March 5, 2024 • 43 mins
We speak with lawyer and Queen City Resident Emily Meyer about the current important issues facing the queer community. Emily also updates us on her life and shares some of her favorite Cincinnati hangouts.
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(00:00):
Welcome to a new episode of OutCincinnati. It's radio for the LGBTQ community
here in the Tri State and beanytime at out Cincinnati dot com at el
Cincinnati on social media. My nameis Chris. Once again, thank you
for joining me for another episode ofthis show. We produce it each and
every week in the Queen City righthere in Cincinnati. This week we're going
(00:25):
to connect with Emily Meyer. Sheused to be an attorney with Equality Ohio
and now she's kind of her legalmind around here, which I love,
and we'll connect with her and seewhat's going on in the state of Lago
here Out Cincinnati Alex Cincinnati would liketo thank our sponsors, Scott E.
(00:48):
Knox Attorneys at Law with over thirtyfive years of experience and working with the
LGBTQUS community. Scottnox dot com formore information. Dad Lama Coffee located in
Madisonville at five thousand and one KenwoodRoad. It is the best Cincinnati coffee
shop and bakery nan after an angrytmammal. Out Cincinnati is radio for the
(01:15):
LGBTQ plus community and beyond here inCincinnati. And I just because I have
no I read the news just likeeverybody else, watch the news, whatever
the case may be. I wantto know what's going on legal wise in
Ohio, what's facing us queer folkwith Emilie Meyer. Thank you for coming
on the program. Oh happy tobe here. Hi Chris, How official
(01:38):
do I say? Program? Isound like that doctor Laura lady anyway to
me? Right? So welcome onto the show. And I appreciate this
zoo. This is a zoom chat, I'll be honest, So we'll make
it as interesting as possible. WhatI mean by that is everybody to zoom
during the pandemic and we're out ofthat. So, but it's freezing outside.
So I said, hey, youwant to do this this zoom thing?
(02:01):
Sure? And you know, sometimeszoom is right. Let's not totally
get rid of zoom. It's it'sso easy to record zoom, you know.
And with a coffee shop, younever know who's going to sit next
to you or eves drop. Sowhat is your area of expertise when you're
(02:23):
a practicing lawyer? Boy, Well, I guess my career has taken twists
and turns. I first went tolaw school to be an IP attorney.
That's intellectual property law. Which islike patents and trademarks. I mean,
I would not hold myself out asan expert in that. I haven't practiced
that in over a decade, butthat's where I started. More recently,
(02:46):
i've been practicing. I'm no longerwith this clinic, but I was.
I was a public interest lawyer,which is essentially legal aid if you're familiar
with a legal aid organization helping lowincome folks on basically a wide variety of
areas of law. I mean,I was very much a general practitioner,
(03:08):
you know, so anything from Imean, well, discrimination law for sure,
and you know discrimination facing the LGBTQcommunity specifically, but you know,
tenant defense, family law. Neverwould have thought I'd be a family law
attorney, but I was victims rights. So if you if you're the victim
(03:29):
of a crime, you have rightsand like for instance, uh, you
know, seeking protection orders and stufflike that. Just a wide variety.
Chris, tell me, just tellme if it's true. Are they Is
it true that there are lawyers outthere that it would cost almost cost them
money to practice And and because Ihave a friend in Milwaukee, he's like,
(03:53):
I work at an automotive group andhe is a friggin' radio and lawyer
genius. He's done everything and uhhuh, he's like, I work in
an automotive group. Pieces of itwould cost me money to work is Do
you know what kind of are therepeople who are who fight the good fight,
who like maybe nothing. Let mejust clarify when you say an automotive
(04:14):
group, like automotive law, automotivelike selling. He doesn't practice law anymore.
Oh no, no, no hedoesn't. So I just I was
just okay, okay, gotcha.It just came to mind. I was
curious if there are folks who fightthe good fight out there who were like,
are almost they're almost paying money tobe to be able to help.
Oh well, yeah, I meanI don't want to say that the legal
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practice legal industry runs the game out. I mean you have you have people
pulling in you know, law firmpartners pulling in millions. Of course,
they're usually defending big corporations, you'reright, public interest law, like a
legal aid type lawyer, legal cliniclawyer. Yet typically they're you know,
nonprofit funded, so based on grantmoney. Yeah, it's not not the
(05:00):
most lucrative of the law for sure. I don't know what he's my friend
studied, but he was. Hewas telling me last time you know that
it was that it was that way. So what are the I can,
like I said to the intro,and this is out Cincinnati Radio for the
LGBTQ plus community here in Cincinnati.Anytime out Cincinnati dot com. Emily Meyer
(05:20):
is on the phone. And uh, Emily is a lawyer, and I
love talking to lawyers, especially youknow, it's the podcast. You know,
what's the What should I do withmy neighbor building the fence and stuff?
That's funny. I really one ofmy friends a few years ago had
a problem with the neighbor with thefence. Yeah, I mean that happened,
(05:42):
and actually I referred her to oneof my friends who who was more
of an expert at that area oflaw. Ye had and the next we're
gonna have judge Emily Meyer. Soare you? So? What resources are
available? And this is always importantto note in Cincinnati, what resources are
available if you find yourself hung up, whether it be with the fence or
(06:03):
with a murder charge in Cincinnati.Wow, okay, that's that's a spectrum
there. Lawyers, folks, lawyersor lawyers too. Sure. Well,
first, I mean, you know, I I would first sort of inquire
us to someone's resources, meaning basicallymoney they can throw at the problem.
(06:24):
Right, The more money you have, you know, the fancier lawyer you
can get, not that they're notthat they're the best. If someone,
I mean, if you have alegal issue and you you know, you
don't have any lawyer friends or friendsof friends, and you don't know where
to turn, I guess the firstplace I would recommend is the Cincinnati Bar
Association. Uh, you know,that's that's the like the industry group for
(06:50):
lawyers. There are directories you canyou know, find find someone, whether
it's a solo artitioner or a lawfirm who practices in like the area that
you you have an issue in.If money is a concern where you can't
just go to any old attorney youknow who charges hundreds of dollars per hour,
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then the first place I would lookas our local Legal Aid Society,
you know reference that earlier. Theywork with low income folks, and legal
aid is great because not only Imean they might be able to help you,
but even if they can't, theyhave probably a network and of resources
of where to point you to,And then I guess the last place I
(07:38):
will I will suggest is my formeremployer, The Equality of Hio Legal Clinic
Equality o Hio is you know,a statewide nonprofit that that advocates on behalf
of the queer community specifically. Soif your issue, well, it doesn't
have to be a queer issue,really, you just have to be queer
yourself, however you identify that.But they have a legal clinic. It
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serves low income folks. It isstatewide. I actually I don't know if
they hired someone after I left,so I don't know that they have like
an attorney specifically in our area.But again, it is a state wide
clinic. You could, you know, look them up, chat with them
and once again, even if theycan't help you, I do know they
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definitely have a network of attorneys aroundthe state that might be able to help.
So that's that's quick answer to ifsomeone needs legal help or a turn.
And Emily has been to law schooland you also went to did interesting
masters? What did you? Canyou talk quickly about what you did well
as much as you'd like as much? Sure? Well, yeah, just
(08:43):
briefly by mentioning you know, mythe twist and turns in my career,
mostly because my interests have changed overtime. But after I I I practiced
IP law with two local firms whoare both great. But after those two
experiences, it became very clear tome. Uh. And I was in
my early thirties. I guess itjust became clear to me that was not
(09:07):
the career path I wanted to continueon. Uh And I I really made
the jump. I went back toU S in their master's program. It
was the Women's Gender and Sexuality Studies. Uh so talk about just totally different
than IP law and and yeah,you know, a two year program,
and uh it was great. Imean I have an engineering degree in my
(09:31):
undergrad and just all of these arts, arts and humanities courses that I never
took, you know, I gotto take them all or you know,
take take a number of them andspecifically you know, with a gender and
sexuality lens. So it's kind ofjust like learning things that I had never
learned before. And then with thegoal of like returning to law but with
(09:58):
you know, totally different focus.And then so then I and after that,
I I was hired with the QualityOhio. So there you there you
go, so what so what sowhat what is your what is your day
to day? And then what aresome of the issues facing you know,
the queer community, Like are youreading? Are you reading up? Do
(10:20):
you keep red up? You know? Can you can you kind of shed
light because I know there's a lotlike from trans from the attacking the trans
community with ignoring pronouns and who theheck knows what else in the legislative and
just legislative area. Yeah, andyou have coming for drag queens and I
and I just don't get that atall because it's like, so what's your
(10:43):
view? Yeah, well yeah,so I mean I'm you know, I'm
of the community and I just careabout the community. So yes, I
I you know, I keep intouch with everything that's going on. Well
also I mean and frankly, Ithink for for my mental health and buddy,
these days, you have to sortof set some boundaries in terms of,
(11:03):
you know, using social media andall the information that's out there,
it can kind of be a firehose of just like news blasted at you,
and especially when it's harmful, terriblenews, just the constant fire hose
of bad news, I you know, for for my mental health. I
do take breaks kind of news breaks, but no, I mean I keep
(11:24):
my toe in it because I care. As far as like what's going on.
