December 12, 2024 • 44 mins
Shaun Proulx is one of the most versatile talents in media and entertainment today. He has credits as a television personality and host, producer, talk radio host, motivational speaker, columnist, author, publisher, actor, live event host, spokesperson, and activist for the issues of mental health, animal rights, and HIV stigma. Visit: shaunproulx.substack.com & https://shaunproulxmedia.com/ Listen:https://www.siriusxm.ca/channels/canada-talks/
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the Best Ever You Show with Elizabeth Hamilton Garino.
Here to help you find success in all areas of
your life. The power is in your hands. Join our
network for free at bestevere dot com and now here's Elizabeth.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Hey, everybody, welcome to the Best Ever You Show. We
have been notified that blog Talk Radio is closing at
the end of January, so we have switched over to
iHeartRadio Speaker and also Riverside FM, so this will be
one of the last shows we do over here live
on blog Talk Radio. We are sure going to miss
(00:38):
being over here for fourteen years now and it has
been wonderful. But today I have a very special guest
with me. I have Sean Prue with me. Sean, I
think I hear you there.
Speaker 3 (00:50):
Hello, Hello, you hear my breathing. Hi, hell you, I
hear you.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
I'd love to see your beautiful face. But you know,
I don't know about you, but my hair is a mess.
So well we're going to sing.
Speaker 4 (01:02):
I thought this is audio only, and then at the
last minute you sort of said video and I was like, no,
I've been wearing my winter coat all day along with
my foot up. My hair is like twenty different directions
right now, I can't do video.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
Yeah, I hear you, Yeah, same thing. My hair's on
top of my head, my glasses are on and I'm good.
So but you know you, you're so modest with your bio.
I'm going to just I'm going to read everybody this
for a second. It's so you are so talented, So
I multi talented in the media and entertainment industry, so loved.
You're a TV personality, a host, a producer, a talk
(01:35):
show host for a really long time up there on
Sirius XM and Canada, motivational speaker. You write columns, you
pet books, also acting, publishing, live event hosts. But anything
that you can do, you Oh, it's so neat and
I and one of my favorite things too is here's
the big one activist for issues of mental health, animal rights,
(01:59):
and h stigma. I think that's just where I want
to go right off the bat with you. Tell me,
tell me what's uh, what's happening in your world these days?
Speaker 4 (02:09):
Well, you know, if you want to talk to animal rights,
I'm a big proponent of of of treating animals as
well as we treat ourselves. Really on my lap, right
now I have a beautiful Cocker Spaniel mixed with I
think hound dog. He's four and he's a rescue from Turkey.
He was living on the streets of his den Bull
(02:30):
for two years.
Speaker 3 (02:31):
As a puppy.
Speaker 4 (02:32):
And I don't know if you know about the situation there,
but they slaughter dogs there. They round them all up.
You can see horrible videos of the backs of trucks
with these garbage bags full of dogs wriggling and trying
to get out of these bags, and they slaughter them.
Speaker 3 (02:48):
It's a very sad situation over there. So I was lucky.
Speaker 4 (02:52):
I got him just in the nick of time because
Canada stopped allowing dogs from other countries except for the
US of Mexico, almost like two days after I got him.
So I always remind him what a lucky guy he is.
Speaker 3 (03:07):
Turkey. What's his name and layout?
Speaker 2 (03:13):
I didn't know you named it.
Speaker 3 (03:16):
I shouldn't be unlucky, but he.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
Lucky. I wish I was doing videos.
Speaker 4 (03:24):
And I think I think mental health has has got
a nice spotlight shawn on it right now. We've got
an initiative up here that certainly has has made it
normal to talk about mental health issues. I've always been
open about the fact that I've sought mental health assistant
since my twenties when I just wasn't feeling myself and
(03:46):
I couldn't figure out why. So I don't go all
the time. But over the years, I've certainly gleaned a
lot of insight and knowledge about myself and tools.
Speaker 3 (03:57):
And I don't think anyone should be ashamed of saying,
you know, we'll go to the doctor for a cold.
Speaker 4 (04:03):
You know what I mean, We're a bit of a
flu bug or something, and we'll race off to the
doctor for some help. But we're feeling anxious, we're feeling depressed.
We don't know why we don't feel the way we
like to feel, and we don't do anything about it.
And so it's good to speak ood about that.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
I think, yeah, and rights and things like that. I
know we're going to talk about a lot of different things,
but tell me what you mean about HIV stigma as well.
Go there if you would please.
Speaker 4 (04:31):
Well, that's the last frontier, or the new frontier that
we face in the HIV AIDS movement now is stigma.
You know, we're blessed now to have medication you can
take called prep that stops you, and I think about
ninety six point nine percent of all cases of acquiring
the HIV virus, and so we have that, we have
(04:54):
kind of a morning after pill, and we have pills
for those who are HIV positive to keep them what's
known as undetectable, which means that you cannot transmit the
virus to anybody.
Speaker 3 (05:04):
We live in a blessed, blessed, blessed, blessed.
Speaker 4 (05:06):
World, but people who acquire HIV still these days they're
ashamed of it, and they're they're marginalized for it, they're
othered for it. They do that to themselves, and the
society around us does it to them as well. We
still live in sadly, in an era that is not
(05:27):
that far away from the Reagan era when he wouldn't
even use the word.
Speaker 3 (05:31):
AIDS for eight years after.
Speaker 4 (05:32):
It beginning to become an epidemic. We still have this
kind of really bad association about HIV. And I think
it's because it's acquired through sex, and it's acquired through
intravenous needle use, and.
Speaker 3 (05:45):
So sex and drugs, so those are so taboots still
in our world.
Speaker 4 (05:50):
And when we think about people who are HIV positive,
we talk about them being dirty. We do that with
a lot of medical conditions. You know, your doctor comes
back and said the test you're clean, Well, you weren't
dirty if the tests.
Speaker 3 (06:02):
Weren't clean, right y stigmatized. But you know, you use.
Speaker 4 (06:08):
People alcoholics or drug users will say, oh, I haven't
been using for a while, I'm clean. Well, you weren't
dirty when you were using. You had an addiction disease.
And so we have all of the stigma around HIV
and it's still alive and well. And so I believe
in talking about it as someone who is HIV positive,
undetectable and not ashamed of that, and I think others
(06:33):
should as well. And so I'm big on helping and
the stigmatization of a disease that we only get from
being human. Sextis is a human thing.
Speaker 3 (06:45):
Don't you think it's.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
Important to share your stories like you're just doing, to
be vulnerable about it because it helps. It's like somebody's
listening right now and they don't feel good. They might
have just heard your voice and you might have saved
their life.
Speaker 4 (06:57):
I always say that on my show too with I
guess they also things that I just know somebody is
listening and that they've they've been changed from it, whether
that's not feeling so alone anymore, or whether it's been
giving information or inspiration.
Speaker 3 (07:12):
So I know exactly what you mean there. I hope
that's the.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
Case right now, and I hope so too. Tell me
about you as a kindergartener. Oh yeah, all the way back.
Take me back to like you know, baby.
Speaker 4 (07:27):
Sean, I was the little boy who would go out
and play with all the other kids, and the mothers
would come up to my mother really annoyed at the
end of the play date because they would be like,
Sean Prue played the exact same games as all the
other kids, playing in the dirt, playing in the grass,
playing rolling around, doing all the things. And his outfit
(07:49):
is completely clean and perfect, ripped up, soiled, destroyed, and
here comes show and is the love it? And you
wouldn't know play the same games. And my mother used
to laugh. And I think that's still me today. I
don't like to get dirty, but I'll still play the
(08:11):
same games as everyone else.
Speaker 2 (08:14):
Were you did you know that you had had young
talent for TV, radio, acting all that stuff too.
Speaker 4 (08:22):
Yeah, My mom chucked me into bed one night and
she said, what do you want to be when you
grew up, and I said, an actress. Boys are actors,
they're not actresses. And I was like, whatever, that's what
I want to hear. I knew from a young age
that I was a creative kid and was leaned heavily
(08:44):
into my creativity.
Speaker 3 (08:45):
And I think for queer people that.
Speaker 4 (08:51):
We lean into that side of ourselves a little bit
more readily, because there's an element of escapism as well
that comes into the lives of young queer people who
don't feel like they fit in, who feel very different.
No they're different somehow, don't know why there's they feel
that way, And so I think escapism for creativity is
(09:13):
something that's not unique to me. I think a lot
of little gay boys and queer girls do the same
thing always, you know.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
I think all of us, no matter who we are,
we just want to be included. Like that's one of
the things that I love about you, Like from I've
known you since I think I started best ever you
and you were like you go girl, you know. And
I'm a mom of four sons. They're twenty three, twenty five,
twenty seven, and twenty nine now, and I've known you
for a really long time, and I remember thinking, you know,
we're different, and yet we're not. And I remember thinking
(09:48):
that for a really long time ago, with you just going.
You know, you accepted me, and I always love you
for that.
Speaker 4 (09:58):
Of course, why wouldn't I doing great things? You continue
to do great things. Of Course I accepted you.
Speaker 3 (10:03):
I was.
Speaker 4 (10:04):
I was inspired by you and me you and in
awe of you and what you've done.
Speaker 3 (10:10):
And I still am.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
Yeah, me, you too. I've seen us climb and it's
so much fun. It's it's really cool.
Speaker 3 (10:18):
So welcome to the lot, everybody.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
Oh yeah, isn't it fun? This is the way it
should be. Actually, there's so much hate out there. It's like,
oh man, enough of the hate already, you know, and
I get. I know you and I had discussions like
you were supposed to be on like I don't know
how long ago, during the you know, like the day
after the election or something. You are both like I
don't know, and neither do I, and we were both like.
