Queer Voices
Queer Voices
October 2 2024 Queer Voices Michigan Womyn's Festival, Remembering Bob Briddick
Join us this week as we sit down with the inspiring Lisa Vogel, the visionary behind the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival. At just 19, Lisa's dream of creating a music festival exclusively for women became a reality, drawing thousands in its first year through sheer determination and innovative methods, even before the internet era. She opens up about her personal journey, sharing candid stories of battling alcoholism while nurturing a cultural movement that's left an indelible mark on the landscape of women’s music and the vibrant lesbian culture it fostered.
As the festival grew, so did its commitment to equality, offering fair pay and opportunities for artists in a predominantly male-driven industry. Lisa reflects on the festival’s evolution, touching on the challenges faced, such as resistance from conservative groups, and the lessons learned in creating inclusive spaces. From memorable moments like her mother’s surprise attendance to the conclusion of the festival’s 40-year run, Lisa's anecdotes paint a heartfelt picture of the legacy she and the festival have left behind.
We also pay tribute to Bob Briddick, a cherished figure in Houston’s LGBTQIA+ community who recently passed. Through stories from his close friends, we celebrate Bob's impact, from his artistic talents to his dedication to community building, showcasing how his elegance and generosity turned ordinary gatherings into extraordinary events. Bob’s legacy lives on through a scholarship fund in his name, ensuring that his passion for making a difference continues to inspire future generations. Ultimately, Bob became a model for how to age in the LGBTQIA+ community; his light showed bigger and brighter each decade.
This episode weaves together the stories of two trailblazers whose contributions highlight the power of community, resilience, and shared history.
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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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 Lisa Vogel about the Michigan Women's Festival.
Speaker 2:Everyone participated. So it was not a consumer event. I mean, you paid to go, but part of your payment was to do two workshops in a community service. So everyone had skin in the game. Everyone gave it to one another.
Speaker 1:Then Brett Cullum, along with three community guests, has a memorial tribute remembering Bob Briddick.
Speaker 3:He wanted to help the people that needed help, such as just sitting with people that were lonely or inviting them over to his house for dinner. He helped enable people that needed just a little bit of extra support. You know that was his way of giving back.
Speaker 1:And we have news.
Speaker 4:Wrap from this way out queer voices starts now we can live like this a memoir of the culture, a book by lisa vogel. Lisa is the founder of the michigan women's music festival and she's done a whole bunch of other stuff actually too, but she wrote this book, took her seven years. And Lisa, Lisa, Lisa, what a life you've had.
Speaker 2:Hi, nice to be here with you and, yeah, a little bit of a life, I guess, once I get it down on paper.
Speaker 4:This book is really a gift in so many ways. And just to start off, you were 19 years old in 1976. And somehow you decided I'm going to do a music festival, but you had never even produced a women's music concert.
Speaker 2:No, I hadn't even been to very many. But that's what the 70s were like. It was such a kinetic time and you just wanted to be part of building something in any way you could. I went off to a women's music festival. First I went to a women's festival, so I was at my first women's festival in Missouri, and then I heard about this women's music festival in Boston and I got tired of driving. These seem like very far away places and I said we can do something like this right where we are, which was in Michigan. I was in Mount Pleasant, Michigan at the time.
Speaker 4:And you come from a working class background and that plays a big role in the way your story plays out. Your sister joined you in this endeavor and that's how it started. You rented some land. You in this endeavor, and that's how it started. You rented some land. This is before the internet, before cell phones. How did you get the word out to tell women come and hear music?
Speaker 2:I think it was the second year of the national women's music festival. That happened in Champaign, ururbana. We had no money and we snuck into the college and made Ditto Master flyers of a little flyer that was hand-drawn and we made thousands of them and we took them to the National Women's Music Festival and I sat in the foyer of the place and I had a cooler of cold old Milwaukee beer and if you took 100 flyers or 50 flyers back to your hometown I would give you the only cold beer in the place. It pretty much was that kind of grassroots thing.
Speaker 2:I met a lot of women at that festival. We started sending things. Every time we heard, oh, this is a women's bookstore or this is a women's coffee house, we would send them little batches of flyers. Of course we went back and we made a proper flyer brochure because all the other also very new producers who were there said you can't be doing this big festival with a Ditto Master flyer and we're like but we can because we are. But we went back and we made a proper brochure and we sent them to all kinds of places and we continued to send packages of flyers and brochures to every women's bookstore, every club every women's center we knew of for 40 years.
Speaker 4:This is Deborah Moncrief-Bell. This is Deborah Moncrief-Bell and I'm talking to Lisa Vogel, the founder of the Michigan Women's Music Festival and the author of we Can Live Like this, a Memoir of the Culture. Very much. This is a story of somehow we made it happen even though we didn't know what we were doing. Something that kind of surprised me when I was reading the book, because you start off being very honest about the fact that you were an active alcoholic and drug user, and so the fact that you were doing all of this while in that state is really amazing. First, you started off renting some land and you had to push back and you had to figure out how to do this. How many people were at that first festival?
