In this episode of Queer Voices, we open with a concert review of rising trans artist Ethel Cain (the first openly trans artist to reach the Billboard Top Ten), whose Southern Gothic sound and devoted fanbase are shaping the soundtrack of queer youth. We hear directly from fans before and after her Houston show about what her music means to them. Then we turn to the political arena, exploring the future of the Houston Mayor’s LGBTQ+ Advisory Board. New chair Clay Melder, a 2025 Houston Business Journal “40 Under 40” honoree, shares his vision and priorities for the board. Finally, former chair Jacques Bourgeois, president of Bunnies on the Bayou, reflects on his sudden dismissal under Mayor Whitmire and what it means for Houston’s LGBTQ+ community leadership.
Queer Voices airs in Houston Texas on 90.1FM KPFT and is heard as a podcast here. Queer Voices hopes to entertain as well as illuminate LGBTQ issues in Houston and beyond. Check out our socials at:
https://www.facebook.com/QueerVoicesKPFT/ and
https://www.instagram.com/queervoices90.1kpft/
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
And now Houston's only primetime radio program
dedicated to news and concernsof the lesbian, gay and
transgender community.
This is Queer Voices.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Hello everybody, this is Queer Voices, a podcast and
radio show on KPFT 90.1 FMthat's been on the air for
several decades is one of theoldest LGBTQ plus radio shows in
the United States.
You're going to be hearing alot from me today.
Apologies to the other talentedcontributors on the show, but
(00:34):
this episode is going to be allabout the controversial recent
news about the Houston Mayor'sLGBTQ plus advisory board and
its future in shaping andleading our community.
I'll be speaking with theformer chair of the advisory
board and president of one ofTexas' largest LGBTQ Plus
fundraising events, Bunnies onthe Bayou, Jacques Bourgeois,
(00:57):
about his sudden dismissal atthe hands of Mayor Whitmire
after years of serving as chairunder the former Mayor Turner.
But before our interview withthe former chair, we'll hear
from the new chair of theadvisory board and 2025 Houston
Business Journal 40 Under 40honoree, Clay Melder, on his
journey leading up to this pointand his vision for chairing
(01:19):
this esteemed board.
But before we get to our taleof two cities mayor's LGBTQ
advisory boards, I provide areview of one of the most
popular trans musicians today,Ethel Kane, and her concert at
Houston's 713 Music Hall thispast Monday.
Queer Voices starts now.
(01:39):
We're exploring the music ofEthel Kane, one of the most
beloved rising stars among LGBTQyouth.
Today, At just 26 years old,she has over 4.6 million monthly
Spotify listeners.
Her breakout single AmericanTeenager has topped 100 million
streams.
This year, her album Preacher'sDaughter re-entered the charts
(02:03):
at number 10 on the Billboard200, making her the first openly
trans artist to reach theBillboard Top 10.
Ethel Kane's music blendsSouthern Gothic storytelling
with atmospheric rock, whileexploring queerness, faith,
trauma and resilience.
To help us understand hercultural pull, I spoke with fans
(02:27):
outside of her Houston showthis past week.
Speaker 3 (02:30):
Here are two interviews before the concert Hi
, my name is Hannah and I loveEthel Kane because she is super
inclusive.
Speaker 4 (02:36):
She's super honest and I love her.
She has never strayed from whoshe is.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
She is super authentic and she talks about
anything.
Speaker 4 (02:44):
She's an open book.
Hi, my name is Candy.
One of my favorite things aboutEthel Kane is when she said
that she will rally the Amish,because that's really, really
funny.
I also love her consistentactivism for trans people and
people in Palestine.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
What you just heard were the voices of anticipation.
And once the show began, thatanticipation transformed into
something almost spiritual.
Ethel entered shrouded in smoke, silhouetted in backlight by
the third song.
The stage lit up in trans pridecolors and the crowd was
shouting every word back at herSongs, built from quiet intimacy
(03:26):
into walls of sound, equalparts ethereal and heavy with
theatrical lighting that feltlike stepping into a gothic
ritual.
At one point she even stoppedmid-song to check on her fans
who needed medical attention orsecurity.
It wasn't clear, but shestopped the show and after
(03:46):
making sure everyone had waterand was good and ready to get
back in, she dove right back inwith compassion and force.
The night billed towards thesong Thoroughfare a personal
highlight for me and closed withAmerican Teenager, which got
the whole crowd, both in generaladmission and in the seats in
the risers above, on their feet.
(04:08):
Afterward I spoke with a fewaudience members about what that
show meant to them.
Speaker 5 (04:14):
My name's Dakota and I feel like every bone in my
body was just obliterated andthen put back together.
That was the best concert of mylife probably.
That was amazing.
Hello, my name is Charles Avery.
What I think I love about EthelKane is I think she just really
captures like the Americana of,like the South and just like I
(04:36):
don't know, like, just like allthose like conflicting feelings
of just like being in the Southand just like you know I don.
I don't just like the drama ofit all.
Really she literally has thevoice of like an angel.
It was like crazy.
I was like well, like I knowshe sounds good, but I was like
no, like there's just no way,like that's real, yes, and like
(04:57):
just so melancholy.
I was like yes, like this iswhat I needed, like in trump's
america, like yes, I really justneed someone to like bring me
melancholy.
Cody, he, they.
And it was just a surrealexperience all around.
I feel like wonderfulexperience, akira, they, them.
You know, it was kind of cool.
I don't live in Texas, I livein Arkansas.
(05:18):
It was kind of cool just beingin the building and knowing that
this is a safe queer space forthe moment in the building and
knowing that this is a safequeer space for the moment.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
Hearing those voices, it's clear Ethel Kane is more
than just a singer.
She's become a touchstone foryounger LGBTQ audiences and
young audiences, and even reallyjust any audience with feelings
and emotions, because EthelKane is someone weaving our
shared struggles and triumphsinto music that feels both
personal and communal.
For many, her shows aren't justconcerts.
(05:53):
They're gatherings of queerbelonging, and for us here at
Queer Voices, it's a glimpseinto what the next generation of
LGBTQ culture sounds likeHaunting, defiant and deeply
moving.
And with that, thecontroversial recent news about
(06:13):
the Houston Mayor's LGBTQ PlusAdvisory Board and its future in
shaping and leading ourcommunity.
We'll hear from the new chairof the Advisory Board and 2025
Houston Business Journal 40Under 40 honoree, clay Melder,
on his journey leading up tothis point and his vision for
chairing this esteemed board.
(06:36):
Thank you for listening to QueerVoices on KPFT 90.1 FM or
wherever you get your podcasts.
I'm Davis Mendoza-Duruzmanspeaking with Clay Melder, the
brand new chair of the HoustonMayor's LGBTQ Plus Advisory
Board.
In addition to his leadershipon this board, clay was also
named a 2025 Houston BusinessJournal 40 Under 40 honoree.
(06:56):
Clay.
Welcome to the show.
Speaker 3 (06:59):
Hi Davis, Thank you for having me.
It's an honor to be here.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
Absolutely.
I want to start just by sayingcongratulations.
It's certainly looking likeyour year and it's only August.
Speaker 3 (07:09):
Yeah, thank you, and it's been an exciting journey so
far, just for the last fewmonths, as things have started
to ramp up.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
And, speaking of that journey, tell us more about
yourself.
Let us get to know you, yourjourney leading up to this point
, before we get into the journeymoving forward as a community.
Speaker 3 (07:24):
you, your journey leading up to this point before
we get into the journey movingforward as a community.
Sure, so I have been in Houstonfor actually this month is 10
years.
I moved to Houston in 2015 fromSouth Louisiana and I grew up
in a very conservative familyand kind of went through many
periods of just not feeling seenor heard and actually went
through a conversion therapyexperience in seventh grade, and
(07:47):
so I feel like a lot of thosethings led into where I am now,
which is kind of just buildingmyself into a place to make sure
that people in the LGBTQ pluscommunity and, honestly, any
community, feel seen and feelheard, and so that's kind of
been an underlying tone for mein all of the kind of different
roles I've had over the yearswhich is included in 2020.
(08:10):
I had the opportunity to chairAmogee Banks, which is I also
work at Amogee Bank LGBTQbusiness resource group, which
we call a BRG, and had theopportunity to kind of continue
adding layers to it and get morevisibility for everybody within
those letters in the bank, butalso getting the bank better
(08:30):
exposed in the LGBTQ pluscommunity through the chamber,
the Montrose Center and thenormal anomaly and just many,
many other nonprofits.
That was what kind of sparked myinterest in leadership roles
and looking into boards and justtrying to understand where I
can make an impact as somebodywho kind of likes to put my head
(08:50):
down and get work done.
And so we celebrated a lot ofsuccess during that time and I
was honored in 2023 as anOutstanding Diversity Champion
by the HPJ as well.
So the HPJ has certainly been ahuge thing for me and I've just
seemed to always be on theirradar.
It's been a huge honor, andrecently I joined the Montrose
(09:12):
Center's Community AdvisoryBoard and I also participate on
a few other boards Big Brothers,big Sisters, united Against
Human Trafficking andparticipate in United Way's
Young Leader Council and I shareall of that because I feel like
a lot of those well, all ofthose roles kind of play into
the exposure in the differentareas I hope to add value for
(09:33):
the mayor's LGBTQ advisory boardas well and I feel like they
kind of just represent all thesedifferent facets of the
community, but all of them havesome type of relationship to our
LGBTQ plus community too.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
Wow and this is a rhetorical question but how do
you find the time for all of it?
That's incredible, Wow.
Speaker 3 (09:50):
I would say, first of all, I have an amazing job and
great work-life balance.
I'm in school too, at SamHouston, and so I just don't
like to sleep, I guess.
But my partner, Alberto, whowe've been together almost 11
years, is incredibly supportiveand does a really good job of
checking me when he feels likeI'm raising my hand for too many
(10:12):
things.
But he also knows that I justlove being involved and I really
love being busy and I like tosee good work getting done, and
if it means leading it, I'mhappy to do it.
But for me it's just about beingin a position to help drive
reasonable and quantifiablechange.
And so I think it's people askme that a lot and people people
(10:33):
kind of pop their eyes at mewhen I kind of share all the
different things that I do.
But it's not about wanting thecredentials for doing it, it's
not about saying I do it, it'sjust about things I care about,
and I don't know if I reallyfeel like it's a lot when it's
something I care about.
And so I mean, for example,United Against Human Trafficking
.
Human trafficking is sounderspoken and not really
(10:55):
exposed and talked about inHouston, but it's a huge problem
and as I got to know theorganization better, I just kept
thinking like why would I notwant to be involved in something
like this and why would I notwant to be involved in a way
where I can help.
I do a lot of nonprofit work inmy job too, and so it just has
this kind of natural.
It's almost like a marriage withall of these different
organizations, and so, torespond directly, I just don't
(11:18):
know if I feel like it's work,it's like my pleasure and it's
an honor to be able to do all ofthese things.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
And speaking of being involved, tell us how you got
involved to begin with with theadvisory board, how you were
asked to chair, how youinitially reached out, how you
responded to the news.
Speaker 3 (11:38):
Sure, it's kind of been an evolving process for the
last few months.
I have very good relationshipswith several of our LGBTQ
leaders in town and TammyWallace, avery Bellew Councilman
, mario Castillo, ian Haddock atthe Normal Anomaly and so many
others and I've always kind ofexpressed interest in trying to
find the right avenue for me asa nonprofit banker who is not
(12:01):
really leading a nonprofit and Idon't have the bandwidth to
maybe lead an organization or bea huge part of one.
But what I could do to startkind of playing a role and
trying to help bridge some gapsand get everyone together and
and just kind of help, just kindof help our community become a
little bit less segmented andsegregated within ourselves.
And so I heard from the mayor'sliaison scout who I feel like a
(12:27):
lot of people know she's veryactive in the community too.
