On The Down Lola

This is a big topic, and as such it makes for a longer episode. We apologize for the delay in getting it out to you and hope that you will find a lot of discussion worthy information. On The Down Lola was so excited to welcome into the studio John Mcfly, Cornelius Hocker, and Joe Lewis to break down the Black Lives Matter movement and what exactly we are fighting for. John Mcfly Is not only the partner of Lola’s good Judy Thom Foolery, he is also a brilliant, funny, and wonderful friend. He is currently finishing his studies at Ball State University in social work and psychology. He serves with the U.S. armed forces and currently works as a Mental Health Technician for Riley Hospital. John has built his life around caring for others and is a vocal advocate for the rights of people of color and the LGBTQQIP2SAA communities. He is also a big fan of Lola’s. Cornelius Hocker Is an Indianapolis based journalist who met Lola while working on a story about a favorite Indy hotspot. He is a strong advocate for black queer and trans individuals. His travels in his work as a journalist give him a well rounded perspective on many topics. Try not to be surprised if he shows up on the podcast again. Joe Lewis (Jo MaMa) is a Chicago, IL based Drag entertainer and activist. Joe was the creator of the Drag March for Change that happened in Chicago on June 14, 2020. Other than being Lola’s MCM, Joe has worked hard to connect and network with the Chicago queens of color to spread the word of inequality, and inequity of both the black queer community and the black trans community. Terms To Know Black Lives Matter – initially as a social media response to events such as George Zimmerman’s acquittal in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin. Growth – Quickly left the internet and became a “real world” movement. Intersectionality – Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw in 1989 To describe that as humans, we are each more than one thing. For example: a black man experiences oppression for being black, but a gay black trans woman experiences a multi-layered oppression stemming from her gayness, her blackness, and her femininity. Identity politics is a political process that brings people together based on a shared aspect of their identity. History of Black Oppression (Outside of Law Enforcement) Center for American Progress Wealth Gap In 2007, immediately before the Great Recession, wealth among people of color was 14% that of whites. Currently African Americans on average own a disproportionate, 1/10 of the wealth of white Americans. Poverty has many natural consequences (Other than being poor). People of color are more likely to experience negative income shocks but are less likely to have access to emergency savings. As a consequence, they are more likely to fall behind on their bills and go into debt during times of emergency The wealth gap persists regardless of households’ education, marital status, age, or income. For instance, the median wealth for black households with a college degree equaled about 70 percent of the median wealth for white households without a college degree. Black households have more costly debt. In 2016, blacks with debt typically owed $35,560—less than 40 percent of the $93,000 in debt owed by whites. However, because blacks owed larger amounts of high-interest debt—such as installment credit and student and car loans—the debt they typically owed was more expensive.   Education (Brookings Institute) Americans often forget that as late as the 1960s most African-American, Latino, and Native American students were educated in wholly segregated schools funded at rates many times lower than those serving whites and were excluded from many higher education institutions entirely. The end of legal segregation followed by efforts to equalize spending since 1970 has made a substantial difference for student achievement. On every major national test, including the National Assessment of Educational Progress, the gap in minority and white students’ test scores narrowed substantially between 1970 and 1990, especially for elementary school students. Jonathan Kozol s 1991 Savage Inequalities described the striking differences between public schools serving students of color in urban settings and their suburban counterparts, which typically spend twice as much per student for populations with many fewer special needs. Contrast MacKenzie High School in Detroit, where word processing courses are taught without word processors because the school cannot afford them, or East St. Louis Senior High School, whose biology lab has no laboratory tables or usable dissecting kits, with nearby suburban schools where children enjoy a computer hookup to Dow Jones to study stock transactions and science laboratories that rival those in some industries. Or contrast Paterson, New Jersey, which could not afford the qualified teachers needed to offer foreign language courses to most high school students, with Princeton, where foreign languages begin in elementary school. Even within urban school districts, schools with high concentrations of low-income and minority students receive fewer instructional resources than others. Housing the federal government established several programs in the 20th century that were designed to promote homeownership and provide a pathway to the middle class.37 However, these programs largely benefited white households while excluding Black families. In 1933 and 1934, in the midst of the Great Depression, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed the Homeowners’ Loan Act and the National Housing Act into law to prevent foreclosures and make rental housing and homeownership more affordable. To carry out these missions, the newly minted Homeowners Loan Corporation (HOLC) created maps to assess the risk of mortgage refinancing and set new standards for federal underwriting. The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) used these maps to determine the areas in which it would guarantee mortgages. But HOLC maps assessed risk in part based on a neighborhood’s racial composition, designating predominantly nonwhite neighborhoods as hazardous, and coloring these areas red. This process, known as redlining, denied people of color—especially Black people—access to mortgage refinancing and federal underwriting opportunities while perpetuating the notion that residents of color were financially risky and a threat to local property values. As a result, just 2 percent of the $120 billion in FHA loans distributed between 1934 and 1962 were given to nonwhite families Today, approximately 3 in 4 neighborhoods—74 percent—that the HOLC deemed “hazardous” in the 1930s remain low to moderate income, and more than 60 percent are predominantly nonwhite In 1944, President Roosevelt signed into law the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act—commonly referred to as the GI Bill—which provided a range of benefits, such as guaranteed mortgages, to veterans of World War II. However, according to historian Ira Katznelson, “the law was deliberately designed to accommodate Jim Crow.” For instance, the GI Bill allowed local banks to discriminate against Black veterans and deny them home loans even though the federal government would guarantee their mortgages. Employment Both the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) and the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco reports suggest that the unobserved or unexplained factors that play a role in the black-white income and employment gap include: employment discrimination, weak enforcement of anti-discrimination laws, or racial differences in unobserved skill levels as opposed to measurable factors such as educational attainment or work experience. It is likely that disparities in employment may actually be underestimated because they do not account for the large number of blacks who have been negatively impacted by a criminal justice system that has aggressively and persistently targeted communities of color Police Brutality of People of Color US National Library of Medicine/National Institute of Health US White (non-Hispanic) Population (60.4%) Fatal interaction with LE (52%) US Black Population (13.4%) Fatal interaction with LE (32%) with a fatality rate 2.8 times higher among blacks than whites. Most victims were reported to be armed (83%) black victims were more likely to be unarmed (14.8%) than white (9.4%) Hispanic (5.8%) Four case subtypes were examined based on themes that emerged in incident narratives: 22% of cases were mental health related 18% were suspected “suicide by cop” incidents, with white victims more likely than black or Hispanic victims to die in these circumstances 14% involved intimate partner violence 6% were unintentional deaths due to LE action. Another 53% of cases were unclassified and did not fall into a coded subtype.   White (Non-Hispanic) Black Hispanic/Latinx Native American Asian Population 328.2 million (2019) 186,482,305 41,371,902 56,500,433 4,013,692 18,215,987 LE Death (etimated 7,663 total: 2013-2019 3,378 1,944 1335 112 118 Population information estimates from US Census Bureau LE related fatalities info from https://mappingpoliceviolence.org/  Resources FBI: Use of force database – https://www.fbi.gov/services/cjis/ucr/use-of-force Proceedings of the National Academy of Science of the USA – https://www.pnas.org/content/116/34/16793 US National Library of Medicine National Institute of Health – https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6080222/ United States Census Bureau – https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/US/PST045219 https://mappingpoliceviolence.org/ Center for American Progress – https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/race/reports/2018/02/21/447051/systematic-inequality/ https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/race/reports/2019/08/07/472617/systemic-inequality-displacement-exclusion-segregation/ Brookings Institute – https://www.brookings.edu/articles/unequal-opportunity-race-and-education/ Sharing is caring

