teens and
battleground states across the country. But today I'm joined by
three esteemed adult guests to review and key key about
some of the themes and ideas that came up this season.
We're going to get some tea on the ways they're
telling queer stories in the world, share advice for our
(01:10):
youth out there, and maybe dish a little guess too.
Speaker 5 (01:14):
Who knows.
Speaker 4 (01:16):
First, We've got actor activists and self proclaimed horror movie
buff Miss Peppermint Meow and my down home fam coming
in from Georgia. Singer and drag show girl Taylor Alexander
Hi Hi, and a little later, Chase Strangio, attorney for
(01:39):
the American Civil Liberties Union, will be joining us too.
Thank y'all so much for chatting today. How are y'all feeling?
How are you feeling Miss Peppermint.
Speaker 6 (01:50):
I'm feeling good and feeling energized and really happy to
be here with everybody. And yeah, I'm feeling activated and directed.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
Ooh, come on, and what about you, Taylor, I am
feeling caffeinated. I am ready to converse. I am ready
to key key and other words to start with the cussounds.
So yeah, I'm down. I'm ready. Give us like three
more Oh my gosh, qualify, quantify, I don't know.
Speaker 5 (02:23):
Okay.
Speaker 4 (02:24):
So, to set the scene for y'all, over the past
few months, we've been following a group of queer and
trans teens, many of them in Red States, and they
sent us voice memos about their lives, plus they just
kind of gave us the ins and outs of their experiences. Today,
we're going to play you some of the clips from
(02:44):
the show, and you'll get to meet some of the
teens through parts of their stories, and we'll talk about
them and see what comes up for y'all.
Speaker 5 (02:52):
So does that sound good?
Speaker 6 (02:54):
Oh, it's I am ready.
Speaker 5 (02:59):
Okay.
Speaker 4 (03:00):
So one of the last things we discussed on the
show was the experience of coming out or inviting in,
as others might say these days. So we're going to
run the tape from our episode with Sofara. Now so
far is a trans tine from Texas, and she goes
into her experience and her connection with ballroom. So she
(03:25):
got very real about the shift from seeing herself previously
as gay to understanding her womanhood in a more expansive way.
Speaker 7 (03:37):
Yeah, it took me a long time to like find out,
Like I know, like everyone's transitions has their own timeline,
and for me, it wasn't like incredibly vastly apparent that
I was a girl from the jump, you know what
I mean. Like I felt a lot of like comfortability
and like being a gay man. For like a while,
(03:59):
I thought I knew what I was. I thought I
had it fully figured out in the back of my mind.
I remember, like I would probably say, since like fourth
or fifth grade was when I had the first thought of, well,
it would be great if I had if I had breasts,
and it would be great if I was born a woman.
It would be better if I was born a woman.
But I was, like I always literally said, but I
(04:21):
don't want enough to be like trans I don't want
enough to actually go through a transition. And that always
hot back up, like every six months or so.
Speaker 1 (04:32):
So.
Speaker 4 (04:34):
We got into it, and I know, I feel so
much of what Miss Safara is laying down here. I
had plenty of times from childhood to beyond where I
was reimagining my life as the girl or woman I
was finding myself to be. But of course the idea
that coming out piece the feet of it loomed over me.
(04:58):
So I'm curious if any of you resonate with what
missafar is talking about here. What is it bringing up
for you in terms of thinking about being a teenager
and coming to terms with your evolving identity? And Taylor,
do you want to kick us off?
Speaker 1 (05:17):
I can, Yeah, just listening just brought up, you know,
this idea of like the audacity to be yourself and
coming into yourself. And you know, for so many people,
especially like taking my own experience into account, it's just
like the idea of safety. Like, sure, I have these identities,
I have these feelings. I know there are certain aspects
(05:40):
of myself that I want to explore or express, but
there's a certain safety that comes with not pursuing those things,
and so sometimes it keeps us quote unquote in the closet,
It keeps us from you know, really exploring all the
possibilities of who we can become, and so just hearing
about the possibility of you know, beginning to transition and
(06:02):
coming into yourself, but also understanding the more safety of
an identity that maybe isn't home to you. Yeah, that
definitely resonated with me.
Speaker 6 (06:11):
But so far I had to say, definitely resonated with me,
especially coming from the drag world. And Taylor, what you
said also really it could have been my own words.
I remember prioritizing sort of the comfort of I guess,
the status quo, the people that like weren't trans the
(06:31):
people that were like you know, my parents, the society,
the bullies, prioritizing their comfort over mine. And I was
able to use drag as a tool, especially for people
who are performers. I think we can utilize the space
of performance and work in that context to like temporarily,
(06:52):
you know, sort of satisfy the urge and the need
to like medically transition and at least if not come
out as trans because you can, you know, it's a
there can be an over right. And so for me,
I was like, I considered myself and I thought I
made up a word. I think I might have made
up word a non op trans woman. There was like
(07:13):
and the back in the day people were like prep
post op and I was like, well, I'm non op
and I'm just going to use makeup and that's going
to be it. And so that worked for a while.
