It's a packed episode this week! Brett Cullum talks with the ORIGINAL QUEER VOICE, Mr. Jack Valinski! It's all about the crosswalk controversy in Montrose, and we give you a little more insight than the mainstream media. Then Deborah Moncrief Bell talks with Sumya Paruchuri about SEAT, an organization that advocates for queer students. Historian and author R. Lee Ingalls and Brett Cullum talk about the origins of several queer terms for our history month. And Davis Medoza Darusman waxes nostalgic about the LEVITATION music festival.
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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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_02 (00:07):
Part of our Queer Voices community listens on
KPFT, which is a non-profitcommunity radio station.
And as such, KPFT does notendorse or hold any standing on
matters of politics.
If you would like equal airtimeto represent an alternative
point of view, please contact usthrough KPFT.org or our own
(00:30):
website at queervoices.org.
This is Queer Voices.
SPEAKER_04 (00:38):
Hello everybody, and thank you for listening to Queer
Voices, KPFT 90.1 FM in Houston,89.5 FM in Galveston, 91.9 FM in
Huntsville, or wherever you getyour podcasts.
I'm Davis Mendoza DeRuzman, EhemPronouns, excited to bring you
today's episode.
Starting with the hot buttonissue in Houston's and Texas's
(01:02):
LGBTQ community, Governor GregAbbott's call for the removal of
our beloved Rainbow Crosswalks,threatening to pull funding for
noncompliance.
To speak on that matter, we havecontributor Brett Cullen
speaking with the president ofthe neartown Montrose Super
Neighborhood, Jack Balinski.
(01:22):
Then we have producer DeborahMoncrief Bell speaking with
Sumia Paracuti, the director ofdevelopment for Seats, where
students engaged in advancingtaxes.
Later, we bring back contributorBrett Cullen for his
conversation with his husband,Author R.
Lee Ingalls, about the historyof the word gay.
Lastly, we close out our episodewith my review of the very
(01:45):
queer-affirming and inclusivemusic festival in Austin last
month, Levitation Festival.
We have a galvanizing,inspiring, and enlightening
episode for you today.
So let's kick it off with BrettCullum's interview with
presidents of the NeartownMontrose Super Neighborhood,
who's also a founding member ofHouston Pride, and none other
(02:06):
than our show, Queer Voices,Jack Valinsky.
SPEAKER_07 (02:12):
On Wednesday, October 8th, Texas Governor Greg
Abbott ordered the removal ofHouston and any Texas City's
rainbow-painted crosswalks.
He called them distracting andin violation of federal roadway
standards.
If not removed, cities couldface funding.
And the mandate has followed aletter from U.S.
(02:32):
Transportation Secretary SeanDuffy, which urged all states to
comply with the Safe RoadsInitiative.
Now he wrote this back in July.
It was a federal guidelinerequesting road markings remain
free of political messaging orvisual distractions.
Now, similar actions have beentaken in Florida.
Thank you, Ron DeSantis.
The Rainbow Crosswalks inMontrose at West Timer and Taft,
(02:55):
they were painted in 2017 tohonor the neighborhood's LGBTQIA
plus history.
These crosswalks were among thefirst targeted for removal.
And the project was alsointended as a memorial for Alex
Hill, a gay 21-year-old man whowas killed in a hit-and-run
crash in January of 2016.
Now, Houston, San Antonio, andAustin all have rainbow
(03:18):
crosswalks.
And from what I gather, all ofthem are saying that they will
remove them.
Mayor, Whitmeyer, and Metro haveagreed to paint over ours here
in Houston.
So with me today is activist andcommunity icon Jack Velensky.
He's one of Houston's originalqueer voices as a host of the
show back in the day.
And it's an honor to have himhere today to discuss this issue
(03:40):
and its significance.
So welcome, Jack.
SPEAKER_05 (03:43):
Thank you.
I do understand that San Antoniohas not given in yet.
SPEAKER_07 (03:47):
Well, that's good to know.
I know that Austin wouldsurprise me that they
capitulated so quickly, as didHouston.
So, and disappointing to say theleast, but we'll keep an eye on
what develops with that.
Now, I was just telling you, youhave been in every person's news
Rolodex.
I think I saw you on almostevery major network, quoted in
the chronicle over this one.
(04:07):
How did you find out about thismandate coming down?
When did you hear about it?
SPEAKER_05 (04:12):
So I lived just a few blocks away.
Actually, that morning, I was upearly walking at 5 30.
As I'm walking around that area,I see this TV parked there.
Now, in the old days, it had tobe a big truck, but now the
thing, the equipment is muchmore compact.
But I, you know, wasn't tryingto startle anybody, but I
noticed they were sitting therewith the car with the car on,
(04:34):
and I waved to them and theywere from Channel 26.
So I did an interview there.
Then at a little bit later, Igot a call from Javon Tyler, and
I was communicating with AniseParker, and he says, Anise is
headed down there right now.
So we went down there and ithappened at the Chronicles.
There, they probably alreadyknew the Chronicle was there.
(04:56):
And then I got a call fromchannel two, and we made, we
said we'd be there at 1:30.
Well, it also happened thatchannel 11 was there.
So it was just this coincidencethat I was around and available
to do it.
I'm retired now.
I'm also president of the neartown Montrose Super
Neighborhood.
(05:17):
I've I'm a veteran of doingPride when it was in Montrose
for like 25 years.
So I have a little bit ofhistory.
SPEAKER_07 (05:25):
Just a little.
Yeah.
You got a lot of history, Jack.
SPEAKER_05 (05:28):
Well, and I remember when I was doing Pre Voices, we
interviewed Matt Broiler, whowas starting this project up
because somebody got killed onthat corner.
And he was working to get thatdone, and he was successful in
getting the original paintingthere.
And I didn't realize it was thefirst in the state.
SPEAKER_07 (05:47):
Now you mentioned Super Neighborhood 24, right?
That's the near town inMontreus.
Tell me a little bit about thatorganization because you are
currently the president of it.
SPEAKER_05 (05:55):
And yes.
So, you know, I workedprofessionally in radio as a
technician for a number of yearsand I loved it.
And unfortunately, radio sort ofis not what it used to be.
And there's very few stationsaround that actually do local
news.
But when that sort of fizzled, Istarted working for the city.
It just so happened as at leastbecame mayor, there was a bunch
(06:16):
of budget cuts.
So I was trying to figure thebest way to make myself very
valuable.
And I saw this whole program ofsuper neighborhoods.
And so what super neighborhoodis, is because Houston is so big
that Mayor Lee Brown says it'simpossible to deal with all the
civic clubs because we don'teven know of all of them,
(06:37):
because I tried for a couple ofyears to database them, but he
set the city up into 88 uniquesuper neighborhoods.
And Montrose is one of them.
Midtown is one, WashingtonAvenue is one, the Heights is
one.
Part of my job was to go tothese meetings representing the
city and understanding what theconcerns are.
(06:57):
Because as much as we think thatHouston is this unicorn of a
city, it's very different.
Different parts are verydifferent.
And I learned more about thecity doing that.
And I was responsible for goingto the near town Montrose
meeting.
And then I retired about a yearand a half ago.
The president who was there andthe vice president there for
(07:17):
about 10 years, they were sortof tired of doing it all.
And a lot of the programs thatthey were working on were
dissolved by this mayor.
So they were looking for asucker.
And my name came up, and Iwasn't even at that meeting.
And it's interesting because Ihad a sit-down meeting with
Denise about three weeks ago.
(07:38):
I'm a little bit older than her,and she says one of the reasons
she's running for county judgeis she just doesn't want to sit
at home.
And I'm sort of the same thing.
I'm a total introvert.
That's why I love radio, butstill I want to do stuff.
And this sort of forces me to goto places.
And it's actually been aninteresting challenge because
(07:59):
we're building up things like wehave the nonprofit reinstated,
and we're doing a number anothera number of things, and part of
it is fighting the mayor.
SPEAKER_07 (08:08):
Well, you met right after this happened.
So was anything decided to bedone?
Is there anything that you areproposing?
SPEAKER_05 (08:15):
Well, even before that, on Tuesday, uh the night
before, I was thinking aboutstuff, and I remember reading
that in Florida, where thishappened much wider spread and
they had such incredible uhcrosswalks, like with bricks and
(08:36):
stuff, that one of thebusinesses decided to paint
their parking lot.
I thought that was really,really a great idea.
So I messaged a few differentbusinesses and nobody's
committed yet, but there'sinterest.
There's definitely interest.
The other thing, I'm sort of aslow thinker now that I'm
getting older.
I remembered that the PrideCommittee, when I was part of
(08:58):
Pride, we established a LowerWestheimer banner district.
We used to put banners up everyyear before Pride, and they kept
up there for a few months.
I honestly don't know whetherit's defunct yet, uh, because
they haven't used it a number ofyears.
But I got the go-ahead from thesuper neighborhood to explore us
(09:20):
obtaining that district.
So, what we would love to do, ofcourse, we're gonna have to
raise money, is if if we get itand we get funded, we will put
banners up there, rainbowbanners or something
commemorating the community,either the GL LGBT community or
the community of Montrose neartown as much as we can.
SPEAKER_07 (09:44):
I would sponsor a banner in a heartbeat.
I mean, that would be somethingthat I think would be great.
I would love to do that.
So definitely keep us posted onthat because that's something
that, you know, I always wonderwhat you can do.
I mean, as a as a resident ofMontrose, as a resident of
Houston, what can you even do torespond to all of this?
It's just crazy.
SPEAKER_05 (10:02):
Let's put this in perspective.
People are losing their healthcare, especially our our
community.
I'm HIV positive.
I've been lucky to haveinsurance and now Medicare that
you cannot afford if you don'thave insurance, that medication.
And there's so many otherproblems going on.
Our streets are falling apart,the city doesn't have enough
(10:24):
money to run the city everyyear.
They sort of figure what can becut, what can we cut.
And there are so many otherproblems in the city.
And why would we focus on this?
And I think there's a number ofreasons.
And first of all, I have thetime to do it.
But it is sort of a symbol.
First of all, it was acommemoration for somebody who
(10:45):
passed away.
Second of all, I walk a lot andI know how bad traffic is and
how poor enforcement is.
I walk to the downtown wine manydays and trying to cross those
streets like Louisiana and Smithand Travis is difficult early in
the morning, but if you try tocross it midday or afternoon,
it's almost impossible.
(11:06):
So it's part of a safetyprogram.
The real thing that it means toa lot of us, it's us.
It's us.
We recently dedicated thatlittle park on Whitney and
Westheimer, the AvondalePromenade Park.
And I remember when we weretalking about it, a council
member Ellen Cohen at the timegot a grant from the state about
(11:30):
a million dollars to build thatlittle park.
But before they built that park,they met with the super
neighborhood to say, What do youwant in this park?
Within reason, of course.
You know, you can't put a bigstage in there, but do you want
a dog park?
Do you want a playground?
Whatever.
And all that was discussed.
And some of our communitiessaid, we would love to have some
(11:51):
placards there to commemoratewho we are and what we are, and
that was done.
And it was done in an openpublic local meeting.
And I used to be very proudworking for the city, and
believe me, the city has manyproblems, that we had a lot of
open meetings when we discussedthings.
You know, it was discussed formany years that we hoped that
(12:12):
Westheimer would be redone.
It's only being paved right now,which is only going to last a
couple years.
It was also sort of this thing,well, when Metro paved over the
Rainbow Crossing, it was theywere not planning to redo it.
But our council member AbbyCayman pushed the mayor, the
mayor said yes, and then Metrodid it.
(12:35):
With that, bought somepublicity.
Unfortunately, that's probablyone of the triggering things
with this governor.
SPEAKER_07 (12:41):
It feels like I was talking to somebody a couple of
weeks ago, it feels like theyare trying to erase our
community.
And this feels like a literalexpression of that.
It just shocks me how quicklythe governor issued this and and
and Whitmeyer just said, okay,and Metro just agreed to do it.
And really, when you think aboutit, and and the major mainstream
(13:03):
media did not seem to pick up onthe memorial aspect of it at
all.
They were really talking aboutit just being a pride thing.
But the fact that it was forAlex Hill really kind of makes
it even worse that they're gonnatake it out.
SPEAKER_05 (13:16):
You're absolutely right.
We're being attacked by so manyways.