Speaker 3 (10:42):
Do this the day after the election. I couldn't.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
I couldn't either. We both looked at each other and
we're like, oh, I.
Speaker 4 (10:49):
Was in shock and such disappointments. I couldn't believe the
way the election turned out, and to a degree I
still can't, and I'm even though I live in Canada,
in Toronto. I watch US politics very closely. I watch
an MSNBC a couple hours every night almost and to
(11:10):
stay informed. Because of the things that trickle that happened
down in the States, they trickle up here. We've got
a leader of our Conservative party who is very right
wing and is playing from a Trumpian playbook as well,
like he wants to the degree that MAGA means make
America America great again. His slogan has fixed Canada. The
(11:32):
underlying subtext is that it's broken, which is the same
story Trump has been running on for however long he's
been in politics. Now that it's broken and those are
the beginnings of authoritarianism, and he's playing for the same playbook.
So I watch US politics a lot, not just out
of interest, but because I want to see what's going
(11:55):
to happen up here. We see it all the time,
and you know, one great example is the the attacks
on trans people, the attacks on drag queens, the attacks
on of the queer community, making us into pedophiles and
all that kind of those tropes that have been going
on for centuries now, that's all trickled up here. As
(12:18):
soon as it started in the States, it began up
here as well. So it's important to keep an eyeball
on you, guys, because you're the leading indicator of what's happening.
Speaker 2 (12:28):
You know, what do we do when you know entire
groups of people are friends or potentially having their human
rights in fear and jeopardy? What do we do?
Speaker 3 (12:45):
Well, if you're talking about a group of people such
as the queer.
Speaker 4 (12:48):
Community, we need allies more than we've ever needed allies.
And a lot of people think allyship is just showing
up at pride and joining in the dancing and the family,
the parade and all that sort of stuff. And that's important.
That's important too. But you've got to you've got to
speak up when you hear nonsense being said about any group,
whether it's black people, Latinos, queer people, whatever marginalized group
(13:13):
is being under the attack, it's important that you speak
up and not allow that to be the conversations that's
being had, whether it's at the dinner table, is coming Christmas,
or whether it's just in general. When you hear someone
on the subway say something. You must speak up because
you can't just you you stay silent.
Speaker 3 (13:31):
You can flicit.
Speaker 4 (13:32):
Yeah, you're part of the problem and staying silent. So Allyship,
I think is needed more than ever there in the
States where you are and here in Canada. We need
to stand together as the communities. And we also need
both people who are this frankly, the straight white people
to stand up and speak up and speak out and
(13:54):
say to.
Speaker 2 (13:55):
Gather people, yeah, you know, I want to tell you
this story and it's going to come out choppy and
it may not come out right, but just hear me
out for a second. So our sons both graduated from
Georgetown University with their master's degrees in twenty twenty four. Wow, yeah,
really cool, really cool moment. And so the way we
(14:16):
do little celebrations is we take people out to a steakhouse.
So me and my husband and kids, and his sister
and Beyonce's friends, you know, everybody. We all gathered at
a steakhouse in DC and I made reservations at Annie's
Paramount Steakhouse. And so I looked at the reservation and
(14:38):
I'm like, huh, I wonder if we're going to be
welcome here. So I placed a phone call and I said,
you know, this is a predominantly you know not I
don't know, you know how to say it. I'm looking
for their wording as we're talking. But not a place
where like we would go all the time for a steakhouse.
(14:59):
You know, it's it's gay couples and get you know,
it's it's flags everywhere and things like that. And I'm like,
are we going to be welcome there? You know what?
You know what I mean, just like the reverse of it, right,
And so I called and I said, are we okay?
Can we come in? Because I really want to be
there all of my friends are you know okay? I
(15:20):
have drag queen friends, I have every kind of friend
known to mankind. Are we welcome there? There are twelve
of us coming in, and he said, bring it on.
You're going to have the best dinner of your life.
And I can't tell you the number of people that
came up to us. We could barely all eat because
everybody was hugging us and telling us how much they
loved we were there and telling us what a beautiful
(15:40):
it makes me cry, what a beautiful family we had,
and on and on and on. It was I can't
I might have goosebumps. I love them so much. There
they made us have the best memory ever. And it
wasn't intentional and we were kind of scared because we
(16:02):
didn't fit in at all. But I mean that, and
then we did.
Speaker 3 (16:06):
They know what it's like to not fit in to you.
Speaker 2 (16:10):
No, it was beautiful. It was I wish like CBS
Sunday Morning would have followed us in or something to
show you how the world's supposed to be. You know,
that's kind of cry Oh god, it was so I love.
Speaker 3 (16:26):
Them this world. Yeah, moments like that.
Speaker 2 (16:31):
Yeah, yeah, And we have a it makes me cry
and we have a no, And I want to just
touch people's hearts with this conversation about how hard it
is when you don't fit in, because it makes people
so I feel like.
Speaker 3 (16:54):
Related feeling they're wrong? What did they do wrong?
Speaker 4 (16:59):
I find me a queer person, especially someone in my
age when the times have changed so much now. But
I can't tell you how much bargaining I did with
God to make me straight when I was a young boy,
when I was a teenager, when I was becoming a man,
I wanted to be straight.
Speaker 3 (17:18):
Because it was just so.
Speaker 4 (17:19):
I was so tired of being othered by schoolmates and
fellow students and adults around me in my community. I
was so different than everybody, and that difference has been
a blessing in my life and has been me unique.
But at the time when retina support and stuff like that,
(17:41):
I know so many people who are in my age
bracket who say the same thing. I used to ask
God to make me straight and to not make me gay.
It was just a terrible way to be. But at
the same time, it's a blessing because I think the
people who have had the roughest starts in life, whatever
(18:03):
that may look like for you, they're the ones that
become the most extraordinary later.
Speaker 3 (18:07):
On in life. That's not the brightest, you know, I
think you've had nothing that ever happened to them.
Speaker 4 (18:13):
That are that are the dull, boring ones in life
because nothing is the worst thing that can happen to you.
Speaker 2 (18:19):
Yeah, yeah, I know. It's funny. I sometimes say, please,
I don't want to have food allergies anymore. I've been
resuscitated twice. I just want to eat something. And that
was the other thing they took care of me too.
Because I always feel like a fish out of water
with the life threatening food allergies that I have. So
I called them. They're like, well, we are going to give
you the best dinner you've ever had. You're going to
live through it. And they oh, they were just so cool.
(18:44):
Yeah yeah, no, is that just like that? They were
just the coolest people. So anyway, I love Annie's Steakhouse.
Annie's Paramount Steakhouse in DC is amazing. STA shout out everybody.
Oh yeah, I love them. So the other thing I
think too, is that you know, sometimes without conversations like this,
(19:06):
we don't understand each other at all.
Speaker 4 (19:09):
And yep, well just you know, we're talking about allyship
and what can people do and that sort of thing.
To talk to each other as well and just have
a conversation doesn't have to be full of threats. It
doesn't have to start getting violence, you don't have to
start calling to the names. Just have a conversation, because
you know what it's like, even though you're a straight
(19:31):
person to feel different, and you just talked about having
life threatening allergies that stop you from enjoying your life
and stuff like that. That's a very unique situation. You
feel alone and different in that as well, so you
can relate to me feeling different. We're so much more connected.
(19:51):
It's such a cliche, but we are. We're so much
more alike than we are different. And if we just
take the time to get to know each other a
little bit more, know your neighbor a little bit more,
you see that you've got more in common than you
have the differences. And we've got the likes of Trump.
And as the guy's name up here is kier palie Eva,
trying to divide us all and make us all angry
(20:13):
with each other.
Speaker 3 (20:14):
Don't fall for that trap.
Speaker 4 (20:16):
It's it's classic authoritarianism once again, dividing the people up,
making them afraid of each other. Don't, don't. Don't fall
in line with that. Know your people, know your neighbors. Yeah,
even better, so I don't agree with you.
Speaker 2 (20:33):
Oh yeah, yeah true.
Speaker 3 (20:35):
Right.
Speaker 2 (20:35):
So we were this is years ago now, We were
walking in the mall here in Maine and my husband's like,
I really need a haircut. I'm just going to get
a really quick haircut over at Mastercuts, and I'm like,
you go for it, you know kind of thing. And
this kid named Nick Irish was like I'll cut your hair.
I've got you, okay, mister Greeno, I've got you kind
of thing. You know. It was so cute. And now
(20:58):
over the years we've gotten to know Nick as family.
His name is Nick Irish and he is a drag
queen and he tells he's come over. He comes over
to our house to cut her hair. He does all
sorts of amazing things for us. During COVID, he came
over and cut her hair in the garage, no kind
(21:19):
of thing, so we could have haircuts. And he's such
a cool soul. But when he when he when he
is in drag, he looks like Marilyn Monroe, like it's
like night and day, Like, oh my god, how do
you do that kind of thing? He has the best
blonde hair. He knows my blonde hair so well, oh
(21:44):
my god. Yeah, so if you get it wrong, you've
got the wrong color.
Speaker 3 (21:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (21:49):
And I'm fifty five now, so I've got gray coming
in all the stuff to deal with. So anyway, he
is the most lovely human being. So when I when
he's here, when I have conversations with him or I
talked to him about things, you know, I always want
to know, like what what's happened, what's happening to you,
what's going on in your life, what's happened to you?
You know, because sometimes you'll be like sad and things
like that, and he will tell me, like some of
(22:12):
the meanest crap that has happened to him over his life,
and he's the nicest human being on the planet. Why
do I want to go there? Because I know we
were talking about your sub stack and things like that,
and you said, I'm going to just go why the
drag hate? Why the drag hate? But I just want
to I know, I skipped around a little bit and
(22:32):
I know.