Speaker 2:2,000 women came to that first festival. Many people were at that first festival. 2,000 women came to that first festival Amazing, right, I think. Maybe 10 days before I thought, well, maybe 1,000, maybe 1,000. We ended up putting a poster out and I remember getting a call from someone in New York and said we're calling because we saw a flyer in the bookstore and I'm calling you from a pay phone in the women's bar and I'm looking at a flyer here. How are you getting these things everywhere? And we just kept sending things out. We just kept talking to everybody who would talk with us. But see, women wanted this to happen. We weren't going around putting things up because we were just getting them into the hands of women who wanted to network so bad. So it was magic afoot, for sure, and it was. The power of that time was so electric and we were at the right place at the right time to do something very unusual where we could live together.
Speaker 4:And those early years you didn't have the infrastructure that eventually evolved from the many years that you put in. Pretty much each year you would do the festival and you weren't really sure that there was going to be a next year.
Speaker 2:Absolutely the first few years. I mean after that first year I went well, I'm never doing this again. That was crazy town. Not until we were actually able to secure our own site did, and that happened in 1982. So for the seventh festival.
Speaker 4:Let's talk about that site a little bit, because it's legendary. Essentially, what happens is a village is built. It was built and broken down when I was there. What was that last year? What was the attendance?
Speaker 2:2015. I think there was about 6,500.
Speaker 4:And I was sitting there eating one day and I'm like they're feeding us three meals a day. They're taking care of people. If someone got sick, there was a place to go and people who took care of them. There was different activities that you could be involved with. There was women of every shape, size, color doing their thing, some of them in various states of dress or undress, body painting. I mean, it was just so fabulous. A crew of over 450 women built that village.
Speaker 2:Well, see, this is why the title of the book is we Can Live Like this, because what you came to in the 40th year was, of course, something that every year, from the beginning, we cobbled together, what we learned every year about how to create a space that we would want to live in. And, you know, the festival grew in number of days. The festival grew in numbers of women who attended. The festival grew in the services that we wanted to provide to one another. And I say that because you know, as you know, everyone participated.
Speaker 2:So it was not a consumer event. I mean, you paid to go, but part of your payment was to do two workshops in a community service. So everyone had skin in the game, everyone gave it to one another and we had an understanding of the community that we would never have if we just attended and picked up our ticket and picked up our food. You know, you made the food. And, of course, we had coordinators that ran all this, because it was incredibly complicated infrastructure eventually, with shuttles and three child care areas and food in the community center. We had a lot going on, but everybody participated in it.
Speaker 4:If there was a emergency, something really the apocalypse, these were the people I would want to be with.
Speaker 2:So that was something that was learned along the way, that was teachable to the next woman. We had a community where the doctors were doing garbage and the teachers were running the health care area. Teachers were running the healthcare area. We really had a community where you could step outside of who you were and become who you wanted to be during that time, and that was certainly true for the week of the festival, but that was also true for the women. I mean, we had 400 and some workers I would say more than three quarters of those were returned every year because the value of working and living with other women was so great and what we learned together about how to work first of all, we were a working community, how to be living on the land with respect for the environment.
Speaker 2:We really returned to something I'm just going to say the old ways, where we did live in intergenerational community. We did live with respect to the forest. We did live in multicultural community. We had almost no like physical mirrors, so we were just free of all that crazy self-talk about I look weird. We all felt more beautiful when we were on the land for just a day and the being in the moment became much more possible.
Speaker 4:When you say we can live like this. This story really is how living like this came about and what that meant. A lot of the same types of things were happening in other places in the country. As far as feminist consciousness raising, learning from one another, I think an important lesson from your book is the importance of active, conscious listening. You had some things that happened and you had to learn how to deal with them Everything from an illness outbreak to mentally ill women. And yet it happened and it grew when women of color came and said we need our own space. The women of color tent became a thing and, of course, there was the music.
Speaker 2:Well, here's the thing about the music and art that happened at the festival. I feel like we were blessed in that early on we made a commitment. I mean, when I look at the photographs of the 1976 stage, it was a pretty professional stage for 1976. We early on committed to that. We were going to do good sound, good lighting. We had a grand piano at our very first festival. We built on that and we also were very interested in having all of the beloveds of women's music. But also we wanted a multicultural, multi-genre performance roster.
Speaker 2:And what ended up happening? Is that not because we paid people a lot of money, because the pay that the artists received, I think we paid everybody the same. So we didn't negotiate with anyone. And if you would play for our scale, fantastic, we'll treat you really well. But if you can't play for our scale, then this isn't the festival for you.
Speaker 2:Because we wanted everyone on that stage to know that they were being paid the same and everyone got a 45-minute set, something else, and that ended up in the long run fostering such deep camaraderie with all the artists.
Speaker 2:And there were artists that were especially like the session players. You know these are people who were touring with David Bowie, and the level of music was fantastic, and so the community that we all felt on land, the artists felt, and it made people want to play. It made people. It was like a vacation, because all these people and all these session players all played with men all the time. So to be able to come and not just play for a women's audience but be able to play with other excellent women musicians, it's something that just exploded and became a beautiful thing about the festival, and Laura had attended years before and that's when I met her first. I think it was in 1978 or 79, and that's how I met her, and so she was very aware of the festival. But, as you know, she spent most of her adulthood in retirement because she just couldn't hang with the music industry as it was.