Lola and Thom had a lovely chat about the state of healthcare and the SOGI communities. Episode Notes: Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is tasked with ensuring the health and well-being of all Americans HHS works to ensure that LGBT Americans, families, and communities receive equal access to health services by providing enhanced resources for LGBT health issues They developing better information regarding LGBT health needs; and working to close the LGBT health disparities gap that currently exists. HRC Article: “Trump-Pence Admin Moves To Undermine LGBTQ Non-Discrimination Protections in Health Care” https://www.hrc.org/blog/trump-pence-admin-moves-to-undermine-lgbtq-protections-in-health-care April 24th, 2020 HRC responded to Trump administration’s latest actions to undermine the rights and welfare of the SOGI community. Siting Politico: the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is one step closer to finalizing a major change to the federal regulation implementing the civil rights provision, Section 1557, of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) to remove explicit protections for LGBTQ people in health care programs and activities by excluding protections from discrimination based on sex stereotyping and gender identity. HRC President Alphonso David responded: “…efforts to remove existing non-discrimination protections for the LGBTQ community is unacceptable, blatantly offensive, and cruel…” “…We will fight this policy & fight to get a pro-equality President into office this November who represents all of us.” According to HRC Foundation’s analysis of the 2018 BRFSS, 17% of LGBTQ adults do not have any kind of health insurance coverage, compared to 12% of non-LGBTQ adults. Furthermore, 23% of LGBTQ adults of color, 22% of transgender adults 32% of transgender adults of color have no form of health coverage. This can lead to avoidance of medical care even when medically necessary and to severe economic hardship when medical care is ultimately accessed What do these attacks look like? Vice President Mike Pence and Office for Civil Rights Director Roger Severino. Have reallocated significant resources away from civil rights and patient privacy in order to expand religious exemptions, enacted rules that severely restrict access to reproductive health care, and undermine strong nondiscrimination protections under the Affordable Care Act. On Friday, November 1, 2019—the first day of National Adoption Month the HHS announced that it would not enforce strong and comprehensive regulations requiring its grantees to ensure that federal taxpayer dollars are not used to fund discrimination and that it would seek to replace these regulations with weak and ambiguous ones. Human Rights Campaign (HRC) https://www.hrc.org/ Represents more than 3 million members and supporters nationwide. It is the largest national LGBTQ civil rights organization Their mission is to ensure basic equal rights for all LGBTQ people at home, at work, and in the greater community.