Speaker 4 (07:25):
I mean, I hear so much of what y'all are saying.
And for me, there was also like drag as a
performance element was a gateway because I was a drag
performer at school at the University of Georgia, and it
was through that art form that I met other queer
trans people were identifying as gender queer than not non
(07:49):
binary necessarily, but it was such a beautiful gateway into
understanding myself but also understanding that I wasn't alone in
this experience. So can y'all talk a little bit more
about what it was, like how important maybe it was
to find community at that time or in these times
(08:11):
when you were also just trying to figure yourself out
on an individual level.
Speaker 5 (08:15):
Well, for me, it was really different.
Speaker 6 (08:19):
You know, like in the nineties, we didn't even have
the nuance of understanding that we have today, and so
back then people were like, you're either a gay boy
or a transsexual, and we weren't even using the word transgender.
In my at least, what I had access to finding
(08:40):
community is important. It was really ironic in that regard.
Even folks in the gay community and the gay bars
and the clubs that I was working in didn't have
much of a nuanced perspective as well, and so they
were there was some you know, cis sexism happening, and
(09:02):
there was some you know, uh, the misogyny and the
patriarchy was, you know, ever present in the gay bar,
especially in the bars that I worked in, which are
mostly white gay bars, you know, mostly frequented by white men,
white gay men, and so like, there just wasn't a
(09:22):
lot of options. And when I started to explore my
transness and want to connect that to the community that
I had been around for so long, I was met
with toxicity and resistance and sort of threats of losing
my job and so not to be a naysayer. A
community is one hundred percent important, and I think today
what we have to take advantage of is there are
(09:43):
so many more queer people who are expressing their queerness,
which to me has a little bit of a political
context as well, and understanding that we have this larger
community and it's not just focused on the gay white men.
You know, this cis gay white.
Speaker 5 (09:58):
Men, absolutely.
Speaker 4 (10:01):
I mean, I think what I'm hearing here is the
community is right, and also it's not always accessible, especially
in the ways that maybe the most enriching for us,
particularly as trans as non Binaria's agender folks. I want
to shift also to you, Taylor, because I want to
(10:21):
get some of what we just got from Peppermint from
you in terms of what it was like for you
coming into your identity maybe in different spaces.
Speaker 5 (10:33):
So, I know we first.
Speaker 4 (10:34):
Met probably around twenty fourteen, right or was it before then?
Speaker 1 (10:39):
It had to be twenty because it was a Unity conference.
Speaker 5 (10:44):
Oh, it was a Unity conference.
Speaker 4 (10:45):
So we probably met right around the time you moved
to Atlanta, which was like twenty eleven ish.
Speaker 1 (10:52):
M hm, cause I think Unity Conference was my first.
One was twenty twelve, that spring semester. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (10:58):
But I'm curious though, because when I met you, you
were probably just kind of coming out of a similar
space that I was in at a place point of
smaller town Georgia. You were in Griffin and you were
in then in Atlanta, and so can you talk about
a little bit what it was like to come into
your own dealing with kind of the difference in those experiences.
Speaker 1 (11:21):
Yeah, I think a phrase that jumped out in the
conversation is, you know, accessibility to community. So in Griffin,
it's a small town in our south of Atlanta, there
is no visible queer community. Before I moved to Atlanta,
there was no positive use of the word queer, you know,
(11:44):
the whole use of the acronym was not existing. There
just wasn't a visible or physical or even like online
LGBTQ kind of like presence to access. You know, my
understanding of LGBTQ identities came from the Internet, So you know,
I was always on MySpace, I was always on Facebook, Tumblr,
you know, taught me so much. So when I moved
(12:06):
to Atlanta in twenty eleven to go to school at
Georgia State University, I it was just all thrown at me.
Speaker 4 (12:12):
You know.
Speaker 1 (12:13):
The first semester of school, I joined the Alliance at GSU,
which is I still believe, the oldest LGBTQ student group
in the Southeast. I started doing work for different local
organizations that were focused on like HIV AIDS awareness and advocacy,
I finally met trans people, like, you know, before twenty eleven,
(12:36):
there was for me, there was no visible trans community.
I didn't even know the word transgender before I moved
to Atlanta. And that's also where I got involved in drag,
is where I started going to ballroom events, so that
allowed me to just explore so much. You know, the
(12:56):
access to community led to access to language, which I
think is so important, you know, having certain identities to name,
you know, that match these feelings that you have, so
you know, I was like, oh, I'm definitely not assist man.
