Isn't It Queer

Jonny interviews Casey and Jamie about their project, "Laveder House," a center for mutual support for the transgender communiy in Carbondale. In the process of sharing information about this resource, Jamie and Casey tell part of their story about living in Florida and why they left. In the back half of the show, Heather and Jonny discuss a new Transgender Spiritual group Heather will be hosting at the Carbondale Unitarian Fellowship (CUF). They connect the dots on the costs of separatism and the benefits of wholism. They analze how the current strategy of the DNC, including Rep. Sarah McBride as a spokeswoman, misses the boat on connecting their constituents' concerns as they deemphasize trans rights advocacy. They close out the show with a review of the many events this weekend celebrating Monday's Transgender Day of Visibility. If you would like to connect with the Carbondale Lavender House, please send a text message to 618-203-9520.

Heather sits down with Morgan and Ryland of the Downstate Illinois Transgender Organization (DITO) to talk about the organization, Lavender House, and upcoming Transgender Day of Visibility events. In the back half of the show, Jonny sits down with Alex Socoro and Kelsey Maffett of the Rainbow Cafe to talk about upcoming TDOV events and how the organization is weathering the challenges of the current political climate.

Jonny and Heaher take a moment to recognize Heather's 20th Anniversary of being married to Kaye and reflect generally on Marriage Equality. They then lead off with some stories of success in the current less than supportive climate. In the back half of the show, they follow President Trump's transgenic mouse down a hole about the biology and neuroscience validating and explaining the existence of transgender people. They are not surprised that science is as much a target of the current regime as the LGBTQ+ community.

Jonny and Heather process the Great Ukraine White House Debacle from Friday. They note how the spectacle might be overshadowing other developmensts of unprecedented policy changes worthy of our LGBTQ+ vigilance. Oh yeah, and they note in passing that the Oscars happened (yawn). In the back half of the show they look at trends that give us hope as well as tools for using our consumer dollars to bring about change. Hint: don't buy a Tesla!

Jonny interviews Jordan Badgette about her upcoming performance, "Gender Knobs," an exploration of transgender experience with sound technology. Jordan's performance celebrates queer joy, and in the back half of the show Jonny and Heather lean into the queer joy of stories of resistance and pushback to the Trump Administration. Is the tide finally turning? Maybe. Maybe not. But we take joy in the myriad stories of challenges to the authoritarian turn.

Jonny sits down to interview Scott Johnson the director of Tesserae, Carbondale's premier Queer+ Choir. They discuss the origin, makeup, funding, and upcoming first concert of the project. In the back half of the show, Heather joins Jonny to discuss some particular Carbondale and Southern Illinois protests and pushback against the autocratice and phobic uprising, providing just a few highlights of this past week's attrocities.

Jonny welcomes Heather back with a brief discussion of the Superb Owl, which neither of them watched. They then turn to a brief chronicle of the anti-LGBTQ moves and rhetoric in the government and beyond this past week. In the back half of the show, they share two examples of the consequenses of this political climate before moving on to recommendations for acting up and pushing back, some of them literally from ACT UP.

Jonny and Craig discuss DEI. They start with a focus on the local, plugging artistic work in Carbondale with the upcoming Kleinau Theatre production of "Epiphanies," an adaptation of Flash Fiction by local writer, Epiphany Ferrell. They then turn to recent attacks by the Trump Administration on DEI and what that might mean for the university where they teach (SIU). They then discuss the Grammies and what this past weekend's music awards might teach us about the value of DEI. In the back half of the show, they examine the Trump Administration's high level placement of gay and lesbian conservatives in positions of significance. They discuss how this participates in a concerted effort to pare the Q and T off of LGBTQ, and why they are not having it.

Jonny and Heather check in with each other after a rough first week of Trump Administration 2.0. They then explore how right wing pundits and trolls make really convoluted excuses to support their president, pairing the controversy over Elon Musk's "Roman" gesture and outrage over Bishop Budde's blessing at the Washington Cathedral. In the back half of the show, they discuss the conflict of policy mandates with agency restructuring and dismantling, resulting in inefficiency and higher governmental costs. All of this posed against a backdrop where already the Trump administration claims inflation is not a focus of their agenda and its going to "take a while" for food and other cont-of-living prices to come down.

Jonny and Heather take a look at some of the anticipated executive orders of the incoming Trump administration, especially those targetting trans people. They contrast this with some of Biden's initial executive orders and other efforts of his administration to support LGBTQ folks. They then look at evidence in Congress and elsewhere that Trump's base is showing some serious cracks and divides. In the back half of the show, the discuss Tik Tok and the hypocrisy of Trump claiming to be its savior. They examine the difficulties in current social media with organizing activism while also singing the praises of the People's March and the need to stay focus and stay active.