Queer Voices
Queer Voices
August 7th 2024 Queer Voices - Brad Pritchett/Equality Texas, National Bone Marrow Donation Program, Melville and Hawthorne
We also delve into the life-saving significance of bone marrow donations within the LGBTQ community. Brian Allison from the National Marrow Donor Program demystifies the donation process, emphasizing the unique impact LGBTQ donors can have and the importance of young donors joining the registry. From understanding the compatibility intricacies to the emotional rewards of being a donor, this segment aims to inspire listeners to take actionable steps to save lives.
The episode takes a historical turn with playwright Adi Teodoro and producer Aaron Alon as they discuss their new play, "Melville and Hawthorne." This production explores the touching romantic relationship between Herman Melville and Nathaniel Hawthorne set in the 1850s, aiming to present a safe and authentic portrayal of queer love without the shadow of trauma or homophobia. Finally, we update you on global LGBTQ legal battles, including significant transgender rights developments in the UK and Nepal, and wrap up with our customary farewell, ensuring you stay engaged and informed with the latest in LGBTQ advocacy.
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:
https://www.facebook.com/QueerVoicesKPFT/ and
https://www.instagram.com/queervoices90.1kpft/
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, debra Moncrief-Bell has a conversation with Brad Pritchett, who is becoming the new CEO of Equality Texas this summer.
Speaker 2:We are the organization that is primarily involved in making sure that LGBTQ rights are being safeguarded, advanced when we can advance them, and that we're building a state that is reflective of the values that we all actually share.
Speaker 1:Brett Cullum has an interview with Brian Allison of the National Bone Marrow Donation Program, talking about how the LGBTQ community can participate. Talking about how the LGBTQ community can participate.
Speaker 3:With what we are collecting, it's different. Those cells have not turned into blood cells yet, so there's that lower risk of HIV affecting anything. So the rules that govern stem cell and marrow are night and day difference.
Speaker 1:We have Brett's calendar of events for the second half of August. Brett also has a conversation with the playwright and producer of Melville and Hawthorne, a play about romance between two American literary giants.
Speaker 4:So. Much of it came from a lot of research and from the words of Melville and Hawthorne themselves. They were romantic in nature, just as people Queer. Love does not differ from love. It is just love.
Speaker 1:And we have news wrap from this Way Out Queer Voices starts now.
Speaker 5:This is Deborah Moncrief-Bell, and I have the pleasure of talking with Brad Pritchett. Brad is the Deputy Director of Equality Texas, the premier lobbying organization for the LGBTQA plus community in the state of Texas. Brad, tell me about Equality Texas.
Speaker 2:Equality Texas is the state of Texas' LGBTQ advocacy organization. So when you hear about the terrible things they're trying to do at the Texas Capitol, we're the organization that leads the defense for queer Texans here in our state. So in the last legislative session they attempted to pass over 140 bills attacking our community. We were instrumental in leading the defense and stopping 96% of those bills. We work 365 days a year, so we don't just work during the legislative session community. We were instrumental in leading the defense and stopping 96% of those bills. We work 365 days a year, so we don't just work during the legislative session. We're also active right now in school boards, both in election spaces and in school board meetings. We're monitoring attempts to ban books or pass discriminatory policies.
Speaker 2:This year alone we've done over 50 pride celebrations all across the state of Texas, because we look for any opportunity we can find to be face-to-face with folks and meet them where they are, because we want to hear what's happening in local communities and find ways to help uplift people and provide support where we can. As an organization, equality Texas, in one iteration or another, has been around since about 1978. We've recently been digging into our historical archives and found out the organization existed a little bit longer than we had thought, so we're actually getting close to celebrating a 50-year anniversary of working here in the state of Texas for LGBTQ plus folk. We are the organization that is primarily involved in making sure that LGBTQ rights are being safeguarded, advanced when we can advance them, and that we're building a state that is reflective of the values that we all actually share.
Speaker 5:How do you work within the legislature to accomplish all of this?
Speaker 2:In the Texas legislature we're part of a coalition called the All In for Equality Coalition, and that's a coalition of organizations that include the Transgender Education Network of Texas, the Human Rights Campaign, lambda Legal, the ACLU of Texas, the Texas Freedom Network.
Speaker 2:These are the organizations that traditionally have staff that are working during the legislative session in the Capitol.
Speaker 2:So we work to make sure that we are coordinating our efforts on LGBTQ issues and sharing resources as best we can, and then we also are really fortunate that we have legislators who are our allies in the Texas Capitol, who are willing to work with us as well. So one of the things that those legislators have been essential in is in the last legislative session we had these 140 bad bills, but we also proactively worked to file 140 good bills, so lawmakers were able to engage with us. We were able to say these are the types of bills we think we need, and then they worked to make sure that those bills were written, filed and introduced, and we tried to make sure that we were balancing every bad bill with at least a good bill. Those relationships are really important in not just kind of advancing ideas like that, where we're trying to be proactive, but they're really helpful in sharing intelligence, giving us information about what's happening behind closed doors and how we can engage with specific lawmakers and different parts of the process.
Speaker 5:We have people who already are in the legislature, who got re-elected, were already there, that you worked with last session, and then we have some incoming people.
Speaker 2:We are really fortunate On the House side. We have the LGBTQ caucus, which is all of our out members, and Houston is well represented within that caucus. We have State Representative Ann Johnson, state Representative Jolanda Jones. We also have folks up in the Dallas area like State Representative Jessica Gonzalez and Vincent Jones In the Beaumont area, christian Manuel In the Austin area, aaron Zwiener, josie Garcia.