That is not accurate to my life or my experience
at all. And then that was around the time that
non binary was coming to usage and then accessing drag
(13:19):
and meeting beautiful trans women and transfems who were like, baby,
this is where the hormones are, and then you know,
allowing me to access that. You know, I was raised
in the drag scene by trans women who were showgirls,
point blank period. Like so many amazing people that I
met through the drag scene, through the trans community that
welcomed me and allowed me to manifest my own reality
(13:43):
that never existed before twenty eleven. In Griffin Georgia, Titty Girls,
Titty Girls.
Speaker 4 (13:49):
Yes Girls, And now cha Strangio has joined the chat.
He's an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union.
Speaker 3 (14:03):
Welcome Chaise, Thank you, Rickell, happy to be here.
Speaker 4 (14:07):
So I'm just going to ask you right off the top,
can you tell us a little bit more about young
Chase what it was like coming into your identity and
what were some of the things that you were thinking about,
like as your transness unfolded.
Speaker 3 (14:24):
Yeah, young Chase, yikes. So when I think about young
Chase and what it was like growing up, I didn't
really have any direct sense in my consciousness about what
it would mean to be queer, what it would mean
to be trans. So much of what I think about
when I think about my childhood is lost time, time
where I didn't get to be myself, time where I
didn't even have a consciousness of what was possible to
(14:45):
inhabit my body in ways that felt authentic and liberating
and free. In One of the one of the things
that's so painful for me doing the work that I
do fighting back against all these new forms of restrictions
on access to healthcare for trans adolescents in particular, is
that there was this moment where I wat things get
(15:06):
more accessible, and certainly not in the way I would
want to the extent I would want. And so that
is something I think a lot about in this momentness
that I don't want to take away the more expansive
options that have been evolving over time for the young
people who are coming into their own today.
Speaker 4 (15:28):
Absolutely. Well, that's going to take us into our next
section right after the break, and we're back with Queer Chronicles.
(15:53):
I'm joined by Taylor, Alexander, Miss Peppermint, and Cha Strangio.
So something that came up a lot this season was
acting and the fact that a lot of the teenagers
we've met on the show have been involved in it
in some way from a pretty young age. So we
(16:16):
have Daniel and Libby in particular, who were two of
the masterminds behind trans Prom at the Capitol.
Speaker 5 (16:24):
Most of us on this call.
Speaker 4 (16:26):
Actually were there, and of course, Chase, you supported them
in getting that massive effort off the ground.
Speaker 5 (16:32):
So you know what, We're gonna.
Speaker 4 (16:35):
Jump into a little bit of Daniel's speech from trans
Prom last year, and then we're gonna kick it to
you to give us a little bit more tea on
how all that went down.
Speaker 8 (16:45):
Transprom is a celebration of that, affirming love and support.
It is trans joint and full disclaim. We are proud,
we are visible, we will not be erased, and we
courageously stand here today in defiance of those who say
we are too young to know who. We are here
today because of our friendsgender ancestors who face discrimination and
(17:09):
hate and paved away for us to exist today. We
are the legacy, and we are the future. We are
the future in which trans people will finally achieve liberation.
Speaker 4 (17:19):
So, miss Pepperman and Chase y'all were both so crucial
in the planning of this event. Can you tell us
a bit more about what it was like being involved?
Speaker 3 (17:30):
Yeah, so I can. I can start and just sort
of say, first, trans prom The entire process of planning
it and conceptualizing it was in and of itself such
a beautiful experience for me. I think I've spent the
last few years really inundated with all of the anti
trans policies, litigation around anti trans policies. So my engagement
(17:53):
with young people has always been in the context of
young people having to go testify before state legislatures, are
having to fight back in court, and that's just such
a huge thing to ask for someone to defend their
existence before the government in various halls of power, whether
they're judicial or legislative in nature. And I had known
Daniel and Libby from that type of advocacy and sort
(18:16):
of talking to them, they reached a point in twenty
twenty three where it was just like enough is enough.
It's like how much do we have to say the
same thing over and over again to people who quite
literally don't care and don't want to change their views?
And what does it mean to go back in queer
history and think about the other forms of protests that
our communities have utilized and sort of looking at disruptive protest,
(18:39):
creative protests, protest that is not just about proving that
we're quote unquote just like everyone else or that you
can be comfortable with us, but protests that's grounded in
creative celebrations of how we're different or better or more
extravagant and spectacular. And so that's how trans problem was
(19:00):
really born. And it was such a beautiful, fabulous, perfect day,
and being there was really sort of an antidote to
everything that we're seeing.
Speaker 5 (19:10):
Okay, come one. I love it. So what was it
like for you, miss Peppermint?
Speaker 6 (19:16):
I wasn't able to be there in person, unfortunately, and
the only reason, the only good reason for me to
miss such a beautiful event and moment that Chase described
was to be working on another trans inclusive piece of art. However,
I was in many of the planning meetings and on
(19:40):
the steering committee. It was great to see trans youth
making trans folks in general, but trans youth making decisions
about what they want to do and who they are
and how they're going to move about the world, and
having control over their own space and also control over
who else enters the space.
