Podcasts about queer liberation

In this episode of LaidOPEN Podcast, I have an insightful conversation with activist and author Dean Spade about his extensive work in movements for queer and trans liberation, anti-militarism, and the abolition of police and prisons.  Dean and I discuss his new book titled 'Love in a Fucked Up World: How to Build Relationships, Hook Up, and Raise Hell Together,' covering topics such as mindful practices for managing stress, the evolution of his book over nine years, and personal growth in relationships.  We also delve into the romance myth, decentralizing romantic relationships, and the importance of community support. Dean shares valuable insights and practices for generating internal safety and the importance of collective care in social movements.  This episode is an enriching dialogue aimed at anyone interested in social justice, personal growth, and transformative community practices.   Show Notes: 00:00 Introduction and Course Announcement 00:55 Introducing Dean Spade 02:01 Dean Spade's Book Journey 02:28 Healing Modalities and Personal Growth 03:05 Non-Monogamous Relationships 03:34 Challenges in Writing the Book 05:15 Self-Help Literature Critique 06:45 Emotional Awareness in Movements 15:27 Decentralizing Romantic Relationships 23:49 Self-Generated Safety and Belonging 31:40 Therapy Misconceptions and Realities 32:38 The Overuse of Pathologizing Language 33:23 Forgiveness and Self-Inquiry in Relationships 36:05 The Impact of Alcoholism on Relationships 37:28 The Process of Forgiveness and Healing 41:34 Sexual Trauma and Cultural Narratives 44:18 Transformative Justice and Community Response 49:52 Decentralizing Romantic Relationships You can watch this episode on my YouTube channel, just search LaidOPEN. Plus, I have free guided visualizations and a host of other tools and resources available to you there and on my website at CharnaCassell.com.

Support the campaign: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/acidhorizon/vintagia-i-ching-oracle-for-psychogeographers-and-creatives"Living Currency" syllabus: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1OeUT0XSZdIQ9VpgLaqjuw0sP3blJZySG/view?usp=drive_linkWhat happens when queer liberation becomes entangled with the myths of the nation-state? In this episode, we speak with Alexander Stoffel about his new book Eros and Empire, which traces the transnational roots of sexual freedom movements in the U.S. From gay liberation to Black lesbian feminism and AIDS activism, Stoffer shows how desire has been both constrained by and mobilized against imperial and capitalist systems. Together, we explore how a Marxist approach to desire can open new paths for solidarity beyond the boundaries of the bourgeois state.Eros and Empire: https://www.sup.org/books/politics/eros-and-empireSupport the showVintagia Pre-Launch: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/acidhorizon/vintagia-i-ching-oracle-for-psychogeographers-and-creatives Support the podcast:https://www.acidhorizonpodcast.com/Linktree: https://linktr.ee/acidhorizonAcid Horizon on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/acidhorizonpodcast Boycott Watkins Media: https://xenogothic.com/2025/03/17/boycott-watkins-statement/ Join The Schizoanalysis Project: https://discord.gg/4WtaXG3QxnSubscribe to us on your favorite podcast: https://pod.link/1512615438Merch: http://www.crit-drip.comSubscribe to us on your favorite podcast: https://pod.link/1512615438 LEPHT HAND: https://www.patreon.com/LEPHTHANDHappy Hour at Hippel's (Adam's blog): https://happyhourathippels.wordpress.com​Revolting Bodies (Will's Blog): https://revoltingbodies.com​Split Infinities (Craig's Substack): https://splitinfinities.substack.com/​Music: https://sereptie.bandcamp.com/ and https://thecominginsurrection.bandcamp.com/

In Part Two of our Queering Talks series with Dr. Jen Self, we will center the voices of those who have always led the way in liberation movements, claiming the spotlight for those who have consistently been “out in front” of struggles for justice, love, and equity, demonstrating that the margins have always been the source of radical change. Queering leadership is not just about reclaiming lost stories; it's about futurism — imagining and building new realities. Leaders who live at the intersections of power systems have long envisioned new possibilities and turned them into reality. They've led us beyond the dismantling of oppressive systems and into the creation of new spaces where power is shared, community is centered, and liberation is a lived practice. Queer futurism taps into the resilience and creativity of those who dream beyond the status quo, moving us from inclusion to transformation, and inviting us to build new worlds rooted in radical imagination and collective care. From the beginning, Town Hall has been a space for meeting the needs of our city—hosting concerts, book talks, and new ways to connect. This bold new series reimagines the traditional lecture format through a queer lens, challenging ideas about who speaks, who listens, and who is centered. Built around three themes — In Between (exploring fluid identities and spaces), Out in Front (centering changemakers leading justice and equality movements), and Always Been (highlighting the historic contributions of queer visionaries)—this series promises to inspire, expand perspectives, and celebrate inclusivity. Join us in sparking meaningful conversations and building a community that values growth and connection. Dr. Jen Self (they/them) is a therapist, educator, performer, and writer whose work lives in the third space—the liminal zone where identities, systems, and possibilities collide and transform. As the founding director of the University of Washington's Q Center, Jen reimagined what it means to create community healing spaces by centering a queer intersectional praxis. Jen knows that macro changes take place in our everyday decisions and actions. Their career spans decades of racial and gender justice work as a therapist, educator, strategist, program innovator, and truth sayer, navigating—and disrupting—institutions to make them more humane and transformative. Jen's current projects include writing everything from maps on napkins to a memoir, co-leading The Racial Healing Project, and co-creating the Queer Leadership Lab. Ariyah Jané is a Black Trans-Woman from Montgomery, Alabama. Deeply rooted in her diverse background, her artistry spans Musical Theatre, Gospel, and Blues. She has performed in celebrated productions like Ain't Misbehavin', graced the iconic stage of Carnegie Hall, and shared the stage with top contestants on the 2019 Sunday's Best Tour. In 2024, she released her debut EP, Dear Ariyah. Beyond her musical achievements, Ariyah is the founder and CEO of Muses and Moguls, a creative support network for independent and emerging artists navigating the challenges of the entertainment industry. She is a passionate advocate for the LGBTQIA+ community and focuses on public service, housing, and healthcare advocacy for queer and gender non-conforming individuals. Bryanna Jenkins (she/her) is the Policy Director at Lavender Rights Project. Ms. Jenkins received her B.S. from Morgan State University, her M.A. from the University of Baltimore, and her J.D. from DePaul University College of Law. Ms. Jenkins also published Birth Certificate with a Benefit: Using LGBTQ Jurisprudence to Make the Argument for a Transgender Person's Constitutional Right to Amended Identity Documents in the CUNY Law Review. Prior to law school Bryanna founded and led The Baltimore Transgender Alliance and organized the cities first Baltimore Transgender Uprising March in 2015. Bryanna is also the Vice Chair of the National Bar Association's LGBTQ Division.

Lez Hang Out is proud to be sponsored by Olivia, the travel company for lesbians and all LGBTQ+ women!  When you join our Lez Hang Out family on Patreon you will gain instant access to 24 and counting full-length bonus episodes, ad-free weekly episodes, mp3 downloads of all our original songs, an invite to our exclusive Discord channel, and more! You can also support the podcast by buying our original merch at bit.ly/lezmerch and by purchasing our original Lez-ssentials songs for as little as $1 each on Bandcamp. Welcome back to Lez Hang Out, the podcast that wants you to read banned books! This week, Leigh (@lshfoster) and Ellie (@elliebrigida) hang out with academic librarian Amber and nonprofit witch Lindsay of the Queer Liberation Library (@queerliblib). The QLL got its start in 2023 and has since curated a collection of 2,715 unique LGBTQ+ ebooks and audiobooks accessible to anyone in the United States (regardless of zip code) for the low, low cost of absolutely nothing! Once you sign up (for free!), you will be able to check out ebooks and audiobooks from an ever-expanding collection through Libby. They have everything from popular queer adult fiction to LGBTQ+ poetry, manga, and children's books. In today's environment of book bans and censorship, projects like the Queer Liberation Library are more important than ever as they provide access to titles that local physical library branches may not be able to stock. We talk with Amber and Lindsay about how the Queer Liberation Library got its start, going from “7 friends in a trench coat” with a big dream to create a nonprofit to “7 friends in a trench coat” with an extensive, fully functional digital library. We also talk about how the curation process works, the intricacies of licensing restrictions on book borrowing, and all the little behind the scenes things that make the project possible. One of the best things about QLL is the accessibility. While there are already well-established physical libraries dedicated to LGBTQ+ books, they are not accessible for someone like a queer or trans youth with unsupportive parents or someone living in a more restrictive state where the physical libraries may have less ability to combat queer censorship. Digital collections like the one at QLL are lifesavers in these cases because they can be accessed for free from anywhere in the US, providing a way around any potential local physical barriers to access. You can join the QLL today and start borrowing books right away by going to their website. And if you do happen to live in a less queer-friendly location and are in any way nervous about being caught browsing the site, the QLL provides an easy exit button that redirects visitors to weather.com in the blink of an eye.  Remember, you can give us your own answers to our Q & Gay on Instagram and follow along on Facebook, TikTok, YouTube and BlueSky @lezhangoutpod.  Find your fav tol and smol hosts Ellie & Leigh at @elliebrigida and @lshfoster respectively. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We're talking with QLL about who they are and what they do! Tumblr https://www.tumblr.com/queerliblib  Instagram https://www.instagram.com/queerliblib/?hl=en  Bsky https://bsky.app/profile/queerliblib.bsky.social  Tiktok https://www.tiktok.com/@queerliblib  Media mentioned https://www.queerliberationlibrary.org https://www.nbcnews.com/nbc-out/out-news/queer-liberation-library-offers-free-lgbtq-books-response-wave-school-rcna156463 https://xtramagazine.com/culture/books/queer-libraries-book-bans-activism-255227 https://scholarworks.gvsu.edu/library_sp/68/  https://www.gaycity.org/library-information/ Donate: https://givebutter.com/J9nhcW  Preorder The Emperor of Gladness (% of pre-order proceeds go to QLL): https://sites.prh.com/emperor-of-gladness/preorder/  

Tabitha! We're taking Carrie White to the prom with a look at Stephen King's first feature film adaptation: Brian De Palma's 1976 classic, Carrie. Up for discussion: debate over Carrie as Monster, a satire of religion, our love of Miss Collins, Pino Donaggio's score, and why Trace implores everyone to watch Chris' death scene in the 2013 remake. References: > Brant Lewis. “They're All Going to Laugh at You – Exploring the Queer and Trans Lens of Carrie.” Slay Away > Brandon Trush. “The Power of Identity and Queer Liberation in Carrie” Bloody Disgusting Questions? Comments? Snark? Connect with the boys on Instagram, BlueSky, Youtube, Letterboxd, Facebook, or join the Facebook Group to get in touch with other listeners > Trace: @tracedthurman > Joe: @bstolemyremote  Be sure to support the boys on Patreon!   Theme Music: Alexander Nakarada   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week's guest is Lucas Wilson (he/him). Lucas is the editor of Shame-Sex Attraction: Survivors' Stories of Conversion Therapy, which features personal essays written by survivors about their experience in Conversion Therapy (CT). Lucas is also a survivor of CT and this is the focus of our conversation today - his own personal journey as a survivor of conversion therapy, and his experience studying and knowing the experiences of other survivors. This conversation includes discussion of conversion therapy, religious trauma and mentions of sexual abuse. We also talk about what it means to heal and liberate after these experiences. About the guest:Lucas Wilson is a SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellow at University of Toronto Mississauga and was formerly the Justice, Equity, and Transformation Postdoctoral Fellow at University of Calgary. He is the editor of Shame-Sex Attraction: Survivors' Stories of Conversion Therapy (out January 21st!), and he is the author of At Home with the Holocaust: Postmemory, Domestic Space, and Second-Generation Holocaust Literature, which received the Jordan Schnitzer First Book Publication Award. His public-facing writing has appeared in The Advocate, Queerty, LGBTQ Nation, and Religion Dispatches, among other venues. He is currently working on two interrelated monograph projects that examine evangelical homophobia and transphobia in the U.S.Pre-order Shame-Sex Attraction HERE.Instagram: @lukeslamdunkwilsonThreads: @lukeslamdunkwilsonBluesky: @lukeslamdunkwilson.bsky.socialTwitter/X: @wilson_fwLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lucas-wilson-2a0753b1/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/luke.wilson.96For more, visit www.secondadolescencepod.com and @secondadolescencepod (IG).

Lessons from Stonewall: Alison Thorne discusses Queer Liberation in an era of pinkwashing and rainbow capitalism.  First broadcast 7 June 2024 and edited for today's episode.  

This week we bring you our live panel featuring Vanessa Carlisle, PhD and Sydney Rogers, aka Miss Barbie Q, exploring the intersections of sex work, activism and queer liberation from Circa Queer Histories Festival. Our discussion explores the longstanding alliance between sex worker activists and queer activists, the ways activism shows up in queer and sex worker spaces, and combatting burnout in the fight for liberation.This panel was made possible by the One Institute. You can learn more about the Circa Queer Histories Festival at their site https://circafestival.org/Join us over at patreon to get videos of each recording and see our adorable pups or follow along on IG or TikTok.

Join Joe as he chats with Kieran Hickey - his friend and founder of the Queer Liberation Library! Kieran shares his inspiration behind creating the queer digital library, how you can become a member of the library, and all the ways you can support QLL. They also talk about the importance of Queer History Month and recommend a few gay books. You can follow QLL on Instagram! You can learn more about QLL here: https://www.queerliberationlibrary.org/ find resources and access info here: https://www.queerliberationlibrary.org/resources become a member here: https://www.queerliberationlibrary.org/members and, donate here: https://givebutter.com/J9nhcW Titles mentioned in this episode: Paradise Rot by Jenny Hval Amberlough by Lara Elena Donnelly The Women's House of Detention by Hugh Ryan Blackouts by Justin Torres Readers can sample and borrow the titles mentioned in today's episode in Libby. Library friends can shop these titles in OverDrive Marketplace. Looking for more bookish content? Check out the Libby Life Blog! We hope you enjoy this episode of the Professional Book Nerds podcast. Be sure to rate, review and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen! You can follow the Professional Book Nerds on Instagram and TikTok @ProBookNerds. Want to reach out? Send an email to professionalbooknerds@overdrive.com. Want some cool bookish swag? Check out our merch store at: https://plotthreadsshop.com/! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode Brian and Jeff celebrate queer horror. We explore how horror has become a space for queer expression, challenging societal norms and offering a unique perspective on both classic and contemporary horror.Our guest, Eric LaRocca, a popular and prolific author of queer horror, will join us to discuss:The Monster Within: How horror reflects our deepest fears and anxieties about identity and belonging.Queer Liberation through Horror: How the horror genre provides a space for queer individuals to challenge societal norms and express their identities.The "New Queer Horror": Exploring the emergence of queer horror as a genre and its impact on our understanding of monstrosity and normalcy.Join us as we traverse this transgressive landscape and discover the queer joy and horror that lies within.Poppy Z. Brite/Billy MartinRed X by David DemchuckGretchen Felker-MartinAlison RumfittHaley PiperClive BarkerSomething is Killing the ChildrenSleepaway CampDarren Elliott Smith and John Edgar BrowningThe Dumb House by John BurnsideThe Pillow Man Martin McDonoughDennis CooperIt Came From the Closet edited by Joe Vallese 

In this very special episode to launch Season 6 of The Art Career, we sit down with founders of BODY FREEDOM FOR EVERY(BODY), Jasmine Wahi and Rebecca Jampol. We share this episode with the public just a day after the kickoff in Times Square to their cross country tour, in an effort to advocate for Trans Rights, Liberation and Queer Joy, bringing resources and materials and culture to folks across the nation!! BODY FREEDOM FOR EVERY(BODY) is a cross-country exhibition tour inside a 27-foot Box Truck celebrating Reproductive Justice, Queer Liberation, and Trans Joy! We're bringing over 200 artists' works inside this truck to cultivate community coast-to-coast. The two-part endeavor (a traveling exhibition and an accessible digital database) addresses the importance of agency, autonomy, and choice when it comes to healthcare and individual identity. This project aims to create awareness, cultivate community, and engender support for bodily autonomy through art. This project emerges as a response to a relentless wave of conservatism that continues to politicize queer liberation and restrict reproductive & gender-affirming healthcare. The overarching message of this program is broadening awareness of the right to Safe, Legal, and Accessible health care that allows us to live in our power and choice. Rebecca Pauline Jampol is an arts educator, gallery director and independent curator and co-director of Project for Empty Space based in New York City and Newark, New Jersey. Jasmine Wahi is a curator, arts educator and the Founder and Co-Director of Project for Empty Space, a nonprofit organization in New York City and Newark, New Jersey. Project for Empty Space (PES) is a multifaceted arts organization in downtown Newark, NJ, and downtown Manhattan, NY. PES is a woman-run, femme-powered, People of the Global Majority/BIPOC, Queer, and unapologetically radical ecosystem for creatives. Today, PES provides safe, equitable spaces for artistic innovation and complex public engagement by supporting artists whose work is oriented toward social discourse.  