I want to say it was rightbefore Pride Month, maybe so
late May, and I was kind ofinformed that I had been
recommended by several people tothe mayor and so Scout wanted
to talk more about that and shewas kind of going around and
talking to several differentpeople because the mayor wanted
to get the about that and shewas kind of going around and
talking to several differentpeople because the mayor wanted
to get the board kind of, Iguess, activated again, if you
(12:50):
will.
The prior board has been inplace for for quite a while and
was really put together by MayorTurner in 2016 it kind of to
honor the Pulse nightclubtragedy and and it was put
together with such a beautifulreason and very significant, and
all of the prior board membershave already laid such a good
foundation.
I mean, people know about it,people know that we're here, and
(13:12):
so it was just for MayorWhitmire was a matter of
bringing in new faces and kindof, I guess, if you will, a new
generation of LGBTQ leaders, andthere are a couple of folks
that are actually on the newboard if you want to call it new
who served on prior iterationsof the board.
So we have some of those voicesthere to help us keep that
foundation in place.
(13:32):
But going back to just myexperience getting involved, we
kind of had some conversationsthrough June and I started just.
I naturally just love to sharemy opinions and suggestions and
so, as we were talking throughmy thoughts for the board and
just what I would want tocontribute as a member of the
board, the conversation kind ofevolved and Scout circled back
(13:55):
and asked that I put thoughtinto chairing the board and just
kind of what my vision would beif I were to do that.
And so we continued meeting onthat and I had the opportunity
to look at the board slate andI'll say there are some amazing,
amazing, just long standingcommunity leaders on this board.
(14:19):
And so it felt a littleintimidating to respond yes
whenever I was asked aboutchairing and normally I respond
very fast and I'm quite the yesperson but for this one there's
just a lot of weight to this,and so I took a couple of weeks
to think about it and I went toa lot of my just my advisors,
some of the leaders I've alreadymentioned, and nobody seemed
(14:39):
surprised that I had been askedand nobody seemed afraid of it,
surprised that I had been askedand nobody seemed afraid of it.
And so, kind of by way of theirconfidence in me, it made me
feel a little bit more confidentto say yes.
And so in July I let Scout knowthat I would be willing to do
it.
A couple of my asks at the verybeginning were to have some time
(15:01):
with the mayor one-on-one andalso to have the mayor approach
our board early on.
And my third ask was to makesure that the board, first of
all, was a little smaller.
I know the significance of the49 original members is amazing,
but now that we're trying tomove into more of a position to
be out in the community a lotand to be able to hone in on
(15:24):
objectives and things that we'dlike to see accomplished, I felt
like pretty much cutting it inhalf was a great start, so that
we have a little bit more justto be able to hone in a little
better.
And so the diversity part of itwas also, honestly, probably my
top priority.
I wanted to make sure, not justracially but just across the
span of LGBTQ and plus everybodywas represented to some extent,
(15:49):
so that we have voices from allsides of the community and all
of the different organizationsof big, small, medium and
various corporations very proudof how that's come together.
I think Scout did an excellentjob with making sure that we're
well represented, and so thathas been.
(16:10):
Probably the most exciting partfor me is looking at the racial
makeup, the makeup of peoplewho identify with different
genders and different identities, and then also making sure
there's representation from thetrans community, because the
trans community is in a verysensitive place right now and I
wanted the board to bepositioned to advocate to the
mayor in those situations whenwe need to.
(16:32):
And the last thing I'll share onkind of the board journey and
how it materialized all of myprimary asks I mean we're not
even a full month into the boardbeing term starting They've all
been answered.
We've had the chance to sitdown with the mayor for nearly
an hour this week and I had thechance to chat with him one on
(16:54):
one a little bit about how wecould be, how we could help him
and how I would like to see himkind of keep a listening ear and
an open door for us.
And so it's gotten off to areally, really positive start.
Speaker 2 (17:06):
Yeah, that's really exciting and I do have questions
about that exciting firstmeeting y'all had this week, the
week of August 18th, for ourlisteners.
But before I get into that, youmentioned the prior iterations
of the advisory board and theincredible foundation that they
laid.
How is their work supportingy'all's work moving forward and
what has that transition lookedlike?
Speaker 3 (17:24):
So, with the board being kind of, I guess, started
again with a fresh set ofindividuals, the transition has
been a little bit abrupt, justbecause the prior board was
already kind of in a place whereI think there was some rolling
off.
And while I don't know all ofthe nuances, what I'll say is
we've gotten a lot of supportfrom prior board members,
including the prior chair, whoput out a really beautiful
(17:46):
statement about, just, you know,the foundation that they laid
over the years.
And any board is hard work, andso there's just no.
You know, we want to make surethat nobody's hard work is
discounted and brushed aside.
(18:11):
And so I'm actually working on achance to kind of sit down with
the prior board chair here soonto just make sure that I
understand what they wereworking on and that I understand
what was important to them.
If there was a stone unturnedor if there was a door that's
still cracked open, what can wedo to pick that up and make sure
that it's not lost intransition?
And so I'm really excited forthat to happen, because, even
though you can call this a newboard, it's not.
I mean, the board has been inplace nearly 10 years and so
there are a lot of what I wouldcall just legacy community
members who everybody knows whothey are and they have done so
(18:35):
much work for the Houston LGBTQcommunity, for I mean decades on
decades.
And so you know, it's only fairand right that we make sure
that we're hearing them too andcaring over things that they
feel are still maybe hanging in,the kind of hanging in the
balance.
And so, even though thetransition is still
transitioning, if you will, it'sgone well and I was really
(18:58):
pleased and just very honestlyhonored that the prior chair
felt so positive and just soencouraged about the new board
and the new members.
And and again, if you look atthe board slate which we've now
posted, it's online on the cityof Houston's page for like they
have like a page you can Googleit where you can look at the
(19:18):
boards, all the mayoral advisoryboards and city boards and so
if you look at the names, I meanthere's just an impressive
group of people.
And so if you look at the names, I mean there's just an
impressive group of people, andso we definitely are going to be
able to get some good workaccomplished.
Speaker 2 (19:30):
Yeah, y'all have a very intentionally diverse board
.
But back to that, that firstmeeting that y'all had this week
, tell us how that went.
What were some items ofdiscussion?
Speaker 3 (19:39):
Sure.
So we kind of had a pivot inour agenda because, like I
mentioned, it was very importantthat we heard from Mayor
Whitmire.
He's incredibly busy.
He's still less than two yearsinto his term and so one of the
things he mentioned and this iswhat I've been trying to stay
very aware of is, I mean, beingthat, new into your term,
there's still a lot of reactivedecision making that has to
(20:02):
happen.
And one of the things that Iasked about when this board was
kind of being activated again,if you will, by the mayor was
why?
Because it's been a year and ahalf a little longer why now?
And one of the things that andthis will this is going to fall
into your question because thiswas covered in our first meeting
.
I mean, the mayor and the scoutboth kind of shared that that
(20:26):
you know he had been spending alot of time dealing with just so
many other things that had kindof fallen right into his lap.
I think everybody knows trashand recycling, pickup has kind
of been a struggle, and sothere's been a lot of focus on
that.
And that's a lot moreencompassing because that kind
of falls into all of thehouseholds around the city and
then just the different thingsgoing on with HISD and just a
(20:47):
laundry list of other things.
And so it was very obvious tome in our first meeting that my
concern and ask about why nowwas being answered.
The mayor pulled us into hisoffice about halfway through our
meeting and before that, ouragenda, we really just had a
chance to sit down and chat andget to know each other Before we
(21:09):
visited with the mayor.
What I shared with the board,you know, people have asked me
over and over what are yourplans, what are your goals?
And while I do have some, Imean my underlying and just I
mean top of the mind goal is tolisten, because there are 20,
are 21, 22 people on the boardand all of those people are
(21:29):
leaders.
All of those people have areason that they said yes.
Nobody had to say yes, andthere's reasons that people
endorsed and recommended themand reasons that the mayor
appointed them, and so I want tounderstand all of that before I
come back around and say thisis what we're going to do or
this is what we would like tosee, or because I, you know Clay
(21:50):
can have a lot of opinions anda lot of goals and aspirations,
but I want to hear it from theboard members so that we can all
be together and unify on whatwe want to accomplish.
And so we really spent the first30 minutes or so of our meeting
doing that, just saying helloto each other and mingling
around and sharing a couple ofreasons that we were on the
board and some of our background.
(22:12):
And then we were kind ofattentive to the mayor's
schedule and kind of trying tocooperate with that.
And so he kind of went aboveand beyond what I expected and
had someone come take us fromour meeting space into his
office and we were able to sitwith him in a conference kind of
conference situation in hisoffice and listen to him for
(22:35):
nearly an hour.
And what really spoke to me washe took the time to ask every
single person, literally all ofus who we were, where we were
from and why we were on theboard.
And it's interesting becausethat's exactly what I was doing
before we went down there or upthere.
And so it showed me that he'sin listening mode too and trying
(22:58):
to understand what's importantto our community right now.
We also had a chance to hearfrom him on, I mean, his five
plus decades in differentpolitical positions,
particularly as a state senator,and all of the different things
that he did to support ourcommunity, including the trans
community, to everybody and just.
(23:19):
But he was very specific oneach kind of each of it the
trans community and the gaycommunity and people who are in
our community who were impactedby AIDS and HIV and he just was
very supportive and just had andreally pushed a lot against the
grain when he didn't have to ina very conservative state, and
so I was really impressed withthat.
And looking at people's facesas he was sharing these things,
(23:42):
I think that a lot of peoplewere realizing a lot of history
from Mayor Whitmire that theymaybe weren't aware of or, if
they were, I'm sure it resonatesdifferently when someone shares
with you you know, face to face, like that but I think it left
us with the impression that hereally hopes and plans to have
an open door policy for ourboard, particularly through me
(24:04):
and the board going to me onthings that I can go back to the
mayor on or to his liaisons on,and so I think we all left
really motivated and excited.
Once we got done meeting withthe mayor, we had a chance to
take photos with him and to kindof get to know chief of staff
and just some of the other folksthat were in the room and make
sure that we were all familiarwith one another.
(24:25):
And we also talked about thingswe would like to accomplish and
kind of the visibility that wewant the board to have and so
some of the plans and thingsthat the mayor even some of them
he suggested is kind of gettingmore acquainted with our
council members, having somekind of open environment
settings where people can comein and talk to us and be there
(24:48):
with us and maybe some of somecouncil members, maybe at some
point the mayor, when we cankind of get that figured out and
scheduled.
And so he was very open to thosethings and actually suggested
kind of the open reception withcouncil members so that we can
make sure we're hearing andtalking to the council members
across the city, because thosewill also be a really important
piece of the puzzle as we try tostart getting initiatives
(25:10):
moving and accomplished andmaking sure that we're on the
same page as city council.
And so I think that's a reallygreat starting point and my plan
, kind of after that meetingconcluded, is I started
yesterday with sitting downone-on-one with each board
member, so I have another 20 orso to go, but I just got started
(25:31):
and through the next four tosix weeks my plan is to sit down
one-on-one, understand a lotabout who they are and honestly
develop what I would call closeenough to a friendship with each
of our board members so that wecan continue working together.
And my hope is from there westart structuring our committees
and kind of making surecommittees check into what the
community is wanting to see, andI think listening sessions will
(25:54):
help get us there, and sothat's.
Another plan too is to startlooking for places to do that,
whether it's the Montreux Center, whether it's somewhere else in
town I say the Montreux Centerbecause it's such a hub for
everything in our community butanywhere, I'm making sure that
we're spreading across the cityand listening to everybody.
Speaker 2 (26:12):
Yeah, thank you for outlining that vision, and that
actually answered my lastquestion, but it raised a
follow-up question.