Speaker 4:And that was an environment where she could really thrive, especially because her music meant so much to you personally and that really moved me in your sharing of that.
Speaker 2:I really wondered about including those two stories in the book, because it takes a little curve from the festival itself, even though what happened were all the festival women who produced this.
Speaker 4:And that's the other remarkable thing it was all these women whether they were musicians or knew how to do sound or could build stages, just every kind of task that one can imagine always on a wing in a prayer. It was women, women doing everything. Now, there were some men along the way, some who were friendly and helpful, and you acknowledge that. There were also some that were not very nice, and you also had pushback from the right-wing Christian community. It seemed like women just being in the woods, being themselves, just couldn't be something that we could allow. Right. It was a women's culture.
Speaker 2:Well, you know what it was. It was a women's community with a lesbian culture, and that's what was unique about it. Maybe it was 75%, 80 percent lesbian, but when you're there, when you were there and attending, everybody thought everybody was a lesbian. Even heterosexual women thought everybody was a lesbian. Because it's lesbian culture and that's just the way we walk in the world.
Speaker 4:And one year your mom showed up and you weren't out to her.
Speaker 2:My mother actually ended up attending three times, but she showed up at the second festival with my sister-in-law. At one point she leans over to me and says Lisa, lisa, someone could get the wrong idea. Someone could think this is only for a certain kind of woman. Do you know what I mean? I thought, well, she got herself here somewhere in her mind. She understands where she is. We were much more naked in the 70s than we were in the 2000s. Let me tell you. I look at pictures from the 70s and I had a hard time finding photos to include in the book, because there was so little clothing worn in the 70s. We were so excited to actually be free of the constraints of clothing that we wandered around all day long with just boots and nothing else on.
Speaker 4:Another thing that happened is you got sober, and that had its own adventure to it.
Speaker 2:I talk about that pretty bluntly in the book. First of all, I was definitely drinking and using drugs heavily in the 70s, and I wasn't doing it exactly by myself, for sure't think I could have continued to produce the festival for the remaining years, which were many, if I hadn't gotten sober. It really helped me. First of all my physical health, but my emotional and spiritual health and my ability to be the, we'll say, the guide of the festival through those decades would not have been possible had I not been drinking and had the emotional and spiritual recovery that comes from recovery.
Speaker 4:You also had this experience of becoming involved with women. You were a non-monogamous person, you had many lovers and, of course, the festival was just the greatest environment for anyone who wanted to experience that sort of thing.
Speaker 2:but you did become involved with someone who was an artist, who began working with you with the festival and then one year she left and took all the money from the t-shirt sales well this is true, I write about that in the book because I thought, well, you know, the thing I am not writing about when I was writing the stories is I'm not writing about my love life. Everybody who came to the festival for many years has stories about their love life on the land, and of course I do. So I decided to write and I had numerous sections of that, and then I kept in these ones that were pretty significant and then I felt like we're a little public in the. If you were involved in the festival, you knew about some of these. So I kept the ones in that were a little bit more public and just, you know, in the realm of things don't always go the way that they should.
Speaker 2:I made a point of talking about the difficult things, challenged myself to talk about the places where I made mistakes, the places where things didn't go the way I wished they had gone, the hard lessons. You mentioned the women of color tent the first year when some women came to me and said that they wanted a women of color tent, and year when some women came to me and said that they wanted to win a women of color tent and my first response was one I regret, but I learned so much from learned a lot in my um, the mistakes I made in relationships, and I thought, well, I'm going to show my butt just the way I wished other people would show their butt, because things aren't all perfect that was something I really respected in the book, because you did have mistakes, there were flaws, but you own it and you say but this is what I learned from it.
Speaker 4:And then you also had a long-term relationship with another person who became your partner producing the festival, and you didn't see yourself as the boss of everything. You saw yourself as a steward of the land and of the event and you expected that from this partner. But that relationship ended very badly and there were lawsuits, and so that was very difficult. But eventually you met someone on the land and she too had been involved with working in the festival. But one of the important things is she created a life outside of that environment, and I think that's part of what made your relationship work.
Speaker 2:Yes, right now, leah, my wife, my partner for many years is off in Italy on a swim track doing her thing, and I think that that's really. We all know all the memes about lesbian enmeshment. It's so important that we find our ways to live together and also live separately, and because of those two experiences I wrote about in the book, I was just relationship shy Because the festival was such a complicated part of my life in terms of interpersonal relationships and Leah was really the antidote to that. And I wanted to go back to the thing that you said about learning from our mistakes.
Speaker 2:See, the thing that I feel like we learned the feminist movement, the lesbian feminist movement, really dealt with problems differently than I think the outside world often does, but when we had an opportunity to actually live together for a month the workers and for a week, everyone who attended the festival the only way that we could do that is if we step back from our proclivity to never be wrong, to not bump up against difference. So we were intergenerational, interracial, spread across all classes, and we had to learn how to embrace the tension of difference in order to be together. And we all wanted the same thing we wanted to live on this land together and I think it was just such a brilliant opportunity for all of us to learn how to own our own stuff and how to live with so much diversity, and I feel like I learned that there, where I learned it's so much less painful if I just own the mistake and say I'm sorry, or I messed up, or here's my stuff and I'm going to work through it. I learned that there.