Joni chats to Nova Sobieralski from Queer Liberation Boorllo about upcoming rallies calling upon Labor to finally implement the reforms to discrimination and ID laws that were promised to the LGBT+ community since taking office in 2017.

This week my friend Jenna DeWitt returns to the podcast to discuss two songs - "You're Losing Me" by Taylor Swift and "Faith" by Selmer - and exploring them in detail, in relation to their respective messages about queer liberation and owning your gender and identity. We breakdown the lyrics of each song and discuss them in depth, and Jenna gives great insight into the deeper meaning of these songs, how they've impacted her, and how they can speak to us too. We also touch on how despite one piece of art being labelled 'secular' and one more overtly, 'Christian', both can impart equally powerful messages about these issues.

Mary continues her conversation with Season 12 contestant of RuPaul's Drag Race and the national co-chair of Drag Out The Vote, Brita Filter for The Politics of Disability Pride series.The two discuss anti-LGBGTQIA+ legislation, voting, lack of access to voting, lack of accessible social media, and more.Drag Out The Vote is a nonpartisan, nonprofit that works with drag performers to promote participation in democracy. You can learn more about it here.The Politics of Disability was named Best Interview Podcast at the Astoria Film Festival in both October 2022 and again in June 2023.

In part one of the initial interview for The Politics of Disability Pride series, Mary sits down with Season 12 contestant of RuPaul's Drag Race and the national co-chair of Drag Out The Vote, Brita Filter.The two discuss mental health, advocacy, voting, voting rights, Pride, the lack of accessibility when it comes to Pride events, and more.Drag Out The Vote is a nonpartisan, nonprofit that works with drag performers to promote participation in democracy. You can learn more about it here.The Politics of Disability was named Best Interview Podcast at the Astoria Film Festival in both October 2022 and again in June 2023.

In this episode of the Psychedelic Medicine Podcast, Wilhelmina De Castro, LCSW joins to discuss the ways psychedelics may be used to support goals of queer liberation. Wilhelmina is a psychedelic therapist in the San Diego area and serves as a DEI officer for Integrative Psychiatry Institute. She is also lead faculty for the Psychedelic Research and Training Institute and is committed to creating access to psychedelic healing for historically marginalized populations.   In this conversation, Wilhelmina discusses the major topics at the intersection of psychedelic healing and queer identities. She shares her own journey of how psychedelics helped with self-discovery and acceptance of her queer identity, discussing the ways these substances can help gender and sexual minorities step outside of forms of normativity that are enforced in the culture. She also discusses creating safe spaces for queer folks where they can access psychedelic healing with facilitators and other participants of a similar background. In closing, Wilhelmina reiterates the continuing issues of access and trust queer people face in the current psychedelic landscape, emphasizing the significant work which must be done to improve this situation.    In this episode: How psychedelics can help with self discovery and self exploration What inspired Wilhelmina to begin working professionally with psychedelics Creating spaces for psychedelic healing tailored to queer-identified people Dealing with microaggressions in the context of a psychedelic retreat Working with a therapist or facilitator who shares a queer identity The queerness of psychedelics   Quotes: “When I began to explore with psychedelics, there were moments of this connection beyond… the way I was socialized or conditioned to think was normal. I was able to just be myself [and] found that this attraction and this embodiment that I was feeling was actually where I was supposed to be.” [4:41] “Psychedelics can be really helpful in challenging, in questioning, in dissolving those oppressive narratives that keep people oppressed, that keep them from accessing their liberation. And so if we can do this consciously, and if we can do this in a safe space where harm is not perpetuated, then we actually have this beautiful opportunity for collective liberation” [14:25]   Links: Wilhelmina's practice, Integrate  Integrate on Instagram Integrative Psychiatry Institute Psychedelic Research and Training Institute Queering Psychedelics: From Oppression to Liberation in Psychedelic Medicine SoundMind Institute Psychedelics and Identity Initiative Queer Psychedelic Society Psychedelic Liberation Collective Previous episode: Psychedelics and the LGBTQIA2S+ Community with Dr. Angela Carter Psychedelic Medicine Association Porangui

June is Pride Month, and while it is celebrated worldwide, the increasing anti-trans and LGBTQ+ hate continues to be a concern. In this episode, we will explore the intersection of queer liberation and anti-militarism. I will be joined by my co-organizer at CODEPINK, Tim Biondo, and we will listen to a clip from a Seattle town hall called Queer Anti-Militarism: Trans Liberation, Not U.S. Invasion at the Barnard Center for Research on Women. If you're in Washington D.C., join CODEPINK and partners as we march in the Capitol Pride Parade on June 10th. If you're not, bring anti-militarism messaging to a Pride Month event happening near you!

Echa Waode, the general secretary of Indonesian LGBTQIA+ organisation Arus Pelangi, speaks on the fight for queer and trans rights in Indonesia, including the recent criminalisation of same sex sexual activities. Special thanks to Ari Tampubolon for translating!Mani Blü drops in to share her latest track ‘Nightmare'.Queer Palestinian activist Fahad Ali speaks about Israeli pinkwashing during Tel Aviv Pride, and queer liberation in Palestine. Check out the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions campaign.Songs:Only U in the End by Umbra MoonDwell by OdetteNightmare by Mani BlüRound & Round by Mani BlüPangaea by Stev Zar

'Miss Major Speaks: Conversations with a Black Trans Revolutionary' is out this week, wherever you get books. patreon.com/toshiom has upcoming book events. Nice things people have said about the book: I'm so thrilled everyone gets to see what I see every day in Miss Major Speaks. Miss Major has shaped the world in countless ways from Stonewall to today, by being her unruly, fabulous self, leading communities, making time, and caring for and keeping her girls going. Lucky us to live in a moment where she is radiantly shining her light unto us all through this book! – Tourmaline The extraordinary insights in this book, always punctuated by Miss Major's razor-sharp wit,  allow us to understand how liberation movements for trans, queer and other routinely marginalized people can hold the most emancipatory potential for all. – Angela Davis Miss Major Speaks is the rarests of gifts, like sitting at the feet of a wise, no-fucks-given elder, listening to her testimony, and being fortified by her brilliance. This book is a monument to the life's work of Miss Major and the liberation movements she's shaped. It reminds us that we are all we got and that is plenty. – Janet Mock    

Find AC @acfacci on twitter Find Matt at MattHorton.LIVE Art by Scout (https://ko-fi.com/humblegoat) Music by Ethan Geller (@pragmatism on Twitter) New Intersections: Queer Futurism and the Krakoan Body Politic by Sinead Kinney Houseofx.org's recap of book 4 of House of X. This has some photos we talk about in the episode. 00:00 - Can't Let X-Men Go 00:43 - Our history with X-Men 06:08 - House of X and Powers of X 22:17 - Krakoa 31:56 - Best friends doing best friend shit 31:59 - A fantastic aside 33:41 - Krakoan culture 35:57 - Resurrection 53:22 - Xavier and Magneto as metaphor? 1:04:28 - Dear Ryan Coogler... 1:07:27 - The inevitable Fall (of X) 1:14:57 - What's next? Find out more at http://cantletitgo.gay

SHE'S BACK!!! And holy balls is this conversation juicy AF.If you're newer to the pod, Jordan Shomer (she/her) is a friend, colleague and our very own resident astrologer. Jordan is a Queer Jewish intuitive astrologer who recognizes the patterns and puzzles of astrology and synthesizes them into stories that land on your heart. She believes that within the map of the stars lives a blueprint to healing and guidebook to growth. She is passionate about holding space for you to greet yourself in all your cosmic glory. And f*ck me, is she pure magic. Every time we have Jordan on, I get full body chills. And in preparation for todays episode, I listened back to the episode we last did in December 2021 and when I tell you every. thing. that. she. predicated. came. true. And in true to form of our previous episodes, I got hella fucking emotional and am brimming with gratitude for this conversation, and I know you will feel it too. And learn SO much about what's to come and where we're moving from as a collective, so you can come home to yourself as the uniquely beautiful individual you are.Things we talk about in todays episode:owning and embodying our intuitive witchy selvesyour sun, moon and rising signs in astrologysetting boundaries and navigating the patriarchal culture in our intimate relationshipssaturn returns, what to expect, and how Amanda's coincided with the downfall of her marriagestanding in your power and coming home to your wholehearted selfanti-capitalism, what to expect astrologically speaking in 2023, finding the magic in the mess, breaking the binary, some personal updates & beyond CONNECT WITH JORDAN:Jordans Instagram | Newsletter Book a reading with JordanMoon gatherings ADDITIONAL RESOURCES MENTIONED:Fucking Queer Merch - use code QUEERDO for 15% off Jordans previous episodes: episode 76, episode 111 The 7 spiritual laws of success by Deepak Choprah Alok V MenonAll About love Thousand Miles (feat. Brandi Carlisle) by Miley Cyrus WORK, SUPPORT & CONNECT WITH AMANDA:Fucking Queer Merch — 100% of proceeds from now through the end of Pride Month will go towards the LGBTQ+ charity/organization the community chooses Amanda's Instagram | Website | Tik TokAmanda's book, I Chopped Off My TitsPatreon to support the pod Join her email list for free curated playlists and very occasional gifts & announcements in your inbox

Ahmed Sadkhan (The Healing Khan) is a queer activist and life coach specializing in inner alignment and inner child work.  He is Lebanese-Iraqi and grew up in Berlin; during this episode, Ahmed discusses the work he has done internally and externally to examine the pieces of himself and his identities that have yet to receive needed care.  Ahmed also talks about the work he has done with others to help them along their healing journeys, the ways he has contributed in the collective aim for queer liberation, and more. You can follow Ahmed on Instagram @TheHealingKhan, and check out his…

Regular readers and listeners know my passion for cleaning my local park, Washington Square Park, and how my heart breaks at how we abuse this sliver of a vestige of nature, especially the mornings after the Queer Liberation Marches of the past two years.As an organizer, Jay didn't have to respond to my request, but he did. By the end of this recording, you'll hear us talk about reducing waste next year. We begin by talking about the evolution of the pride marches from when he started attending in the 1980s. He describes them becoming more corporate, less participatory, but most of all, controlled by the cops, not necessarily helping the march. The cops often seem like they're just dominating parades; all New York City parades, not just this march. As a New Yorker, his description struck a chord. His split with the older march sounds almost heartbreaking.Then we talk about the mess attendees created. I point out that nearly everyone identifies ground and waterway waste as sanitation issues, but I see them as too-much-supply issues. We talked about collaborating to reduce the waste people bring and buy at the event. For decades, if people brought things to marches and parades, they didn't leave plastic garbage behind. If they did, not nearly in the quantities of today.It may not seem fair for people to have to decline buying trinkets and bottled water when they just want to have fun, but attendees before cheap, abundant plastic enjoyed parades as much as today. I expect there will be more fun if we communicate to next year's attendees to refuse disposable anything.We also did the Spodek Method and you may be able to tell from the picture I used how it went before you listen to our second episode. Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information.

Episode 151: Queer Liberation Means Decriminalization, Demilitarization, Decolonization.

Co-Chair of GAPIMNY-Empowering Queer and Trans Pacific Islanders, Jason Wu, joins Zerlina on the show to discuss Pride Month and the intersections between API + Queer and Trans identities!Jason Wu is a co-chair for GAPIMNY-Empowering Queer & Trans Asian Pacific Islanders, a queer and trans AAPI organization based in NYC that focuses on community building, political education and mutual aid. Wu's writing on abolition, intersectionality, and social movements has been published in Teen Vogue, Truthout, Gotham Gazette, NY Daily News, and more. Jason is also the Attorney-in-Charge of The Legal Aid Society's Harlem Community Law Office.About GAPIMNY:Founded in 1990, GAPIMNY is an all-volunteer, membership-based community organization with the mission to empower queer and trans Asian Pacific Islanders* to create positive change. We provide a range of political, social, educational, and cultural programming and work in coalition with other community organizations to educate and promote dialogue on issues of race, sexuality, gender, and health.

OK catches up with fan favorite fourth mic Joey De Jesus (@DeJesusSaves) to talk Pride month, gossip about NYC local elections/budget woes, and the trap of Puerto Rican statehood. Would you join the Queer liberation army? There’s gonna be sparkly maces involved! Also we’re leaning into groomer, it’s gonna be a whole problem. The establishment … Continue reading "163 – Groomer Pride w/ Joey De Jesus"

Inspiriert von einem anderen Podcast (Generation Dings, um genau zu sein) dreht sich heute alles um Musik. Was hören wir so, welche Texte bewegen und uns was hören wir zum einkaufen gehen? Und natürlich wird nicht nur drüber geredet, sondern auch eine dazu passende Playlist mit nichts als BANGERN erstellt. Ab sofort für euch verfügbar (auf Spotify). ERWÄHNUNGEN: Unsere Playlist „Das ist eine Playlist, krass“ - https://spoti.fi/3xqGwf1 Royal Blue Film Adaption - https://out.com/film/2021/10/03/red-white-royal-blue-getting-live-action-film-adaption Daniela Katzenberger - https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniela_Katzenberger BUCHEMPFEHLUNGEN PRIDE MONTH: Matthew Riemer, Leighton Brown „We Are Everywhere: Protest, Power, and Pride in the History of Queer Liberation“ (2019, Penguin Random House) https://tidd.ly/3zqrPd9 * Casey McQuinston „Royal Blue“ (2020, Knaur Taschenbuch) https://tidd.ly/3xb886y * HIER FINDET IHR UNS: YouTube Kanal - https://bit.ly/3gZPoQp Buchempfehlungen - https://bit.ly/2Z7wb9r Playlist - https://spoti.fi/3xqGwf1 Kat - https://instagram.com/katcomatose Zora - https://instagram.com/ichbinszora Spotify Bewertung - https://spoti.fi/3CvfClu Apple Bewertung - https://apple.co/2NX1rBW Email-Kontakt: londoncallingpodcast (at) googlemail (dot) com *Affiliate Links (Thalia)

You have the power to demand inclusion, dignity, and respect 365 days a year because you can take your purchasing power elsewhere.But don't sit in silence with your decision to support LGBTQ+ businesses or allies.☞ Read the full article here.**********As a queer thought leader, neuro-coach, writer, and podcaster, Darren Stehle helps LGBTQ+ creators and change-makers develop their self-mastery and go from confusion to making an impactful difference in the world. 