Speaker 3 (22:33):
So he's got so everybody listening.
Speaker 2 (22:35):
Sean pro Crue got subs substack dot com. I'm going
to spy your last name it's p r o U
l X and I'll put a link up and you
but you've got topics here and like that one. That
one stuck out to me because I have a friend,
you know, a bestie who's a drag queen and it
(22:57):
hurts my feelings. And I also my dream you know,
my I love I love you, but you know, I
want to know who my absolute dream interview is. It's
never gonna happen. Do you want who it is?
Speaker 3 (23:07):
It's I've interviewed Love I lovel too.
Speaker 2 (23:17):
The best.
Speaker 3 (23:18):
Yeah, Yeah, I interviewed him once. Her at the back. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (23:24):
I've interviewed her a couple of times, but the first
time was at the back of an airport shuttle because
she was going to a gig and her hair was
so big it wouldn't fit in a car. Yes, so
we rode the back of this shuttle together having a
chin wag for forty minutes going to her gig.
Speaker 3 (23:46):
Her success. Yeah. Oh, so you want to talk about
why the drag queen hate kind of.
Speaker 2 (23:54):
Yeah, because I don't understand it.
Speaker 3 (23:58):
Well, I think it's about Missagua.
Speaker 4 (24:00):
To me, I think a man in the heels and
address who's self determined pushes really uncomfortably hard against where
a lot of society is firmly rooted on the topic
of women and autonomy, because a woman, to a lot
of society is less than you know. Madonna's saying about
that in her two thousand and sung what it feels
(24:20):
Like for a girl. Girls can wear genes and cut
their hair, short wear shirts and boots because.
Speaker 3 (24:24):
It's okay to be a boy.
Speaker 4 (24:26):
But for a boy to look like a girl is degrading,
because you think being a girl is degrading. So what
kind of man sacrifices massculinity and trade down and find
personal liberty as a woman in the doing. You know,
we hate the idea of a powerful woman in our
patriarchal society, the one that knows their value, that they're
(24:47):
inconvenient to have around. Women who delight in who they are,
like drag queens do, who don't need to fix themselves.
There's a lot of effort to keep up with a
woman like that, which is why women are suppressed. They're
held back from thinking about reaching the fullest of who
they really are as early as childhood. Our society is
held bent on keeping women in their place insecure. We
(25:08):
teach them through the media or any shop they go
into selling all the beauty products so that she can
use to correct it and prove herself that she will
never be enough. Constantly women are being told theres something
wrong with them. We don't want to see autonomous women.
You know, look at it in your country, the male
led fight to rest away women from women control over
their own bodies. You know, it's dystopic and woman should
(25:33):
be whoever the f she wants to be, and we
oppress women and we don't like it when a man
actually chooses to look and act like one in drag.
Speaker 3 (25:43):
That's my theory.
Speaker 2 (25:45):
That's a good theory. It's an interesting theory. Yeah, I'm
gonna just leave that. I formulate thoughts sometimes on this topic,
but I do as a female, fifty five year old female,
I can't tell you how many times in the workplace.
I've had uncomfortable encounters with men.
Speaker 3 (26:04):
Oh I'm sure, I'm sure.
Speaker 2 (26:06):
I can't even I could. I could go on and
on and on. It's a different show. I mean, like,
right off the bat, I was a news anchor. Made
me never want to be a news anchor again. Some
guy hit as the general manager of a news station,
hitting on me, saying if I did this, I'd be
the weather girl in Ohio in a shot, you know.
And I'm like, oh no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,
(26:26):
you know kind of thing. And it's interesting. That's an
interesting analogy, for sure, But you know how the.
Speaker 4 (26:33):
Wherewithal to say now though, a lot of women don't
know how to say no to that.
Speaker 2 (26:38):
Hell no, actually, oh hell no, hell no, hell no. Yeah,
and then and then really did a big rethink on
the news business. It made me go, oh, this is
the way this is going to be. And then you go,
as a twenty year old kid, you go, oh shit,
this is the way this all kind of is right now,
because remember I'm one hundred and it was like that.
(27:00):
It was bumpy all over the place, and oh yeah.
And then and then you'd come across those men gems
that weren't like that, and you were like, oh my god,
you're not going to hit on me. You're just gonna
let me work. Really, Oh this is beautiful. And I've
had a lot of those two and it's like, thank god, yeah,
but tell me then this could be. If this is
(27:23):
a really stupid question, I cannot edit this out. So
if this is stupid, just laugh at me, right, okay, okay,
what about like a.
Speaker 3 (27:30):
Movie like Tutsie, what about it?
Speaker 2 (27:34):
Oh yeah, what about it? Like that's kind of like
is that not kind of draggish in a way?
Speaker 3 (27:43):
Yeah, one of the top. Everything's dragged. Everything's dragged.
Speaker 4 (27:49):
It's just a decision on how you're presenting yourself at
any given moment in time. Like we're all born naked
and the rest is drag, is what she says. And
my my friend Leo was a he's retired now, but
he taught grade two for most of his teaching career,
and so he had his day drag he would call it,
and then his after work drag, but he always called
(28:12):
it drag. And his day drag was really just a
suit and tie for teaching, and then his drag drag
was jeans and the tea shirt, but he always called
a drag. And RuPaul calls it all drag. So what
interesting is a woman or was it?
Speaker 3 (28:25):
However you're presenting yourself, that's your drag.
Speaker 2 (28:29):
Got it? Okay, that's good learning, right there. I'll have
to look at that a little more. Yeah, yeah, all right,
What else? What else is on your sub steck that
you want to talk about? Because there's some really good
there's really good stuff here.
Speaker 4 (28:41):
Well, I'm really happy with the way it's it's turning out.
I mean a lot of traffic to it. I'm trying
to find stories that people don't normally introduce people to,
people who you don't really.
Speaker 3 (28:52):
Get a chance to meet.
Speaker 4 (28:53):
So my latest post is called what to Do if
You're kidnapped and it takes you behind the scenes of
humanitarian aid worker named Kessa. That's not her real name,
but we use a pseudonym so she could talk more freely.
She's been to Gaza, Kiev, Somalia, Yemen. She's supposed to
go to Afghanistan, but that got canceled.
Speaker 3 (29:14):
She's back in Gaza.
Speaker 4 (29:16):
Right now and she sees a lot of incredible things
and one of the dangers it's always predominant in wherever
she goes, is the risk of being kidnapped. And so
she lays out what she knows about kidnappings, and it's
fascinating because there's three types of kidnappings.
Speaker 3 (29:35):
There's the one.
Speaker 4 (29:35):
That you get held for ransom for, there's the one
that you get held for as a political statement, and
there's the one that's where you're kind of a bargaining
ship get you'll be released at the hostage just the
other country really, since they're hostage type of thing. And
the whole object is to stay alive, of course, and
there's all kinds of ways in which you can try
(29:56):
and stay alive, unless you're a political statement, because the
chances are really high that you're going to be killed,
because that's the point of having kidnapped you to begin with,
so your chances are really low. But the other ones
have all these tips and tricks, and she just goes
into the details of those and it is just fascinating
to me. She's a fascinating woman, especially because she in
(30:19):
twenty twenty quit her career to start doing this, and
now she's sixty years old and going into places like
Gaza and helping out there, and I find that a fascinating.
Speaker 3 (30:29):
It's never too late story as well. You know, we
get we age, all of us age. I'm fifty five.
Speaker 4 (30:36):
Fifty six now, and I'm not sure I could contemplate
beginning a new career again. And yet there was a
guest on the View today that I overheard saying that
at fifty five her mother moved to Paris and began
her life a new way back when and shoes very
inspired by that. So I'm inspired by stories like that,
(30:56):
and like test a story and also a store on
there about my friend Aaron, who became homeless suddenly. I
watched his homelessness happen. He lost his roommate, he couldn't
find a new roommate. His landlord blessedly lewed him stay
there for almost nine months, paying only half of the
(31:17):
rent and then finally evicted him. And he's a gay guy,
and gay guys are resourceful, and he had nowhere to go.
He couched, heurved for a while, but that he's running
out of you know, couches after a time, so he
would get on apps like grinder and hook up with
guys to have a roof overt's head. But the problem
is is that if you're hooking up with guys, they
(31:38):
expect you to hook up. And he would be meeting
guys at like two or three in the morning, and
the problem with that is that if you're hooking up
with guys at two or three in the morning, they're
probably using substances to stay up that late. And so
Aaron would be up at guy's places using substances like
crystal math and to stay up and party. So he's
getting no sleep, who's eating nothing, And when you have
(32:01):
that combination, it's very dangerous. He started to become develop
auditory hallucinations and then visual hallucinations and start to almost
lose his mind. And so it's the story of what
happened to him all because he'd lost his roommate, and
we see so much homelessness here in Canada, and especially
in Toronto. I don't know what it's like where you are,
(32:22):
but I know that homelessness is a problem in the
US as well. We have encampments in all.
Speaker 3 (32:27):
Of our parks, people lying on the streets. It's just
pardon me for a rich nation like we have, like
you are, it shouldn't be this way.
Speaker 4 (32:40):
And he had no support. He couldn't go to shelters
because they're violence and dangerous there. It's just the story
of his spiral downward and me watching it. I tried
to help him as best I could. He stayed over
many times. I buy him food and stuff like that.
But it's a story that's kind of chilling because it
(33:01):
can happen to you, could happen to me. And I
talked about the types of homelessness there are. There's people
get divorced, there relationships end, they've got nowhere to go.