Speaker 2:So we have some really amazing openly LGBTQ legislators within that body and right now we're moving into election season and the potential to increase the number of openly LGBTQ people is actually really good, this legislative or this election cycle theory here in Houston in the primary election and is in a safe, democratic district. So come November should win her race and should go to the Capitol as another member of the LGBTQ caucus and then here in Houston as well, you know we have one of the first. The historic win was Molly Cook winning the Senate District 15 seat, so Molly will go and be the first openly LGBTQ member of the Texas Senate in the next session. So we've had some really good gains and some valuable voices that are going to be added to these conversations at the Capitol on behalf of our community.
Speaker 5:How do you go about organizing people to join you in Austin in order to testify on bills and to create a presence, because our visibility is so important?
Speaker 2:Luckily for us, most of the folks in our networks really recognize the urgency of the moment that we're in. In the last legislative session we would see folks show up for bills that they had a vested interest in. So folks who parents, who had kids, who were trans, who were at risk of losing health care were turning out for the health care bills. Folks who work with drag performers or are drag performers were turning out to push back against the drag ban bills. But one of the things we really tried to do in the last session was communicate to folks the importance of all of these anti-LGBTQ bills and the need to push back against all of them. So we had a lot of folks who turned out to push back against the drag ban, which would have criminalized drag performers in Texas, and while those folks were in the Capitol, we took advantage of that captive audience and really laid out for them all of the other things that they needed to come back for. So, to put it in perspective, we had the drag ban hearing and about 900 people dropped cards or registered a position against that bill. While those folks were in the Capitol, we talked to them about all the other bad bills. The book bans, the bill that would replace school counselors with chaplains, the healthcare ban for trans youth, another college-level sports ban for trans athletes.
Speaker 2:We did our best to communicate the urgency of all those other bills and then the following week when we had a hearing on the healthcare ban, we had 4,000 people drop cards against that bill, which was a huge increase from the drag ban, because folks who came for the drag ban listened when we said this was urgent, utilized all their own network. Think about the early days of organizing, when folks would do snail mail, letter writing campaigns, write a letter to five of your friends, or a phone tree where you call five of your friends. And we're doing some of those same tactics. We're just using social media for it. We're using things like text messaging apps like WhatsApp or Signal, so those same strategies come into play. We're just finding new ways to get people to engage in them and folks are willing to do it if they know what's on the line.
Speaker 5:It's a membership organization as well, isn't it?
Speaker 2:We don't have actual members. We have folks that are in our network that we refer to as our quality Texans, but there's no membership requirements or membership dues or anything like that as an organization. But we consider everybody a member if you're coming out and helping us defeat bad bills.
Speaker 5:One of the things I think you've worked on is 2106, commonly referred to as the sodomy law, and it was overturned by the then Supreme Court in Martz v Texas, but it remains on the books. Can you explain why it's important that we remove it?
Speaker 2:I do think that it is a like a blot on the state of Texas and for queer folks who saw their rights protected by the Supreme Court in that decision. The fact that the state of Texas has refused continually for a long time to strike that discriminatory language from the penal code because it's no longer enforceable is just a sore spot for a lot of folks. But just functionally it doesn't belong there anymore because it's not actually something that is illegal. Our relationships are not illegal, according to the United States Supreme Court. So we've seen folks file legislation every session since the Lawrence decision to attempt to remove that statute from the penal code and traditionally those bills get filed and they go nowhere.
Speaker 2:State Representative Vinton Jones carried a bill to remove that portion of the penal code. It actually got a hearing. It was in committee. People got to show up and speak out in support of that bill, which was the first. That has never happened before. So we've made little progress on things like that. The reality is that that type of language in the penal code there are folks who want to keep it there because there are hopes by some far-right conservatives that some of these pro-equality Supreme Court decisions will get overturned in the near future by a really conservative Supreme Court and if those are overturned then these statutes go right back into effect. So there may be resistance from the far-right to remove the language because they're hoping that the language will be enforceable again at some point. But we're going to continue to push and work with lawmakers to try to get it off the books because it doesn't belong there anymore.
Speaker 5:We're talking with Brad Pritchett, Deputy Director of Equality Texas. You have two things coming up. One is the equality leadership. What is that about?
Speaker 2:Our equality leaders program is our leadership development program. It's a virtual program so anyone can join it from anywhere in the state. The idea here is that we are building leaders and local communities across the state, and part of the reason we want to do that is we can give folks the tools they need so that they can monitor what's happening at their local school board or their local city council. They can flag if they're seeing movement of any of these anti-LGBTQ efforts and we can help them by mobilizing other folks and so that they're equipped to come to the Texas Capitol and engage in the next legislative session.
Speaker 2:In our last Equality Leaders program we had somewhere around 47 Equality Leaders who went through that program, participated in all the workshops. They were all done virtually and then graduated as Equality Leaders. One of the really great projects that we did in the last leadership cohort was we had folks come to Houston from Dallas, from El Paso, from the Brownsville area, from Austin, san Antonio, all over, to go and knock on doors for Lauren Ashley Simmons in her primary race against Sean Theory. So folks got to come to Houston. They went out and knocked doors, talked about having an openly LGBTQ candidate on the ballot, used all of these skills that we've been giving them in practical application in the real world. So our leadership program is really just about giving people skills so that they can lean into their own ability to organize locally.
Speaker 5:There's another program. I probably don't have the name right, but it's something like the Southern Trans Youth Emergency Project.
Speaker 2:That's a project that we are in with the Campaign for the Southern Equality. Before the health care ban on trans youth passed last session, we started doing contingency planning because we wanted to make sure we had something in place to help folks continue to get access to the life-saving health care that they had become so dependent on. So we worked with the Campaign for Southern Equality on this particular project and they have expanded this project to many of the states that had health care bans passed in their own legislative sessions and they're in the process, I think, of expanding it to another handful of states right now. The idea of it is that the project offers specific resources for folks so it can help with patient navigation so folks can find out-of-state providers to continue the health care that they're now no longer able to receive in Texas.