You know, you you named it, Chris. We're in a bad
time in the state of Ohio forthe queer community. I mean, and
we can get into that. Iyou know, there are like the law
that was passed, and then there'sthese administrative rules and the Wines executive order
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not to mention then like you saidabout oh, book bands and drag Queen,
happy Hour, drag queen, youknow, storytime being demonized and things
about pronouns I will say, andwe can talk about if you want to
go into details like that, wecan. That could also be just another
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that what's an example of something that'simpacting the trans community, because I know
that folks should really really love tolegislate outside of their own outside of their
own interests and outside of their ownbodies, meaning they're not trans and they
don't know anybody who is. Yeah. Well, so briefly, there's there's
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HB six, which was it wasit was passed by both houses. We
have a House and a Senate inour General Assembly. It was passed by
both houses. But then at theend of December last year, like the
end of twenty twenty three, theWine vetoed it, which was amazing frankly,
and he, you know, heactually said that the government shouldn't be
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making these decisions for trans youth.It should be parents. And so,
I mean, for a brief moment, I mean, DeWine was like,
wow, impressive. I mean,I know, you know, makes him
sense, almost makes me wonder whyhe let it get Yeah, well just
wait for it here. That wasthe end of the year. Well,
our General Assembly came back during theirrecess specifically to override the veto. So
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HB sixty eight, which has alot of components, has several components to
it, but like it bans,for instance, it bans gender affirming care
for trans miners. I mean we'retalking hormones, puberty blockers, surgery,
you know, totally against all medicalscience and all physician groups. It's just
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banned. And so they overrode hisveto at the end of January. It
will become effective. This law willbecome effective April twenty fourth of twenty twenty
four. Now the ACLU has comeout and said they're going to file suit
to stop it, But that hasn'thappened yet. I mean it will.
I have no doubt. Hopefully theywill at least get the law paused while
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the lawsuit continues. But like that, that's happening other components of the law.
It also prohibits providers from helping peopleget help out of state, like
you know, you can't get helphere. And not only that, doctors
can't help you find other providers,you know, in Indiana or Michigan or
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Kentucky probably unless you want to payyour own unless you want to pay your
own path or not at all.The doctors can't do it. It's deemed
aiding and a bedding. Oh yeah, I mean so basically you know it.
People they have to figure it outfor themselves. Right. Then there's
also like a sports ban. Youknow, it bans trans girls from practicing
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or participating with all sports in Cado'stwelve and also through college. Let's see.
I mean it's awful. And againit's it's to be a law in
April unless it stopped. This isnot right. Say it again. This
is not the one he vetoed,right, Oh it is. No,
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it is the one that he vetoed. This is HB sixty eight. But
then then our legislature, our stateAssembly, which is you know, incredibly
jerrymandered, so we have you know, it's a super majority of Republicans.
They overrode the veto in January.Thank you for repeating that if you did,
because yeah, no problem. Yeah. So I mean that's that's number
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one. I mean, that ishappening. And yes, I am,
I am always optimistic on the ACLUand then helping it. And I will
say this type of law has beenpassed and challenged in other states and the
challenge has been victorious. So youknow, I mean, I'm sort of
I am cautiously optimistic. But youknow, given the state of you know,
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judicial Trump appointee kind of, youknow, Republicans having no shame anymore,
we still have to we still haveto live through it, right,
And people are scared. People arei mean talking about leaving the state.
You know, parents, they wantto do right by their kids. But
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you know, not everybody can leavethe state. Moving is incredibly expensive,
and you know, not everybody canafford it. Not everybody can just easily
find a job in another state,easily replicate their care networks. Like this
is just would you'd be calling thestate House and asking questions and stuff like
that. Well, at this point, I mean, we had all that
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opportunity, and we definitely did.You know, like last year, you
know, whenever there's a pending bill, there's there's time for witness testimony,
right, and so you know,we were incredibly organized. I'm talking about
citizens picking up the phone and caughtlingMike DeWine in to office and saying,
why the heck is this being Isthis happening. I'm sure that is happening,
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and it has happened, but youknow, at this point there's nothing
to do especially with and again,you know I mentioned so that's that's something
that was passed by our legislature,the General Assembly. And again, yes,
we gave DeWine some kudos because hevetoed. However, it was incredibly
disingenuous because then literally weeks later,in the early part of twenty twenty four,
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here, you know, in January, we have we have two administrative
rules. These are rules put forthby state agencies, and so that's under
the executive branch, which DeWine isthe head of the executive branch. But
these executive these administrative rules also haveto do with prohibiting care gender affirming care
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for for trans youth. And actuallyit started with all trans people including adults.
That got quickly revised, I mean, thankfully, but still they still
do target trans youth for that comments. When when when a when a state
agency puts forth proposed draft rules,there's a there's a time. Well,
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it's called notice and comment period,which is basically everybody the public has to
have general notice of the draft rulesand then they also have to be given
time to comment on the rules.Again. The latest they were initially amended
the draft rules. I'm sorry,the comments for the latest amended rules were
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due on Valentine's date on just onon Wednesday the fourteenth, So things are
still pending there. Nothing has beenofficially approved or passed. Uh. I'm
not an expert on administrative law,but I believe what happens next is they're
going to take the comments, thesenew comments on the amended rules, make
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any adjustments they want to. Itwill go to like another committee in the
agency. Now that committee does havea chance to just completely rescind the rule,
which would be great, but Idon't have a lot of confidence in
that anyway. So you know,these administrative rules coming from Dwin's executive branch.
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It just makes his kind of commentsregarding vetoing HB sixty eight a little
disingenuous. And then Chris he recentlyalso put out an executive order, which
is another thing. It's it's basicallya law that just specifically comes from the
executive of the state, which isthe governor, and it just it outright
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bans surgery for gender affirming gender affirmingsurgery for trans youth. Now, none
of the gender clinics in the stateof Ohio do perform surgery on trans youth.
You know, it's one of thesethat's a solution for something that's not
a problem because it's like not evenhappening. But uh, you know,
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he he puts it forward. You'releaving the state, I mean, you're
yeah, it's just it's just anothermeasure of demonizing being trans and specifically demonizing
trans youth, and making making ourstate wholly unwelcome, uh to two people.
People feel like they're like following theright, the white right path,
(20:33):
you know, their constituents and thisand that and the other. Yeah,
oh well, yeah, we cantalk about why this is all happening.
Yeah, it doesn't make it doesn'tmake it doesn't make it okay. Like
so, so are they really tryingto legislate against drag queens or have they
tried to in this state? Uh? I'm well, sorry, I'm legislating
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against them. I'm talking about justdrag queen story hours saying yeah, yep,
not allowed to happen. Books ifthat between that and books you can
throw in books about queer mom anddad's Oh yeah yeah, any sort of
not hetteronormative stuff. Yes. Imean, you know, whenever there is
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a drag queen happy hour, there'syou know, the people who protest,
I will say, whenever they're challenged, they're clearly you know, bands on
these things are are unconstitutional under theFirst Amendment. Uh. It's like an
easy, easy like win. Butand they know that, you know,
the people that are doing that,they know that this is going to be
(21:41):
challenged, but they do it anywaybecause it stirs up their base. It.
You know, they're trying to wintheir next election, which you know,
going back to we have a youknow, a hella. Can I
say that like Jerry Mandard? Okay, state legislature. You know, they're
appealing to the world of the base. They're appealing to the bottom because because
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they're they're in a safe district.Right, it's been jerrymandered, so that
like any given Republican district is asafe district. Well, what is what
does that mean? It means candidatesaren't worried about winning the general election.
You know, they're not worried aboutbeating out the Democrat because it's a safe
district. They know that they'll winagainst the Democrat. What they need to
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win is the primary. You know, they're they're competing against other Republicans.