Coming into queerness later in life. Kink dynamics. Going from monogamy to non monogamy. Abusive relationships. Sex parties & beyond.All of that, and so much more, is explored in Rachel Krantz's book: Open, and I'm not lying when I tell you I devoured this book in the span of 24 hours and immediately reached out to have Rachel (she/her) on the podcast to get into the nitty gritty of it all — and this conversation does not disappoint. TW: emotional & psychological abuse, manipulation, gaslighting & self gaslighting, power dynamicsIf you're unfamiliar with Rachel's work — she's a journalist and one of the founding editors of Bustle, where she served as senior features editor for three years. Her work has been featured on NPR, The Guardian, Vox, Vice, and many other outlets. She's the recipient of the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award, the Investigative Reporters and Editors Radio Award, the Edward R. Murrow Award, and the Peabody Award for her work as an investigative reporter with YR Media. Open is her first book.And I imagine not her last — or at least, I certainly hope not ‘cause damn, it's pretty fucking incredible, and from a personally selfish perspective, so damn refreshing to have a first person, tell all memoir around the rollercoaster that is navigating the early days of queer liberation and non monogamy. I know so many of you have been waiting for this episode so let's get the fuck to it.CONNECT WITH RACHEL / READ OPEN:Snag your copy of Open: An Uncensored Memoir of Love, Liberation, and Non-Monogamy Rachels Website | Instagram | TwitterLook out for Rachels future podcast: Help Existing ADDITIONAL RESOURCES MENTIONED:Donate/Support to Abortion Funds Sign petition to defend Roe V. Wade Greedy by Jen WinstonWORK & CONNECT WITH AMANDA:Peer support sessionsPatreon - join her “close friends” list on Instagram at the $5+ levelAmanda's book, I Chopped Off My TitsAmanda's Instagram | WebsiteJoin her email list for all the important things / monthly announcements

Historian Hugh Ryan joins Zerlina and Jess on the show to discuss his new book The Women's House of Detention: A Queer History of a Forgotten Prison, out on May 10! This singular history of a prison, and the queer women and trans people held there, is a window into the policing of queerness and radical politics in the twentieth century.The Women's House of Detention, a landmark that ushered in the modern era of women's imprisonment, is now largely forgotten. But when it stood in New York City's Greenwich Village, from 1929 to 1974, it was a nexus for the tens of thousands of women, transgender men, and gender-nonconforming people who inhabited its crowded cells. Some of these inmates—Angela Davis, Andrea Dworkin, Afeni Shakur—were famous, but the vast majority were incarcerated for the crimes of being poor and improperly feminine. Today, approximately 40 percent of the people in women's prisons identify as queer; in earlier decades, that percentage was almost certainly higher.Historian Hugh Ryan explores the roots of this crisis and reconstructs the little-known lives of incarcerated New Yorkers, making a uniquely queer case for prison abolition—and demonstrating that by queering the Village, the House of D helped defined queerness for the rest of America. From the lesbian communities forged through the Women's House of Detention to the turbulent prison riots that presaged Stonewall, this is the story of one building and much more: the people it caged, the neighborhood it changed, and the resistance it inspired.Hugh Ryan is a writer and curator. His first book, When Brooklyn Was Queer, won a 2020 New York City Book Award, was a New York Times Editors' Choice in 2019, and was a finalist for the Randy Shilts and Lambda Literary Awards. He was honored with the 2020 Allan Berube Prize from the American Historical Association. In 2019-2021, he worked on the Hidden Voices: LGBTQ+ Stories in U.S. History curricular materials for the NYC Department of Education.

Award-winning writer, activist, and media strategist dedicated to Black transgender liberation Raquel Willis joins Jess on the show to celebrate Transgender Day of Visibility & discuss the past, present and future of QTBIPOC rights!More about Raquel Willis:Raquel Willis is an award-winning writer, activist, and media strategist dedicated to Black transgender liberation. She has held groundbreaking posts throughout her career including director of communications for Ms. Foundation for Women, executive editor of Out magazine, and national organizer for Transgender Law Center.Her writing has been published in Black Futures by Kimberly Drew and Jenna Wortham, Bulgari Magnifica: The Power Women Hold edited by Tina Leung, The Echoing Ida Collection edited by Kemi Alabi, Cynthia R. Greenlee, and Janna A. Zinzi, and Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619-2019 edited by Ibram X. Kendi and Keisha Blain. She has also written for Essence, Bitch, VICE, Buzzfeed, The Cut, and Vogue. During her time at Out, she published the GLAAD Media Award–winning “Trans Obituaries Project.” In 2023, she will release her debut memoir, I Believe in Our Power, about her coming of identity and activism with St. Martin's Press. Raquel is a thought leader on gender, race and intersectionality. She's experienced in online publications, organizing marginalized communities for social change, non-profit media strategy and public speaking while using digital activism as a major tool of resistance and liberation.

We interview Ani Kayode Somtochukwu on #ENDSARS, Nigerian Refugees in Ukraine, Neocolonialism, Marxism, and Queer Liberation in Nigeria. Ani is the founder of QUEST (Queer Union for Economic and Social Transformation) in Nigeria. Follow Ani here: https://twitter.com/Kayode_ani

Mardi Gras Season is upon us so this week on All The Best we're asking the question, 'what does queer liberation look like?' Our first story is a rerun from early 2018. In the months following the marriage equality plebiscite Ange talks to different LGBT+ people about their relationship with labels. 'Call Me Ange' by Angela Glindemann Producer: Angela Glindemann Supervising Producer: Bec Fary Sound design: Lee Yee and Amy Hanley Our next story comes from SPUN, a live storytelling event in the Northern Territory. 'My Birthday' by Teddy Suphannabutt Written and performed by Teddy Suphannabutt Supervising producer: Johanna Bell All The Best credits Production Manager & Host: Danni Stewart Editorial Manager: Mell Chun Episode Mix and Compile: Danni Stewart Social Media Producers:  Emma Pham Community and Events Coordinator: Lidiya Josifova See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode summary I am honored to welcome Gurchaten Sandhu to our show. He is a Non-Discrimination Programme Officer at the International Labour Organization's (ILO) Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work Branch. Alongside their B.A. (HONS) in Economics and MSc in Development Economics, their passion for social justice has led him to focus his efforts on promoting the principle of non-discrimination in employment and occupation. Over the past 16 years, Gurchaten has built His expertise and knowledge on promoting social justice through quality, decent and inclusive work for all, in particular, to enhance LGBTIQ+ rights at work and economic inclusion. He also finds the time to volunteer as President of UN-GLOBE, the group representing LGBTIQ+ staff in the UN system. As its President, HE works to ensure the voice and rights of LGBTIQ+ staff are represented in UN policies and procedures. He also serves as a committee member of the International Family Equality Day NGO, advising on non-discrimination based on family status in the world of work, a fellow of the Salzburg Global LGBT Forum, a Sarbat LGBT Sikhs volunteer and a Board Advisor for We Create Space. Gurchaten is listed as the OUTStanding Executive LGBT Role Model for three consecutive years from 2018 to 2020, an Honouree of the Out & Equal's 2021 Global LGBTQ Corporate Advocate Outie Award as well as the winner of the British LGBT Award for Exceptional Inclusion 2021. We are on a mission to eradicate the scarcity mindset from our planet. Will you join us? Everyone is invited to join our Facebook group, The Financial Mystics Sanctuary https://www.facebook.com/groups/financialmysticssanctuary If you are a gay, trans, or bi man looking for a safe place to examine your negative thinking about money, let go of the false narrative of the scarcity mindset, and step into your powerful creative queer nature, join our Facebook group; Financial Heart Space For Gay, Transgender, and Bisexual Men. https://www.facebook.com/groups/financialheartspace If you are an LGBTQI Refugee living anywhere in the world, please join our Facebook group, Empowering Queer Asylum Seekers/Refugees with Abundance. https://www.facebook.com/groups/empoweringqueerrefugeeswithabundance Thanks for Listening: Thanks so much for listening to my podcast! If you enjoyed this episode and think that others could benefit from listening, please share it using the social media buttons on this page. Do you have some feedback or questions about this episode? Leave a comment in the section below! Subscribing to The Podcast: If you want to get automatic updates of new podcast episodes, you can follow the podcast on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. You can also give Speak'n the Truth About Money a follow on your favorite podcast app

If you look up the word “radical”, you'll find definitions for its noun- and adjective-based usages. Marvin Toliver, MSW, LCSW, embodies both. He's a self-respecting bisexual man of color who refuses to bear the crushing weight of racist, capitalist, heteronormative systems. Instead, Marvin advocates fiercely for marginalized folks and won't accept anything less than complete liberation and revolutionary social change.  Radical Therapy Center is a group practice where folks with marginalized identities are prioritized. The trauma-informed care is focused on liberation not only for their clients but for anyone whose identity is stigmatized (and worse) by the colonial philosophies governing our daily lives––that goes for many therapeutic environments as well. Melanated Social Work, the group Marvin co-founded with three Black and Brown therapists, is yet another way he's bringing radical change directly to marginalized people, bypassing the “wellness” structures that cause them intentional and covert harm.  Radical change takes root when everyone has space to grow into the genuine expression of who they are. Marvin sees his challenges, coupled with his privilege, as a bridge for folks routinely excluded from conversations about self-love and transformative healing.  GUEST BIO Marvin Toliver, MSW, LCSW, is a licensed clinical social worker born and raised in Oakland, CA. He is a radical therapist, radical educator, consultant, guest lecturer, and dope human. For full show notes, resources, and links to connect with our guest, visit: http://www.headhearttherapy.com/podcast *** Conversations with a Wounded Healer is a proud member of @mhnrnetwork. Let's be friends! You can find me in the following places... Website: www.headhearttherapy.com/podcast Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WoundedHealr/ https://www.facebook.com/HeadHeartTherapy/ Instagram: @headhearttherapy Twitter: @WoundedHealr @HeadHeart_Chi

Ari Roseblum joins us again to discuss the unique challenges transgender people face in our society and what they are doing to help knock down some of those barriers. The post Episode #82: Queer Liberation, Part II w/ Ari Rosenblum appeared first on Beyond Picket Fences.

Ari Rosenblum is a Jewish non-binary artist and activist living in Denver, CO. They graduated from Oberlin College in 2018 after completing a double major in Psychology and Politics. While at Oberlin, Ari was involved with several psychology research projects, including behavioral science interventions focused on pro-environmental behavior change, and an honors thesis examining the stereotypes and prejudice directed towards transgender and gender-nonconforming people. The post Episode #81: Queer Liberation: My Journey to and Through Authenticity w/ Ari Rosenblum appeared first on Beyond Picket Fences.

Donate to the Trevor Project: https://www.thetrevorproject.org/donate/We're back with part two of our special interview with civil rights and queer activist ABilly S. Jones-Hennin and his husband of over forty years, Cris Hennin-Jones. We talked about what it's like to be Bi+ community leaders and elders, what fluid sexuality looked like decades ago before the term "bisexual" was used, how to know when you're ready to come out, the hidden history of queerness among ABilly and Cris's family and close friends and how it affected their own development, the personal level of activism that everyone can be part of, advice for raising kids as a queer parent -- and for raising queer kids, how to navigate polyamory (as it intersects with different sexualities, races, religions, etc.), and the importance of sex and sexuality even as we grow older.Thank you to ABilly and Cris and all our season three guests! Two Bi Guys will be back with more in 2022!Two Bi Guys is produced and edited by Rob CohenCreated by Rob Cohen and Alex BoydLogo art by Kaitlin WeinmanMusic by Ross MintzerWe are supported by The Gotham (formerly IFP)

Guest Austin of BanexBramble joins us this week to talk about plant spirits, earth based ritual, and dance as centered roles of his magic practice. In our exploration we touch on my favorite definition of witchcraft, that of Queer Liberation.  How can witchcraft be used as an embodied experience to bridge the gap between being Othered and Free? How can we explore the lines of madness in order to embody the other more fully? In what ways do song and dance allow us to more deeply connect with spirit? All these questions are explored, and we even found some time to talk about magic ritual and othering in the classic horror film Susperia. So join us as we move about the chthonic and wild spaces of the Other lands, and how they can be explored to liberate and exalt both the self and all lands here and in between.  To find more on Austin, check out his Instagram and Twitter @banexbramble. Check out his website www.banexbramble.com to find out more and maybe book a consultation, commission occult based art, or purchase magic materia. To find more on SaturnVox, check out the Instagram and Twitter, as well as out website www.Saturnvox.com where you can read our blog or book a divinatory reading.  Special thanks to Jules M. Dooley, multidisciplinary artists and traditional astrologer based in New Orleans, for creating the original music used on this podcast.  To support the show, please consider signing up for the Patreon, where blog content and behind the scenes videos are posted monthly. 

Max Cisneros discusses the work of Connecticut Familia: Trans Queer Liberation Movement. For more info on Connecticut Familia: CTFamilia on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/connecticutfamilia CTFamilia on Insta: https://www.instagram.com/connecticutfamilia/ For more info on the national Familia: https://familiatqlm.org/ For more info on the End Trans Detention campaign: https://www.endtransdetention.org/

colby discusses the liberation of leaving a relationship and coming out as well as their recent tangible intersection in her life. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

Queer Liberation March https://itsgoingdown.org/nyc-reportback-a-peoples-park-queer-takeover/ #peoplearerevolting twitter.com/peoplerevolting Peoplearerevolting.com movingtrainradio.com

Labor History Talks focuses on the relations between the LGBTQ+ community and labor efforts. Speaking are Avery Wear and Nicole. Recorded on 06/18/2021 General resources (special thanks to Avery & Leslie for the great suggestions!): Great general intros/quick reads: “How LGBTQ Union Activists Transformed the Labor Movement” https://www.teenvogue.com/story/lgbtq-union-activists-transformed-the-labor-movement “LGBT Labor History is All Our History” https://www.autostraddle.com/lgbt-labor-history-is-all-our-history/ Pride at Work guide (1990): https://www.autostraddle.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Pride-at-Work-1990.pdf Pride at Work website: https://www.prideatwork.org/ Miriam Frank, Out in the Union Miriam Frank, “Queer Liberation is a Labor Issue” https://www.jacobinmag.com/2019/06/queer-liberation-labor-movement-pride-month Pride Month, Library of Congress: https://www.loc.gov/lgbt-pride-month/about/ Marine Cooks & Stewards Union Sherry Wolf, Socialism & Sexuality Harvey Milk Milk (2008 biopic) (available on various streaming services) LGSM Pride (2014) (available on various streaming services)

After 135 days Other Titles Considered b Special Show Links: Valedictorian Pulls Switcheroo on Commencement Speech https://www.dmagazine.com/frontburner/2021/06/lake-highlands-high-valedictorian-pulls-switcheroo-on-commencement-speech/?fbclid=IwAR3enZAFou9MyZILc-8Tp4IGPrTGzGUWLgqAaGbSTXSFmdRqjrfvN9IwizA Simone Biles should be praised, not punished for achieving a feat that was deemed impossible https://www.salon.com/2021/05/26/simone-biles-yurchenko-double-pike-gymnastics-scoring/?fbclid=IwAR20LjT_Fof4ZhipyM1s4WxAZswl4KY6l8s8AIPwGB42fwL0titiLud2u6A Queer Liberation, Not Rainbow Capitalism: A Reading List https://www.leftvoice.org/queer-liberation-not-rainbow-capitalism-a-reading-list/ What Rebekah Jones saw behind the scenes at the Florida Department of Health https://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/state-politics/article251838913.html Subscribe to the podcast: via YouTube via iTunes via TuneIn via Google Play via Spotify Music: 78 & 45 archive: https://archive.org/details/georgeblood SFX: http://soundbible.com/ Purple Planet http://www.Purple-Planet.com Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/OMRPodcast/

T Lo take on the tiresome "No Kink at Pride" discourse by highlighting the importance of queer erotic artists like Bob Mizer and Tom of Finland as well as the brave contributions of the front line of Queer Liberation, the sex workers who fought back first. 