Speaker 2:In some instances it can give financial aid to people. So we have access to $500 microgrants for folks and those grants can be used to help pay for travel. They can be helped pay for services whenever you get where you're going. The network has really been about building connections to parent support groups and youth support groups for trans youth as well, so we've had a lot of folks who've engaged in that program so that they can continue getting access to life-saving healthcare for their trans youth. It's a tremendous program. Campaign for Southern Equality is a great partner and they've been committed to, like I said, expanding that program to help folks in other states as well, and I think it's covering more than a dozen states right now.
Speaker 5:I think you started with Equality Texas as a field organizer.
Speaker 2:Started as our field director.
Speaker 5:yes, and then you became a deputy director and now, later this summer, I believe, you take the mantle of being the CEO of Equality Texas. Congratulations.
Speaker 2:Tell me how you feel about this, what your plans are starting in August, on August 12th Our board has been very supportive of making sure that we've got a good, stable, consistent form of leadership within the organization because they recognize how important it is for us to be firing on all cylinders during a legislative session. The plan really is for me to be the interim to get us through that next legislative session because, as you know, I've been at the legislature and with Equality Texas at the legislature for a while, so our staff won't see any big shakeups as far as how we do the work we're going to do at the ledge to protect queer Texans. I am still adjusting to the idea of it. For sure, I'm excited about being able to take on the role Our current CEO is, ricardo Martinez, who is a tremendous, tremendous leader in the LGBTQ movement.
Speaker 2:He's going to be leaving to go to single-age lad and working in the court systems to try to fight for LGBTQ equality, so we're really happy at the fact that he's staying involved in the movement so we still get to work with him, even after he leaves Equality Texas.
Speaker 2:I can't say enough nice things about Ricardo. One of the great things about Ricardo is he came into Equality Texas at a time when the organization really needed a stabilizing leader to help build up the internal processes and protocols and get us on a path towards the organization that we are today. My commitment is to continue that type of work, making sure that we have the tools that we need to keep fighting for our community the way that we've been doing it, and finding opportunities for us to try different things. Try to make sure that everybody's voice is getting represented within the halls of the Texas Capitol and across the state of Texas and letting folks know that Equality Texas is here as a resource, no matter what you're facing as an LGBTQ person. We may not be able to help you in that moment, but we will find somebody who can help whatever it is you're working through. So I'm excited about it, but it hasn't 100% set in yet. Ask me in another month.
Speaker 5:Additionally to all this other stuff, all these politics and sports, you're also a very talented artist. I just want to remind people that you and Catherine Lugan painted the mini mural that set Fairview and Montrose, which features Monica Roberts.
Speaker 2:I know Catherine and I were both very honored that Councilmember Abby Kamen's office asked us to do a mural honoring Monica. We love Monica dearly and every day I work at the Texas Capitol I wish Monica was there, because Monica was such a powerful voice and knew how to talk to lawmakers in a way that was always going to be useful. So we miss Monica dearly. We're very honored that we were able to do the mural for her.
Speaker 5:Well, is there anything that I didn't ask about that you want to share?
Speaker 2:I mean I want folks to know that one of the events that we will be doing as we get closer to the election is the first Saturday of early voting.
Speaker 2:We always do this.
Speaker 2:We call it our Met Queerly because it's at the Metropolitan Multiservice Center voting location where we roll out a literal red carpet and we try to get as many LGBTQ folks to come out on that first Saturday of early voting and cast their vote.
Speaker 2:We always talk about people needing to build a vote plan, so we've tried to create an event and we've been doing it for a few years now where that can be your vote plan. You come out between like 12 and 2, wear your rainbow colors, walk a red carpet, have some photos taken and go cast your ballot. So that'll be the first Saturday of early voting for this upcoming November election. And then the other thing folks can go to equalitytexasorg to look at our events calendar and see how to sign up to RSVP for that. But we'll be doing a voter resource fair and a panel discussion on September 5th in Houston and on that panel we'll welcome Lauren Ashley Simmons, who will hopefully be getting elected as a state representative in November, and State Senator Molly Cook, who won her race by 40 votes, so we'll be doing a panel discussion with them, and then there'll also be organizations there to provide voter resources for LGBTQ folks, and folks can go to equalitytexasorg to find details on both of those.
Speaker 5:Molly's race emphasizes just how important the vote is. Brad Pritchett, Quality, Texas. Thank you so much for being with us on Queer Voices.
Speaker 1:This is Glenn from Queer Voices. You're listening to KPFT. That means you're already participating just by listening, but how about doing more? Kpft is totally listener-funded, which means it's people like you who are making donations who support this community resource. Kpft has no corporate or government strings-attached funding, which means we're free to program responsibly but without outside influence. Will you participate in KPFT financially? This station needs everyone who listens to chip in a few dollars to keep the station going, because that's the way it works. Even if you're listening over the internet on another continent, you can still contribute. Please become an active member of the listener community by making a tax-deductible contribution. Please take a minute to visit kpftorg and click on the red Donate Now button. Thank you.
Speaker 7:I am Brett Cullum and today I am talking with Brian Allison from the NMDP, or easier to say, the National Marrow Donor Program. Brian, welcome to Queer Voices.
Speaker 3:Thank you, I'm glad to be here. Thanks for having me. Well, we're excited to have you here.
Speaker 7:I mean, tell me a little bit about your organization and what you all do.
Speaker 3:In a nutshell, we help patients with blood illness and often we say cancer, because that's a word everybody's been affected by. But there are about 76 different blood and bone illnesses that can be cured with stem cell or bone marrow transplant. Most of those patients don't have a donor in their family. They're relying on a stranger and that's where we come in. We maintain the registry or, as we like to say, the waiting list people who are just willing to help a stranger and it's our goal to go out, represent those patients, educate the community about donation and hopefully get them added to that waiting list to help a stranger.