And that's what I mean when it'slike race to the bottom on who can
be the worst. To be honest, right now, I'm taking furious because
there's so much a need to google. And I really Emily, Emily Emily
Myers, uh is a legal mindand a queer mind, and it's great
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to combine both of those things andbe able to ask any question that I
I kind of thought that, yeah, and I know we didn't intend that
this to like go down the rabbithole of all these terrible things, Uh,
but legal things with your niece today, and I gave it a very
high level gloss. I'd always godeeper. But I also don't want to
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just completely bamboozle anything else you wantto talk about. Today. You were
telling me we could talk about somethinglike you were telling me you spent the
day with your niece. What didyou all do? Oh boy, Yeah,
she's she's in kindergarten and she therewas a teacher in service day.
So just it made it a longweekend for them because it's you know,
forty weekend. And oh we wedid crafts at my house in the morning,
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and then I let her choose lunchwhere we want to go to lunch,
and so she chose Olive Garden,which I hadn't been there in years,
so that was fun. And thenwe went bulling in the afternoon,
so it was fun. Oh,hang out with hang out with Emily and
get some pasta. Yeah yeah,yeah, well you know, yeah,
she ordered pizza, pizza and Frenchfries, but I had pasta. Yeah,
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French fries. I love it.Olive Garden is one of those places
people will say so consistent and youalways know what you're getting there, right
you just yeah, yes, Sothat's I just that was just out of
curiosity. And she did she uhdid she wiped the floor with you in
bowling or you. Oh she shewas competitive. She had some spare,
(24:15):
she had one strike. It wasfun. We had fun and it was
I don't know if you've ever beento Madison Bowl, which is in Madisonville,
but it is. I mean whata time warp going in there.
I mean it is. And peoplewere having a blast, you know,
it was. There were a lotof kids because we went in the afternoon.
But oh man, nothing fancy inthat bowling alley. Everything. I
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mean, like the old you knowscoreboard, like you know where you punch
in your name, and like whothe bowlers are, and it's it was
a trip. It was fun.I I just I usually get nachos and
a diet pepsi because well I putthe gavach on snacks. She'll have snacks
at any time. We already gotdonuts in the morning, and so I
(25:03):
was just like, and then wehad got been to Olive Garden. I
was like, we're just we're notdoing snacks at the bowling alley. You
know we eat when we get home. Yeah, I should, I should
participate more. And I usually Iheckle and eat my nachos and dirick my
DIETSI, hey, that's fine.Every every team us a heckler. Every
team, everybody has their role.Are what are some resources folks can use
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to make sure they're getting the rightinformation? And if you want to drop
any candidates in there that folks shouldbe on the lookout for. If not,
that's fine. But how can folksmake sure they're getting the right information
on these bills? Is it togo in and read these bills? I
mean, you know you can,but bill language is so I mean,
I'm a lawyer, and sometimes thebill language is you know, confusing,
(25:48):
and it references old codes, sectionsand a lot of ware ass clauses,
you know, where as this?Where is this? You know? I
always like people knowing, you know, educating themselves. But I don't know
that starting with the actual bill languagesis like the best route. Let's see
in terms of uh resources. Uhwell, actually, first I'm gonna just
(26:14):
mention actually high level here, Iknow, maybe I should have started with
this. Although I am a lawyer, you know, to anyone listening,
and you know, sorry to you, Chris, I am not your lawyer,
so I please don't take anything I'msaying as like legal advice for your
specific and for you know situation.That's not what I'm doing here. She's
being I'm being loyally here by includingthis disclaimer. I am not your attorney.
(26:40):
Okay, no, So if peopleare questions and we're kind of a
day late on this there, uhCity council member Reggie Harris. Uh,
he's on the city council for forthe City of Cincinnati. He's he's terrific.
He hosted, along with uh someother folks, he hosted an information
(27:02):
night just last night. I thinkit was in north Side, basically information
on these bills and these administrative rulesand like what people can do I mentioned.
I mean that was on the fifteenth. I couldn't attend. I don't
know if that was recorded or iflive streamed or something, you know,
(27:22):
if that's available, if you know, people can watch that. Again,
I have no idea if that actuallyis. I'm also gonna plug because it
is in southwest Ohio, although it'syou know, up up seventy five,
but I'm from Dayton. Dayton ishosting kind of another information night next week
on the twenty second, so peopleare available to make the drive up.
(27:45):
I think it's hosted by p FlagDayton and like LGBT, the LGBT Center
and Dayton and maybe a few otherfolks. But again, I mean,
you know, if there are parentsout there trans youth and you're like,
what am I doing? What canwe do? How do I navigate this
for my kid? You know,again, if you can make that meeting.
I believe it's on the twenty secondof February and it's up in Dayton,
(28:08):
and actually I believe there's going tobe like a panel of folks.
I believe actually one of the doctorsfrom Dayton Children's is going to be there.
You know, so hearing hearing frommedical providers I think would be would
be very much of interest to folks. And that actually segues me to like,
beyond these informational nights, what whatshould parents be doing to talk to
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your provider? Like you should begetting an appointment? Hopefully your provider is
reaching out to you, I meanlike doctor's offices and stuff like that,
because there is and I again I'mgiving kind of high level on these these
laws, Chris, there is agrandfather clause that is somewhat vague and I
wouldn't want to like hang your haton it, but there is a grandfather
(28:56):
clause that says any youth that islike you can continue your current treatment like
your grandfathered in if if by theeffective date of this statute, which again
is April twenty fourth, if atthat date, any any youth that is
currently being treated can continue their treatment. Again, that's pretty vague because what
(29:18):
what does continued treatment mean? Like, well, you know, doctor says,
well yeah or no. Frankly,it's whatever a judge would eventually say,
because you know somebody will challenge it. But anyway, other than like
these these informational nights, talk toyour provider, like get an appointment as
(29:38):
soon as you can see what they'readvising. And then third and this kind
of maybe this was maybe what youoriginally meant. In terms of resources,
like local organizations that are doing stuff. Always look to trans Ohio that actually
that isn't a local it's a statewideorganization and they're they were organized up in
(30:00):
the northeast Ohio, but they're justa fabulous organization and they have tons of
information. So that's one resource.But also locally, there's there's Heartland trans
Wellness, there's Transform Sincy, theclothing closet, you know, kind of
(30:21):
organization. There's the Transgender Advocacy Council. These are all local LGBTQ groups.
You know, in addition to likeour local Glisten chapter, our our local
p Flag chapter. We're super luckyif you look. Yeah, we are.
Uh, And you know, Iwould encourage I would encourage getting involved
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or just you know, going toa meeting or something, if for nothing
else, just for the community support. You know, folks there are going
to get it. They're gonna knowwhat you're going through as just I mean
as a baseline. And hopefully theywill also have resources. They'll have advice
and what to do next. Uh, they can point you to things,
(31:08):
so that that is what I recommend. So talk about being queer in Cincinnati.
I'll see you. What do youmean? That's a pretty broad topic.
I I I don't know. Doyou believe in queer spaces? Do
you like being queer in Cincinnati?Do you feel like do you feel like
(31:29):
you can be do you identify asqueer? I should ask that, and
also, uh, do you feelcomfortable you know walking around? I do.
I'm not screaming it from the whatever, but I just kind of walk
around and do my thing. Yeah. Yeah, I'm buys and queer,
and I actually love the word queer. I know that's sort of a you
(31:49):
know that it's a reclaimed word,so you're what we're always careful about using
it. I love it for itsvagueness and sort of its broad applicability in
terms of Yeah, do I feelcomfortable. Yes, I am very fem
presenting, though I am not atall like nonconforming in my expression. So
(32:14):
yes. Safety. You know,I'm a white girl, a white femme
girl, sis woman. Safety forme isn't a concern, and I realized
that that's a privilege. Also,I am usually I guess, generally speaking,
i'm in the city limits, I'min I know where I am when
(32:34):
I'm in the city, and Ifeel safe. I feel safe here.
