Queer Voices
Queer Voices
July 2nd 2025 Queer Voices Pride Grand Marshals Hayden Cohen and Lane Lewis
We speak with grand marshals Hayden Cohen and Lane Lewis. First, Hayden the Trendsetter grand marshal talks about an organization that they are apart of, Students Engaged in Advancing Texas. Then we speak with Lane Lewis one of three Distinguished Grand Marshals for the 2025 Official Houston Pride Celebration® Finally Brett Cullum speaks with director Domenico Leona about the upcoming production “Pullman, WA” happening at Match Theater in August.
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Hello everybody, this is Queer Voices, a podcast version of a broadcast radio show that's been on the air in Houston, texas, for several decades. This week, brian Levinka talks with Hayden Cohen, co-founder and state policy director at Students Engaged in Advancing Texas.
Speaker 2:We've kind of created this massive movement. Two years ago we had an advocacy day. There were maybe 25 students. This past year we had an advocacy day in the legislative session of over 300. So it kind of goes to show our growth as an organization. And these were students who maybe hadn't ever been to the Capitol before.
Speaker 1:Brett Cullum has a conversation with Lane Lewis, one of the three distinguished Grand Marshals of this year's Pride Parade.
Speaker 3:Bill Scott. He was a Houston legend. In my opinion, he taught me that there were two ingredients of hope anger and the courage to do something about it. We're in an area where LGBT rights, particularly trans rights, are currently being systematically dismantled, so I'm hoping that people will get angry and find courage and Brett talks with Domenico Leona, the producer and director of Pullman Washington, currently running at the match.
Speaker 4:I'll be passing things out to the audience and getting them involved. That, I think, will assist in making the play more engaging in terms of its spectacle, which I think will enhance the words that are already on the page, which are brilliant.
Speaker 1:Queer Voices starts now.
Speaker 5:This is Brian Lemicka, and today I'm speaking with Hayden Cohen, a Grand Marshal for the 2025 Pride Parade. Hayden, what is your Grand Marshal title?
Speaker 2:I am the trendsetter category, so that is young folks. I think it's anyone under the age of 25.
Speaker 5:Tell me about yourself and who you are and what you do in the community.
Speaker 2:I'm currently a student, but in the queer community I'm very much a political advocate. I work very much in the education policy spaces but that oftentimes collides with LGBT plus related policies. On the side, I register people to vote, I volunteer with the LGBT plus political caucus and with a few other LGBT plus organizations locally and nationally.
Speaker 5:Do you believe that pride is still relevant?
Speaker 2:Attacks and harm that the queer community is under looks different a little bit than when it did when Stonewall happened, but we still have so much hate and the need for the queer joy and the need to celebrate and the need to be in community more so than ever. So, absolutely, pride is still relevant.
Speaker 5:Can you tell us about coming out and what was that process like?
Speaker 2:I first came out as gay when I was about 14, coming into my freshman year of high school, I came out to my parents, my family. They were all pretty chill about it. Then, later on, it ended up coming out as non-binary. It came out with a different name and pronouns. Ironically, I actually used it out in a Smart article to do that, because I was being interviewed for something and I told them hey, I want to go by Hayden in the article and so if I ever wanted to show that to my parents, I would have to tell them.
Speaker 5:Can you tell me your greatest Pride memory?
Speaker 2:Pride happens in many different forms and it's not necessarily the parade and the festival. One of my greatest memories is it's over my birthday, but it also happened to coincide with a Jewish holiday and my friend and I were making these rainbow triangle cookies we call them hamantaschenes for this holiday, purim, and so we decided to make them rainbow. After a friend of ours had made trans flag hamantaschenes, we shared them with some friends and that was just really cool and kind of a really cool like prideful moment. But it wasn't necessarily a festival parade.
Speaker 5:This isn't necessarily Houston-related pride memory.
Speaker 2:This happened in New Jersey. When did you move to Houston?
Speaker 5:No, I've lived in Houston my entire life. I went on a trip with a friend. Is there anything that you want our listeners to know that you have not told us?
Speaker 2:Mention something that I mentioned at the Grand Marshal reception last weekend, and something really unique about this category of Grand Marshal is that we do just as much work as the other Grand Marshals. We're just as much of badasses and we put in the time, for sure. But the thing that makes us really unique is we've got homework at home after every event and we're still very much in school and dealing with everything that young people go through as growing up because we are younger. But it also shows that we've done a lot in the few years that we've been around and in queer spaces and in political spaces. So it's really cool to kind of have that equivalent, so an honor, even though I haven't been doing this for 20 something years.
Speaker 5:Are there any social media things that you want to promote?
Speaker 2:I use Instagram most, and then, obviously, I'm the state policy director of an incredible organization called Students Engaged in Advancing Texas. Our handle on Instagram is at studentsengagetx. We do post a lot. We have a lot of cool opportunities, cool things that are going on.
Speaker 5:Tell me about that organization.
Speaker 2:Students Engaged in Advancing Texas was founded by myself and another student. We focus on policy issues affecting students and bringing students into those spaces to talk with their lawmakers and to talk with the people who are deciding these decisions about education, because oftentimes young people are left out of those conversations. We've kind of created this massive movement. Two years ago we had an advocacy day. There were maybe 25 students. This past year we had an advocacy day in the legislative session of over 300. So it kind of goes to show our growth as an organization and these were students who maybe hadn't ever been to the Capitol before, hadn't ever met their lawmakers before, and now got the opportunity to speak to their staff and share about different priorities students have in the session.