Speaker 4:There was a lot of controversy when you announced that there would not be a 41st festival. That kind of happened organically because you were closing out the 40th year. You just didn't see that there would be a 41st, and I'm like she was 19 years old when she started. It's been 40 years. That's a wife's work. You actually owned the land at that point and you had to sell it in order to continue your life. There was a group of women that got together and they formed a group called we Want the Land, and they now own the land and there are events that continue to be there in the summers. You recently had the opportunity to go back and be there in a new role as a vendor selling your book. What was that like?
Speaker 2:Well, first of all, I support the WWTLC 1000%. They're doing brilliant work and their single goal is to maintain the land for women and girls forever. And then what their concept is is that different groups can hold different events during the summer months. So I was actually at three events this summer and I put up my vending tent and I kept it up the whole three weeks and I had the opportunity to read from my book at all three events and I didn't know like would I be out there a day each event selling my book and signing my book and talking. But I got this pop up and I thought, well, I just want to be able to hang out. And it was incredible.
Speaker 2:I first I thought, well, I'm out here to sell books and sign it. No, somebody else in the tent was selling the books and what I was there to do was hear the stories that women who walked up to buy the book or not, I didn't care they would just walk up and start saying my first year on the land was blah, blah, blah. My first festival was in 1978. And I was there to witness those stories and I loved it. I was there like five hours a day, almost every day and I met so many women that had been to the land and been to the festival for years and years and years but because of our different experiences, I never met. I saw people I hadn't seen in decades. It was awesome.
Speaker 4:One of the very special moments that closing ceremony. At the last festival there were 40 signs made and they were thank yous. The women came out dancing holding the sign and I'm going to get a little teary here because at the very end you come out and your sign said Thank you, amazons. It was a moment because I remember the first time I ever heard Maxine Feldman's Amazon Women Rise, which was used to open the festival. The festival was about a reclaiming of an Amazon culture and I think you sincerely meant that. That, what you were getting from the experience you were down there in the mud. From the experience, you were down there in the mud slinging sledgehammers and doing whatever needed to be done, plus dealing with the larger world, the legalities and everything else.
Speaker 1:That was Deborah Moncrief Bell in conversation with Lisa Vogel about her book we Can Live Like this, which chronicles the first 40 years of the Women's Festival in Michigan. 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 6:This is Brett Cullum and here's your community calendar for the end of September and early October. Thank you, and well, it's not going particularly well. Expect a lot of fun, wordplay and wacky back and forth. And it will be playing at the Match Facility in Midtown. On October 5th, we have the Montreux Center's Out for Good Gala, which will be held at the Marriott Marquis Houston Now, that is downtown 1777 Walker Street, so note that location. The dress this year is suggested to be black and white cocktail attire and the entire evening is going to honor Outsmart's Greg Ju, as well as Ian Attick of the Normal Anomaly. That will be one of the biggest parties of the year you do not want to miss out for good. On October 5th. On October 10th, the Alley Theater is going to have their Act Out Night for Noises Off. This is a three-act British farce. It's very funny. It's about a play that goes terribly, terribly wrong. Things fly around the stage, people fall down stairs, sardines get thrown around. It's amazing. The show actually opens on September 27th, but the Act Out Night, which includes cocktails and food before the show, will happen on October 10th. So that is your calendar for the end of September, early October. Hope you have a great one and I'll be seeing you very soon. I'm Brett Cullum and I have received a near impossible task from the Queer Voices team to honor a beautiful man that I knew, who Houston will never forget.
Speaker 6:Bob Briddick passed away Sunday, august 25th on a sunny summer afternoon this year. He was 87 years old and a vibrant member of the LGBTQIA plus community here in Houston. For many decades Bob was a member of the Dianas. For many years he participated in the crew of Olympus. He was also in the Isis Osiris Mardi Gras group. He was a host of the mystery and fantasy Mardi Gras Ball Party. For many years he was an epa. He ran a cooking club called the Gourmets. For over 40 years he volunteered at the Mamontrose Diner for the Spry program. He served on the executive board of Outreach United for many years, which raised a lot of money for the Montrose Center and all of its programs.
Speaker 6:He was known as an artist, having had multiple gallery shows in Houston. Not surprisingly, collage was Bob's media of choice. Bob even wrote a novella that showed up on Amazon. He adored opera, art, food, but what I love most about Bob was his elegant way of making community. He opened his home on Christmas and Thanksgiving every year and encouraged friends and their family that had felt abandoned by their own family to come and celebrate with him. It was one of the most loving things that I ever witnessed. His friends and his community were his family and he made sure that they knew that.
Speaker 6:He hosted lavish dinner parties that included eclectic guest lists of people he wanted to meet each other. He was a social engineer. Young and old, with varying backgrounds, different tastes, all met over a setting of fine china and a three-course meal. He was the ultimate host of Montrose for many decades. I have assembled three of his close friends today to talk all things Bob Riddick, so that if you didn't get the honor of knowing him, maybe we can get you to know him a little bit now. He was always a dream guest for me on Queer Voices, and now I'm afraid that that can't happen. He can't be here, but I'm going to rely on my husband, lee Ingalls, our best friends Gary Wood and Brian Johnson to help me tonight to paint a picture of who this man was. So please welcome Lee, gary and Brian. Thank you.