Speaker 7:We met at the Pride Festival this past year and you were telling me about the ability of the LGBTQIA plus community to actually donate bone marrow, which I didn't know, because back in 1983 or so, the FDA restricted donations by men and that stood for a long time it was about 37 years where they would not let men who have any kind of interaction with men donate, and any women that had interaction with men who slept with men they couldn't as well. And then they kind of changed their course a little bit.
Speaker 7:In 2020, they allowed those that had abstained for a year from sexual activity to donate, which is not a big change there really, yeah, really, it's like a okay, you're a monk, you can donate, and then nowadays, men who have sex with men can donate if they abstain from sexual contact for at least three months or are in some kind of monogamous relationship and can attest to that. But you cannot donate if you are on medications such as PrEP. So when you told me that people could donate bone marrow, I'm like what? Why is this the case? It seems really counterintuitive.
Speaker 3:We're governed a little differently. The blood collection centers, they're governed by the FDA. They set those rules and one of the biggest reasons and again I'm not a medical physician, my understanding is the concern for HIV AIDS, which affects those cells after they turn into blood cells. With what we are collecting it's it's different. Those cells have not turned into blood cells yet, so there's that lower risk of hiv affecting anything. So the rules that govern stem cell and marrow are night and day difference.
Speaker 7:You were telling me about a profile, though, of the donor that you look for, and I was a little bit bummed because I think I'm excluded. But tell me, you and me both, my friend, you and me both. I know it's getting older, but who can donate? What is the profile of the people that you are looking for?
Speaker 3:We generally look for a population that is younger. Our donors can register currently between 18 to 40 years of age. That actually is getting ready to change. I believe October 1st it is dropping to 18 to 35. Because we know that ideally to give a patient the best chance of survival is if we can find someone who is younger, between 18 and 24 years of age, those young, healthy people. They give those patients the absolute best chance of survival. So that's really our target market. Are those young college students or right out of college students?
Speaker 7:so you're telling me this is like the world of gay men.
Speaker 3:Your, your experience is over, right around mid-30s, 40s at the latest I think that almost applies to everybody that that that pool kind of gets a little a little smaller and a little smaller and almost seemingly a little shallower well, regardless of any kind of age limits or things like that.
Speaker 7:What is this process like? I'm trying to imagine donating marrow and I'm like, oh.
Speaker 3:That's the biggest thing that we hear and you know we'll say as soon as we see marrow, people are ready to run from us. They think I often have to watch my language because people think big so-and-so needle, you know, and I address that always head-on. So, even though we're referred to as the Mero program, often what people don't realize is 90% of our donors are asked for circulating blood donation or circulating stem cell donation. That process is just like donating plasma or platelets, with some differences. Leading up to donation, you do take a medication that mobilizes those stem cells, your body starts to overproduce them, it releases them into the bloodstream and then the day you donate, you have an IV in the bend of your arm. It runs through a machine that's able to filter those stem cells out and it returns your blood back to you in the opposite arm.
Speaker 3:Most of our donors will lay their chair back and take a nap. It really is self-sufficient. You don't have to sit there and squeeze. You can bring a companion with you to keep you company. You can drop the TV down from the ceiling, watch Netflix. I mean, it's really. You're just sitting and hanging out.
Speaker 3:It's usually about a four to five hour process. You go home the same day. You're going to be a little bit tired of seeing our faces, but that's pretty much it. Most people back to work the next day. No real side effect doesn't affect your life. You go on and hopefully it's been life-changing for somebody else. Again, 10% of our donors still are asked for bone marrow that big scary word. That's generally when we have a match for a child and it is not what people think it is. Everybody thinks super painful. I'm going to miss weeks of work, nothing like that. You check in.
Speaker 3:It is a day surgery or day procedure, whatever you want to call it. Check in to a hospital. It's done under general anesthesia, so while you're asleep they collect it. You're not going to feel any pain or discomfort and it is a very basic or primitive collection collection and it's a needle and syringe. Only they collect right above your butt, not quite to where your waistline is. You know it takes very fast pace.
Speaker 3:I've been fortunate enough. I had a donor that allowed me to scrub in and watch and you know, when I first approached him and said, would, would you consider allowing me? He said hey, if you want to look at my hairy butt, yeah, come on, I'll let you observe I really did. Joke was on him. They shaved his hairy butt before they collected. But it was a very simple process. He was in and out within about 20 minutes Once the anesthesia wears off.
Speaker 3:To me it's common sense. Anytime you have a needle that goes into muscle whether it was a COVID vaccine, a flu shot your arm was sore for a day or two. You know we've all experienced that Same kind of thing. Your butt's a little bit sore from those needles going in. My donors often say I kind of feel like I did squats or I feel like I did heavy leg day. But it's not that excruciating pain. You're going to know you did something. You're going to feel it, but you're not going to miss weeks of work. Most people take off the day of and then the next day and then usually you're back to work within about three to four days. It's not this big excruciating thing like people think it is.
Speaker 7:It doesn't sound too bad, but it does sound like it's a little bit more extended than what you would do if you go to a blood draw or blood donation. So are these donors compensated in any way, or are they just signing up and saying, hey, I'm just doing this for the good of all mankind?
Speaker 3:It kind of is both, so it is a donation. Obviously, if it were paid, we would not call it a donation. We want people to do this out of the goodness of their heart. However, that being said, there are people have concerns. Obviously, I said this is going to take a day to go do. It may take two days.
Speaker 3:We do cover all expenses related to donation for that donor and their companion. So if you take off work two to three days to go do this, we have a donor advocate that works with that donor. Hey, get me your last check stub. Let me know how many hours you took off. Same thing with your companion. We're going to write you a check for those hours that you were not paid for. We ask our donors hey, if you're driving to the collection center, log those hours for us. We will write you a check if need be. We have paid for child care.