Speaker 2:Oftentimes students are overlooked in terms of their opinion around what's going on, but frankly, they're the primary stakeholders when it comes to our education. We're kind of bridging that gap and showing that students can actually have a voice and we're helping them do it. It's such a cool part of my job when I get to bring young people to the Capitol for the first time or show them lawmakers or introduce them to some of our incredible coalition partners and we really get into the nitty-gritty of policy. I think this past weekend we had some folks over at the AFT event in Dallas. We do all sorts of events locally and then some big stuff in Austin sometimes.
Speaker 5:Is that LGBT-focused or is it kind of across the board?
Speaker 2:It's not explicitly. We very much focus on educational issues broadly. However, there is a lot of overlap that we see with making sure students can testify against their gender impact, queer students or vice versa, and pushing for good policy in schools.
Speaker 5:What is your advice to people that are coming to the Capitol for the first time for the legislative session?
Speaker 2:It depends what you're coming for. If you are coming for an advocacy day, absolutely enjoy it. Soak in every moment, speak to your lawmakers, be passionate, tell your personal stories for sure. If you are coming to testify which I often did and I would bring students to testify with me be prepared to not know where you need to be and what you need to be doing at all times, because the legislature is so unpredictable. You don't know when your bill is going to come up, what room you're going to be in, who's going to be in the committee room at that time. You don't know anything, and so you just have to be prepared for whatever, and always great to find a buddy who's done this before, who's testified before, and there are so many great organizations that will show up, especially for the bigger hearings. You just follow them. They'll feed you, they'll make sure you've got water, they'll tell you everything you need to know about testifying. But don't do this stuff alone.
Speaker 5:For sure, we're speaking with Hayden Cohen, the trendsetter grand marshal for the 2025 Pride Parade. No-transcript.
Speaker 2:Awesome, thank you so much, Brian.
Speaker 1:Coming up on Queer Voices Lane Lewis, one of this year's distinguished grand marshals, and Domenico Leona, the producer and director of the play Pullman Washington. We also have news wrap from this Way Out. News Wrap from this way out. Did you know that KPFT is completely listener-funded? There are no underwriters, so it's up to all of us to pay for the freedom to say what you hear here on Queer Voices and on this station in general. That means you participate in our programming just by listening and also by pledging your support. Please do that now by going to the KPFT website and clicking on the red Donate Now button, and please mention queer voices when you do.
Speaker 6:Thank you when you do. Thank you. I am Brett Cullum and today I am joined by 2025's distinguished Grand Marshal Lane. Lewis Lane has basically helped write LGBTQI plus history because he is a longtime organizer. Former Harris County Democratic Party chair Lane played a pivotal role in bringing Lawrence versus Texas to the United States Supreme Court. He has been a social worker. He's founded a youth center. He's worked in a psychiatric hospital. Bless him for that. He has a master's in teaching.
Speaker 6:Lane was an appointee of Mayor Bob Lanier, mayor Lee Brown and Mayor Bill White. He's been an advisor to the Houston Police Department for over two decades on the Police Advisory Committee. He's been an advisor to the Houston Police Department for over two decades on the Police Advisory Committee. He's been on the Citizen Review Committee, the Administrative Discipline Committee and the Police Academy and when I met him he was fighting City Hall when they wanted to close down access to all ages clubs, like Numbers back in the. Okay, I'm not going to claim or name this year at all, but welcome Wayne Lewis. Thank you so much. You've done so much that I'm exhausted. Going to claim or name this year at all, but welcome Wayne.
Speaker 3:Lewis, thank you so much. You've done so much that I'm exhausted reading about it. I think that was 1987.
Speaker 6:Yeah, no, I didn't even want to go there, I didn't want to date us.
Speaker 3:that bad, but yeah. And recently there's a group of people out of LA that's working on a documentary on some of the stuff that I've done and they found a video, I think, from Channel 11. I've seen it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, they're the ones that sent it to me. I don't know how they got it.
Speaker 6:It was in the Numbers documentary, though, wasn't it?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I sent it to. Well, was it Marcus? Fine, I guess maybe Marcus is the one that it was not the Los Angeles guy. It was Marcus that found that and sent to me and said is this you? And I was like holy cow.
Speaker 6:For all the listeners that are like going what is going on here? Numbers had a documentary called Friday I'm in Love. Marcus Pantillo made this incredible documentary about numbers and included footage of Lane Lewis fighting to keep numbers all ages and the late 80s for that, and that just was kind of the beginning of your activism. I mean, I really feel like that was where you kind of came on the scene and everything and you've done so much and it's just crazy when I look at how much you've done in your lifetime and how many times you've shifted and how many times you've, like, changed careers and done all of this, I mean it's like there was no clear path, for Lane was there.
Speaker 3:No, and I'm sure it kept my mother up many a night. I was sort of on the cusp. What was it? The death of a salesman. You know, you get a good job and you do it for 40 years and then you retire and die. I was much more of a renaissance attitude. I wanted to do, and I would do it for five, six, seven years and then I would get bored and I'd be like you know what, what do I want to do next? Some things were planned. I bartended and managed a nightclub. I was a DJ back in the 80s.
Speaker 3:That was my first career, I guess you could say, working at NRG and places. Then I came back from New York. I was working on Stonewall 25. I had started as the youth constituent. For that it was an international march on the United Nations calling for queer equality across the world, celebrating the 25th anniversary of Stonewall. I started off as a youth constituent, as the youth constituent, as if this white, gay male represented all queer youth in the world. But anyway, I was the one that showed up, so I got the job. Then, from there I went on to become the head of the direct action working group and ended up on the executive committee. So anyway, I had to move to New York.
