Queer Voices
Queer Voices
7/17/24 Queer Voices - Mint Julep - Timmy Martinez, A Very Natural Thing and Haley Easy with Eazy as Pie
On this episode of QUEER VOICES, Bryan Hlavinka talks with Legacy's Timmy Martinez as he prepares for MISS MINT JULIP being held at Bayou Music Center on July 21st from 2:30 pm onwards. The show is an annual fundraiser for Legacy Community Health, and this year is bigger than ever. It's at a new venue with three distinct hosts for the party!
Next up, Brett Cullum is joined by Lee Ingalls as they discuss the 1974 movie A VERY NATURAL THING. It was noted to be one of the first mainstream movies aimed at a general audience featuring the gay world of NYC from 1973. The film features a real-life PRIDE MARCH in the city and also highlights real bars and bathhouses of the era. It is available for streaming and can easily be found on Amazon's Prime Video Service.
Deborah Moncrief Bell talks with Haley Easy about her business and love of desserts. Haley runs EAZY AS PIE, and she discusses how she got into cooking confections and what it means to her.
The closing segment is NEWS WRAP, which features stories aimed at LGBTQIA+ audiences from around the world.
Queer Voices airs in Houston Texas on 90.1FM KPFT and is heard as a podcast here. Queer Voices hopes to entertain as well as illuminate LGBTQ issues in Houston and beyond. Check out our socials at:
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Hello everybody, this is Queer Voices, a podcast version of a broadcast radio show that's been on the air in Houston, Texas, for several decades. This week, Brian Levinka talks with Timmy Martinez about the Legacy Community Health Annual Mint Julep Fundraiser July 21st at Bayou Music Center on Texas Avenue.
Speaker 2:The core of what we do has always been our HIV AIDS health care services, but when we became a FQHC, we started expanding. So now I tell people it's from pediatric to geriatric, with everything in between.
Speaker 1:Then Brett Cullum has a conversation with his husband about a movie called a very natural thing from 1974 the film.
Speaker 3:It's low budget, let's face it. It's not high production value. I was really surprised because they, when I read, oh, this is the first gay movie for mainstream audiences, it didn't seem very mainstream. It was very gra. It seemed like it was put together for a budget of what felt like $5. And the sound was a little bit off at times.
Speaker 1:Deborah Moncrief-Bell talks with Haley Easy about her baking company called Easy as Pie.
Speaker 4:Whenever she saw it, ooh, she had a whole fit. I thought it was absolutely horrible and I felt like that was the worst reaction. I've ever had a whole fit. I thought it was absolutely horrible and I felt like that was the worst reaction I've ever had towards a cake and everybody was like, oh, it's fine, we'll still eat it. They were like, ooh, vanilla, they just started cutting it up and eating it.
Speaker 1:And we have news wrap from this Way Out Queer Voices starts now.
Speaker 5:This is Brian LaVinca, and today I'm interviewing Timmy Martinez from Legacy Community Health. Welcome to Queer Voices, timmy.
Speaker 2:Thank you, Brian. It's always good to be with you.
Speaker 5:And I was saying before that we've done this interview many times, but the event still stays fresh and fun. So let's talk about the event, which is Mint Julep, happening on July 21st. Okay, so tell me about Mint Julep and how it got started.
Speaker 2:This is the 22nd annual Mint Julep, when two legacy employees, keith Napier and Sana Alton, wanted to do a fundraiser to benefit at the time Montrose Clinic was our name HIV AIDS programs. They came up with the name Mint Julep because they figured in the heat of July. A fresh mint julep would be cool. I remember being on the board and they came to us with the idea and we're kind of like well you know, let's give it a try and if it has legs it'll last a few years.
Speaker 5:Legs it'll last a few years. Little did we realize that here it is 2024, and the event is still going.
Speaker 2:Why has it lasted so long? In your opinion, because members of the community really get behind it for a good cause. Throughout the years, we've had different performers. You know, at one time it was actually to be crowned Ms Mint Julep. You had to raise money and compete against other contestants, and then we added Mr Mint Julep, added Ms Mint Julep. We did away with the fundraising competition, probably back in 2010, somewhere in there, 2010, 2011. But, like I said, I think it's because it's for a good cause. Initially it was just drag queens and then it became drag kings, and then we've had people just kind of I don't want to say launch their drag career, but have really gotten into it and come back year after year to perform.
Speaker 5:And before we get too much further into this, I must disclose that I'm on the board of Legacy Community Health and I have an interest in this event, so I'm just going to disclose that. Tell me what has been your favorite mint julep.
Speaker 2:Well, they get better every year. If we're disclosing things, I will disclose that in 2003,. I made my drag performance debut as Quesadilla. So personal bias, I guess I could say 2003, when I took to the stage and launched my once a year uh performance career. But you know, last year's theme uh was really great. We had a space theme and we we have the theme of Houston. We're ready to launch and I've always said that our performers take us to another universe and we're going to have a really good show this year.
Speaker 5:I missed last year because I was offshore. So tell us about last year and then tell us about this year.