Speaker 3:I had a lady that had two little Yorkie dogs. That was her barrier to donate. My dogs have nowhere to go, so we sent them to a doggy day spa for two days. Everybody is always so surprised that we cover every single cost you can think of related to their donation, even though they're not compensated for the act itself. They're also not out of pocket for any of it. Our donors always say, oh my God, y'all treated us like a rock star. And we want that to be a pleasant experience so that they'll go back and tell other people this was great, I would do it again. Every single donor I've worked with in the last 10 years will tell you I would absolutely do this again. And if it were a bad experience if for that big, painful, scary thing people think it is, we wouldn't get that reaction, we wouldn't have as many advocates as we do after they donate.
Speaker 7:How often can somebody do this? I mean, if they're going to donate, I know, like the blood center, it's what every few weeks or whatever. I imagine this is not that frequent.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it is. When I call it a waiting list, we are absolutely the best waiting list you can get on. Once somebody registers and signs up with us, that does not mean that they're ever going to donate. We are trying to match them with a searching patient For some people. Again, for a lot of our younger donors, they are getting called more often Through medical advancement. We don't have to necessarily find that 100% match anymore. They're able to use people that are within an 80% range now and have the same patient outcome within an 80% range now and have the same patient outcome. And, especially since those younger donors give a higher chance of survival, we're getting a lot of requests for those younger donors more than ever before. That being said, we have a lot of people that will come up to our events. And hey, I was a nursing student 20 years ago. I did this in a classroom. You guys have never called me. Have you forgotten about me? And we haven't.
Speaker 3:It is just it's very difficult to find those matches. So, for lack of better words, kind of like playing the lottery you hope you're going to win, but you don't know if you're going to win. You may hit the jackpot. You may only win your dollar back. You're just kind of there to help somebody if you can. That's the thing. And in terms of how many times you can do this, you can donate to an unrelated person up to three times. I have had a handful of donors in the last 10 years that have matched more than one person, which is very unusual. It happens and it makes for an awesome story for our end. It's just kind of a get on that list and hope and wait that you can help somebody.
Speaker 7:It sounds like there's a lot going into actually matching people. I mean, like I'm an O negative blood type, so I'm a universal donor, but obviously if you looked at my marrow or my stem cells or something like that, you'd probably say, oh no, yeah, it's got to be a little bit more exact.
Speaker 3:To me it's really kind of cool. I'm that nerdy guy that likes to know the nuts and bolts of stuff and I have people all the time they're certain they're going to be a match because, oh, I'm O negative. I'm the universal blood donor. Surely I'm going to match somebody. And with stem cell we are matching up the immune system components.
Speaker 3:Your blood type plays no role in this whatsoever. Your immune system is a trait that is handed down generational, so up to eight generations back in your family or what make up your immune system today. Because of that, that patient's match is more likely to be someone the same race and ethnicity as them. So that blood type doesn't play a role in that. To me, what's really cool is if we find that match and that donor is a different blood type than their recipient. If that transplant is successful, that patient's blood type will actually change to match that donor's blood type after the process. That's one of the things they look for to see. Okay, did this work? Did my patient's blood type change? And that, to me, is so cool and bizarre at the same time, because you may be AB positive before your transplant and then your donor was O negative. Now you're O negative, it's completely changed. So it's kind of weird, kind of cool. Just stuff like that, I think is kind of fascinating.
Speaker 7:I'm talking to Brian Allison of the NMDP or the National Marrow Donor Program. If somebody wants to sign up for this, if somebody is interested in becoming a donor or being considered to be on your waiting list, what do they do? Where do they go?
Speaker 3:The easiest way for your listeners to do this is our text to join option. They can text the word HOPE to 61474. When you send that off, it's going to come back with a URL that'll take you directly to the registration page. You just scroll straight to the bottom. Select your age range, hit next. That'll get you started. You fill out that quick form and it's very, very basic. It's a one-page little medical questionnaire, contact information, an emergency contact, and then you select order my swab kit. It'll come to your house, usually within about a week. Don't forget about it because a lot of people we know about 50% of our donors who register online forget to mail that swab kit back. So you're not helping anybody unless we get it back. Very important Just swab your cheek, drop it back in the mail. It's prepaid, doesn't cost a dime. Get it back to us in about eight weeks. That'll be tested. You'll be on that waiting list and you could get a call as soon as that swab kit is tested and entered, until you turn 61, anywhere in between You're on that list, until you age out or take yourself off the list. You could get a call. Anywhere in between you're on that list until you age out or take yourself off the list. You could get a call anywhere in between can be very discouraging to some donors that, hey, I registered, I haven't heard from you. Guys, we have not forgotten you. I promise you, we have not forgotten you. You'll get your annual. Hey, you're still on the list. You still want to stay here email, but we're not going to bug you beyond that. You're generally not going to hear from us. You're there. We just ask that you stay there.
Speaker 3:And it's very important to stay committed. Also, we tell people all the time don't sign up for this unless you feel certain you would do it, because somebody's life is on the line and we don't want to give false hope to a patient. We don't want to say, hey, we potentially found you a match that's willing to save your life, and then we call you and you say, well, you know, I did this after hearing a podcast, but in the moment I wanted to do it, but I don't want to do that anymore. That's heartbreaking for those patients. So, for those that are wanting to sign up for this, stay committed.
Speaker 3:This is something that is very, very important, life-changing to those patients, and I'll tell you it's going to be life-changing for you too. You're going to gain so much out of a donor. If you're ever selected, your world changes. It's so cool because you're going to gain a family that you never knew was out there. You're going to have a second that you never knew was out there. You're going to have a second family. You don't go through this with somebody without getting that close to them afterwards, and the website I noticed is just bethematchorg.