Speaker 3:The result of that when I came back, I needed a job. I had no job. So I went to Jay Allen at Pacific Street, said you know, hey, I need a job. You've helped me with fundraisers and stuff in the past. Would you help me out with a job? He said you know how to bartend. I said no, actually I do not know how to bartend, but give me your worst bar, I'll make it your best within a couple of months or you can fire me. I ended up working there for about six or seven years. I just figured it out. I can't think of a single job that I've ever had that I knew what the hell I was doing before I got it you're just the guy that kind of adapts to that.
Speaker 6:So, going back to 2025, distinguished brand marshal, what does that mean to you? I mean, what kind of honor is this?
Speaker 3:Things like this obviously bring recognition to an individual's past and current deeds. I reckon it also emboldens you to move forward and do more right. It gives you credentials to do more. But what I'm really hoping not so much what it does for me, but I'm hoping others will see and read about the things that we have fought for and how difficult they were to achieve. It gives them hope. Better yet, it gets them active, right that they want to do these things as well, particularly in today's climate where we are losing rights, certainly faster than we're getting them, and these old fights that we thought we were done with right, roe v Wade and marriage equality. We thought we were done with all this. We are not. We are going to have to fight them again, most likely Bill Scott he was a Houston legend, in my opinion. He taught me that there were two ingredients of hope anger and the courage to do something about it. We're in an area where LGBT rights, particularly trans rights, are currently being systematically dismantled, so I'm hoping that people will get angry and find courage.
Speaker 6:I remember back in the 80s, early 90s, things like that, when we were kind of coming up, these fights were going and I do have this deja vu feeling of here it goes again. I thought we were good, I thought that the generation behind us was in good shape and it looked like everything was going as planned and then all of a sudden, here's this wave coming right back and I guess it's that pendulum swing that always seems to happen in history. So this is a really crucial year for Pride. Do you remember like your earliest Pride or like when you got involved with Pride? I mean, obviously you mentioned that you were involved with Stonewall at one point in the 25th anniversary and things like that. So I imagine you've got some good stories. Do you remember the early days of the Houston Pride Parade or anything like that?
Speaker 3:I honestly I do not. I don't remember when the Houston Pride Parade or?
Speaker 6:anything like that.
Speaker 3:Honestly, I do not. I don't remember when the first Pride Parade was. The New York Pride may have been before I ever went to a Houston Pride. To be honest, I was never one much for parades.
Speaker 3:I was more interested in marches and there is a difference, and I'll tell you.
Speaker 3:During Stonewall we had many a debate on whether or not it was going to be a march or a parade. The Heritage Foundation, I think, is what the New York Pride was or is called, used to be called, and they very much wanted a parade, and me and many others on the committee said no, we're marching for rights. This isn't a fashion contest for rights. But the argument that really won the day for us was when we put forth the argument that, well, you're going to call it an international march. I'm wondering how many people from oh, I don't know Johannesburg is going to be able to build a float when they get here. So now you have these people from New York that have these big, beautiful floats or what have you, and then you have all these other countries that have nothing, just rigged of privilege. Ultimately, we banned floats and motor vehicles from Stonewall. I guess probably the first real pride events that I remember being in were probably in the mid-'90s, either with riches or on top of Pacific Street's floats, advertising for the bars and stuff.
Speaker 6:Well, and we're back there too this year. I think I've heard a lot of corporate sponsors are pulling out because of the current administration and the stance on DEI in Texas. So we may be right back to that kind of a thing where there's not a ton of floats, there are bars and us and community organizations. So kind of a thing where there's not a ton of floats, there are bars and us and community organizations. So kind of a wild time to bring you up to the head of the parade, to march forward and bring us back into this era, I guess and I've been hearing rumblings nationwide within pride organizations that many are looking to downgrade the parade image a march image.
Speaker 3:particularly in these times I think that would not be a bad idea.
Speaker 6:I think that we need that kind of anger because of what's happening to our community, and I think that that would be a very important component of this year's celebration Because, as you observed, I mean, the trans rights in Texas are just in severe jeopardy and we all know that if they don't win that fight, who's next?
Speaker 3:And I can remember years back in the late 80s, early 90s, where that was a big discussion because the majority of what you saw within the gay community was the white male. So some of us who were white males were really really pushing for a more inclusive image and conversation around those that did not fit the white male image and there was pushback. I was there for it. I remember some very heated arguments within local organizations and national organizations where that was not a very popular opinion.
Speaker 6:Well, let's be honest, though. I still hear some of these arguments going on today, which I think is a real shame. I think that we've come so far and we have this community and we have this chance to really champion it for everybody. It's not time for us to kind of pull back?
Speaker 3:I've always believed that if you're at the top of the ladder, you reach down and grab the very lowest rung and pull them up, because everybody between you and them will come up with it.
Speaker 6:How do you think that pride is relevant now, because it's certainly changing a little bit. It's certainly not, like you said, the fashion show. I mean it's definitely. It's making statements a little bit.
Speaker 3:Well, you know, it's a bell curve, it's a march for recognition, and then you finally begin achieving those recognitions and then it becomes more of a festival or celebration. My concern is that far too many people think that we are in celebration mode, and that is not the era that we are in celebration mode and that is not the era that we are in, and a large part of it. Let's talk about the things that created a need for celebration. You had PrEP come along, which revolutionized a lot of lives, because throughout the 80s and 90s it was HIV, AIDS, death sentence. And PrEP comes along and changes those dynamics AIDS, death sentence. Then PrEP comes along and changes those dynamics.
Speaker 3:Lawrence v, Texas. The legalization of sodomy and thus the legalization of queerness in general. And you had marriage equality. You had Ellen, you had Will and Grace. These are things that prior to the mid-90s I guess somewhere around in there you didn't have. So there was a reason for celebrating. I'm not sure around in there you didn't have. So there was a reason for celebrating. I'm not sure we're there right now.