Speaker 2:So last year we returned to White Oak Music Hall. As I said, it was a space theme, so we had a miniature space shuttle. A lot of our performers did some space-themed performances, did some space-themed performances. Just think lots of metallics, anything space-related. Personally, before the show started, I was in an astronaut outfit walking around the crowd and greeting people. We had a space alien, so it was a lot of fun.
Speaker 2:This year we are doing a circus theme and it is called Le Cirque du Mint Julep, the Circus of Mint Julep. I can't wait to see what our performers are going to bring to the stage. And speaking of the stage, we do have a new venue this year. It is at the Bayou Music Center on Texas Avenue, so it is directly across from the Wortham Center street level. It's giving us a lot more space.
Speaker 2:When we went to White Oak Music Hall, the original plan was to have a runway off the stage like a catwalk, so that the performers could go into the audience, have more accessibility, to get tips. We just didn't have the space because we sold so many tables. Second year, at White Oak Music Hall, we were hoping to do it again, but we sold out the spots. This year, with more space. We will have a 40-foot long runway so if y'all are going to be there, the performers are going to be working really hard to cover a lot of ground from the stage down the runway. There's going to be steps at the end of the runway to even get more into the audience, so hopefully it'll be more participatory for the performers and for the audience members.
Speaker 5:This is a fundraiser for HIV, aids and Legacy has kind of evolved over the years. Can you talk about the importance of this event and what it funds? Has kind?
Speaker 2:of evolved over the years? Can you talk about the importance of this event and what it funds? The funding will go to our HIV AIDS education, prevention and treatment. And when you look back in our history, legacy was one of the first responders back in the 80s to the HIV AIDS pandemic and initially, when there was no treatment, there was no testing, pretty much what our staff did was, I guess, provide the equivalent of hospice care or help people pretty much learn how to get their affairs in order, maybe have to disclose to their family that they were positive, which could also lead to were they gay.
Speaker 2:There was a lot that went on and really admire the staff in those early days. But in 1985, montrose Clinic, now known as Legacy, became the first non-governmental agency in Houston and in Texas to offer the HIV test. Prior to that you could only go to a government, whether city, county clinic, and there was no HIPAA at the time. So there was this fear that your employer could find out. A that you went to get an HIV test and, b what if it came back positive? Sidebar to that, we were second in the nation. So first in Houston, first in Texas, second in the nation.
Speaker 2:There was an agency in Atlanta that started testing the day before we did Otherwise. You know we were there to help our patients and help them just not with treatment, but also if they were having difficulty accessing behavioral health, dental services, food, living accommodations, paying the rent or mortgage. We had a social worker and a caseworker that could help them. Even though we have grown and expanded our slate of services over the years, we still have at the core and the root of what we do is still our HIV-AIDS services, because we will never forget how we helped people in the early days and, of course, now we're able to help them even more.
Speaker 5:Legacy is so big. Why do we need a fundraiser for HIV AIDS? Explain why that's important.
Speaker 2:One of our programs that needs more funding is our HIV AIDS programs. Even though we are one of the largest recipients if not the largest of Ryan White grant money, we will go through our allotment probably, I'd say, six months into the fiscal year. So that leads a deficit and as a federally qualified health center, our goal is to not turn anyone away who comes to us for care. We use the money from this event to help people who need help.
Speaker 5:What is a federally qualified health center for people that may not know?
Speaker 2:A federally qualified health center is a special designation that a healthcare agency can get. The acronym is FQHC, so I'll start using that, but FQHC stands for federally qualified health center. As an FQHC, there are a slate of services that we are required to offer. The goal is to not turn anyone away who comes to us for health care and the way that we do that. If you have insurance, we can see you.
Speaker 2:If you're underinsured which means maybe you have insurance but it doesn't cover everything we will work with you to figure out a way to access our services. It could be from grants, private donations, it can be from foundations. If you don't have insurance, then we have a team of people they're called eligibility specialists and they will work with you to figure out again is there private money, foundation money, grant money to help cover the cost of your health care? And then also they will determine if you can be put on a sliding scale, meaning you access our healthcare services based on ability to pay. When it comes to the services that we offer, remember, originally I said the core of what we do has always been our HIV AIDS healthcare services, but when we became a FQHC we started expanding. So now I tell people it's from pediatric to geriatric with everything in between, with some dental behavioral health vision. We do a lot, including having school-based health care in some of the schools.
Speaker 5:Timmy, you've been with Legacy a long time. Tell me about working there and what is your title now?
Speaker 2:It's funny you asked me that question because I recently celebrated 15 years of working there. That does not include the six years that I was on the board. I've been very involved with this agency. My current title is Vice President of Banger, gifts and PlanGiving.
Speaker 5:And what is PlanGiving if people don't know?
Speaker 2:PlanGiving is a vehicle, a program where people can leave us in their estate plan. It could be anything from making us the beneficiary on a life insurance policy. It could be a designated specific amount of money of an estate plan. It could also be a percentage of an estate. It could be stocks and bonds. It could be an IRA. It could be stocks and bonds. It could be an IRA. It could be a savings account. But the reason we launched this program is that it will help us financially in the future to keep our doors open.
Speaker 5:Now let's talk about the event itself July 21st what time and where, and what can people expect?