I mean, they went after publicradio and television.
And in fact, in centralPennsylvania, Penn State's been
running a station there for 16years.
They're gonna just shut it downbecause they don't have the
money to, you know, keep itgoing without the federal money.
And, you know, our books arebeing removed from libraries,
(13:37):
our clubs are being removed fromhigh schools, you know.
So we are we're being attackedin so many ways, and we got to
step up as much as we can whenwe can.
And I'm actually sort of madthat a lot of our community
thinks, oh, nothing, you know,we're fine, we're fine.
And, you know, we're the largestcity that does not have a
(13:59):
non-discrimination bill.
And we failed at that multipletimes.
And I was part of some of that,and I will say, I will admit, we
didn't do as enough as what weshould have done.
But I also do believe thatmarriage equality could easily
be erased in the this year, itcould be.
Yes, I'm alarmist because Ithink we have a track record of
(14:22):
things happening to us.
SPEAKER_07 (14:24):
Well, I think that that's absolutely on the table.
It's on the GOP's politicalplatform.
I mean, they actually expresslysaid they want to get rid of gay
marriage.
It's their documents.
So it is on the docket, it is onthe menu.
There is no way anybody canconvince me that it's not.
SPEAKER_05 (14:42):
There's a bit of history just around the corner
where KPFT used to be on LovettBoulevard.
Ray Hill back in the 80s waswalking down the street and a
cop was about to beat somebodyup, and Ray yelled at the cop,
uh, the cop with some explicitthings, and that case went all
the way to the Supreme Court andRay won the case as being a
(15:04):
troublemaker.
And of course, the history ofHarris County is that Lawrence
v.
Texas started in Harris County.
You know, what we used to think,what many people used to think
of Houston in the terms of ourcommunity, where we were a
flyover city.
But we have done some goodstuff.
We elected the first gay mayorin a large city in the country.
(15:26):
So we need to keep what we gotin any way that we can.
SPEAKER_07 (15:31):
Well, you know, I'm so glad that you said that
because I was thinking, youknow, now we have a governor who
feels bold enough to requirethat the Christian Ten
Commandments be posted in everyclassroom, but our streets can't
reflect any aspect of ourcommunity at all.
And I find myself asking myself,what makes me stay here?
Why aren't we all just runningfor the hills of California or
(15:53):
New York or something where itjust feels a little bit more
accepting?
SPEAKER_05 (15:57):
Well, I mean and I'm using that example because not
just in our community, butyounger people who have the
opportunity, not all of us do.
And I mean, it happened to mein '81.
I moved to Houston because of agreat job in radio.
But younger people who have achoice to live in a city like
Houston or Portland or Chicagoor whatever, why would they come
(16:19):
to Houston when our bike lanesare being erased?
When walkability is such achallenge in the city.
And not everything can be fixedovernight, but things are
disappearing of what we alreadyhad, like the bike lane in on
Austin Street in Midtown.
So, and younger people, eventhough I'm old, I sort of
understand they like walking.
(16:40):
They like going to a bar andwalking home without having to
drive.
They they want this, even thoughwe know sometimes it's a
challenge to live to walk inHouston.
But it goes on to our communitytoo.
A lot of some GLBT people alsohave a choice of where to live
and why would they want to livein Houston?
And as I was retiring a year anda half ago, I was figuring out
(17:04):
should I stay in Houston?
And I think my answer was all myfriends live here and all my
enemies live here.
So I'm here, you know, and and II know this community.
And, you know, part of thecommunity is having these things
like museums, places to go, andand walkability and parks.
And, you know, we've done atremendous job in our parks in
(17:27):
this city under Mayor, whatMayor, Mayor Parker.
But we as a community need tokeep this.
And Montrose being the historicneighborhood, which is now uh
all over the country, theseneighborhoods are diluting
because of gentrification.
And not all gentrification isbad because buildings fall
(17:48):
apart, you've got to put newones up there.
But in Houston, like many othercities, people felt they didn't
have to live in the neighborhoodbecause they can have that
freedom other places in the cityor the metro area.
A lot of us, some of us havegotten married, have kids, are
part of the PTOs or their cityclubs and involved in other
(18:09):
things because we some peoplethink we won.
This is a city that was such agood old boy city that before
that Lawrence v.
Texas was over was overthrown,uh sodomy law by the Supreme
Court, not too far from that wason the city's application to
become a police officer.
(18:30):
Have you broken the law?
If you didn't check that and youwere gay, you could be fired
because you probably did breakthat law.
And if you did check it, youwere automatically disqualified.
We made this tremendous historysince Stonewall.
But I think some of us thinkwe're there, but we're not.
(18:52):
We're just as easily as anyother marginal community, it's
going backwards.
SPEAKER_07 (18:58):
It's absolutely going backwards.
And this whole crosswalk thing,it does, like you said, it seems
like a small consider that'sgoing on, but it is a very
literal erasing and kind of whatis happening on a larger scale.
It's definitely a microcosm foreverything and one of the calls
to action for the community.
So I appreciate you being outthere.
I appreciate you talking toeverybody.
(19:19):
I appreciate you working everyangle of this.
Please continue to work on thosebanners, work on parking lots
that maybe become rainbowcolored.
I would love to see that.
I don't want to lose this partof Montrose.
It felt so great driving throughthat intersection and seeing
that and remembering that it'sthere because we are the
original Gaborhood and also thememory of Alex Hill as well.
(19:41):
A memorial for him as that.
So I appreciate it.
I appreciate all you do, Jack.
You've done so much in yourlifetime.
Thank you.
It is just amazing.
So we will have you back, I'msure.
SPEAKER_05 (19:52):
Okay.
Well, thank you very much.
SPEAKER_04 (19:56):
Thank you, Brett and Jack.
Now let's turn it over toproducer Deborah Moncree Bell
for her interview with theDirector of Development for
SEET, or students engaged inadvancing Texas, Sumya
Paratutti.
SPEAKER_03 (20:12):
Today on Queer Voices, we're talking with Sumia
Pachuri, who is the developmentdirector of SEET.
SEET is the organization thathas taken on school districts
around the state to deal withthe issues that are harmful to
many students.
And the exact acronym isStudents Engaged in Advancing
(20:37):
Texas.
So, Sonia, tell me exactly whatCET is, how it got started, and
what you've been up to.
SPEAKER_00 (20:47):
So CET is a movement of youth, particularly high
school and college-age students,that work on empowering each
other and fostering policymakingskills and advocacy skills
amongst youth.
We think that there's a lot ofpolicies that are being passed
that primarily affect students,but we often don't have a say in
what happens because we aren'tafforded the same opportunities,
(21:08):
such as being able to vote,being able to be members of
Congress or school boards.
So what CET does is we providethe resources and connections
and support to students to beable to go advocate for
themselves, whether that's atthe local, state, or federal
level, we provide the support toallow them to do this.
CET first started back in 2022when our executive director,
(21:30):
Cameron Samuels, saw a problemin their local school district,
KDISD, where there wasincreasing censorship and book
bans of particularly queerissues, including things like
bans on the Trevor Project'swebsite.
And a lot of books were beingremoved from the libraries just
for mentioning things likequeerness, gender fluidity, uh
(21:50):
sexuality, things like that.
So they rallied a group ofstudents to go speak at the KDIC
board meeting, and that's whereSeat got its roots and was
started from.
So after that, they realizedthat they had a real movement of
people and they wanted to put aname to it.
And that's where the name Seatcame from.
And ever since then, we've justbeen moving forward and we
(22:13):
continue to just growexponentially from then, which
has been really cool to see.
SPEAKER_03 (22:16):
So SET got started as a grassroots movement, a
student-led movement, which Ithink is very exciting.
Um, and how did you personallyget involved?
SPEAKER_00 (22:29):
So I had this friend that at the time was programs
associate for SEET back in 2024,I believe.
Yes.
It was April 2024.
SEET was hosting their annualadvocacy day.
And because my friend wasprograms associate, she was
helping putting together theevent.
And she had messaged me and saidthat I would probably really
(22:50):
enjoy the event.
And I talked to my parents, theysaid I could go.
And I went to Advocacy Day.
I had a blast.
It was a ton of fun and it wasso educational.
And I felt so inspired by seeingall of these amazing things that
other people are doing acrossTexas in order to help advance
things like equity for students.
(23:10):
And I wanted to get involved.
After advocacy day, I got busywith different school things,
but I ended up reaching outagain and I talked to my friend
and I was like, hey, I want toget involved.
I just don't know exactly what Ican do.
Then Cameron ended up reachingout and said that Connor ISD, my
Alma Mater school district, wasattempting to pass the same
(23:34):
gender fluidity ban that KatieISD had previously tried to
pass.
So with that, I collectedstudents to come speak at the
board meeting, email our schoolboard trustees.
So I organized locally in myschool district, and that's how
I got involved.
I spoke at four or five schoolboard meetings past that.
(23:55):
And I kept showing up to seeevents, whether that was in
person or virtual.
I continued organizing in mylocal school district.
From there, I ended up joiningthe leadership team as program
associate because my friend, whoat the time was program
associate, was now programdirector.
And then in this past summer, Imoved into the position of
(24:17):
development director, which iswhat I now do with seats.
SPEAKER_03 (24:21):
And you uh I guess identify as non-binary and use
them they pronouns.
Yes.
And so this from your justpersonal perspective, uh how did
those policies make you feel?
SPEAKER_00 (24:39):
I oftentimes didn't particularly feel like I would
be the one facing the brunt ofit because I was relatively like
part of the bill that was thelargest problem was that it
would require students to beouted to um their guardians if
students or if teachers werealerted of their identity.
SPEAKER_03 (25:02):
That wasn't something that I go back to the
you yeah, you cut out again.
So go back to I didn'tparticularly think that I was a
person that yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (25:14):
The bill primarily targeted individuals who would
be in put in bad situations withtheir households because it
would mandate that teachersreported students that they had
suspicions were trans or queerin any way.
That wasn't an issue that I wasparticularly concerned with, but
I knew that it was a huge issuethat other people would have,
which is kind of what I guessmotivated me to first get
(25:37):
involved.
Obviously, like at the end ofthe day, I would still be
affected.
And I think that obviouslyplayed a part in it, but it was
a much larger desire to kind ofprotect my community and other
people that I know that would beaffected and that would cause
significant challenges for.
SPEAKER_03 (25:56):
So the organization has really grown since its
inception, and unfortunately,it's um still such a need for it
uh as we've seen more and moreschool districts uh come up with
these things that um can affectstudents in such a negative way.
(26:16):
Uh and uh I I believe you alsogo to Austin and lobby.
Okay.
SPEAKER_00 (26:23):
Well, we don't lobby.
Um we have and we providestudents like uh transportation
to go to Austin and speak atSenate hearings or committee
hearings in order to have thatstudent voice representation in
Congress.
Sorry, I misunderstood yourquestion.
SPEAKER_03 (26:38):
At the legislature in Austin.
Uh and uh so what are some ofthe things you feel like where
the organization has beenparticularly effective?
SPEAKER_00 (26:52):
I think we've primarily been effective at
local organizing grassrootsmovements at individual school
level, at individual schoolboards and that level because
students or school boardtrustees really do want to hear
from students, but a lot of thetime students are just unaware
of what their school districtsare talking about, what might
(27:13):
potentially be happening, oreven if they do have an issue
with the district, they don'tknow how to approach that and
how to deal deal with it.
But CET is able to provide themwith the resources and education
in order to go talk to theirschool board trustees, email
them, speak at board meetings.
And we've had a lot of successat that level where we've seen
so many students go testify,either against primarily book
(27:36):
bands, and we've seen so muchsuccess for it where the
community really just shows upand shows out for issues like
this once they have the trainingand the awareness in order to go
about that.
SPEAKER_03 (27:48):
And you have an event coming up October 19th.
Tell me about this people powerand purple mock tales.
SPEAKER_00 (27:58):
Yeah, so our event on October 19th, Seat on the
Horizon, is our first everfundraising event in person that
we're really excited for.
It's going to be a night filledwith all the various members of
C talking about the things we'vebeen up to the past years, what
our plans are for the future,and just various ways that
(28:19):
people can get involved andsupport us.
It's going to be really fun.
We've been kind of gettingcloser to the day and things are
starting to fall into place.
And it's going to be reallyexciting and we can't wait to
see people there.