Speaker 6:Well, ironically though, the theme this year is celebration is our legacy, so we've got that in there, but it is definitely going to be a pointed celebration.
Speaker 3:And I hope so. Definitely there's things to still celebrate, but if we're not careful, celebration will be legacy, not reality.
Speaker 6:Very well said. Yeah, that makes sense Absolutely. So what would you say your number one achievement for the queer community is? I mean, you've done so much that I would be really hard-pressed to do that.
Speaker 3:You're very kind, do that. You're very kind. Probably Lawrence v Texas certainly made the biggest impact to the most people. Without Lawrence v Texas there would be no employment guarantees, there would be no marriage equality. I mean, none of that happens without 2106 and Lawrence v Texas. So that's probably what I've made the most impact for. What am I most proud of? It would probably be the youth center in the early 90s Lewis Scott Youth Center, me and Bill Scott, which eventually became Hippie with Tracy Brown Houston Institute for Protection of Youth.
Speaker 3:We were at that time, as far as I know, the only residential treatment facility for queer homeless kids and this was back in 91, 92, something like that. Also, there was different times in the homeless and out of touch now. So I don't really know what the homeless statistics are now. Back then I think it was 50 to 60% of all homeless kids were bi or gay, transgender. I don't know what that stat is now. I would think it would be less, but I don't know that to be true. But the other statistic that I remember back then that was so alarming that really is the one that got my attention was a national study that said that within 14 days of being on the street a child was on drugs, prostituting, hiv positive or some combination of the three. It was so alarming to me that you had a two-week window. Now, granted, I was only about 21 or 22 at the time, so I wasn't that old, but that statistic just shook me to my core.
Speaker 3:And I had gone to a black tie dinner for the Gay and Lesbian Political Caucus now the LGBTQ Political Caucus but at that time there was no HRC Black Tide Dinner, not here in Houston anyway. It was the Political Caucus's Black Tide Dinner, and Bill Scott, like I said, was the keynote speaker that year and he had helped start all these various organizations AIDS Foundation, montrose Counseling Center, body Positive, montrose Clinic, now Legacy and other things. But he said we don't have anything for the aging and we don't have anything for youth. And he said before I die, I hope to get those going. So afterwards I walked up and I shared the statistic and I asked him well, why don't we have anything for the aging and the youth? And he said the aging is simple. Most of them are dead. We don't have an aging gay population. They didn't survive the 80s and 90s which holy cow. He was right on that. But fortunately now we do have an aging community and the counseling center a few years ago opened up a quote unquote retirement facility for our aging population. Which fan-freaking-tastic is that.
Speaker 3:And on the youth side he said well, there's no youth services because of internalized homophobia. And I asked him to explain what he meant by that. And he said people don't want to provide services to young queers because internalized homophobia. We're afraid of what we will be accused of by treating that population. I said, well, it doesn't scare me, I'll do it if you'll do it. And he said okay, said let's get together and talk about it. Within six months I think I'd gone to Mickey Rosemary who owns Tootsies. He gave me my first $25,000 check to open up that youth center.
Speaker 6:Well, here's a sobering statistic the current population of homeless youth in the United States that identify as LGBTQIA, plus 40%. So we've dropped it 10 since the 90s, but that's not a lot when you think about it. It's still 40% identify as a part of our community and certainly a lot of work still needs to be done. And, of course, law Harrington, one of our own hosts on the show, lives there. So shout out to Deborah Bell, that's her address right now.
Speaker 3:I really wish bill had been alive to see that an amazing, amazing accomplishment there.
Speaker 6:Thank you for all that you've done and congratulations on being 2025. Distinguished grand marshal, did you ever think that you were being called distinguished?
Speaker 3:no, after living through the 80 and 90s I never figured I'd live old enough to be distinguished anything, but somehow I survived, knocked on wood. Somebody walked up to me on the dance floor last weekend and said so do I now have to call you the Honorable Distinguished County? I don't know. It was this long, long title of things I have done. I can just call me Lane.
Speaker 6:That's what I've always known you as, from the days of energy and numbers and things like that. Well, thank you. It was great to go down memory lane with you and talk about all of the stuff that you've done.
Speaker 3:I'm looking to see. I think we just had a recent anniversary of Lawrence v Texas, didn't we? Or we have it coming up. Let me look, because people forget that it's only been. Oh, it's June 26th. Is the anniversary June 26th?
Speaker 6:Pretty close, I mean, and that was like 2003,. So I remember that pride of celebration, because that was a big one. We were suddenly legal.
Speaker 3:Listeners need to remember that prior to 2003, you were not a legal individual.
Speaker 6:No, you could be criminal, it was criminal. It was a little more punk rock to be criminal. But hey, I will take the rights Please.
Speaker 3:They get a chance, tell them to go watch that numbers documentary that River Oaks Theater shows it every now and then. It's well worth their time. People need to understand that numbers. At a time when we had no meeting place, we could not meet and organize, there was no place to sit and talk about queer rights or HIV rights, and numbers opened its dance floor. How to organize us to meet there? So they need to understand their history on that too.
Speaker 6:And still the owner was there for that. Shout out to Numbers and their wonderful documentary Friday I'm in Love. And shout out to Lane Lewis, 2025's distinguished Grand Marshal.
Speaker 1:Part of our Queer Voices community listens on KPFT, which is a nonprofit community radio station, and as such, kpft does not endorse or hold any standing on matters of politics. If you would like Equal Airtime to represent an alternative point of view, please contact us through kpftorg or our own website at queervoicesorg. This is Queer Voices. This is Queer Voices. This is KPFT. 90.1 FM Houston, 89.5 FM Galveston, 91.9 FM Huntsville, and worldwide on the internet at kpftorg.