People leave abusive relationships, they've got nowhere to go. People
in the pandemic lost their livelihoods, they had nowhere to go.
And one of the reasons we've got so much of
(33:22):
a homeless situation here is because of the pandemic, and
that shouldn't be either. We should be taking care of
people a pandemic hit.
Speaker 3 (33:29):
It's not their fault they lost their livelihood. So I'm
ready about subjects like that as well.
Speaker 2 (33:36):
Don't forget that a lot of people, including my parents,
were like a medical bill away from homelessness. My parents
would be homeless had we paid your house payment among
my dad had a stroke in two thousand and four.
It just completely turned their entire But you know, my
dad lived from two thousand and four to twenty eighteen,
(33:57):
but it turned their lives completely upside down, Like had
we not made their house payments and things like that,
they'd be homeless.
Speaker 3 (34:02):
Oh yeah, yeah, that's that's all it takes.
Speaker 4 (34:05):
And so we have a we have holes in our
net and people are falling through those holes, and we've
got to we've got to tighten it up and repair
that and make it so that people get the assistance
and the.
Speaker 3 (34:17):
Help that they need. People aren't choosing to be homeless.
Speaker 4 (34:20):
We have a terrible premiere of Ontario who's kind of
like the governor, I guess in your system, and he
said homeless people should go out and get a job,
and it was such a myopic comment, such an uneducated,
privileged comment to make that. He disgusted so of humanitarians
(34:40):
here when he said it, because that's that's a man
who should be out there helping people who are homeless.
Speaker 3 (34:47):
You know.
Speaker 4 (34:48):
And I'm so sick and tired of the politicians and
their photo ops at Thanksgiving and at Christmas time. I'm ranting,
I know, but they go to the food banks and
they pose with the workers and say what great work
there all doing, and how how, how how they are
saints for doing this work. There shouldn't be there shouldn't
be food banks. I'm just going to go, you know,
(35:09):
those very politicians should be making it so that food
banks are eradicated, not posing for photos in them. Yeah,
I'm not but on my high horse right now. But
those are the such of things that I explore in
that in that article.
Speaker 2 (35:24):
I think we're going to need to be on our
high horses a little bit to make sure we take
care of everybody from a humanitarian standpoint. You know, tell
me what you think like humanity to be a humanitarian
like humanity needs right now. I know we I was
going to go next into you with like food safety
and food security, but you know it's it's everything from
(35:44):
you know, rights, food, housing, shelter. I mean just there's
like so many facets of it that are just falling down,
and like I get, I get really really sad when
I see people that don't have food. It really freaks
me out. Yeah. Absolutely. I was in a Olympia snow
(36:08):
leadership foundation here in Maine. She's got she's a former senator,
and she has a foundation that helps people graduate from
helps women girls graduate from high school who might otherwise
have something thrown in their path to prevent it, for example,
you know, a parental circumstance or whatever. And I volunteered
(36:31):
to be a leader and help these five girls graduate,
which all of them did. But I cried all the
way home ninety minutes. My husband had to drive me
to and from the meeting with them because it made
me so sad. I just wanted to like adopt all
of them, and you can't.
Speaker 3 (36:49):
Do that kind of thing.
Speaker 2 (36:50):
So what I would do is I would secretly write
checks to the school so that like the school had
food and back it. Would they would like that? Well, no,
not from that standpoint. I just mean, like it's just
like the conversation of being aware, like scratching below the
(37:11):
surface to be aware of what's really happening with people,
because I don't have to know.
Speaker 4 (37:17):
If we go there's an empathy, you know. I had
to go down to the mall near me and I
took an uber the other day because it's just too
cold and gross and wet out and there's too much
construction by that mall, and so it dropped me off
about a block or so away, and I was going
through this kind of you know, construction underpass kind of mess,
(37:40):
and there was a young black man curled up in
the fetal position, and people were all stepped stepping over him,
stepping over him, stepping over him, and he and I
stepped over him too, and then I looked back and
he was just looking forward. He wasn't sleeping, he wasn't
passed out, he was just looking forward in the position.
Speaker 3 (37:59):
I gave him some money and went on my way.
But it's so heartbreaking to me to see people like this.
And I live in a community. I live in the
gay community of Toronto, and.
Speaker 4 (38:12):
So it's a safer area for people to come to
when they're homeless or hungry or whatever, and they sort
of it's less violent. I guess and you see so
many people passed out on the street, Elizabeth, you can't
imagine or just the mental health spike and mental health
issues that have gone up since the pandemic. You know
(38:33):
we've done nothing about that here at all. We've got housing,
we've got hunger, we've got mental health as primary issues
around Canada, around the US. I know here in Toronto
it's really really bad.
Speaker 2 (38:47):
I have a question for you about safety, one of
my friends, and then we'll go. I kept you on
and on here, but I love this conversation. So one
of my friends wrote the book out in the world.
Her name is Amy Sheer, and it is I'll just
read the Shift. It's actually a book by Disney. It
says Meet the first totally inclusive guide for every traveler
(39:09):
out there. And this inspirational guidebook readers will discover one
hundred welcoming destinations where lgbtq IA vacationers and their allies
will feel safe, comfortable, and ready to make the most
of their experiences. Tell me what you think of something
aside from her being my friend, Amy, if you know
it makes me so I was like, oh my god,
(39:30):
I can't believe we need a book like this, and
then I'm like, OK, God, you wrote it. But on
the same on the same I'm like, oh, that makes
me so sad that we need a book like this
tell me about you.
Speaker 4 (39:42):
And it's weird to have a book like this because
for queer people, you're not welcome in many places in
the world. There are seventy two countries in the world
right now where you can be punished for being queer
by being imprisoned or by being killed. You know, when
I talk about my friend Tessa, who's a humanitarian aid
worker and she was in Yemen, she texted me saying,
(40:05):
don't ever come here. It is not good for gay
people at all. She saw people being taken away, she
saw people being beaten all because they were gay, hanged
from cranes on display if you can imagine seeing a
crane like a building crane and someone hanging from it
as a warning to other gays. And so there's seventy
(40:28):
two countries in the world that you don't want to
be going to. And one example, it's improved a lot,
I understand, and friends who are from there say that
it's improved a lot. But Jamaica was the deadliest place
on Earth, according to Time magazine, for queer people about
ten years ago. Again, they've made some yes, and I've
interviewed people who've sought asylum in Canada, queer people who
(40:51):
are from Jamaica, and they tell horror stories of what
it was like there. Again, it's been improving, but you know,
I wouldn't feel comfortable ever going to Jamaica at this point.
And it's important for queer people to know where they're
welcoming when they're not welcome, because where you're not welcome,
it's not just like nose in the air and ignoring you,
we're not serving you or something like.
Speaker 3 (41:12):
That, or not letting you in the hotel.
Speaker 4 (41:13):
It's violence, and it's jail and possibly death. So a
book like your friend's written is very necessary.
Speaker 2 (41:22):
She wrote it with Mark Jason Williams. Together they wrote
that book.
Speaker 3 (41:28):
Good job guys.
Speaker 2 (41:30):
Yep, that's what I said too, And then I went,
oh god, I'm so sorry. We need a book like this, everybody,
you know, I apologize for all of us.
Speaker 4 (41:40):
No, But but going back to what you were talking
about earlier about allyship and what can people do, just
knowing that people listening to this right now, just knowing
that a book like that out there is needed. And
imagine if there was a book for straight people on
on where not to go because it's not safe for you.
Imagine that that's that's part of your experience a little.
Speaker 2 (42:02):
Bit as a woman. I got to tell you that
it's as a woman.
Speaker 3 (42:07):
Yeah, there's a little bit.
Speaker 2 (42:08):
There's a there's a thing. I was at a conference
here that did the main conference for women, and and
one of my books got handed out and everything like that,
and I was all happy. And then I went into
one of the presentations. I took a break from signing
books and went in and listened, and I stumbled upon
hearing a conversation would you rather be in an alleyway
with a man or a bear? Almost one hundred percent
(42:29):
of women will choose a bear.
Speaker 3 (42:30):
So the bear a bear, the bear winds.
Speaker 2 (42:33):
It's like, oh, oh my god.
Speaker 3 (42:35):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (42:36):
And as a mother of four boys, it made my
skin call. I'm like, oh my god, because you don't
think about them being perceived that way because they're such
sweet kids, you know kind of thing that I've got nice,
really nice boys, you know kind of thing. And I'm like, oh,
this is going to be tough on you.
Speaker 4 (42:53):
The other spoil it for everybody. Others spoiled it for everybody.
Speaker 3 (42:57):
But I think our patriarchal society has changed, you know, slowly, slowly, slowly, slowly, slowly.
Speaker 4 (43:03):
We see small movements, we see big movements. We see
me too movements, We see the queer movement. We see
people you know, fighting back. We saw the Winds march
on Washington first time.
Speaker 3 (43:13):
Trump got in. You know, there's there's a sension going on.
It's just taking so damn long.
Speaker 4 (43:20):
Like I don't know where else see it in my
lifetime or not, But I believe it's happening. And I'm
an optimist, and I like to think the good things
are happening in the universe that the universe has are back.
Speaker 2 (43:33):
Yep. I agree. All right, we got to go. We're
out of time. Where do you want people to go
to find you and listen to you and love you.
Speaker 4 (43:39):
We'll go to Seanprue dot substack dot com. Go to
Seris XM channel one sixty seven on weekends to hear
the Sean Prue Show, and you can find out more
about me at Seanpru dot com. And Elizabeth, I love you,
Thank you so much for having me on your show today.
Speaker 2 (43:53):
I love you too, all right, Thanks everybody for listening,
Take care and have a beautiful day and visit us
at bestevere dot com. We thank you, Sean, thank you
for listening.