Speaker 2:The doors will open at 2.30, and the show will begin at 3 o'clock. This year and last year I've been serving I call myself the consultant extraordinaire. Bella Villarreal has taken over the event, so I'm there in the background providing guidance and input. But one of the things that we have strived for is, if we say the show begins at three, we get it started as close to three as possible.
Speaker 2:I think last year we started at 3.06 because I looked at my watch. Think about being in a nice cool venue. On July afternoon We'll be at the Bayou Music Center on Texas Avenue, across from the Wortham Center. Quesadilla will be returning and it's going to be a circus theme. Our MCs for the event will be Ginger Grant, angela Mercy and Dominic Cusano. So we're returning to the 3MC format again, and our honorees this year are Tony Bravo and Richard Warner. So, in addition to having this wonderful lineup of entertainers, which includes Marsha Mink, one of our early Mint Julep title holders, it's going to be a great show and especially with Marsha, you never know what she's going to do. She was asking the other day about can I have access to the loading dock? People want more information.
Speaker 2:This event has always been free. The founders of the event, sana and Keith, wanted an event that anyone could attend. Oh, you do have to be 18 years of age or older. They wanted this event to be free because they realized that some of our patients wanted to support the agency, that some of our patients wanted to support the agency, but maybe all they could really afford was to tip a few dollars to the performers. Again, it is free. It'll be general admission. Seating will be in the balcony of Bayou Music Center. Reserved seating is available.
Speaker 5:We're speaking with Timmy Martinez, the VP of Major Gifts and Plan Giving for Legacy Community Health, talking about the Mint Julep event happening on July 21st starting at 2.30,. Doors open with the show starting at 3 at the Bayou City Music Center.
Speaker 2:The other thing that really tells me a lot about the people who perform and why they give their time and their talent. All the tips that they receive they donate back to Legacy, so they do not keep any of the money that they collect while they're out, while this year on the catwalk and on the floor of the venue. I think that says a lot about their dedication to this event and I really appreciate everything they do for us.
Speaker 5:Thank you, Timmy, for coming on.
Speaker 2:You're quite welcome. Thank you, Brian.
Speaker 5:This is Queer Voices.
Speaker 1:Coming up on Queer Voices. Brett Cullum and his husband Lee discuss the movie. A Very Natural Thing, hayley Easy talking about her passion and her baking company. Easy as Pie, and we have News Wrap from this Way Out.
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Speaker 3:I'm Brett Cullum and I used to be a prolific film critic back in the day, so I thought it might be fun to look at some LGBTQIA plus films here on Queer Voices, and today I'm going to look at a very early film called A Very Natural Thing that documented the gay experience right after Stonewall. But I'm not doing it alone. I have my husband, author and magazine writer, lee Ingalls, along with me, who will help me with some of the history of the film and its context. Welcome back to the podcast, lee.
Speaker 8:Thank you, yeah, and I appreciate the opportunity, and you're right, I mean this. Watching the film was very interesting. It took me back to the time when it would have been created and how different the world is today. So, yeah, it was very interesting.
Speaker 3:You know, this film came out to me during Pride season through Facebook posts by JD Doyle and one of my friends who's an active film critic, richard King. The film was shot in 1973 and it was widely released in 1974. A Very Natural Thing was one of the earliest examples of a gay film that was marketed to mainstream audiences, or at least one that played in movie houses and got an international release. It was also known under a title for as long as possible. Basically, the film follows a character named David as he navigates a troubled relationship with a character named Mark, and it's probably most notable for documenting gay life in and around New York City in the early 70s, including a very fresh 1973 pride parade and a look at the bars and baths around town. What did you think of the movie just overall?
Speaker 8:So overall, yeah, it did bring back some things that were very common for that period of time that I had kind of put out of my mind, such as the character Mark. There were a lot more closeted men that would come into the bar scene or the gay community just for the purposes of meeting other gay men and then they would leave and they would go back to their normal lives. So that was kind of forward and I forgot how prevalent that was back in those days. It was also interesting to see the parade and you know the parade again another thing that kind of slips out of your mind. It was mostly a protest parade back in those days. There was very few slogans, if you will, or the pageantry that you see today didn't exist back then. It was mostly protests and people walking with banners and signs etc.
Speaker 3:One of the things I thought was interesting is David really struggles with this idea. He wants a monogamous relationship with Mark and Mark is obviously resisting that and it's a struggle. I think that even as a community we kind of struggle to define, and especially in this era now that marriage is even legal. But one of the things that took me by surprise was how often people refer to each other in the film as husbands even though they weren't legally married. It was just very interesting to me that they kind of perceived it that way and really laid claim to that title already, even before the legal precedence of having marriage equality.
Speaker 8:Yeah, no, you're exactly right. So those terms were used. Back in those days, Marriage was very common for a gay couple to identify themselves with another gay group or couple just to let people know that they're together and it's kind of hands-off, even though marriage was not available to them. It was a foreign concept, even though they were using the terms and like husband and those terms. They were used, but it was just to identify the relationship. There was nothing legally or legal behind it.