Speaker 8:The night is long and the path is dark. Look to the sky for what it's called. The dawn will come.
Speaker 1:This is Queer Voices.
Speaker 6:Pullman Washington is a play from acclaimed American playwright Yong-Ching Lee. The Phoenix Group is producing this regional premiere, which will run at the Match, august 14th through the 17th. This is a play about what to do if you're unhappy and everyone around you is kind of a well an a-hole, including yourself, of course. Certainly a really great idea, just in that cinema alone. And joining me today is director Domenico Leona. Hey there, domenico, hello, hey. Okay, so tell me about this play, pullman Washington. What is it about?
Speaker 4:Okay. Okay, you know it's funny because you look at young Jean Lee and kind of her history in playwriting and in music and you probably liken it to the obscure. But I actually think that this play, while maybe obscure in execution, is actually very simple. So three ordinary people try to deliver this life-changing TED talk and address an audience directly and tell them how they should live their lives. And as they attempt to do this and usually fail, they kind of get into these hijinks where this, what starts off as this well well-intentioned self-help seminar, kind of becomes this brutal disintegration of all of their egos and the way they live their own lives. And it kind of acts as a commentary on like how people who try and influence us often don't always have their own lives together and hilarity ensues from there. Would you call it more of a comedy? Very much so. I would call it a comedy. It's a romp If I can share the story of kind of how it came to be.
Speaker 4:So I was sitting at the rec rooms Happy Hour Readings. Happy Hour Readings is the sister company at the rec room run by Brenda Palestina and Emma Bacon, who hold a reading of a play the first Monday of every month and they did Pullman Washington, which was, I believe, headed by Alan Kim at the time. This play burned through in 75 minutes. It's absolutely hilarious. It goes to such bizarre lengths. One of the characters is obsessed with mermaids and unicorns and making everybody feel optimistic whenever they're down. One of them acts as sort of this, like he has the candor of an evangelical pastor, and then one of them is just trying to kind of deliver a TED talk, trying to seem educated and consistently failing to get her point across. And whenever we're watching this, I mean we're all just cracking up and the play ends and we're all kind of like what was that?
Speaker 4:But then these questions start arising of, like the characters, as societal pressures and how like the play almost felt like we were inside three people's minds or that we were in three different aspects of someone's own mind, and that was really interesting to me.
Speaker 4:Then we start delving into like politics and society and you know the election at the time, and it just it was very interesting to me that a play that is essentially three people just talking about how do we live our lives moved people on a very human level, especially when it's absurd and bizarre as a very human level, especially when it's absurd and bizarre, as this one is, and especially when it's entertaining. And I think that all derives from the fact that it's more relevant now than ever this play was written in 2002, but it's more relevant now than ever that three people from three completely different generations, backgrounds, can all ask the same question how do I live my life, how should I, how should you? And let me tell you how to live your life. And I think that that just kind of struck a lot of people in that room and that kind of led to me producing it. Well, tell me about the Phoenix.
Speaker 6:Group because I don't not familiar with you guys yet.
Speaker 4:Yeah, yeah, no, this is our. This is our inaugural production. We made a joke whenever we kind of first brought this together we being me and my good friend, Josh Harris, who's an incredible. He's in a lot of improv comedy. He went to SFA and has done some great work around the state and this will be his first production in Houston. He's going to be playing the role of himself in this play, because I hadn't mentioned the names of the characters in this play. Always I hadn't mentioned the names of the characters in this play. Always in every production carry the names of the actors, which is another interesting aspect of it.
Speaker 4:But, yeah, the phoenix group was essentially like recidivistic buffoonery, that is, the attack on the arts. Currently, you look at the issues with you know the kennedy center and what's going on in the current administration and and rather than like forming a new company to have like a specific mission, I really just I love theater. The people that are working with me on this love theater and we just want to be a part of the reason that there's a little bit more out there. I wish I could give you this elegant response that, oh, the Phoenix Group is representation, in its title alone, of theater is transient, but it has a permanence to it. It stays in us and a phoenix can be reborn. In reality, it's just named after my niece.
Speaker 6:Oh, no, Well, that's not a bad place to gather inspiration from your niece.
Speaker 4:Yeah, very much. I wholeheartedly agree with that.
Speaker 6:She's called Phoenix.
Speaker 4:That's her name. She's called Phoenix. Her name, her name. She's called Phoenix. Her name is Phoenix Araya Sunshine Reynolds.
Speaker 6:Wow. Well, she sounds like she's going to be theatrical anyway, just given that kind of a name. So there you are. I'm definitely counting on it. Yeah, well, and you've actually wielded in a power by naming your group after her. But this is a pretty easy play to set up, but from what I gather, I mean three people, Not really a huge set or anything. I mean I think you just have some whiteboards or presentation materials for the self-help seminar.
Speaker 4:Yeah, that's correct. There is a specific aspect of the play that's really, really intriguing and that is the presence of something in the script called the giving up area, which is an area where characters go whenever they've given up, as in the script. So whenever I watched a production of this because, going back to whenever we were at the happy hour readings something that came up that was really striking to me was we discussed almost immediately after the play ended like who would produce this in Houston? And the room kind of a room that was very vibrant and, you know, filled with laughter just moments before kind of deflated a little bit and things were brought up like oh you know, catastrophic in the rec room and there was a little bit of like reticence from people in the room that worked with that company. Talk about it.
