Queer Voices
Queer Voices
August 27 2025 Queer Voices Mayor's LGBTQ Advisory Board Chair Clay Melder, Former Board Chair Jacques Bourgeois, Ethel Cain Concert Review
In this episode of Queer Voices, we open with a concert review of rising trans artist Ethel Cain (the first openly trans artist to reach the Billboard Top Ten), whose Southern Gothic sound and devoted fanbase are shaping the soundtrack of queer youth. We hear directly from fans before and after her Houston show about what her music means to them. Then we turn to the political arena, exploring the future of the Houston Mayor’s LGBTQ+ Advisory Board. New chair Clay Melder, a 2025 Houston Business Journal “40 Under 40” honoree, shares his vision and priorities for the board. Finally, former chair Jacques Bourgeois, president of Bunnies on the Bayou, reflects on his sudden dismissal under Mayor Whitmire and what it means for Houston’s LGBTQ+ community leadership.
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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And now Houston's only primetime radio program dedicated to news and concerns of the lesbian, gay and transgender community. This is Queer Voices.
Speaker 2:Hello everybody, this is Queer Voices, a podcast and radio show on KPFT 90.1 FM that's been on the air for several decades is one of the oldest LGBTQ plus radio shows in the United States. You're going to be hearing a lot from me today. Apologies to the other talented contributors on the show, but this episode is going to be all about the controversial recent news about the Houston Mayor's LGBTQ plus advisory board and its future in shaping and leading our community. I'll be speaking with the former chair of the advisory board and president of one of Texas' largest LGBTQ Plus fundraising events, Bunnies on the Bayou, Jacques Bourgeois, about his sudden dismissal at the hands of Mayor Whitmire after years of serving as chair under the former Mayor Turner. But before our interview with the former chair, we'll hear from the new chair of the advisory board and 2025 Houston Business Journal 40 Under 40 honoree, Clay Melder, on his journey leading up to this point and his vision for chairing this esteemed board. But before we get to our tale of two cities mayor's LGBTQ advisory boards, I provide a review of one of the most popular trans musicians today, Ethel Kane, and her concert at Houston's 713 Music Hall this past Monday.
Speaker 2:Queer Voices starts now. We're exploring the music of Ethel Kane, one of the most beloved rising stars among LGBTQ youth. Today, At just 26 years old, she has over 4.6 million monthly Spotify listeners. Her breakout single American Teenager has topped 100 million streams. This year, her album Preacher's Daughter re-entered the charts at number 10 on the Billboard 200, making her the first openly trans artist to reach the Billboard Top 10. Ethel Kane's music blends Southern Gothic storytelling with atmospheric rock, while exploring queerness, faith, trauma and resilience. To help us understand her cultural pull, I spoke with fans outside of her Houston show this past week.
Speaker 3:Here are two interviews before the concert Hi, my name is Hannah and I love Ethel Kane because she is super inclusive.
Speaker 4:She's super honest and I love her. She has never strayed from who she is.
Speaker 2:She is super authentic and she talks about anything.
Speaker 4:She's an open book. Hi, my name is Candy. One of my favorite things about Ethel Kane is when she said that she will rally the Amish, because that's really, really funny. I also love her consistent activism for trans people and people in Palestine.
Speaker 2:What you just heard were the voices of anticipation. And once the show began, that anticipation transformed into something almost spiritual. Ethel entered shrouded in smoke, silhouetted in backlight by the third song. The stage lit up in trans pride colors and the crowd was shouting every word back at her Songs, built from quiet intimacy into walls of sound, equal parts ethereal and heavy with theatrical lighting that felt like stepping into a gothic ritual. At one point she even stopped mid-song to check on her fans who needed medical attention or security. It wasn't clear, but she stopped the show and after making sure everyone had water and was good and ready to get back in, she dove right back in with compassion and force. The night billed towards the song Thoroughfare a personal highlight for me and closed with American Teenager, which got the whole crowd, both in general admission and in the seats in the risers above, on their feet. Afterward I spoke with a few audience members about what that show meant to them.