Yeah, it's it could always be. It would be neat to have a
queer coffee shop or a queer thisor that, or you know, to
have something. But there are Imean, there really are there, Chris,
there are. I'm sort of afoodie or I just like I sort
(32:55):
of My friends and my sisters makefun of me. I have this spreadsheet
where I kind of keep track ofwhere do I want to visit? Where
have I visited, and it's it'skind of like my own yelp if you
will, but you know, noteverything is on yelp. Yeah yeah,
right right, But I mean there'smultiple, you know, queer bars now
(33:15):
downtown and like an OTR, there'ssome I want know. I mean,
you know there's places in North Side, there's places in what's the one in
like Hyde Park. I'm I'm blanking, but I think there's lots of spaces
here. The cafe is a queerspot if you just look around correct,
Yes, on a stereotype. There'sa lot of queer folks that hang out,
(33:37):
uh in cafes anyways. So yeah, just your impression because you know
you as as you said, youwere from Dayton and it's kind of similar
but kind of different. And youknow Dayton had this thing with mask which
was a huge place and it's rightkind of a it's kind of queer up
there too, And yeah, it'sreally love Dayton. Yeah, it's it's
(34:01):
it's it's great how it's kind ofhow it grows. But it's within that
two seventy five loop. I mean, but unless you look at cafes other
places, it's totally queer Cafesi.Yeah, cafes should just queer to me.
That's it. That's all I'm goingto say. Let me think it's
called mad Lama cafe. I'm notgoing to I'm not going to. Also,
(34:22):
you know, I mean this well, sorry, sorry to cut you
off. I just you know,despite despite what these Republicans are doing in
our state House and just around thestate, I do feel like maybe this
is just being optimistic, or thisis just you know, where I am
in the city or where I tendto be. But I just feel like
(34:43):
generally queer people are just everywhere,and I feel like there is especially from
younger folks. It's just there's suchan acceptance, it's not even a thing.
Which again maybe that's my own privilegein being you know, very gender
conforming, and so I don't giveup. There's I don't know, there's
I don't know that just by lookingat me someone would clock me and that's
(35:07):
a privilege. But I don't know. You know, whenever you're you're in
a clear space. So you mentionedyour career, like at least in the
spaces I am in the city,it's like no big deal, if not
kind of celebrated and like Oh yeah, awesome, you know, and I
think that tracks with just overall LGBTQacceptance, right if you know the folks
(35:30):
who track that kind of over theyears, in the decades, it's just
getting more and more, which isactually, you know, probably part of
this moral panic on behalf of theRepublicans. You know, like, what
are these young people doing? Genz? You know, you need to
make them afraid, you know,hoods. It's like, I'm in Clifton
(35:51):
a lot, and I'm so happyto be there because it's just like it
doesn't matter. Yeah, it doesn'tmatter, And there's a skyline and that's
that's all I need. An omarthe I mean the innan place. Do
you like Indian food, Krishna,I mean, uh, the Indian food.
I used to live in Clifton,the Gaslight district, and I could
walk and it was, oh mygosh, terrific. Are you talking about
(36:13):
the buffet there? Yeah? Orjust timing the food? I sometimes I
would, okay, if I wasmaybe I shouldn't admit this occasionally, so
I lived there when I was backin grad school, and if I was
being truly decadent, and this isthis is a decadent thing. I would
order one entree. I always Ialways order two entrees when I'm getting Indian
because I like to have a mix. But I would get one entree from
(36:37):
Krishna and then one entree from Barbecause I have these favorites at both places
and anyway, I would order themboth on this like I would pick up
one and then yeah. I wouldrationalize it to myself because I would walk
up the hill. I would walkup Clifton Avenue to Krishna, and that's
quite a hill, and so Iwas like, well, I'm just gonna
(36:57):
go. I'm gonna take an icewalk up to Krishna, get my one
entree, and then walk back downthe hill to Ombar and get my second
entree, and then I eat themat home and have the leftovers for days.
You know, the three days ofmeals you'll get. You say,
yeah, right, I mean thatthat's that's a solid like four four meals
for me. So portions justify it. I justify it. Portions are huge,
(37:19):
at least in my yes, andwith all the rice and well,
I usually don't get no, butboys you get no. That's even more
so. I don't know. Onetime I got spicy, I don't know
why spicy non And I had thesegreen peppers and and it was too spicy,
and you didn't. I told that. So I love cheese non.
I take cheese non and dip itin the sauce. I usually skip the
(37:42):
meat. Yeah, I usually doto it. And in restaurants, I
don't know why. I usually govegetarian and I'm not a vegetarian, but
I do tend to prefer the vegetarianentrees. I could just I could just
go get sauces off the buffet.Oh same, Oh yes, bread and
the sauce is because I'm fifteen dollarsfor that. That's another thing I saw.
(38:02):
I usually end up eating meat anyway. That was a tangent. Yeah,
well you can tell that both ofus are kind of hungry. Yeah,
I have all of I have olivegarden leftovers to look forward to tonight.
I want to ask you. Yeah, and I really appreciate your time.
You could you totally gave it.You totally gave me plenty of things
(38:25):
to I think Google is our friend, and knowing what's garbage out there when
we read it, it's our friend. And I really appreciate your your clarification
on some things. Yeah. Absolutely, And again speaking to all of the
information that's out there and the disinformation. The resources I mentioned are your friends
right for for community support but alsoto just ensure that you're getting the right
(38:51):
information right. So just I'm justreally once again plugging our local queer organizations
for for you know, both supportand and information and advice when because Google
can be overwhelming. Is I guessmy point? And I've really got my
pen out. I'm going to askyou what your what your what your spreadsheet
is screaming right now? What whatare the places that you've checked out recently
(39:15):
that you can recommend? Oh mygosh, what did I well? Oh
my sister just oh my sister.Well, my sister just pointed me to
So, I know, Chris,you've been in Florida, uh recently,
but do you remember like the oldmall that was at Fount Square or like
you know, the mall that wasFountain Placed, the downtown kind of mall,
(39:37):
which it really doesn't exist anymore.But so there's this development that's at
the corner of what fifth and Vine. It's right there on Fountain Square,
but it's it's this whole new development. There's an indoor golf like you know,
uh golf range. But there's acouple of restaurants and there's one it's
(39:59):
just opening or I don't know ifit has opened. It's called the Davidson,
and I believe it's Davidson after youknow the the Fountain Square Fountain is
called the Tyler Davidston Fountain. Anyway, I think it's kind of like a
like upscale American diner, but werelike French. Oh now, I'm these
are totally different concepts, I guess, but maybe like a French rosserie kind
(40:22):
of thing. I don't know.It sounded good. I want to check
that out. I still haven't beento Meeta's, which is Salazar. Jose
Salazar is the chef that's also likein the in the uh Central Business district.
Yeah, and well he used tothat sounds like that sounds like a
(40:45):
Mexican place or maybe or it's Latino. It's it's Latin food. I don't
think. I don't think it's specificallyMexican. It's it's yeah, Latin uh
inspired. And then Cafe Machico isanother so speaking of Salar, Salazar is
a James Beard nominated chef. Ourother local I believe. I think the
(41:06):
other local James Beard nominated chefs arewith Cafe Machico, which is in Wanta
Hills or East Wanta Hills. Istill haven't been there. It's I think
that's mostly bakery, but maybe theydo have also savory items. Excuse me,
that's on my list. Yeah,I'm just I'm constantly adding to the
(41:27):
list and then taking things off whenthey close. And I had to do
like a total rewrite after COVID becauseyou know, so many things opened and
closed. The fact that you havea list, I would just do it.
It's nerdy. It's totally nerdy ofme. But I just I like
knowing what's going on, and youcan't always depend on Yelp because not everything
is on Yelp. And and Ilike to track where I've been, you
(41:51):
know, like I have I havecolumns for like food and restaurant. I
have columns for breweries, I havecolumns for like coffee shops. And I
have a whole column on just northernKentucky because I feel like we are so
blessed down here in our restaurant scene, like the food here is the food
scene in the Cincinnati metro area.I think is terrific. And I mean
(42:15):
focusing on just the Ohio side,it is just a wealth of opportunities to
visit. And then you know,not even considering Northern Kentucky, And you
should consider Northern Kentucky because it's fabulous. You should. Just if you focus
just on one type of food,I can focus on barbecue and go and
show you a billion amazing places andyou would just want to eat that.
(42:38):
You would just want to eat brisketfor a month. Ord just want Yeah,
I like I like to sometimes Ilike to pick just like a neighborhood
or like a block, you know, if we're talking like OTR or something,
and then just hop you know,do kind of like have apps somewhere,
you know, have like a happyhour somewhere, and then hop to
a restaurant and then hop to Idon't know, after dinner, drinks or
(42:59):
something or dessert. Well I'm notas I'm not as much of a dessert
person, but okay, well wellokay they a person what we do m
h m hm
Welcome to a new episode of OutCincinnati. It's radio for the LGBTQ community
here in the Tri State and beanytime at out Cincinnati dot com at el
Cincinnati on social media. My nameis Chris. Once again, thank you
for joining me for another episode ofthis show. We produce it each and
every week in the Queen City righthere in Cincinnati. This week we're going
(00:25):
to connect with Emily Meyer. Sheused to be an attorney with Equality Ohio
and now she's kind of her legalmind around here, which I love,
and we'll connect with her and seewhat's going on in the state of Lago
here Out Cincinnati Alex Cincinnati would liketo thank our sponsors, Scott E.
