August 16, 2023 • 15 mins
“SpeakOUT” with Angela Giampolo of Giampolo Law and Philly Gay Lawyer which focuses on LGBTQIA+ issues and their broader implications.
We discuss efforts to ban Drag Queen Story Hours which use the art of drag to read books to kids and encourage reading in libraries, schools, and bookstores. https://www.phillygaylawyer.com/ https://giampololaw.com/
We discuss efforts to ban Drag Queen Story Hours which use the art of drag to read books to kids and encourage reading in libraries, schools, and bookstores. https://www.phillygaylawyer.com/ https://giampololaw.com/
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:01):
All right, there we go.I'm Lorraine Ballard Marlin. As we do
quite often, we check in withspeak Out's host for this segment, Angelie
Tim Polo, Philly Gay Lawyer.She's with Jim Polo Law She's an advocate
and a wonderful person to talk toabout these issues that badly affect the lgbt
(00:25):
QI A plus community, but reallyimpact us all. And today we're going
to talk about intersectionality. And forthe radio audience, I have to tell
you that Angela, you have thecutest little puppy in your lap right now.
Tell us very quickly about this pup. Loraine doesn't like this pup because
(00:45):
this pup always tries to bite.Yes, but I know for some reason
they all, all of your petslove you to death, and they never
love me. This one is avicious little thing. But a cute is
a button at chia. Yeah.Yeah, and you foster these older dogs,
correct? Is that how that works? Yeah? I adopt them.
(01:06):
So he's my third he's my thirdsenior in the last nine years now.
He's the spryest. He's been withme the longest. But yeah, chuahua's
you know, people have always calledme a pit bull and a chuaha's body
for years and I never got it. I never I never got it.
I never understood it. Now Iadopt foster senior chihuahuas and man and there's
(01:33):
a they packed a punch in thesefive pounds. Oh my gosh. And
I'm gonna say one more thing beforewe get into our topic, and that
is that how do you handle fosteringan older pet? I just lost my
cat of twenty two years and Iwas in mourning for a month. It
just destroyed me. And I haveto say, I mean your fortitude and
(01:55):
being able to foster a pet thatit's going to have a relatively limited life
span in your care. How doyou do that? Yeah, A couple
of things, and I it's beena part of my journey actually, and
I'll keep the shorts. We canget into the topic. But twofold a
(02:15):
it's a much different relationship that youform, I believe when you know that,
but for you adopting or fostering thisanimal, it would have been euthanized.
No one else would have adopted.Like my first one. If you
remember jaws deaf blind, no teeth, no bottom, jaw right like named
(02:37):
your jaws two and a half pounds, fifteen years old, just absolutely amazing,
only live nine months, the nextone lived two years. He's on
year six. But it's a differentrelationship and a different bond than twenty two
years. This companion that you're init for life with kind of thing,
(02:58):
right, Like I view myself aslike I'm helping them and they helped me,
and so then when they passed,it's like I did this thing right.
And then the second pieces, I'verealized, because I've been doing this
now for nine years, that I'vealso helped six humans transition from their body
(03:21):
suit life suit into the next iterationof their their existence, their soul there,
what have you. And so I'verealized that I am just attracted to
elderly energies, spirits, be ithumans or animals, and have part of
my gift is that I can helptransition without feeling that, you know.
(03:49):
So you know, people have calledme a death dulah, and I don't
think I'm quite there yet, butI've realized, wow, like I it's
so easy for me to sit bysomeone's bedside as they take their last breath,
and I seek out fifteen year oldhuahuas are near death, Like,
what is you know, my exwife was like, you need therapy.
(04:10):
Hey, it's a gift, andthank you for doing what you're doing.
Now, let's get into what we'retalking about today, and that is the
state of the lgbt qi A pluscommunity. There was a report that came
out that kind of explained where we'reat. Certainly we're at a very interesting
time, and I wonder, Iknow you read the report, if you
could give us a few takeaway pointsthat you got from reading that report.