SPEAKER_03 (28:32):
And there's uh a dinner provided, uh, a cash bar
for those that have the valid IDand are of the legal drinking
age, but the mocktails.
I'm very intrigued because Ilove purple.
And so, do you have any ideaexactly what goes into a purple
mocktail?
SPEAKER_00 (28:51):
So we have two special drinks for sea that are
purple because purple is ourorganization's color.
The first one is a butterfly pealemonade, and butterfly pea
flowers or leaves have thisspecial effect where they start
off purple, and once you addlemon or something acidic to
them, it turns into this pinkcolor.
So it makes this beautiful ombreand drinks.
(29:14):
And then the other drink is ablackberry smash.
So it's sparkling water justmade with a blackberry puree,
kind of, and it makes agorgeous, again, purple color,
and it's absolutely delicious.
Um, and they're gonna be reallyfun and exciting.
(29:34):
We're really happy that we wereable to find a group that we
could work with that would makeus purple moptails.
SPEAKER_03 (29:40):
It it sounds like a a very tasty uh libation and um
very enjoyable.
So that'll be a lot of fun.
Uh and uh talking about seatjust a little bit more, um What
(30:01):
are the next steps?
Hopefully, you do a successfulfundraiser.
And then what's next on thehorizon?
SPEAKER_00 (30:09):
So currently we're working with the ACLU of Texas,
and we filed a lawsuit againstSenate Bill 12, which primarily
again affects your students.
So that's primarily what we'reworking on.
We have a couple of mentalhealth initiatives that we're
working on at the federal levelthat our federal policy director
(30:30):
is in charge of.
And we are also working on ourfirst ever equity fellowship.
So we have a group of 29students across the state of
Texas that we're training towork in their community in order
to build sort of these chaptersof motivated students that are
involved in their community andare able to organize against
(30:53):
issues that arise as they come.
So that's been really exciting.
We launched it last August, andit'll conclude in April at our
annual advocacy day.
So that's primarily where a lotof our team's efforts have been
between that, our litigationagainst SD-12, and then other
initiatives that we have at thefuture.
SPEAKER_03 (31:13):
I was listening to someone who I respect a great
deal about what they have to sayabout things, and they said go
to a school board meeting.
(31:34):
Even if you don't sign up tospeak, your presence of support
means a lot to those that willbe speaking.
And that's I think a reallyimportant thing about being in
community and finding oneanother.
How do you get the word outabout the organization among the
(31:57):
various school districts?
SPEAKER_00 (31:59):
So we will reach out to contacts that we have in
districts that we see issuesarising in.
So for example, I was student atConnor I see, which is why
Cameron ended reaching out to mewhenever we were trying to pass
or whenever Connor was trying topass the gender fluidity ban.
But we do similar things acrossother school districts.
We have a newsletter ofstudents.
(32:19):
And whenever we see issues thatare rising in them, we either
reach out to students or teachercontacts that we have in those
areas.
Because C is such a largestatewide network, we really do
have the connections to be ableto fight these issues across the
state.
And whenever we aren't able tonecessarily find students or
teachers in that area, we'llprovide transportation costs in
(32:40):
order to get people to mobilizeat those school board meetings.
SPEAKER_03 (32:43):
And for you personally, you're currently in
college, and what's your fieldof study?
SPEAKER_00 (32:49):
I'm majoring in philosophy.
SPEAKER_03 (32:51):
Ah.
So a lot of material for youthere.
One of the things I think that'simportant about seed is for
young people, particularly thosethat may be in their first year
of college, that is a group thatfaces uh suicide at a higher
rate.
(33:12):
And so finding your tribe andfinding people that are doing
things to make a difference hasa tremendous value.
Uh and as you said, you havethis mental health component.
So I really applaud that becausethat that is just vital.
Um, and uh what do you seeyourself doing with this
(33:34):
philosophy degree?
SPEAKER_00 (33:37):
So, straight out of graduating college, my plan is
to be a high school debate coachfor a couple of years.
After that, I'm going totransition into some sort of
government work.
I'm not sure in what capacityexactly yet.
That's either going to bethrough switching to nonprofit
work full-time, working incampaigns for public offices,
(33:57):
running for public officemyself, or going to law school
and then getting engaged withgovernment through law.
Um, I have some time to figurethat out though, so I'm not
stressed.
But I know the end goal is toend up working in policymaking
in some capacity.
SPEAKER_03 (34:10):
That sounds like a wonderful plan.
This is Deborah Moncrief Bell,and I'm speaking with Semya
Caruchuri, who is thedevelopment director of Seed.
And so tell me about Seed on theHorizon, people power and purple
mock tails.
SPEAKER_00 (34:30):
So our Seed on the Horizon event is October 19th,
and it's our first everfundraiser that we've been
working really hard for.
It's going to be a night filledwith various student speakers
from the C both on theleadership team and not on our
leadership team, speaking aboutwhat they have been able to do
through C, what C is up to, andwhat our future plans are.
(34:54):
There's going to be a lot ofnetworking and there's going to
be delicious food and drinksthat I'm really excited to um
have and enjoy.
And it's just going to be areally fun event focused on
building community within peopleengaged in similar interests out
of this area.
(35:14):
And where is it taking place?
It's going to be at Job of theCreator, which is a local venue
in Houston, Texas.
SPEAKER_03 (35:24):
And it's over on Chimney Rock.
Uh, and as we said, there'sdinner provided, a cash bar for
the grown-ups, and then theyoung folks, or if you're a
grown-up and maybe you justdon't drink alcohol, or maybe
you just want to taste thosedelicious uh mock tails that's
available.
Uh, have you done debate in yourhigh school career?
SPEAKER_00 (35:48):
Yes.
I did debate for all four yearsof high school, and I got
introduced into advocacy andseat because of debate and the
connections I've made throughdebate.
In college, I've continueddebating on the North Texas
debate team, and I now coach andjudge high school debate as
well.
So I've seen debate have such ameaningful impact on the people
(36:10):
involved, and I think coacheshave such a large capacity to
influence students in the mostpositive ways.
And I think I want to contributeto that a little bit before I
end up going to policymaking.
SPEAKER_03 (36:21):
Well, you know, one of the great debaters that we've
had in our country was BarbaraJordan.
It is an area that is reallyimportant for those that are
looking into going intogovernment because it forces you
to look at both sides of theissue.
When you're doing debate, youdon't just get to pick one side
(36:41):
or the other.
They often have you debate fromeach side at different points.
So I I think that's reallymarvelous that you have that
going on for you.
We've been talking with SamyaParachuri of CET, students
engaged in advancing Texas,which we hope that is something
(37:04):
that we can do for all of us.
(37:29):
We have this little crew offolks working every week to
produce what's no longer uniquebecause we're almost mainstream
now, but we're still animportant voice that might not
otherwise get heard because it'snot on that many places.
So KPFT is very important togive voices to those who might
(37:54):
not otherwise have voices.
So as Glenn always says, youparticipate by listening, you
should also participate bysupporting the station.
So please go to KPFT.org andmake your donation right away.
SPEAKER_04 (38:15):
Thank you, Deborah and Sumia.
Now let's bring back contributorBrett Collum for his
conversation with his husband,author R.
Lee Ingalls, about the historyof the word gay.
SPEAKER_07 (38:29):
Hi, this is Brett Cullum, and I am joined by
author and well, my husband, R.
Lee Ingalls.
He is uh here to help me talkabout the etymology of the word
gay, because we keep havingthese conversations about gay
history where we realize thatpeople don't really consider
themselves gay, think of it.
True, and they don't reallyrefer to the person as that.
(38:50):
It came up in our discussionabout Abraham Lincoln, and it
also came up when youinterviewed our friend Richard
Watson.
Right.
He said there was no such thingas a gay man 70 years ago.
So we started thinking, how didthis come about?
SPEAKER_06 (39:04):
Yeah, even when I first came out, gay wasn't
commonly used, or it wasn't aword that I used to describe
myself, even though I know nowand knew then that that's what I
was after I found our community.
But yeah, so the question cameup because my grandfather's
brother, Uncle LB, he was gay,but they didn't use that word
back when he was a young man inthe 20s, 30s, and 40s.
(39:25):
They had other terminology.
So it was, I was really curiouswhen did the word gay start
being used to refer to ourcommunity?
And it turns out the answer is1955.
SPEAKER_07 (39:36):
Well, that's when it gets pop culture and everybody
starts using it like that.
Yes.
I think that it originally meanthappy, carefree.
SPEAKER_06 (39:43):
Even when I first came out, gay was kind of an
umbrella term that uh includedall of our community.
Uh, it didn't matter.
If you were a man interested inother men or a woman interested
in other wor women, that was theterm that was used.
SPEAKER_07 (39:54):
But about 1955, and then of course, Stonewall riots
in 1969 led to the termswidespread adoption because we
had the gay liberation move.
So that was a con they wanted toreclaim that word gay and make
it their own.
So that was it.
But it got me thinking aboutwhat in history, if we go way
back, like way back, throw itback to the 1600 era, and I was
(40:17):
laughing because it wasbuggerer, which we've heard.
Yep, we have heard that a lot oftimes we watch these like old
shows that are in London.
He's a buggerer.
Yeah, always comes up.
There was also Ganymede andKetamite, which two very old
classical illusions.
Ganymede was actually a boy thatwas loved by Zeus, so that's how
that came to be a thing.
SPEAKER_06 (40:38):
I've not even heard of those, but yeah.
SPEAKER_07 (40:40):
Buggerer was kind of a negative type thing.
All of them back then wereconsidered negative.
They were.
And Ketamite was linked toprostitution, and it was kind of
uh even used as like somebodythat it was an old used-up sex
partner.
Right.
So it wasn't necessarily anumbrella term for gay or
homosexual, but they used itsometimes, particularly if it
(41:02):
was a uh May-December typeromance.
Right.
So there you go.
In the 1700s, I thought this wasfascinating.
Molly became the term.
SPEAKER_06 (41:12):
Interesting.
unknown (41:13):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_06 (41:14):
Instead of Mary.
SPEAKER_07 (41:15):
Now we use Mary.
I know.
How did that happen?
But Molly was a slang term foreffeminate homosexual men.
And we actually had Mollyhouses, which I guess were the
original gay clubs in the 1700s.
Probably so.
And that was where you went tosocialize with other mollies.
You went to the Molly house.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_06 (41:33):
Interesting.
SPEAKER_07 (41:34):
Yeah.
Well, we talked about the 1800sand some of our stuff too.
Yeah.
And invert was one that you, Ithink, we're talking about.
SPEAKER_06 (41:43):
It's more was commonly referred to in the
medical community as sexualinverts.
They were they had to have someother terminology to separate
those people that were into thesame uh gender relationships
from other people.
And that's was the term thatthey used.
SPEAKER_07 (41:58):
In the 1800s, they also used the word shirtlifter,
as well as continuing to usecatamite.
So and this was like when thewhole lavender thing started
coming about in the 1800s.
That's when people would sayit's a lavender relationship.
Right.
And that was always coded forthat.
So I think that was interesting.
SPEAKER_06 (42:16):
Yeah, I was more familiar with that.
And you know, I I would have tosay in history, all of these
terms were considered derogatoryby everybody, and including the
the people that were gay.
I think we are probably part ofthe first generation that have
taken those the power back fromthose terms, and and we don't
see it as a negative anymore.
If the worst thing people cansay about me is I'm gay, I'll
(42:37):
take it.
Thank you.
SPEAKER_07 (42:40):
Well, I will as well, but um also in the 1800s,
uranium was someone that a termthat was used.
It was coined by a Germansexologist, Carl Kenrich
Ulrichs.
And this was uh derived from theGreek myth of Uranus or Uranus,
yeah, which was used to describemen who loved other men.
So sometimes you were a Uranianwho came from Uranus.
(43:02):
There you go.
So very different.
So it was interesting to thinkabout all of these uh
descriptors.
I I think that you said that inabout 1914 the word queer became
more common.
SPEAKER_06 (43:17):
Yeah, it became more commonly associated with our
community.
It's a word that's been aroundbefore then, but I think that's
or that's what is attributed tobeing a label for our community.
And again, even when I was akid, queer was a derogatory
term.
SPEAKER_07 (43:31):
Well, and I think that a lot of people still see
this as a derogatory term.