Is that you know, in our regionwe have a lot of queer-serving
coalitions and boards, such asHarris County's LGBTQI Plus
Commission and Queens of Houston, and so you mentioned listening
sessions but wanting to hearmore, as we close off, about
(26:32):
ways for community members toget involved with y'all's work
and y'all's intentions to getinvolved with other regional
activities and coalitions.
Speaker 3 (26:42):
Yeah, and the commission is a great thing to
mention.
I'm familiar with severalpeople on that commission,
including Thomas Lopez, who I'veknown for a long time, and so
my hope is to start connectingwith them too.
I think a combined meeting atsome point where we can have
both boards together just totalk about some shared
(27:02):
initiatives and also, maybemoving into 2026, like plans to
come together and when there arecommunity summits and I know
that there's many NFPs startingto plan those, and the Mantra
Center has already started thatlast year is how can we be
present in those settingstogether and unified?
Because, even though the countyis broader than the city, when
(27:25):
we come together, I mean we'regoing to be representing
millions of people, and so Ithink there's just a lot of
power in that, and I do plan onseeing us collaborate
specifically with the commissionon several things and to answer
how the community can getinvolved, one of the things I'll
be doing soon and so, hopefully, if any of our leaders or our
board members or people who arevolunteers that participate in
(27:49):
any of the nonprofits thatbenefit the LGBTQ plus community
, I encourage you to reach outto me so that I know who you are
and where you are.
I'm already trying to do that onmy own, but one person can only
scope out so many things, andhopefully the board members too
will kind of help me kind ofbubble some of those up.
So I make sure we're seeing andtalking to everyone, but my plan
(28:12):
is to sit down with thosecommunity members whether it's
in a group setting or one at atime, I don't know but I want to
make sure that all of them havea seat at the table.
When it comes to being at ourtable for the city's board, for
the mayor's board, and so myplan from here is just to
continue being in listening mode, and I would encourage
literally anybody listening itreally doesn't matter if you're
(28:34):
a leader, anybody in thecommunity to reach out.
Go to the city's website, findthe board members on the website
, email us, call us, reach outand tell us what you're thinking
and how we can benefit and whatyou want to see from the board.
That that is what we're herefor, and so it's important to me
to hear from everybody honestly, allies included, and all of
(28:58):
the above and so kind of toclose out that the response to
that, I just would.
I would really ask thateverybody just know that we're
going to be out and about.
We are already looking at Ithink one of the first
committees everyone will be inagreement on is some type of
events committee where we canstart getting a community
calendar, if you will, uh for us, for the board, uh together, so
(29:21):
that we can start showing upfor things, uh, not just for the
organizations you seeeverywhere, for all of them,
because they're all doing greatthings.
I actually go to the TruthProject's open mic nights
occasionally and it's some ofthe most touching and powerful
testimonies and just talent thatI've ever seen, and so let's
(29:41):
say things like that thathappened throughout town that
not everybody may know about.
I would just love to continueknowing more about that and what
those events are and where theyare.
And one other thing, too, is assmall and kind of silly as it
sounds.
The first thing I said was weneed name tags so that when
we're out people say, oh, that'sone of the mayor's board
(30:02):
members.
Speaker 4 (30:03):
I have something to say and you just walk up and
talk.
Speaker 3 (30:04):
I mean, that's one of the mayor's board members, I
have something to say and, likeyou, just walk up and talk.
I mean that's what we're therefor and so I already mentioned I
would happily sponsor that.
I just want us to have nametags so people know who we are
and where we are, and so, as yousee us, stop us.
That was my ask of the boardand that is what we're here for.
We're in listening mode for thenext several months.
Speaker 2 (30:23):
Thank you for sharing this.
I've been speaking with ClayMelder, the brand new chair of
the Houston Mayor's LGBTQ PlusAdvisory Board in 2025.
Houston Business Journal 40Under 40.
Honoree Clay, thank you so muchfor joining us.
Thank you, davis, and we lookforward to the work ahead with
the former chair of the advisoryboard and president of one of
(30:43):
Texas's largest LGBTQ plusfundraising events, Bunnies on
the Bayou, Jacques Bourgeois,about his sudden dismissal at
the hands of Mayor Whitmireafter years of serving as chair
under the former Mayor Turner.
Thank you for listening toQueer Voices.
I'm Davis Mendoza-Druzman andtoday I'm speaking with Jacques
Bourgeois, a longtime HoustonLGBTQ plus advocate, former
(31:05):
chair of the mayor's LGBTQ plusadvisory board and president of
the Bunnies on the Bayou.
And president of Bunnies on theBayou, one of Texas's largest
LGBTQ plus fundraising events.
Recently, Jock has been at thecenter of a political shakeup
involving Houston mayor JohnWhitmire's administration and
the advisory board he once led.
Welcome to the show.
(31:26):
Jock hey, thanks for having me.
Absolutely, I don't want tostart this interview with the
end.
I want to start this interviewwith the beginning.
So tell me about the beginningof your journey with the Mayor's
LGBTQ Plus Advisory Board andsome accomplishments and some
things that you're proud of.
Speaker 7 (31:44):
Um, before we get into this end, um I would say so
the start with my start withthe board, uh, it kind of goes
back before the board existed.
Uh, kind of to go back.
It started with hero.
So, like 2014, dealing with, uh, mayor parker, uh and houston
equal rights ordinance uh,that's really where I kind of
got my start in just the realactivism in our city and being
(32:08):
involved in our local politics.
And from there was towards theend of her term, you know, just
being involved with Mae Parker.
We had the privilege of beinginvited to a.
I say we, a lot of the queerleadership within Houston that
was involved with the HoustonEqual Rights Ordinance.
(32:29):
You know, your friend Watson's,your Mark, your Monica Roberts,
your Brandon Max, etc.
We're all invited by thencandidate Mayor Turner when he
was initially running for office.
And I I share this little quipof everybody is in this dark
room we're all having our oneonon-ones with Mayor Turner as
(32:50):
candidate.
We're all having littleone-on-ones with everyone.
And he walked up to me and saidhi, I'm Sylvester Turner, I'm
running for mayor, and the firstwords out of my mouth were if
you don't continue with whatMayor Parker has been doing with
Hero or whatever, I'll runagainst you and I'll win, um, so
kind of set a tone with him andhe bust out laughing and we
(33:13):
became fast friends then becausehe was like, if I don't do a
good job, you're gonna runagainst me, uh, which I know I
didn't really have the cloudcloud, but it's a really funny
story and we started afriendship from there or
professional relationship fromthen on, just kind of like he
would see me either at my officeor he would see me out and
(33:34):
about in community doing thingsand he's like, oh, there's that
guy who's going to run againstme.
But I had the opportunitywhenever the advisory board was
commissioned in 2016, post thePulse massacre that happened in
Orlando and Mayor Turner'sresponse to that massacre was to
create an advisory board of 49people, which is a lot of people
(33:57):
.
But I was not on the initialboard.
It was initially chaired by, Ibelieve, harrison Guy and
Melanie Pang Also my co-brandmarshal, melanie Pang, shout out
.
It was initially led by themand I was inducted into the
board in 2018 as a member andI've served ever since.
(34:21):
In November 2023, our chair,jeremy Edwards.
He stepped down to be a part ofthe county's board commission
and I was his co-chair for sotechnically, I've been the chair
for a minute, but I was hisco-chair and the bag was left in
my table.
November 2023 going into youknow a very into the election
(34:45):
year into, you know, a very intothe election year.
So we had now Mayor Whitmireand then Congresswoman Sheila
Jackson Lee in the runoff.
So we kind of we as a boardbeing neutral just kind of
stepped back and let everythinglie where it did, land where it
did and we gave then MayorWhitmire, once he did win the
election, some time.
You know you're coming on board, you're getting your stuff
(35:07):
together.
You know there's a lot to do.
We gave them some time to gettheir stuff together, which also
gave me some time to get ourstuff together Because, as you
mentioned before, I also runbuddies on the Bayou.
So there's a lot of structure.
I require a lot of structure inthings, so you can't juggle a
(35:28):
bunch of stuff if there's nostructure in something.
So there was a lot ofrestructuring of our advisory
board to have some dedicatedchairs, dedicated leaders within
it and we did a significantslim down.
Granted, at this point, comingout of COVID, or out of COVID,
we were no longer 49 people, wewere maybe 19 at this point.
(35:53):
So it's much, much, muchsmaller and our goal was really
to become a chamber of resource,very much mirroring what our
Chamber of Commerce, our LGBTQIChamber of Commerce does, but
providing resources forcommunity and that's kind of
where we've landed.
But part of that challenge withthat was getting in touch with
(36:18):
Mayor Whitmire.
We've made several requests andjust kind of fell on dead ears.
We would get advisors, but youknow, it's not exactly the same.
We had very robust relationshipwith Mayor Turner Even, you
know, going back from MayorTurner, you know Mayor Parker
was very involved with community, even though there wasn't an
(36:39):
advisory board at the time.
You know, I kind of think oflike the task force that was for
Hero was kind of a lot of thesame.
But you know you kind of losethat one on one interaction.
But also you and now I'mrambling you kind of lose that
one on one interaction.
But also there's a brand newadministration and office that's
(37:02):
making pretty significantchanges within the city.
So we want to make sure we're.
Our big thing was making surewhat we were planning as a board
was in line with what it isthat Mayor Whitmire would like
to do and what his prioritiesare.
So we're not going completelyleft and he wants to go right
(37:23):
and then everybody's in a tightand inside of an entire cluster,
so to say.
But we, like I said, we madeseveral requests to meet with
mayor.
We kind of did not hear fromhim and fast forward to November
and January with the newfederal administration federal
administration, you know, a lotof communities lost steam with a
(37:46):
lot of what to do, and we kindof reached back out and kind of
said, hey, we can strategizetogether.
And we still kind of didn'thear anything until June, which
now we're, now we're current.
We didn't really hear anythinguntil June when, I guess, mayor
Whitmire and his team posted apride post and a few people
(38:10):
online said something along thelines of what happened to your
advisory board.
And that's when Channel 13reached out to us and I kind of
gave them like, hey, we're justtrying to get his attention,
we're still here, we meetbi-monthly and if we're not
meeting bi-monthly, we are in agroup chat always.
I have some great people onthis board who are super
(38:34):
enthusiastic about, you know,getting inside of the jails and
making sure the surveys that wedo send out to community are
just making sure we're gettingservices down to people or at
least answering people incommunity and reminding them
that we're here, so to say.
But I did an interview withChannel 13, because if you can't
(38:58):
get information from within thegovernment, you go to the
fourth estate journalist.
Hey, you go to the fourthestate, kind of put some
pressure and say, hey, we'retrying to meet with you, we'd
love to meet with you, we wantto strategize with you, yeah,
yeah, yeah.
And after that interview we hada conversation maybe two weeks
later with the board andcommission's director where they
(39:20):
informed us that, hey, we wouldlike to move a different
direction.
We're thinking of a boardrefresh, which I was super OK
with.
You know, you kind of speak upand you kind of expect like, hey
, maybe we need to move anotherway and we I want to keep that
(39:49):
clear we work, we serve at theleisure of the administration.
We're an advisory board, youknow.
But we, oh we were informedthat they were looking to do a
refresh of the entire board,refresh of the board.
And I was like okay.
And I asked what doestransition look like?
And does is the current boardallowed to, you know, reapply?
And we were told you canreapply, et cetera.
And but my big thing was whatdoes transition look like?
And then I was informed thatwe'd be in touch and maybe a
(40:14):
week or so, maybe a week or two,we'll touch back with another
meeting.
And I was like, okay, that'sfine, you know.
And I sent out an email to therest of the board members
informing them that, hey, theywant to transition, go ahead and
apply here online, et cetera.
And then, maybe a week later,everybody basically received a
(40:36):
termination letter from the city, which I wasn't really
expecting it to be so cut anddry of.
Just okay, now you're out.
There was discussion of atransition and that's what I
conveyed to the rest of theboard, but it really just felt
abrupt and a little retaliatory.