(04:35):
What are some of the things thatreally stuck at for you. Yeah,
So it came from American Progress dotorg. So they did the research,
they did the report and the amalgamationof sort of all these stats, and
really the big takeaway, which youknow, we know if we're in the
(04:56):
the lgbtq I plus community, isthat it is most difficult to be a
person of color within the lgbt qiA community, that the levels of discrimination
are the highest, and then withinthat within people of color trans folks even
(05:17):
more so. So. Really,to me, the report really begs a
further discussion of intersectionality and what thatmeans in this culture, because, as
we've discussed in other shows, whatyou know, we have the lgbt QI
A two you know, S pluscommunity, and under that that umbrella of
(05:44):
identities come many shapes, sizes,folks, colors, and and that it's
important that we not lump everyone injust say lgbt QI A plus, but
that the intersectionality, which which meansultimately the interconnected nature of categorizations such as
(06:10):
race, class, gender, right, and and how those categorizations applied to
a specific group, and that groupis the lgbt QI A plus community.
So, and even geography regionally whereyou live in this country, all things
being equal for you if you livein Fort Worth, Texas versus Philadelphia,
(06:31):
and then your disparate treatment. Yeah, you know, I think so.
To me, that was the bigtakeaway. Yeah, no, it was.
I wish I could remember the nameof it. But there was a
great Hulu rom com, gay romcom that was about I think you might
have been called Fire Island, butit was about this group of men who
(06:54):
were very good friends Island, okay, Yeah. And what I thought was
so great about it was that itreally did express a lot of the things
that you just talked about, becausethis was a very diverse group and they
weren't, you know, they werenot very rich. They were pretty much,
you know, struggling in many respects, and they go to Fire Island
(07:14):
and then they encounter sort of thisother tier of Fire Island residents, which
were these white male, wealthy gaymen who are looked down upon this group.
And I thought that was such aninteresting program. First of all,
it was hilarious because it was acomedy of romcom but secondly, it really
(07:38):
did kind of explain or not explain, but it dissected in a very granular
way some of the divides that havethat occur within the community. I think,
as you may be referenced to,sometimes people on the outside may say
gay and just think gay is justpretty much covers it all. But within
(07:59):
the big umbrella, there are certainlylots of little subdivisions, and not all
are treated equally. In fact,I remember reading that the trans community often
was the butt of discrimination by otherLGBT folks or lg folks, and so
(08:22):
I was kind of surprised. Iwas thinking, you know, just like
I remember as I was growing upfeeling like experiencing colorism within the black community,
and I'm thinking to myself, waita second, here, now what
is colorism. It just seems soironic that within the black community there would
be discrimination against different shaded people,and I thought that was just absolutely crazy.
(08:46):
But that's maybe the nature of humans, sadly, And so yeah,
yeah, I mean, within toyour point, especially the trans community,
one of the biggest sort of gaymen in particular, right, So again,
(09:09):
and we're generalizing by by saying this, but it's illustrative none the least,
but the sort of gay men thatyou the upper echelon to your beautiful
gay men and fire island that youyou know, described men like that.
So often we'll say, you know, I just don't get the T,
and they'll literally just use the letterwithin the acronym of lgbtqia, not even
(09:35):
you know, say transgender folks,and not even speak the whole name right
of their identity, but just say, you know, I don't get the
T. I don't get that,you know, And and they're bringing us
down and they make it difficult forus to you know, look at the
right and Republicans and how they youknow, hone it. I mean just
this dialogue, right, and we'rewithin the LGBTQ right plus community, and
(10:01):
yet you have a lot of gaymen who will say that, as well
as lesbians and whatnot. But justagain speaking in generalizations for generalization's sake,
bisexuals, you know, feel invisible. No one really talks about them,
no one believes they exist within theLGB. You know, it's like pick
aside already, you know, like, yeah, you know. I was
(10:22):
actually at a dinner conversation many manyyears ago, and it was gay man
and one bisexual man, and allof the gay men said, listen,
basically choose, choose aside, andthey didn't believe that he was bisexual.
And I thought that was so interesting. You're just still confused. Yeah,
you'll figure it out, right,you're gay, right, Well, we'll
(10:43):
be here, we can figure itout kind of. Yeah. And so
there's that. And then then also, and as you very well know,
there was a big controversy in thegayborhood about discrimination against people of color,
gay men of color in particular.That became a big, big thing.
And again you always think to yourselfin your little you know, sweetheart,
(11:11):
if someone is oppressed, don't youidentify with other people that are oppressed.