(00:48):
Knox Attorneys at Law with over thirtyfive years of experience and working with the
LGBTQUS community. Scottnox dot com formore information. Dad Lama Coffee located in
Madisonville at five thousand and one KenwoodRoad. It is the best Cincinnati coffee
shop and bakery nan after an angrytmammal. Out Cincinnati is radio for the
(01:15):
LGBTQ plus community and beyond here inCincinnati. And I just because I have
no I read the news just likeeverybody else, watch the news, whatever
the case may be. I wantto know what's going on legal wise in
Ohio, what's facing us queer folkwith Emilie Meyer. Thank you for coming
on the program. Oh happy tobe here. Hi Chris, How official
(01:38):
do I say? Program? Isound like that doctor Laura lady anyway to
me? Right? So welcome onto the show. And I appreciate this
zoo. This is a zoom chat, I'll be honest, So we'll make
it as interesting as possible. WhatI mean by that is everybody to zoom
during the pandemic and we're out ofthat. So, but it's freezing outside.
So I said, hey, youwant to do this this zoom thing?
(02:01):
Sure? And you know, sometimeszoom is right. Let's not totally
get rid of zoom. It's it'sso easy to record zoom, you know.
And with a coffee shop, younever know who's going to sit next
to you or eves drop. Sowhat is your area of expertise when you're
(02:23):
a practicing lawyer? Boy, Well, I guess my career has taken twists
and turns. I first went tolaw school to be an IP attorney.
That's intellectual property law. Which islike patents and trademarks. I mean,
I would not hold myself out asan expert in that. I haven't practiced
that in over a decade, butthat's where I started. More recently,
(02:46):
i've been practicing. I'm no longerwith this clinic, but I was.
I was a public interest lawyer,which is essentially legal aid if you're familiar
with a legal aid organization helping lowincome folks on basically a wide variety of
areas of law. I mean,I was very much a general practitioner,
(03:08):
you know, so anything from Imean, well, discrimination law for sure,
and you know discrimination facing the LGBTQcommunity specifically, but you know,
tenant defense, family law. Neverwould have thought I'd be a family law
attorney, but I was victims rights. So if you if you're the victim
(03:29):
of a crime, you have rightsand like for instance, uh, you
know, seeking protection orders and stufflike that. Just a wide variety.
Chris, tell me, just tellme if it's true. Are they Is
it true that there are lawyers outthere that it would cost almost cost them
money to practice And and because Ihave a friend in Milwaukee, he's like,
(03:53):
I work at an automotive group andhe is a friggin' radio and lawyer
genius. He's done everything and uhhuh, he's like, I work in
an automotive group. Pieces of itwould cost me money to work is Do
you know what kind of are therepeople who are who fight the good fight,
who like maybe nothing. Let mejust clarify when you say an automotive
(04:14):
group, like automotive law, automotivelike selling. He doesn't practice law anymore.
Oh no, no, no hedoesn't. So I just I was
just okay, okay, gotcha.It just came to mind. I was
curious if there are folks who fightthe good fight out there who were like,
are almost they're almost paying money tobe to be able to help.
Oh well, yeah, I meanI don't want to say that the legal
(04:38):
practice legal industry runs the game out. I mean you have you have people
pulling in you know, law firmpartners pulling in millions. Of course,
they're usually defending big corporations, you'reright, public interest law, like a
legal aid type lawyer, legal cliniclawyer. Yet typically they're you know,
nonprofit funded, so based on grantmoney. Yeah, it's not not the
(05:00):
most lucrative of the law for sure. I don't know what he's my friend
studied, but he was. Hewas telling me last time you know that
it was that it was that way. So what are the I can,
like I said to the intro,and this is out Cincinnati Radio for the
LGBTQ plus community here in Cincinnati.Anytime out Cincinnati dot com. Emily Meyer
(05:20):
is on the phone. And uh, Emily is a lawyer, and I
love talking to lawyers, especially youknow, it's the podcast. You know,
what's the What should I do withmy neighbor building the fence and stuff?
That's funny. I really one ofmy friends a few years ago had
a problem with the neighbor with thefence. Yeah, I mean that happened,
(05:42):
and actually I referred her to oneof my friends who who was more
of an expert at that area oflaw. Ye had and the next we're
gonna have judge Emily Meyer. Soare you? So? What resources are
available? And this is always importantto note in Cincinnati, what resources are
available if you find yourself hung up, whether it be with the fence or
(06:03):
with a murder charge in Cincinnati.Wow, okay, that's that's a spectrum
there. Lawyers, folks, lawyersor lawyers too. Sure. Well,
first, I mean, you know, I I would first sort of inquire
us to someone's resources, meaning basicallymoney they can throw at the problem.
(06:24):
Right, The more money you have, you know, the fancier lawyer you
can get, not that they're notthat they're the best. If someone,
I mean, if you have alegal issue and you you know, you
don't have any lawyer friends or friendsof friends, and you don't know where
to turn, I guess the firstplace I would recommend is the Cincinnati Bar
Association. Uh, you know,that's that's the like the industry group for
(06:50):
lawyers. There are directories you canyou know, find find someone, whether
it's a solo artitioner or a lawfirm who practices in like the area that
you you have an issue in.If money is a concern where you can't
just go to any old attorney youknow who charges hundreds of dollars per hour,
(07:14):
then the first place I would lookas our local Legal Aid Society,
you know reference that earlier. Theywork with low income folks, and legal
aid is great because not only Imean they might be able to help you,
but even if they can't, theyhave probably a network and of resources
of where to point you to,And then I guess the last place I
(07:38):
will I will suggest is my formeremployer, The Equality of Hio Legal Clinic
Equality o Hio is you know,a statewide nonprofit that that advocates on behalf
of the queer community specifically. Soif your issue, well, it doesn't
have to be a queer issue,really, you just have to be queer
yourself, however you identify that.But they have a legal clinic. It
(08:00):
serves low income folks. It isstatewide. I actually I don't know if
they hired someone after I left,so I don't know that they have like
an attorney specifically in our area.But again, it is a state wide
clinic. You could, you know, look them up, chat with them
and once again, even if theycan't help you, I do know they
(08:22):
definitely have a network of attorneys aroundthe state that might be able to help.
So that's that's quick answer to ifsomeone needs legal help or a turn.
And Emily has been to law schooland you also went to did interesting
masters? What did you? Canyou talk quickly about what you did well
as much as you'd like as much? Sure? Well, yeah, just
(08:43):
briefly by mentioning you know, mythe twist and turns in my career,
mostly because my interests have changed overtime. But after I I I practiced
IP law with two local firms whoare both great. But after those two
experiences, it became very clear tome. Uh. And I was in
my early thirties. I guess itjust became clear to me that was not
(09:07):
the career path I wanted to continueon. Uh And I I really made
the jump. I went back toU S in their master's program. It
was the Women's Gender and Sexuality Studies. Uh so talk about just totally different
than IP law and and yeah,you know, a two year program,
and uh it was great. Imean I have an engineering degree in my
(09:31):
undergrad and just all of these arts, arts and humanities courses that I never
took, you know, I gotto take them all or you know,
take take a number of them andspecifically you know, with a gender and
sexuality lens. So it's kind ofjust like learning things that I had never
learned before. And then with thegoal of like returning to law but with
(09:58):
you know, totally different focus.And then so then I and after that,
I I was hired with the QualityOhio. So there you there you
go, so what so what sowhat what is your what is your day
to day? And then what aresome of the issues facing you know,
the queer community, Like are youreading? Are you reading up? Do
(10:20):
you keep red up? You know? Can you can you kind of shed
light because I know there's a lotlike from trans from the attacking the trans
community with ignoring pronouns and who theheck knows what else in the legislative and
just legislative area. Yeah, andyou have coming for drag queens and I
and I just don't get that atall because it's like, so what's your
(10:43):
view? Yeah, well yeah,so I mean I'm you know, I'm
of the community and I just careabout the community. So yes, I
I you know, I keep intouch with everything that's going on. Well
also I mean and frankly, Ithink for for my mental health and buddy,
these days, you have to sortof set some boundaries in terms of,
(11:03):
you know, using social media andall the information that's out there,
it can kind of be a firehose of just like news blasted at you,
and especially when it's harmful, terriblenews, just the constant fire hose
of bad news, I you know, for for my mental health. I
do take breaks kind of news breaks, but no, I mean I keep
(11:24):
my toe in it because I care. As far as like what's going on.