Speaker 4 (20:02):
Peppermint Chase, so much of your what y'all are saying
resonates with me. I felt so blessed to be invited
into the space by y'all, and of course I think
by the youth especially, I mean they made a special
invite to me. And then I also had the kind
of other special dynamic of having my mom there because
(20:25):
she was in town, and so just to be there
with my mom in the space, also with chosen family,
and then all of these young people who had their
parents and guardians and adults who loved them there. It
was such a beautiful kind of full circle moment. And
so with that, Taylor, I want to jump to you
(20:47):
because you've been building moments of rejoice, of resilience, of
resistance for years now, most especially through Southern Fried Queer Pride,
which I kind of defined even though it's so many
things as an arts and community building and I'm still
(21:08):
so proud to have been able to witness your unshakable
leadership at the start of it. But baby, y'all have
expanded from that first event into so much more. You
and your team plan upwards of fifty events each year
now all over the South. Can you tell us a
(21:28):
little bit more why these sights of all of these
things that I've discussed are so important.
Speaker 5 (21:35):
For queer and trans people to have.
Speaker 1 (21:38):
I think that in all of the things that we
face as queer and trans people, we have to have
moments of joy of rest of community, just because so
many things that we face on a day to day
basis to just add up based on how marginalized you are,
that you have to have moments where you can just relax,
(22:01):
let go and see yourself reflected. And there's nothing really
like this in Atlanta, and so we treat everything as political,
We treat everything as intentional community organizing. But that looks
like a merry different ways. You know, we can do
a rally, we can do a protest, we can do
a workshop or a town hall. But also a drag
(22:23):
show is political, a dance party is political. You know,
Queer and trans folks meeting up in a public park
just to share food and commune with each other as political.
And it's also moments of joy.
Speaker 4 (22:35):
You know.
Speaker 1 (22:35):
I've had so many people over the years who have
just come up to me while I'm sweating trying to
like put things together for the event, and clearly just
in like organizer mode, who are just like very like
thankful for the work that we do in the spaces
that they that we create, because for them it's sometimes
the only time they can just like exhale and be themselves.
Speaker 4 (23:00):
Yeah, And I think to bring in kind of the
thread that Daniel was sharing with us, right, is that, yes,
things feel especially difficult now, but you know that might
be up for debate. I mean, I'm sure our ancestors
in decades before, centuries before, had it more difficult in
(23:20):
so many other ways, right, But just like us. They
understood that we had to have these spaces of Joey. Now, unfortunately,
you know, let's tap in a little bit into what's
happening politically and maybe legislatively, I know, right, but you know,
(23:44):
Chase to your point, you know, so much of trans
prom was ideated in response to the legislation that's been
moving across the country over the last several years targeting
specifically LGBTQ plus folks. And I say specifically because we've
always had targets on us right just now it's more
(24:07):
fully articulated that they're coming after our people. And so, Chase,
what are some of the specific dynamics around legislation that
are most troubling to.
Speaker 5 (24:19):
You right now?
Speaker 4 (24:21):
And do you have a little bit of a forecast
for us to consider in the near future around these issues?
Speaker 2 (24:28):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (24:29):
Yeah, I mean, it's all very troubling in terms of
what's been going on legislatively, particularly for trans folks, but
for LGBTQ folks who are broadly. We've seen just sort
of a rapid but ever expanding escalation of attacks from
bathrooms to locker rooms, to sports and now much more
expansively attacking adult restroom use. In public healthcare access for
(24:53):
trans adolescents, but also eroding healthcare access for trans adults,
and further restrictions on the ability of young people to
go to school, to be referred to by their names,
and prona to have access to curriculum that reflects their experiences.
If you look at the context of healthcare for trans adolescence,
(25:13):
in a matter of three years, twenty one states banned
care for trans adolescence. That is just such an unbelievably
rapid change in the ability to access essential medical services
with only three years of lawmaking. And so what that
means in a material sense is we also haven't built
the infrastructure to fill in the gaps of what we're seeing,
and so even the clinics and states that do continue
(25:35):
to provide care, they're overrun with patients because there just
isn't an infrastructure set up for this magnitude of assault.
And in terms of what we're going to see in
the future, we just have to keep in mind that
twenty twenty four is a presidential and congressional election year.
We're going to see the rhetoric increasing with the election,
things that are going to impact people in very rapid
(25:56):
and material ways. That's what's at stake right now. And
if we don't mobilize, our lives depend on it. Because
they do, we're going to be in twenty twenty five
and be in big, big trouble.
Speaker 4 (26:10):
Okay, let's just take a breath, all right, Yes, a
little wusa, A little Wusa.