Not a little, it felt veryretaliatory, which was fine if
(40:58):
it was just me as the chair, butthere's a lot of people on the
board who were doing fantasticwork and just really weren't
ready for that.
But it is what it is and I havenothing but like great
enthusiasm for this next boardbecause I really feel like the
energy for the board, there'svisibility for the board now,
(41:19):
and that was always one of ourprimary functions was to make
sure there's visibility for thisboard, was to make sure there's
visibility for this board, makesure that there's
accountability on behalf of theadministration, to make sure
this board and commissioncontinues.
Because a lot of the questionsthat we did have, without being
able to actually meet with mayorand meet with the new
(41:40):
administration, was do they wantthis to continue?
And I'm really hopeful andreally happy for the new board
because I feel like they areleft with the visibility of a
new board and the accountabilityon behalf of the administration
, because there's a weirdness inour community of, hey, you've
(42:01):
got to make sure this is doneright, because you kind of
fumbled the bag a little bit andI don't have any animosity or
whatever.
Um, I know you.
You said before we started thisinterview just like oh, and I'm
like it's, it's not that deep.
I promise it is.
This is a board commission.
It is all right.
Like everybody, I'm fine.
I am remarkably busy.
(42:23):
All the time I am booked andbusy, I I'm 100% fine.
But that's pretty much thestory right there.
I've rambled for like fiveminutes.
Speaker 2 (42:35):
So you said in an interview that you reached out
to the mayor five or six timesover 18 months without success.
Is that correct?
That's correct.
Can you walk us through whatthose requests look like?
Was it through like email orphone call?
And what responses you got back?
Was it like through scouts oryeah, walk us through through
that process of reaching out tothe mayor.
Speaker 7 (42:54):
So it's a mixture of a few the.
The initial reach out isthrough these.
There is a portal in the city'swebsite to actually make a
request to meet with mayor andthat is across the board.
Any and everybody can make thatrequest.
It's kind of the publicmeetings type of thing and I
(43:15):
believe it goes through likeMoe's or something like that.
We made our initial requestthrough there and got nothing
back.
Fast forward to about May oflast year of 2024, I think
somebody gave me a contact withthe new board and commission's
(43:37):
chair, scott Odegaard, and I wasable to.
I was actually meeting with orI was speaking in front of
council in regards to the twopride situation that we had
going on and just because mayorand council member Castillo had
made a comment about why do wehave two prides and I went in
(43:59):
front of council to reallyreiterate there's really not a
reason for us to have two pridesand it actually creates a
safety hazard because there's alot of coordination that happens
for these large events and ourprimary goal as a board and
commission, the primary reasonwe were created was to make sure
(44:22):
nothing like Pulse ever happensagain and that raised the flag
to our entire board of this is ahigh, high, high risk.
We need to actually talk to cityand to council and see if they
can influence us to like it'snot a problem to have two prides
or whatever, but back to back aweek after each other, it's a
(44:44):
lot and it creates a higher risk.
A week after each other, it's alot and it creates a higher
risk.
And, ironically, the very nextday a whole FBI report came out
about it being higher risk.
Am I rambling again?
Because I'm rambling again?
Speaker 2 (44:56):
This is good, but I also this is a good like segue I
think into like anotherquestion that I had as you were
speaking earlier.
So the mayor's office has saidthat the board, the mayor's
office, had said that the board,the mayor's office, had said
that your board had beeninactive and that most members
terms expired back in 2020.
But, from your perspective as achair up until this year, how
(45:18):
active was the board during thattime?
Speaker 7 (45:20):
We've been active pretty much this entire time.
We would meet, like I said,we'd meet bimonthly officially
and then our executive teamwould usually meet monthly, so
fairly active.
The answer to that is were weable to really accomplish or do
(45:40):
anything?
The answer is not really no,because we didn't have input
from mayor and part of what wewere told, whenever we actually
did get a conversation withScout, was we are to function as
again a full circle back to.
I require structure to runmultiple things.
(46:02):
We were informed that we arerequired to run the board
ourselves as a as pretty much asprivate citizens.
So there's really no citysupport.
There's work.
So we're not a governmentalentity as an advisory board.
We are not a nonprofit as anadvisory board, so that if you
(46:24):
understand anything, anything ofthe nonprofit world, there's a
lot of coordination stuff.
Google workspace is veryexpensive.
If you're not a non-profit, youcan't get it free and you kind
of work through the grace ofother non-profits and
fortunately I was able to do alot of stuff through bunnies on
the bayou just because I'm thechief officer and my board had
(46:46):
approved like well, we can helpout the board commission, just
because I'm the chief officerand my board had approved like
well, we can help out the boardcommission just a little bit
here.
But once it started to get tooexpensive, it's like we got to
cut it off and that's part ofthe problem is there was really
no structure from the city.
How do we actually functionfinancially?
Are we a business, Are we not?
There's a lot of question.
If we go away, where is wheredoes how do we fundraise?
(47:08):
You know there was a lot ofquestions that we were not able
to get answered.
So, and whenever you'recompletely volunteer run board
it's, it's hard to corral thecats when there's no direction
from you know up top.
Do I still want y'all to exist?
Did that make sense?
I'm sorry.
Speaker 2 (47:27):
No, yeah, no, that is helpful, and I also wanted to
touch on something else that youhad mentioned earlier, but the
red line is pulling in, so Imight need to hold off or I
might need to repeat myself.
So, as you mentioned, theadvisory board was formed in
response to a tragedy Pulse in2016.
And it's meant to be a channelbetween the mayor's office and
(47:49):
the LGBTQ plus community.
What message do you think themayor is sending by dissolving
the current board without anydialogue?
How does that speak to themission?
Do you think?
Speaker 7 (48:00):
Well, I kind of think the overall message isn't
anything towards like notwanting to have a board and
commission.
I think the overall messageabout that was uh, and we kind
of got that with like the tiresof, I'll just kind of do
whatever I want whenever I want.
That's kind of terrible to say,um, but it it kind of eroded
(48:25):
the trust of community thatwe've had with our elected
officials, or our highestelected officials in this city,
because it made people askquestions of well, do you want
to have this?
Which shouldn't have been aquestion any of us have had to
ask is do you want to have this?
It should be a given becausemayor, support of community
(48:49):
dates back to 2003, you know,with um lauren to be ferguson,
lauren to be ferguson with thetexas autonomy laws when he was,
in words, the texas legislature.
So it's they were.
I think it brought into questionjust his, his track record.
Um, for most part of you shouldwant to champion this more.
Why aren't you?
And the excuse that we kind ofgot with that was there's 170
(49:15):
some odd boards of commissions.
We don't have time for all ofthat, but fast forward to two
months ago.
They suddenly had time tointerview 50, 60 odd people um
and replace the board for us umin place of us or whatever,
without our input as a as thecurrent standing board, you know
(49:35):
.
So zero transition.
It just said I don't care whatyou want, this is what we're
gonna do and that makes me soundlike a terrible person but like
still within his right to do.
But it kind of went like baby,that's not the move.
Speaker 2 (49:54):
As a follow up.
What do you think is the move?
What would you feel is theright way to bring in these new
voices?
Sure, but without losing thatcontinuity.
Without losing that continuity.
Speaker 7 (50:05):
I think what I brought up to the director in
the first place was the questionI immediately asked was what
does transition look like?
Because it's not about we needto sit here and be the ones to
be the champion.
That's never the case.
We plant seeds as leaders.
We plant seeds and we walk awayand let something grow Like.
(50:29):
That's something you that's thecore of me.
I'm going to say that I'm verymuch.
The core of me is I'm going toplant a seed and walk away.
I don't need to be the end allbe all champion for that.
My ego is not there, but atleast the transition of we've
been working on a lot of stuff.
There's, uh, a lot ofhistorical stuff.
(50:49):
You know that we've beenworking on since 2016.
You know that just needs tohave that constant flow and it
just felt very abrupt to just goboom, gone, or we don't care
about it, we'll start fresh.
And that's that's adisadvantage to the new board,
honestly, because you're makingthem start off without any like
(51:09):
prior information or priorstructure.
That could be slightlybeneficial or slightly helpful
or whatever it could be or itcouldn't be whatever.
But, like, part of thattransition is closure for, you
know, the current board.
Speaker 2 (51:24):
Yeah, Thank you for that.
A couple of questions left.
Next week I have an interviewwith the new chair of the
mayor's LGBTQ advisory committee, and you mentioned that the
mayor's move may have erodedpublic trust in the LGBTQ
community due to thisadministration's abrupt
proceedings.
So how can the mayor and hisadministration in your eyes earn
(51:47):
back that trust?
Speaker 7 (51:51):
Just by doing right by community, doing right by
this board.
You know the new board that'scoming online.
You know being accountable tothem and actually meeting with
them, that'd be fantastic.
And, like I said before, I havenothing but the highest hopes
for this new board and I'mexcited that part of what our
(52:15):
board, going out on the notethat we kind of went out on,
gave them a lot of, has giventhem a lot of visibility and a
lot of, I would say, a littlebit of leverage with mayor.
That wasn't there before.
You know, for our on behalf ofour community, because at the
end of the day, it's aboutmaking sure our community has
the resources and has therepresentation that matter.
(52:35):
That is what really, reallymatters.
You know, as any random dragqueen would say at my drag, it's
not about me.
Speaker 2 (52:43):
Well, thank you for that.
A couple final questions.
Thank you for that.
A couple final questions, yeah,so a couple final questions.
What is next for you?
What are next steps for you inyour life and in your journey in
terms of advocacy and work withthe lgbtq community?
Speaker 7 (52:58):
we'd love to learn, we'd love to know more my
journey moving forward is well,it's always going to be bunnies
involved, that's for sure.
Um lord, come join us.
But overall, like my journey,community is always going to
continue.
Um, I love the houston lgbtqiacommunity.
It is, uh, my core.
I've been active in communitysince 2009, um back whenever
(53:22):
some friends and I startedhouston gamers, way back when.
Um, like, I'm always going tobe involved, I'm always going to
be an advocate, I'm alwaysgoing to be a champion and, you
know, especially with this newboard coming online, I'm always
going to be behind them.
If they ever need anything orwhatever, like, I'm here by all
means.
I'm always an avid supporter ofour community.
(53:46):
You know, liga bigaiga first.
Um lgbtqa plus people first.
I didn't mean to say ligabigotiga.
It's such a stupid acronym.
I love it I love that.
Speaker 2 (53:58):
and finally, what's your message to houston's lgbtqa
plus community about stayingengaged, especially when it
comes to holding leadershipaccountable and making sure our
voices are heard?
Speaker 7 (54:09):
My message to them about get involved, get involved
, get engaged at every and anylevel, because we need it,
especially now, under ourcurrent administration regime,
or whatever you want to call it.
Even within our legislate, ourlocal legislator, we need as
(54:29):
many new leaders as new leaders,old leaders, et cetera, because
the burnout's real.
I will tell you that about alot of our community leaders,
the burnout is very, very realand we need as many people as
possible who are passionate.
A leader looks like what youwant yourself to look like.
You don't have to be degreed tothe tens and nines or whatever.
(54:54):
You just have to care and bepassionate, that's it.
Speaker 2 (54:57):
Thank you so much for that.
I've been speaking with JacquesBourgeois, a longtime Houston
LGBTQ plus advocate, formerchair of the mayor's LGBTQ plus
Advisory Board and president ofBunnies on the Bayou, one of
Texas' largest LGBTQ Plusfundraising events.
Jacques Bourgeois, thank you somuch.
Speaker 1 (55:13):
Thank you.
This has been Queer Voices,heard on KPFT Houston and as a
podcast available from severalpodcasting sources.
Check our webpagequeervoicesorg.
For more information.
Queer Voices executive produceris Brian Levinka.
Deborah Moncrief-Bell isco-producer Brett Cullum Davis
(55:37):
Mendoza-Druzman Ethan MichelleGans.
