Isn't It Queer

Heather is back from a very busy, very exhausting, very good weekend at Gen Con. She and Jonny touch base about the amazing out and proud queer and trans presence at the con. They then turn to the assertions of the current administration that don't stand up to evidentiary tests--from vandalism in the reflecting pool to Dr. Fauci as a disease wielding supervillain to the lasting impacts of puberty blockers. In the back half of the show they connect this "freedom from reality" to the decline in academic freedom in the US compared with other countries around the world. They also elaborate several examples of how, while good things still happen, these freedom-from-supporting-evidence practices lead to considerable harm--globally, nationally, locally. It's a mixed bag of good and bad news, but at the core of it all is our relationship with facts that can be proven.

Heather and Jonny are barely surviving the latest heatwave in Southern Illinois. They seek comfort in some international Pride celebrations, despite the violence at the Berlin Pride March. In the back half of the show they demonstrate how pretty much all protests, legislation, and bigotry against LGBTQ+ people and concerns are motivated by patriarchy. The most toxic versions of that are finally starting to reveal themselves as incompetent and harmful for most of us. At their core, mysogyny, homophobia and transphobia all try to solve a you problem by making it about subjugating someone else.

Jonny and Heather weigh in on Pete Hegseth's decision to mandate testosterone testing for all soldiers over the age of thirty and offer free testosterone therapy if they are deemed to be "low T." Yep, that is Defense Department sanctioned gender affirming therapy. But it is also pretty misguded for military preparation, driven by what seems to be Hegseth's vision of hypermasculine, buff male bodies. This is not the only story this week of hypermasculine absurdity. The vice president judges the former administration for how they eat ice cream; the Tate brothers were arrested in the "manoscape" of Miami; George Santos is bidding for a comeback on a reality show about severe military training; Fox host Jesse Watters opines that a vasectomy lessens ones manhood; and would-be Attourney General Todd Blanche finally mans up enough to meet with Epstein File victims (sort of). These stories provide some hope that hypermasculiity may finally have "jumped the shark," demonstrating to all that it is time for that show to be cancelled.

Jonny is back from a meditation retreat this week while Heather is off at a writer's conference in Chicago. Still, they put together a show. Jonny recounts how flashfloods in Missouri resulted in a traumatic end to the retreat. This sets the stage for a reimmersion into the news, where nominally related stories of trauma and allegations impacting politcians caught his raw attention. In the back half of the show, Heather interviews local LGBTQ+ community advocate, Carrie Vine, about her own medical traumas and how they have and also are not impacting her work for the community. They end the episode with a promo for this coming weekend's Community Restroom Access Project (CRAP) rally on Saturday, July 18th from 11-3 at the Lost Forest Coffeehouse and Pub in Carbondale, IL (concurrent with a similar event at The Hideout in Chicago).

Jonny interviews Carbondale native, Ben. Ben was born in Carbondale and spent a significant chunk of his early life here before traveling to Peru and then settling down in Chicago. During CoVid, he returned to Carbondale. He and Jonny discuss their preference for being a rural queers and what queer even means, including neuroqueer and queer spirituality. In the back half of the show, Ben shares and digitally debuts his song, "Bullheaded and Blind." Jonny closes out the episode with an enthusiastic review of TJ Klune's We Burned So Bright.

Jonny and Heather review some of the recent Supreme Court decisions, celebating the surprisiningly good ones while also giving space to concerns and frustrations about decisions that immediately impact our lives as SCOTUS ties Title IX to "biological sex" and not gender, setting a dangerous precedent. In the back half of the show, they turn to evidence that a significant portion of the Democratice party is pushing further to the Left, with transformative ideas that may start to undo some of the damage done to freedom in our country. You know, if they can get elected and form a cohesive majority in the Senate and/or House. Along the way, they share some of the victories for queer and trans rights that have also recently been in the news.

Jonny and Heather respond to data that suggests worldwide LGBTQ+ rights advanced in the 2010s but are stagnating in the 2020s. To put a little more hopeful spin on this news, they note how the anti-LGBTQ+ movements seem to be stagnating more recently, too. They start with the failures of the Trump Administration that have been piling up. In the back half of the show they turn to some international stories that seem to give ample evidence of advances rather than stagnation. They end with a brief discussion of animation and how independent creators seem to be demonstrating advances more so than current mainstream media. In all, they see power and need in independent content creators to push forward with advancing all human rights.

Jonny and Heather offer a brief recap of their Pride on the Strip, Carbondale PrideFest experiences before moving on to other festive events that happened this weekend. One such event on the White House lawn (next to the slimy green reflecting pool!) demonstrated how our current administration has normalized misgendering as a political insult. They contemplate that moment and point out other similar instances that have occured recently. In the back half of the show, they examine some results from recent primary elections that demonstrate how the GOP still clings to queer and trans as a distraction, even though it isn't really working that well. Meanwhile, certain Democrats are demonstrating how queer and trans can be included in pragmatic and progressive policies and campaign agendas with significant advantage. They find evidence of hope in both the failures and the successes.

As part of Pride Month, Jonny and Heather conduct interviews with local LGBTQ+ advocates. In the front half of the shaow, Jonny interviews Father Jerry Anderson, author of Ordained by Angels; A Memoir of an AIDS Chaplain. Father Anderson, a native of Southern Illinoi and co-founder of The Episcopal Caring Response to AIDS (ECRA), will be giving a reading from his book at 11:30am this Sunday (June 14th) at the St. Andrews Episcopal Church on Mill Street in Carbondale. He will also be givig the sermon there (referencing Matthew Shepard) at 10am. In the back half of the show, Heather interviews Lindsay Church, a recent independent candidate for US Representative from Illinois District 4. Lindsay Church is a Navy veteran and co-founder of Minority Veterans of America.

Jonny interviews local drag superstar Leah Fantasy about their life, their experiences growing up nonbinary and Southern Illinois, and their amazing performances in local venues. They discuss the vibe needed for this year's Pride and how to generate it. In the back third of the show, Heather and Jonny discuss the flexibility of labels in the Alphabet Soup and why we need to claim and deploy them gently.