Speaker 3:A Very Natural Thing, starred three actors that I don't know much about Robert Joel, kurt, gareth and Bo White. All three are pretty handsome in terms of 70s style definitely and they seem to have made careers of a mix of small theater parts and art house dramas that you could almost call softcore films, and you could almost say that this film represents kind of that softcore value, because there's a surprising lot of nudity. I was really kind of like okay.
Speaker 8:Yeah, so no, I agree with you. Looking at it, I was surprised to see because at that time the mainstream films were still pretty conservative as far as nudity goes. So the amount that was here was surprising and I even mentioned as we watched it. I think in the US some of those scenes probably were cut or would have been cut Because, first of all, you know you're coming in at that point in time, you're coming into the time where there was some brief nudity between the most popular actors, but not like you see here, and full frontal male nudity was just not done back in those days.
Speaker 3:So this would have definitely fallen into a softcore genre Now A Very Natural Thing was directed by Christopher Larkin this would have definitely fallen into a softcore genre teacher later and he seems to kind of draw in the whole idea of his own life and his own struggles, focusing on mark's obsession with the relationship, on his own experience, probably in new york city. It was strange because I felt like at the end of the movie mark, did you get the feeling that mark was really like still believing in that or was he kind of pushing the other guy away, saying no, I know, we can't have that yeah.
Speaker 8:So it's interesting and I think it is a sign of that time. There were couples that were around at that time that had been together for a long period of time, but relationships back in those days were mostly viewed as temporary and just didn't have the same sense that you would in a straight couple. So I think the desire to be coupled was there, but the ability and the society's support for that happening just wasn't there. So I think what I took away from it was the first relationship with the guy that just wasn't going to be available was his attempt at trying to get that, and the second one he realized that's probably out of reach and maybe not something that they should have tried for of the things about a very natural thing.
Speaker 3:And that really kind of cracked me up is it felt like it was a very derivative kind of copy of ali mcgraw and ryan o'neill's love story. And in that film, famously, ali mcgraw says love means never having to say you're sorry. And in this particular movie one of the characters says love means never having to say you're sorry. And in this particular movie one of the characters says love means never having to say that you are in love. So I thought that was kind of interesting. But you know, love story really did represent a change in relationships, how they would view relationships or maybe a little bit less traditional view of relationships. So I guess it makes sense that you would have a translation of a gay story onto that kind of that mold and I guess that that's kind of the convenience of having that trope. And then he probably Christopher Larkin came along and said, hey, this would work with our community.
Speaker 8:So at that point in time the only imagery that any of us had was between a man and a woman. So, and yet you're right, the love story was such an impactful movie. It doesn't surprise me that they would try to apply that to a gay relationship and have some of the common things there. But I think the reason we're seeing the parallels between the two movies is because in the gay world there is nothing else for us, there was nothing else visually that we had to see a couple, a same-sex couple. So you had to kind of adopt what you were seeing and that is a male-female couple. It was interesting to see that and you know, just kind of going back to the film itself, I thought you know the language that they used in the script. I didn't think it was as strong as it would be today, as strongly written as it would be today. It just seemed to kind of pick up on the high notes of a love story and didn't really get into a lot of depth or anything like that.
Speaker 3:They really defined it just at the bare basics and it really did feel like, hey, this is, we're going to give you this and present two guys. And Christopher Larkin would respond to critics that would say that it wasn't exactly that dramatically deep. He said that he wanted to say that the same-sex relationships are no more problematic, but also not easier, than any other human relationship, and that in many ways they're the same and in some ways they're different, and it was kind of this thing. But he was saying that they're still possible, they're still worthwhile. Actually, interestingly enough, there's a gentleman who wrote the Celluloid Closet in 1987, a man named Vito Russo, and he appears briefly in this film. So he was obviously somehow a friend or a connection of Christopher Larkin.
Speaker 3:So it was kind of interesting to see that the film it's low budget, let's face it. It's not high production value. I was really surprised because when I read, oh, this is the first gay movie for mainstream audiences, it didn't seem very mainstream. It was very grainy, it seemed like it was put together for a budget of what felt like $5. And the sound was a little bit off at times and things like that, but it was definitely a pretty wholly realized vision, but it wasn't super financially successful and actually what was interesting is that christopher larkin, the guy who made a very natural thing. He moved to california in the late 70s and in 1981 he published a book and then later he committed suicide on June 21st 1988. But we do have his co-screenwriter, joe Kosinkas, and he's alive and well and he's living with his husband in Brooklyn and he still comes out every once in a while to talk about the film, because it really is one of those touchstone films that I had really never heard of before. Had you actually been aware of its existence?
Speaker 8:before I was not. No, that was the first time. Well, the first time I heard of it was when you mentioned it and obviously, the first time I saw it.
Speaker 3:And the very natural thing, the thing that's easy is we live in the age of streaming and they had a VHS release for it way back in the day when that was a thing, and they had a 25th anniversary DVD release, which is now very expensive to get that on eBay or anywhere else where it's still available.
Speaker 3:But luckily on Amazon Prime it's streaming basically for free with your Prime subscription and you can find it there, purchase it there if you don't have the Prime subscription, and things like that. So it's kind of interesting to see that it's now being redistributed and kind of people are talking about it and I really think that's how probably JD and Richard discovered it again after all of these years and it seems to have been produced independently. Yet it had a pretty big distribution and it was a company that eventually had ties to New Line Cinema and it got an international release and was pretty widely out there. I mean it even played in places like India, which I'm really surprised at Because it does seem like it's a very specific US kind of experience. Could you see this translating outside of the US?
