Alexander Leon is a rising star in the community and his new YouTube channel is a Godsend. His searing yet bubbly takes on LGBTQ life are a welcome counter to the often toxic conversations we hear in the media and he is such a fabulous example of what happens when we lean into ourselves. Today, we explore how he navigates his mixed-race identity, what he feels is his role as a mediator between cultures, ideas and beliefs and how he’d like the conversation around the mental health crisis in the LGBTQ community to change. Importantly, he calls us to consider how we create space for different approaches to a common problem because what we may consider divergent approaches to our activism are perhaps more complementary than we think. As you do when you’re chatting with friends, our conversation takes a few tangents, including into a discussion about Louis de Berniere’s magical realism trilogy and the celebration of mestizos in Colombia.

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Head over to Alex's YouTube channel, where you can watch videos like Sexual Racism in the LGBTQ Community.

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One of our dedicated listeners is doing some doctoral research and invites you to take part. The study aims to observe how different social factors can expose individuals to stress and how this may link to various mental health outcomes, including how single and multiple social identities may correlate to exposure to stress. You could win a £50 Amazon voucher. Find out more here.

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@_busybeingblack is the podcast exploring how we live in the fullness of our queer Black lives. Supporting this podcast doesn't cost any money; your retweets, ratings, reviews, shares and feedback all help, so please keep it all coming #busybeingblack

Of course, if you want to and have the means, you can support Busy Being Black financially and help make it all happen: paypal.me/busybeingblack.

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