Speaker 3:Thank you.
Speaker 6:Great to be here. First up, what I wanted to talk about was what do you think Bob Briddick's life meant to the queer community of Houston? What were your impressions of what he left?
Speaker 7:as a legacy. So I'll start. So Bob was kind of a rare person. From my perspective and being a close friend of his, he was someone that seemed to walk out of a different time in our society. He had kind of an old school set of values. The way that he, his mannerisms, the way he hosted his dinner parties, even the way the speech, the words that he chose seemed to come out of a different time. So it made him a really unique individual and someone that was very interesting to listen to and spend time with.
Speaker 3:I would agree with that. I would also add on he's one that found his voice and leadership differently than other people. He didn't need to be in the front organizing and stuff like that. He wanted to help the people that needed help, such as just sitting with people that were lonely or inviting them over to his house for dinner. He helped enable people that needed just a little bit of extra support.
Speaker 5:You know that was his way of giving back you know, for me bob was extraordinary so many different ways because he touched so many lives, and not only through art or through history or through just bringing people together in all kinds of very eclectic group with so much excitement and being the perfect host, having everybody be able to have conversations, facilitate this wonderful event, usually around food and often around a drink or two. It was one of those incredible times when you could meet new people, create great connections. Bob was magnificent at always not only making you feel welcome, but always facilitating incredible parties and events and willing to make that introduction to someone new. You know.
Speaker 6:I'm going to echo all of you guys, but I'm going to add a little bit of an element to it. I think that what Bob represented for me was the perfect way to age, as, as a gay man, I think that we often look at after 30, after 40, we become invisible. As we age, we diminish almost, we become less and less a part of the community, and Richard Watson, one of our friends, said at a dinner recently that he made his circle expand as he got older. It just got wider and wider. He knew more and more people and he became a vibrant part of the community and he really bucked that idea of life was over at 40 or 50 or 60 or 70. He was still hosting parties in his 80s. He was still meeting new people. He still had young friends. He had friends that I think were younger than people that I even know.
Speaker 6:I mean, I was like what is this? And I never knew Bob. I was calculating it. I probably never knew him outside of his 60s and that's a very rare thing. I mean, I knew him from 60 to 87, probably 27 years, and that's just wild to think about that. He was such a vibrant part of our community like that he and that's just wild to think about that he was such a vibrant part of our community like that he bucked that idea. He kind of really became the kind of aging that I would like to do as a gay man, and that's really what Bob represented to me in a certain way.
Speaker 5:That's beautifully said and I couldn't agree with you more. I also found Bob later in life, but one of the interesting things is because I'm a little bit older so I'm 59 now when I met Bob, I was amazed at how extraordinarily youthful he was. We traveled all over the world and he would outrun everybody and he'd climb up hills and age was never a thing in his mind and he had this immense amount of knowledge about history and culture and design and he was so willing to share that with everybody and that in itself gave the opportunity for other people to have a conversation that they thought they might never have to create those connections that no one ever thought possible. And bob facilitated those. And when it was really to me the perfect time for uh bob to in such a gentleman's way, in such a warm, embracing way, give you a little bit of knowledge that you didn't ask for, and you came away not only wanting more, but you came away thankful for that interaction.
Speaker 7:Yeah, I would agree. I mean, that was one of the fun things about traveling with Bob is that he did always have this list of things that he wanted to do in each one of the cities that we went to, and there were unique things that you just wouldn't normally think of, so it let you know he did a lot of research to determine what exactly should we do when we were in that city.
Speaker 6:So, yeah, it was very interesting I think he had a very studied life. I think that he planned things a lot. I think that he would take a vacation and he would just mine it for all the history that it was worth and things like that. So it was always fun to go somewhere with him and one thing about it is like in houston, you can go anywhere without everybody knowing him.
Speaker 6:I remember taking him to dinner and I would just be like, oh my gosh, all these people know him as we walk by. I mean it was almost like this, uh norm of montrose, just yeah, I think.
Speaker 3:I think he wanted us to all be better human and figure out ways to keep giving back, continue not just taking, but giving in different ways. And, of course, my favorite thing that he always had is part about aging gracefully, is knowing not to wear anymore, which I think it's hilarious, but at the same time, I get it because he wants you to present yourself so that people take you seriously.
Speaker 5:To me he was a role model, a mentor, somebody I looked up to, somebody that I aspired to be in so many ways throughout the community, and the one thing that I think that is amazing is that Bob was always willing to do whatever you asked of him, if it was to lead the organization, to be on the board of an organization or just be there, be present to help out and volunteer. That is extraordinary in so many ways because he had the most amazing humility about who he was and just wanted to make a difference. That's one thing that I think that really made me feel so fortunate to be honored by such a great human. It was just wonderful.
Speaker 6:Well, when you look back and you think of Bob Riddick, what do you think that he would want to be remembered for? What do you think are the key components that he personally would want to be remembered for? What do?
Speaker 5:you think are the key components that he personally would want to be remembered for His work as an artist. He really was incredibly creative and he could take just something really small that he might have found on a trip or something that was broken and create something that was so cool. You had a conversation about it and I think to me. I think that he wanted to be remembered for his design work, for his art and the fact that he was a great connector. These are things that, if I was to pick one, I think it would probably be his artwork?