Speaker 8:Yeah, no, I would be surprised that it was shown there as well, because it is pretty forward thinking and you know the relationship, especially at that point in time. You have to go back to the time that it was made. Seeing two men kissing on any type of screen was just not heard of. You didn't see it anywhere in the relationship between two men that were in love. You just didn't see that not being the center of the story anyway. So yeah, and I do agree with you on the comments about the production value being very much grainy and the lighting was a lot of times bad and you would see people in silhouette etc. But that was not uncommon for films that were made by independent studios back in those days. So again, it takes me back to what you would have seen during that time period normally. So this was not abnormal.
Speaker 3:Yeah, no, a Very Natural Thing feels like an arthouse movie in a lot of ways.
Speaker 3:I mean, it really made me feel like I was watching a very solid arthouse movie that was probably made by a very talented person who wanted to produce something like that and kind of give a different kind of concept of romance.
Speaker 3:But I was really surprised that in 1973, we have this film out there that displays men unapologetically having relationships with each other, defining the relationships the way that they want to, doing different things like that.
Speaker 3:I mean there was this whole sense of cruising in the film in New York City which was just wild to me about how everybody seemed to be doing it. I'm sure that was an exaggeration for the film, but it was so wild to see all of that and just to get a glimpse of 1973, new York Pride. And I think one of the most valuable things of the film is they actually interviewed documentary style, people that attended that parade and you see people that are lesbians, people that are bisexuals, I mean you see all this diversity and they talk to them and actually it's the lesbian that says I think being gay is a very natural thing and I think that that is the power of the movie and why it's such a great landmark or a touchstone for our time. Just to have that there that early and then, during that time, did you feel like that time was more accepting than it was after, into the 80s?
Speaker 8:No, I think it was a time that they were pushing for acceptance more than even what we see today. Today it's kind of expected, but then it wasn't really expected. It was something that they were striving for. So I think that's part of the key difference. And you're right, I saw I hate to put it this way, but I'll put it out there this way anyway a greater passion in those people than what I see today. Now you can point to exceptions today, but I think, generally what we saw from the Pride Parade of 1973 and the interviews that they did, there was a lot of passion in those people and they were coming right in shortly after the Stonewall Riot. So there was a lot of passion and the crowds that we saw in the film were impressive, very impressive.
Speaker 3:One of the things I always like looking at is how films were marketed, and they had two different taglines for this. The first one that they released was If you cut them they will bleed, which is basically a Shakespearean reference. It goes back to the Merchant of Venice and Shylock and all of that. But it was somewhat disturbing when I think about it in relation to what happened in the history afterwards, because we have the AIDS pandemic coming shortly thereafter, at least within 10 years. So that was kind of a wild choice of words. And also they had a tagline that said David and Jason's relationship. It's the same, only different. And what I thought was interesting was that David and Jason the second relationship you see after David and Mark actually break up it was the photographer, the Bo White part, where they're actually really looking at that as a relationship, which I thought the film actually concentrated on. The relationship that went wrong first. But you're going to target on that last one, maybe because Bo White was an extremely handsome actor, probably.
Speaker 8:True, yeah, well, they were all very nice looking. You're right, they're very typical looks of the day. But yeah, I agree.
Speaker 3:Well, thank you, Lee Ingalls, for sitting down with me and talking about a very natural thing. Always hard to find you around, considering we live together. I thought it was fun. I really appreciate you taking the time to sit down with me and talk about a very natural thing on Queer Voices.
Speaker 8:Yeah, well, thank you for having me, it was enjoyable.
Speaker 9:Pat-a-cake. Pat-a-cake baker's man, bake me a cake as fast as you can. Roll it and pat it and mark it with a C. Put it in the oven for Carlos and me.
Speaker 7:This is Deborah Moncrief-Bell and I'm talking with Haley Easy, the proprietor of Easy as Pie Baking. Now Haley, explain to me, because this is kind of an unusual situation. You don't have a bakery, so how is it that you started a business baking, but without a shop?
Speaker 4:I am a food cottage baker In Texas. You're allowed to bake from home if you don't have a uh, a brick and mortar per se. So I just bake from home and I follow the food cottage laws. If you go to texas cottage food lot, food lawcom, you can actually find all the laws and regulations for the home bakers. So that's that's the way that I bake from home. You follow the food safety standards, you take little uh, you take like the the test and such for the food safety courses, and then you also have to make sure that you don't bake anything with, like cream cheese or anything that has to be cold. You can't serve any sliced fruits per se, and then you also can't ship outside of Texas as well.
Speaker 7:You've been really busy with Pride because you did some special things. I think you made some Pride cakes.
Speaker 4:Yes, I made a Pride cake. I donated a six level rainbow cake for Pride. It was just donated for like the festival performers and for the volunteers at the time.
Speaker 7:And you did a whole bunch of baking. In fact, you've been kind of recovering following Pride. How is it that you got started as a baker?