Mel Peterson and Joel Tatum arecontributors.
The News Wrap segment is partof another podcast called this
Way Out, which is produced inLos Angeles.
Speaker 6 (55:51):
Some of the material in this program has been edited
to improve clarity and runtime.
This program does not endorseany political views or animal
species.
Views, opinions andendorsements are those of the
participants and theorganizations they represent.
In case of death, pleasediscontinue use and discard
remaining products.
Speaker 1 (56:04):
For Queer Voices.
I'm Glenn Holt.
And now Houston's only primetime radio program
dedicated to news and concernsof the lesbian, gay and
transgender community.
This is Queer Voices.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Hello everybody, this is Queer Voices, a podcast and
radio show on KPFT 90.1 FMthat's been on the air for
several decades is one of theoldest LGBTQ plus radio shows in
the United States.
You're going to be hearing alot from me today.
Apologies to the other talentedcontributors on the show, but
(00:34):
this episode is going to be allabout the controversial recent
news about the Houston Mayor'sLGBTQ plus advisory board and
its future in shaping andleading our community.
I'll be speaking with theformer chair of the advisory
board and president of one ofTexas' largest LGBTQ Plus
fundraising events, Bunnies onthe Bayou, Jacques Bourgeois,
(00:57):
about his sudden dismissal atthe hands of Mayor Whitmire
after years of serving as chairunder the former Mayor Turner.
But before our interview withthe former chair, we'll hear
from the new chair of theadvisory board and 2025 Houston
Business Journal 40 Under 40honoree, Clay Melder, on his
journey leading up to this pointand his vision for chairing
(01:19):
this esteemed board.
But before we get to our taleof two cities mayor's LGBTQ
advisory boards, I provide areview of one of the most
popular trans musicians today,Ethel Kane, and her concert at
Houston's 713 Music Hall thispast Monday.
Queer Voices starts now.
(01:39):
We're exploring the music ofEthel Kane, one of the most
beloved rising stars among LGBTQyouth.
Today, At just 26 years old,she has over 4.6 million monthly
Spotify listeners.
Her breakout single AmericanTeenager has topped 100 million
streams.
This year, her album Preacher'sDaughter re-entered the charts
(02:03):
at number 10 on the Billboard200, making her the first openly
trans artist to reach theBillboard Top 10.
Ethel Kane's music blendsSouthern Gothic storytelling
with atmospheric rock, whileexploring queerness, faith,
trauma and resilience.
To help us understand hercultural pull, I spoke with fans
(02:27):
outside of her Houston showthis past week.
Speaker 3 (02:30):
Here are two interviews before the concert Hi
, my name is Hannah and I loveEthel Kane because she is super
inclusive.
Speaker 4 (02:36):
She's super honest and I love her.
She has never strayed from whoshe is.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
She is super authentic and she talks about
anything.
Speaker 4 (02:44):
She's an open book.
Hi, my name is Candy.
One of my favorite things aboutEthel Kane is when she said
that she will rally the Amish,because that's really, really
funny.
I also love her consistentactivism for trans people and
people in Palestine.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
What you just heard were the voices of anticipation.
And once the show began, thatanticipation transformed into
something almost spiritual.
Ethel entered shrouded in smoke, silhouetted in backlight by
the third song.
The stage lit up in trans pridecolors and the crowd was
shouting every word back at herSongs, built from quiet intimacy
(03:26):
into walls of sound, equalparts ethereal and heavy with
theatrical lighting that feltlike stepping into a gothic
ritual.
At one point she even stoppedmid-song to check on her fans
who needed medical attention orsecurity.
It wasn't clear, but shestopped the show and after
(03:46):
making sure everyone had waterand was good and ready to get
back in, she dove right back inwith compassion and force.
The night billed towards thesong Thoroughfare a personal
highlight for me and closed withAmerican Teenager, which got
the whole crowd, both in generaladmission and in the seats in
the risers above, on their feet.
(04:08):
Afterward I spoke with a fewaudience members about what that
show meant to them.
Speaker 5 (04:14):
My name's Dakota and I feel like every bone in my
body was just obliterated andthen put back together.
That was the best concert of mylife probably.
That was amazing.
Hello, my name is Charles Avery.
What I think I love about EthelKane is I think she just really
captures like the Americana of,like the South and just like I
(04:36):
don't know, like, just like allthose like conflicting feelings
of just like being in the Southand just like you know I don.
I don't just like the drama ofit all.
Really she literally has thevoice of like an angel.
It was like crazy.
I was like well, like I knowshe sounds good, but I was like
no, like there's just no way,like that's real, yes, and like
(04:57):
just so melancholy.
I was like yes, like this iswhat I needed, like in trump's
america, like yes, I really justneed someone to like bring me
melancholy.
Cody, he, they.
And it was just a surrealexperience all around.
I feel like wonderfulexperience, akira, they, them.
You know, it was kind of cool.
I don't live in Texas, I livein Arkansas.
(05:18):
It was kind of cool just beingin the building and knowing that
this is a safe queer space forthe moment in the building and
knowing that this is a safequeer space for the moment.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
Hearing those voices, it's clear Ethel Kane is more
than just a singer.
She's become a touchstone foryounger LGBTQ audiences and
young audiences, and even reallyjust any audience with feelings
and emotions, because EthelKane is someone weaving our
shared struggles and triumphsinto music that feels both
personal and communal.
For many, her shows aren't justconcerts.
(05:53):
They're gatherings of queerbelonging, and for us here at
Queer Voices, it's a glimpseinto what the next generation of
LGBTQ culture sounds likeHaunting, defiant and deeply
moving.
And with that, thecontroversial recent news about
(06:13):
the Houston Mayor's LGBTQ PlusAdvisory Board and its future in
shaping and leading ourcommunity.
We'll hear from the new chairof the Advisory Board and 2025
Houston Business Journal 40Under 40 honoree, clay Melder,
on his journey leading up tothis point and his vision for
chairing this esteemed board.
(06:36):
Thank you for listening to QueerVoices on KPFT 90.1 FM or
wherever you get your podcasts.
I'm Davis Mendoza-Duruzmanspeaking with Clay Melder, the
brand new chair of the HoustonMayor's LGBTQ Plus Advisory
Board.
In addition to his leadershipon this board, clay was also
named a 2025 Houston BusinessJournal 40 Under 40 honoree.
(06:56):
Clay.
Welcome to the show.
Speaker 3 (06:59):
Hi Davis, Thank you for having me.
It's an honor to be here.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
Absolutely.
I want to start just by sayingcongratulations.
It's certainly looking likeyour year and it's only August.
Speaker 3 (07:09):
Yeah, thank you, and it's been an exciting journey so
far, just for the last fewmonths, as things have started
to ramp up.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
And, speaking of that journey, tell us more about
yourself.
Let us get to know you, yourjourney leading up to this point
, before we get into the journeymoving forward as a community.
Speaker 3 (07:24):
you, your journey leading up to this point before
we get into the journey movingforward as a community.
Sure, so I have been in Houstonfor actually this month is 10
years.
I moved to Houston in 2015 fromSouth Louisiana and I grew up
in a very conservative familyand kind of went through many
periods of just not feeling seenor heard and actually went
through a conversion therapyexperience in seventh grade, and
(07:47):
so I feel like a lot of thosethings led into where I am now,
which is kind of just buildingmyself into a place to make sure
that people in the LGBTQ pluscommunity and, honestly, any
community, feel seen and feelheard, and so that's kind of
been an underlying tone for mein all of the kind of different
roles I've had over the yearswhich is included in 2020.
(08:10):
I had the opportunity to chairAmogee Banks, which is I also
work at Amogee Bank LGBTQbusiness resource group, which
we call a BRG, and had theopportunity to kind of continue
adding layers to it and get morevisibility for everybody within
those letters in the bank, butalso getting the bank better
(08:30):
exposed in the LGBTQ pluscommunity through the chamber,
the Montrose Center and thenormal anomaly and just many,
many other nonprofits.
That was what kind of sparked myinterest in leadership roles
and looking into boards and justtrying to understand where I
can make an impact as somebodywho kind of likes to put my head
(08:50):
down and get work done.
And so we celebrated a lot ofsuccess during that time and I
was honored in 2023 as anOutstanding Diversity Champion
by the HPJ as well.
So the HPJ has certainly been ahuge thing for me and I've just
seemed to always be on theirradar.
It's been a huge honor, andrecently I joined the Montrose
(09:12):
Center's Community AdvisoryBoard and I also participate on
a few other boards Big Brothers,big Sisters, united Against
Human Trafficking andparticipate in United Way's
Young Leader Council and I shareall of that because I feel like
a lot of those well, all ofthose roles kind of play into
the exposure in the differentareas I hope to add value for
(09:33):
the mayor's LGBTQ advisory boardas well and I feel like they
kind of just represent all thesedifferent facets of the
community, but all of them havesome type of relationship to our
LGBTQ plus community too.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
Wow and this is a rhetorical question but how do
you find the time for all of it?
That's incredible, Wow.
Speaker 3 (09:50):
I would say, first of all, I have an amazing job and
great work-life balance.
I'm in school too, at SamHouston, and so I just don't
like to sleep, I guess.
But my partner, Alberto, whowe've been together almost 11
years, is incredibly supportiveand does a really good job of
checking me when he feels likeI'm raising my hand for too many
(10:12):
things.
But he also knows that I justlove being involved and I really
love being busy and I like tosee good work getting done, and
if it means leading it, I'mhappy to do it.
But for me it's just about beingin a position to help drive
reasonable and quantifiablechange.
And so I think it's people askme that a lot and people people
(10:33):
kind of pop their eyes at mewhen I kind of share all the
different things that I do.
But it's not about wanting thecredentials for doing it, it's
not about saying I do it, it'sjust about things I care about,
and I don't know if I reallyfeel like it's a lot when it's
something I care about.
And so I mean, for example,United Against Human Trafficking
.
Human trafficking is sounderspoken and not really
(10:55):
exposed and talked about inHouston, but it's a huge problem
and as I got to know theorganization better, I just kept
thinking like why would I notwant to be involved in something
like this and why would I notwant to be involved in a way
where I can help.
I do a lot of nonprofit work inmy job too, and so it just has
this kind of natural.
It's almost like a marriage withall of these different
organizations, and so, torespond directly, I just don't
(11:18):
know if I feel like it's work,it's like my pleasure and it's
an honor to be able to do all ofthese things.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
And speaking of being involved, tell us how you got
involved to begin with with theadvisory board, how you were
asked to chair, how youinitially reached out, how you
responded to the news.
Speaker 3 (11:38):
Sure, it's kind of been an evolving process for the
last few months.
I have very good relationshipswith several of our LGBTQ
leaders in town and TammyWallace, avery Bellew Councilman
, mario Castillo, ian Haddock atthe Normal Anomaly and so many
others and I've always kind ofexpressed interest in trying to
find the right avenue for me asa nonprofit banker who is not
(12:01):
really leading a nonprofit and Idon't have the bandwidth to
maybe lead an organization or bea huge part of one.
But what I could do to startkind of playing a role and
trying to help bridge some gapsand get everyone together and
and just kind of help, just kindof help our community become a
little bit less segmented andsegregated within ourselves.
And so I heard from the mayor'sliaison scout who I feel like a
(12:27):
lot of people know she's veryactive in the community too.
I want to say it was rightbefore Pride Month, maybe so
late May, and I was kind ofinformed that I had been
recommended by several people tothe mayor and so Scout wanted
to talk more about that and shewas kind of going around and
talking to several differentpeople because the mayor wanted
to get the about that and shewas kind of going around and
talking to several differentpeople because the mayor wanted
to get the board kind of, Iguess, activated again, if you
(12:50):
will.
The prior board has been inplace for for quite a while and
was really put together by MayorTurner in 2016 it kind of to
honor the Pulse nightclubtragedy and and it was put
together with such a beautifulreason and very significant, and
all of the prior board membershave already laid such a good
foundation.