You know, you you named it, Chris. We're in a bad
time in the state of Ohio forthe queer community. I mean, and
we can get into that. Iyou know, there are like the law
that was passed, and then there'sthese administrative rules and the Wines executive order
(11:48):
not to mention then like you saidabout oh, book bands and drag Queen,
happy Hour, drag queen, youknow, storytime being demonized and things
about pronouns I will say, andwe can talk about if you want to
go into details like that, wecan. That could also be just another
(12:13):
that what's an example of something that'simpacting the trans community, because I know
that folks should really really love tolegislate outside of their own outside of their
own interests and outside of their ownbodies, meaning they're not trans and they
don't know anybody who is. Yeah. Well, so briefly, there's there's
(12:33):
HB six, which was it wasit was passed by both houses. We
have a House and a Senate inour General Assembly. It was passed by
both houses. But then at theend of December last year, like the
end of twenty twenty three, theWine vetoed it, which was amazing frankly,
and he, you know, heactually said that the government shouldn't be
(12:54):
making these decisions for trans youth.It should be parents. And so,
I mean, for a brief moment, I mean, DeWine was like,
wow, impressive. I mean,I know, you know, makes him
sense, almost makes me wonder whyhe let it get Yeah, well just
wait for it here. That wasthe end of the year. Well,
our General Assembly came back during theirrecess specifically to override the veto. So
(13:20):
HB sixty eight, which has alot of components, has several components to
it, but like it bans,for instance, it bans gender affirming care
for trans miners. I mean we'retalking hormones, puberty blockers, surgery,
you know, totally against all medicalscience and all physician groups. It's just
(13:46):
banned. And so they overrode hisveto at the end of January. It
will become effective. This law willbecome effective April twenty fourth of twenty twenty
four. Now the ACLU has comeout and said they're going to file suit
to stop it, But that hasn'thappened yet. I mean it will.
I have no doubt. Hopefully theywill at least get the law paused while
(14:11):
the lawsuit continues. But like that, that's happening other components of the law.
It also prohibits providers from helping peopleget help out of state, like
you know, you can't get helphere. And not only that, doctors
can't help you find other providers,you know, in Indiana or Michigan or
(14:35):
Kentucky probably unless you want to payyour own unless you want to pay your
own path or not at all.The doctors can't do it. It's deemed
aiding and a bedding. Oh yeah, I mean so basically you know it.
People they have to figure it outfor themselves. Right. Then there's
also like a sports ban. Youknow, it bans trans girls from practicing
(14:56):
or participating with all sports in Cado'stwelve and also through college. Let's see.
I mean it's awful. And againit's it's to be a law in
April unless it stopped. This isnot right. Say it again. This
is not the one he vetoed,right, Oh it is. No,
(15:18):
it is the one that he vetoed. This is HB sixty eight. But
then then our legislature, our stateAssembly, which is you know, incredibly
jerrymandered, so we have you know, it's a super majority of Republicans.
They overrode the veto in January.Thank you for repeating that if you did,
because yeah, no problem. Yeah. So I mean that's that's number
(15:39):
one. I mean, that ishappening. And yes, I am,
I am always optimistic on the ACLUand then helping it. And I will
say this type of law has beenpassed and challenged in other states and the
challenge has been victorious. So youknow, I mean, I'm sort of
I am cautiously optimistic. But youknow, given the state of you know,
(16:00):
judicial Trump appointee kind of, youknow, Republicans having no shame anymore,
we still have to we still haveto live through it, right,
And people are scared. People arei mean talking about leaving the state.
You know, parents, they wantto do right by their kids. But
(16:22):
you know, not everybody can leavethe state. Moving is incredibly expensive,
and you know, not everybody canafford it. Not everybody can just easily
find a job in another state,easily replicate their care networks. Like this
is just would you'd be calling thestate House and asking questions and stuff like
that. Well, at this point, I mean, we had all that
(16:44):
opportunity, and we definitely did.You know, like last year, you
know, whenever there's a pending bill, there's there's time for witness testimony,
right, and so you know,we were incredibly organized. I'm talking about
citizens picking up the phone and caughtlingMike DeWine in to office and saying,
why the heck is this being Isthis happening. I'm sure that is happening,
(17:06):
and it has happened, but youknow, at this point there's nothing
to do especially with and again,you know I mentioned so that's that's something
that was passed by our legislature,the General Assembly. And again, yes,
we gave DeWine some kudos because hevetoed. However, it was incredibly
disingenuous because then literally weeks later,in the early part of twenty twenty four,
(17:30):
here, you know, in January, we have we have two administrative
rules. These are rules put forthby state agencies, and so that's under
the executive branch, which DeWine isthe head of the executive branch. But
these executive these administrative rules also haveto do with prohibiting care gender affirming care
(17:53):
for for trans youth. And actuallyit started with all trans people including adults.
That got quickly revised, I mean, thankfully, but still they still
do target trans youth for that comments. When when when a when a state
agency puts forth proposed draft rules,there's a there's a time. Well,
(18:15):
it's called notice and comment period,which is basically everybody the public has to
have general notice of the draft rulesand then they also have to be given
time to comment on the rules.Again. The latest they were initially amended
the draft rules. I'm sorry,the comments for the latest amended rules were
(18:37):
due on Valentine's date on just onon Wednesday the fourteenth, So things are
still pending there. Nothing has beenofficially approved or passed. Uh. I'm
not an expert on administrative law,but I believe what happens next is they're
going to take the comments, thesenew comments on the amended rules, make
(19:00):
any adjustments they want to. Itwill go to like another committee in the
agency. Now that committee does havea chance to just completely rescind the rule,
which would be great, but Idon't have a lot of confidence in
that anyway. So you know,these administrative rules coming from Dwin's executive branch.
(19:22):
It just makes his kind of commentsregarding vetoing HB sixty eight a little
disingenuous. And then Chris he recentlyalso put out an executive order, which
is another thing. It's it's basicallya law that just specifically comes from the
executive of the state, which isthe governor, and it just it outright
(19:45):
bans surgery for gender affirming gender affirmingsurgery for trans youth. Now, none
of the gender clinics in the stateof Ohio do perform surgery on trans youth.
You know, it's one of thesethat's a solution for something that's not
a problem because it's like not evenhappening. But uh, you know,
(20:08):
he he puts it forward. You'releaving the state, I mean, you're
yeah, it's just it's just anothermeasure of demonizing being trans and specifically demonizing
trans youth, and making making ourstate wholly unwelcome, uh to two people.
People feel like they're like following theright, the white right path,
(20:33):
you know, their constituents and thisand that and the other. Yeah,
oh well, yeah, we cantalk about why this is all happening.
Yeah, it doesn't make it doesn'tmake it doesn't make it okay. Like
so, so are they really tryingto legislate against drag queens or have they
tried to in this state? Uh? I'm well, sorry, I'm legislating
(20:55):
against them. I'm talking about justdrag queen story hours saying yeah, yep,
not allowed to happen. Books ifthat between that and books you can
throw in books about queer mom anddad's Oh yeah yeah, any sort of
not hetteronormative stuff. Yes. Imean, you know, whenever there is
(21:19):
a drag queen happy hour, there'syou know, the people who protest,
I will say, whenever they're challenged, they're clearly you know, bands on
these things are are unconstitutional under theFirst Amendment. Uh. It's like an
easy, easy like win. Butand they know that, you know,
the people that are doing that,they know that this is going to be
(21:41):
challenged, but they do it anywaybecause it stirs up their base. It.
You know, they're trying to wintheir next election, which you know,
going back to we have a youknow, a hella. Can I
say that like Jerry Mandard? Okay, state legislature. You know, they're
appealing to the world of the base. They're appealing to the bottom because because
(22:03):
they're they're in a safe district.Right, it's been jerrymandered, so that
like any given Republican district is asafe district. Well, what is what
does that mean? It means candidatesaren't worried about winning the general election.
You know, they're not worried aboutbeating out the Democrat because it's a safe
district. They know that they'll winagainst the Democrat. What they need to
(22:26):
win is the primary. You know, they're they're competing against other Republicans.