Well, clearly that's not the case. And certainly it wasn't the case in
the Gaborhood, and that became abig issue that ended up I feel like
opening the eyes of a lot offolks in the Gaborhood because the training,
so the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission andRulandau, who's running for city council right
(11:35):
now, was the head of thatat the time, mandated with the mayor
mandated training sensitivity training for all bartendersof all gay bars in the Gaborhood,
right. And so one of alot of my friends are bartenders in the
Gaborhood, and so I asked themabout it and what their experience was going
(11:56):
through the training, and they evensaid that they didn't realize one of the
trainings. It was a video thatthey watched where the bartender has their back
to the bar, right, andpeople walk up to the bar, and
then the bartender turns around and howthey'll nine out of ten times immediately helped
the white persons not asking, okay, who showed up first, right,
(12:22):
and so so that unconscious like goto and the bias right that they didn't
even know they had. So itwas like little trainings that open their eyes
to oh, yeah, I dodo that, I don't turn around and
say, Kate, who got herefirst? I let my unconscious bias to
(12:43):
direct me to whoever I feel mostcomfortable when I turn around, right,
and and to transcend that. Soit was, it was it. There
was a lot of news around it, and rightfully so because there and and
I can speak to a lot ofeye openings that occurred for the individual bartenders
(13:07):
in the Gaborhood that but for thattraining would not have even known about unconscious
bias and the ways in which itimpacted how they treat people. Because people
go out to the Gabor adapt fun. It's a Saturday night, right,
they don't want they're constantly reminded thatthey're black, that they're trans that they're
(13:28):
this again the intersectionality, right,that they're this other additional minority within the
minority that they're in. And thento be so blatantly reminded when you're within
your community out on a Saturday nighttrying to have fun. So, yeah,
that was definitely a turning point,I feel like for the Gaborhood.
Yeah, and as your report indicates, there's a lot to be worked on
(13:54):
in the community regarding equity and inclusion, and it's very important for us to
be aware that these are issues thatimpact us all, that it's not just
the larger community that has this problem, but it's it's in all communities,
including the lgbt QIA well as alwaysa pleasure to speak with you. You're
(14:16):
awesome and maybe not a death dulayet, but but but hey, I
love what you do and I loveyour your big heart that you can encompass
such a an adorable little puppy thatI am seeing. Because this is video
on our side, we're doing avirtual zoom and I'll just let folks imagine
(14:39):
this adorable little Chihuahua that's on yourlap, Angela Dmpolo. If people want
more information about the work that youdo through Gmpolo Law, how do they
find you? Yep, you cango on my website Jampolo law dot com
and you'll see a little video ofme and Nico they're saying hi to you.
And you can also look at myblog at Lawyer lgbt Awesome Angelo Gian
(15:01):
Polo Gi and Polo Law and thehost of this little segment that we call
speak Out where we talk about lgbtq I A plus issues that not only
affect that community but really impact usall. Thank you so much, Thank
you larn Okay,
All right, there we go.I'm Lorraine Ballard Marlin. As we do
quite often, we check in withspeak Out's host for this segment, Angelie
Tim Polo, Philly Gay Lawyer.She's with Jim Polo Law She's an advocate
and a wonderful person to talk toabout these issues that badly affect the lgbt
(00:25):
QI A plus community, but reallyimpact us all. And today we're going
to talk about intersectionality. And forthe radio audience, I have to tell
you that Angela, you have thecutest little puppy in your lap right now.
Tell us very quickly about this pup. Loraine doesn't like this pup because
(00:45):
this pup always tries to bite.Yes, but I know for some reason
they all, all of your petslove you to death, and they never
love me. This one is avicious little thing. But a cute is
a button at chia. Yeah.Yeah, and you foster these older dogs,
correct? Is that how that works? Yeah? I adopt them.
(01:06):
So he's my third he's my thirdsenior in the last nine years now.
He's the spryest. He's been withme the longest. But yeah, chuahua's
you know, people have always calledme a pit bull and a chuaha's body
for years and I never got it. I never I never got it.
I never understood it. Now Iadopt foster senior chihuahuas and man and there's
(01:33):
a they packed a punch in thesefive pounds. Oh my gosh. And
I'm gonna say one more thing beforewe get into our topic, and that
is that how do you handle fosteringan older pet? I just lost my
cat of twenty two years and Iwas in mourning for a month. It
just destroyed me. And I haveto say, I mean your fortitude and
(01:55):
being able to foster a pet thatit's going to have a relatively limited life
span in your care. How doyou do that? Yeah, A couple
of things, and I it's beena part of my journey actually, and
I'll keep the shorts. We canget into the topic. But twofold a
(02:15):
it's a much different relationship that youform, I believe when you know that,
but for you adopting or fostering thisanimal, it would have been euthanized.