Speaker 4:And I kind of went from that and was like well, why does it have to be a theater that's already existing? Why can't anyone do this play, especially with the setup that you just described? It is very simple and I went and saw the taping on Young Jean Lee's website of the original production at PS122 in Washington and I saw that it was just three actors standing on a bare stage, street clothes, talking, and it was completely different from how I envisioned it, both in energy and in presentation, and so I think a real challenge for me or not necessarily a challenge, but something that's motivating and enticing is taking a play that is bare stage and how do we add strokes of color onto that canvas. And so I have some ideas for the giving up area for some scenes that involve a whiteboard. I'll be passing things out to the audience and getting them involved. That, I think, will assist in making the play more engaging in terms of its spectacle, which I think will enhance the words that are already on the page, which are brilliant.
Speaker 6:Well, you're directing this one and you have some help from a woman named Ashley Galan. Okay, I didn't want to butcher her last name. I was looking at it going Ashley, I can get, but Galan, I'm never quite sure. How did you get together with Ashley? I mean, how do you two know each other?
Speaker 4:Oh man, me and Ashley go way back. So Ashley's a vet. She's been in the Houston scene for a long time. She's acted with, you know, theatrics for their Javier Descortes Festival. She house manages and stage manages all over town. She just stage managed Kim's Convenience over at Main Street Theater.
Speaker 4:Whenever I met her, most of my interactions in Houston tend to be, you know, incredibly pleasant and I've found this city to be at least this community, that being theater to be very polite and welcoming to the point of like. Whenever I've shared scripts that I've written or I've, you know, done auditions, I felt like everything I get is so, so positive and encouraging. But with Ashley there was something interesting. When we first met, we had one long discussion about theater and she pretty much disagreed with everything I had to say and had just eloquent, educated reasoning for, like, why she was disagreeing with me so much. And I remember my impression working with her was just that this is someone who would never sugarcoat anything and would keep me, you know, in check, so to speak, especially coming into it. My impression working with her was just that this is someone who would never sugarcoat anything and would keep me, you know, in check, so to speak, especially coming into.
Speaker 4:I come from a poetry background. This is the first time I've ever directed on stage. I just wanted someone with that kind of strong, singular, unique voice to come onto this production. I think, especially with the the broadness of the play, that these characters are asking such an open-ended question how do you live, I think, having the perspective of not only a woman on our set but a woman of color? There are two women in the production and I always seek to bring, from as many diverse backgrounds as I can, anyone into my team because I want as much perspective as I can possibly get going into a play like this. And so I think, to answer your question, yeah, it's just to get a better perspective from someone that, in my opinion, is much smarter than I am.
Speaker 6:Your first play and you pick a play by Young Jean Lee.
Speaker 4:Oh yeah.
Speaker 6:Just jump right in there into the fire, just don't even warm it up. Go, let's swing big. But what made you want to enter this fray? I mean, you obviously have a poetry background and things like that and I've seen you around a mainstream theater and things like that but what made you want to direct and produce and all of that? I mean it was just uh man with with this play it's.
Speaker 4:It's so interesting because I I never thought I would go into directing or designing anything. I've worked as an actor and poetry. I enjoy having full control over what I'm writing and performing. I perform regularly at Avant Garden and places like that and that's a community that's very similar to theater in Houston and it's kind of welcoming nature, but it is also just bustling with so much creativity and so many voices. And the more I got involved with Houston theater and the more I got involved in particular with, like the rec room happy hour readings, I kind of felt myself getting the itch to create something.
Speaker 4:But I think the big thing that happened to me was I heard someone talking about poetry versus a novel. They were saying well, you know, a novel is like riding a bicycle. You have to ride your bicycle and you have to stay in your lane. You have to stay on the trail, Otherwise you'll get hit by a car, but poetry is like walking on the moon. And while it's a lovely sentiment and has great syntax, I strongly disagree. I think whenever you're working on a sonnet or a poem, there are things, whenever you're looking at it, that says, oh, these are rules, the 16 lines in a sonnet, the rhyme scheme, the 5-7-5 nature of a haiku, and then you go to college and a college professor says, oh, these aren't rules, they're guidelines.
Speaker 4:And then I look at my own creative life, moving here to Houston, and I've learned that in poetry it's really more conditions. And what is the reason for those conditions? Why do you have to work within those 16 lines, within that 5-7-5 parameter? And it's because conditions like that force the innovation to come from inward, if that makes any sense, and I don't think that a play is any different to that. I have a certain number of pages and words that only exist on the page and I can't go outside of that. And there's room for improv, but it's set in stone. And I have to take this production that's never been done in Houston and create something that relates not only to people in general but people from Houston. And I think finding creative solutions to that problem is what enticed me into directing. Trying to prove that directing is no different to poetry and it is also just as freeing as walking on the moon, I think, was what really pushed me to this one in particular.
Speaker 6:What I extracted from that particularly was creatively solving problems. I think that that, more than anything, encapsulates what I see with the companies that you've mentioned before Rec Room Arts, catastrophic Theater, even like Dirt Dogs or Main Street Theater or even the Alley. I mean, they are giving these parameters of a script and trying to figure out how do we present this in a way that is expressive and that represents what we want to get out of it and everything like that. So in that sense, I can see the poetry thing and it tracks, I guess, and so I can see that. So it'll be interesting.
Speaker 6:I'm talking with Domenico Leona, who is with the Phoenix Group, and of course they are producing Pullman Washington, young Jean Lee work and it's going to be at the Match August 14th through the 17th, and you are kind of going for like a Catastrophic Theater, pay what you Can, kind of model right for the tickets, absolutely. And you even got Free Beer Friday, yeah, that's true. So that is definitely one of those things where you get to pick your ticket price. Of course, as I mentioned for your friday, you're gonna have a talk back on saturday with the creative team, correct all of that. So that's, that's amazing. You got a lot packed into one weekend for sure what are your plans after this?