I mean, people know about it,people know that we're here, and
(13:12):
so it was just for MayorWhitmire was a matter of
bringing in new faces and kindof, I guess, if you will, a new
generation of LGBTQ leaders, andthere are a couple of folks
that are actually on the newboard if you want to call it new
who served on prior iterationsof the board.
So we have some of those voicesthere to help us keep that
foundation in place.
(13:32):
But going back to just myexperience getting involved, we
kind of had some conversationsthrough June and I started just.
I naturally just love to sharemy opinions and suggestions and
so, as we were talking throughmy thoughts for the board and
just what I would want tocontribute as a member of the
board, the conversation kind ofevolved and Scout circled back
(13:55):
and asked that I put thoughtinto chairing the board and just
kind of what my vision would beif I were to do that.
And so we continued meeting onthat and I had the opportunity
to look at the board slate andI'll say there are some amazing,
amazing, just long standingcommunity leaders on this board.
(14:19):
And so it felt a littleintimidating to respond yes
whenever I was asked aboutchairing and normally I respond
very fast and I'm quite the yesperson but for this one there's
just a lot of weight to this,and so I took a couple of weeks
to think about it and I went toa lot of my just my advisors,
some of the leaders I've alreadymentioned, and nobody seemed
(14:39):
surprised that I had been askedand nobody seemed afraid of it,
surprised that I had been askedand nobody seemed afraid of it.
And so, kind of by way of theirconfidence in me, it made me
feel a little bit more confidentto say yes.
And so in July I let Scout knowthat I would be willing to do
it.
A couple of my asks at the verybeginning were to have some time
(15:01):
with the mayor one-on-one andalso to have the mayor approach
our board early on.
And my third ask was to makesure that the board, first of
all, was a little smaller.
I know the significance of the49 original members is amazing,
but now that we're trying tomove into more of a position to
be out in the community a lotand to be able to hone in on
(15:24):
objectives and things that we'dlike to see accomplished, I felt
like pretty much cutting it inhalf was a great start, so that
we have a little bit more justto be able to hone in a little
better.
And so the diversity part of itwas also, honestly, probably my
top priority.
I wanted to make sure, not justracially but just across the
span of LGBTQ and plus everybodywas represented to some extent,
(15:49):
so that we have voices from allsides of the community and all
of the different organizationsof big, small, medium and
various corporations very proudof how that's come together.
I think Scout did an excellentjob with making sure that we're
well represented, and so thathas been.
(16:10):
Probably the most exciting partfor me is looking at the racial
makeup, the makeup of peoplewho identify with different
genders and different identities, and then also making sure
there's representation from thetrans community, because the
trans community is in a verysensitive place right now and I
wanted the board to bepositioned to advocate to the
mayor in those situations whenwe need to.
(16:32):
And the last thing I'll share onkind of the board journey and
how it materialized all of myprimary asks I mean we're not
even a full month into the boardbeing term starting They've all
been answered.
We've had the chance to sitdown with the mayor for nearly
an hour this week and I had thechance to chat with him one on
(16:54):
one a little bit about how wecould be, how we could help him
and how I would like to see himkind of keep a listening ear and
an open door for us.
And so it's gotten off to areally, really positive start.
Speaker 2 (17:06):
Yeah, that's really exciting and I do have questions
about that exciting firstmeeting y'all had this week, the
week of August 18th, for ourlisteners.
But before I get into that, youmentioned the prior iterations
of the advisory board and theincredible foundation that they
laid.
How is their work supportingy'all's work moving forward and
what has that transition lookedlike?
Speaker 3 (17:24):
So, with the board being kind of, I guess, started
again with a fresh set ofindividuals, the transition has
been a little bit abrupt, justbecause the prior board was
already kind of in a place whereI think there was some rolling
off.
And while I don't know all ofthe nuances, what I'll say is
we've gotten a lot of supportfrom prior board members,
including the prior chair, whoput out a really beautiful
(17:46):
statement about, just, you know,the foundation that they laid
over the years.
And any board is hard work, andso there's just no.
You know, we want to make surethat nobody's hard work is
discounted and brushed aside.
(18:11):
And so I'm actually working on achance to kind of sit down with
the prior board chair here soonto just make sure that I
understand what they wereworking on and that I understand
what was important to them.
If there was a stone unturnedor if there was a door that's
still cracked open, what can wedo to pick that up and make sure
that it's not lost intransition?
And so I'm really excited forthat to happen, because, even
though you can call this a newboard, it's not.
I mean, the board has been inplace nearly 10 years and so
there are a lot of what I wouldcall just legacy community
members who everybody knows whothey are and they have done so
(18:35):
much work for the Houston LGBTQcommunity, for I mean decades on
decades.
And so you know, it's only fairand right that we make sure
that we're hearing them too andcaring over things that they
feel are still maybe hanging in,the kind of hanging in the
balance.
And so, even though thetransition is still
transitioning, if you will, it'sgone well and I was really
(18:58):
pleased and just very honestlyhonored that the prior chair
felt so positive and just soencouraged about the new board
and the new members.
And and again, if you look atthe board slate which we've now
posted, it's online on the cityof Houston's page for like they
have like a page you can Googleit where you can look at the
(19:18):
boards, all the mayoral advisoryboards and city boards and so
if you look at the names, I meanthere's just an impressive
group of people.
And so if you look at the names, I mean there's just an
impressive group of people, andso we definitely are going to be
able to get some good workaccomplished.
Speaker 2 (19:30):
Yeah, y'all have a very intentionally diverse board
.
But back to that, that firstmeeting that y'all had this week
, tell us how that went.
What were some items ofdiscussion?
Speaker 3 (19:39):
Sure.
So we kind of had a pivot inour agenda because, like I
mentioned, it was very importantthat we heard from Mayor
Whitmire.
He's incredibly busy.
He's still less than two yearsinto his term and so one of the
things he mentioned and this iswhat I've been trying to stay
very aware of is, I mean, beingthat, new into your term,
there's still a lot of reactivedecision making that has to
(20:02):
happen.
And one of the things that Iasked about when this board was
kind of being activated again,if you will, by the mayor was
why?
Because it's been a year and ahalf a little longer why now?
And one of the things that andthis will this is going to fall
into your question because thiswas covered in our first meeting
.
I mean, the mayor and the scoutboth kind of shared that that
(20:26):
you know he had been spending alot of time dealing with just so
many other things that had kindof fallen right into his lap.
I think everybody knows trashand recycling, pickup has kind
of been a struggle, and sothere's been a lot of focus on
that.
And that's a lot moreencompassing because that kind
of falls into all of thehouseholds around the city and
then just the different thingsgoing on with HISD and just a
(20:47):
laundry list of other things.
And so it was very obvious tome in our first meeting that my
concern and ask about why nowwas being answered.
The mayor pulled us into hisoffice about halfway through our
meeting and before that, ouragenda, we really just had a
chance to sit down and chat andget to know each other Before we
(21:09):
visited with the mayor.
What I shared with the board,you know, people have asked me
over and over what are yourplans, what are your goals?
And while I do have some, Imean my underlying and just I
mean top of the mind goal is tolisten, because there are 20,
are 21, 22 people on the boardand all of those people are
(21:29):
leaders.
All of those people have areason that they said yes.
Nobody had to say yes, andthere's reasons that people
endorsed and recommended themand reasons that the mayor
appointed them, and so I want tounderstand all of that before I
come back around and say thisis what we're going to do or
this is what we would like tosee, or because I, you know Clay
(21:50):
can have a lot of opinions anda lot of goals and aspirations,
but I want to hear it from theboard members so that we can all
be together and unify on whatwe want to accomplish.
And so we really spent the first30 minutes or so of our meeting
doing that, just saying helloto each other and mingling
around and sharing a couple ofreasons that we were on the
board and some of our background.
(22:12):
And then we were kind ofattentive to the mayor's
schedule and kind of trying tocooperate with that.
And so he kind of went aboveand beyond what I expected and
had someone come take us fromour meeting space into his
office and we were able to sitwith him in a conference kind of
conference situation in hisoffice and listen to him for
(22:35):
nearly an hour.
And what really spoke to me washe took the time to ask every
single person, literally all ofus who we were, where we were
from and why we were on theboard.
And it's interesting becausethat's exactly what I was doing
before we went down there or upthere.
And so it showed me that he'sin listening mode too and trying
(22:58):
to understand what's importantto our community right now.
We also had a chance to hearfrom him on, I mean, his five
plus decades in differentpolitical positions,
particularly as a state senator,and all of the different things
that he did to support ourcommunity, including the trans
community, to everybody and just.
(23:19):
But he was very specific oneach kind of each of it the
trans community and the gaycommunity and people who are in
our community who were impactedby AIDS and HIV and he just was
very supportive and just had andreally pushed a lot against the
grain when he didn't have to ina very conservative state, and
so I was really impressed withthat.
And looking at people's facesas he was sharing these things,
(23:42):
I think that a lot of peoplewere realizing a lot of history
from Mayor Whitmire that theymaybe weren't aware of or, if
they were, I'm sure it resonatesdifferently when someone shares
with you you know, face to face, like that but I think it left
us with the impression that hereally hopes and plans to have
an open door policy for ourboard, particularly through me
(24:04):
and the board going to me onthings that I can go back to the
mayor on or to his liaisons on,and so I think we all left
really motivated and excited.
Once we got done meeting withthe mayor, we had a chance to
take photos with him and to kindof get to know chief of staff
and just some of the other folksthat were in the room and make
sure that we were all familiarwith one another.
(24:25):
And we also talked about thingswe would like to accomplish and
kind of the visibility that wewant the board to have and so
some of the plans and thingsthat the mayor even some of them
he suggested is kind of gettingmore acquainted with our
council members, having somekind of open environment
settings where people can comein and talk to us and be there
(24:48):
with us and maybe some of somecouncil members, maybe at some
point the mayor, when we cankind of get that figured out and
scheduled.
And so he was very open to thosethings and actually suggested
kind of the open reception withcouncil members so that we can
make sure we're hearing andtalking to the council members
across the city, because thosewill also be a really important
piece of the puzzle as we try tostart getting initiatives
(25:10):
moving and accomplished andmaking sure that we're on the
same page as city council.
And so I think that's a reallygreat starting point and my plan
, kind of after that meetingconcluded, is I started
yesterday with sitting downone-on-one with each board
member, so I have another 20 orso to go, but I just got started
(25:31):
and through the next four tosix weeks my plan is to sit down
one-on-one, understand a lotabout who they are and honestly
develop what I would call closeenough to a friendship with each
of our board members so that wecan continue working together.
And my hope is from there westart structuring our committees
and kind of making surecommittees check into what the
community is wanting to see, andI think listening sessions will
(25:54):
help get us there, and sothat's.
Another plan too is to startlooking for places to do that,
whether it's the Montreux Center, whether it's somewhere else in
town I say the Montreux Centerbecause it's such a hub for
everything in our community butanywhere, I'm making sure that
we're spreading across the cityand listening to everybody.
Speaker 2 (26:12):
Yeah, thank you for outlining that vision, and that
actually answered my lastquestion, but it raised a
follow-up question.
Is that you know, in our regionwe have a lot of queer-serving
coalitions and boards, such asHarris County's LGBTQI Plus
Commission and Queens of Houston, and so you mentioned listening
sessions but wanting to hearmore, as we close off, about
(26:32):
ways for community members toget involved with y'all's work
and y'all's intentions to getinvolved with other regional
activities and coalitions.
Speaker 3 (26:42):
Yeah, and the commission is a great thing to
mention.
I'm familiar with severalpeople on that commission,
including Thomas Lopez, who I'veknown for a long time, and so
my hope is to start connectingwith them too.