Speaker 1 (44:03):
We're so glad you tuned in. Be brave, be bold,
See you, and remember to visit us at besteveru dot com.
Welcome to the Best Ever You Show with Elizabeth Hamilton Garino.
Here to help you find success in all areas of
your life. The power is in your hands. Join our
network for free at bestevere dot com and now here's Elizabeth.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Hey, everybody, welcome to the Best Ever You Show. We
have been notified that blog Talk Radio is closing at
the end of January, so we have switched over to
iHeartRadio Speaker and also Riverside FM, so this will be
one of the last shows we do over here live
on blog Talk Radio. We are sure going to miss
(00:38):
being over here for fourteen years now and it has
been wonderful. But today I have a very special guest
with me. I have Sean Prue with me. Sean, I
think I hear you there.
Speaker 3 (00:50):
Hello, Hello, you hear my breathing. Hi, hell you, I
hear you.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
I'd love to see your beautiful face. But you know,
I don't know about you, but my hair is a mess.
So well we're going to sing.
Speaker 4 (01:02):
I thought this is audio only, and then at the
last minute you sort of said video and I was like, no,
I've been wearing my winter coat all day along with
my foot up. My hair is like twenty different directions
right now, I can't do video.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
Yeah, I hear you, Yeah, same thing. My hair's on
top of my head, my glasses are on and I'm good.
So but you know you, you're so modest with your bio.
I'm going to just I'm going to read everybody this
for a second. It's so you are so talented, So
I multi talented in the media and entertainment industry, so loved.
You're a TV personality, a host, a producer, a talk
(01:35):
show host for a really long time up there on
Sirius XM and Canada, motivational speaker. You write columns, you
pet books, also acting, publishing, live event hosts. But anything
that you can do, you Oh, it's so neat and
I and one of my favorite things too is here's
the big one activist for issues of mental health, animal rights,
(01:59):
and h stigma. I think that's just where I want
to go right off the bat with you. Tell me,
tell me what's uh, what's happening in your world these days?
Speaker 4 (02:09):
Well, you know, if you want to talk to animal rights,
I'm a big proponent of of of treating animals as
well as we treat ourselves. Really on my lap, right
now I have a beautiful Cocker Spaniel mixed with I
think hound dog. He's four and he's a rescue from Turkey.
He was living on the streets of his den Bull
(02:30):
for two years.
Speaker 3 (02:31):
As a puppy.
Speaker 4 (02:32):
And I don't know if you know about the situation there,
but they slaughter dogs there. They round them all up.
You can see horrible videos of the backs of trucks
with these garbage bags full of dogs wriggling and trying
to get out of these bags, and they slaughter them.
Speaker 3 (02:48):
It's a very sad situation over there. So I was lucky.
Speaker 4 (02:52):
I got him just in the nick of time because
Canada stopped allowing dogs from other countries except for the
US of Mexico, almost like two days after I got him.
So I always remind him what a lucky guy he is.
Speaker 3 (03:07):
Turkey. What's his name and layout?
Speaker 2 (03:13):
I didn't know you named it.
Speaker 3 (03:16):
I shouldn't be unlucky, but he.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
Lucky. I wish I was doing videos.
Speaker 4 (03:24):
And I think I think mental health has has got
a nice spotlight shawn on it right now. We've got
an initiative up here that certainly has has made it
normal to talk about mental health issues. I've always been
open about the fact that I've sought mental health assistant
since my twenties when I just wasn't feeling myself and
(03:46):
I couldn't figure out why. So I don't go all
the time. But over the years, I've certainly gleaned a
lot of insight and knowledge about myself and tools.
Speaker 3 (03:57):
And I don't think anyone should be ashamed of saying,
you know, we'll go to the doctor for a cold.
Speaker 4 (04:03):
You know what I mean, We're a bit of a
flu bug or something, and we'll race off to the
doctor for some help. But we're feeling anxious, we're feeling depressed.
We don't know why we don't feel the way we
like to feel, and we don't do anything about it.
And so it's good to speak ood about that.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
I think, yeah, and rights and things like that. I
know we're going to talk about a lot of different things,
but tell me what you mean about HIV stigma as well.
Go there if you would please.
Speaker 4 (04:31):
Well, that's the last frontier, or the new frontier that
we face in the HIV AIDS movement now is stigma.
You know, we're blessed now to have medication you can
take called prep that stops you, and I think about
ninety six point nine percent of all cases of acquiring
the HIV virus, and so we have that, we have
(04:54):
kind of a morning after pill, and we have pills
for those who are HIV positive to keep them what's
known as undetectable, which means that you cannot transmit the
virus to anybody.
Speaker 3 (05:04):
We live in a blessed, blessed, blessed, blessed.
Speaker 4 (05:06):
World, but people who acquire HIV still these days they're
ashamed of it, and they're they're marginalized for it, they're
othered for it. They do that to themselves, and the
society around us does it to them as well. We
still live in sadly, in an era that is not
(05:27):
that far away from the Reagan era when he wouldn't
even use the word.
Speaker 3 (05:31):
AIDS for eight years after.
Speaker 4 (05:32):
It beginning to become an epidemic. We still have this
kind of really bad association about HIV. And I think
it's because it's acquired through sex, and it's acquired through
intravenous needle use, and.
Speaker 3 (05:45):
So sex and drugs, so those are so taboots still
in our world.
Speaker 4 (05:50):
And when we think about people who are HIV positive,
we talk about them being dirty. We do that with
a lot of medical conditions. You know, your doctor comes
back and said the test you're clean, Well, you weren't
dirty if the tests.
Speaker 3 (06:02):
Weren't clean, right y stigmatized. But you know, you use.
Speaker 4 (06:08):
People alcoholics or drug users will say, oh, I haven't
been using for a while, I'm clean. Well, you weren't
dirty when you were using. You had an addiction disease.
And so we have all of the stigma around HIV
and it's still alive and well. And so I believe
in talking about it as someone who is HIV positive,
undetectable and not ashamed of that, and I think others
(06:33):
should as well. And so I'm big on helping and
the stigmatization of a disease that we only get from
being human. Sextis is a human thing.
Speaker 3 (06:45):
Don't you think it's.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
Important to share your stories like you're just doing, to
be vulnerable about it because it helps. It's like somebody's
listening right now and they don't feel good. They might
have just heard your voice and you might have saved
their life.
Speaker 4 (06:57):
I always say that on my show too with I
guess they also things that I just know somebody is
listening and that they've they've been changed from it, whether
that's not feeling so alone anymore, or whether it's been
giving information or inspiration.
Speaker 3 (07:12):
So I know exactly what you mean there. I hope
that's the.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
Case right now, and I hope so too. Tell me
about you as a kindergartener. Oh yeah, all the way back.
Take me back to like you know, baby.
Speaker 4 (07:27):
Sean, I was the little boy who would go out
and play with all the other kids, and the mothers
would come up to my mother really annoyed at the
end of the play date because they would be like,
Sean Prue played the exact same games as all the
other kids, playing in the dirt, playing in the grass,
playing rolling around, doing all the things. And his outfit
(07:49):
is completely clean and perfect, ripped up, soiled, destroyed, and
here comes show and is the love it? And you
wouldn't know play the same games. And my mother used
to laugh. And I think that's still me today. I
don't like to get dirty, but I'll still play the
(08:11):
same games as everyone else.
Speaker 2 (08:14):
Were you did you know that you had had young
talent for TV, radio, acting all that stuff too.
Speaker 4 (08:22):
Yeah, My mom chucked me into bed one night and
she said, what do you want to be when you
grew up, and I said, an actress. Boys are actors,
they're not actresses. And I was like, whatever, that's what
I want to hear. I knew from a young age
that I was a creative kid and was leaned heavily
(08:44):
into my creativity.
Speaker 3 (08:45):
And I think for queer people that.
Speaker 4 (08:51):
We lean into that side of ourselves a little bit
more readily, because there's an element of escapism as well
that comes into the lives of young queer people who
don't feel like they fit in, who feel very different.
No they're different somehow, don't know why there's they feel
that way, And so I think escapism for creativity is
(09:13):
something that's not unique to me. I think a lot
of little gay boys and queer girls do the same
thing always, you know.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
I think all of us, no matter who we are,
we just want to be included. Like that's one of
the things that I love about you, Like from I've
known you since I think I started best ever you
and you were like you go girl, you know. And
I'm a mom of four sons. They're twenty three, twenty five,
twenty seven, and twenty nine now, and I've known you
for a really long time, and I remember thinking, you know,
we're different, and yet we're not. And I remember thinking
(09:48):
that for a really long time ago, with you just going.
You know, you accepted me, and I always love you
for that.
Speaker 4 (09:58):
Of course, why wouldn't I doing great things? You continue
to do great things. Of Course I accepted you.
Speaker 3 (10:03):
I was.
Speaker 4 (10:04):
I was inspired by you and me you and in
awe of you and what you've done.
Speaker 3 (10:10):
And I still am.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
Yeah, me, you too. I've seen us climb and it's
so much fun. It's it's really cool.
Speaker 3 (10:18):
So welcome to the lot, everybody.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
Oh yeah, isn't it fun? This is the way it
should be. Actually, there's so much hate out there. It's like,
oh man, enough of the hate already, you know, and
I get. I know you and I had discussions like
you were supposed to be on like I don't know
how long ago, during the you know, like the day
after the election or something. You are both like I
don't know, and neither do I, and we were both like.
Speaker 3 (10:42):
Do this the day after the election. I couldn't.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
I couldn't either. We both looked at each other and
we're like, oh, I.