Speaker 6:do you have anything? Is this like a one and done thing for you? Are you you going to keep producing?
Speaker 4:You know I don't think I've ever closed the book on anything in my life. You know, like going from poetry, you know I've directed little short films here and there and I haven't directed a film in four years but I'd never closed the book on that. So, especially in theater just closed the Three Musketeers as an actor on Monday, I plan to act in plays and direct in plays at any level for the foreseeable future. I think the big thing for me staying in this community is that I intend to be in Houston a long time and I truly believe that this city is a couple years, if a year, away from a huge renaissance in the arts where a lot of new voices are going to get heard and a lot of new work is going to move people. You know, to come back to the theater, despite, you know, theater maybe not recovering as well as something like, you know, streaming services did post post pandemic, yeah, no, I would never close the book on directing another play.
Speaker 4:I have some in mind that I would love to do, but I'm seeing how this one goes, you know, seeing if I can, you know, make enough incentives like a Free Beer Friday, a Talkback, a marketing campaign which starts tomorrow where I'll be putting out videos about the production of the play and behind-the-scenes stuff, interviews with my cast. I want to see how many people I can get in the door and if the city of Houston decides that they want to see more of the Phoenix Group, then they will absolutely have the opportunity to support that and I will push forward and do more and, like I said, I can always throw out that. Oh well, a Phoenix never dies, so who knows?
Speaker 6:Five years pass. I'll be like the Phoenix Group is back. You know it's perfectly named as far as like returning again and again and again from the ashes. But you picked a good time. The summer is a little bit of a dearth as far as a theater goes. Most of our professional theaters run their seasons from September to May. So really, this is a really smart time to do it. So really, this is a really smart time to do it, and offering beer on a Friday in August not a bad move. So there you are. Well, I certainly wish you all the success.
Speaker 6:Pullman Washington is the play, obviously at the match one weekend, kind of Thursday August 14th through Sunday August 17th. Tickets are, of course, available through the Match website and they are paying what you can, which is always an amazing way to go. It really lets people put their own price on it, which I think is really cool. I think that it's one of those things where you really but of course, suggested rate $30, which is pretty cheap for a production here in Houston, especially one that sounds like it's going to be as much fun as this one, because I'm certainly signing up for any self-help group that goes wrong.
Speaker 6:Oh yes, there I could probably conduct a few yeah.
Speaker 4:I'm banking on it myself.
Speaker 6:Maybe that's what we can do afterwards. The Phoenix Group, you and I, we can just do self-help groups.
Speaker 4:Yeah, we can just do self-help seminars that go wrong they do afterwards the phoenix group.
Speaker 6:You and I, we can just do self-help groups. Yeah, we just do self-help seminars that go wrong. They're like I really liked that format, like, yeah, all right, we'll just have the permanent giving up space for us, so it's fine. Yeah, all right, dominico, thank you so much and I wish you all the best and hopefully, when I talk to you again, we're talking about the next project for the Phoenix Group and about how your niece is a successful actress at a very young age.
Speaker 10:I'm Melanie Keller and I'm Natalie Munoz With Muse Rap. A summary of some of the news that are affecting LGBTQ communities around the world for the week ending June 29, 2025. Hungarians and visitors from around the world turned out by the thousands in defiance of Prime Minister Viktor Orban to march in Budapest's LGBTQ Pride Parade. Budapest Pride President Victoria Rodvini told Agence France-Presse we believe there are 180,000 to 200,000 people attending the record-breaking but low-key throng marched on June 28 from Budapest City Hall through the city center before crossing the capital's Urzabet Bridge over the Danube River.
Speaker 10:The autocratic prime minister's governing party ran the law through parliament in March that makes it an offense to hold or attend events that depict or promote homosexuality to minors aged under 18. Orban later acknowledged that Budapest pride was the intended target. Authorities threatened ahead of the march to use facial recognition software to identify parade-goers and punish them with fines of up to 200,000 forints, that's about 586 US dollars. If charged, event organizers face up to a year in prison. Dozens of European Union members of parliament and other politicians from across the continent marched in the parade. Liberal Mayor Gerge Kurasonia helped skirt the official barriers to the event and marched with opposition party members and other city officials. The Massive Pride March dwarfed a neo-Nazi group's tiny white, christian, heterosexual men-and-w women only counter-demonstration.
Speaker 11:What authorities called a gay party in the Indonesian city of Bogor was raided on June 22. 74 men and one woman were arrested in the latest police action in an ongoing crackdown. Reports from the public regarding gay activities initiated the bust on a villa in the city's Puncak neighborhood. According to authorities, sex toys, four condoms and other evidence of alleged gay activities were confiscated. Muslim-majority Indonesia has no secular national laws against same-gender sex. Strong societal taboos remain, however. Queer defendants are often charged with violating the pornography law, which criminalizes material that contravenes community morality. As Amnesty International's statement pointed out, ambiguously worded laws on pornography are often exploited to deliberately target LGBTI people, denying them the basic right to privacy and the right to enter into consensual relationships. The Bogor raid, about 40 miles south of Jakarta on the island of Java, is not unique 56 people were arrested in Jakarta itself on February 1st at an alleged gay party. Yet another Jakarta Hotel so-called gay sex party was raided on May 24th, with nine arrests. The 75 most recent detainees are facing up to 15 years in prison for violating Indonesia's pornography law.