Happy Pride Month and welcome to Pride Tawk: a mini-series where we to tawk to queer creatives who are pushing the boundaries of queer representation. Our first guest is experiential producer and creative strategist Ron Sese, who is also the founder of Bk Queer Flea: NYC only all LGBTQ+ marketplace. Together with Ron we discuss how the Flea came about, why it's mission is to help queer creators achieve liberation through financial autonomy, defining queerness and whether a product can be queer, the prominence of a growing queer economy, as well as dish on Demi Lovato's coming out and how far we have come in the past 30 years. More information about BK Queer Flea can be found on Instagram. You can also follow Ron at @RonSese. Follow Let's Tawk on Instagram and Twitter #ShopQueer #PrideMonth #HappyPride #LGBTQ #Queer #Politics #BKQueerFlea --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/lets-tawk/support

This episode we’re off ONCE AGAIN to the cradle of civilization to show you that spending time which yo’ family really can sometimes… literally be hell. And for our fact, we investing a little bit of time to see what the future of the show has in store for all y’all. Wrapping up out LGBTQIA tour of the world today, here…. on the Colored Folklore podcast. 01:07 – Music: https://musicvine.com/track/all-good-folks/mr-mischief (Mr. Mischief), https://www.allgoodfolks.co.uk/ (All Good Folks) (via https://musicvine.com/ (Music Vine)) 01:12 – Logo: https://www.behance.net/arthurmask (Arthur) 01:16 – Episode Art: https://www.behance.net/JacquelineNicolau (Jacqueline) 02:02 – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sumer (Sumer, Mesopotamia) https://www.history.com/news/how-mesopotamia-became-the-cradle-of-civilization (How Mesopotamia Became the Cradle of Civilization) 08:36 – https://www.amazon.com/Cassells-Encyclopedia-Queer-Symbol-Spirit/dp/0304704237 (Cassell's Encyclopedia of Queer Myth, Symbol and Spirit: Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Lore) 11:41 – https://elements.envato.com/ancient-middle-east-3UWFPLA (Ancient Middle East), by CineMedia 11:57 – https://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/section1/tr141.htm (Inanna’s Descent Translation) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inanna#:~:text=Inanna%20is%20an%20ancient%20Mesopotamian,Assyrians%20under%20the%20name%20Ishtar. (Inanna) http://people.uncw.edu/deagona/myth/Descent%20Of%20Inanna.pdf (Descent Of Inanna) https://devdutt.com/articles/worlds-first-queer-non-binary-superhero/ (The World’s first Queer Superhero) https://hornet.com/stories/how-a-sumerian-goddess-turned-gender-on-its-head/ (How a Sumerian Goddess Turned Gender on Its Head) https://www.britannica.com/topic/Ishtar-Mesopotamian-goddess (Ishtar) https://www.egypttoday.com/Article/4/40285/Ancient-Mesopotamia-The-tale-of-Goddess-Ishtar-Inanna (The tale of Goddess Ishtar) https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-the-legend-of-ishtar-first-goddess-of-love-and-war-78468 (The Legend of Ishtar) http://www.mesopotamia.co.uk/gods/explore/dumuzi.html#:~:text=Dumuzi%20is%20a%20shepherd%20god,Ereshkigal%2C%20queen%20of%20the%20underworld. (Dumuzi) 16:03 – https://elements.envato.com/middle-eastern-duduk-ambient-FLYBWD9 (Middle Eastern Duduk Ambient), by Orchestralis 18:30 – https://elements.envato.com/ancient-sumer-G5MZD9H (Ancient Sumer), by simming 21:26 – https://elements.envato.com/the-ancient-middle-east-MUKCEPY (The Ancient Middle East), by TheStoryShop 23:09 – https://elements.envato.com/middle-east-FESGBC2 (Middle East), by One_Way 23:26 – Take Aways https://scholarworks.uark.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4184&context=etd (Queer Arab Writing) https://www.hrw.org/report/2018/04/16/audacity-adversity/lgbt-activism-middle-east-and-north-africa (LGBT Activism in the Middle East) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT_rights_in_the_Middle_East (LGBT Rights in the Middle East) https://arabfilminstitute.org/10-queer-arab-films-to-watch-during-pride-month/ (35 Queer Arab Films to Watch) https://www.mykalimag.com/en/2019/09/17/queer-liberation-in-middle-eastern-communities-who-has-the-right-to-speak/ (Queer Liberation in Middle East Communities) 31:40 – Colored Folklore contact information https://www.coloredfolklore.com/ (Colored Folklore) Twitter – http://www.twitter.com/coloredfolklore (@ColoredFolklore) Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/pg/Colored-Folklore-574501846576901/ (Colored Folklore Business Page) Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/coloredfolklore/ (@ColoredFolklore) Support this podcast

Josie talks about their journey to queerness, reclaiming their Latinx heritage, uncovering their authentic self through their Fertile Essence, and their mission to recenter queer, trans, and non-binary folks in reproductive healthcare. Welcome to the Intersectional Fertility Podcast. 

Hello. Hope February has been treating you well.In the second and concluding part of Gelek's conversation with Lama Row Owens, they speak about the loss of magic and exploring Indigeneity (01:25); holding space for anger and violence in creating justice and peace (09:05); the weaponization of niceness (20:55); bodies, movement and breathing in the time of a pandemic (22:40); and more.If you missed part one of the conversation, click here.Episode notesLoss of magic and exploring Indigeneity. [01:25]Loving our anger. [03:56]What Black History Month means to Lama Rod. [06:15]Holding space for anger and violence in creating justice and peace. [09:05]Discussing police, prison abolition, political systems and institutions in dharma teachings. [15:29]Weaponization of niceness. [20:55]Bodies, movement and breathing in the time of a pandemic. [22:40]Lama Rod's current and upcoming projects. [26:30]Interview transcriptYou have a chapter towards the end of [Love and Rage] where you speak about the loss of magic. Yeah, that's part of my Indigenous work right now. This is work that I hope to present in the next couple of years—me connecting more to my African as well as Native American ancestry, and putting all of that in conversation with Tibetan Buddhism. For me, again, it's a synthesis of what's being created. I think “Love and Rage” was a good beginning step to demonstrate how I am transitioning into this space. As an American Black person, my Indigenous spiritual practice is hoodoo. Hoodoo derives from the practice of Africans coming on to the West, meeting Christianity, and developing the system of philosophy, ritual magic and so forth. It's so related to tantra and Vajrayana in Tibetan Buddhism. I wanna understand how I can synthesize that even more so that it's more authentic for me. I remember years ago, Rinpoche [Norlha] was talking about the magic of Native Americans. He was saying, “Native Americans were so strong that they survived genocide.” It really struck me when he said that. For me, that was just the way he recognized the validity of this community of people. He respected Native American gods and spirits. When Kundun [HHDL] makes his trip to North America, he always makes it a point to also have representatives or emissaries from the local First Nations or the Native communities to meet with them and speak with them. I always find it beautiful how there are these patterns of elemental rituals that's consistent across hemispheres, cultures and Indigenous communities. I am reminded of, for instance, the whole myth or idea of how Buddhism was propagated by Padmasambhava [in Tibet], and him having to clash with nagas and deities. It's very fascinating to actually look into those things, and I'm really excited for this project that you are undertaking. The title of the book itself, I was curious about that. When you placed “Love and Rage” in that order, was that intentional?Yeah absolutely. The title came first before the content.Like not “Rage and Love,” but “Love and Rage.” Was that intentional?Yes, because love holds the rage. Love leads. So, when I talk about this conversation between love and rage, it's not a fight. It's more about how love is holding the space for our rage to be there. Love is the container that holds everything. If there is no container of love then that rage actually becomes an expression of violence. “My anger is like a living being I am in partnership with.” And then a couple of pages later you say, “Loving our anger invites it into a transformative space where it emerges as the teacher.” That's so profound. I wonder if you can expand on that a little bit.That's rooted within the teachings around the manifestation of the guru. How the guru is manifesting in the phenomenal world. One of those manifestations of the guru is through emotions. Once we pay attention to the emotion, the emotion is actually trying to teach us how to be in relationship with it. For so much of our lives, we tend to be overreacting and running away from our emotional reality. But to turn our attention back to something like anger, we begin to hold space for it and to experience it, that experience begins to teach us about the nature of emotion. And of course the nature of emotion is the nature of the mind itself. Once we realize that, the guru emerges in that moment.You're saying anger can be a vessel that helps take us to the ultimate reality.Well, anything can take us to the ultimate. The nature of the whole phenomenal world is of one essence. So if we recognize the nature of that phenomena—an emotion, an object, an idea, whatever it is—it unlocks the nature of all phenomena, and that opens us right into the ultimate.Does Black History Month hold significance for you?That's a good question. It doesn't hold significance for me because I feel like I'm always celebrating my history and culture. It's not relegated to one month—the shortest month of the year, by the way. I just think that we have to establish a culture where we're celebrating all the parts of our history; all the different groups and communities that have helped shape the world. We should have knowledge and an appreciation of that. And yes, I understand that there are histories that have been so silenced that we have to create and designate these periods of time to bring attention to it. But I really want to take it to a point where we don't need to have a special time to think about these things. That it just happens naturally. That we think about Black folks, Asian American communities, queer history, Native American history… where we just know that. And we don't. There's so much history that has been erased.This is different from how some people then take that other approach where they say, “I don't see race. I'm colour blind.” You're not saying that at all. You actually have a passage—I can't find it right now—in your book where you affirm and celebrate the different histories, traditions, lineages that we embody. Yeah, I see differences. I love that. Again, it goes back to the teachings of the mind. I can hold space for everything and notice everything. And I can look at the ways in which I have fixations on certain things. I can examine that. That fixation may also mean prejudice. It may mean resistance to certain things. I can look at that and hold space for it and allow it to be this immense amount of openness. We can hold all the difference in the world but the problem is our relationship to that difference. Is that relationship one of opening and acceptance or is it one of restricting and defining and pushing away?And asserting power.And asserting power, absolutely. Because we're fixated on our sense of self and ego, right? But there has to be space for it too.Spaciousness is another theme that's quite prevalent in your book. Early on in your book, you say (in speaking of anger): “In activist communities, our relationship to anger is immature, ill-informed and overly romanticized. We manipulate anger as a false sense of energy and inspiration.” The first image that came to my mind when I read that line is the burning of the 3rd Precinct building of the Minneapolis police department shortly after the killing of George Floyd. For me that was such a powerful, revolutionary emanation of what activism means but also what taking back justice means. Do you think your line and that image are in contradiction?I think that one of the things—and this is a really subtle, nuanced argument—that I'm always trying to push for, particularly with activists, is knowing what you're doing, and not just reacting. If you're gonna burn a building down, know that you're burning it and know that you're doing this in order to hopefully trigger freedom, liberation. Not just cause you're pissed off. I know that's a very nuanced thing. Our holding space for anger and reacting to anger may actually look like the same action. Often I'm trying to avoid violence, but at the same time, sometimes violence has to be expressed in order to reduce greater forms of violence. And so I'm not a 100 percent non-violent person. I think violence can be used skillfully to reduce other kinds of violence and harm. So we have to know what we're doing and why we're doing it. The use of violence has to be skillful. And of course people push back, but then I use this example of like, if you have a child and someone runs up and grabs your child, are you going to stand there? Are you gonna do whatever you can to get your child back in that moment?We all have the capacity to express violence. Every being on this planet has been violent in some capacity or another. What I'm arguing for is can we skillfully use that violence to reduce other forms of violence when we need to. Dr. King said, “Riot is the language of the unheard.” I think that's important for us. And then, when something needs to be destroyed, can we critically say, OK we're going to do this? Not out of hate and anger, but out of this need to be heard; to disrupt certain systems that are increasing harm and violence for others.This is perhaps my own Tibetan neurosis surfacing where I feel like non-violence tends to get weaponized, funnily enough, in how we are meant to come to terms with our traumatization and our oppression. It also operates through respectability politics, where the idea is that if you conduct yourself civilly or in a way that's appropriate, that somehow it elevates your dissent over others. I think it's very timely or relevant that you quote Dr. King because I'm reminded of his quote where he says, “True peace is not merely the absence of tension. It is the presence of justice.” That piece, again, gets easily paved over when those in power talk about non-violence or of being peaceful but miss the whole context of justice. And I think that in itself is actually a form of violence.I totally agree. I think in the west, the teachings of non-violence have been so over emphasized because it comes through a culture of dominance. You're already at the top, you actually have the privilege of being peaceful and practising non-violence because you're not fighting for basic resources. And that's what I have to struggle with in white, western Buddhist convert communities. I have to be conscious of what it means to be Black, particularly a Black man in the south right now, because my life can be at any point in danger depending on where I'm at, who I'm talking with, etc. At no point do I not know that I'm Black, and can be killed because I'm Black.You say, “My anger is the single greatest threat to my life.” I think that's a very skillful way to demonstrate that it's not about you being Black that's the greatest risk for you, but it's actually anger.Well, it's the anger and how my anger creates a mirror for dominant culture. I am angry because I've been hurt through systematic oppression. So I'm not angry just because I'm Black. That's not an aesthetic of Blackness. It comes from systematic woundedness and oppression.It's also a very convenient trope for those in power as well to then misconstrue that anger and say, oh just another typical Black person who's angry. So you're constantly having to navigate these very discombobulating experiences and then to comport in a way that makes you feel more agreeable. But that's not actually true to how you experienced whatever you experienced.Exactly. And that kind of trope is just another way that we are raised, that lived oppression. “Oh you're just complaining. You haven't pulled yourself up by your own bootstraps.” This another mythology that white, American individualism has created that further disciplines us and marginalizes us.Do you try not to bring in present-day politics into your teachings or is that something you let is come and go as it arises?It's so funny you mention that. [Norlha] Rinpoche was so political. He would talk about politics in public teachings all the time.Like American politics?Oh yeah. In my teaching, I'm much more interested in systems and institutions because I think those lie at the heart of politics in general. For me, particularly in America, it's not about the two-party system and democracy. There are deeper issues that we actually have to begin to name for ourselves. That's where I want the teachings to be. It's not about who's the president, it's why they're the president. What is the system that gives rise to certain people having power and others not? And we can use dharma to do that. Absolutely.Do you change your tack in any way when you speak about these issues in the context of a dharma teaching, depending on the audience, or do you keep it consistent?Yeah, it does depend on the audience. It depends on what country I'm in—that's a huge thing. The age of folks—when I work with teenagers it's a different energy as opposed to adults. Is it a BIPOC community? Is it mostly a white group? That all determines how I show up. But I think that mostly I show up in spaces where people are pretty much politically aligned with me. And that's the trick here. We're all excited about Trump being out of the White House, but let's go deeper now. Let's talk about what it means to be revolutionary and radical, instead of being centrist and liberal. Let's talk about how dharma is actually pushing us more towards being revolutionary rather than being conservative. It's about everyone getting free; everyone getting the resources that they need to be well and happy. It's very socialist. That's how I talk. That's the dharma that I use. Let's talk about what it means for the people that you don't even like to be free to have the resources that they need.For me, just over the past couple of years, my awareness and understanding of things like prison and police abolition has been way higher than it used to be. And I think it would be so amazing if the dharma community cohered around that. I feel that prison abolition is an incredibly complex thing that challenges all kinds of different notions about what we mean when it comes to justice, reformation, rehabilitation and forgiveness. I don't see a lot of that happening in my limited perspective of the dharma community and I'm really glad for people like yourself who are speaking on those things. Have you noticed a change in the tenor of those kinds of discourses?I think, for the most part, people are much more educated than they were in the past about mass incarceration, for defunding the police. Climate change, interestingly, is a really safe space for people to get progressive in. [laughs] That's like very neutral.Greta Thunberg and the Dalai Lama! [laughs]Oh yeah. American Buddhist communities: environmentalism, yes! But you start talking about mass incarceration…Wealth redistribution…Oh my god. That's when you run into it. Racial justice. It gets sticky because we're not linking all this together. If you're about justice for the environment then you have to be about justice for people and the most marginalized. This is why I love this kind of philosophy of liberation theology that we get from progressive Christinanity. God is on the side of the most oppressed. We have to bring some of that knowledge and language into dharma. We have to understand that oppression has to be something we disrupt for everyone.That is the calling.That's the calling. Dharma is about the liberation of people, even when we're the ones who are doing the oppressing—that dharma will actually have to deal with us. And again, we're not interested in that. We're not interested in being held accountable, hauled out, or any of that. Until that starts being a thing, it's like we're going to maintain this level of comfort.You have a piece in your book about niceness, where it's just about making people feel comfortable but not progressing any further than that.Yeah, exactly. Somehow niceness is dharmic—that's what we're supposed to do—when the fact is it's just weaponized. That's the first thing I noticed when I started going to sanghas: everyone's so nice. Then when you start talking about issues of inclusivity—cause I was the only person of colour in my early sanghas, period—people shut down. Then another kind of nice emerges where it's like, “You don't have to think about that, Rod. We're not a racist sangha.” It's like the movie “Get Out.” It's like a Jedi mind trick where I literally had people actually turn the teachings around and say, “Rod, you're too fixated on identity.”We're all Africans is another one I've heard.Right. That sounds great. This is why I've survived all of that, I went through it, and now I'm in a different space where I need to commit to creating new communities where we're not having these one-on-one, intro conversations about race. We need to start living and embodying inclusivity and radicalism in this moment, on this spot. How do we do that? It's not about having the conversation; it's about living it and doing it right now.The final piece I want to touch on is about embodiment: all the different ways that you've studied it, how you've related to your body and those of others as well, especially in the context of the pandemic that we're currently situated in. How has your relationship to your body evolved?For me it's like a deepening relationship to all the ways my body shows up. Even this past year I've noticed how when one aspect of my body is off, it impacts all my other bodies. When my subtle energy body is out of balance I'm physically and emotionally unwell. It's hard for me to connect to others. Even with my physical body, being static and so stationary for a year I feel the impact of that. I also feel the impact of all the vicarious trauma physically. I know that particularly this year so much of my work is going to have to be about getting back into the body—even my yoga practice I haven't been really doing. Moving and working energy through the body is going to be incredibly important for all of us. The body is necessary for us to process and metabolize trauma, and movement is a part of that. And also breathing, which is a key piece throughout your practice. I was thinking about how we're in a pandemic of a disease that affects the lungs and I wonder if you had any thoughts on that. About people who may have contracted COVID, or know people who did, and how that affects the act of breathing, and can be an incredibly destabilizing thing. Breath, as you've enumerated many times in the book, is one of the foundational pieces on how we first process all the different energies, right?Yeah absolutely. Even in general, I think breath is really tricky for a lot of folks. I've had to over the years had to develop ways for people to re-approach the breath. Even now, looking at a pandemic that's really affecting the lungs, one of the practices that I've been working with people is kind of like a tonglen practice—this taking and sending practice. As we're breathing, imagining that we're breathing on behalf of so many folks who can't breathe. That's gonna direct us deeper into the fear of all of this as well. We have to open our minds to the reality that people are dying because they can't breathe, not just through the pandemic but through social oppression as well. Breath has been a part of how police have attacked Black folks.I can't breathe, a slogan from a few years ago.Absolutely. All of that. Breath is important. Breath is life. We know that very intimately in the practice. Breath carries life force. So we just want to breathe and add this energy and I guess do emotional labour of acknowledging that we can breathe on behalf of so many people who are struggling to breathe. That way we stop taking our breath for granted.Thank you. Before we wrap up, can you please give us a quick rundown of the things you're working on right now and looking ahead to?I have a bunch of different events coming up through February and through March. All of that information can be found on my website. I'll be also developing some content for the Calm app over the next few weeks so I'm excited about that. I'm being introduced to the Calm network so if people subscribe to Calm, please check that content out. Are you also working on a book?I am working on a book. I am kind of in the process of figuring out what area or topic I want to go with; I have a couple of different ideas. I will say that over the summer we will be introducing a brand new course on grief and using a lot of the practices from Tibetan Buddhism and some practices from my own Indigenous practices as well. Creating something that's going to help people work through what I call the brokenheartedness of not just this past year but the grief of our lives in a way that hopefully will be really powerful and meaningful.We've lost so much ritual because of the lockdown just around grieving and mourning. I know that in many Black communities and churches, funerals are actually a social thing, with lots of spectacle and pomp. It's also true in Tibetan communities. We actually have 49 days of people gathering in homes and chanting daily. All of that has not been in play, unless you are actively contravening lockdown measures. I think that also speaks to a very special kind of isolation, especially in the moment of when you're losing someone. So thank you so much for putting that together. I think it's extremely timely.Thank you. I appreciate this.—lamarod.comInstagramTwitter This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit agoodrefugee.substack.com