Speaker 5 (26:19):
Well, Peppermint and Taylor.
Speaker 4 (26:22):
I want to get y'all's reaction to that, right, because
so much of this legislation touches on your lives, your passions,
your work, your dreams. Yeah, what is coming up for you?
As you kind of hear this forecast from chaos?
Speaker 6 (26:43):
I mean, my first reaction is, are you kidding me?
Speaker 5 (26:47):
You know?
Speaker 6 (26:48):
I mean I want to curse. I want to you know.
It makes me angry, It makes me feel hurt, It
makes me feel all the things that I guess people
would feel if they're being attacked at the at virtually
every level. And so I'm gobsmacked, I'm befuddled, I'm you know,
stupefied and all of the words. But I think the
(27:14):
only saving grace for me is, like, you know, going
back to my childhood and the earlier experiences that I
had that we were talking about earlier. I didn't have
half these things that were getting ready to lose anyway.
But I was able to do it and manage to
become happy and healthy and joyous without those things, or
(27:35):
at least without early access to those things. And I'm
not saying that that's what we should strive for. But
the one thing that they can't legislate out is my
identity and connection to who I actually am. It's not
so much that we'll be able to just make do without,
it's that we won't give up the fight because we
are fighting for our lives, and in order to survive,
(27:55):
we will just go right back again, and we'll make
sure that we do set up an infrastructure that supports
a move towards progress.
Speaker 4 (28:05):
Yeah. I mean, we have such a volatile landscape, and
what I hear from you, Pepperman, is that we do
have this kind of innate power to know ourselves, to
come together, to build, to create, to generate little pockets
of liberation.
Speaker 5 (28:25):
Even when it seems like those things that are the most.
Speaker 4 (28:32):
Crucial to getting there are being stripped away, we still
have ways to kind of carve out resistance and resilience
in liberation in our lives. Taylor, I want to get
your take as well. What's kind of coming up for
you in this discussion.
Speaker 1 (28:48):
You know, I sitting here and listening, it's definitely brought
up feelings and experiences over the past year and some
change with you know, living in Atlanta, which is in Georgia,
which is the South, which you know, we've seen so
many laws and legislation being volleyed at trans people and
(29:08):
also indirectly but also directly drag performers because we all
know that conservatives don't understand gender in that kind of way.
But I think at the core of it, we have
a history of resistance. We have always existed within society,
but we've also always faced discrimination, terrible legislation, harm and violence.
(29:30):
It's just something that comes with being who we are
as a marginalized people in community. But we've also had amazing,
beautiful stories of resistance, of fighting back, of success of liberation.
And this is just how unfortunately liberation works. You're going
to bump up against obstacles, you're going to feel defeated,
(29:52):
but you're also going to take some time, find some joy,
find some rest, and then fight back and then eventually
it just it gets a little bit easier, but it's waves.
You know, you get something somehow, it's retracted, is taken back,
you fight back, you get a little bit more, and
it's just inching towards that finish line of overall liberation
for all. So that keeps me afloat in times of
(30:15):
kind of despair around what's happening.
Speaker 4 (30:18):
Yeah, I think what I hear is that our destinies
are intertwined and there's a whole lot of struggle happening
all over the country, and we need more spaces like
this where we can kind of compare and contrast our notes,
especially as clear and trans people. So I'm grateful to
(30:41):
be in this space with y'all. I'm grateful for how
y'all are showing up just with candor and strength, and
y'all are going to get some more of that when
we return from the break. So we're back on Queer Chronicles.
(31:05):
I'm here with Chase Strangio, Miss Peppermint, and Taylor Alexander.
So one episode that is near and dear to my
heart is episode five, where we dive into the life
of Indigo, a trans tine in Alabama who expresses his
(31:26):
love for his then girlfriend Alyssa Clocket.
Speaker 5 (31:31):
Then girlfriend, but we'll come back to that later.
Speaker 4 (31:35):
Maybe we ask them to exchange voice memos talking about
their relationship, and it was so beautiful hearing them express
these feelings.
Speaker 5 (31:44):
So let's listen.
Speaker 2 (31:48):
What does love mean to you and what does it
mean to love someone? I think it means choosing to.
Speaker 9 (31:58):
Make the effort every day to talk to them, to
love them, to sort out your problems, to love them
despite their flaws, shit like that. It's a labor of love,
and you're doing this because you want to.
Speaker 2 (32:13):
I completely agree with everything you said, and that's what
I love so much about us, because we're always on
the same page. But for me, what it means to
love someone is just choosing that person every day and
continuing to choose that person. Relationships aren't perfect at all,
but just the fact that we can communicate and talk
(32:34):
out our problems and how we feel and realize ways
that we can be a better partner to each other.
Stuff like that I really appreciate and it's what makes
me fall in love with you every day.