And it's really funny.
SPEAKER_06 (43:35):
Yeah, especially my generation.
SPEAKER_07 (43:37):
Yeah, it's really funny.
This show, Queer Voices, we geta lot of comments saying that
the title is sometimes offensiveto people because they think of
queer as a bad term.
I think of it as a moreencompassing term.
I'm more comfortable with usingthe word queer rather than gay
just to describe myself, justbecause I think it's a it's kind
of a community word.
(43:58):
Yeah.
Yeah.
It doesn't exclude anybody, itdoesn't label me as one thing or
another.
It's just kind of like queer.
And it makes it kind of likebrings in an umbrella term.
Right.
Is what I say.
But when you were growing up,was it a a bad word?
I mean, I was yeah, yes.
I remember smear the queer was agame.
SPEAKER_06 (44:14):
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
And if people labeled youlabeled you as queer, that was
not a good thing at all.
Right.
Yeah.
And of course, being someonethat is part of the cu queer
community, at that point intime, I didn't want to be
identified.
I was afraid to be identified.
So yeah, no, I didn't definitelydid not want to be pointed out.
SPEAKER_07 (44:33):
Well, I think that before you come out, it's it's
hard to relate to these termsand see them as anything other
than pejorative or an insultbecause it's just there was no
positive term to use at all.
SPEAKER_06 (44:45):
But you know, I'm glad to see because a lot of
times you'll see differentcultures take terminology or
words that are once negative andand take them to identify their
own community and take the powerout of it, take it back for
themselves.
And I think that's what we'vedone with this term.
Well, and good thing.
SPEAKER_07 (45:02):
You mentioned the 1930s, right?
Yeah, which was uh some reallyfunny words for that, obviously.
Nancy, yes.
Yes, Nancy.
Again, a girl name, but not Maryyet.
So fruit cake.
Yeah.
I think that was the first timethat they started using dyke for
women.
For women, yep.
Yep.
And then we had light in theloafers and continued to use
(45:24):
lavender relationships.
Yeah.
Seems to be a common thread inhistorical looking at gay and
the word.
And we really wanted to bringall of this up just because
October is gay history month,yes.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_06 (45:36):
Queer history month.
SPEAKER_07 (45:36):
Yes.
So we just thought, gay, theword gay.
And it comes up in so manythings.
I mean, I don't know.
I mean, of course, there aremore slanderous words, and we're
not going to mention some ofthem because obviously they're
they're not appropriate to youright now.
I'm thinking of the F word.
I think that that one got thrownaround a lot when I was growing
up.
I heard that constantly.
Me too.
(45:56):
That was just the absolute, youheard that on the playground,
you heard that everywhere youwent.
I mean, that was what I gottaunted with all of the time.
And I don't hear that word asmuch anymore.
I mean, do you?
No, I don't.
Yeah.
I mean, I hear it used in acomical way almost sometimes
within our own community andthings like that.
Yeah, yeah.
But what do you call yourself?
SPEAKER_06 (46:18):
I mean, what do you think?
I refer to myself as gay.
So if you know if somebody needsa descriptor in that area, then
yeah, that's that's what I callmyself as gay.
SPEAKER_07 (46:27):
Yeah.
So you're basically the cis gayman, I guess.
No, that's correct.
Okay.
That would be our terms.
And of course, we have evolved.
I mean, it was um gay used toeven include the women.
Yeah.
In fact, you always talked aboutyeah, Marion Coleman.
SPEAKER_06 (46:47):
I mean, a dear friend, and she has said that
she she always called herselfand considered herself gay.
And the last time I talked toher, we talked about that again,
and she still says, you know,I'm gay.
I always was gay, and that's theterm that I've used to identify
myself.
So, and you know, that I'm I'mnot so wrapped up in the terms
as I am about the how we feelours about ourselves as a
(47:07):
community, and you know, wherewe came from.
Often, if you know where youcame from, then you can better
plan on where to go or how toget to where you're going.
So, yeah.
SPEAKER_07 (47:17):
Well, lesbian came about, and it refers to the
Greek island of Lesbos, whichwas home to an ancient poet
named Sappho.
And that was basically lovepoems written between women.
So Sappho or Sapphic, you hearthat a lot.
And of course, we've got otherlesbian terms.
Of course, we've we've mentionedall of them already, I think.
(47:38):
There is, I've never heard this,but a chapstick lesbian.
Yeah, I haven't heard chapstick,I've heard of lipstick lesbians,
but not chapstick.
Well, chapstick is the oppositeof lipstick, it's the more
casual, understated, comfortablestyle.
It's a lady that likes a goodplaid shirt and some comfortable
shoes, okay?
But then we also talk about HiFemme, which is a queer woman
(48:02):
who is extremely feminine.
unknown (48:04):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_07 (48:04):
Which I think I've always thought of as a lipstick
lesbian.
SPEAKER_06 (48:07):
Yeah, me too.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_07 (48:08):
Me too.
SPEAKER_06 (48:09):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_07 (48:09):
And then of course we've heard Butch, which is a
bit I feel like that that'sderogatory.
SPEAKER_06 (48:14):
Uh, I I don't know.
I mean, um, I don't necessarilysee it that way.
I mean, I've known a lot ofwomen.
I you know, I played pool in apool league for years, and a lot
of the women that played therewere, you know, they embraced
their more masculine side, andthey were so endearing and so
loving, and I don't see that asa negative.
SPEAKER_07 (48:33):
Well, I don't, I I just wouldn't use the word
necessarily unless I knew thatsomebody was comfortable with
it, I think.
Yeah.
unknown (48:38):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_07 (48:39):
I don't think that I would go out of my way to use
that word, although we used it,you know, back in the day, as
usual.
It got flung around a lot.
SPEAKER_06 (48:46):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_07 (48:46):
So it was interesting, but a whole bunch
of different terms and thingslike that that our community
uses.
Can you think of anything elsethat you use or or that you've
seen use commonly?
SPEAKER_06 (48:57):
No, I think that kind of covers all the terms
that I've used or heard used.
And of course, we did so theresearch to find out what was
actually being used during thetime of, like I said, my
grandfather's brother, just tomake sure that we understood.
And was there any positiveidentifier?
And according to what we read,there is none.
SPEAKER_07 (49:14):
Yeah.
Well, it wasn't really it reallydid all revolve around Stonewall
and the gay liberation movementand a bunch of things that were
happened.
SPEAKER_06 (49:22):
Going back to my grandfather's brother for just a
second, the reason I keep goingback to him is he was out and
proud at a time where it was notnormal.
He also, with his brothers, mygrandfather and their other two
brothers, enlisted, or notenlisted, but signed up for
registered for the service inWorld War I and World War II
(49:43):
when he was in his 40s.
So he did the he did the rightthing by our society uh in both
cases, but he was also one ofthose people who didn't care if
you knew that he was moreinterested in men than he was in
women.
SPEAKER_07 (49:55):
And that would be unusual for back then.
I mean, absolutely pioneer inthat way.
Yes.
Because basically a lot ofpeople kept it under wraps.
And we don't we know from doingthis historical research that a
lot of times it's hard toidentify people that are gay
back in the day because theydidn't necessarily have their
histories preserved in any way.
SPEAKER_06 (50:13):
Yeah, well, exactly.
And uh, even with him, it myfamily didn't make a a planned
effort to erase that part ofhim, they just never talked
about it.
So, unless people like me and mybrother Brad, we we talk about
it openly.
That's who he was, and that waspart of who he was, and he would
certainly want to be rememberedthat way.
So uh, but there are other partsof the family that one well
(50:35):
talked about it and two didn'tknow.
SPEAKER_07 (50:38):
Yeah.
Well, now we've got an easyterm.
We've got gay, and it's gayhistory month.
So happy gay history month,everybody.
And you can now use the word,and everybody knows what you're
talking about.
Or actually, now you have to usethe the letters LGBTQIA plus is
what I use.
There's an even longer versionfrom academic circles and things
like that.
SPEAKER_06 (50:56):
You're better about that than I am.
I won't say that in all honesty.
All right, well then let's go.
History month.
Before we get into trouble.
SPEAKER_04 (51:05):
Thank you, Brett and Lee.
Wow, I I definitely learned alot today.
I hope y'all did too.
But before we wrap up ourepisode, I want to share my
review of the veryqueer-affirming and inclusive
music festival in Austin lastmonth, Levitation Festival.
Levitation isn't just anotherlineup of psych rock and
experimental bands, it's animmersive, often surreal
(51:27):
celebration of sound, visuals,and community.
And this year that sense ofcommunity felt more intentional
than ever.
Not just musically, butsocially, politically, and
spiritually.
My weekend kicked off with aband called Castlerat.
(51:50):
Honestly, what a way to start.
It felt like stepping into amedieval fever dream, intricate
costumes with swordchoreography, and a literal
crowdsurfing astronaut.
Every inch of the venue waswrapped in 360-degree
projections, creating this totalsensory takeover.
Beyond the spectacle, theirmessage hit hard.
(52:13):
Inclusivity, resistance, andvanishing those who seek to
oppress us.
It was art with armor.
But actually, I'm getting aheadof myself.
My weekend actually kicked offwith a late night set from the
hypnotic, synth-soaked duo BoyHarsher.
Their set was dark, seductive,pulsing, like being pulled into
(52:35):
a neon dream that you didn'twant to wake up from.
The room was packed with queerfans, goth kids, and night owls
who all seemed to know that theywere witnessing something almost
ritualistic.
It was a perfect way to openLevitation.
Late at night, loud, andunapologetically queer.
(52:55):
Also on Friday, the day afterBoy Harsher performed, The Armed
completely stole my heart.
Their set was a full-bodyexperience.
Multiple crowdsurfing moments,band members performing from the
audience, on top of theaudience, within the audience,
they were all over the place.
And I also really loved someonewearing a shirt that read, The
(53:17):
only wall I want to build is awall of death, which is a
reference to a type of mosh bit.
The whole set was chaotic in thebest way possible.
Community through catharsis.
Heavy metal band Mastodon wasanother highlight.
(53:54):
Model actress the next day onSaturday brought the queer joy
and a bit of the chaos we allneeded.
Just got back from overseas.
Frontman Cole Hayden waselectric, seductive, dancing,
playful ribbing, calling us UB-words, and a fearless presence
(54:15):
that made the whole crowd feelsane.
There's something so freeingabout an artist who performs
like they're both possessed, butalso in on the joke.
One thing I noticed and loved isthat Levitation decenters the
stage.
You don't have to push your wayto the front.
The visuals are all around you.
Projections, wrapping the wallsand parts of the ceiling, so
(54:38):
wherever you stand, you're partof the show.
It's a full-body 360-degreeexperience that almost retrains
and re-imagines the wholeconcert experience.
Reminding you that connectiondoesn't always mean proximity to
the front where the stage is.
Somewhere in the crowd, someoneyelled, There are two kinds of
(55:00):
people at a music festival.
You either push or you getpushed.
But Levitation seems tochallenge that.
It's not about pushing, it'sabout participating.
The Black Angels, the festivalfounders, summed it up
perfectly.
This is your fest, they said.
(55:25):
And there were also thesemoments of punk rock truth
telling.
Frankie and the witch shouting,F ice, F the police.
So punk rock, right?
TV on the radio, interruptingtheir set to say F Stephen
Miller, F Ice, and F Genocide,Free Palestine.
And these weren't performativestatements, they were raw,
(55:47):
urgent, and rooted insolidarity.
Consistent with the energy of afestival that's always been
about defying the mainstream anduplifting the marginalized.
Built to spill on the last daySunday, gifted a set full of
nostalgia and quiet power, whilepavement closed the weekend with
slacker, mystique, and realedge, also using their platform
(56:10):
to speak truth to power.
Levitation reminded me that afestival like this isn't
passive.
It's alive.
It's a living affirmation thatwe all have room here.
(56:32):
Queer, weird, angry, hopeful.
Levitation 2025 wasn't just afestival.
It was reclamation of space,bodies, music, stories.
I walked away feeling seen,energized, baptized, and sound.
I can't wait till levitate againnext year.
Thank you for listening to QueerVoices.
(56:54):
I'm Davis Mendoza DeRuzman.
Until next week, y'all.
SPEAKER_02 (57:06):
This has been Queer Voices, heard on KPFT Houston,
and as a podcast available fromseveral podcasting sources.