Losar Tashi Delek and Happy Lunar New Year!In this episode, a Good Refugee Podcast speaks with Buddhist teacher, activist and writer Lama Rod Owens on a wide spectrum of topics covering spirituality, silence and power (06:55); how class, race, wealth and justice intersect with Buddhism today (12:35); sexual abuse in dharma spaces (26:56); drawing boundaries between the teacher, student, sangha and social life (29:38); and mental health (40:00).This is part one of the conversation. Listen/read part two here.The full transcript of this interview is posted below, lightly edited for clarity and flow.BioLama Rod Owens is a Buddhist minister, author, activist, yoga instructor and authorized Lama, or Buddhist teacher, in the Kagyu School of Tibetan Buddhism and is considered one of the leaders of his generation of Buddhist teachers. He holds a Master of Divinity degree in Buddhist Studies from Harvard Divinity School and is a co-author of Radical Dharma: Talking Race, Love and Liberation, and Love and Rage: The Path of Liberation through Anger.Lama Rod will be hosting a seven-week online course and practice group based on his book “Love and Rage.” It starts on February 15. Sign up here. lamarod.comInstagramTwitterEpisode notesMaking sense of these times. [02:30]How “Love and Rage” fits in this moment. [04:20]Meditations on silence and power. [06:55]The evolution of activism and dharma from when Lama Rod first began. [11:18]How class, race, wealth and justice intersect with Buddhism today. [12:35]Sexual abuse in dharma spaces. [26:56]Drawing boundaries between the teacher, student, dharma and social life. [29:38]Seeing the teacher as a mirror to your own wisdom. [32:58]Understanding mental health from Buddhist, western and Indigenous perspectives. [40:00]Interview transcriptLama Rod thank you so much for joining us. Welcome. Tashi Delek!Thank you so much.Where are you speaking from?I am speaking from Atlanta, where I just relocated to. This is traditionally, historically the land of the Muskogee people and the Cherokee people. But I am originally from Rome, Georgia, so this is like returning home.And how are you doing at this moment?I'm ok. I'm a little tired, but for the most part, mentally I'm feeling clear, open and fluid which is really wonderful.Has it felt like lately there has been a much more ramped up conversation or discourse about existing and how to make sense of these times?Yes, oh absolutely. I think last year the beginning of quarantine and the pandemic really forced people to do intense discernment about exactly what they were doing in their lives. The beginning of the quarantine reminded me of my years in my three-year retreat where everything just kind of shut down and I was just really holding space in one place for an extended period of time. That kind of holding space for me always triggers this deep kind of contemplation and discernment about what my work is. Last year, I think a lot of folks just started waking up and realizing that they had to start making different decisions and choices about how they were living their lives. And of course, on top of that, the world continues. We continue to live within systems and institutions that are creating violence for a lot of different people. So we were having to negotiate racial injustice, economic injustice, climate instability [while] at the same time negotiating a pandemic. A lot of folks started waking up to the reality of these harmful systems.When you first started [Love and Rage], you wrote that there was this moment where you were giving a talk with your co-author of Radical Dharma [Rev. angel Kyodo williams], and there was this Black gentleman who spoke about anger, and that was kind of the genesis which started your writing of Love and Rage. When was this around?2017. Before that I was really avoiding writing a book on anger. I wasn't really interested. But at that event, where this young Black man was just like, “What do I do with anger? How do I choose happiness?” I really realized that this would be an important teaching to offer. When you locate yourself back to that time in 2017 and how things just unfolded from that point on—understanding of course that so many of the injustices and violent things that we've witnessed and experienced have already been happening for many decades—and then this year has been such a collision of all those injustices. And then of course we have the pandemic. As I was reading through the book now, so many of those things were almost prophetic in some ways. Was that a realization that you had to also reckon with?I will say this: my experience as I was writing that book was an experience of feeling as if I—it's hard to articulate. I guess what I'm trying to say is, I felt like I wasn't talking about what was happening in the moment of writing the book. And this is why I didn't really think the book was that interesting. When I wrote it, I was like who's gonna actually resonate with this because I don't think it's actually talking about anything that's happening now. On top of that, the book was supposed to be out much earlier than last summer [2020]. It was supposed to be out the fall of 2019 and I couldn't meet the deadlines for getting the drafts in. I kept missing all these deadlines. Classic writer's dilemma.Exactly. Finally, my publisher was like, you have to get it in at this date or we have to push it back like a year. And so I made that deadline and when the book finally was published a year later, then it kind of landed within this current… well, apocalypse.June 2020.Yeah, I had no idea. Absolutely no idea that 2020 was gonna be the way that it was.Silence, which I know has been an important piece in your practice, is a recurring theme in the book. It also coheres with how many of us have lived in isolation throughout this pandemic. Is that something you've meditated on length and spoken to others about?Yeah absolutely. For me, quarantine was something that I knew how to do because of retreat. And quarantine was something the majority of folks didn't know anything about so I just felt like I was coming home to an old practice. For me, silence is also about stillness. A lot of folks didn't have the privilege of being in the space that felt still and quiet. Many folks were kind of bound together in family units and other roommates and other kinds of living arrangements where it felt very crowded and intense and stressful. But even in that kind of stress and crowdedness there's still this incredible way we can touch into this stillness within all that movement and constriction. So I've spent a lot of time meditating on silence itself and trying to understand what silence is. I'm really influenced by the work of Audre Lorde; she talks about silence and the transformation of language. For me what I began to understand is that silence helps me to understand language and all the different ways we communicate.If I may quote a passage from [Love and Rage], you say, “The transformation of silence into language is the migration from captivity into freedom or even the migration from invisibility into visibility. However, freedom and visibility come with the burden of confronting all those who don't want you to be free or seen.”What I read from that, and understand from you, is you also wrestling with the complexity of silence and how that can also be weaponized on those who are oppressed into being silenced. Can you please expand on that?I think about another quote from Zora Neale Hurston who, among many things, also wrote “Their Eyes Were Watching God” and she has this quote where she says, and I paraphrase, if you don't speak, they'll kill you and say you enjoyed it. So that weaponization of silence is really about how silence is used to erase people and then to replace that erasure with a narrative that's much more comfortable than the true reality of things. And so, I was doing two things: I was trying to figure out how to move into language as an act of liberation. And secondly, I was trying to figure out in my practice how to use silence to communicate as well. That's where we talk about the weaponizing of silence. It's like, yeah we silence people but in my practice I wanted to be empowered in both silence and language. I wanted agency to choose the best way to be in the moment. I think silence, when we're conscious, intelligent and aware about it, can speak even louder than words or language.I think that's a very keen insight, especially when you pair silence with power and the notion of agency as well. You cite specific examples in your book of how silence can just be another form of abuse. You also make it a point to mention your root guru Norlha Rinpoche and how all that episode played out. How even in those instances silence is another one of the ways that people not only perpetuate violence but also delusion. Was that a piece that was intentional for you when you speak of silence? Yeah absolutely. I think that also silence is something that when we get to a certain agency, we choose because that silence—in a really complicated, complex situation, particularly in the case with my teacher—was the best choice to make for me personally.Have you noticed changes both in the spaces of activism and the dharma communities from when you were first starting out? Have you noticed any tangible differences, just even in terms of discourse?I think one of the shifts that I've noticed is that there are more resources that tend to expand the discourse. More of us are writing and speaking out, which is actually deepening the subject matter of what we're talking about. So I think this idea of justice and the practice of justice has expanded quite a bit for a lot of sanghas, particularly around inclusivity and sexual misconduct. I think there have been, over the past five years, such intense—I hate to use the word scandal but—real situations in sanghas that have created a lot of harm. From Shambhala to Rigpa to Against the Stream (these are the major ones), my monastery, Palpung Thubten Choling, people are aware of the potentiality of certain kinds of violence and injustices happening in their communities.I grew up in a Buddhist surrounding; both of my parents are very devout Buddhists. It's a tradition that is deeply instilled in me and I feel like it's almost part of my being. I can't quite extricate myself from it even though lately I've grown quite disillusioned with it. Disillusioned in the sense that I feel Buddhism is kind of devolving into this very individualistic pursuit of just finding a way to be a little bit more at ease with your existence and minimizing suffering—which is completely valid. But I find that people get too engaged in that and they lose the larger justice based framework of Buddha dharma, which I find to be much more compelling and also authentic. You speak on that quite often in your book. Is there an evolution in that discourse that you've witnessed?Absolutely. I think what's happening is that there are teachers like me who have decided to step outside of lineages and institutions to create the communities and sanghas that we most want to see. I'm no longer a reformist. I used to be a reformist.Can you explain what that is?I believed at one point in my teaching life, practice life, I can just change the sangha that I was in. That I could bring these issues of justice, inclusivity, ethics and so forth and try to transform the community to be based on these values. Over time I realized how difficult that was. And so I kind of transitioned into this space of being much more of a visionary and innovator. I just really started practising creating the communities that I want to see instead of super investing in communities to transform them. This is a better use of my time and energy.I had to make some really hard decisions about leaving a lot of sanghas to do this work of creating communities that are justice informed and ethically based. A lot of our communities, specifically here in the west and United States for instance... the convert, white western communities weren't really thinking about justice and ethics. They were just thinking about practising and feeling better and I think that has created a foundational sangha culture [in the west] which people are really attached to; [people] who will fight really hard to keep a foundational culture which is just really a culture of comfort and avoiding conflict. A culture that lacks transparency. And so when we bring up the idea of justice—it's not that people are opposed to justice; they're opposed to being uncomfortable. People can get with justice, people want accountability, people want to be safe, people don't want to be victims of violence. I think that's a universal desire. But when we talk about disrupting comfort in a culture people specifically created to be comfortable in, that's the issue. That's when justice becomes a problem. Whenever Buddhist teachers say stuff like in western societies, there's an excess of materialism… and I'm like, you can be more specific and say rich white people. That kind of specificity I think has been lacking, and for me, my contention is that it continues to lack. There is this invisibilizing of people, even in western spaces, who don't conform to that identity. There's obviously a breadth of people from different backgrounds and ethnicities, but also in terms of class, ability, sexuality...we're losing that granular aspect of it and I think that speaks to a great loss of how Buddha's teachings are then transmitted.The idea of a practitioner early on, particularly in the west, was of a white, educated, resourced person. That's still the stereotype of a practitioner now. Even a Buddhist is like a white person, not an Asian person, or anyone of any other racial background even though we have like the Dalai Lama, who's like an icon—everyone knows who the Dalai Lama is. Many people have never met an Asian Buddhist practitioner, quite honestly, but a lot of folks know white folks [laughs] who walk around chanting with dharma names and wearing whatever. So when I came along, it was obvious that to be a practitioner was to somehow assimilate into a culture that actually erased much of my identity: my queerness, my Blackness. Back then, my economic class was erased. Class was actually one of the harder things for me to deal with. I just didn't have endless resources to do retreats, to do teachings and to always offer money for everything. I felt super alienated and resentful to be in a path where money was always the thing that people operated from. And of course I heard all kinds of excuses and reasons why we have to charge [people] and to an extent I get that. But it's still really restrictive for many of us. So now as a teacher I've made a commitment to try to make everything as accessible as possible. Economically, ability-wise… just trying to invite as many people as possible into the work that I'm doing and then challenging myself to make it even more accessible. But basically, I make it accessible by just being visible. People look at me and say, oh you're a Buddhist. Not only are you a Buddhist, you're a lama. Which I don't even [understand]—how did I make it through this system to get this title? And knowing that there have been many lamas before me, even a couple of Black lamas, who haven't had the level of visibility that I've had. I am a majority of people's first Black lama that they've ever met. I'm the first one to have pushed through in this kind of public space and I mostly did that by stepping around lineage because quite frankly a lot of teachers are encapsulated within the lineage. The lineage can be quite competitive, it can be hierarchical, and I just never felt a part of that so I stepped out and created this whole other kind of, I don't know, path into teaching.You were being a punk.Yeah. Well, my teacher Lama Norlha Rinpoche, that was one of the things he told me to do. This older Tibetan master was like, “I'm not Black. There are people that will not listen to me but they'll listen to you. So you should go and try to do that.” That was one of the wisest things he ever told me. I have friends with Tibetan teachers who would never have heard that from their teachers. My teacher was like go out into the world and do what you feel is most skillful. I would go back to Rinpoche and tell him what I was teaching—justice, sex and all kinds of stuff—and he would be like, fine, whatever. Going back to your point about some of the different teachers who, for reasons that are sometimes beyond their control, don't quite include the concept of class in how they build their sangha—I think that partly informs some of my resentment towards rinpoches and tulkus. They'll speak grandiloquent things about how people are just too obsessed about work and earning money and that they should be less materialistic. Well that's easy for you to say because you don't have to worry about paying bills. A single mom who's