Speaker 7:Yeah, I would agree. So Bob was a collector In later years. When all of his peers were telling him it's time for you to start getting rid of things, not purchase more things, bob didn't stop. Our favorite thing to do is meet for lunch and then go to all the resale shops and see what treasure we could find. And then when you went into his house, it was a museum. There was so much to look at and it wasn't just junk and clutter all over the place. Everything was just so magnificent and unusual pieces that you just could stand in one spot and stare for a long time. So I think that's one thing that he would be remembered for his collections.
Speaker 6:Well, I think it's important to remember that he was an interior designer I mean, he did do a lot of that kind of stuff in his life and he was also a teacher. He taught school for a while and I think that's one of the reasons why he probably bonded with you, Brian I mean you're in education and I think that he saw a lot of you in himself and it was so sweet to watch your relationship grow as you guys kind of became this mutton Jeff, this bestie pair of friends like Paris Hilton and Nicole Ritchie or something, but with this wide gap between you two and age, which is amazing to watch you two interact.
Speaker 3:We love to have our catty little corner, as we like to call it, where we talked about whatever or whoever and things like that. You know, I think that one of the things he would want to be remembered for is his community work and how he was involved in so many different groups and he had so many and he brought so many people together, like you stated before, that normally would have never. I mean, he definitely widened gary's and i's group. You know we would have never met the people that we did, or maybe we would have, but not in a, not through him. He taught us things like there was.
Speaker 3:Many times he came over and corrected my dinner seating arrangement or my place settings and told me it was wrong. He was a teacher, like you said. He really pushed us to hang our art correctly. I never saw us as having dinner parties the way we did. We have other friends that come over and they're like, oh my gosh, I thought we were just coming over for pizza or something and I'm like like, oh no, bob would never like that.
Speaker 6:You know we're sitting there was an elegance, there was a formality to everything, which I appreciated so much, and learning about that and learning how to do that, and I think it's something that the modern world kind of misses sometimes, and I think that's that's what he really brought a lot of good gosh, what a hub. I mean I cannot imagine how many people I've met through him over the years, over this 20 something years that we've known him, and the organizations I mean my gosh, it's just the list is endless. I don't even think I can cover it all going forward in the future what's going to make you think of bob?
Speaker 7:I personally will never set a formal table that I won't think of him, and what would he do to that table that I might have missed? An example of that would be and one of my favorite dinners was when we did a recreation of the last meal served on the Titanic to first class. We all dressed up for it. The menu was items selected from that menu.
Speaker 6:And he would have these wild themes like the last supper and he would actually research and figure out what they ate at the Last Supper.
Speaker 3:Another thing is I keep his. He made me a nameplate for a place setting of where I was supposed to sit and I kept it. I still have it in my wallet because I was just enamored with his handwriting, because it's a lost art, that kind of script. So I think things like that. When I see different people's handwriting I'm like, oh, bob would have never written like that.
Speaker 5:I remember going, wow, what font is that? I want to make sure that I use that. He goes that's my handwriting.
Speaker 5:So, for me, I think the one thing that I going forward that I will always have in the back of my mind is when I go to some place that I've never been before and Bob would always come up with all these places I'd never heard of, that were incredible and they were just fabulous, so overwhelmed by the beauty, the history, the architecture, which Bob expanded upon. Even with the guy that was there for 63 years, I never, never, missed a date and Bob and him were talking at a whole different level and subsequently we had a much better tour.
Speaker 6:One thing I would like to talk to you guys and kind of change paths a little bit. Bob was so vibrant and Sunday Funday he would go to the Eagle in his 80s and hang out with you guys. I mean you guys took him to parties and on cruises like Atlantis Cruises. And how old was he on Atlantis Cruise? I mean what he had been in the 70s 78 to like 80 was in there.
Speaker 5:Yeah, he was a blast.
Speaker 3:I remember this one time we were in London and we were at one of the bars or whatever, and it was crowded and we told him, like, just stay right here, I'm going to go help Gary with drinks, and then I'm going to come right back and I turned around and he was gone and I'm like you know, I asked you to stay one place and he was on the dance floor with young boys in their 20s dancing in the center, having the time of his life and screaming at me like what was I supposed to do? They asked me to dance and I was like dance, you know, it's fine, but it was just, it was not something that we thought he would do. He went with it and like and maybe that's something that I need to work on is just going with it at times, you know, instead of being so structured, he went with whatever he wanted to do at that point, and maybe we all need to do that.
Speaker 6:Well, I don't think he ever thought of himself as too old for anything. He was never too old to learn. He was never too old to go out of things. He kept a social calendar that would wear me out at any point in my life, let alone my 70s and 80s.
Speaker 3:I mean, it would have worn me out in my 20s yeah, when you had to fit yourself into his schedule.
Speaker 6:That's hilarious A big calendar yeah, and gary, I would love to ask you this, because you had a certain relationship with him outreach, united many years with him on the board, on the executive board and him guiding that. What value did you see in bob? What? What made you say, if I'm going to start a charity, that's going to help the mantra center, that's going to help all these programs, that's going to give money every year? What made you think Bob?