And that's what I mean when it'slike race to the bottom on who can
be the worst. To be honest, right now, I'm taking furious because
there's so much a need to google. And I really Emily, Emily Emily
Myers, uh is a legal mindand a queer mind, and it's great
(22:47):
to combine both of those things andbe able to ask any question that I
I kind of thought that, yeah, and I know we didn't intend that
this to like go down the rabbithole of all these terrible things, Uh,
but legal things with your niece today, and I gave it a very
high level gloss. I'd always godeeper. But I also don't want to
(23:07):
just completely bamboozle anything else you wantto talk about. Today. You were
telling me we could talk about somethinglike you were telling me you spent the
day with your niece. What didyou all do? Oh boy, Yeah,
she's she's in kindergarten and she therewas a teacher in service day.
So just it made it a longweekend for them because it's you know,
forty weekend. And oh we wedid crafts at my house in the morning,
(23:30):
and then I let her choose lunchwhere we want to go to lunch,
and so she chose Olive Garden,which I hadn't been there in years,
so that was fun. And thenwe went bulling in the afternoon,
so it was fun. Oh,hang out with hang out with Emily and
get some pasta. Yeah yeah,yeah, well you know, yeah,
she ordered pizza, pizza and Frenchfries, but I had pasta. Yeah,
(23:53):
French fries. I love it.Olive Garden is one of those places
people will say so consistent and youalways know what you're getting there, right
you just yeah, yes, Sothat's I just that was just out of
curiosity. And she did she uhdid she wiped the floor with you in
bowling or you. Oh she shewas competitive. She had some spare,
(24:15):
she had one strike. It wasfun. We had fun and it was
I don't know if you've ever beento Madison Bowl, which is in Madisonville,
but it is. I mean whata time warp going in there.
I mean it is. And peoplewere having a blast, you know,
it was. There were a lotof kids because we went in the afternoon.
But oh man, nothing fancy inthat bowling alley. Everything. I
(24:40):
mean, like the old you knowscoreboard, like you know where you punch
in your name, and like whothe bowlers are, and it's it was
a trip. It was fun.I I just I usually get nachos and
a diet pepsi because well I putthe gavach on snacks. She'll have snacks
at any time. We already gotdonuts in the morning, and so I
(25:03):
was just like, and then wehad got been to Olive Garden. I
was like, we're just we're notdoing snacks at the bowling alley. You
know we eat when we get home. Yeah, I should, I should
participate more. And I usually Iheckle and eat my nachos and dirick my
DIETSI, hey, that's fine.Every every team us a heckler. Every
team, everybody has their role.Are what are some resources folks can use
(25:27):
to make sure they're getting the rightinformation? And if you want to drop
any candidates in there that folks shouldbe on the lookout for. If not,
that's fine. But how can folksmake sure they're getting the right information
on these bills? Is it togo in and read these bills? I
mean, you know you can,but bill language is so I mean,
I'm a lawyer, and sometimes thebill language is you know, confusing,
(25:48):
and it references old codes, sectionsand a lot of ware ass clauses,
you know, where as this?Where is this? You know? I
always like people knowing, you know, educating themselves. But I don't know
that starting with the actual bill languagesis like the best route. Let's see
in terms of uh resources. Uhwell, actually, first I'm gonna just
(26:14):
mention actually high level here, Iknow, maybe I should have started with
this. Although I am a lawyer, you know, to anyone listening,
and you know, sorry to you, Chris, I am not your lawyer,
so I please don't take anything I'msaying as like legal advice for your
specific and for you know situation.That's not what I'm doing here. She's
being I'm being loyally here by includingthis disclaimer. I am not your attorney.
(26:40):
Okay, no, So if peopleare questions and we're kind of a
day late on this there, uhCity council member Reggie Harris. Uh,
he's on the city council for forthe City of Cincinnati. He's he's terrific.
He hosted, along with uh someother folks, he hosted an information
(27:02):
night just last night. I thinkit was in north Side, basically information
on these bills and these administrative rulesand like what people can do I mentioned.
I mean that was on the fifteenth. I couldn't attend. I don't
know if that was recorded or iflive streamed or something, you know,
(27:22):
if that's available, if you know, people can watch that. Again,
I have no idea if that actuallyis. I'm also gonna plug because it
is in southwest Ohio, although it'syou know, up up seventy five,
but I'm from Dayton. Dayton ishosting kind of another information night next week
on the twenty second, so peopleare available to make the drive up.
(27:45):
I think it's hosted by p FlagDayton and like LGBT, the LGBT Center
and Dayton and maybe a few otherfolks. But again, I mean,
you know, if there are parentsout there trans youth and you're like,
what am I doing? What canwe do? How do I navigate this
for my kid? You know,again, if you can make that meeting.
I believe it's on the twenty secondof February and it's up in Dayton,
(28:08):
and actually I believe there's going tobe like a panel of folks.
I believe actually one of the doctorsfrom Dayton Children's is going to be there.
You know, so hearing hearing frommedical providers I think would be would
be very much of interest to folks. And that actually segues me to like,
beyond these informational nights, what whatshould parents be doing to talk to
(28:33):
your provider? Like you should begetting an appointment? Hopefully your provider is
reaching out to you, I meanlike doctor's offices and stuff like that,
because there is and I again I'mgiving kind of high level on these these
laws, Chris, there is agrandfather clause that is somewhat vague and I
wouldn't want to like hang your haton it, but there is a grandfather
(28:56):
clause that says any youth that islike you can continue your current treatment like
your grandfathered in if if by theeffective date of this statute, which again
is April twenty fourth, if atthat date, any any youth that is
currently being treated can continue their treatment. Again, that's pretty vague because what
(29:18):
what does continued treatment mean? Like, well, you know, doctor says,
well yeah or no. Frankly,it's whatever a judge would eventually say,
because you know somebody will challenge it. But anyway, other than like
these these informational nights, talk toyour provider, like get an appointment as
(29:38):
soon as you can see what they'readvising. And then third and this kind
of maybe this was maybe what youoriginally meant. In terms of resources,
like local organizations that are doing stuff. Always look to trans Ohio that actually
that isn't a local it's a statewideorganization and they're they were organized up in
(30:00):
the northeast Ohio, but they're justa fabulous organization and they have tons of
information. So that's one resource.But also locally, there's there's Heartland trans
Wellness, there's Transform Sincy, theclothing closet, you know, kind of
(30:21):
organization. There's the Transgender Advocacy Council. These are all local LGBTQ groups.
You know, in addition to likeour local Glisten chapter, our our local
p Flag chapter. We're super luckyif you look. Yeah, we are.
Uh, And you know, Iwould encourage I would encourage getting involved
(30:48):
or just you know, going toa meeting or something, if for nothing
else, just for the community support. You know, folks there are going
to get it. They're gonna knowwhat you're going through as just I mean
as a baseline. And hopefully theywill also have resources. They'll have advice
and what to do next. Uh, they can point you to things,
(31:08):
so that that is what I recommend. So talk about being queer in Cincinnati.
I'll see you. What do youmean? That's a pretty broad topic.
I I I don't know. Doyou believe in queer spaces? Do
you like being queer in Cincinnati?Do you feel like do you feel like
(31:29):
you can be do you identify asqueer? I should ask that, and
also, uh, do you feelcomfortable you know walking around? I do.
I'm not screaming it from the whatever, but I just kind of walk
around and do my thing. Yeah. Yeah, I'm buys and queer,
and I actually love the word queer. I know that's sort of a you
(31:49):
know that it's a reclaimed word,so you're what we're always careful about using
it. I love it for itsvagueness and sort of its broad applicability in
terms of Yeah, do I feelcomfortable. Yes, I am very fem
presenting, though I am not atall like nonconforming in my expression. So
(32:14):
yes. Safety. You know,I'm a white girl, a white femme
girl, sis woman. Safety forme isn't a concern, and I realized
that that's a privilege. Also,I am usually I guess, generally speaking,
i'm in the city limits, I'min I know where I am when
(32:34):
I'm in the city, and Ifeel safe. I feel safe here.