working in a factory shift or is a healthcare provider… they don't have time to think about these things. So that's kind of situating Buddha dharma squarely within the confines of course of a capitalistic society. I think this also speaks to your persistent theme of earth, of grounding yourself.Right. Wealth has always been a factor in Tibetan Buddhism. Tibetan Buddhism has been a feudal system. A lama is like a lord [laughs]. When I talk to teachers in other traditions, I have to communicate that when I say I am a lama, I have this incredible agency and autonomy. You get the title and you can do whatever you want. There is no accountability. Traditionally, if I were in a feudal system in medieval Tibet, I would be in a monastery or go off, claim territory, build a monastery, collect wealth from the local village and then maybe I'll be recognized as a tulku. Wealth just begins to accumulate life after life and it keeps getting transferred into my reincarnation so it becomes this system of wealth transfer.Isn't that so bizarre?It's so bizarre! I mean there are all kinds of sophisticated ways that have been created to make sure wealth stays within a particular line of succession. There are present rinpoches who are incredibly wealthy—millions, billions of dollars, but we don't talk about that at all. I have such animosity towards the accumulation of wealth in that way.I remember in my early days of going off to retreat, I would have to get financial aid. A week-long retreat may be $1,500. That was impossible for me to afford. That's what I made in a month. So I would always have to get these hugely reduced retreat fees and in those days, [in order to get that discount] I had to work during the retreat. So it creates this class of people who are actually beginning to serve those who are more resourced. I resented that. I resented having to clean during retreat because I didn't have the financial resources. It wasn't ever framed in a way of like, “oh this just a service that we're offering.” Only the poor people had to do this. It would have been much more intuitive if everyone had to do it.A lot of teachers now in retreat centres are structuring work in a way that everyone has to do work to help run a retreat. But back in those days, it was just the poor people, who were usually the young folks or the people of colour. Whenever I see large gatherings of Tibetan Buddhist teachings and the lama is seated high on a throne, usually very ornate and with a slate of attendants around… mostly him, it's always a him—there's not a lot of Tibetan women Buddhist teachers—and I would think it would be so revolutionary if that rinpoche who was doing the teaching made it a point to be level on the ground. To be level with the people seeking his teaching or wisdom, and to actually serve the people. I don't think I've seen anything like that.Sometimes my teacher would cook and serve. But I think also the other part of that is the communities also really intensely force this kind of…Veneration. That's true.Yeah, veneration. I know that early on—of course I experienced this on a very very small level—at the beginning of my teaching in my sanghas, I felt that pressure to be a certain way. To wear certain things and accept certain kinds of devotion, which I eventually resisted. It really, over time, influenced me to leave these intense communities altogether. I just think that people find a lot of comfort in that kind of veneration and I think there are teachers—doesn't matter their background, Tibetan or westerner—who actually don't have the capacity to hold that level of devotion that people are expressing towards them. As I often say there are a lot of teachers, and this is extremely the case for Tibetan tulkus, where they've actually never had a chance to figure out who they were outside of a monastic institution. So they get recognized, get swept up into a system where they are actually being abused—emotionally, physically and sexually. And then they mature into adulthood and they have this incredible shadow side which is all this stuff, this material, that they've never processed and developed because they bypassed all of that. One of the reasons why we have these intense scandals with all these teachers is because they're trying to get their needs fulfilled within a community where it's inappropriate for those needs to be fulfilled. And also the notions of boundaries, things like agency and where someone is coming to you with authentic needs versus projections—that's a skill, like you've said. A lot of it is the skill of discernment that you develop through the course of living and when that part of your life has been excised, swept up in this tradition of tulku and the teachings and the abuses, that all gets very distorted.Everyone's a victim in the way this system has been conceived. I would say that it's important for me in my teaching that I resist these forms of veneration because I want to live a life, and to have a teaching life and to be a teacher where I'm just really honest about my life. As a teacher, you have to know that I'm also queer and that I have these beliefs about sex positivity and relationship and dating and sex… I want that to be transparent. I don't want you to ever assume that I'm like a monk. I actually get really offended, and a little scared when people from other spiritual paths relate to me like a monk. I'm like, you can't do that. You can't do that because I don't want you to assume something that isn't true. It's important for me to be truthful about how I show up in the world as a teacher. It's also a form of fragmentation in a way, right? Which is again something that you're quite persistent in your book about it being a delusion that we need to remove and liberate ourselves from.Yeah, well it's the distinction that we make between the public life and the private life. The private life becomes the shadow life. So you have these people who have these intense, devout and sacred public lives where they're really wonderful and great. They're saints. And then in their private life they begin to engage in certain desires and appetites that are not in line with their public self. I think that that's what creates the struggle and the tension within sanghas. It's that tension where teachers aren't allowed to bring their personal and public lives together and it's not accepted by the sangha. It's also different though from how you explicate in the book about your need to differentiate your sangha and the people who look up to you versus your own community of friends and sexual partners. You make it a point to keep those groups discrete, right?Absolutely. Even when I'm on a hookup app and people recognize me [there] that becomes a really important space for me to set boundaries, to say this is who I am, this is what I believe in. Depending on how this relationship goes, it's going to be a different relationship. Are you going to see me as a teacher? If you do then this other stuff isn't going to happen. And that happens. If you're more interested in me as a teacher then I can show up as that. But it can't be this mixed thing because you have to keep those roles really separate and different.If there is any binary that you subscribe to, I guess that would be one of the few ones.Yeah, absolutely. It's just getting clear about what you want. And it's not to say that I haven't had partners who've also seen me as a teacher. But they've seen me more as a partner and a lover than as a teacher, and that's been really important for me to differentiate in that way. It's just about being clear. I think it's easy to kind of get addicted to the power that being a teacher offers you. That's really where it gets messy in romantic situations. Are you into me because I'm a teacher or are you into me because you're attracted to me?Oh that's such an incredible tension or struggle. Because I can easily imagine so many times someone coming to you for guidance and that need and that projection and love and everything gets wrapped up and then that can easily become sexual. So it's important for you to make it very clear from the outset that that's a hard line that you want to maintain.I also have a very natural, built-in safeguard—which I think is just a result of very good, virtuous karma from past lives—this intuition that I have which is that I know what people are like, why people are approaching me, or why they want to be in a relationship with me. If people just see me as a teacher or a guide, I get completely turned off, sexually. It just naturally happens. I get really resentful, actually. That's part of the safeguard that people would rather see me as a teacher than as this person that they want to get intimate with. And that's a very different feeling than someone coming to me who wants to be with me romantically or as just a friend. It's a whole different energy and I've just learned how to identify that. I've been in many spaces, casual and informal, where people recognize me and I can tell which way they're gonna go. Sometimes [someone] will go, “oh it's Lama Rod. That's cool. I'm not interested in what you do but you're cool.” On the other hand, it's like “oh you're Lama Rod. Can you teach me on the spot about something?” And I usually say no. [laughs] That's not why I'm there.You write in your book that when you first met Norlha Rinpoche, there was this very incredible energy that you sensed within you and that intuitively told you that this is your teacher, in one form or another. I wonder for someone who's perhaps seeking a teacher and who has that same kind of emanation of energy, what is your guidance on how to make sense of that energy and secondly, making sure that you then don't project it in a way that becomes unhealthy and makes you prone to being manipulated or abused.Well, it's different ways I want to answer that. Beginning with: how do we make sense of the feelings that we experience around certain teachers? For me, when a teacher opens up something inside of me, I see them as my teacher or one of my teachers. Because they have this incredible capacity to do something. To create this opening for me to do work and to understand dharma deeper. And so I take that person as a teacher. When we have those experiences I encourage people to see them as these invitations to move deeper into their own experience. I think all a teacher is doing is reflecting your wisdom back to you. They're just mirrors and they're pointing us back to these parts of ourselves that we're discovering for the first time. I think the misconception is that somehow the teacher is doing something really extraordinary and special. That somehow the magic is with the teacher. I mean yeah there are incredibly powerfully realized teachers, but really, particularly in Vajrayana Tibetan Buddhism, the teacher is a mirror that points us back to our own wisdom, clarity and mind. So that's what you're experiencing, it's just your self for the first time. I've had that [experience] so many times. Of course I've had to learn what that was. At the beginning, I was like, oh this teacher is powerful and they're doing something. No, they're actually just pointing back towards me and saying, look! You're just like me, if you can just realize that. And if you trust that to take those people as a teacher in whatever way feels appropriate.Another way to think about this, from the perspective of students, is I think it's really easy to lose agency within relationships with very realized folks because we feel as if we don't know anything. It's a very [infantilizing] relationship, where we become children. At my monastery, it was like we were all the kids and Rinpoche was like the dad. No decision could ever be made without consulting Rinpoche, but that was the culture. That's Tibetan Buddhist culture because again the rinpoche, the abbot, is like the head of the manor, the king, the lord. And of course as someone who naturally distrusts authority I came into that really resentful. I was like, yeah of course I wanna ask Rinpoche about my personal practice but I don't think Rinpoche needs to be consulted about the colour of curtains you're going to put in the library. [laughs] I mean I just don't think that's necessary and I just got turned off over time by that kind of deference, that kind of, oh we can't do anything without his consent. And so I was interested in agency; I wanted to make my own decisions. Again, my relationship with Rinpoche was him always reminding me that I have agency. I think partially he did that to get me out of the way. [laughs] To get me out of the community after I was authorized, to get me into the world. It's hard and complex because I needed to be in the world. I wouldn't be here, if he didn't send me away. He dissuaded you from taking a second three-year retreat.Right. He was like, no. [laughs] He was like, “just go out into the world. Do something. If you still want to do the [retreat] after a bit, come back and do it.” Once I got into the world, I realized that this phase of my life was over, this retreat phase. But yeah, agency. I think this is a part of how we're going to cut through abuse between teachers and students. For us, as students, to remember our agency, to remember that we can make choices. If something doesn't feel comfortable, we have a right to say no. And then as a teacher—because I'm both a student and a teacher so I'm always flipping back and forth—my job is to make sure my needs are fulfilled outside of spiritual communities, and teacher student relationships. That I have other spaces that I have created in order to express different parts of who and what I am. I tell teachers all the time, you need to have friends who aren't Buddhists. [laughs] Like you need really messy friends. I'm gay, queer… so I have really messy queer friends who are really catty, and really superficial and some of them are really selfish, but all really loving. So I take refuge in those communities. I'm not Lama Rod there; I'm like one of the girls. In that space, among my friends they're like, “yeah, whatever. We see what you do. We see how you're doing it but we're here just to have fun and spend time with each other. You're not here to teach us.” And I have friends who were very clear about those boundaries, and those were very hard to hear initially because it sounds like they don't give a s**t about what I do. But instead, they're saying “we respect what you do, but you're not the teacher here. You can be the teacher somewhere else, but here you're a friend.” So we have to find those spaces and create them. That will make us a better teacher. So I can go into spiritual communities, sanghas, whatever and I'm not forcing that community to meet all of my needs, which is how traditional monastic communities are established. All the needs, even sexual needs, are being met in ways that are not articulated but are known and experienced by almost everyone within an institution.The other thing I thought about when you spoke about the need for setting boundaries, having agency and all that, is also about being true about your state of mental health. In many ways the Buddhist tradition has means of addressing those. But in other ways I also feel like there's this externalizing of it, where it feels like if you just pray on it, chant on it, meditate on it… that will hopefully find you some measure of relief. You were very deliberate in your book—you've actually outlined various different practices to deal with anger, contentment etc.—but you also state that if you need medication, therapy... you have to take that. It's about skillful means. It's about understanding the best way to reduce harm and violence. We also have to understand, as you know, within Tibetan psychology mental health is conceived of being very different. Mental health is externalized in Tibetan culture, whereas in western culture it's internalized. So we [westerners] may experience depression, traditionally Tibetans experience demons. I'm not depressed; I'm just being tormented by this demon that I can actually direct practice towards. Like the practice of chöd. What's really interesting for us right now is that we're moving through this synthesis where we're bringing together western psychology, Tibetan psychology and trying to synthesize something that I think is really quite powerful. And I'm kind of back and forth with that because for me that kind of externalization of mental health is also in a way very Indigenous. There's an indigeneity there that I'm really interested in. I think it's maybe both. I think sometimes, growing up in the west, there are energetic forces that the best way for us to name it is to name mental illness, depression, or anxiety. But maybe it's actually an energetic being that's affecting us somehow. So I'm interested in discerning those nuances as well.—Part 2 This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit agoodrefugee.substack.com

