Show Notes
From standing up to the governor at 13 years old, to helping create the San Francisco Protocol Implementation Task Force to educate the city on how to treat trans people, Afro-Latinx trans artist and health educator Yoseñio V. Lewis is a lifelong activist. In this conversation with host Nico Raquel, Yoseñio shares how he strives to become both a role model for and collaborator with younger generations to shape the future. In response, Nico shares the importance of welcoming perspectives outside their "bubble," and Nico and Jae reflect on the complications of "looking queer."
This limited-series audio endeavor is sponsored by California State Library and hosted by bilingual Storycorps veteran Nico Raquel and “Unapologetically Us” producer Je’nae Singh (a.k.a. Jae). Listen in as Nico and Jae do some deep engaging and listening with a rich array of California LGBTQIA2S+ elder activists and luminaries, reflecting on our community, our movement, and what older and younger generations have to learn from each other.
The Golden Queers is produced, hosted and edited by Jae Singh and Nico Raquel, with music provided by Karl Casey at White Bat Audio. Find the Golden Queers online at thegoldenqueers.org. Executive producers for The Outwords Archive are Jack MacCarthy and Bliss, and OUTWORDS’ executive director is Mason Funk. OUTWORDS captures, preserves, and shares the stories of LGBTQ+ elders, to build community and catalyze social change. More info at theoutwordsarchive.org. The Golden Queers is funded by a generous grant from the California State Library’s Oral History Project. Special thanks to this week's storyteller: Yoseñio Lewis. Additional thanks to Lynnore Goldfarb and Julie Roley.
More from Queering Precedent
Stonewall veteran Christy Henderson-Jenkins’ epic life story includes a run-in with MLK, surviving the serial killer known as the Grim Sleeper, and an institutionalization at Bellevue Hospital that galvanized her dear friends Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera. We’re closing out this series by centering the knowledge of the legal system that comes from lived experience.
Bamby Salcedo is the founder of the TransLatin@ Coalition, as well as the first trans Latina to testify in front of Congress. She lays out the “American nightmare” for many trans women who immigrate to the United States, the relationship between immigration detention and the carceral system, and how TransLatin@ Coalition is fighting back.
Intersex activism power couple Anne and Suegee Tamar-Mattis met in the San Francisco Street Patrol, intervening in homophobic hate crimes. Together, they unpack the legal hurdles to ending intersex surgeries, the role of the trans community in the early intersex movement, and how “backlash is baked into any progress.”
“Tío” Marcus Arana has been a force of nature in transgender, Two-Spirit, and intersex activism for decades. He shares how different tribes are re-integrating the sacred role of Two-Spirit community members, the intrinsic link between trans liberation and Two-Spirit liberation, and his plans for using the bathroom in federal buildings - and also, why to plant flowers.
Dr. Marci Bowers has been called “The Beyoncé of Bottom Surgery,” among other honorifics. She gets into the biological fallacy of binary sex, and the history of medical transition.