On The Down Lola is breaking down the topic of Diversity & Inclusion in a series of episodes. In this episode of OTDL, Lola is joined by a good Pride Judy, Tiffany Hanson. They broke down the often over looked topic of barriers to inclusion due to language.  Tiffany works for LUNA Language Services, and Indy Pride here in the greater Indianapolis area. She is also a member of the Diversity Round Table of Central Indiana. We looked at a few barriers to inclusion due to language and some starter solutions to bridging the gap.  Some of LUNA's services: On-site Interpreting: Ensure that larger meetings, community forums, and education and outreach events are accessible to all community members Phone Interpreting: Use for quick interactions to facilitate assessment conversations and discussions containing sensitive information On-site ASL Interpreting: Manage ongoing communication and engage new Deaf or hard of hearing constituents Video Remote Interpreting (VRI): Use for brief discussions with your Deaf or Hard of Hearing constituents such as question answering and appointment scheduling Document and Website Translation: Expand the exposure of your outreach by translating your written materials into common languages found in your area (via website, outreach and education materials, social media posts, and surveys) Training for Bilingual Staff: An introduction to industry best-practices for your multilingual staff to act as informal interpreters when appropriate Cultural Training: Create a more welcoming and inclusive workplace Some Possible Solutions To reach the deaf and hard of hearing groups, ensure all video announcements are accessible with a trained ASL interpreter. Provide a transcript of all video messaging with each announcement to support Deaf and hard of hearing employees. If a transcript is provided, you might also consider translating that into other major languages in your workforce. Announcements shared via social media can be quickly and easily translated or made into a quick ASL video to ensure accessibility and reach. Facebook is heavily utilized by the Deaf and multilingual communities in Indiana. Having a live event, Know who your multi-lingual workers are and have ASL interpreters in key areas: Front Gate Information Booth Bar STAGE! Ask performers prior to show for lyric sheets for interpreters Give copy of hosting notes. Benefits of Multi-Lingual societies Marc Ettlinger, Ph.D. in linguistics, “…language may influence implicit cultural attitudes toward a gender, race, or other named entity. Language can also affect how stories are reported and may even influence the art of a society.” “…a broader vocabulary can allow you to think faster, which there is ample evidence for.” A Forbes study found that a diverse and inclusive workplace is a major driver of innovation and growth. A study from VicHealth provides evidence that cultural diversity can enhance business performance and productivity, increase creative thinking, save time and money, reduce risk and promote staff health and wellbeing

With venues closed and entertainers stuck at home, they have taken to social media to try and save their income. Thom joined in once again and we kicked off with a wonderful example of a queen that made her "live" fame SLEEPING!