"Out North: An Archive of Queer Activism and Kinship in Canada" is described as, “Canada’s definitive visual guide to LGBTQ2+ movements, struggles, and achievements.”I’m honoured to bring you this interview, one I have been waiting to record since late July 2020. In reading "Out North" to prepare for the podcast, I realized how much I have been both a witness to and a participant in much of the history depicted and disused in the book. I have personal connections with many of the individuals represented in the book, as well as lived experience, which contributes to this deeply thoughtful and generative discussion with all involved. For complete show notes, images from the book, guest bios, and where to purchase your copy of "Out North," see the post:"Interview with the Authors of “Out North: An Archive of Queer Activism and Kinship in Canada” 

When gays go "back-to-the-land," who really benefits from it? How does a four-day retreat in the woods create longterm social change? Who else wears a dress other than Harry Styles? Feminist Killjoy, Kinda Kyle talks about the Radical Faeries, the gay white ghetto, and the future of queer liberation. Find Kinda Kyle on: YouTubeInstagramMusic by:Verano Sensual by Kevin MacLeodLink: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5049-verano-sensualLicense: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Protofunk by Kevin MacLeodLink: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4247-protofunkLicense: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Sources Cited “The Stonewall Colony” Bad Gays (Podcast). Season 2, Episode 21. November 12, 2019. https://feed.podbean.com/badgayspod/feed.xml “Back-to-the-land movement.” Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Back-to-the-land_movement “Feminist Separatism.” Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feminist_separatism “Sandy Stone on Living Among Lesbian Separatists as a Trans Woman in the 70s.” Zackary Drucker. December 19, 2018. Vice. https://www.vice.com/en/article/zmd5k5/sandy-stone-biography-transgender-history “The Radical Faeries at 40: Rainbow Capitalism or Queer Liberation?” Don Kilhefner. April 7, 2020. WEHOville. https://www.wehoville.com/2020/04/07/the-radical-faeries-at-40-rainbow-capitalism-or-queer-liberation/ “Why Are Gay Ghettoes White?” Charles I. Nero. Black Queer Studies. October 2005, Duke University Press. pp.228-245.Spaces between Us Queer Settler Colonialism and Indigenous Decolonization.Scott Lauria Morgensen. University of Minnesota Press, 2011. @alokvmenon post on November 14, 2020. https://www.instagram.com/p/CHj1ctNh2N9/

In this episode we discuss the movement to #EndSARS with Ani Kayode Somtochukwu, a 21 year old openly gay Queer Liberation activist, writer and journalist living in Enugu state Nigeria. His work focuses on using visibility, and journalism to combat the pathologization and demonization of queer identities in Nigeria. He is the founder of the Queer Union for Economic and Social Transformation( QUEST), an anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist radical queer organization working to combat homophobia, transphobia, and the degeneration of Nigeria into a neo-fascist police state. In this episode we talk to Ani Kayode about the #EndSARS movement, its relationship to the fight for dignity for queer people in Nigeria. We also talk about the absurdity of calls for redress from countries with their own ongoing regimes of anti-Black state violence and ongoing neocolonial relations in Africa. He also discusses the role of AFRICOM, IDF, and the World Bank in creating the conditions Nigerians are protesting against. Embeddied in this all is a deep critique of the colonial construct of policing itself.

On this episode of Voices, Drew sits down with graduating senior Abby Butler-Cefalo and we talk about forgotten Queer voices and how she is hoping to change that through a children's book. Voices is released every two weeks and highlights a student or a friend of Arise Campus Ministry and the amazing work they are doing. If you would like to learn more about Arise Campus Ministry go to www.arisegmu.org.

In this long form interview, our Mardi Gras board member Charlie chats to Ken Davis, a lifelong left-wing activist who helped organise the first Mardi Gras in 1978. They discuss the history of the gay liberation movement in Australia right up to modern day LGBT politics. They cover huge ground across revolutionary politics of the 60s and 70s, internationalism, queer culture, and liberalism's inevitable slide into right-wing nationalism. LEARN MORE: About the organisation CAMP: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Campaign_Against_Moral_PersecutionAbout the context of the 1978 Mardi Gras: https://www.78ers.org.au/about

– Currently Reading –All Boys Aren’t Blue: A Memoir-Manifesto – George M. Johnson (CW)The Museum of Modern Love – Heather Rose (EF) (audio)Night – Elie Wiesel (CW)Rage Baking: The Transformative Power of Flour, Fury, and Women’s Voices - Kathy Gunst and Katherine Alford (EF)– Just Read –Big Friendship: How We Keep Each Other Close – Aminatou Sow and Ann Friedman (EF) release date 7/14/20Tuesday Mooney Talks to Ghosts – Kate Racculia (CW)The Last Flight – Julie Clark (EF)My Sister the Serial Killer - Oyinkan Braithwaite (CW)(audio)Last Day – Luanne Rice (EF)Home Before Dark – Riley Sager (CW)The Revisioners – Margaret Wilkerson Sexton (EF)Blacktop Wasteland – S.A. Crosby (CW) release date 7/14/20– Biblio Adventures –Chris attended a virtual event through RJ Julia Booksellers Richie Jackson author of Gay Like Me in conversation with Matthew Reimer author of We Are Everywhere: Protest, Power, and Pride in the History of Queer Liberation.Emily attended a virtual event via Books are Magic with Curtis Sittenfeld, author of Rodham, in conversation with J. Courtney Sullivan to discuss the release of her book Friends and Strangers.Emily listened to the Women’s Prize podcast, which can be found HERE.– Upcoming Jaunts –Emily is going to scout out and make donations to some of the little free libraries created via the organization Help Your Shelves.Wednesday, July 15 – Chris plans to attend a virtual event via The Center for Fiction with Victor Lavalle in conversation with Stephen Graham Jones about his book, The Only Good Indians.The Book Cougars are hosting a biblio adventure! We will be having a virtual readalong discussion of Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata. The Zoom discussion will take place on Sunday, July 26th at 7:00 p.m. (EST). If you would like to join us please send an email to save a spot.– Upcoming Reads –The Topeka School – Ben Lerner (EF)Cher Ami and Major Whittlesey – Kathleen Rooney (EF) release date 8/11/20With or Without You – Caroline Leavitt (EF) release date 8/4/20The Quarry Fox and Other Critters of the Wild Catskills – Leslie T. Sharpe (EF) (audio)Fludd – Hilary Mantel (CW)– Author Spotlight with Anne Oman – Anne is the author of Mango Rains out from Galaxy Galloper Press.The book can be found on her website: http://www.mangorains.net/And bookshop.org: https://bit.ly/MangoRains– Also Mentioned –Other books by Elie Weisel: Dawn and DayAmityville Horror – Jay AnsonThe Okra Project Tayari JonesAnn PatchettPaul TremblayTommy OrangeHilary Mantel Trilogy: Wolf Hall, Bringing Up the Bodies, and The Mirror & the Light

NYPD Violence at Queer Liberation March https://popularresistance.org/nypd-officers-arrest-and-pepper-spray-queer-liberation-march-protesters/ #peoplearerevolting twitter.com/peoplerevolting Peoplearerevolting.com https://flipboard.com/@unrelatedthings/people-are-revolting-9mp6ipe2y

Queer Liberation March https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2020/06/nyc-queer-liberation-march-showed-future-pride/613648/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share #peoplearerevolting twitter.com/peoplerevolting Peoplearerevolting.com https://flipboard.com/@unrelatedthings/people-are-revolting-9mp6ipe2y

A special report from the Queer Liberation March for Black Lives and Against Police Brutality.   In memoriam: Brandon Hendricks, age 17, killed in the Bronx, NY.  With host Sarah Germain Lilly.

We are thrilled to engage in a conversation this week with Myles Markham (him/their). Myles is a community organizer and advocate who understands how to navigate and interpret the conservative American religious landscape, especially as it pertains to LGBTQ, racial, and reproductive justice. During PRIDE month, we welcome Myles' voice. You can connect with Myles on Instagram at a_million_myles.

Avi Roque is here, for our Pride Celebration, or Queer Christmas, as we Pride in Place. We are gathering around to watch the NEW classics since we can’t be celebrating out in the streets together. James finally caught up on Pose season 2, it's giving me all the feels (you aren't ready), coupled with the Netflix Documentary Disclosure, both shows really highlight the journey, struggles, and stories of trans POC’s who really are the pillars of the Queer Liberation movement. Speaking of in honor of PRIDE we dive into life, and story of the mother of the movement herself, Marsha P. Johnson, her origins story, who she was, why she is to be celebrated, and what happened to her? Also James has a theory as to why many a school class President is queer, find out what happens when someone leaves him in charge of a gender reveal, plus Band-Aides, finally now with more skin tones, and why James might finally be tuning into NASCAR (the answer is a combination of activism and sexiness). Happy Pride!  Free Therapy for Black Trans FolksMarsha P. Jonsonhttps://www.vogue.co.uk/arts-and-lifestyle/article/who-was-marsha-p-johnsonhttps://www.cnn.com/2019/06/26/us/marsha-p-johnson-biography/index.htmlhttps://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/marsha-p-johnson-1945-1992/Aunt Jemima- https://www.themarysue.com/aunt-jemima-branding-is-no-more/Gender Reveal VideoCONTACT USJames Arthur M: TW: @JamesArthur_M, IG: @JamesArthurMAvi: www.avirroque.com. TW: @ok_roque, IG: amroque Twitter: @minoritykornerEmail: minoritykorner@gmail.comIG: @minoritykorner Facebook Minority Korner Kids Playground

We are thrilled to engage in a conversation this week with Myles Markham (him/their). Myles is a community organizer and advocate who understands how to navigate and interpret the conservative American religious landscape, especially as it pertains to LGBTQ, racial, and reproductive justice. During PRIDE month, we welcome Myles' voice. You can connect with Myles on Instagram at a_million_myles.

In the summer of 1967, a young black boy in Brooklyn was shot in the back by a police officer. The writer Hilton Als recalls the two days of “discord and sadness” that followed, and reflects on the connection between those demonstrations and this summer’s uprising following the killing of George Floyd. Plus, an activist group sees an opportunity to reclaim the mantle of gay pride after New York cancels its official parade. 

We read the names of people killed by police since Eric Garner's death in 2014. Weekend of shootings in Chicago.  Queer Liberation March. With GAGers Paul Rowley, Ti Cersley, and Jay W. Walker.

Episode One Hundred Five Show Notes We are excited to announce that we are now an affiliate of Libro.fm audiobook platform: Listeners can receive three months for the price of one. Follow this link to learn more. (promo code: bookcougars)– 14th Readalong discussion– Convenience Store Woman – Sayaka Murata (translated by Ginny Tapley Takemori) The discussion will drop on August 4 via Episode 108, please get questions/comments to us by July 31. The Goodreads discussion thread can be found HERE.– Currently Reading –Tuesday Mooney Talks to Ghosts – Kate Racculia (CW)Last Day – Luanne Rice (EF)How To Be an Antiracist – Ibram X. Kendi (CW)My Grandmother’s Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending Our Hearts and Bodies – Resmaa Menakem (CW) My Sister the Serial Killer - Oyinkan Braithwaite (CW)(audio)– Just Read –The Dance of Anger: A Woman’s Guide to Changing the Patterns of Intimate Relationships – Harriet Lerner (EF)(audio) Chris is spending time with the magazines Fine Books & CollectionsThe Lions of Fifth Avenue – Fiona Davis (EF) release date August 4, 2020The Book of V. – Anna Solomon (EF)– Biblio Adventures –Emily browsed inside Savoy Bookstore & Café in Westerly, RI. She picked up a copy of Why We Swim by Bonnie Tsui. Chris was able to go to Guilford Free Library for a curb side pick-up!Chris attended two virtual events: Irene Butter discussing her book Shores Beyond Shores with Donna Apidone via CapRadio Reads. You can watch the conversation here.Erica Ruth Neubaur in conversation with Juliet Grames, discussing her book Murder at Mena House through Bank Square Books. Read Chris’s review here.Emily enjoyed several episodes of Brené Brown’s podcast, Unlocking Us, including a two-part conversation with Harriet Lerner, author of Why Won’t You Apologize?: Healing Big Betrayals and Everyday Hurts and Ibram X. Kendi, author of How To Be an Antiracist. Brené Brown is the author of Braving the Wilderness: The Quest for True Belonging and the Courage to Stand Alone.Emily listened to and recommends Episode 129 of Terrible, Thanks for Asking with Nora Borealis – Policing and Racial Trauma with Angela Davis.– Upcoming Jaunts –June 25 at 7pm – Chris will be attending a virtual event through RJ Julia Booksellers Richie Jackson author of Gay Like Me in conversation with Matthew Reimer author of We Are Everywhere: Protest, Power, and Pride in the History of Queer Liberation.Chris and Emily are heading on a joint jaunt to the Guilford Free Library for an outdoor fair featuring new book releases. Watch the video of our adventure here.– Upcoming Reads –Home Before Dark – Riley Sager (CW)The Last Flight – Julie Clark (EF)– Book of the Month Club –In order to get your first month at the discounted rate of $9.99 go to www.bookofthemonth.com and use promo code: bookcougars.The June Book of the Month Club picks are:The Vanishing Half – Brit BennettHome Before Dark – Riley SagerA Burning – Megha MujumdarOne to Watch – Kate Stayman-LondonThe Last Flight – Julie Clark– Also Mentioned –Book By Book BlogUrban Trauma: A Legacy of Racism – Dr. Maysa AkbarTrue Grit – Charles PortisThe Goldfinch – Donna TarttThe Dance of Intimacy – Harriet LernerThe New YorkerMadeline MillerThe Seven or Eight Deaths of Stella FortunaPurchase Book Cougars Swag on Zazzle!We are an affiliate of Bank Square Books and Savoy Bookstore & Café. Please purchase books from them and support us at the same time. Click HERE to start shopping.If you’d like to help financially support the Book Cougars, please consider becoming a Patreon member. You can DONATE HERE. If you would prefer to donate directly to us, please email bookcougars@gmail.com for instructions.Join our Goodreads Group! We have a BookTube Channel – please check it out here, and be sure to subscribe!Please subscribe to our email newsletter here.