Speaker 4:is it that you got started as a baker? I actually got started as a baker when I was 18. So it's been about 15 years that I've been baking. I told some people my dream, basically like friends and family and such and I let them know hey, yeah, I do want to bake. I don't know what y'all want to do in life, but I definitely know that I want to bake and I've always wanted to bake, actually since I was from before high school and such. I actually have a book where I made a whole board of baking and stuff and I told my dream on it in 12th grade. So I started baking when I was about 18, I would say, and I just somebody asked for like a red velvet cake, another person asked for a birthday cake. So I just started doing little artistic stuff with cakes and making bundt cakes and kind of finding my recipes. So it was just like here and there I was taking cake orders.
Speaker 7:Your last name is Easy, and so your company has the wonderful name Easy as Pie, although you spell easy with a Z. What would you say is your favorite thing to bake?
Speaker 4:Right now, my favorite thing to make is my snickerdoodles, because people love them so much.
Speaker 7:The name is easy as pie, but you do cakes and cookies and other baked goods. What's been your most challenging thing to fix?
Speaker 4:The most challenging thing to make would be cake sculptures, which is what I've always wanted to do, and I have done a couple.
Speaker 4:To do a cake sculpture, I need weeks in advance of notice because it takes time to plan. It's just like making a clay sculpture or some type of artistic sculpture that artists would make on a daily basis. But for me, I work a a full-time job, so I work full-time job and then I have to plan out my time and make sure that I have all my notes written down, make sure I buy all the supplies, and then I have to bake all the cakes and then I also have to make all the buttercream, sticks, rods, screws. It's a lot that goes into a cake sculpture. Cake sculpture is definitely the most difficult thing to make, but then it's also the most satisfying thing to make as well, because once you're done, you're like, man, I made this masterpiece and now everybody gets to see it, take photos, videos, then you get a cut into it and then people are like oh, that's cake, yes, that's cake talk about pies because that's my favorite.
Speaker 7:I I'm not a big cake person, but I do love a pie, so do you have a favorite pie?
Speaker 4:my favorite pie to make would be a buttermilk pie, probably because it's the easiest thing to make, and then I feel like my buttermilk pie is like somebody's great, great, great grandma's recipe or something do you have family recipes?
Speaker 4:Yes, I do, and I actually have started using them. I didn't want to touch my family recipes because my grandma had passed so I didn't really want to mess with it. But I have started to dig into my family recipes now and I'm like, okay, my grandma has some. Really I knew my grandma has some really good recipes, but I just now started touching them, had some really good recipes, but I just now started touching them and I'm like, okay, she has some really great recipes that I really need to start using, because I made her orange cake one day and her orange cake was absolutely amazing. My whole place smelled like orange cake.
Speaker 7:It was great. Have you done wedding cakes? Yes, I've actually. I've done a couple wedding cakes.
Speaker 4:I haven't done a lot, but I have done a couple wedding cakes. I haven't done a lot, but I have done a couple wedding cakes and I actually took a wedding cake course with my cake mentor and my friend. She taught a wedding cake class. That was the first time I met her. Her name is Portia Kimball, so when I met her I learned how to do like prettier wedding cakes. So now if I do want to do like a fancier wedding cake, I have all the steps, all the tools and where to order stuff now, Because beforehand I was doing like old fashioned wedding cakes so I didn't really know how to like dip into the prettier side, the more elegant side of wedding cakes. But I do now.
Speaker 7:Have you ever had just a total disaster.
Speaker 4:I have had a total disaster. It was actually my girlfriend's cake at the time. That was my first and last disaster that I had.
Speaker 7:Is that why you say your girlfriend at the time? It was the cake.
Speaker 4:Yes, girlfriend at the time After the cake yes, girlfriend, at the time after the disaster I dumped her because she did not take it well and I feel like it was very it was a horrible reaction to the cake falling apart. So I actually made a two-tier cake. So every like say, if you take one cake and then you stack it on top of another cake, that would be tears. So I made her a two-tier cake. It was silver on silver, it had crowns on it, pearls all around it. I did all types of stuff to this cake. I put like diamonds on it and stuff.
Speaker 4:Well, I guess, because I think I had, I had a problem at home so I had to go to my uncle's house and it was warmer at their house so when I was putting the cake together it wasn't cold like it was at my place.
Speaker 4:I can't remember what happened, but something happened to where I had to go to my uncle's and when I did, I guess I left some of my supplies at home and then everybody was just talking to me and stuff there was like oh wow, this is cool. And I really got distracted. So I didn't do the proper steps in stacking the cake and this was probably my third or fourth tiered cake that I ever made my third or fourth tiered cake that I ever made, so I wasn't like a super professional at it yet and I had to drive this cake all the way from Houston to College Station because that's where my girlfriend lived at the time. And when I made it to the Chili's, the cake completely like the whole top tier cake somehow dipped into the bottom tier cake and it just fell apart oh yes that's a sad story, sad, it was sad.
Speaker 4:so when I brought it inside, I didn't know that it happened. So when I brought it inside the Chili's and I was taking it apart, everybody was like, oh, no, and like, and you know, everybody was like, oh, that's horrible, was it a?