Speaker 5:My name's Dakota and I feel like every bone in my body was just obliterated and then put back together. That was the best concert of my life probably. That was amazing. Hello, my name is Charles Avery.
Speaker 5:What I think I love about Ethel Kane is I think she just really captures like the Americana of, like the South and just like I don't know, like, just like all those like conflicting feelings of just like being in the South and just like you know I don. I don't just like the drama of it all. Really she literally has the voice of like an angel. It was like crazy. I was like well, like I know she sounds good, but I was like no, like there's just no way, like that's real, yes, and like just so melancholy. I was like yes, like this is what I needed, like in trump's america, like yes, I really just need someone to like bring me melancholy.
Speaker 5:Cody, he, they. And it was just a surreal experience all around. I feel like wonderful experience, akira, they, them. You know, it was kind of cool. I don't live in Texas, I live in Arkansas. It was kind of cool just being in the building and knowing that this is a safe queer space for the moment in the building and knowing that this is a safe queer space for the moment.
Speaker 2:Hearing those voices, it's clear Ethel Kane is more than just a singer. She's become a touchstone for younger LGBTQ audiences and young audiences, and even really just any audience with feelings and emotions, because Ethel Kane is someone weaving our shared struggles and triumphs into music that feels both personal and communal. For many, her shows aren't just concerts. They're gatherings of queer belonging, and for us here at Queer Voices, it's a glimpse into what the next generation of LGBTQ culture sounds like Haunting, defiant and deeply moving. And with that, the controversial recent news about the Houston Mayor's LGBTQ Plus Advisory Board and its future in shaping and leading our community. We'll hear from the new chair of the Advisory Board and 2025 Houston Business Journal 40 Under 40 honoree, clay Melder, on his journey leading up to this point and his vision for chairing this esteemed board.
Speaker 2:Thank you for listening to Queer Voices on KPFT 90.1 FM or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Davis Mendoza-Duruzman speaking with Clay Melder, the brand new chair of the Houston Mayor's LGBTQ Plus Advisory Board. In addition to his leadership on this board, clay was also named a 2025 Houston Business Journal 40 Under 40 honoree. Clay. Welcome to the show.
Speaker 3:Hi Davis, Thank you for having me. It's an honor to be here.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. I want to start just by saying congratulations. It's certainly looking like your year and it's only August.
Speaker 3:Yeah, thank you, and it's been an exciting journey so far, just for the last few months, as things have started to ramp up.
Speaker 2:And, speaking of that journey, tell us more about yourself. Let us get to know you, your journey leading up to this point, before we get into the journey moving forward as a community.
Speaker 3:you, your journey leading up to this point before we get into the journey moving forward as a community. Sure, so I have been in Houston for actually this month is 10 years. I moved to Houston in 2015 from South Louisiana and I grew up in a very conservative family and kind of went through many periods of just not feeling seen or heard and actually went through a conversion therapy experience in seventh grade, and so I feel like a lot of those things led into where I am now, which is kind of just building myself into a place to make sure that people in the LGBTQ plus community and, honestly, any community, feel seen and feel heard, and so that's kind of been an underlying tone for me in all of the kind of different roles I've had over the years
Speaker 3:which is included in 2020.
Speaker 3:I had the opportunity to chair Amogee Banks, which is I also work at Amogee Bank LGBTQ business resource group, which we call a BRG, and had the opportunity to kind of continue adding layers to it and get more visibility for everybody within those letters in the bank, but also getting the bank better exposed in the LGBTQ plus community through the chamber, the Montrose Center and the normal anomaly and just many, many other nonprofits.
Speaker 3:That was what kind of sparked my interest in leadership roles and looking into boards and just trying to understand where I can make an impact as somebody who kind of likes to put my head down and get work done.
Speaker 3:And so we celebrated a lot of success during that time and I was honored in 2023 as an Outstanding Diversity Champion by the HPJ as well. So the HPJ has certainly been a huge thing for me and I've just seemed to always be on their radar. It's been a huge honor, and recently I joined the Montrose Center's Community Advisory Board and I also participate on a few other boards Big Brothers, big Sisters, united Against Human Trafficking and participate in United Way's Young Leader Council and I share all of that because I feel like a lot of those well, all of those roles kind of play into the exposure in the different areas I hope to add value for the mayor's LGBTQ advisory board as well and I feel like they kind of just represent all these different facets of the community, but all of them have some type of relationship to our LGBTQ plus community too.