Check our webpagequeervoices.org for more
information.
Queer Voices executive produceris Brian Lavinka.
Deborah Moncreef Bell isco-producer.
(57:28):
Rick Hellum and David MendozaChristmas are contributors.
Part of our Queer Voices community listens on
KPFT, which is a non-profitcommunity radio station.
And as such, KPFT does notendorse or hold any standing on
matters of politics.
If you would like equal airtimeto represent an alternative
point of view, please contact usthrough KPFT.org or our own
(00:30):
website at queervoices.org.
This is Queer Voices.
SPEAKER_04 (00:38):
Hello everybody, and thank you for listening to Queer
Voices, KPFT 90.1 FM in Houston,89.5 FM in Galveston, 91.9 FM in
Huntsville, or wherever you getyour podcasts.
I'm Davis Mendoza DeRuzman, EhemPronouns, excited to bring you
today's episode.
Starting with the hot buttonissue in Houston's and Texas's
(01:02):
LGBTQ community, Governor GregAbbott's call for the removal of
our beloved Rainbow Crosswalks,threatening to pull funding for
noncompliance.
To speak on that matter, we havecontributor Brett Cullen
speaking with the president ofthe neartown Montrose Super
Neighborhood, Jack Balinski.
(01:22):
Then we have producer DeborahMoncrief Bell speaking with
Sumia Paracuti, the director ofdevelopment for Seats, where
students engaged in advancingtaxes.
Later, we bring back contributorBrett Cullen for his
conversation with his husband,Author R.
Lee Ingalls, about the historyof the word gay.
Lastly, we close out our episodewith my review of the very
(01:45):
queer-affirming and inclusivemusic festival in Austin last
month, Levitation Festival.
We have a galvanizing,inspiring, and enlightening
episode for you today.
So let's kick it off with BrettCullum's interview with
presidents of the NeartownMontrose Super Neighborhood,
who's also a founding member ofHouston Pride, and none other
(02:06):
than our show, Queer Voices,Jack Valinsky.
SPEAKER_07 (02:12):
On Wednesday, October 8th, Texas Governor Greg
Abbott ordered the removal ofHouston and any Texas City's
rainbow-painted crosswalks.
He called them distracting andin violation of federal roadway
standards.
If not removed, cities couldface funding.
And the mandate has followed aletter from U.S.
(02:32):
Transportation Secretary SeanDuffy, which urged all states to
comply with the Safe RoadsInitiative.
Now he wrote this back in July.
It was a federal guidelinerequesting road markings remain
free of political messaging orvisual distractions.
Now, similar actions have beentaken in Florida.
Thank you, Ron DeSantis.
The Rainbow Crosswalks inMontrose at West Timer and Taft,
(02:55):
they were painted in 2017 tohonor the neighborhood's LGBTQIA
plus history.
These crosswalks were among thefirst targeted for removal.
And the project was alsointended as a memorial for Alex
Hill, a gay 21-year-old man whowas killed in a hit-and-run
crash in January of 2016.
Now, Houston, San Antonio, andAustin all have rainbow
(03:18):
crosswalks.
And from what I gather, all ofthem are saying that they will
remove them.
Mayor, Whitmeyer, and Metro haveagreed to paint over ours here
in Houston.
So with me today is activist andcommunity icon Jack Velensky.
He's one of Houston's originalqueer voices as a host of the
show back in the day.
And it's an honor to have himhere today to discuss this issue
(03:40):
and its significance.
So welcome, Jack.
SPEAKER_05 (03:43):
Thank you.
I do understand that San Antoniohas not given in yet.
SPEAKER_07 (03:47):
Well, that's good to know.
I know that Austin wouldsurprise me that they
capitulated so quickly, as didHouston.
So, and disappointing to say theleast, but we'll keep an eye on
what develops with that.
Now, I was just telling you, youhave been in every person's news
Rolodex.
I think I saw you on almostevery major network, quoted in
the chronicle over this one.
(04:07):
How did you find out about thismandate coming down?
When did you hear about it?
SPEAKER_05 (04:12):
So I lived just a few blocks away.
Actually, that morning, I was upearly walking at 5 30.
As I'm walking around that area,I see this TV parked there.
Now, in the old days, it had tobe a big truck, but now the
thing, the equipment is muchmore compact.
But I, you know, wasn't tryingto startle anybody, but I
noticed they were sitting therewith the car with the car on,
(04:34):
and I waved to them and theywere from Channel 26.
So I did an interview there.
Then at a little bit later, Igot a call from Javon Tyler, and
I was communicating with AniseParker, and he says, Anise is
headed down there right now.
So we went down there and ithappened at the Chronicles.
There, they probably alreadyknew the Chronicle was there.
(04:56):
And then I got a call fromchannel two, and we made, we
said we'd be there at 1:30.
Well, it also happened thatchannel 11 was there.
So it was just this coincidencethat I was around and available
to do it.
I'm retired now.
I'm also president of the neartown Montrose Super
Neighborhood.
(05:17):
I've I'm a veteran of doingPride when it was in Montrose
for like 25 years.
So I have a little bit ofhistory.
SPEAKER_07 (05:25):
Just a little.
Yeah.
You got a lot of history, Jack.
SPEAKER_05 (05:28):
Well, and I remember when I was doing Pre Voices, we
interviewed Matt Broiler, whowas starting this project up
because somebody got killed onthat corner.
And he was working to get thatdone, and he was successful in
getting the original paintingthere.
And I didn't realize it was thefirst in the state.
SPEAKER_07 (05:47):
Now you mentioned Super Neighborhood 24, right?
That's the near town inMontreus.
Tell me a little bit about thatorganization because you are
currently the president of it.
SPEAKER_05 (05:55):
And yes.
So, you know, I workedprofessionally in radio as a
technician for a number of yearsand I loved it.
And unfortunately, radio sort ofis not what it used to be.
And there's very few stationsaround that actually do local
news.
But when that sort of fizzled, Istarted working for the city.
It just so happened as at leastbecame mayor, there was a bunch
(06:16):
of budget cuts.
So I was trying to figure thebest way to make myself very
valuable.
And I saw this whole program ofsuper neighborhoods.
And so what super neighborhoodis, is because Houston is so big
that Mayor Lee Brown says it'simpossible to deal with all the
civic clubs because we don'teven know of all of them,
(06:37):
because I tried for a couple ofyears to database them, but he
set the city up into 88 uniquesuper neighborhoods.
And Montrose is one of them.
Midtown is one, WashingtonAvenue is one, the Heights is
one.
Part of my job was to go tothese meetings representing the
city and understanding what theconcerns are.
(06:57):
Because as much as we think thatHouston is this unicorn of a
city, it's very different.
Different parts are verydifferent.
And I learned more about thecity doing that.
And I was responsible for goingto the near town Montrose
meeting.
And then I retired about a yearand a half ago.
The president who was there andthe vice president there for
(07:17):
about 10 years, they were sortof tired of doing it all.
And a lot of the programs thatthey were working on were
dissolved by this mayor.
So they were looking for asucker.
And my name came up, and Iwasn't even at that meeting.
And it's interesting because Ihad a sit-down meeting with
Denise about three weeks ago.
(07:38):
I'm a little bit older than her,and she says one of the reasons
she's running for county judgeis she just doesn't want to sit
at home.
And I'm sort of the same thing.
I'm a total introvert.
That's why I love radio, butstill I want to do stuff.
And this sort of forces me to goto places.
And it's actually been aninteresting challenge because
(07:59):
we're building up things like wehave the nonprofit reinstated,
and we're doing a number anothera number of things, and part of
it is fighting the mayor.
SPEAKER_07 (08:08):
Well, you met right after this happened.
So was anything decided to bedone?
Is there anything that you areproposing?
SPEAKER_05 (08:15):
Well, even before that, on Tuesday, uh the night
before, I was thinking aboutstuff, and I remember reading
that in Florida, where thishappened much wider spread and
they had such incredible uhcrosswalks, like with bricks and
(08:36):
stuff, that one of thebusinesses decided to paint
their parking lot.
I thought that was really,really a great idea.
So I messaged a few differentbusinesses and nobody's
committed yet, but there'sinterest.
There's definitely interest.
The other thing, I'm sort of aslow thinker now that I'm
getting older.
I remembered that the PrideCommittee, when I was part of
(08:58):
Pride, we established a LowerWestheimer banner district.
We used to put banners up everyyear before Pride, and they kept
up there for a few months.
I honestly don't know whetherit's defunct yet, uh, because
they haven't used it a number ofyears.
But I got the go-ahead from thesuper neighborhood to explore us
(09:20):
obtaining that district.
So, what we would love to do, ofcourse, we're gonna have to
raise money, is if if we get itand we get funded, we will put
banners up there, rainbowbanners or something
commemorating the community,either the GL LGBT community or
the community of Montrose neartown as much as we can.
SPEAKER_07 (09:44):
I would sponsor a banner in a heartbeat.
I mean, that would be somethingthat I think would be great.
I would love to do that.
So definitely keep us posted onthat because that's something
that, you know, I always wonderwhat you can do.
I mean, as a as a resident ofMontrose, as a resident of
Houston, what can you even do torespond to all of this?
It's just crazy.
SPEAKER_05 (10:02):
Let's put this in perspective.
People are losing their healthcare, especially our our
community.
I'm HIV positive.
I've been lucky to haveinsurance and now Medicare that
you cannot afford if you don'thave insurance, that medication.
And there's so many otherproblems going on.
Our streets are falling apart,the city doesn't have enough
(10:24):
money to run the city everyyear.
They sort of figure what can becut, what can we cut.
And there are so many otherproblems in the city.
And why would we focus on this?
And I think there's a number ofreasons.
And first of all, I have thetime to do it.
But it is sort of a symbol.
First of all, it was acommemoration for somebody who
(10:45):
passed away.
Second of all, I walk a lot andI know how bad traffic is and
how poor enforcement is.
I walk to the downtown wine manydays and trying to cross those
streets like Louisiana and Smithand Travis is difficult early in
the morning, but if you try tocross it midday or afternoon,
it's almost impossible.
(11:06):
So it's part of a safetyprogram.
The real thing that it means toa lot of us, it's us.
It's us.
We recently dedicated thatlittle park on Whitney and
Westheimer, the AvondalePromenade Park.
And I remember when we weretalking about it, a council
member Ellen Cohen at the timegot a grant from the state about
(11:30):
a million dollars to build thatlittle park.
But before they built that park,they met with the super
neighborhood to say, What do youwant in this park?
Within reason, of course.
You know, you can't put a bigstage in there, but do you want
a dog park?
Do you want a playground?
Whatever.
And all that was discussed.
And some of our communitiessaid, we would love to have some
(11:51):
placards there to commemoratewho we are and what we are, and
that was done.
And it was done in an openpublic local meeting.
And I used to be very proudworking for the city, and
believe me, the city has manyproblems, that we had a lot of
open meetings when we discussedthings.
You know, it was discussed formany years that we hoped that
(12:12):
Westheimer would be redone.
It's only being paved right now,which is only going to last a
couple years.
It was also sort of this thing,well, when Metro paved over the
Rainbow Crossing, it was theywere not planning to redo it.
But our council member AbbyCayman pushed the mayor, the
mayor said yes, and then Metrodid it.
(12:35):
With that, bought somepublicity.
Unfortunately, that's probablyone of the triggering things
with this governor.
SPEAKER_07 (12:41):
It feels like I was talking to somebody a couple of
weeks ago, it feels like theyare trying to erase our
community.
And this feels like a literalexpression of that.
It just shocks me how quicklythe governor issued this and and
and Whitmeyer just said, okay,and Metro just agreed to do it.
And really, when you think aboutit, and and the major mainstream
(13:03):
media did not seem to pick up onthe memorial aspect of it at
all.
They were really talking aboutit just being a pride thing.
But the fact that it was forAlex Hill really kind of makes
it even worse that they're gonnatake it out.
SPEAKER_05 (13:16):
You're absolutely right.
We're being attacked by so manyways.
I mean, they went after publicradio and television.
And in fact, in centralPennsylvania, Penn State's been
running a station there for 16years.
They're gonna just shut it downbecause they don't have the
money to, you know, keep itgoing without the federal money.