Speaker 7:special event.
Speaker 4:It was her birthday. It was my girlfriend's birthday. Whenever she saw it, oh, she had a whole fit. I thought it was absolutely horrible and I felt like that was the worst reaction I've ever had towards a cake and everybody was like, oh, it's fine, we'll still eat it. They were like, ooh, vanilla, they just start cutting it up and eating it, while this person, while my girlfriend's having a whole fit. So I just left. I was like, okay, I don't need this energy in my life.
Speaker 7:What did you learn from that experience?
Speaker 4:I learned that I really have to pay attention to all of my supplies. Make sure that I write down every single step that I need to do so I can cross off everything Now, since that was like years ago now. Like I just automatically know when I'm making a cake, make sure you have all your rods, your your boards to go in between cakes and such. Make sure your place is super cold, because it has to be cold, because as soon as you take something outside and it's 100 degrees, that's when your cake starts melting. The cake cannot be outside if it's 74 degrees and above. Even if it's inside of, like any type of building or event, it still has to be 74 degrees and above. Even if it's inside of, like any type of building or event, it still has to be 74 degrees and below. As soon as it starts going to 76, 78 degrees, the cake will start melting, even if it's inside.
Speaker 7:You said that you have taken courses. Is that how you started off? Did you take a class or get some kind of training?
Speaker 4:it started with food network. It started off watching uh, buddy and duff on ace of cakes and the cake boss and such like that, and then I would watch youtube and just kind of see what everybody else was doing. If I needed to take an actual class, because I did want to go to the Art Institute once upon a time, but what happened is that the Art Institute cost way too much at the time. I couldn't get the funding for it in time. So my father was like just go to Lone Star College for now and then we'll transfer in or just pick something else to do because it just costs too much. At the time I really just spent most of my time watching YouTube and I would like to call it YouTube University.
Speaker 4:And then I also took a few classes with Yolanda Gamp on how to cake it. I took it through her master cake class, which is an online course, and that's where I learned how to tear my cake, stack my cakes. I learned some really great recipes on her website. And then I also took a few classes with my cake mentor, slash friend, portia Campbell. She taught me a lot of stuff. She actually taught, taught me through Instagram. And then I also took her wedding cake class and then I also helped with her retreats. So I've learned a lot just with helping out with her cake classes, cake retreats and then just personally knowing her. And I also took another wedding cake class at her home a personal wedding cake class, and she even taught me way more. So it's like I've taken in-person classes, I've taken online classes and then I also took YouTube University.
Speaker 7:I would like to say I know quite a few people that actually do pretty well using YouTube University. Actually do pretty well using YouTube University. We've been talking to Haley Easy of Easy as Pie Baking Company Haley. If people are interested in finding out more about cakes, pies, cookies and other yummy stuff, how do they contact you?
Speaker 4:My website is at easyaspiebakerycom. You can actually contact me through my contact page If you have any questions. My phone number is on there, my email address is on there, and then you can also place orders on my website. You can also fill out the custom cake form that's on my website as well, and then you can also contact me through my Instagram at easy period as pie.
Speaker 7:Thank you so much for being with us on Queer Voices. Thank you so much, evan, and me, I'm Marcos Najera.
Speaker 11:And I'm Wendy Natividad.
Speaker 10:With News Wrap, a summary of some of the news in or affecting LGBTQ communities around the world for the week ending July 13th 2024. Around the World for the week ending July 13, 2024. A Malawi constitutional court is upholding the criminalization of same-gender relationships. Gay Dutch citizen, Jan Willem Axter, and transgender Malawian Jana Gonani lost their challenges to those laws in a June 28 decision. Axter and Gonani are being charged in separate cases. Axter faces nine counts of violating the anti-queer sexual abuse and sodomy laws. Ghanani is legally viewed as a homosexual man and is charged with so-called unnatural offenses.
Speaker 10:Both plaintiffs argue that the laws punishing carnal knowledge against the order of nature and gross indecency violate their rights to privacy and dignity under the country's Constitution and international human rights laws. It took the three-judge panel six hours of deliberation to conclude that the carnal knowledge prohibitions do not specifically discriminate against homosexual individuals. The court said that the plaintiffs could seek relief in Parliament by asking lawmakers to amend the country's anti-queer sex laws. Meanwhile, the criminal prosecutions against Axter and Gunani can continue. Violations of the law carry a prison sentence of up to 14 years. National and international human rights groups roundly condemn the ruling. In the words of Amnesty International's Kanyo Farisi, the court's decision to keep these discriminatory laws on the books is a bitter setback for human rights in Malawi. The ruling manifestly flies in the face of Malawi's constitution, the African charter and international human rights law, which all clearly prohibit discrimination. Farisi says the ruling makes Malawi an outlier among southern African nations, where same-sex sexual conduct has largely been decriminalized.