Speaker 4 (10:49):
Was in shock and such disappointments. I couldn't believe the
way the election turned out, and to a degree I
still can't, and I'm even though I live in Canada,
in Toronto. I watch US politics very closely. I watch
an MSNBC a couple hours every night almost and to
(11:10):
stay informed. Because of the things that trickle that happened
down in the States, they trickle up here. We've got
a leader of our Conservative party who is very right
wing and is playing from a Trumpian playbook as well,
like he wants to the degree that MAGA means make
America America great again. His slogan has fixed Canada. The
(11:32):
underlying subtext is that it's broken, which is the same
story Trump has been running on for however long he's
been in politics. Now that it's broken and those are
the beginnings of authoritarianism, and he's playing for the same playbook.
So I watch US politics a lot, not just out
of interest, but because I want to see what's going
(11:55):
to happen up here. We see it all the time,
and you know, one great example is the the attacks
on trans people, the attacks on drag queens, the attacks
on of the queer community, making us into pedophiles and
all that kind of those tropes that have been going
on for centuries now, that's all trickled up here. As
(12:18):
soon as it started in the States, it began up
here as well. So it's important to keep an eyeball
on you, guys, because you're the leading indicator of what's happening.
Speaker 2 (12:28):
You know, what do we do when you know entire
groups of people are friends or potentially having their human
rights in fear and jeopardy? What do we do?
Speaker 3 (12:45):
Well, if you're talking about a group of people such
as the queer.
Speaker 4 (12:48):
Community, we need allies more than we've ever needed allies.
And a lot of people think allyship is just showing
up at pride and joining in the dancing and the family,
the parade and all that sort of stuff. And that's important.
That's important too. But you've got to you've got to
speak up when you hear nonsense being said about any group,
whether it's black people, Latinos, queer people, whatever marginalized group
(13:13):
is being under the attack, it's important that you speak
up and not allow that to be the conversations that's
being had, whether it's at the dinner table, is coming Christmas,
or whether it's just in general. When you hear someone
on the subway say something. You must speak up because
you can't just you you stay silent.
Speaker 3 (13:31):
You can flicit.
Speaker 4 (13:32):
Yeah, you're part of the problem and staying silent. So Allyship,
I think is needed more than ever there in the
States where you are and here in Canada. We need
to stand together as the communities. And we also need
both people who are this frankly, the straight white people
to stand up and speak up and speak out and
(13:54):
say to.
Speaker 2 (13:55):
Gather people, yeah, you know, I want to tell you
this story and it's going to come out choppy and
it may not come out right, but just hear me
out for a second. So our sons both graduated from
Georgetown University with their master's degrees in twenty twenty four. Wow, yeah,
really cool, really cool moment. And so the way we
(14:16):
do little celebrations is we take people out to a steakhouse.
So me and my husband and kids, and his sister
and Beyonce's friends, you know, everybody. We all gathered at
a steakhouse in DC and I made reservations at Annie's
Paramount Steakhouse. And so I looked at the reservation and
(14:38):
I'm like, huh, I wonder if we're going to be
welcome here. So I placed a phone call and I said,
you know, this is a predominantly you know not I
don't know, you know how to say it. I'm looking
for their wording as we're talking. But not a place
where like we would go all the time for a steakhouse.
(14:59):
You know, it's it's gay couples and get you know,
it's it's flags everywhere and things like that. And I'm like,
are we going to be welcome there? You know what?
You know what I mean, just like the reverse of it, right,
And so I called and I said, are we okay?
Can we come in? Because I really want to be
there all of my friends are you know okay? I
(15:20):
have drag queen friends, I have every kind of friend
known to mankind. Are we welcome there? There are twelve
of us coming in, and he said, bring it on.
You're going to have the best dinner of your life.
And I can't tell you the number of people that
came up to us. We could barely all eat because
everybody was hugging us and telling us how much they
loved we were there and telling us what a beautiful
(15:40):
it makes me cry, what a beautiful family we had,
and on and on and on. It was I can't
I might have goosebumps. I love them so much. There
they made us have the best memory ever. And it
wasn't intentional and we were kind of scared because we
(16:02):
didn't fit in at all. But I mean that, and
then we did.
Speaker 3 (16:06):
They know what it's like to not fit in to you.
Speaker 2 (16:10):
No, it was beautiful. It was I wish like CBS
Sunday Morning would have followed us in or something to
show you how the world's supposed to be. You know,
that's kind of cry Oh god, it was so I love.
Speaker 3 (16:26):
Them this world. Yeah, moments like that.
Speaker 2 (16:31):
Yeah, yeah, And we have a it makes me cry
and we have a no, And I want to just
touch people's hearts with this conversation about how hard it
is when you don't fit in, because it makes people
so I feel like.
Speaker 3 (16:54):
Related feeling they're wrong? What did they do wrong?
Speaker 4 (16:59):
I find me a queer person, especially someone in my
age when the times have changed so much now. But
I can't tell you how much bargaining I did with
God to make me straight when I was a young boy,
when I was a teenager, when I was becoming a man,
I wanted to be straight.
Speaker 3 (17:18):
Because it was just so.
Speaker 4 (17:19):
I was so tired of being othered by schoolmates and
fellow students and adults around me in my community. I
was so different than everybody, and that difference has been
a blessing in my life and has been me unique.
But at the time when retina support and stuff like that,
(17:41):
I know so many people who are in my age
bracket who say the same thing. I used to ask
God to make me straight and to not make me gay.
It was just a terrible way to be. But at
the same time, it's a blessing because I think the
people who have had the roughest starts in life, whatever
(18:03):
that may look like for you, they're the ones that
become the most extraordinary later.
Speaker 3 (18:07):
On in life. That's not the brightest, you know, I
think you've had nothing that ever happened to them.
Speaker 4 (18:13):
That are that are the dull, boring ones in life
because nothing is the worst thing that can happen to you.
Speaker 2 (18:19):
Yeah, yeah, I know. It's funny. I sometimes say, please,
I don't want to have food allergies anymore. I've been
resuscitated twice. I just want to eat something. And that
was the other thing they took care of me too.
Because I always feel like a fish out of water
with the life threatening food allergies that I have. So
I called them. They're like, well, we are going to give
you the best dinner you've ever had. You're going to
live through it. And they oh, they were just so cool.
(18:44):
Yeah yeah, no, is that just like that? They were
just the coolest people. So anyway, I love Annie's Steakhouse.
Annie's Paramount Steakhouse in DC is amazing. STA shout out everybody.
Oh yeah, I love them. So the other thing I
think too, is that you know, sometimes without conversations like this,
(19:06):
we don't understand each other at all.
Speaker 4 (19:09):
And yep, well just you know, we're talking about allyship
and what can people do and that sort of thing.
To talk to each other as well and just have
a conversation doesn't have to be full of threats. It
doesn't have to start getting violence, you don't have to
start calling to the names. Just have a conversation, because
you know what it's like, even though you're a straight
(19:31):
person to feel different, and you just talked about having
life threatening allergies that stop you from enjoying your life
and stuff like that. That's a very unique situation. You
feel alone and different in that as well, so you
can relate to me feeling different. We're so much more connected.
(19:51):
It's such a cliche, but we are. We're so much
more alike than we are different. And if we just
take the time to get to know each other a
little bit more, know your neighbor a little bit more,
you see that you've got more in common than you
have the differences. And we've got the likes of Trump.
And as the guy's name up here is kier palie Eva,
trying to divide us all and make us all angry
(20:13):
with each other.
Speaker 3 (20:14):
Don't fall for that trap.
Speaker 4 (20:16):
It's it's classic authoritarianism once again, dividing the people up,
making them afraid of each other. Don't, don't. Don't fall
in line with that. Know your people, know your neighbors. Yeah,
even better, so I don't agree with you.
Speaker 2 (20:33):
Oh yeah, yeah true.
Speaker 3 (20:35):
Right.
Speaker 2 (20:35):
So we were this is years ago now, We were
walking in the mall here in Maine and my husband's like,
I really need a haircut. I'm just going to get
a really quick haircut over at Mastercuts, and I'm like,
you go for it, you know kind of thing. And
this kid named Nick Irish was like I'll cut your hair.
I've got you, okay, mister Greeno, I've got you kind
of thing. You know. It was so cute. And now
(20:58):
over the years we've gotten to know Nick as family.
His name is Nick Irish and he is a drag
queen and he tells he's come over. He comes over
to our house to cut her hair. He does all
sorts of amazing things for us. During COVID, he came
over and cut her hair in the garage, no kind
(21:19):
of thing, so we could have haircuts. And he's such
a cool soul. But when he when he when he
is in drag, he looks like Marilyn Monroe, like it's
like night and day, Like, oh my god, how do
you do that kind of thing? He has the best
blonde hair. He knows my blonde hair so well, oh
(21:44):
my god. Yeah, so if you get it wrong, you've
got the wrong color.
Speaker 3 (21:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (21:49):
And I'm fifty five now, so I've got gray coming
in all the stuff to deal with. So anyway, he
is the most lovely human being. So when I when
he's here, when I have conversations with him or I
talked to him about things, you know, I always want
to know, like what what's happened, what's happening to you,
what's going on in your life, what's happened to you?
You know, because sometimes you'll be like sad and things
like that, and he will tell me, like some of
(22:12):
the meanest crap that has happened to him over his life,
and he's the nicest human being on the planet. Why
do I want to go there? Because I know we
were talking about your sub stack and things like that,
and you said, I'm going to just go why the
drag hate? Why the drag hate? But I just want
to I know, I skipped around a little bit and
(22:32):
I know.
Speaker 3 (22:33):
So he's got so everybody listening.