I think a combined meeting atsome point where we can have
both boards together just totalk about some shared
(27:02):
initiatives and also, maybemoving into 2026, like plans to
come together and when there arecommunity summits and I know
that there's many NFPs startingto plan those, and the Mantra
Center has already started thatlast year is how can we be
present in those settingstogether and unified?
Because, even though the countyis broader than the city, when
(27:25):
we come together, I mean we'regoing to be representing
millions of people, and so Ithink there's just a lot of
power in that, and I do plan onseeing us collaborate
specifically with the commissionon several things and to answer
how the community can getinvolved, one of the things I'll
be doing soon and so, hopefully, if any of our leaders or our
board members or people who arevolunteers that participate in
(27:49):
any of the nonprofits thatbenefit the LGBTQ plus community
, I encourage you to reach outto me so that I know who you are
and where you are.
I'm already trying to do that onmy own, but one person can only
scope out so many things, andhopefully the board members too
will kind of help me kind ofbubble some of those up.
So I make sure we're seeing andtalking to everyone, but my plan
(28:12):
is to sit down with thosecommunity members whether it's
in a group setting or one at atime, I don't know but I want to
make sure that all of them havea seat at the table.
When it comes to being at ourtable for the city's board, for
the mayor's board, and so myplan from here is just to
continue being in listening mode, and I would encourage
literally anybody listening itreally doesn't matter if you're
(28:34):
a leader, anybody in thecommunity to reach out.
Go to the city's website, findthe board members on the website
, email us, call us, reach outand tell us what you're thinking
and how we can benefit and whatyou want to see from the board.
That that is what we're herefor, and so it's important to me
to hear from everybody honestly, allies included, and all of
(28:58):
the above and so kind of toclose out that the response to
that, I just would.
I would really ask thateverybody just know that we're
going to be out and about.
We are already looking at Ithink one of the first
committees everyone will be inagreement on is some type of
events committee where we canstart getting a community
calendar, if you will, uh for us, for the board, uh together, so
(29:21):
that we can start showing upfor things, uh, not just for the
organizations you seeeverywhere, for all of them,
because they're all doing greatthings.
I actually go to the TruthProject's open mic nights
occasionally and it's some ofthe most touching and powerful
testimonies and just talent thatI've ever seen, and so let's
(29:41):
say things like that thathappened throughout town that
not everybody may know about.
I would just love to continueknowing more about that and what
those events are and where theyare.
And one other thing, too, is assmall and kind of silly as it
sounds.
The first thing I said was weneed name tags so that when
we're out people say, oh, that'sone of the mayor's board
(30:02):
members.
Speaker 4 (30:03):
I have something to say and you just walk up and
talk.
Speaker 3 (30:04):
I mean, that's one of the mayor's board members, I
have something to say and, likeyou, just walk up and talk.
I mean that's what we're therefor and so I already mentioned I
would happily sponsor that.
I just want us to have nametags so people know who we are
and where we are, and so, as yousee us, stop us.
That was my ask of the boardand that is what we're here for.
We're in listening mode for thenext several months.
Speaker 2 (30:23):
Thank you for sharing this.
I've been speaking with ClayMelder, the brand new chair of
the Houston Mayor's LGBTQ PlusAdvisory Board in 2025.
Houston Business Journal 40Under 40.
Honoree Clay, thank you so muchfor joining us.
Thank you, davis, and we lookforward to the work ahead with
the former chair of the advisoryboard and president of one of
(30:43):
Texas's largest LGBTQ plusfundraising events, Bunnies on
the Bayou, Jacques Bourgeois,about his sudden dismissal at
the hands of Mayor Whitmireafter years of serving as chair
under the former Mayor Turner.
Thank you for listening toQueer Voices.
I'm Davis Mendoza-Druzman andtoday I'm speaking with Jacques
Bourgeois, a longtime HoustonLGBTQ plus advocate, former
(31:05):
chair of the mayor's LGBTQ plusadvisory board and president of
the Bunnies on the Bayou.
And president of Bunnies on theBayou, one of Texas's largest
LGBTQ plus fundraising events.
Recently, Jock has been at thecenter of a political shakeup
involving Houston mayor JohnWhitmire's administration and
the advisory board he once led.
Welcome to the show.
(31:26):
Jock hey, thanks for having me.
Absolutely, I don't want tostart this interview with the
end.
I want to start this interviewwith the beginning.
So tell me about the beginningof your journey with the Mayor's
LGBTQ Plus Advisory Board andsome accomplishments and some
things that you're proud of.
Speaker 7 (31:44):
Um, before we get into this end, um I would say so
the start with my start withthe board, uh, it kind of goes
back before the board existed.
Uh, kind of to go back.
It started with hero.
So, like 2014, dealing with, uh, mayor parker, uh and houston
equal rights ordinance uh,that's really where I kind of
got my start in just the realactivism in our city and being
(32:08):
involved in our local politics.
And from there was towards theend of her term, you know, just
being involved with Mae Parker.
We had the privilege of beinginvited to a.
I say we, a lot of the queerleadership within Houston that
was involved with the HoustonEqual Rights Ordinance.
(32:29):
You know, your friend Watson's,your Mark, your Monica Roberts,
your Brandon Max, etc.
We're all invited by thencandidate Mayor Turner when he
was initially running for office.
And I I share this little quipof everybody is in this dark
room we're all having our oneonon-ones with Mayor Turner as
(32:50):
candidate.
We're all having littleone-on-ones with everyone.
And he walked up to me and saidhi, I'm Sylvester Turner, I'm
running for mayor, and the firstwords out of my mouth were if
you don't continue with whatMayor Parker has been doing with
Hero or whatever, I'll runagainst you and I'll win, um, so
kind of set a tone with him andhe bust out laughing and we
(33:13):
became fast friends then becausehe was like, if I don't do a
good job, you're gonna runagainst me, uh, which I know I
didn't really have the cloudcloud, but it's a really funny
story and we started afriendship from there or
professional relationship fromthen on, just kind of like he
would see me either at my officeor he would see me out and
(33:34):
about in community doing thingsand he's like, oh, there's that
guy who's going to run againstme.
But I had the opportunitywhenever the advisory board was
commissioned in 2016, post thePulse massacre that happened in
Orlando and Mayor Turner'sresponse to that massacre was to
create an advisory board of 49people, which is a lot of people
(33:57):
.
But I was not on the initialboard.
It was initially chaired by, Ibelieve, harrison Guy and
Melanie Pang Also my co-brandmarshal, melanie Pang, shout out
.
It was initially led by themand I was inducted into the
board in 2018 as a member andI've served ever since.
(34:21):
In November 2023, our chair,jeremy Edwards.
He stepped down to be a part ofthe county's board commission
and I was his co-chair for sotechnically, I've been the chair
for a minute, but I was hisco-chair and the bag was left in
my table.
November 2023 going into youknow a very into the election
(34:45):
year into, you know, a very intothe election year.
So we had now Mayor Whitmireand then Congresswoman Sheila
Jackson Lee in the runoff.
So we kind of we as a boardbeing neutral just kind of
stepped back and let everythinglie where it did, land where it
did and we gave then MayorWhitmire, once he did win the
election, some time.
You know you're coming on board, you're getting your stuff
(35:07):
together.
You know there's a lot to do.
We gave them some time to gettheir stuff together, which also
gave me some time to get ourstuff together Because, as you
mentioned before, I also runbuddies on the Bayou.
So there's a lot of structure.
I require a lot of structure inthings, so you can't juggle a
(35:28):
bunch of stuff if there's nostructure in something.
So there was a lot ofrestructuring of our advisory
board to have some dedicatedchairs, dedicated leaders within
it and we did a significantslim down.
Granted, at this point, comingout of COVID, or out of COVID,
we were no longer 49 people, wewere maybe 19 at this point.
(35:53):
So it's much, much, muchsmaller and our goal was really
to become a chamber of resource,very much mirroring what our
Chamber of Commerce, our LGBTQIChamber of Commerce does, but
providing resources forcommunity and that's kind of
where we've landed.
But part of that challenge withthat was getting in touch with
(36:18):
Mayor Whitmire.
We've made several requests andjust kind of fell on dead ears.
We would get advisors, but youknow, it's not exactly the same.
We had very robust relationshipwith Mayor Turner Even, you
know, going back from MayorTurner, you know Mayor Parker
was very involved with community, even though there wasn't an
(36:39):
advisory board at the time.
You know, I kind of think oflike the task force that was for
Hero was kind of a lot of thesame.
But you know you kind of losethat one on one interaction.
But also you and now I'mrambling you kind of lose that
one on one interaction.
But also there's a brand newadministration and office that's
(37:02):
making pretty significantchanges within the city.
So we want to make sure we're.
Our big thing was making surewhat we were planning as a board
was in line with what it isthat Mayor Whitmire would like
to do and what his prioritiesare.
So we're not going completelyleft and he wants to go right
(37:23):
and then everybody's in a tightand inside of an entire cluster,
so to say.
But we, like I said, we madeseveral requests to meet with
mayor.
We kind of did not hear fromhim and fast forward to November
and January with the newfederal administration federal
administration, you know, a lotof communities lost steam with a
(37:46):
lot of what to do, and we kindof reached back out and kind of
said, hey, we can strategizetogether.
And we still kind of didn'thear anything until June, which
now we're, now we're current.
We didn't really hear anythinguntil June when, I guess, mayor
Whitmire and his team posted apride post and a few people
(38:10):
online said something along thelines of what happened to your
advisory board.
And that's when Channel 13reached out to us and I kind of
gave them like, hey, we're justtrying to get his attention,
we're still here, we meetbi-monthly and if we're not
meeting bi-monthly, we are in agroup chat always.
I have some great people onthis board who are super
(38:34):
enthusiastic about, you know,getting inside of the jails and
making sure the surveys that wedo send out to community are
just making sure we're gettingservices down to people or at
least answering people incommunity and reminding them
that we're here, so to say.
But I did an interview withChannel 13, because if you can't
(38:58):
get information from within thegovernment, you go to the
fourth estate journalist.
Hey, you go to the fourthestate, kind of put some
pressure and say, hey, we'retrying to meet with you, we'd
love to meet with you, we wantto strategize with you, yeah,
yeah, yeah.
And after that interview we hada conversation maybe two weeks
later with the board andcommission's director where they
(39:20):
informed us that, hey, we wouldlike to move a different
direction.
We're thinking of a boardrefresh, which I was super OK
with.
You know, you kind of speak upand you kind of expect like, hey
, maybe we need to move anotherway and we I want to keep that
(39:49):
clear we work, we serve at theleisure of the administration.
We're an advisory board, youknow.
But we, oh we were informedthat they were looking to do a
refresh of the entire board,refresh of the board.
And I was like okay.
And I asked what doestransition look like?
And does is the current boardallowed to, you know, reapply?
And we were told you canreapply, et cetera.
And but my big thing was whatdoes transition look like?
And then I was informed thatwe'd be in touch and maybe a
(40:14):
week or so, maybe a week or two,we'll touch back with another
meeting.
And I was like, okay, that'sfine, you know.
And I sent out an email to therest of the board members
informing them that, hey, theywant to transition, go ahead and
apply here online, et cetera.
And then, maybe a week later,everybody basically received a
(40:36):
termination letter from the city, which I wasn't really
expecting it to be so cut anddry of.
Just okay, now you're out.
There was discussion of atransition and that's what I
conveyed to the rest of theboard, but it really just felt
abrupt and a little retaliatory.
Not a little, it felt veryretaliatory, which was fine if
(40:58):
it was just me as the chair, butthere's a lot of people on the
board who were doing fantasticwork and just really weren't
ready for that.
But it is what it is and I havenothing but like great
enthusiasm for this next boardbecause I really feel like the
energy for the board, there'svisibility for the board now,
(41:19):
and that was always one of ourprimary functions was to make
sure there's visibility for thisboard, was to make sure there's
visibility for this board, makesure that there's
accountability on behalf of theadministration, to make sure
this board and commissioncontinues.