No one else would have adopted.Like my first one. If you
remember jaws deaf blind, no teeth, no bottom, jaw right like named
(02:37):
your jaws two and a half pounds, fifteen years old, just absolutely amazing,
only live nine months, the nextone lived two years. He's on
year six. But it's a differentrelationship and a different bond than twenty two
years. This companion that you're init for life with kind of thing,
(02:58):
right, Like I view myself aslike I'm helping them and they helped me,
and so then when they passed,it's like I did this thing right.
And then the second pieces, I'verealized, because I've been doing this
now for nine years, that I'vealso helped six humans transition from their body
(03:21):
suit life suit into the next iterationof their their existence, their soul there,
what have you. And so I'verealized that I am just attracted to
elderly energies, spirits, be ithumans or animals, and have part of
my gift is that I can helptransition without feeling that, you know.
(03:49):
So you know, people have calledme a death dulah, and I don't
think I'm quite there yet, butI've realized, wow, like I it's
so easy for me to sit bysomeone's bedside as they take their last breath,
and I seek out fifteen year oldhuahuas are near death, Like,
what is you know, my exwife was like, you need therapy.
(04:10):
Hey, it's a gift, andthank you for doing what you're doing.
Now, let's get into what we'retalking about today, and that is the
state of the lgbt qi A pluscommunity. There was a report that came
out that kind of explained where we'reat. Certainly we're at a very interesting
time, and I wonder, Iknow you read the report, if you
could give us a few takeaway pointsthat you got from reading that report.
(04:35):
What are some of the things thatreally stuck at for you. Yeah,
So it came from American Progress dotorg. So they did the research,
they did the report and the amalgamationof sort of all these stats, and
really the big takeaway, which youknow, we know if we're in the
(04:56):
the lgbtq I plus community, isthat it is most difficult to be a
person of color within the lgbt qiA community, that the levels of discrimination
are the highest, and then withinthat within people of color trans folks even
(05:17):
more so. So. Really,to me, the report really begs a
further discussion of intersectionality and what thatmeans in this culture, because, as
we've discussed in other shows, whatyou know, we have the lgbt QI
A two you know, S pluscommunity, and under that that umbrella of
(05:44):
identities come many shapes, sizes,folks, colors, and and that it's
important that we not lump everyone injust say lgbt QI A plus, but
that the intersectionality, which which meansultimately the interconnected nature of categorizations such as
(06:10):
race, class, gender, right, and and how those categorizations applied to
a specific group, and that groupis the lgbt QI A plus community.
So, and even geography regionally whereyou live in this country, all things
being equal for you if you livein Fort Worth, Texas versus Philadelphia,
(06:31):
and then your disparate treatment. Yeah, you know, I think so.
To me, that was the bigtakeaway. Yeah, no, it was.
I wish I could remember the nameof it. But there was a
great Hulu rom com, gay romcom that was about I think you might
have been called Fire Island, butit was about this group of men who
(06:54):
were very good friends Island, okay, Yeah. And what I thought was
so great about it was that itreally did express a lot of the things
that you just talked about, becausethis was a very diverse group and they
weren't, you know, they werenot very rich. They were pretty much,
you know, struggling in many respects, and they go to Fire Island
(07:14):
and then they encounter sort of thisother tier of Fire Island residents, which
were these white male, wealthy gaymen who are looked down upon this group.
And I thought that was such aninteresting program. First of all,
it was hilarious because it was acomedy of romcom but secondly, it really
(07:38):
did kind of explain or not explain, but it dissected in a very granular
way some of the divides that havethat occur within the community. I think,
as you may be referenced to,sometimes people on the outside may say
gay and just think gay is justpretty much covers it all. But within
(07:59):
the big umbrella, there are certainlylots of little subdivisions, and not all
are treated equally. In fact,I remember reading that the trans community often
was the butt of discrimination by otherLGBT folks or lg folks, and so
(08:22):
I was kind of surprised. Iwas thinking, you know, just like
I remember as I was growing upfeeling like experiencing colorism within the black community,
and I'm thinking to myself, waita second, here, now what
is colorism. It just seems soironic that within the black community there would
be discrimination against different shaded people,and I thought that was just absolutely crazy.
(08:46):
But that's maybe the nature of humans, sadly, And so yeah,
yeah, I mean, within toyour point, especially the trans community,
one of the biggest sort of gaymen in particular, right, So again,
(09:09):
and we're generalizing by by saying this, but it's illustrative none the least,
but the sort of gay men thatyou the upper echelon to your beautiful
gay men and fire island that youyou know, described men like that.