Nothing like a little quarantine boredom to get us back to recording new episodes. In this episode Lola was joined by good nerdy Judys, Thom Turner and Lylyth Faire to chat about NERDS! We broke down a little about what makes a nerd and are they as hot as we hear? the answer is YES! Ranker had a fun list of nerd interests that we broke down (link). Much of it made us think that everyone must be a nerd. Lylyth Faire Lylyth began their journey in drag through a fun art known as cross-play. Lylyth as a lover of computer based games and make-up. For more about them, you can check out their online stuff on Twitch! Thom Turner Thom is a nerd for many things and defiantly runs with a nerdy crew. Thom is such a nerd that he even hosts Downtown Olly’s weekly trivia night! We wouldn’t want him any other way.

This year, give yourself the gift of self care. You deserve it.

Lola was joined by regular guest Thomas Turner, daughter Lylyth Faire, and comedian Gwen Sunkel to take a look at the year that was. 2019 was a full year and marks the end of a decade and the beginning on a new roaring twenties. Entertainment This year saw the birth of Disney's continued expansion into the world of entertainment. They Launched Disney+, and acquired 20th Century Fox. They released quite a collection of blockbuster hits and three "Live" remakes. Outside of Disney we saw many other blockbuster hits. Jasmine Masters created the catch phrase of the year with "And I Oop!" We also saw the explosion of Lizzo. She launched into acting, voice overs, and was a supporting character in the hit film Hustlers. Her hit single "Juice" was on top of all the charts. We also saw the Country Music Awards award their first openly LGBTQ nominee with Lil Nas and his hit "Old Town Road." World Pride 2019 Marked the first ever US held World Pride. New York city was in full rainbow mode as the World Pride celebrations also marked the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots. We listened into CBS Weekend News coverage, Speeches from Bette Midler, and Lady Gaga. We also hear Woopi Goldberg's opening remarks from the opening ceremonies. The next World Pride will be in 2021 in Copenhagen, Denmark. LGBT Around the world India’s LGBT community protests transgender law at Delhi pride parade Istanbul LGBT activists defy Turkish government Pride ban LGBT activist remains in exile as Kenya upholds anti-gay laws Supreme Court takes on cases on gay rights, discrimination In Brunei, Sultan enacts gay sex stoning law as they take a more stringent religious stance on all their laws. Taiwan holds Asia’s first legal gay weddings, in a boost for LGBT communities Lastly we worked through this all that 2019 brought us in US politics. It was a lot.

Keep your ears peeled for our End Of Year Review! We will be welcoming back some of our favorite guests and chat about the year that was!

Lola was once again joined by best Judy, Thom Turner. They took a look at a few ways to analyze a companies support of LGBTQ communities. What we found is that a company's support should be based on several factors. Is a company's support of customers matched in it's support of it's employees? So many questions. See the episode on our website for links to the resources used. https://onthedownlola.com/shopping-lgbtq-friendly/

On Monday, November 18th, Chick-Fil-A announced that they would no longer be funding two Christian charities tied to anti-LGBTQ causes. The two charities are The Salvation Army and the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. Both organizations have taken a stance and lobbied against same sex marriage. The Salvation army also has a history of support for the controversial practice of conversion therapy. Lola takes a look into the social media reaction on both sides and asks: Is there a path back for LGBTQ people and companies with histories of anti-LGBTQ causes?

Lola met up with good judy, Thom Turner, to discuss the upcoming holidays. They opened Lola's toolbox for family survival to help those with stress about seeing family over the holidays. At the end of the day, no one is alone and mental health and self care are the highest priority.

Far too often the topics of mental illness, depression, and suicide are kept in the dark. In preparation for the American Foundation for Suicide prevention's "Out of the Darkness" suicide prevention walk in Indianapolis on September 14th, we wanted to have a discussion about suicide and the LGBTQ Communities. Thom Turner and John Proctor joined Lola Palooza to talk about mental illness, suicide and the resources out there to help.   For more information about the "Out of the Darkness" Walk & Run you can check out AFSP online. Some of the resources we talked about: The Trevor Project 1.866.488.7368 Trans Lifeline1.877.565.8860 SAGE LGBT Elder Hotline1.888.234.7243 National Suicide Prevention Lifeline1.800.273.8255  

POLITICS. This eight letter word carries a lot of weight and isn't always the easiest thing to understand fully. In this episode, Indianapolis City Council member and Council Vice President, Zach Adamson, stops by to help Lola make more sense of the whole thing. City Councilor representing the 17th district on Indy's near NE, near east and near southeast side of downtown. Neighborhoods include the Martindale Brightwood area, Chatham Arch, Lockerbie, Fountain Square and the western part of NESCO. Opinions here on this page are my own.  You can find out more about Zach on his webpage, AdamsonForIndy.com Zach Adamson's Webpage