Speaker 10:India's transgender women are legally entitled to recognition as women. This according to a landmark ruling issued by the Andhra Pradesh High Court. India's transgender women are legally entitled to recognition as women. This according to a landmark ruling issued by the Andhra Pradesh High Court. In his June 16th decision, Justice Venkata Jyothirma Pratapah rejected the argument that only women who can bear children qualify as women. He wrote that previous court rulings showed that prohibiting trans women's rights to identify as women amounted to discrimination. Pokala Shabana brought the case to the High Court in 2022. She was seeking protection from her abusive in-laws under a section of the Indian Penal Code. Her husband's parents fought her on the grounds that, as a trans woman, she was not covered by laws forbidding cruelty against a woman by a husband or relatives. The court's decision to uphold Shabana's legal standing as a woman establishes a precedent for similar cases in the future. It ensures that trans women can access the same critical protections against domestic abuse available to cisgender women. However, Shabana lost her case due to lack of evidence of the abuse.
Speaker 11:The US Supreme Court capped its current session on June 27th with two cases that revolve around conservative religious beliefs. One allows parents to shield their public school children from LGBTQ-inclusive material that does not align with their faiths. The other requires health insurance companies to pay for certain types of preventive care, including HIV-blocking medications like PrEP. The first ruling is in Mahmood v Taylor, montgomery County. Public Schools in Maryland had initially allowed parents to opt their children out when LGBTQ-themed books were made available in classrooms in October 2022. That process became excessively cumbersome to administer and there were also concerns that the policy potentially violated anti-discrimination laws. When school officials ended the opt-outs in 2023, devout Christian and Muslim parents then sued to have them reinstated.
Speaker 11:The high court took their side. Far-right Justice Samuel Alito wrote in the 6-3 majority's opinion we have long recognized the rights of parents to direct the religious upbringing of their children and we have held that those rights are violated by government policies that substantially interfere with the religious development of children. There was strong dissent from the court's three progressive justices Sonia Sotomayor, elena Kagan and Katonji Brown. Jackson Sotomayor's scathing minority opinion warned that the ruling threatens the very essence of public education. She wrote decision guts our free exercise precedent and strikes at the core premise of public schools, that children may come together to learn not the teachings of a particular faith, but a range of concepts and views that reflect our entire society. The reverberations of the court's error will be felt, I fear, for generations.
Speaker 10:The second directly LGBTQ-related end-of-term Supreme Court ruling was in the case of Kennedy v Braidwood. It upholds key provisions of the Affordable Care Act that require private health insurance companies to cover preventive care such as cancer screenings, vaccines and the pre-exposure prophylaxis medication known as PrEP, which greatly reduces the risk of transmitting HIV-AIDS. The plaintiffs cited their religious beliefs, claiming that coverage for PrEP encourages and facilitates homosexual behavior. Trump-appointed Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote the opinion for the 6-3 majority. Kavanaugh was joined by the court's three progressive justices Sotomayor, kagan and Brown-Jackson, chief Justice John Roberts and Conservative Justice Amy Coney. Barrett, gay Congressional Equity Caucus Chair, mark Takano praised the ruling, saying after several terrible anti-LGBTQI plus rulings, the Supreme Court today got at least one thing right, and both LGBTQI plus peoples and the wider public's health will be safer because of it. The Supreme Court further rocked the nation with a ruling that could assist Trump's effort to suspend birthright citizenship. Finally.
Speaker 8:I, I wanna be in the room where it happens, the room where it happens, citizenship.
Speaker 11:Finally, a group of queer-supportive US senators organized a defiant Guerrilla Theater Pride Month concert at the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Guerrilla Theater Pride Month concert at the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. The event trolled President Donald Trump's efforts to ban drag and suppress queerness at the venerable Washington DC showplace. Many artists have declined to perform at the center since the Trump takeover and subscription sales for the coming season are down by more than 35 percent. However, on June 23rd, a 144-seat lecture hall in the building featured out-Broadway performers and fierce ally and creator of the highly acclaimed musical Hamilton, lin-manuel Miranda.
Speaker 11:The DC Gay Men's Chorus Pride concert at the center had been canceled, but on this evening they shared the stage with famed playwrights Tony Kushner and Harvey Fierstein. Colorado Senator John Hickenlooper spearheaded the evening's entertainment, joined by out Wisconsin Senator Tammy Baldwin and a few other Senate colleagues. In the words of co-conspirator and Hamilton producer Jeffrey Seller, this is our way of reoccupying the Kennedy Center. This is a form of saying we are here, we exist and you can't ignore us. This is a protest and a political act.
Speaker 10:That's News Wrap, global queer news with attitude for the week ending June 28th 2025. Follow the news in your area and around the world. An informed community is a strong community.
Speaker 11:News Wrap is written by Greg Gordon and Lucia Chappell, produced by Brian DeShazer and brought to you by you.
Speaker 10:Thank you. 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 Melanie Keller Stay healthy. And I'm Natalie.
Speaker 8:Munoz, stay safe, we're here and the colors of the rainbow Surround you near. Oh, they will never win this fight, cause we're stronger than we've ever been before. Oh, sending prayers of love, proud of who we are we stand united. We stand united, sending prayers of hope Stronger than what they know.
Speaker 7:We stand united. We stand united when we stand together. There's nothing we can't achieve, no matter your race or creed. We just gotta believe we are all survivors. We just gotta keep riding. They try to take our pride, but we just gotta keep fighting. The time is right now. No more talking about it. We more than just choreographers, stylists and makeup artists. We are sons and daughters, rappers, doctors and lawyers, and when we stand together, we'll be victorious. Standing friends of love.
Speaker 8:Proud of who we are. We stand united. We stand united, standing friends of love.
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. Debra Moncrief-Bell is co-producer, brett Cullum and David Mendoza-Druzman are contributors. The News Wrap segment is part of another podcast called this Way Out, which is produced in Los Angeles.
Speaker 9: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, Thank you.