And, you know, our books arebeing removed from libraries,
(13:37):
our clubs are being removed fromhigh schools, you know.
So we are we're being attackedin so many ways, and we got to
step up as much as we can whenwe can.
And I'm actually sort of madthat a lot of our community
thinks, oh, nothing, you know,we're fine, we're fine.
And, you know, we're the largestcity that does not have a
(13:59):
non-discrimination bill.
And we failed at that multipletimes.
And I was part of some of that,and I will say, I will admit, we
didn't do as enough as what weshould have done.
But I also do believe thatmarriage equality could easily
be erased in the this year, itcould be.
Yes, I'm alarmist because Ithink we have a track record of
(14:22):
things happening to us.
SPEAKER_07 (14:24):
Well, I think that that's absolutely on the table.
It's on the GOP's politicalplatform.
I mean, they actually expresslysaid they want to get rid of gay
marriage.
It's their documents.
So it is on the docket, it is onthe menu.
There is no way anybody canconvince me that it's not.
SPEAKER_05 (14:42):
There's a bit of history just around the corner
where KPFT used to be on LovettBoulevard.
Ray Hill back in the 80s waswalking down the street and a
cop was about to beat somebodyup, and Ray yelled at the cop,
uh, the cop with some explicitthings, and that case went all
the way to the Supreme Court andRay won the case as being a
(15:04):
troublemaker.
And of course, the history ofHarris County is that Lawrence
v.
Texas started in Harris County.
You know, what we used to think,what many people used to think
of Houston in the terms of ourcommunity, where we were a
flyover city.
But we have done some goodstuff.
We elected the first gay mayorin a large city in the country.
(15:26):
So we need to keep what we gotin any way that we can.
SPEAKER_07 (15:31):
Well, you know, I'm so glad that you said that
because I was thinking, youknow, now we have a governor who
feels bold enough to requirethat the Christian Ten
Commandments be posted in everyclassroom, but our streets can't
reflect any aspect of ourcommunity at all.
And I find myself asking myself,what makes me stay here?
Why aren't we all just runningfor the hills of California or
(15:53):
New York or something where itjust feels a little bit more
accepting?
SPEAKER_05 (15:57):
Well, I mean and I'm using that example because not
just in our community, butyounger people who have the
opportunity, not all of us do.
And I mean, it happened to mein '81.
I moved to Houston because of agreat job in radio.
But younger people who have achoice to live in a city like
Houston or Portland or Chicagoor whatever, why would they come
(16:19):
to Houston when our bike lanesare being erased?
When walkability is such achallenge in the city.
And not everything can be fixedovernight, but things are
disappearing of what we alreadyhad, like the bike lane in on
Austin Street in Midtown.
So, and younger people, eventhough I'm old, I sort of
understand they like walking.
(16:40):
They like going to a bar andwalking home without having to
drive.
They they want this, even thoughwe know sometimes it's a
challenge to live to walk inHouston.
But it goes on to our communitytoo.
A lot of some GLBT people alsohave a choice of where to live
and why would they want to livein Houston?
And as I was retiring a year anda half ago, I was figuring out
(17:04):
should I stay in Houston?
And I think my answer was all myfriends live here and all my
enemies live here.
So I'm here, you know, and and II know this community.
And, you know, part of thecommunity is having these things
like museums, places to go, andand walkability and parks.
And, you know, we've done atremendous job in our parks in
(17:27):
this city under Mayor, whatMayor, Mayor Parker.
But we as a community need tokeep this.
And Montrose being the historicneighborhood, which is now uh
all over the country, theseneighborhoods are diluting
because of gentrification.
And not all gentrification isbad because buildings fall
(17:48):
apart, you've got to put newones up there.
But in Houston, like many othercities, people felt they didn't
have to live in the neighborhoodbecause they can have that
freedom other places in the cityor the metro area.
A lot of us, some of us havegotten married, have kids, are
part of the PTOs or their cityclubs and involved in other
(18:09):
things because we some peoplethink we won.
This is a city that was such agood old boy city that before
that Lawrence v.
Texas was over was overthrown,uh sodomy law by the Supreme
Court, not too far from that wason the city's application to
become a police officer.
(18:30):
Have you broken the law?
If you didn't check that and youwere gay, you could be fired
because you probably did breakthat law.
And if you did check it, youwere automatically disqualified.
We made this tremendous historysince Stonewall.
But I think some of us thinkwe're there, but we're not.
(18:52):
We're just as easily as anyother marginal community, it's
going backwards.
SPEAKER_07 (18:58):
It's absolutely going backwards.
And this whole crosswalk thing,it does, like you said, it seems
like a small consider that'sgoing on, but it is a very
literal erasing and kind of whatis happening on a larger scale.
It's definitely a microcosm foreverything and one of the calls
to action for the community.
So I appreciate you being outthere.
I appreciate you talking toeverybody.
(19:19):
I appreciate you working everyangle of this.
Please continue to work on thosebanners, work on parking lots
that maybe become rainbowcolored.
I would love to see that.
I don't want to lose this partof Montrose.
It felt so great driving throughthat intersection and seeing
that and remembering that it'sthere because we are the
original Gaborhood and also thememory of Alex Hill as well.
(19:41):
A memorial for him as that.
So I appreciate it.
I appreciate all you do, Jack.
You've done so much in yourlifetime.
Thank you.
It is just amazing.
So we will have you back, I'msure.
SPEAKER_05 (19:52):
Okay.
Well, thank you very much.
SPEAKER_04 (19:56):
Thank you, Brett and Jack.
Now let's turn it over toproducer Deborah Moncree Bell
for her interview with theDirector of Development for
SEET, or students engaged inadvancing Texas, Sumya
Paratutti.
SPEAKER_03 (20:12):
Today on Queer Voices, we're talking with Sumia
Pachuri, who is the developmentdirector of SEET.
SEET is the organization thathas taken on school districts
around the state to deal withthe issues that are harmful to
many students.
And the exact acronym isStudents Engaged in Advancing
(20:37):
Texas.
So, Sonia, tell me exactly whatCET is, how it got started, and
what you've been up to.
SPEAKER_00 (20:47):
So CET is a movement of youth, particularly high
school and college-age students,that work on empowering each
other and fostering policymakingskills and advocacy skills
amongst youth.
We think that there's a lot ofpolicies that are being passed
that primarily affect students,but we often don't have a say in
what happens because we aren'tafforded the same opportunities,
(21:08):
such as being able to vote,being able to be members of
Congress or school boards.
So what CET does is we providethe resources and connections
and support to students to beable to go advocate for
themselves, whether that's atthe local, state, or federal
level, we provide the support toallow them to do this.
CET first started back in 2022when our executive director,
(21:30):
Cameron Samuels, saw a problemin their local school district,
KDISD, where there wasincreasing censorship and book
bans of particularly queerissues, including things like
bans on the Trevor Project'swebsite.
And a lot of books were beingremoved from the libraries just
for mentioning things likequeerness, gender fluidity, uh
(21:50):
sexuality, things like that.
So they rallied a group ofstudents to go speak at the KDIC
board meeting, and that's whereSeat got its roots and was
started from.
So after that, they realizedthat they had a real movement of
people and they wanted to put aname to it.
And that's where the name Seatcame from.
And ever since then, we've justbeen moving forward and we
(22:13):
continue to just growexponentially from then, which
has been really cool to see.
SPEAKER_03 (22:16):
So SET got started as a grassroots movement, a
student-led movement, which Ithink is very exciting.
Um, and how did you personallyget involved?
SPEAKER_00 (22:29):
So I had this friend that at the time was programs
associate for SEET back in 2024,I believe.
Yes.
It was April 2024.
SEET was hosting their annualadvocacy day.
And because my friend wasprograms associate, she was
helping putting together theevent.
And she had messaged me and saidthat I would probably really
(22:50):
enjoy the event.
And I talked to my parents, theysaid I could go.
And I went to Advocacy Day.
I had a blast.
It was a ton of fun and it wasso educational.
And I felt so inspired by seeingall of these amazing things that
other people are doing acrossTexas in order to help advance
things like equity for students.
(23:10):
And I wanted to get involved.
After advocacy day, I got busywith different school things,
but I ended up reaching outagain and I talked to my friend
and I was like, hey, I want toget involved.
I just don't know exactly what Ican do.
Then Cameron ended up reachingout and said that Connor ISD, my
Alma Mater school district, wasattempting to pass the same
(23:34):
gender fluidity ban that KatieISD had previously tried to
pass.
So with that, I collectedstudents to come speak at the
board meeting, email our schoolboard trustees.
So I organized locally in myschool district, and that's how
I got involved.
I spoke at four or five schoolboard meetings past that.
(23:55):
And I kept showing up to seeevents, whether that was in
person or virtual.
I continued organizing in mylocal school district.
From there, I ended up joiningthe leadership team as program
associate because my friend, whoat the time was program
associate, was now programdirector.
And then in this past summer, Imoved into the position of
(24:17):
development director, which iswhat I now do with seats.
SPEAKER_03 (24:21):
And you uh I guess identify as non-binary and use
them they pronouns.
Yes.
And so this from your justpersonal perspective, uh how did
those policies make you feel?
SPEAKER_00 (24:39):
I oftentimes didn't particularly feel like I would
be the one facing the brunt ofit because I was relatively like
part of the bill that was thelargest problem was that it
would require students to beouted to um their guardians if
students or if teachers werealerted of their identity.
SPEAKER_03 (25:02):
That wasn't something that I go back to the
you yeah, you cut out again.
So go back to I didn'tparticularly think that I was a
person that yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (25:14):
The bill primarily targeted individuals who would
be in put in bad situations withtheir households because it
would mandate that teachersreported students that they had
suspicions were trans or queerin any way.
That wasn't an issue that I wasparticularly concerned with, but
I knew that it was a huge issuethat other people would have,
which is kind of what I guessmotivated me to first get
(25:37):
involved.
Obviously, like at the end ofthe day, I would still be
affected.
And I think that obviouslyplayed a part in it, but it was
a much larger desire to kind ofprotect my community and other
people that I know that would beaffected and that would cause
significant challenges for.
SPEAKER_03 (25:56):
So the organization has really grown since its
inception, and unfortunately,it's um still such a need for it
uh as we've seen more and moreschool districts uh come up with
these things that um can affectstudents in such a negative way.
(26:16):
Uh and uh I I believe you alsogo to Austin and lobby.
Okay.
SPEAKER_00 (26:23):
Well, we don't lobby.
Um we have and we providestudents like uh transportation
to go to Austin and speak atSenate hearings or committee
hearings in order to have thatstudent voice representation in
Congress.
Sorry, I misunderstood yourquestion.
SPEAKER_03 (26:38):
At the legislature in Austin.
Uh and uh so what are some ofthe things you feel like where
the organization has beenparticularly effective?
SPEAKER_00 (26:52):
I think we've primarily been effective at
local organizing grassrootsmovements at individual school
level, at individual schoolboards and that level because
students or school boardtrustees really do want to hear
from students, but a lot of thetime students are just unaware
of what their school districtsare talking about, what might
(27:13):
potentially be happening, oreven if they do have an issue
with the district, they don'tknow how to approach that and
how to deal deal with it.
But CET is able to provide themwith the resources and education
in order to go talk to theirschool board trustees, email
them, speak at board meetings.
And we've had a lot of successat that level where we've seen
so many students go testify,either against primarily book
(27:36):
bands, and we've seen so muchsuccess for it where the
community really just shows upand shows out for issues like
this once they have the trainingand the awareness in order to go
about that.
SPEAKER_03 (27:48):
And you have an event coming up October 19th.
Tell me about this people powerand purple mock tales.
SPEAKER_00 (27:58):
Yeah, so our event on October 19th, Seat on the
Horizon, is our first everfundraising event in person that
we're really excited for.
It's going to be a night filledwith all the various members of
C talking about the things we'vebeen up to the past years, what
our plans are for the future,and just various ways that
(28:19):
people can get involved andsupport us.
It's going to be really fun.
We've been kind of gettingcloser to the day and things are
starting to fall into place.
And it's going to be reallyexciting and we can't wait to
see people there.
SPEAKER_03 (28:32):
And there's uh a dinner provided, uh, a cash bar
for those that have the valid IDand are of the legal drinking
age, but the mocktails.
I'm very intrigued because Ilove purple.
And so, do you have any ideaexactly what goes into a purple
mocktail?