Speaker 3:And that's one thing that I did want to touch on. So we did recently go through a name change. We were bethematchorg. We kind of went back to our roots back in January. We started off as the National Marrow Donor Program. A lot of people would call us NMDP shorthand. It was just easier than that big mouthful.
Speaker 3:But we operated as Be the Match for a long time and it was causing some confusion, as you can imagine. Imagine we would have people get an email hey, you know, be the match, you're a match, we've got you a match. And their, their partner would see that and be like wait a minute, why are you on this dating service? So cause a little bit of confusion. And and even with the colleges we would go set up and if they didn't think we were a dating service, they would.
Speaker 3:A lot of the students would think, oh well, you are here to match me up with an internship or you're here to match me up with a job, and a lot of them were kind of disappointed. That's not what we do, although we will hook you up with a better date than matchcom. We felt it was kind of a little bit easier to go back to the roots and less confusing. So yes, it is still be the match on the website for now, so don't let that name change confuse you. We are. We are now nmdp one in the same. We always say our name has changed, but our mission has not.
Speaker 7:It's easy I just googled nMDP. You came right up. Thank you so much, brian Allison. This has been fascinating to hear about this because it's really something that I don't hear a lot about, and it's exciting to think that it's something that you can do and you can be part of a donor program and you can help in a way, and I know that there's that frustration that we've had for years in this community about not being able to do things like donate blood or things like that. So this is a wonderful way to fill that void. If you feel that, pull and the NMDP absolutely sign up, unless you're like me and you're too old.
Speaker 3:Keep in mind hey, I'm 45. I'm out doing this for a living. If this is something that you hear and you're like, oh man, this is cool, I wish I could do this, you and I, I'm going to teach you a new term today. We are overqualified. We are not too old. There's a difference.
Speaker 7:I'm seasoned, yes, we're seasoned.
Speaker 3:For those of us that are overqualified, that hey, you know this is cool. You want to get involved? I cover all of Houston, the greater Houston area. I would love to have you as a volunteer, especially if you're one of those outgoing people. You can talk to anybody. I would love to have you on my volunteer team. Absolutely, I'm easy to get in touch with. If you go on that same website and look, you can click to join up as a volunteer, they'll connect you. I can give you guys my direct contact. I love having people on my team to help out. Thank you again, brian. Absolutely Thank you for having me.
Speaker 7:And I have your community calendar for the last half of August. On Sunday, August 11th, Fort Bend County Pride is happening. They're going to be at the fairgrounds, which are the Fort Bend County Fairgrounds, and the event will last from 2 pm until 8 pm. It's a family-friendly event, so bring everybody, bring the kids, bring your relatives. Whatever Fort Bend County Pride happens on August 11th, I wanted to mention running through August 10th at the Match Complex in Midtown, Melville and Hawthorne, presented by Thunderclap Productions. That will go through August 10th and it's about two of our greatest American literary artists getting together and becoming romantically involved. You don't want to miss this one. On August 24th, RuPaul the all-stars from Season 9, invade the 713 Music Hall. This is going to be a big event for people that are fans of the show. There are going to be several of the queens that competed on All-St Stars Season 9, including Miss Vanjie and Gottmik, so this will be a great one for fans of that show. On August 30th, we have Galveston Gay Beach Weekend. It will run that last weekend in August and that's your last chance to blow out the summer with all your friends. That is the Galveston Gay Beach Weekend. They're starting August 30th and the 31st.
Speaker 7:And going back to Melville and Hawthorne, I actually got a chance to discuss this play with both the writer and the producer. We talked a lot about the themes and different things and what they're hoping to accomplish with this particular production and it's very interesting because they're trying to really tie it to our current time and it's very interesting to think about the 1850s to now. So here you go, An interview with the people involved with Melville and Hawthorne. Right now I am joined by playwright Adi Teodoro, who has written Melville and Hawthorne. Also with her is Aaron Alon, a producer with Thunderclap Productions. The show is based on historical facts. It's going to play at the Match Complex from August 1st through August 10th. So Thunderclap Productions, tell us a little bit about how long you have been around and what your mission is.
Speaker 9:Yeah, so Thunderclap was first founded sort of as a playwrights collective in 2010. We've been dedicated to producing new and under-recognized plays, musicals and screenplays. Everything that we do is Houston-based. We use Houston-based talent. The writers come from all over the country, however, so we've been doing that since 2011. And we have had a lot of world premieres and regional premieres and stuff like that, because that's the work that really excites us.
Speaker 7:Adi, how long have you been writing? Plays, adi, how?
Speaker 4:long have you been writing plays? I started writing plays with Melville and Hawthorne roughly 20 years ago when I was in college. I'm a University of Houston graduate. I went through their theater and English departments and came out the other side. A lot of the influence and inspiration for Melville and Hawthorne started in those classes, and that was actually the first play that I ever wrote. I have written several throughout the years since then, as well as novels, but I always kept coming back to this one. And then 2020 came about and the events of 2020 really inspired the sort of message and theme behind this play.
Speaker 7:This is a fascinating topic. I mean, the idea of investigating Herman Melville Nathaniel Hawthorne's relationship feels like kind of a revelation to me. I've always admired those two writers, I've loved their works, yet I don't know as much about this as I probably should. What made you want to write about the history here and this relationship?