Speaker 3 (32:48):
All babe.
Speaker 9 (32:49):
I'm so locked in for real, Like we basically kind
of said the same thing, but I'm really glad that
we're on the same page. Anyways, love you bye.
Speaker 4 (33:06):
So with that, I want to delve into y'all's experiences.
I mean, when did y'all first experience affirming queer love
in your life? It could be platonic, it could be romantic,
you know, but what was that like? And what did
it teach you?
Speaker 6 (33:28):
Y'all are making me sweat, darling.
Speaker 5 (33:32):
I wasn't ready for it. I never look.
Speaker 4 (33:36):
Our teens were brave and they went there.
Speaker 3 (33:40):
All well, they maybe didn't grow up with as much
internalized shame as we did.
Speaker 4 (33:46):
Shame.
Speaker 5 (33:47):
Hello, oh my good grief.
Speaker 3 (33:52):
I'll be serious. I'll be serious, but someone else wanna
go first?
Speaker 5 (33:55):
Before chase go ahead, I will say.
Speaker 3 (33:58):
Like once I came to terms with my own queerness,
because I think for me that was the biggest struggle
was that I was so repressed that there was I
was just like not able to access things until the
second I graduated from high school and felt liberated from that,
and then I was like, oh, I'm so queer. But
then what I think finding queer community was to me
(34:21):
like the ultimate life saving experience. And I think the
thing that was harder perhaps for me over time, was
to love myself enough to let someone else love me
romantically and not accept shit, because I think that that's
been a lifelong struggle, and I think it's tay. I'm
forty almost forty one years old, and I feel like
(34:41):
I'm just starting to understand that type of intimate love.
Speaker 6 (34:47):
Well, I mean I as adults and trans adults, we
and queer adults, we come oftentimes come into ourselves a
little bit later in life, or at least people that
are the age that we are now, people who are
of adult age now probably had a bit of a
coming out process and a bit a journey to get
to where we are. For me, it was about like
(35:08):
forcing queer community or queer queer affirming spaces and romantically
really defining figuring out what that was. It was it was,
it was a bit of it was difficult for sure.
I identified with my transness very early. I came out
(35:29):
to the first person in second grade as different and queer.
I didn't use the word queer, but they understood what
I was talking about and they were like, I support you,
And so that was, you know, unusual for me. But
I I knew that even though I wasn't out as
(35:49):
trans per se and hadn't begun my medical transition, the
men because I'm begrudgingly attracted to heterosexual men gender men,
trying to change that, but it's not working. These guys,
(36:09):
the folks who were attracted to me and would come
around me, were attracted to whatever feminine energy I was
putting out. And so I learned really early, and I
knew really early like what the story was. It was
just how it was going to be told. And I
wasn't really able to articulate it in the way that
I am today until I was much older and in college,
(36:31):
and then I went to an art school, so then
you know, the rest is her story.
Speaker 4 (36:36):
Come on, all right, Taylor, what's the tea?
Speaker 1 (36:41):
So I'm thinking about platonic queer and trans love and
also like romantic queer and trans love, and I think too,
I think from a very young age, I was already
like dead set on never having a relationship. It maybe
(37:01):
it's the Aquarius in me, but I was like, I
don't need it, I don't want to. I'm fine by myself.
I'm the focus. I'm in love with myself. Let's keep
it that way. And I think over the years for
me was really learning who I call family, who I
call community and who I allow to love me. And
it's been a process of like defining that and redefining
(37:23):
and redefining that. And I think for me, the biggest
saving grace, both platonically and romantically is you know, just
giving myself fully to more like tea for tea relationships.
And you know, that went from dating and surrounding myself
with CIS gay men, to queer people, to trans people,
(37:44):
and it's just developed into such a beautiful experience where
I'm surrounded by family and friends, platonic lovers, romantic lovers,
to my current relationship where I am engaged to another transperson,
to a trans man who absolutely affirms me and adores
(38:04):
me in ways that I can never possibly have fathoms
as a younger person. So, you know, from going to
being okay, from completely just being alone furtherest in my
life with like three cats in my mansion, to you know,
now being like you know, in a tee for t
relationship surrounded by amazing trans people and trans community.
Speaker 5 (38:25):
It's just you know, and how many cats?
Speaker 1 (38:28):
Okay, So I have two cats and one dog zoo
and my own house.
Speaker 5 (38:36):
I love it. Well.
Speaker 4 (38:38):
I appreciate y'all for going there with me. I, you know,
but I think that these conversations are so key because
these young people, again have so much language and access
that many of us didn't have. But I think what's
healing about hearing their experiences is that it gives us
(39:03):
a vision of like the path that maybe was laid
for them by some of us who had, you know,
few tools, broken tools, but still believe that they deserved better.
Speaker 5 (39:17):
So I think that that's beautiful.