Speaker 5:You know, he was a founding member of the board, as well as Lee and you and Brian. It was something very special and it's still there today. We still make contributions and donations and we help bring awareness to the LGBT plus community and much-needed funds into different programs, and Bob was the cornerstone of starting this. He was the secretary. Through this group and through Bob's efforts, we created and accomplished so much. We not only raised a lot of money, built a lot of awareness, but we also brought in incredible entertainment like Leslie Jordan and Alec Mapa and incredible entertainment like Leslie Jordan and Alec Mapa.
Speaker 5:And the thing that I think is extraordinary on Bob's contribution is it was built based on my absolute respect for all that Bob had done for decades. Sure, I've been involved for a while, but nothing like Bob, and I haven't been involved in as many organizations as Bob. So I thought that this was something that we could do come together, make a difference, getting involved and leaving a legacy. And Bob was a big part of that, because it was built on his mentorship and his advice and his selflessness and all of his energy. That's one reason why we wanted to honor him and created a scholarship fund without for education about british outreach united scholarship fund and it's deserving because of all that he's done and all that he ever did, and he was always there for us with whatever was needed I remember setting up art auctions with him and he was really good.
Speaker 6:He knew how to place everything just perfectly Well. Lee, you wrote a book and he was one of your first readers. I mean, you went and sought him out. What made you think that this was the man, that I want to read my work?
Speaker 7:Yeah. So Bob had published works in the past. He was a gifted writer and I knew that if there was something wrong with the book, I could get an honest opinion out of him. He would tell me what's wrong with it and make any corrections, and he did. He did make corrections in it, which I valued.
Speaker 6:I used to take him along with me to theater stuff because I knew that his critiques were always valid and wonderful and things like that. I would never go to an opera without Bob. I mean, he was a font of knowledge about opera and just really adored it, and in fact he even wrote this scathing letter to the director of Houston Grand Opera when he didn't agree with their season one year. Well, I was going to close this out with saying, as of this recording, we don't really have a public service plan for Bob.
Speaker 6:I will include it in the community calendar, if there is one, but what I would suggest is that anybody that wants to honor the memory of Bob Briddick just invite some friends over for drinks and a meal. Have no television, put down your cell phone, don't play loud music. Talk to each other, listen to each other, be there for someone else just for an hour or two, create a community and then, when you're tired, just shoo them away and put some cookies in their hand. So, so thank you all for going down memory lane with me on Bob Briddick. It's certainly to us. Personally, I know that we were there in the hospital room right at the end, the last moments, and I think one of the things, I really was okay until I saw Brian standing over Bob and saying goodbye to him in his way, and that's probably when I lost him and I know that you guys were such great friends and best friends and I know it's going to be hard to move on, just in general, without him. He was such a part of our community.
Speaker 5:I've always admired Bob, and he was that person that I would want to be as I grow old.
Speaker 6:Well, I always say when I grow up, I want to be Bob Riddick.
Speaker 5:There you go.
Speaker 3:Me too. We lost, but we gained a lot from him. I mean, that's something I'm going to take with me is how much I gained because of him.
Speaker 9:I'm Tanya Cain-Perry.
Speaker 10:And I'm Joe Bainline.
Speaker 9:With News Wrap, a summary of some of the news in or affecting LGBTQ communities around the world for the week ending September 21st 2024. Parliament in the Eastern European nation of Georgia passed a package of bills this week. Modeled on Russia's infamous no-promo-homo law, lawmakers approved the third and final reading on September 17th of the LGBT Propaganda Bill, a measure intended to boost family values and protect minors. It bans public expressions of support for LGBTQ rights, including pride events and even displays of the rainbow flag. It will also allow censors in the former Soviet Republic to purge queer content in books and other publications, films and other forms of media. It also reaffirms existing bans on marriage, equality, adoption, gender reassignment, surgery and the changing of gender markers on official documents. Leaders of the governing Georgian Dream Party had promised during the recent election campaign to enact such laws to safeguard traditional moral values in Georgia. They have the strong backing of the politically powerful Georgian Orthodox Church. The move comes ahead of national parliamentary elections on October 26th that the far-right Dream Party hopes will encourage massive conservative turnout in the socially conservative country.
Speaker 9:Georgia has European Union aspirations, but Western governments have deep concerns about the country's increasing tilt toward neighboring Russia. Georgian President Salome Zorabishvili is no friend of the Dream Party and has indicated that she'll veto the bill. Hers is a largely ceremonial office, however, and the Dream Party and its allies have enough seats in Parliament to override any veto attempt. Tamara Jekyll leads the advocacy group Tbilisi Pride. Tamara Jekiele leads the advocacy group Tbilisi Pride. She told Reuters that the legislation is the most terrible thing to happen to the LGBT community in Georgia. We will most likely have to shut down. There is no way for us to continue functioning.
Speaker 10:A motorized procession on September 15th marked the sixth annual LGBTQ Pride celebration in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv. About 60 celebrants of auto pride drove 13 cars through the center of the city with Ukrainian and LGBTQ pride flags flying from their windows. A press release noted that several LGBTQ plus soldiers participated in the event. It was held just 30 kilometers from the Russian border, where Vladimir Putin continues his illegal assaults on the freedom-loving Ukrainians. Placards in many of the cars demanded passage of a queer-inclusive hate crimes law, legal recognition of same-gender couples and more support from their European neighbors as they resist Putin's land-grabbing efforts.