With Executive Director Terrell Parker We we so excited to have Terrell Parker join us in the studio to chat about Indiana Pride of Color and the importance of Prides of Color and Black Pride's. We talked about how they differ and add to the larger pride events. Indiana Pride of Color Center for Black Equity

The idea of open relationships brings with it many emotions and reactions, but what are they exactly? Thom Turner stopped by the studio to chat with us about what exactly are open relationships. Thom is a part of an open relationship and comes with some great first hand knowledge. To help guide us in our conversation we looked at 6 Rules for Doing the Whole Open Relationship Thing Right by Macaela McKenzie of Women's Health 2018. We also took a look at 8 Things People Who've Been In Open Marriages With You Understood by Kelsey Borresen of HuffPost to help us breakdown some of the myths about open relationships. Thank you Thom for you unique input. Now we are curious about your thoughts!

At the 2017 InterPride World Conference in Indianapolis, I had the opportunity to sit and chat with one of my favorite people, Cece Peniston! We chatted about her beginnings in music and her introduction into the world of Pride and LGBTQ+ people. She is a woman on a mission and I could not be more excited that she made time for us and our modest little podcast. 

Lola took a look into the world of addiction and opioids in Indianapolis and the rest of the country. Huge thanks to Deandre Jackson for sharing his experiences with addiction. These are important conversations for our communities to have so that we can be aware of the issues and work to see their resolution. Join us next week as we dive into part two with opioid experts to clear up fact from fiction and what does the road to recovery look like.   For More Information on the Opioid Crisis and what you can do: www.cdc.gov/overdose/ https://www.in.gov/isdh/

We have been a touch absent lately with Pride planning, holidays, and such; however, we got together to look at the Indy gay bar scene. Indy has changed a lot in the last 10 years and we wanted to take a look at where it is right now. We looked at where drag is, where are there fun karaoke shows, and what each of our bars are doing night by night.  Next week we will be looking into the question "What is Drag?" We will definitely want to hear your input. Join us in the conversation and check out our facebook page http://www.facebook.com/OnTheDownLola for recording details. You can also email your thoughts and questions to Lola@OnTheDownLola.com. 

Our first recording with a LIVE AUDIENCE! We had an awesome conversation with Bill Skaggs, Executive Director of INDYPROV, and Thomas Turner about social media and its effects in the queer community. We talked about the ever evolving role of social media and how it has influences the culture of the LGBTQI+ communities.    We record our episodes at Metro Nightclub every Wednesday at 5:30pm with regular episodes (as of now) with a live audiences. Join the conversation! See you soon.

We sat down with Indiana legend Cassidy Fellows-Sommers to talk about drag mothers. We looked at the qualifications to be a drag mother, the characteristics of a drag mother, and how the idea of drag mothers has changes through the years. We called Lola's drag mother, Della Licious in Fort Wayne, IN, to get her perspective on motherhood. It was a fun and joyful sharing of ideas. We hope you enjoy!

A year ago, an Indy music venue took a chance on two queens and a dream. Carrie Keel, along with Mary Fagdalane and Auntie Christ, started a show for queens that stood out for their weirdness. These queens didn't like to play by the rules that others had set before them and marched to their own drummer. Flash forward a year and their show is a huge success. We sat down with creator Carrie Keel and Auntie Christ to hear how it all went down. Sometimes finding your niche is not easy. maybe through their experiences we can learn to stop searching and start creating out place.

Just the home team! Becky, DJ Big Baby and I had a great conversation on labels. Both labels we use to identify ourselves and labels we put on others. Again, we were not trying to answer the great questions about whether they are good or bad, we were just continuing the conversation. Just looking at all the nuances and we'll let you decide.

This was such a great conversation! With the return of "Shut Up" Becky were joined by Sylvia Thomas and Korvin Bothwell. We looked into some of the issues facing the transgender community and their unique and sometimes tumultuous relationship with drag. While we may not have come to any decisive answers, we definitely gave a lot to chew on.

This week we spoke with stand-up comedian Gwen Sunkel and the Executive Director of INDYPROV Bill Skaggs. W talked about Comedy in the LGBTQI+ community. How it has been used as both weapon and shield. We also spoke about iconic figures in queer comedy. This was a very fun introspective into comedy and queer culture and I hope you enjoy!