Because a lot of the questionsthat we did have, without being
able to actually meet with mayorand meet with the new
(41:40):
administration, was do they wantthis to continue?
And I'm really hopeful andreally happy for the new board
because I feel like they areleft with the visibility of a
new board and the accountabilityon behalf of the administration
, because there's a weirdness inour community of, hey, you've
(42:01):
got to make sure this is doneright, because you kind of
fumbled the bag a little bit andI don't have any animosity or
whatever.
Um, I know you.
You said before we started thisinterview just like oh, and I'm
like it's, it's not that deep.
I promise it is.
This is a board commission.
It is all right.
Like everybody, I'm fine.
I am remarkably busy.
(42:23):
All the time I am booked andbusy, I I'm 100% fine.
But that's pretty much thestory right there.
I've rambled for like fiveminutes.
Speaker 2 (42:35):
So you said in an interview that you reached out
to the mayor five or six timesover 18 months without success.
Is that correct?
That's correct.
Can you walk us through whatthose requests look like?
Was it through like email orphone call?
And what responses you got back?
Was it like through scouts oryeah, walk us through through
that process of reaching out tothe mayor.
Speaker 7 (42:54):
So it's a mixture of a few the.
The initial reach out isthrough these.
There is a portal in the city'swebsite to actually make a
request to meet with mayor andthat is across the board.
Any and everybody can make thatrequest.
It's kind of the publicmeetings type of thing and I
(43:15):
believe it goes through likeMoe's or something like that.
We made our initial requestthrough there and got nothing
back.
Fast forward to about May oflast year of 2024, I think
somebody gave me a contact withthe new board and commission's
(43:37):
chair, scott Odegaard, and I wasable to.
I was actually meeting with orI was speaking in front of
council in regards to the twopride situation that we had
going on and just because mayorand council member Castillo had
made a comment about why do wehave two prides and I went in
(43:59):
front of council to reallyreiterate there's really not a
reason for us to have two pridesand it actually creates a
safety hazard because there's alot of coordination that happens
for these large events and ourprimary goal as a board and
commission, the primary reasonwe were created was to make sure
(44:22):
nothing like Pulse ever happensagain and that raised the flag
to our entire board of this is ahigh, high, high risk.
We need to actually talk to cityand to council and see if they
can influence us to like it'snot a problem to have two prides
or whatever, but back to back aweek after each other, it's a
(44:44):
lot and it creates a higher risk.
A week after each other, it's alot and it creates a higher
risk.
And, ironically, the very nextday a whole FBI report came out
about it being higher risk.
Am I rambling again?
Because I'm rambling again?
Speaker 2 (44:56):
This is good, but I also this is a good like segue I
think into like anotherquestion that I had as you were
speaking earlier.
So the mayor's office has saidthat the board, the mayor's
office, had said that the board,the mayor's office, had said
that your board had beeninactive and that most members
terms expired back in 2020.
But, from your perspective as achair up until this year, how
(45:18):
active was the board during thattime?
Speaker 7 (45:20):
We've been active pretty much this entire time.
We would meet, like I said,we'd meet bimonthly officially
and then our executive teamwould usually meet monthly, so
fairly active.
The answer to that is were weable to really accomplish or do
(45:40):
anything?
The answer is not really no,because we didn't have input
from mayor and part of what wewere told, whenever we actually
did get a conversation withScout, was we are to function as
again a full circle back to.
I require structure to runmultiple things.
(46:02):
We were informed that we arerequired to run the board
ourselves as a as pretty much asprivate citizens.
So there's really no citysupport.
There's work.
So we're not a governmentalentity as an advisory board.
We are not a nonprofit as anadvisory board, so that if you
(46:24):
understand anything, anything ofthe nonprofit world, there's a
lot of coordination stuff.
Google workspace is veryexpensive.
If you're not a non-profit, youcan't get it free and you kind
of work through the grace ofother non-profits and
fortunately I was able to do alot of stuff through bunnies on
the bayou just because I'm thechief officer and my board had
(46:46):
approved like well, we can helpout the board commission, just
because I'm the chief officerand my board had approved like
well, we can help out the boardcommission just a little bit
here.
But once it started to get tooexpensive, it's like we got to
cut it off and that's part ofthe problem is there was really
no structure from the city.
How do we actually functionfinancially?
Are we a business, Are we not?
There's a lot of question.
If we go away, where is wheredoes how do we fundraise?
(47:08):
You know there was a lot ofquestions that we were not able
to get answered.
So, and whenever you'recompletely volunteer run board
it's, it's hard to corral thecats when there's no direction
from you know up top.
Do I still want y'all to exist?
Did that make sense?
I'm sorry.
Speaker 2 (47:27):
No, yeah, no, that is helpful, and I also wanted to
touch on something else that youhad mentioned earlier, but the
red line is pulling in, so Imight need to hold off or I
might need to repeat myself.
So, as you mentioned, theadvisory board was formed in
response to a tragedy Pulse in2016.
And it's meant to be a channelbetween the mayor's office and
(47:49):
the LGBTQ plus community.
What message do you think themayor is sending by dissolving
the current board without anydialogue?
How does that speak to themission?
Do you think?
Speaker 7 (48:00):
Well, I kind of think the overall message isn't
anything towards like notwanting to have a board and
commission.
I think the overall messageabout that was uh, and we kind
of got that with like the tiresof, I'll just kind of do
whatever I want whenever I want.
That's kind of terrible to say,um, but it it kind of eroded
(48:25):
the trust of community thatwe've had with our elected
officials, or our highestelected officials in this city,
because it made people askquestions of well, do you want
to have this?
Which shouldn't have been aquestion any of us have had to
ask is do you want to have this?
It should be a given becausemayor, support of community
(48:49):
dates back to 2003, you know,with um lauren to be ferguson,
lauren to be ferguson with thetexas autonomy laws when he was,
in words, the texas legislature.
So it's they were.
I think it brought into questionjust his, his track record.
Um, for most part of you shouldwant to champion this more.
Why aren't you?
And the excuse that we kind ofgot with that was there's 170
(49:15):
some odd boards of commissions.
We don't have time for all ofthat, but fast forward to two
months ago.
They suddenly had time tointerview 50, 60 odd people um
and replace the board for us umin place of us or whatever,
without our input as a as thecurrent standing board, you know
(49:35):
.
So zero transition.
It just said I don't care whatyou want, this is what we're
gonna do and that makes me soundlike a terrible person but like
still within his right to do.
But it kind of went like baby,that's not the move.
Speaker 2 (49:54):
As a follow up.
What do you think is the move?
What would you feel is theright way to bring in these new
voices?
Sure, but without losing thatcontinuity.
Without losing that continuity.
Speaker 7 (50:05):
I think what I brought up to the director in
the first place was the questionI immediately asked was what
does transition look like?
Because it's not about we needto sit here and be the ones to
be the champion.
That's never the case.
We plant seeds as leaders.
We plant seeds and we walk awayand let something grow Like.
(50:29):
That's something you that's thecore of me.
I'm going to say that I'm verymuch.
The core of me is I'm going toplant a seed and walk away.
I don't need to be the end allbe all champion for that.
My ego is not there, but atleast the transition of we've
been working on a lot of stuff.
There's, uh, a lot ofhistorical stuff.
(50:49):
You know that we've beenworking on since 2016.
You know that just needs tohave that constant flow and it
just felt very abrupt to just goboom, gone, or we don't care
about it, we'll start fresh.
And that's that's adisadvantage to the new board,
honestly, because you're makingthem start off without any like
(51:09):
prior information or priorstructure.
That could be slightlybeneficial or slightly helpful
or whatever it could be or itcouldn't be whatever.
But, like, part of thattransition is closure for, you
know, the current board.
Speaker 2 (51:24):
Yeah, Thank you for that.
A couple of questions left.
Next week I have an interviewwith the new chair of the
mayor's LGBTQ advisory committee, and you mentioned that the
mayor's move may have erodedpublic trust in the LGBTQ
community due to thisadministration's abrupt
proceedings.
So how can the mayor and hisadministration in your eyes earn
(51:47):
back that trust?
Speaker 7 (51:51):
Just by doing right by community, doing right by
this board.
You know the new board that'scoming online.
You know being accountable tothem and actually meeting with
them, that'd be fantastic.
And, like I said before, I havenothing but the highest hopes
for this new board and I'mexcited that part of what our
(52:15):
board, going out on the notethat we kind of went out on,
gave them a lot of, has giventhem a lot of visibility and a
lot of, I would say, a littlebit of leverage with mayor.
That wasn't there before.
You know, for our on behalf ofour community, because at the
end of the day, it's aboutmaking sure our community has
the resources and has therepresentation that matter.
(52:35):
That is what really, reallymatters.
You know, as any random dragqueen would say at my drag, it's
not about me.
Speaker 2 (52:43):
Well, thank you for that.
A couple final questions.
Thank you for that.
A couple final questions, yeah,so a couple final questions.
What is next for you?
What are next steps for you inyour life and in your journey in
terms of advocacy and work withthe lgbtq community?
Speaker 7 (52:58):
we'd love to learn, we'd love to know more my
journey moving forward is well,it's always going to be bunnies
involved, that's for sure.
Um lord, come join us.
But overall, like my journey,community is always going to
continue.
Um, I love the houston lgbtqiacommunity.
It is, uh, my core.
I've been active in communitysince 2009, um back whenever
(53:22):
some friends and I startedhouston gamers, way back when.
Um, like, I'm always going tobe involved, I'm always going to
be an advocate, I'm alwaysgoing to be a champion and, you
know, especially with this newboard coming online, I'm always
going to be behind them.
If they ever need anything orwhatever, like, I'm here by all
means.
I'm always an avid supporter ofour community.
(53:46):
You know, liga bigaiga first.
Um lgbtqa plus people first.
I didn't mean to say ligabigotiga.
It's such a stupid acronym.
I love it I love that.
Speaker 2 (53:58):
and finally, what's your message to houston's lgbtqa
plus community about stayingengaged, especially when it
comes to holding leadershipaccountable and making sure our
voices are heard?
Speaker 7 (54:09):
My message to them about get involved, get involved
, get engaged at every and anylevel, because we need it,
especially now, under ourcurrent administration regime,
or whatever you want to call it.
Even within our legislate, ourlocal legislator, we need as
(54:29):
many new leaders as new leaders,old leaders, et cetera, because
the burnout's real.
I will tell you that about alot of our community leaders,
the burnout is very, very realand we need as many people as
possible who are passionate.
A leader looks like what youwant yourself to look like.
You don't have to be degreed tothe tens and nines or whatever.
(54:54):
You just have to care and bepassionate, that's it.
Speaker 2 (54:57):
Thank you so much for that.
I've been speaking with JacquesBourgeois, a longtime Houston
LGBTQ plus advocate, formerchair of the mayor's LGBTQ plus
Advisory Board and president ofBunnies on the Bayou, one of
Texas' largest LGBTQ Plusfundraising events.
Jacques Bourgeois, thank you somuch.
Speaker 1 (55:13):
Thank you.
This has been Queer Voices,heard on KPFT Houston and as a
podcast available from severalpodcasting sources.
Check our webpagequeervoicesorg.
For more information.
Queer Voices executive produceris Brian Levinka.
Deborah Moncrief-Bell isco-producer Brett Cullum Davis
(55:37):
Mendoza-Druzman Ethan MichelleGans.
Mel Peterson and Joel Tatum arecontributors.
The News Wrap segment is partof another podcast called this
Way Out, which is produced inLos Angeles.
Speaker 6 (55:51):
Some of the material in this program has been edited
to improve clarity and runtime.
This program does not endorseany political views or animal
species.
Views, opinions andendorsements are those of the
participants and theorganizations they represent.
In case of death, pleasediscontinue use and discard
remaining products.
Speaker 1 (56:04):
For Queer Voices.
I'm Glenn Holt.
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