On today's show we have a conversation between Matthew Riemer and Leighton Brown, authors of WE ARE EVERYWHERE: PROTEST, POWER, AND PRIDE IN THE HISTORY OF QUEER LIBERATION. This book is a a rich and sweeping photographic history of the Queer Liberation Movement from the creators and curators of the massively popular Instagram account @lgbt_history.

Hello and welcome! This week we're talking about queen Marsha P Johnson, a Black transgender woman who was a revolutionary LGBTQ rights activist and instigator at the Stonewall riots. Join us as we jump into her life and her heart. This week's recommendations:  The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson (doc on Netflix) Making Gay History podcast (Season 2, ep 1) Happy Birthday, Marsha! (film) The Stonewall Reader We Are Everywhere: Protest, Power, and Pride in the History of Queer Liberation by Matthew Riemer Don't forget to connect with us on Instagram! @oysdpodcast #oysdpodchallenge  Intro/Outro Music: Tripped and Fell in Love (instrumental) by Yacht.

Two Bi Guys is produced by Rob Cohen, Alex Boyd, and Moxie PengMusic by Ross MintzerCover art by Kaitlin WeinmanMore info on our guest Megan Madison: https://meganpamelaruthmadison.wordpress.com/bio/

A 2018 Supreme Court ruling that decriminalised queer sex was widely celebrated. Judges and petitioners framed the move as India “decolonising itself” of British legislation and beliefs. Based on an examination of the 495-pages long judgement, researcher Jason Fernandes shares with us that the court's framing is simplistic and limited. Rather than rupture the Brahmanical nationalist project, the judgement buttresses an “ideal citizen subject of the Indian nation-state.” The insights he will share are based on an article he published in the EPW on 4 January 2020 titled “Probing into the Freedoms of Queer Liberation in India.” Audio courtesy: Night Owl by Broke For Free [CC BY 3.0]

One of the most important directives of the Th-Ink Queerly mission statement is that we  as queer thinkers and writers are purposefully critical of the status quo. At the same time, we can and should engage with and debate our peers, even when we disagree with them.How we treat our own dictates how others will treat us.But for us to work together successfully as a community of queer thought leaders we need to be mindful of how we support and treat each other, especially in a debate. This is one of the many ways a minority group of people can together work to affect positive change ; to root out issues of disagreement and to boldly move forward collectively.Read the full post on Th-Ink Queerly:How We Treat Each Other As Queer Leaders: An invitation to disrupt the status quo and elevate hearts and minds.Are You a Closet Queer Creative?Does the idea of a supportive, encouraging, and queer mastermind group excite you? If yes, let’s talk! Click here to learn more about how I coach and complete the Mastermind application form to find out if the program is a fit for you.---Support The Way of Queer Leadership.

I created Think Queerly to challenge the status quo and to elevate visibility. As a gay man and as a queer person, I do not want to be normalized. Instead, I want to be recognized and accepted for my difference as a humanizing quality.To that end, I want to state that my podcast and publication of the same name, Think Queerly, will not stand for assimilation of LGBTQ+ peoples. Instead, as I have expressed in the mission statement, Think Queerly supports liberation, i.e. “to improve humanity and equal rights for all”.The value and importance of criticism“Whereas “bitchiness” comes from a place of insecurity, critique derives from a desire to better humanity. As feminist philosopher Judith Butler explains: “I bring certain critical perspectives to what I study and speak about. ‘Critical’ does not mean destructive, but only willing to examine what we sometimes presuppose in our way of thinking, and that gets in the way of making a more livable world”. Jeffry IovannoneMy working definition of “Queer Leadership”"Queer Leadership is not about organizing people. Instead, it's the principle of individuals leading from their difference, their creative uniqueness, not to assimilate into the dominant culture, but to liberate and elevate those oppressed by the dominant status quo."On the current lack of critical thought and depth across social mediaI discuss my observations about social media, the cult of celebrity, and the problem with LGBTQ celebrity endorsements. I share my observations to explain why it is so important to uphold my principles to only publish critical thinkers. I am no longer interested in topics or authors who don’t fit and who are unwilling to take editorial advice. That’s the job of an editor, to make sure a submission meets all the guidelines of the publication.Looking forward to the next decadeIf we want things to change for the better, if we want to solve issues like climate change, fake news, populism, removing Trump from the White House (and locking him up), and if we want to liberate all people from oppression, prejudice, and “normalization” then we must think more critically. We can no longer support platforms that only encourage groupthink, bullying, and personal attacks. We can no longer support pandering to people who take offence to “micro-aggressions” and turn molehills into mountains.It is time to think more queerly!Are you interested in Queer Leadership? Would you help me with my research and complete this Questionnaire?Support The Way of Queer Leadership.

Across the United States, the overall state of sex education is inconsistent, inaccurate, and non-inclusive. Less than 40% of high schools and only 14% of middle schools meet the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's guidelines for sex education. Chris Harley, President and CEO at SIECUS: Sex Ed for Social Change talks to us about why we need sex education that is medically-accurate, inclusive of all genders and sexual orientations, and stresses topics like consent, healthy relationships, and more.Support the show (https://www.reprosfightback.com/take-action#donate)

Welcome back to the Fifty Feminist States podcast! In this season three preview, hear Amelia’s reflections on traveling over the summer and to get a preview of what's coming up on the podcast this fall. Episodes start again on October 1st. Until then, find us on Instagram, subscribe to our newsletter, and we’ll see you on the road!

You’re listening to Revolutions Per Minute on WBAI, a socialist radio show and podcast from members of New York City Democratic Socialists of America. NYC-DSA is the biggest chapter of the largest socialist organization in the United States. We are run by our 5,500+ members and organizers who are working together to build democratic socialism in all five boroughs https://act.dsausa.org/donate/membership/ https://www.socialists.nyc/events?view=calendar&month=07-2019

Jamie and Andy interview three contributors to Commune Magazine's Summer issue. First we talk to Marxish Rock Critic Joshua Clover on Lil Nas X and its transgression of the color line. Then we chat with Michelle O'Brien about the Queer Liberation march for the 50th anniversary of Stonewall, family abolition, and what life will look like on the Queer Commune. Finally we talk to Commune editor Chloe Watlington on climate change, personal tragedy and mourning, and the existential need for communism. https://communemag.com/the-high-rise-and-the-hollow/ https://communemag.com/fifty-years-of-queer-insurgency/ https://communemag.com/who-owns-tomorrow/ Help build Commune by becoming a subscriber: https://communemag.com/subscribe/

In the third episode of the FO? FQ! mini-series, co-host Darren explores Queer Liberation. Talking about their time at New York Pride/ World Pride/ 50th Anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, they look at what queer liberation means now, the future of the moment and what young activists are doing in America.

Today we went to the Queer Liberation march instead of the pride parade.

On today's show: Democratic Primary debates50th anniversary of StonewallWeekend Passport [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

Mike Balaban talks with LGBT Activist Eric Sawyer about the Queer Liberation March on Sunday, June 30, 2016, which runs three hours before the NYC World Pride March, and why we need this more than just a celebration of LGBTQ rights.

In this episode we scratch the surface on Queer - what does "queer" mean? What is "queering"? And what does this have to do with spirituality?

New contributor and friend of Artblog, Wit López speaks with multi-disciplinary artist Heather Raquel Phillips about documenting people of color in the leather community and turning the camera on herself.

New contributor and friend of Artblog, Wit López speaks with multi-disciplinary artist Heather Raquel Phillips about documenting people of color in the leather community and turning the camera on herself.

Nikeeta and Money are live in Syracuse w/ @diamondstylz Contribute to QueerWOC: https://www.paypal.me/QueerWOC Become a Patron: https://www.patreon.com/queerwocpod Use the hashtag #QueerWOC Send us an email or submit your Curved Chronicles: QueerWOCpod@gmail.com 5:34 QueerWOC of the Week LoriKim Alexander & Rahzie Seals, Co-Directors of Black Cuse Pride, a Syracuse based organization that seeks to build community with, amongst, and for Queer and Trans People of Color in Central New York. Follow them on Facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/pg/BlackCusePride/about/?ref=page_internal 13:06 Community Contributors Qolor Collective, Jorge Castillo, LGBT Resource Center at Syracuse University New Patron: Deb 17:57 Mental Moment with Money How to W.I.N this Winter! W - Weighted Blanket I - Indoor activities that get you moving N - Network and socialize Plan for people to have when you're not at 100 or feeling alone 29:56 Word Gay Liberation Front A long read that lays out different historic splits and tendencies within movement for Queer Liberation. Benjamin Shepherd “The Queer/Gay Assimilationist Split” https://monthlyreview.org/2001/05/01/the-queergay-assimilationist-split/ Leslie Feinberg Interview with Sylvia Rivera- https://www.workers.org/ww/1998/sylvia0702.php 56:01 Topic - Interview with the illustrious @DiamondStylz about Black Queer and Trans experiences with education. Diamond’s IG/Twitter: @Diamodstylz Marsha’s Plate IG/Twitter: @MarshasPlate Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/MarshasPlate Here are links to the people, orgs, etc. that Diamond mentions in the interview: Transfaith http://www.transfaithonline.org/ - Organization that connects transgender and gender non-conforming people of different faith traditions. Black Trans Advocacy Conference https://www.blacktrans.org / - Org that works specifically to address inequalities and disenfranchisement faced by Black trans people. Solider’s Girl https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0324013/ - Movie from 2003 that depicts the relationship and real life story of Calpernia Addams and Barry Winchell. Winchell, a US soldier is killed by a fellow soldier after they find out that Winchell is dating Addams, a transwomen. Reina Gossett Happy Birthday Marsha http://www.happybirthdaymarsha.com/ Film by Reina Gossett and Sasha Wortzel documenting life of black trans ancestor, and catalyst for Stonewall Rebellion, Marsha P. Johnson. Lala Zanell (@LaLaZannell) Black transwoman and lead organizer of the NYC Chapter of National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs. Charlene Acila https://www.mazzonicenter.org/trans-wellness/charlene - Founder of the Philadelphia Trans Health Conference and an overall visionary, activist, educator, and advocate within the transgender, faith, recovery, and HIV/AIDS communities. TransGriot https://transgriot.blogspot.com/ - Blog (and treasure trove of knowledge) from Monica Roberts, an activist and writer who focuses on issues affecting trans women of color. Miss Major https://www.gofundme.com/MsMajorRetirement - Donate to the retirement fund of long time fighter for transgender rights and liberation, Miss Major! 1:32:00 Curved Chronicles Follow Money| IG/Twitter @MelanatedMoney Follow Nikeeta| IG/Twitter @AfroBlazingGuns

AYYYYE WE BACK!!! First we get to introduce you to ONE OF OUR NEW HOSTS! WALEETA! Hellll yes! You'll get to meet our second new host, Zoe, REAL soon. This week we're talking about the cross section of Queer rights and mass incarceration. Mostly, we talk about how much we hate the police state and cops in general... SO BUCKLE UP BC THATS ALWAYS A GREAT TIME. Our guests this week are two incredibles from San Fran -- Lia and Victoria! They are so rad and knowledgable and are DOING THE WORK on this issue. Check out this awesome clinic doing great work: https://stjamesinfirmary.org/ ALSO check out Victoria's rad band (featured in this ep) downtown boys!!: https://downtownboys.bandcamp.com Theme music as always by Brandon Payton Carrillo

This Is My Story: Queer Liberation by Level Ground

*UPDATE* ICE has cancelled all hearings for Monday June 25th at 201 Varick in response to #OccupyICENYC. Follow @MACC_NYC for updates. There are other sites of deportation in the city the protest may move to. Apologies for the sound quality of this episode, we decided it felt better to just continue to hold space at … Continue reading "Episode 5 – Anarchy in Berlin and Pride Month"

In this episode Kelly speaks with Jade Brooks and Micky Jordan from Southerners on New Ground (SONG). Southerners On New Ground (SONG) is a regional Queer Liberation organization made up of people of color, immigrants, undocumented people, people with disabilities, working class and rural and small town, LGBTQ people in the South. Kelly, Jade, and Micky discuss the work and activities of SONG, the Black Mama's Bailout Action with the National Bail Out collective, how people can become members of or support the work of SONG, and education resources.

In this episode Kelly speaks with Jade Brooks and Micky Jordan from Southerners on New Ground (SONG). Southerners On New Ground (SONG) is a regional Queer Liberation organization made up of people of color, immigrants, undocumented people, people with disabilities, working class and rural and small town, LGBTQ people in the South. Kelly, Jade, and Micky discuss the work and activities of SONG, the Black Mama's Bailout Action with the National Bail Out collective, how people can become members of or support the work of SONG, and education resources.

In this week's episode of Fortification: Spiritual Sustenance for Movement Leadership, Caitlin Breedlove, Vice President of Movement Leadership at Auburn Seminary is joined by Isa Noyola. Isa Noyola is a translatina activist, a national leader in LGBT immigrant rights movement, and the deputy director at Transgender Law Center. She works extensively for the release of transgender women from ICE detention and an end to all deportations. She is a part of the #Not1more campaign team and sits on the advisory boards of TAJA coalition, El/La para Translatinas , and Familia:Trans, Queer Liberation movement. She has organized the first ever national trans anti-violence convening that brought together over 100 activists, mostly trans women of color, to address the epidemic of violence trans communities are facing. Isa is passionate about building the leadership of transgender communities, especially TWOC who experience high levels of discrimination and violence. She is leading programmatic strategies to help build a leadership pipeline through the creation of trainings & leadership gatherings to share advocacy tools and strategies.

This week on the Naughty Rude Show, join Jai, Carlin and Joseph as we chat marriage equality! We discuss the institution of marriage, some of the toxic vitriol faced by the queer community, and predict what's next for queer liberation. We also answer your questions at thenaughtyrudeshow.tumblr.com/ask! Helplines: 13 11 14 - Lifeline 1800 55 1800 - Kids Helpline 1800 184 527 - QLife 1300 22 4636 - Beyond Blue 1800 RESPECT Resources and links: Saying 'I don't': The case for not getting married (ABC News) Queers Against Marriage (Archer Magazine) The Institution of Marriage: Still Going Strong (The Atlantic) What a Coincidence the Oz Dropped a Piece on Benjamin Law... (Pedestrian TV) Emergency laws to ban vilification, intimidation and threats in same-sex marriage campaign (Sydney Morning Herald) Queer, Young and Homeless (Radio National ABC) Push to support homeless LGBTI youth... (ABC News)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode of Living the Dream Dave (@withsobersenses) chats with Angus from the Queer Liberation Front. Angus lets us know what the QLF are all about, what they have been doing and what they are up to. Angus talks about the QLF's praxis and how this collective of young queer people are attempting to generate a radical anticapitalist politics, how hegemony and aesthetics fit together and how this all relates to the current "Brisbane Moment' that is going on. And then we finish it all off with a track from Los Crudos

Today Melody and Raechel reflect on the tragedy in Orlando when 49 queer, mostly Latinx, lives were lost and 53 more injured. In the discussion they talk about the problems with the media representation of the event, specifically the erasure of Latinx identity, the inaccurate representation of motive, the perpetuation of Islamophobia, and blatantly ignoring our racist, homophobic country's complicity in this. In addition, we discuss a bit about the history of the Queer Liberation movement, specifically as it relates to gay bars, and what it means to live alongside grief as queer people. Plus, check-ins and our RWLs of the week.