Speaker 2 (22:35):
Sean pro Crue got subs substack dot com. I'm going
to spy your last name it's p r o U
l X and I'll put a link up and you
but you've got topics here and like that one. That
one stuck out to me because I have a friend,
you know, a bestie who's a drag queen and it
(22:57):
hurts my feelings. And I also my dream you know,
my I love I love you, but you know, I
want to know who my absolute dream interview is. It's
never gonna happen. Do you want who it is?
Speaker 3 (23:07):
It's I've interviewed Love I lovel too.
Speaker 2 (23:17):
The best.
Speaker 3 (23:18):
Yeah, Yeah, I interviewed him once. Her at the back. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (23:24):
I've interviewed her a couple of times, but the first
time was at the back of an airport shuttle because
she was going to a gig and her hair was
so big it wouldn't fit in a car. Yes, so
we rode the back of this shuttle together having a
chin wag for forty minutes going to her gig.
Speaker 3 (23:46):
Her success. Yeah. Oh, so you want to talk about
why the drag queen hate kind of.
Speaker 2 (23:54):
Yeah, because I don't understand it.
Speaker 3 (23:58):
Well, I think it's about Missagua.
Speaker 4 (24:00):
To me, I think a man in the heels and
address who's self determined pushes really uncomfortably hard against where
a lot of society is firmly rooted on the topic
of women and autonomy, because a woman, to a lot
of society is less than you know. Madonna's saying about
that in her two thousand and sung what it feels
(24:20):
Like for a girl. Girls can wear genes and cut
their hair, short wear shirts and boots because.
Speaker 3 (24:24):
It's okay to be a boy.
Speaker 4 (24:26):
But for a boy to look like a girl is degrading,
because you think being a girl is degrading. So what
kind of man sacrifices massculinity and trade down and find
personal liberty as a woman in the doing. You know,
we hate the idea of a powerful woman in our
patriarchal society, the one that knows their value, that they're
(24:47):
inconvenient to have around. Women who delight in who they are,
like drag queens do, who don't need to fix themselves.
There's a lot of effort to keep up with a
woman like that, which is why women are suppressed. They're
held back from thinking about reaching the fullest of who
they really are as early as childhood. Our society is
held bent on keeping women in their place insecure. We
(25:08):
teach them through the media or any shop they go
into selling all the beauty products so that she can
use to correct it and prove herself that she will
never be enough. Constantly women are being told theres something
wrong with them. We don't want to see autonomous women.
You know, look at it in your country, the male
led fight to rest away women from women control over
their own bodies. You know, it's dystopic and woman should
(25:33):
be whoever the f she wants to be, and we
oppress women and we don't like it when a man
actually chooses to look and act like one in drag.
Speaker 3 (25:43):
That's my theory.
Speaker 2 (25:45):
That's a good theory. It's an interesting theory. Yeah, I'm
gonna just leave that. I formulate thoughts sometimes on this topic,
but I do as a female, fifty five year old female,
I can't tell you how many times in the workplace.
I've had uncomfortable encounters with men.
Speaker 3 (26:04):
Oh I'm sure, I'm sure.
Speaker 2 (26:06):
I can't even I could. I could go on and
on and on. It's a different show. I mean, like,
right off the bat, I was a news anchor. Made
me never want to be a news anchor again. Some
guy hit as the general manager of a news station,
hitting on me, saying if I did this, I'd be
the weather girl in Ohio in a shot, you know.
And I'm like, oh no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,
(26:26):
you know kind of thing. And it's interesting. That's an
interesting analogy, for sure, But you know how the.
Speaker 4 (26:33):
Wherewithal to say now though, a lot of women don't
know how to say no to that.
Speaker 2 (26:38):
Hell no, actually, oh hell no, hell no, hell no. Yeah,
and then and then really did a big rethink on
the news business. It made me go, oh, this is
the way this is going to be. And then you go,
as a twenty year old kid, you go, oh shit,
this is the way this all kind of is right now,
because remember I'm one hundred and it was like that.
(27:00):
It was bumpy all over the place, and oh yeah.
And then and then you'd come across those men gems
that weren't like that, and you were like, oh my god,
you're not going to hit on me. You're just gonna
let me work. Really, Oh this is beautiful. And I've
had a lot of those two and it's like, thank god, yeah,
but tell me then this could be. If this is
(27:23):
a really stupid question, I cannot edit this out. So
if this is stupid, just laugh at me, right, okay, okay,
what about like a.
Speaker 3 (27:30):
Movie like Tutsie, what about it?
Speaker 2 (27:34):
Oh yeah, what about it? Like that's kind of like
is that not kind of draggish in a way?
Speaker 3 (27:43):
Yeah, one of the top. Everything's dragged. Everything's dragged.
Speaker 4 (27:49):
It's just a decision on how you're presenting yourself at
any given moment in time. Like we're all born naked
and the rest is drag, is what she says. And
my my friend Leo was a he's retired now, but
he taught grade two for most of his teaching career,
and so he had his day drag he would call it,
and then his after work drag, but he always called
(28:12):
it drag. And his day drag was really just a
suit and tie for teaching, and then his drag drag
was jeans and the tea shirt, but he always called
a drag. And RuPaul calls it all drag. So what
interesting is a woman or was it?
Speaker 3 (28:25):
However you're presenting yourself, that's your drag.
Speaker 2 (28:29):
Got it? Okay, that's good learning, right there. I'll have
to look at that a little more. Yeah, yeah, all right,
What else? What else is on your sub steck that
you want to talk about? Because there's some really good
there's really good stuff here.
Speaker 4 (28:41):
Well, I'm really happy with the way it's it's turning out.
I mean a lot of traffic to it. I'm trying
to find stories that people don't normally introduce people to,
people who you don't really.
Speaker 3 (28:52):
Get a chance to meet.
Speaker 4 (28:53):
So my latest post is called what to Do if
You're kidnapped and it takes you behind the scenes of
humanitarian aid worker named Kessa. That's not her real name,
but we use a pseudonym so she could talk more freely.
She's been to Gaza, Kiev, Somalia, Yemen. She's supposed to
go to Afghanistan, but that got canceled.
Speaker 3 (29:14):
She's back in Gaza.
Speaker 4 (29:16):
Right now and she sees a lot of incredible things
and one of the dangers it's always predominant in wherever
she goes, is the risk of being kidnapped. And so
she lays out what she knows about kidnappings, and it's
fascinating because there's three types of kidnappings.
Speaker 3 (29:35):
There's the one.
Speaker 4 (29:35):
That you get held for ransom for, there's the one
that you get held for as a political statement, and
there's the one that's where you're kind of a bargaining
ship get you'll be released at the hostage just the
other country really, since they're hostage type of thing. And
the whole object is to stay alive, of course, and
there's all kinds of ways in which you can try
(29:56):
and stay alive, unless you're a political statement, because the
chances are really high that you're going to be killed,
because that's the point of having kidnapped you to begin with,
so your chances are really low. But the other ones
have all these tips and tricks, and she just goes
into the details of those and it is just fascinating
to me. She's a fascinating woman, especially because she in
(30:19):
twenty twenty quit her career to start doing this, and
now she's sixty years old and going into places like
Gaza and helping out there, and I find that a fascinating.
Speaker 3 (30:29):
It's never too late story as well. You know, we
get we age, all of us age. I'm fifty five.
Speaker 4 (30:36):
Fifty six now, and I'm not sure I could contemplate
beginning a new career again. And yet there was a
guest on the View today that I overheard saying that
at fifty five her mother moved to Paris and began
her life a new way back when and shoes very
inspired by that. So I'm inspired by stories like that,
(30:56):
and like test a story and also a store on
there about my friend Aaron, who became homeless suddenly. I
watched his homelessness happen. He lost his roommate, he couldn't
find a new roommate. His landlord blessedly lewed him stay
there for almost nine months, paying only half of the
(31:17):
rent and then finally evicted him. And he's a gay guy,
and gay guys are resourceful, and he had nowhere to go.
He couched, heurved for a while, but that he's running
out of you know, couches after a time, so he
would get on apps like grinder and hook up with
guys to have a roof overt's head. But the problem
is is that if you're hooking up with guys, they
(31:38):
expect you to hook up. And he would be meeting
guys at like two or three in the morning, and
the problem with that is that if you're hooking up
with guys at two or three in the morning, they're
probably using substances to stay up that late. And so
Aaron would be up at guy's places using substances like
crystal math and to stay up and party. So he's
getting no sleep, who's eating nothing, And when you have
(32:01):
that combination, it's very dangerous. He started to become develop
auditory hallucinations and then visual hallucinations and start to almost
lose his mind. And so it's the story of what
happened to him all because he'd lost his roommate, and
we see so much homelessness here in Canada, and especially
in Toronto. I don't know what it's like where you are,
(32:22):
but I know that homelessness is a problem in the
US as well. We have encampments in all.
Speaker 3 (32:27):
Of our parks, people lying on the streets. It's just
pardon me for a rich nation like we have, like
you are, it shouldn't be this way.
Speaker 4 (32:40):
And he had no support. He couldn't go to shelters
because they're violence and dangerous there. It's just the story
of his spiral downward and me watching it. I tried
to help him as best I could. He stayed over
many times. I buy him food and stuff like that.
But it's a story that's kind of chilling because it
(33:01):
can happen to you, could happen to me. And I
talked about the types of homelessness there are. There's people
get divorced, there relationships end, they've got nowhere to go.
People leave abusive relationships, they've got nowhere to go. People
in the pandemic lost their livelihoods, they had nowhere to go.
And one of the reasons we've got so much of
(33:22):
a homeless situation here is because of the pandemic, and
that shouldn't be either. We should be taking care of
people a pandemic hit.