Speaker 4 (39:18):
And I think we've got some beautiful kind of nuggets
here that maybe will inspire some of our peers to
feel a little bit less triggered and traumatized by love.
Speaker 5 (39:30):
Love don't last, you know.
Speaker 4 (39:32):
I think as we kind of move into wrapping up,
I want one kind of last moment here where we
can get some knowledge from everyone, you know, for our
LGBTQ plus youth and really anyone out there who's listening.
(39:54):
What is maybe one piece of advice I mean, y'all
would give folks who are exploring their identity trying to.
Speaker 5 (40:02):
Navigate the world. Yeah, I'm curious about that.
Speaker 4 (40:08):
And then I'll have one more question, but we'll leave
it there because that's already a big one.
Speaker 6 (40:14):
I have an answer to that, in spite of every
bit of cynicism you may have heard from me on
this conversation, especially in the wake of what we may
be getting ready to experience, hopefully not, but we should
prepare in terms of all the discrimination and anti LGBT
(40:35):
and anti trans legislation that's surging through the country. I
remember specifically, I remember how crucial my medical transition was
to me at a certain age. And I know that
there's times where folks in our community focus mostly on
the medical transition side of things, which is very important.
(40:58):
Again it is, it is crucial, and I remember how
much how much weight I put into my medical transition
and how much I focused on it. And so Cecilia
gent Tilley, who was my counselor at the Center when
I first started my medical transition, you know she I was.
(41:19):
I remember saying, I have to get on these hormones,
and I have to get this things, and I need
to get that to had a list, and she was
just like, girl, there's no race. You know, there's no race,
there's no finish line. You're never going to be finished.
Like transforming who you are and even medically, you know,
once you start down that road, you may or may not.
(41:39):
You may stop, you may start, you may all these
different things. And so it really is about just like
sitting with yourself and evolving as a person. And again
that's not to say that we shouldn't have access to
the things that we need, like hormones and surgeries and
all the different things medically. But I am still a
(42:00):
woman regardless of access to these things. And that wasn't
that's not something that I like anyone goes out of
their way to tell you, you know, and so I
was really grateful for that.
Speaker 4 (42:15):
Hey, y'all, really quick note. We recorded this conversation just
months before the passing of Cecilia Genteeli in February twenty
twenty four, and with that beautiful nod from Peppermint, our
Queer Chronicles crew knew we had to pay a deeper
tribute to her. If you didn't know Cecilia well, she
(42:39):
was an iconic Translatina activist who fought for immigrants, sex workers, and.
Speaker 5 (42:45):
All folks on the margins. She was a titan and.
Speaker 4 (42:50):
Unapologetic example of joy and power. We get to relish
in her words eternally through her memoir Faltas, her appearance
and documentaries like The Stroll and episodes of FX's Pose,
and all all the videos and photos of her one
woman performances scattered over the Internet. I was always in
(43:14):
awe of how vulnerable she was and grateful to hear
her life's testimony.
Speaker 5 (43:19):
On more than one occasion.
Speaker 4 (43:22):
She loved our people out loud, and she made us
burst out and laughter all the time. She also made
us take ourselves seriously and not so seriously all at once,
and she mothered in every sense of the word. Rest
powerfully and peacefully. Santa Cecilia, and go Kiki with the ancestors.
Speaker 5 (43:47):
You deserve eternal pleasure.
Speaker 4 (43:51):
And with that, let's get back to the conversation, Chase,
do you have some words here?
Speaker 3 (44:00):
I was pretty inspired by by what Peppermint just said
in terms of, you know something I've been thinking a
lot about. And this is maybe not like advice, but
more sort of a shared reflection. I'll say, like people
my generation, there was no puberty suppression, there was no
access to healthcare when we were younger, and I think
(44:21):
something that I think a lot about is we get
to decide the contours of what it means to live
in and habit a sex body So the truth is,
you can change in all sorts of ways. You can
decide what it means for you to be a man,
to be a woman, to be transd to be non binary, like,
all of that can evolve. And so I just I
want people to know that as we battle through this
(44:44):
future time, that we will always find a way to
get each other what we need. And that's it's okay
if it doesn't look exactly how we envision. There's no race,
there's no rush, and there's nothing that we're measuring ourselves against.
It's our beautiful ability to continue to evolve and define
who we are on our own terms.
Speaker 1 (45:04):
Okay, Taylor, Well, I think really I just want to
echo the previous sentiments. I think my advice is really
to explore and rest and give yourself time. I really
want younger folks to just explore. I think the beauty
(45:26):
of our community as we have, like you know, grown
and we have access to more identities and more spaces
and more representation, is that we don't have to rush
to fit ourselves in boxes. I love that this younger
generation is just like I don't really know, it's kind
of just a vibe I wish I had that energy
when I was younger, because it would have saved me
(45:47):
so much time and stress. And don't let anyone try
to tell you how to move, how to identify, how
to transition, how to express yourself, how to love. It's
all up to you and your own experience. So do
with it what you will.