SPEAKER_00 (28:51):
So we have two special drinks for sea that are
purple because purple is ourorganization's color.
The first one is a butterfly pealemonade, and butterfly pea
flowers or leaves have thisspecial effect where they start
off purple, and once you addlemon or something acidic to
them, it turns into this pinkcolor.
So it makes this beautiful ombreand drinks.
(29:14):
And then the other drink is ablackberry smash.
So it's sparkling water justmade with a blackberry puree,
kind of, and it makes agorgeous, again, purple color,
and it's absolutely delicious.
Um, and they're gonna be reallyfun and exciting.
(29:34):
We're really happy that we wereable to find a group that we
could work with that would makeus purple moptails.
SPEAKER_03 (29:40):
It it sounds like a a very tasty uh libation and um
very enjoyable.
So that'll be a lot of fun.
Uh and uh talking about seatjust a little bit more, um What
(30:01):
are the next steps?
Hopefully, you do a successfulfundraiser.
And then what's next on thehorizon?
SPEAKER_00 (30:09):
So currently we're working with the ACLU of Texas,
and we filed a lawsuit againstSenate Bill 12, which primarily
again affects your students.
So that's primarily what we'reworking on.
We have a couple of mentalhealth initiatives that we're
working on at the federal levelthat our federal policy director
(30:30):
is in charge of.
And we are also working on ourfirst ever equity fellowship.
So we have a group of 29students across the state of
Texas that we're training towork in their community in order
to build sort of these chaptersof motivated students that are
involved in their community andare able to organize against
(30:53):
issues that arise as they come.
So that's been really exciting.
We launched it last August, andit'll conclude in April at our
annual advocacy day.
So that's primarily where a lotof our team's efforts have been
between that, our litigationagainst SD-12, and then other
initiatives that we have at thefuture.
SPEAKER_03 (31:13):
I was listening to someone who I respect a great
deal about what they have to sayabout things, and they said go
to a school board meeting.
(31:34):
Even if you don't sign up tospeak, your presence of support
means a lot to those that willbe speaking.
And that's I think a reallyimportant thing about being in
community and finding oneanother.
How do you get the word outabout the organization among the
(31:57):
various school districts?
SPEAKER_00 (31:59):
So we will reach out to contacts that we have in
districts that we see issuesarising in.
So for example, I was student atConnor I see, which is why
Cameron ended reaching out to mewhenever we were trying to pass
or whenever Connor was trying topass the gender fluidity ban.
But we do similar things acrossother school districts.
We have a newsletter ofstudents.
(32:19):
And whenever we see issues thatare rising in them, we either
reach out to students or teachercontacts that we have in those
areas.
Because C is such a largestatewide network, we really do
have the connections to be ableto fight these issues across the
state.
And whenever we aren't able tonecessarily find students or
teachers in that area, we'llprovide transportation costs in
(32:40):
order to get people to mobilizeat those school board meetings.
SPEAKER_03 (32:43):
And for you personally, you're currently in
college, and what's your fieldof study?
SPEAKER_00 (32:49):
I'm majoring in philosophy.
SPEAKER_03 (32:51):
Ah.
So a lot of material for youthere.
One of the things I think that'simportant about seed is for
young people, particularly thosethat may be in their first year
of college, that is a group thatfaces uh suicide at a higher
rate.
(33:12):
And so finding your tribe andfinding people that are doing
things to make a difference hasa tremendous value.
Uh and as you said, you havethis mental health component.
So I really applaud that becausethat that is just vital.
Um, and uh what do you seeyourself doing with this
(33:34):
philosophy degree?
SPEAKER_00 (33:37):
So, straight out of graduating college, my plan is
to be a high school debate coachfor a couple of years.
After that, I'm going totransition into some sort of
government work.
I'm not sure in what capacityexactly yet.
That's either going to bethrough switching to nonprofit
work full-time, working incampaigns for public offices,
(33:57):
running for public officemyself, or going to law school
and then getting engaged withgovernment through law.
Um, I have some time to figurethat out though, so I'm not
stressed.
But I know the end goal is toend up working in policymaking
in some capacity.
SPEAKER_03 (34:10):
That sounds like a wonderful plan.
This is Deborah Moncrief Bell,and I'm speaking with Semya
Caruchuri, who is thedevelopment director of Seed.
And so tell me about Seed on theHorizon, people power and purple
mock tails.
SPEAKER_00 (34:30):
So our Seed on the Horizon event is October 19th,
and it's our first everfundraiser that we've been
working really hard for.
It's going to be a night filledwith various student speakers
from the C both on theleadership team and not on our
leadership team, speaking aboutwhat they have been able to do
through C, what C is up to, andwhat our future plans are.
(34:54):
There's going to be a lot ofnetworking and there's going to
be delicious food and drinksthat I'm really excited to um
have and enjoy.
And it's just going to be areally fun event focused on
building community within peopleengaged in similar interests out
of this area.
(35:14):
And where is it taking place?
It's going to be at Job of theCreator, which is a local venue
in Houston, Texas.
SPEAKER_03 (35:24):
And it's over on Chimney Rock.
Uh, and as we said, there'sdinner provided, a cash bar for
the grown-ups, and then theyoung folks, or if you're a
grown-up and maybe you justdon't drink alcohol, or maybe
you just want to taste thosedelicious uh mock tails that's
available.
Uh, have you done debate in yourhigh school career?
SPEAKER_00 (35:48):
Yes.
I did debate for all four yearsof high school, and I got
introduced into advocacy andseat because of debate and the
connections I've made throughdebate.
In college, I've continueddebating on the North Texas
debate team, and I now coach andjudge high school debate as
well.
So I've seen debate have such ameaningful impact on the people
(36:10):
involved, and I think coacheshave such a large capacity to
influence students in the mostpositive ways.
And I think I want to contributeto that a little bit before I
end up going to policymaking.
SPEAKER_03 (36:21):
Well, you know, one of the great debaters that we've
had in our country was BarbaraJordan.
It is an area that is reallyimportant for those that are
looking into going intogovernment because it forces you
to look at both sides of theissue.
When you're doing debate, youdon't just get to pick one side
(36:41):
or the other.
They often have you debate fromeach side at different points.
So I I think that's reallymarvelous that you have that
going on for you.
We've been talking with SamyaParachuri of CET, students
engaged in advancing Texas,which we hope that is something
(37:04):
that we can do for all of us.
(37:29):
We have this little crew offolks working every week to
produce what's no longer uniquebecause we're almost mainstream
now, but we're still animportant voice that might not
otherwise get heard because it'snot on that many places.
So KPFT is very important togive voices to those who might
(37:54):
not otherwise have voices.
So as Glenn always says, youparticipate by listening, you
should also participate bysupporting the station.
So please go to KPFT.org andmake your donation right away.
SPEAKER_04 (38:15):
Thank you, Deborah and Sumia.
Now let's bring back contributorBrett Collum for his
conversation with his husband,author R.
Lee Ingalls, about the historyof the word gay.
SPEAKER_07 (38:29):
Hi, this is Brett Cullum, and I am joined by
author and well, my husband, R.
Lee Ingalls.
He is uh here to help me talkabout the etymology of the word
gay, because we keep havingthese conversations about gay
history where we realize thatpeople don't really consider
themselves gay, think of it.
True, and they don't reallyrefer to the person as that.
(38:50):
It came up in our discussionabout Abraham Lincoln, and it
also came up when youinterviewed our friend Richard
Watson.
Right.
He said there was no such thingas a gay man 70 years ago.
So we started thinking, how didthis come about?
SPEAKER_06 (39:04):
Yeah, even when I first came out, gay wasn't
commonly used, or it wasn't aword that I used to describe
myself, even though I know nowand knew then that that's what I
was after I found our community.
But yeah, so the question cameup because my grandfather's
brother, Uncle LB, he was gay,but they didn't use that word
back when he was a young man inthe 20s, 30s, and 40s.
(39:25):
They had other terminology.
So it was, I was really curiouswhen did the word gay start
being used to refer to ourcommunity?
And it turns out the answer is1955.
SPEAKER_07 (39:36):
Well, that's when it gets pop culture and everybody
starts using it like that.
Yes.
I think that it originally meanthappy, carefree.
SPEAKER_06 (39:43):
Even when I first came out, gay was kind of an
umbrella term that uh includedall of our community.
Uh, it didn't matter.
If you were a man interested inother men or a woman interested
in other wor women, that was theterm that was used.
SPEAKER_07 (39:54):
But about 1955, and then of course, Stonewall riots
in 1969 led to the termswidespread adoption because we
had the gay liberation move.
So that was a con they wanted toreclaim that word gay and make
it their own.
So that was it.
But it got me thinking aboutwhat in history, if we go way
back, like way back, throw itback to the 1600 era, and I was
(40:17):
laughing because it wasbuggerer, which we've heard.
Yep, we have heard that a lot oftimes we watch these like old
shows that are in London.
He's a buggerer.
Yeah, always comes up.
There was also Ganymede andKetamite, which two very old
classical illusions.
Ganymede was actually a boy thatwas loved by Zeus, so that's how
that came to be a thing.
SPEAKER_06 (40:38):
I've not even heard of those, but yeah.
SPEAKER_07 (40:40):
Buggerer was kind of a negative type thing.
All of them back then wereconsidered negative.
They were.
And Ketamite was linked toprostitution, and it was kind of
uh even used as like somebodythat it was an old used-up sex
partner.
Right.
So it wasn't necessarily anumbrella term for gay or
homosexual, but they used itsometimes, particularly if it
(41:02):
was a uh May-December typeromance.
Right.
So there you go.
In the 1700s, I thought this wasfascinating.
Molly became the term.
SPEAKER_06 (41:12):
Interesting.
unknown (41:13):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_06 (41:14):
Instead of Mary.
SPEAKER_07 (41:15):
Now we use Mary.
I know.
How did that happen?
But Molly was a slang term foreffeminate homosexual men.
And we actually had Mollyhouses, which I guess were the
original gay clubs in the 1700s.
Probably so.
And that was where you went tosocialize with other mollies.
You went to the Molly house.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_06 (41:33):
Interesting.
SPEAKER_07 (41:34):
Yeah.
Well, we talked about the 1800sand some of our stuff too.
Yeah.
And invert was one that you, Ithink, we're talking about.
SPEAKER_06 (41:43):
It's more was commonly referred to in the
medical community as sexualinverts.
They were they had to have someother terminology to separate
those people that were into thesame uh gender relationships
from other people.
And that's was the term thatthey used.
SPEAKER_07 (41:58):
In the 1800s, they also used the word shirtlifter,
as well as continuing to usecatamite.
So and this was like when thewhole lavender thing started
coming about in the 1800s.
That's when people would sayit's a lavender relationship.
Right.
And that was always coded forthat.
So I think that was interesting.
SPEAKER_06 (42:16):
Yeah, I was more familiar with that.
And you know, I I would have tosay in history, all of these
terms were considered derogatoryby everybody, and including the
the people that were gay.
I think we are probably part ofthe first generation that have
taken those the power back fromthose terms, and and we don't
see it as a negative anymore.
If the worst thing people cansay about me is I'm gay, I'll
(42:37):
take it.
Thank you.
SPEAKER_07 (42:40):
Well, I will as well, but um also in the 1800s,
uranium was someone that a termthat was used.
It was coined by a Germansexologist, Carl Kenrich
Ulrichs.
And this was uh derived from theGreek myth of Uranus or Uranus,
yeah, which was used to describemen who loved other men.
So sometimes you were a Uranianwho came from Uranus.
(43:02):
There you go.
So very different.
So it was interesting to thinkabout all of these uh
descriptors.
I I think that you said that inabout 1914 the word queer became
more common.
SPEAKER_06 (43:17):
Yeah, it became more commonly associated with our
community.
It's a word that's been aroundbefore then, but I think that's
or that's what is attributed tobeing a label for our community.
And again, even when I was akid, queer was a derogatory
term.
SPEAKER_07 (43:31):
Well, and I think that a lot of people still see
this as a derogatory term.
And it's really funny.
SPEAKER_06 (43:35):
Yeah, especially my generation.
SPEAKER_07 (43:37):
Yeah, it's really funny.
This show, Queer Voices, we geta lot of comments saying that
the title is sometimes offensiveto people because they think of
queer as a bad term.