Speaker 3 (33:29):
It's not their fault they lost their livelihood. So I'm
ready about subjects like that as well.
Speaker 2 (33:36):
Don't forget that a lot of people, including my parents,
were like a medical bill away from homelessness. My parents
would be homeless had we paid your house payment among
my dad had a stroke in two thousand and four.
It just completely turned their entire But you know, my
dad lived from two thousand and four to twenty eighteen,
(33:57):
but it turned their lives completely upside down, Like had
we not made their house payments and things like that,
they'd be homeless.
Speaker 3 (34:02):
Oh yeah, yeah, that's that's all it takes.
Speaker 4 (34:05):
And so we have a we have holes in our
net and people are falling through those holes, and we've
got to we've got to tighten it up and repair
that and make it so that people get the assistance
and the.
Speaker 3 (34:17):
Help that they need. People aren't choosing to be homeless.
Speaker 4 (34:20):
We have a terrible premiere of Ontario who's kind of
like the governor, I guess in your system, and he
said homeless people should go out and get a job,
and it was such a myopic comment, such an uneducated,
privileged comment to make that. He disgusted so of humanitarians
(34:40):
here when he said it, because that's that's a man
who should be out there helping people who are homeless.
Speaker 3 (34:47):
You know.
Speaker 4 (34:48):
And I'm so sick and tired of the politicians and
their photo ops at Thanksgiving and at Christmas time. I'm ranting,
I know, but they go to the food banks and
they pose with the workers and say what great work
there all doing, and how how, how how they are
saints for doing this work. There shouldn't be there shouldn't
be food banks. I'm just going to go, you know,
(35:09):
those very politicians should be making it so that food
banks are eradicated, not posing for photos in them. Yeah,
I'm not but on my high horse right now. But
those are the such of things that I explore in
that in that article.
Speaker 2 (35:24):
I think we're going to need to be on our
high horses a little bit to make sure we take
care of everybody from a humanitarian standpoint. You know, tell
me what you think like humanity to be a humanitarian
like humanity needs right now. I know we I was
going to go next into you with like food safety
and food security, but you know it's it's everything from
(35:44):
you know, rights, food, housing, shelter. I mean just there's
like so many facets of it that are just falling down,
and like I get, I get really really sad when
I see people that don't have food. It really freaks
me out. Yeah. Absolutely. I was in a Olympia snow
(36:08):
leadership foundation here in Maine. She's got she's a former senator,
and she has a foundation that helps people graduate from
helps women girls graduate from high school who might otherwise
have something thrown in their path to prevent it, for example,
you know, a parental circumstance or whatever. And I volunteered
(36:31):
to be a leader and help these five girls graduate,
which all of them did. But I cried all the
way home ninety minutes. My husband had to drive me
to and from the meeting with them because it made
me so sad. I just wanted to like adopt all
of them, and you can't.
Speaker 3 (36:49):
Do that kind of thing.
Speaker 2 (36:50):
So what I would do is I would secretly write
checks to the school so that like the school had
food and back it. Would they would like that? Well, no,
not from that standpoint. I just mean, like it's just
like the conversation of being aware, like scratching below the
(37:11):
surface to be aware of what's really happening with people,
because I don't have to know.
Speaker 4 (37:17):
If we go there's an empathy, you know. I had
to go down to the mall near me and I
took an uber the other day because it's just too
cold and gross and wet out and there's too much
construction by that mall, and so it dropped me off
about a block or so away, and I was going
through this kind of you know, construction underpass kind of mess,
(37:40):
and there was a young black man curled up in
the fetal position, and people were all stepped stepping over him,
stepping over him, stepping over him, and he and I
stepped over him too, and then I looked back and
he was just looking forward. He wasn't sleeping, he wasn't
passed out, he was just looking forward in the position.
Speaker 3 (37:59):
I gave him some money and went on my way.
But it's so heartbreaking to me to see people like this.
And I live in a community. I live in the
gay community of Toronto, and.
Speaker 4 (38:12):
So it's a safer area for people to come to
when they're homeless or hungry or whatever, and they sort
of it's less violent. I guess and you see so
many people passed out on the street, Elizabeth, you can't
imagine or just the mental health spike and mental health
issues that have gone up since the pandemic. You know
(38:33):
we've done nothing about that here at all. We've got housing,
we've got hunger, we've got mental health as primary issues
around Canada, around the US. I know here in Toronto
it's really really bad.
Speaker 2 (38:47):
I have a question for you about safety, one of
my friends, and then we'll go. I kept you on
and on here, but I love this conversation. So one
of my friends wrote the book out in the world.
Her name is Amy Sheer, and it is I'll just
read the Shift. It's actually a book by Disney. It
says Meet the first totally inclusive guide for every traveler
(39:09):
out there. And this inspirational guidebook readers will discover one
hundred welcoming destinations where lgbtq IA vacationers and their allies
will feel safe, comfortable, and ready to make the most
of their experiences. Tell me what you think of something
aside from her being my friend, Amy, if you know
it makes me so I was like, oh my god,
(39:30):
I can't believe we need a book like this, and
then I'm like, OK, God, you wrote it. But on
the same on the same I'm like, oh, that makes
me so sad that we need a book like this
tell me about you.
Speaker 4 (39:42):
And it's weird to have a book like this because
for queer people, you're not welcome in many places in
the world. There are seventy two countries in the world
right now where you can be punished for being queer
by being imprisoned or by being killed. You know, when
I talk about my friend Tessa, who's a humanitarian aid
worker and she was in Yemen, she texted me saying,
(40:05):
don't ever come here. It is not good for gay
people at all. She saw people being taken away, she
saw people being beaten all because they were gay, hanged
from cranes on display if you can imagine seeing a
crane like a building crane and someone hanging from it
as a warning to other gays. And so there's seventy
(40:28):
two countries in the world that you don't want to
be going to. And one example, it's improved a lot,
I understand, and friends who are from there say that
it's improved a lot. But Jamaica was the deadliest place
on Earth, according to Time magazine, for queer people about
ten years ago. Again, they've made some yes, and I've
interviewed people who've sought asylum in Canada, queer people who
(40:51):
are from Jamaica, and they tell horror stories of what
it was like there. Again, it's been improving, but you know,
I wouldn't feel comfortable ever going to Jamaica at this point.
And it's important for queer people to know where they're
welcoming when they're not welcome, because where you're not welcome,
it's not just like nose in the air and ignoring you,
we're not serving you or something like.
Speaker 3 (41:12):
That, or not letting you in the hotel.
Speaker 4 (41:13):
It's violence, and it's jail and possibly death. So a
book like your friend's written is very necessary.
Speaker 2 (41:22):
She wrote it with Mark Jason Williams. Together they wrote
that book.
Speaker 3 (41:28):
Good job guys.
Speaker 2 (41:30):
Yep, that's what I said too, And then I went,
oh god, I'm so sorry. We need a book like this, everybody,
you know, I apologize for all of us.
Speaker 4 (41:40):
No, But but going back to what you were talking
about earlier about allyship and what can people do, just
knowing that people listening to this right now, just knowing
that a book like that out there is needed. And
imagine if there was a book for straight people on
on where not to go because it's not safe for you.
Imagine that that's that's part of your experience a little.
Speaker 2 (42:02):
Bit as a woman. I got to tell you that
it's as a woman.
Speaker 3 (42:07):
Yeah, there's a little bit.
Speaker 2 (42:08):
There's a there's a thing. I was at a conference
here that did the main conference for women, and and
one of my books got handed out and everything like that,
and I was all happy. And then I went into
one of the presentations. I took a break from signing
books and went in and listened, and I stumbled upon
hearing a conversation would you rather be in an alleyway
with a man or a bear? Almost one hundred percent
(42:29):
of women will choose a bear.
Speaker 3 (42:30):
So the bear a bear, the bear winds.
Speaker 2 (42:33):
It's like, oh, oh my god.
Speaker 3 (42:35):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (42:36):
And as a mother of four boys, it made my
skin call. I'm like, oh my god, because you don't
think about them being perceived that way because they're such
sweet kids, you know kind of thing that I've got nice,
really nice boys, you know kind of thing. And I'm like, oh,
this is going to be tough on you.
Speaker 4 (42:53):
The other spoil it for everybody. Others spoiled it for everybody.
Speaker 3 (42:57):
But I think our patriarchal society has changed, you know, slowly, slowly, slowly, slowly, slowly.
Speaker 4 (43:03):
We see small movements, we see big movements. We see
me too movements, We see the queer movement. We see
people you know, fighting back. We saw the Winds march
on Washington first time.
Speaker 3 (43:13):
Trump got in. You know, there's there's a sension going on.
It's just taking so damn long.
Speaker 4 (43:20):
Like I don't know where else see it in my
lifetime or not, But I believe it's happening. And I'm
an optimist, and I like to think the good things
are happening in the universe that the universe has are back.
Speaker 2 (43:33):
Yep. I agree. All right, we got to go. We're
out of time. Where do you want people to go
to find you and listen to you and love you.
Speaker 4 (43:39):
We'll go to Seanprue dot substack dot com. Go to
Seris XM channel one sixty seven on weekends to hear
the Sean Prue Show, and you can find out more
about me at Seanpru dot com. And Elizabeth, I love you,
Thank you so much for having me on your show today.
Speaker 2 (43:53):
I love you too, all right, Thanks everybody for listening,
Take care and have a beautiful day and visit us
at bestevere dot com. We thank you, Sean, thank you
for listening.
Speaker 1 (44:03):
We're so glad you tuned in. Be brave, be bold,
See you, and remember to visit us at besteveru dot com.
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