So often we'll say, you know, I just don't get the T,
and they'll literally just use the letterwithin the acronym of lgbtqia, not even
(09:35):
you know, say transgender folks,and not even speak the whole name right
of their identity, but just say, you know, I don't get the
T. I don't get that,you know, And and they're bringing us
down and they make it difficult forus to you know, look at the
right and Republicans and how they youknow, hone it. I mean just
this dialogue, right, and we'rewithin the LGBTQ right plus community, and
(10:01):
yet you have a lot of gaymen who will say that, as well
as lesbians and whatnot. But justagain speaking in generalizations for generalization's sake,
bisexuals, you know, feel invisible. No one really talks about them,
no one believes they exist within theLGB. You know, it's like pick
aside already, you know, like, yeah, you know. I was
(10:22):
actually at a dinner conversation many manyyears ago, and it was gay man
and one bisexual man, and allof the gay men said, listen,
basically choose, choose aside, andthey didn't believe that he was bisexual.
And I thought that was so interesting. You're just still confused. Yeah,
you'll figure it out, right,you're gay, right, Well, we'll
(10:43):
be here, we can figure itout kind of. Yeah. And so
there's that. And then then also, and as you very well know,
there was a big controversy in thegayborhood about discrimination against people of color,
gay men of color in particular.That became a big, big thing.
And again you always think to yourselfin your little you know, sweetheart,
(11:11):
if someone is oppressed, don't youidentify with other people that are oppressed.
Well, clearly that's not the case. And certainly it wasn't the case in
the Gaborhood, and that became abig issue that ended up I feel like
opening the eyes of a lot offolks in the Gaborhood because the training,
so the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission andRulandau, who's running for city council right
(11:35):
now, was the head of thatat the time, mandated with the mayor
mandated training sensitivity training for all bartendersof all gay bars in the Gaborhood,
right. And so one of alot of my friends are bartenders in the
Gaborhood, and so I asked themabout it and what their experience was going
(11:56):
through the training, and they evensaid that they didn't realize one of the
trainings. It was a video thatthey watched where the bartender has their back
to the bar, right, andpeople walk up to the bar, and
then the bartender turns around and howthey'll nine out of ten times immediately helped
the white persons not asking, okay, who showed up first, right,
(12:22):
and so so that unconscious like goto and the bias right that they didn't
even know they had. So itwas like little trainings that open their eyes
to oh, yeah, I dodo that, I don't turn around and
say, Kate, who got herefirst? I let my unconscious bias to
(12:43):
direct me to whoever I feel mostcomfortable when I turn around, right,
and and to transcend that. Soit was, it was it. There
was a lot of news around it, and rightfully so because there and and
I can speak to a lot ofeye openings that occurred for the individual bartenders
(13:07):
in the Gaborhood that but for thattraining would not have even known about unconscious
bias and the ways in which itimpacted how they treat people. Because people
go out to the Gabor adapt fun. It's a Saturday night, right,
they don't want they're constantly reminded thatthey're black, that they're trans that they're
(13:28):
this again the intersectionality, right,that they're this other additional minority within the
minority that they're in. And thento be so blatantly reminded when you're within
your community out on a Saturday nighttrying to have fun. So, yeah,
that was definitely a turning point,I feel like for the Gaborhood.
Yeah, and as your report indicates, there's a lot to be worked on
(13:54):
in the community regarding equity and inclusion, and it's very important for us to
be aware that these are issues thatimpact us all, that it's not just
the larger community that has this problem, but it's it's in all communities,
including the lgbt QIA well as alwaysa pleasure to speak with you. You're
(14:16):
awesome and maybe not a death dulayet, but but but hey, I
love what you do and I loveyour your big heart that you can encompass
such a an adorable little puppy thatI am seeing. Because this is video
on our side, we're doing avirtual zoom and I'll just let folks imagine
(14:39):
this adorable little Chihuahua that's on yourlap, Angela Dmpolo. If people want
more information about the work that youdo through Gmpolo Law, how do they
find you? Yep, you cango on my website Jampolo law dot com
and you'll see a little video ofme and Nico they're saying hi to you.
And you can also look at myblog at Lawyer lgbt Awesome Angelo Gian
(15:01):
Polo Gi and Polo Law and thehost of this little segment that we call
speak Out where we talk about lgbtq I A plus issues that not only
affect that community but really impact usall. Thank you so much, Thank
you larn Okay,
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