Speaker 10:Ukraine's President, volodymyr Zelensky, announced his support for a civil partnership bill in August of 2022. Kharkiv Pride co-organizer Anna Sharagina announced this year's theme was Together for Equality and Victory. She said in a media statement that we remember every day how important Ukraine's victory is. Just as important to us is the fight for equal rights and the protection of the LGBTQ plus community. People who are fighting, risking their lives, cannot be denied their rights. It's both unjust and undignified, and the war has only highlighted these challenges.
Speaker 9:Taiwan's government finally took a step toward removing the remaining barriers to full civil marriage equality for gay and lesbian couples. The Ministry of the Interior announced on September 19 that it will recognize the marriages of Taiwanese citizens and their mainland Chinese spouses. The island's original marriage equality laws, enacted in 2019, specifically barred that recognition. Liang-wan Chieh-ya, who represents Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council, said during a briefing that those queer couples must marry outside Taiwan in one of the 35 other countries with marriage equality and submit the marriage certificate and other verifying documents to the registry office, Unlike the registration of other marriages of same-gender couples. However, Liang said that relevant agencies will conduct interviews with the couple. Only after passing the interview on the border at the airport and ports can they enter the country to register their marriages. This is our current principle for cross-straight marriages. A joint statement from Taiwan's major LGBTQ rights groups welcomed the change, but pointed out that it still places an undue economic burden on those couples because they are required to marry outside of Taiwan. Marriage equality is illegal in mainland China.
Speaker 10:The parole board in the US state of Wyoming has rejected a petition by one of the men convicted of the brutal 1998 murder of university student Matthew Shepard. Russell Henderson, who has served 25 years behind bars, asked the board to commute the rest of his two consecutive life sentences. The board held a hearing on the petition but declined to forward it to the governor. Intense media coverage of the crime sparked outrage and raised the public's awareness of anti-gay violence. Henderson and his co-defendant, aaron McKinney, offered Shepard a ride home after meeting him at a local Laramie Wyoming bar. They claimed that they only intended to rob him. The men drove Shepard to an isolated area, tied him to a fence post and savagely beat him. Shepard died six days later after his limp body was discovered by a passerby still tied to the fence in freezing temperatures.
Speaker 9:Henderson can file another petition in five years. The Denver-based 10th US Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld a law banning conversion therapy for minors in the state of Colorado. By a vote of two to one, a three-judge panel of the Federal Appeals Court denied a request to delay enforcement of the law by Colorado Springs-based counselor Kaylee Childs, who is represented by the anti-queer legal group Alliance Defending Freedom. They unsuccessfully claimed that what they called the counseling censorship law is a violation of free speech rights. Chris Stoll is a senior staff attorney for the National Center for Lesbian Rights. She celebrated the decision, saying these discredited practices, which falsely promise to be able to change a young person's sexual orientation or gender identity, have been rejected as unsafe by every major medical and mental health organization in the country. Both Childs and the Alliance Defending Freedom vowed to appeal.
Speaker 10:Meanwhile, kentucky's Democratic Governor, andy Beshear, has bypassed the Republican-controlled state legislature and issued an executive order banning conversion therapy on minors. As Beshear said of his September 18th edict, let's be clear Conversion therapy has no basis in medicine or science, and it's been shown to increase rates of suicide and depression. This is about doing what's right and protecting our children. Hate is not who we are as Kentuckians.
Speaker 9:Finally, congratulations to Paige Johnson, who on September 14th became the first out transgender person elected to public office in the Australian state of New South Wales. The Labour Party candidate won the top councillor position in Ward 2 in local elections in the city of Newcastle. The third time was the charm for Johnson, who had lost two previous bids for office. Had lost two previous bids for office. She's a civil engineer at Lake Macquarie City Council and a delegate to the Newcastle Trades Hall Council. Johnson is also vice president of the trans and gender diversity advocacy group, Hunter Gender Alliance. Johnson issued a statement reflecting on her victory. She said in part visibility matters and I know how difficult it can be to see your future self somewhere where there isn't much representation of people like you. I also know being able to be yourself and live your truth every day makes a world of difference.
Speaker 10:That's News Wrap, global queer news with attitude for the week ending September 21st 2024. Follow the news in your area and around the world. An informed community is a strong community.
Speaker 9:News Wrap was written by Greg Gordon, with thanks this week to David Hunt, produced by Brian DeShazer and brought to you by you, thank you.
Speaker 10: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 9:And I'm Tanya Kane-Perry. Stay safe.
Speaker 1:This has been Queer Voices, heard on KPFT Houston and as a podcast available from several podcasting sources. Check our webpage QueerVoicesorg for more information. Queer Voices executive producer is Brian Levinka, deborah Moncrief-Bell is co-producer, brett Cullum and David Mendoza-Druzman are contributors, and Brett is also our webmaster. The News Wrap segment is part of another podcast called this Way Out, which is produced in Los Angeles.
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Speaker 1:For Queer Voices. I'm Glenn Holt, Thank you.