Speaker 4 (46:04):
Yeah, Yeah, y'all are so powerful. Yeah, I mean I
think everything that y'all have discussed, our thoughts and ideas
that come up all throughout this season. I guess for
(46:25):
me what always feels important is for our queer and
trans youth to remember that they have a story worth
telling and that their story is a superpower. And you know,
you have a responsibility not to weaponize that story. You
(46:48):
have a responsibility to fully invest in that story, find
ways to be generative, and leave the door open more
with that story. At least, I think that's what we
all kind of do on this call.
Speaker 5 (47:06):
And so with that, we have one last question. What
is one.
Speaker 4 (47:16):
Thing someone can do today to protect queer and trans
youth in their community.
Speaker 3 (47:23):
My favorite thing this day to say, and this is
not just to protect queer and trans youth, this is
to protect us, Saul, is to stop overly gendering everything
from the moment of conception. In every single thing you do.
You can listen to this. It's it's very revelatory. But
you can ask someone about their kid without asking if
(47:44):
it's a boy or a girl. And I think if
we change our norms around this, we're going to open
the door to much more joy and expansive and disruptive
ways of living in this very toxic society. So just
keep it simple and be better.
Speaker 6 (47:58):
I agree. You don't know yet until someone tells you
whether they are trans, are queer, or questioning or something thing.
And so if it's important for you to provide a
safe space for those people, then you can sort of
advertise that these spaces are free of some of these
really oppressive like gender norms and boxes and spaces, and
(48:20):
so speaking in a way that is inclusive of gender expressions,
sexualities and things like that. It's just communicating two things
to the people who are, you know, just there, that
they might be able to do this work as well,
to provide a safe space and an open and an
understanding inclusive space for queer people. And then you're definitely
(48:41):
communicating to the queer people who haven't yet told you
who they are, that this is a safe space for them.
Speaker 5 (48:48):
Agreed.
Speaker 1 (48:49):
I think I think on the other side of that coin,
or maybe like in tandem with it, is as much
as you are doing those things, also do some self
interrogation and really look into yourself and maybe analyze how
the world has gendered to you, how maybe you have
(49:10):
or are currently perpetuating gender stereotypes or gender norms that
aren't healthy. Because as much as like you know, trans
people are creating ourselves and coming into ourselves in certain ways,
redefining gender and how it's viewed in the world, I
think a lot of CIS people don't understand how gender
(49:30):
has affected them and how gender has sometimes harmed them.
You know, trans people are simply trying to create space
to exist in this world. And I think that CIS
people who are trying to include grand trans people more
or be like in an ally role, need to analyze
and figure out how they can change the world that
(49:52):
trans people are trying to be a part of, how
they can help create more inclusive, affirming spaces, and yeah,
just do some deep work on yourself.
Speaker 4 (50:06):
So with that, I want to thank you all for
joining me today. You're all incredible ferocious, gorgeous, stunning, and
your work is so vital right now and beyond.
Speaker 6 (50:22):
So thank you, we love you, Thank you so much
for having us.
Speaker 3 (50:27):
Thank you, bye, y'all, Thank you.
Speaker 4 (50:35):
Queer Chronicles is a production of School of Humans, The
Outspoken Podcast Network and iHeart Podcasts. I'm your host, Raquel Willis.
You can find a list of resources in the show notes,
including trans Lifeline and.
Speaker 5 (50:52):
The Trevor Project.
Speaker 4 (50:55):
This show was written by Jordan Bailey et Alise Perez,
Aaron Edwards, and me. Our story editors are Aaron Edwards
and Julia for Long. Produced by Jordan Bailey, Julia Farlan
and Edalis Perez. Our senior producer is Amelia Brock, directed
(51:16):
by ediis Perez, Sound design and mix by mv al Rahie.
Theme song composed by Jesse Niswanger, Casting by Jordan Bailey
and Julia Furlan, Fact checking by Savannah Hugley. Our production
manager is Daisy Church. Special thanks to Beheed Fraser and
(51:41):
Casey Petgram for engineering support and our special guests, Miss
Peppermint Taylor, Alexander and Chase Stradio for joining our roundtable.
Executive producers include Jay Brunson and Me from The Outspoken
Podcast Network, Michael Alder June and Noel Brown from iHeart Podcasts,
(52:04):
Virginia Prescott, Brandon Barr, and Elsie Crowley from School of
Humans and The Cats Company. This series was recorded at
Cdium Studios, Citybox, and iHeart Studios in New York City.
If you're enjoying the show, please share it with friends
and family, and don't forget to rate and review in
(52:26):
your favorite podcast app. Thanks for listening.
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