I think of it as a moreencompassing term.
I'm more comfortable with usingthe word queer rather than gay
just to describe myself, justbecause I think it's a it's kind
of a community word.
(43:58):
Yeah.
Yeah.
It doesn't exclude anybody, itdoesn't label me as one thing or
another.
It's just kind of like queer.
And it makes it kind of likebrings in an umbrella term.
Right.
Is what I say.
But when you were growing up,was it a a bad word?
I mean, I was yeah, yes.
I remember smear the queer was agame.
SPEAKER_06 (44:14):
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
And if people labeled youlabeled you as queer, that was
not a good thing at all.
Right.
Yeah.
And of course, being someonethat is part of the cu queer
community, at that point intime, I didn't want to be
identified.
I was afraid to be identified.
So yeah, no, I didn't definitelydid not want to be pointed out.
SPEAKER_07 (44:33):
Well, I think that before you come out, it's it's
hard to relate to these termsand see them as anything other
than pejorative or an insultbecause it's just there was no
positive term to use at all.
SPEAKER_06 (44:45):
But you know, I'm glad to see because a lot of
times you'll see differentcultures take terminology or
words that are once negative andand take them to identify their
own community and take the powerout of it, take it back for
themselves.
And I think that's what we'vedone with this term.
Well, and good thing.
SPEAKER_07 (45:02):
You mentioned the 1930s, right?
Yeah, which was uh some reallyfunny words for that, obviously.
Nancy, yes.
Yes, Nancy.
Again, a girl name, but not Maryyet.
So fruit cake.
Yeah.
I think that was the first timethat they started using dyke for
women.
For women, yep.
Yep.
And then we had light in theloafers and continued to use
(45:24):
lavender relationships.
Yeah.
Seems to be a common thread inhistorical looking at gay and
the word.
And we really wanted to bringall of this up just because
October is gay history month,yes.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_06 (45:36):
Queer history month.
SPEAKER_07 (45:36):
Yes.
So we just thought, gay, theword gay.
And it comes up in so manythings.
I mean, I don't know.
I mean, of course, there aremore slanderous words, and we're
not going to mention some ofthem because obviously they're
they're not appropriate to youright now.
I'm thinking of the F word.
I think that that one got thrownaround a lot when I was growing
up.
I heard that constantly.
Me too.
(45:56):
That was just the absolute, youheard that on the playground,
you heard that everywhere youwent.
I mean, that was what I gottaunted with all of the time.
And I don't hear that word asmuch anymore.
I mean, do you?
No, I don't.
Yeah.
I mean, I hear it used in acomical way almost sometimes
within our own community andthings like that.
Yeah, yeah.
But what do you call yourself?
SPEAKER_06 (46:18):
I mean, what do you think?
I refer to myself as gay.
So if you know if somebody needsa descriptor in that area, then
yeah, that's that's what I callmyself as gay.
SPEAKER_07 (46:27):
Yeah.
So you're basically the cis gayman, I guess.
No, that's correct.
Okay.
That would be our terms.
And of course, we have evolved.
I mean, it was um gay used toeven include the women.
Yeah.
In fact, you always talked aboutyeah, Marion Coleman.
SPEAKER_06 (46:47):
I mean, a dear friend, and she has said that
she she always called herselfand considered herself gay.
And the last time I talked toher, we talked about that again,
and she still says, you know,I'm gay.
I always was gay, and that's theterm that I've used to identify
myself.
So, and you know, that I'm I'mnot so wrapped up in the terms
as I am about the how we feelours about ourselves as a
(47:07):
community, and you know, wherewe came from.
Often, if you know where youcame from, then you can better
plan on where to go or how toget to where you're going.
So, yeah.
SPEAKER_07 (47:17):
Well, lesbian came about, and it refers to the
Greek island of Lesbos, whichwas home to an ancient poet
named Sappho.
And that was basically lovepoems written between women.
So Sappho or Sapphic, you hearthat a lot.
And of course, we've got otherlesbian terms.
Of course, we've we've mentionedall of them already, I think.
(47:38):
There is, I've never heard this,but a chapstick lesbian.
Yeah, I haven't heard chapstick,I've heard of lipstick lesbians,
but not chapstick.
Well, chapstick is the oppositeof lipstick, it's the more
casual, understated, comfortablestyle.
It's a lady that likes a goodplaid shirt and some comfortable
shoes, okay?
But then we also talk about HiFemme, which is a queer woman
(48:02):
who is extremely feminine.
unknown (48:04):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_07 (48:04):
Which I think I've always thought of as a lipstick
lesbian.
SPEAKER_06 (48:07):
Yeah, me too.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_07 (48:08):
Me too.
SPEAKER_06 (48:09):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_07 (48:09):
And then of course we've heard Butch, which is a
bit I feel like that that'sderogatory.
SPEAKER_06 (48:14):
Uh, I I don't know.
I mean, um, I don't necessarilysee it that way.
I mean, I've known a lot ofwomen.
I you know, I played pool in apool league for years, and a lot
of the women that played therewere, you know, they embraced
their more masculine side, andthey were so endearing and so
loving, and I don't see that asa negative.
SPEAKER_07 (48:33):
Well, I don't, I I just wouldn't use the word
necessarily unless I knew thatsomebody was comfortable with
it, I think.
Yeah.
unknown (48:38):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_07 (48:39):
I don't think that I would go out of my way to use
that word, although we used it,you know, back in the day, as
usual.
It got flung around a lot.
SPEAKER_06 (48:46):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_07 (48:46):
So it was interesting, but a whole bunch
of different terms and thingslike that that our community
uses.
Can you think of anything elsethat you use or or that you've
seen use commonly?
SPEAKER_06 (48:57):
No, I think that kind of covers all the terms
that I've used or heard used.
And of course, we did so theresearch to find out what was
actually being used during thetime of, like I said, my
grandfather's brother, just tomake sure that we understood.
And was there any positiveidentifier?
And according to what we read,there is none.
SPEAKER_07 (49:14):
Yeah.
Well, it wasn't really it reallydid all revolve around Stonewall
and the gay liberation movementand a bunch of things that were
happened.
SPEAKER_06 (49:22):
Going back to my grandfather's brother for just a
second, the reason I keep goingback to him is he was out and
proud at a time where it was notnormal.
He also, with his brothers, mygrandfather and their other two
brothers, enlisted, or notenlisted, but signed up for
registered for the service inWorld War I and World War II
(49:43):
when he was in his 40s.
So he did the he did the rightthing by our society uh in both
cases, but he was also one ofthose people who didn't care if
you knew that he was moreinterested in men than he was in
women.
SPEAKER_07 (49:55):
And that would be unusual for back then.
I mean, absolutely pioneer inthat way.
Yes.
Because basically a lot ofpeople kept it under wraps.
And we don't we know from doingthis historical research that a
lot of times it's hard toidentify people that are gay
back in the day because theydidn't necessarily have their
histories preserved in any way.
SPEAKER_06 (50:13):
Yeah, well, exactly.
And uh, even with him, it myfamily didn't make a a planned
effort to erase that part ofhim, they just never talked
about it.
So, unless people like me and mybrother Brad, we we talk about
it openly.
That's who he was, and that waspart of who he was, and he would
certainly want to be rememberedthat way.
So uh, but there are other partsof the family that one well
(50:35):
talked about it and two didn'tknow.
SPEAKER_07 (50:38):
Yeah.
Well, now we've got an easyterm.
We've got gay, and it's gayhistory month.
So happy gay history month,everybody.
And you can now use the word,and everybody knows what you're
talking about.
Or actually, now you have to usethe the letters LGBTQIA plus is
what I use.
There's an even longer versionfrom academic circles and things
like that.
SPEAKER_06 (50:56):
You're better about that than I am.
I won't say that in all honesty.
All right, well then let's go.
History month.
Before we get into trouble.
SPEAKER_04 (51:05):
Thank you, Brett and Lee.
Wow, I I definitely learned alot today.
I hope y'all did too.
But before we wrap up ourepisode, I want to share my
review of the veryqueer-affirming and inclusive
music festival in Austin lastmonth, Levitation Festival.
Levitation isn't just anotherlineup of psych rock and
experimental bands, it's animmersive, often surreal
(51:27):
celebration of sound, visuals,and community.
And this year that sense ofcommunity felt more intentional
than ever.
Not just musically, butsocially, politically, and
spiritually.
My weekend kicked off with aband called Castlerat.
(51:50):
Honestly, what a way to start.
It felt like stepping into amedieval fever dream, intricate
costumes with swordchoreography, and a literal
crowdsurfing astronaut.
Every inch of the venue waswrapped in 360-degree
projections, creating this totalsensory takeover.
Beyond the spectacle, theirmessage hit hard.
(52:13):
Inclusivity, resistance, andvanishing those who seek to
oppress us.
It was art with armor.
But actually, I'm getting aheadof myself.
My weekend actually kicked offwith a late night set from the
hypnotic, synth-soaked duo BoyHarsher.
Their set was dark, seductive,pulsing, like being pulled into
(52:35):
a neon dream that you didn'twant to wake up from.
The room was packed with queerfans, goth kids, and night owls
who all seemed to know that theywere witnessing something almost
ritualistic.
It was a perfect way to openLevitation.
Late at night, loud, andunapologetically queer.
(52:55):
Also on Friday, the day afterBoy Harsher performed, The Armed
completely stole my heart.
Their set was a full-bodyexperience.
Multiple crowdsurfing moments,band members performing from the
audience, on top of theaudience, within the audience,
they were all over the place.
And I also really loved someonewearing a shirt that read, The
(53:17):
only wall I want to build is awall of death, which is a
reference to a type of mosh bit.
The whole set was chaotic in thebest way possible.
Community through catharsis.
Heavy metal band Mastodon wasanother highlight.
(53:54):
Model actress the next day onSaturday brought the queer joy
and a bit of the chaos we allneeded.
Just got back from overseas.
Frontman Cole Hayden waselectric, seductive, dancing,
playful ribbing, calling us UB-words, and a fearless presence
(54:15):
that made the whole crowd feelsane.
There's something so freeingabout an artist who performs
like they're both possessed, butalso in on the joke.
One thing I noticed and loved isthat Levitation decenters the
stage.
You don't have to push your wayto the front.
The visuals are all around you.
Projections, wrapping the wallsand parts of the ceiling, so
(54:38):
wherever you stand, you're partof the show.
It's a full-body 360-degreeexperience that almost retrains
and re-imagines the wholeconcert experience.
Reminding you that connectiondoesn't always mean proximity to
the front where the stage is.
Somewhere in the crowd, someoneyelled, There are two kinds of
(55:00):
people at a music festival.
You either push or you getpushed.
But Levitation seems tochallenge that.
It's not about pushing, it'sabout participating.
The Black Angels, the festivalfounders, summed it up
perfectly.
This is your fest, they said.
(55:25):
And there were also thesemoments of punk rock truth
telling.
Frankie and the witch shouting,F ice, F the police.
So punk rock, right?
TV on the radio, interruptingtheir set to say F Stephen
Miller, F Ice, and F Genocide,Free Palestine.
And these weren't performativestatements, they were raw,
(55:47):
urgent, and rooted insolidarity.
Consistent with the energy of afestival that's always been
about defying the mainstream anduplifting the marginalized.
Built to spill on the last daySunday, gifted a set full of
nostalgia and quiet power, whilepavement closed the weekend with
slacker, mystique, and realedge, also using their platform
(56:10):
to speak truth to power.
Levitation reminded me that afestival like this isn't
passive.
It's alive.
It's a living affirmation thatwe all have room here.
(56:32):
Queer, weird, angry, hopeful.
Levitation 2025 wasn't just afestival.
It was reclamation of space,bodies, music, stories.
I walked away feeling seen,energized, baptized, and sound.
I can't wait till levitate againnext year.
Thank you for listening to QueerVoices.
(56:54):
I'm Davis Mendoza DeRuzman.
Until next week, y'all.
SPEAKER_02 (57:06):
This has been Queer Voices, heard on KPFT Houston,
and as a podcast available fromseveral podcasting sources.
Check our webpagequeervoices.org for more
information.
Queer Voices executive produceris Brian Lavinka.
Deborah Moncreef Bell isco-producer.
(57:28):
Rick Hellum and David MendozaChristmas are contributors.
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