Yeah, it's it could always be. It would be neat to have a
queer coffee shop or a queer thisor that, or you know, to
have something. But there are Imean, there really are there, Chris,
there are. I'm sort of afoodie or I just like I sort
(32:55):
of My friends and my sisters makefun of me. I have this spreadsheet
where I kind of keep track ofwhere do I want to visit? Where
have I visited, and it's it'skind of like my own yelp if you
will, but you know, noteverything is on yelp. Yeah yeah,
right right, But I mean there'smultiple, you know, queer bars now
(33:15):
downtown and like an OTR, there'ssome I want know. I mean,
you know there's places in North Side, there's places in what's the one in
like Hyde Park. I'm I'm blanking, but I think there's lots of spaces
here. The cafe is a queerspot if you just look around correct,
Yes, on a stereotype. There'sa lot of queer folks that hang out,
(33:37):
uh in cafes anyways. So yeah, just your impression because you know
you as as you said, youwere from Dayton and it's kind of similar
but kind of different. And youknow Dayton had this thing with mask which
was a huge place and it's rightkind of a it's kind of queer up
there too, And yeah, it'sreally love Dayton. Yeah, it's it's
(34:01):
it's it's great how it's kind ofhow it grows. But it's within that
two seventy five loop. I mean, but unless you look at cafes other
places, it's totally queer Cafesi.Yeah, cafes should just queer to me.
That's it. That's all I'm goingto say. Let me think it's
called mad Lama cafe. I'm notgoing to I'm not going to. Also,
(34:22):
you know, I mean this well, sorry, sorry to cut you
off. I just you know,despite despite what these Republicans are doing in
our state House and just around thestate, I do feel like maybe this
is just being optimistic, or thisis just you know, where I am
in the city or where I tendto be. But I just feel like
(34:43):
generally queer people are just everywhere,and I feel like there is especially from
younger folks. It's just there's suchan acceptance, it's not even a thing.
Which again maybe that's my own privilegein being you know, very gender
conforming, and so I don't giveup. There's I don't know, there's
I don't know that just by lookingat me someone would clock me and that's
(35:07):
a privilege. But I don't know. You know, whenever you're you're in
a clear space. So you mentionedyour career, like at least in the
spaces I am in the city,it's like no big deal, if not
kind of celebrated and like Oh yeah, awesome, you know, and I
think that tracks with just overall LGBTQacceptance, right if you know the folks
(35:30):
who track that kind of over theyears, in the decades, it's just
getting more and more, which isactually, you know, probably part of
this moral panic on behalf of theRepublicans. You know, like, what
are these young people doing? Genz? You know, you need to
make them afraid, you know,hoods. It's like, I'm in Clifton
(35:51):
a lot, and I'm so happyto be there because it's just like it
doesn't matter. Yeah, it doesn'tmatter, And there's a skyline and that's
that's all I need. An omarthe I mean the innan place. Do
you like Indian food, Krishna,I mean, uh, the Indian food.
I used to live in Clifton,the Gaslight district, and I could
walk and it was, oh mygosh, terrific. Are you talking about
(36:13):
the buffet there? Yeah? Orjust timing the food? I sometimes I
would, okay, if I wasmaybe I shouldn't admit this occasionally, so
I lived there when I was backin grad school, and if I was
being truly decadent, and this isthis is a decadent thing. I would
order one entree. I always Ialways order two entrees when I'm getting Indian
because I like to have a mix. But I would get one entree from
(36:37):
Krishna and then one entree from Barbecause I have these favorites at both places
and anyway, I would order themboth on this like I would pick up
one and then yeah. I wouldrationalize it to myself because I would walk
up the hill. I would walkup Clifton Avenue to Krishna, and that's
quite a hill, and so Iwas like, well, I'm just gonna
(36:57):
go. I'm gonna take an icewalk up to Krishna, get my one
entree, and then walk back downthe hill to Ombar and get my second
entree, and then I eat themat home and have the leftovers for days.
You know, the three days ofmeals you'll get. You say,
yeah, right, I mean thatthat's that's a solid like four four meals
for me. So portions justify it. I justify it. Portions are huge,
(37:19):
at least in my yes, andwith all the rice and well,
I usually don't get no, butboys you get no. That's even more
so. I don't know. Onetime I got spicy, I don't know
why spicy non And I had thesegreen peppers and and it was too spicy,
and you didn't. I told that. So I love cheese non.
I take cheese non and dip itin the sauce. I usually skip the
(37:42):
meat. Yeah, I usually doto it. And in restaurants, I
don't know why. I usually govegetarian and I'm not a vegetarian, but
I do tend to prefer the vegetarianentrees. I could just I could just
go get sauces off the buffet.Oh same, Oh yes, bread and
the sauce is because I'm fifteen dollarsfor that. That's another thing I saw.
(38:02):
I usually end up eating meat anyway. That was a tangent. Yeah,
well you can tell that both ofus are kind of hungry. Yeah,
I have all of I have olivegarden leftovers to look forward to tonight.
I want to ask you. Yeah, and I really appreciate your time.
You could you totally gave it.You totally gave me plenty of things
(38:25):
to I think Google is our friend, and knowing what's garbage out there when
we read it, it's our friend. And I really appreciate your your clarification
on some things. Yeah. Absolutely, And again speaking to all of the
information that's out there and the disinformation. The resources I mentioned are your friends
right for for community support but alsoto just ensure that you're getting the right
(38:51):
information right. So just I'm justreally once again plugging our local queer organizations
for for you know, both supportand and information and advice when because Google
can be overwhelming. Is I guessmy point? And I've really got my
pen out. I'm going to askyou what your what your what your spreadsheet
is screaming right now? What whatare the places that you've checked out recently
(39:15):
that you can recommend? Oh mygosh, what did I well? Oh
my sister just oh my sister.Well, my sister just pointed me to
So, I know, Chris,you've been in Florida, uh recently,
but do you remember like the oldmall that was at Fount Square or like
you know, the mall that wasFountain Placed, the downtown kind of mall,
(39:37):
which it really doesn't exist anymore.But so there's this development that's at
the corner of what fifth and Vine. It's right there on Fountain Square,
but it's it's this whole new development. There's an indoor golf like you know,
uh golf range. But there's acouple of restaurants and there's one it's
(39:59):
just opening or I don't know ifit has opened. It's called the Davidson,
and I believe it's Davidson after youknow the the Fountain Square Fountain is
called the Tyler Davidston Fountain. Anyway, I think it's kind of like a
like upscale American diner, but werelike French. Oh now, I'm these
are totally different concepts, I guess, but maybe like a French rosserie kind
(40:22):
of thing. I don't know.It sounded good. I want to check
that out. I still haven't beento Meeta's, which is Salazar. Jose
Salazar is the chef that's also likein the in the uh Central Business district.
Yeah, and well he used tothat sounds like that sounds like a
(40:45):
Mexican place or maybe or it's Latino. It's it's Latin food. I don't
think. I don't think it's specificallyMexican. It's it's yeah, Latin uh
inspired. And then Cafe Machico isanother so speaking of Salar, Salazar is
a James Beard nominated chef. Ourother local I believe. I think the
(41:06):
other local James Beard nominated chefs arewith Cafe Machico, which is in Wanta
Hills or East Wanta Hills. Istill haven't been there. It's I think
that's mostly bakery, but maybe theydo have also savory items. Excuse me,
that's on my list. Yeah,I'm just I'm constantly adding to the
(41:27):
list and then taking things off whenthey close. And I had to do
like a total rewrite after COVID becauseyou know, so many things opened and
closed. The fact that you havea list, I would just do it.
It's nerdy. It's totally nerdy ofme. But I just I like
knowing what's going on, and youcan't always depend on Yelp because not everything
is on Yelp. And and Ilike to track where I've been, you
(41:51):
know, like I have I havecolumns for like food and restaurant. I
have columns for breweries, I havecolumns for like coffee shops. And I
have a whole column on just northernKentucky because I feel like we are so
blessed down here in our restaurant scene, like the food here is the food
scene in the Cincinnati metro area.I think is terrific. And I mean
(42:15):
focusing on just the Ohio side,it is just a wealth of opportunities to
visit. And then you know,not even considering Northern Kentucky, And you
should consider Northern Kentucky because it's fabulous. You should. Just if you focus
just on one type of food,I can focus on barbecue and go and
show you a billion amazing places andyou would just want to eat that.
(42:38):
You would just want to eat brisketfor a month. Ord just want Yeah,
I like I like to sometimes Ilike to pick just like a neighborhood
or like a block, you know, if we're talking like OTR or something,
and then just hop you know,do kind of like have apps somewhere,
you know, have like a happyhour somewhere, and then hop to
a restaurant and then hop to Idon't know, after dinner, drinks or
(42:59):
something or dessert. Well I'm notas I'm not as much of a dessert
person, but okay, well wellokay they a person what we do m
h m hm
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