Speaker 4:It actually began in one of my literature classes the first time that I was introduced to one of the letters that Herman Melville wrote to Nathaniel Hawthorne that we were discussing in class and I read the letter and I could not help but feel that it was romantic. And you actually will see several of these letters featured in the play throughout. To sort of up that authenticity and let people know that really what happens in this play throughout, to sort of up that authenticity and let people know that really what happens in this play actually happened. I'm sure we all read Moby Dick in high school, or at least the Cliff Notes version to get through the tests. It's a novel that's desperately underserved for how well we claim to know it. It is a novel that was written in 1850, at the time when the Two-Thirds Compromise was being brought about. The 1851 Compromise was happening and our country was heading into civil war and Herman Melville wrote a book that has almost entirely characters that are people of color and as a very blatant queer theme.
Speaker 7:And it could be very prescient to the time that we are in now.
Speaker 4:It's sort of connecting two points in history that are so connected to each other and so important, not only for queer people but also for our country as a whole. What does it mean to be American and what does it mean to be in the American canon, when America is is what it is? And then the canon is these two works of art that are so prevalent, but we don't focus on the right things about these novels. So I think that's what really brought about this version of the play.
Speaker 7:How many actors are actually in the play?
Speaker 4:In this final version of the play it is five actors, tight 90 minutes, because I know that's what directors and producers like.
Speaker 7:I'm going to ask you who's directing.
Speaker 4:Andrew Ruthven, who has directed all over Houston. Like I said, he's a close personal friend of mine. He has also been part of sort of my sounding board as I develop this play. My other best friend is his partner and those two sort of inspired a little bit my understanding of this sort of relationship. I feel like it was kismet meeting with Thunderclap Productions because it felt like exactly what they were looking for is exactly what I had put my heart and soul into as far as this play goes. It just absolutely felt right to work with Aaron and his team and the incredible board over there.
Speaker 7:Well, tell me a little bit about the themes that actually are inside this show. I mean, what were you really hoping to say with this? Because obviously we know there's this relationship Melville and Hawthorne but you mentioned about kind of bringing back the world that we're in now, obviously, as opposed to 1850.
Speaker 4:I don't want to give any spoilers away, but I will say, of course, one of the main concepts of the show is this theme of love, this theme of queer love specifically. The play does not focus on love in terms of trauma and homophobia. You will actually find almost no homophobia or allusions to that sort of concept in the play. There's a lot of themes of cheating on your partner or love just not working, or two people that may or may not be able to make it work.
Speaker 4:I tried really, really hard not to focus on that aspect of it, because I feel like we've told that story and that story has been told over and over again. So I feel like it's really important to tell people that are coming to see the show that they can at least feel safe from that aspect. They don't have to sort of grit their teeth and bear through it. It's really a romantic period piece and there are not a lot of romantic period pieces for queer people on stage, so that sort of really inspired the concept. But we also, of course, deal with facts like, obviously, racism at the time, because you cannot remove that from that portion of our history, and it's also a time where we sort of were splitting apart into two parties. It's sort of the beginning of two political parties in the united states. As people are sort of drawing lines, of which side am I on and how do I combat the other side, which I think is so incredibly reflective of where we are today.
Speaker 7:It's almost as if we came full circle it's amazing to see that connection of that world of 1850. You know all of the things that happened shortly after these works and these authors were there.
Speaker 4:Originally Moby Dick was supposed to be just a story about whaling. It was more to be like a documentary than this sort of fantastical story. And then Melville moved roughly a mile away from Hawthorne and spent the year of 1851, 1852 with him. The book became something else entirely out of it. It became the novel that we know today and the relationship between Queequeg and Ishmael which is sort of the driving force in the book and also why Melville dedicated the novel to Hawthorne because of his influence. Melville's working on Moby Dick and Hawthorne is working on the Blythedale Romance. It's popular enough in the literary world but most people wouldn't know what the Blythedale Romance is. It's very sort of mystical and it has sort of open relationships and sort of dubious relationships between the men and the story as well as sort of magicians and pagans and it's very sort of free love and it's a very interesting concept from somebody who's great-grandfather was on the wrong side of the Salem Witch Trials.
Speaker 7:Queer Love 1850. How did you recreate that?
Speaker 4:Really honestly. So much of it came from a lot of research and from the words of Melville and Hawthorne themselves. They were romantic in nature, just as people Queer. Love does not differ from love. It is just love. It's two people that have found something in each other that makes them better, makes them want to do better and to be the best version of themselves. But that doesn't always work out. I mean, historically, we know, these two authors did not end up together. This short period of time was so filled with letters between the other and reviews of each other's work that I worked really hard to integrate quotes of the actual authors into their daily speech. So some are very blatant but, like I said, a lot of it just came from history. If this love has always been here, if you just know where to look.
Speaker 7:And that's always reassuring and it's great to see this represented on stage. Melville and Hawthorne is going to run at the match and you have until the 10th to catch it.
Speaker 1:This is Queer Voices.
Speaker 8:I'm Joe Bainline.
Speaker 10:And I'm Melanie Keller.
Speaker 8:With News Wrap, a summary of some of the news in or affecting LGBTQ communities around the world for the week ending August 3rd 2024. Around the world for the week ending August 3, 2024. The UK's ban on puberty blockers for pediatric gender-affirming healthcare passes legal muster, according to High Court Judge Beverly Lang. Her ruling this week upholds the policy currently in effect in England, wales and Scotland. It was initiated by the outgoing Tory government, but the newly elected Labour government fully supports the ban. That notably includes the gay incoming health minister, wes Streeting, who has said he wants to make the temporary emergency order permanent.
Speaker 8:The non-profit advocacy group Transactual and the Good Law Project represented an unnamed plaintiff. Represented an unnamed plaintiff. Their lawsuit claimed that the policy directive issued by the health minister, victoria Atkins, exceeded the powers of that office. Judge Lange disagreed, she wrote. In my view, it was rational for Atkins to decide that it was essential to adopt the emergency procedure to avoid serious danger to the health of children and young people who would otherwise be prescribed puberty blockers during that five to six month period. However, what Lange calls a rational decision may have been based on irrational information. The puberty blocker ban was issued shortly after the publication of the highly controversial CAS report. Its review of pediatric gender-affirming health care concluded that treating trans young people with reversible puberty blockers was a serious threat to their health and well-being. The British Medical Association became the latest to question the CAS report's scientific validity, as the group expressed disappointment in the High Court ruling. The largest doctors' union in the UK is calling for a thorough review of what the organization charges are the cast report's unsubstantiated findings.