Speaker 11:Aruba and Curaçao must immediately allow same-gender couples to marry, this by order of the Dutch Supreme Court. The Caribbean islands are two of three constituent countries of the Netherlands where the first legal queer weddings in the world were held on April 1, 2001. Courts with jurisdiction over the islands ruled for marriage equality in 2022, but lawmakers have refused to follow through. Aruba's parliament actually voted down a marriage equality bill in June. Out gay Dutch senator Boris Dittrich celebrated the July 12th ruling, saying the Supreme Court took into consideration that politicians had been debating this issue for a long time, but without results. In addition to Aruba and Curaçao, sint-maarten is also a Caribbean constituent country within the Netherlands. It may also be covered by the ruling, although it was not part of the court case that decided it. The Dutch overseas municipalities Bonaire, saba and Sint-Eustatius have enjoyed marriage equality since 2012. Gay Aruban Senator Miguel Mansoor calls it an amazing victory. He told the Washington Blade, aruba progresses into a society with less discrimination, more tolerance and acceptance.
Speaker 10:Britain's Labour Party swept to victory in national elections on July 4th, ending the Conservative Party's 14-year grip on government rule. While progressives around the world in general breathed a sigh of relief, cautiously optimistic might be overstating LGBTQ activists' view of what's to come under the new government. Incoming Prime Minister Keir Starmer campaigned on a promise to improve the rights and safety of LGBTQ people by banning conversion therapy and expanding hate crime laws. At the same time, Labour seems to be bent on targeting trans people, just like the outgoing Tory government. Starmer himself has backtracked on his previous affirmation that transgender women are women. He now believes that trans people should use sex-segregated public bathrooms and changing rooms based only on their birth certificate gender. Starmer's new health secretary will be MP Wes Streeting, who's a former Stonewall activist. However, in line with Starmer's position, he has said trans women should be barred from single-sex hospital wards. Streeting not only supports the Tory government's temporary ban on reversible puberty blockers and hormone therapy for trans people under the age of 18, he wants to make the ban permanent.
Speaker 11:French voters handed the burgeoning far-right and blatantly anti-queer National Rally Party a humiliating defeat in national elections on July 5th. Pundits were confounded after the stunning wins their candidates posted in the first round of voting. However, that drove center and leftist parties to form an amazing coalition in only two weeks. In the second round of voting, the National Rally Party came in third. The left-wing parties control the most seats in Parliament and President Emmanuel Macron's second-place centrist Renaissance Party continues to hold the balance of power. Macron had called the snap elections in June after the National Rally Party shockingly won the most seats in the European Parliament elections. Lgbtq issues were rarely raised during the campaign. When they did, macron spoke out against some rights for transgender people. The National Rally Party vowed to restrict access to IVF and surrogacy services for same-gender couples. They would even consider repealing marriage equality.
Speaker 10:A transgender woman in Japan will be allowed to change her legal gender without having to undergo gender reassignment surgery, and it's a first. The anonymous woman in her late 40s says that having to undergo the surgery would present major financial burdens and that certain health conditions would make surgery risky for her. Lower court still denied her request. The Hiroshima High Court overturned the lower court decisions on July 10th. It found that 20-year-old laws in Japan making surgery a prerequisite for legal gender change may be an unconstitutional infringement of equal protection guarantees. The court determined that the hormone therapy the trans woman plaintiff has undergone sufficiently feminized her body. Japan's Supreme Court decided in October of last year to remove the additional requirement that the surgery include sterilization. The Japan Alliance for LGBT Legislation praised the ruling. Its statement said in part it can open the door for transgender females to be able to legally change their gender without undergoing surgery. However, the organization remains concerned because the decision does not affect trans people whose medical condition might prevent them from taking hormones.
Speaker 11:Finally, a Missouri judge says there's no reason for blind obedience to the Attorney General's civil investigative demands when the privacy rights of transgender young people and their families are at stake. Judge Joseph White of the St Louis Circuit Court rebuffed efforts by Missouri's Republican Attorney General, andrew Bailey, to fully access the medical records of children from the Washington University Transgender Center at St Louis Children's Hospital and three similar facilities. Bailey launched a so-called investigation of potential child abuse in pediatric gender-affirming health care in March of 2023. The facilities challenged Bailey's order. While providing his office with redacted information, bailey then demanded unredacted versions under the Missouri Merchandising Practices Act. According to Judge White's July 12th ruling, the AG simply has no right to private information beyond the redacted versions. He noted that the act specifically exempts privileged material. Bailey says he'll appeal White's decision.
Speaker 10:That's News Wrap, global queer news with attitude for the week ending July 13, 2024. Follow the news in your area and around the world. An informed community is a strong community.
Speaker 11:News Wrap is written by Greg Gordon and Lucia Chappell, produced by Brian DeShazor with technical assistance by Daniel Huesillas, and brought to you by you.
Speaker 10:Thank you. Help keep us in ears around the world at thiswayoutorg, where you can also read the text of this newscast and much more. For this Way Out, I'm Marcos Najera. Stay healthy.
Speaker 11:And I'm Wendy Natividad, stay safe.
Speaker 1:This has been Queer Voices, which is now a home-produced podcast and available from several podcasting sources. Check our webpage QueerVoicesorg. For more information. Queer Voices executive producer is Brian Levinka. Andrew Edmondson and Deborah Moncrief-Bell are frequent contributors. The News Wrap segment is part of another podcast called this way out, which is produced in los angeles some of the material in this program has been edited to improve clarity and runtime.
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