Speaker 5:Trans rights are human rights.
Speaker 3:Trans rights are human rights. Trans rights are human rights. Trans rights are human rights.
Speaker 10:Trans rights are human rights. Despite or maybe because of the controversy, london Trans Plus Pride broke records with close to 60,000 people marching on July 27th. Drag stars, actors and politicians could be spotted among the throngs as the sixth annual procession wound its way through the streets of the English capital. London Trans Plus Pride co-founder Louis G Burton's celebratory statement summed it up, saying in part Often due to vitriol and bigotry inflated by the UK media that our community faces, we feel we live in a country where we are not loved and respected. Yesterday was a beautiful reminder to not only the glorious trans plus community, but to London, the new Labour government and the rest of the world that trans plus people are loved, and this love is a huge majority.
Speaker 8:A Nepali law student and human rights activist, will be able to change her legal gender to female without having to undergo gender affirming surgery. The landmark ruling issued by the nation's highest court this week applies only to the plaintiff. Trans people have been able to self-identify as other or third gender on their government documents for more than a decade. The legal barriers for choosing the male or female option are more onerous. Surgery is required and usually must be done outside the country. That's followed by official genital examinations and intrusive medical assessments back home. Those rules remain in place for every other trans person in Nepal who wants to identify as M or F on their government documents, except for Rakshana Kapali. The 27-year-old plaintiff has filed suit dozens of times on behalf of transgender and intersex people since 2021. She told the Himalayan Times my life is going to be easy from now on. Everyone else will still need to petition the court to choose M or F without the mandatory surgery.
Speaker 10:LGBTQ students in the US saw their protections affirmed one day and stripped the next. On July 30th, trump appointed Birmingham Alabama District Judge Anne-Marie Axson ruled in favor of the Biden administration's policy, including sexual orientation and gender identity. Bias prohibitions under Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972. Bias prohibitions under Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972. On July 31st, the Atlanta-based 11th US Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the temporary injunction Judge Axson had refused to quash. This lawsuit was filed by officials in Alabama, florida, georgia and South Carolina. Attorneys from more than two dozen Republican-controlled US states have succeeded in temporarily blocking enforcement of that Education Department policy. They insist that the word sex in Title IX is defined only as biological. The Department of Education announced the inclusive policy in April. As of now, it can only enforce it in 24 of the 50 US states. The department issued a statement in response to the latest setback, insisting we will continue to fight for every student.
Speaker 8:Nebraska can prevent trans patients under the age of 19 from getting gender-affirming health care. The state Supreme Court has upheld that and another provision of the same law that prohibits most abortions after the first 12 weeks of pregnancy. The 6-1 August 2 ruling rejected the argument of plaintiffs represented by the American Civil Liberties Union and others. They claimed that the Republican-dominated legislature's Bill 574 violates the state constitution by dealing with more than one issue. The justices decided that both provisions involved the single issue of health care.
Speaker 8:The lone dissenter was Justice Lindsay Miller Lerman. She said her colleagues had given deference to lawmakers at the expense of the constitution, of indifference to lawmakers at the expense of the Constitution. In her opinion, unrelated provisions that happen to do similar things at some level of generality do not dispel the criticism that the bill contains more than one subject. Expect the issue of pediatric gender-affirming health care to wind up at the US Supreme Court. Aclu of Nebraska Executive Director Mindy Rush Chipman says a variety of options are under consideration. She vowed this case will not be the final word on abortion access and the rights of trans youth and their families in Nebraska. Despite this loss, we will continue to do all that we can to ensure that Nebraskans can make their own private decisions about their lives, families and futures.
Speaker 10:Finally, a transgender Christian IT specialist is storming the gates of an infamous far-right Christian institution. Eleanor Zinsky was fired a month after she came out to Human Resources at Liberty University. The ACLU is representing Zinsky in what appears to be an open and shut case on its face. It claims that Liberty officials actually read a statement to her explaining that she was being terminated for denying biological and chromosomal sex assigned at birth. She was told that was in conflict with the university's doctrinal statement, in which denial of birth sex by self-identification with a different gender is called a sinful act prohibited by God.
Speaker 10:The university was founded in Lynchburg, virginia, by the late televangelist Jerry Falwell, who led the anti-queer moral majority in the 1980s. His son and successor's scandalous exit from the institution ended with a surprise settlement announced last week. Zinsky's lawsuit seeks $300,000 in compensatory damages and declaratory relief that Liberty University's policy violates federal anti-discrimination laws. A regular congregant at a welcoming Episcopal church, zinsky's personal testimony is simple Christianity has been so weaponized against the LGBTQ community, but there doesn't need to be a conflict. You can be transgender and Christian. I am.
Speaker 8:That's News Wrap, Global Queer News with Attitude for the week ending August 3rd 2024. Follow the news in your area and around the world. An informed community is a strong community.
Speaker 10:News Wrap is written by Greg Gordon and Lucia Chappell, produced by Brian DeShazer and brought to you by you.
Speaker 8: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 Joe Bainline. Stay healthy.
Speaker 10:And I'm Melanie Keller. 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.
Speaker 6:Some of the material in this program has been edited to improve clarity and runtime. This program does not endorse any political views or animal species. Views, opinions and endorsements are those of the participants and the organizations they represent. In case of death, please discontinue use and discard remaining products.
Speaker 1:For Queer Voices. I'm Glenn Holt.