Speaker 2:Wow and this is a rhetorical question but how do you find the time for all of it? That's incredible, Wow.
Speaker 3:I would say, first of all, I have an amazing job and great work-life balance. I'm in school too, at Sam Houston, and so I just don't like to sleep, I guess.
Speaker 3:But my partner, Alberto, who we've been together almost 11 years, is incredibly supportive and does a really good job of checking me when he feels like I'm raising my hand for too many things.
Speaker 3:But he also knows that I just love being involved and I really love being busy and I like to see good work getting done, and if it means leading it, I'm happy to do it.
Speaker 3:But for me it's just about being in a position to help drive reasonable and quantifiable change. And so I think it's people ask me that a lot and people people kind of pop their eyes at me when I kind of share all the different things that I do. But it's not about wanting the credentials for doing it, it's not about saying I do it, it's just about things I care about, and I don't know if I really feel like it's a lot when it's something I care about. And so I mean, for example, United Against Human Trafficking. Human trafficking is so underspoken and not really exposed and talked about in Houston, but it's a huge problem and as I got to know the organization better, I just kept thinking like why would I not want to be involved in something like this and why would I not want to be involved in a way where I can help. I do a lot of nonprofit work in my job too, and so it just has this kind of natural.
Speaker 3:It's almost like a marriage with all of these different organizations, and so, to respond directly, I just don't know if I feel like it's work, it's like my pleasure and it's an honor to be able to do all of these things.
Speaker 2:And speaking of being involved, tell us how you got involved to begin with with the advisory board, how you were asked to chair, how you initially reached out, how you responded to the news.
Speaker 3:Sure, it's kind of been an evolving process for the last few months.
Speaker 3:I have very good relationships with several of our LGBTQ leaders in town and Tammy Wallace, avery Bellew Councilman, mario Castillo, ian Haddock at the Normal Anomaly and so many others and I've always kind of expressed interest in trying to find the right avenue for me as a nonprofit banker who is not really leading a nonprofit and I don't have the bandwidth to maybe lead an organization or be a huge part of one.
Speaker 3:But what I could do to start kind of playing a role and trying to help bridge some gaps and get everyone together and and just kind of help, just kind of help our community become a little bit less segmented and segregated within ourselves. And so I heard from the mayor's liaison scout who I feel like a lot of people know she's very active in the community too. I want to say it was right before Pride Month, maybe so late May, and I was kind of informed that I had been recommended by several people to the mayor and so Scout wanted to talk more about that and she was kind of going around and talking to several different people because the mayor wanted to get the about that and she was kind of going around and talking to several different people because the mayor wanted to get the board kind of, I guess, activated again, if you will.
Speaker 3:The prior board has been in place for for quite a while and was really put together by Mayor Turner in 2016 it kind of to honor the Pulse nightclub tragedy and and it was put together with such a beautiful reason and very significant, and all of the prior board members have already laid such a good foundation. I mean, people know about it, people know that we're here, and so it was just for Mayor Whitmire was a matter of bringing in new faces and kind of, I guess, if you will, a new generation of LGBTQ leaders, and there are a couple of folks that are actually on the new board if you want to call it new who served on prior iterations of the board. So we have some of those voices there to help us keep that foundation in place. But going back to just my experience getting involved, we kind of had some conversations through June and I started just. I naturally just love to share my opinions and suggestions and so, as we were talking through my thoughts for the board and just what I would want to contribute as a member of the board, the conversation kind of evolved and Scout circled back and asked that I put thought into chairing the board and just kind of what my vision would be if I were to do that. And so we continued meeting on that and I had the opportunity to look at the board slate and I'll say there are some amazing, amazing, just long standing community leaders on this board. And so it felt a little intimidating to respond yes whenever I was asked about chairing and normally I respond very fast and I'm quite the yes person but for this one there's just a lot of weight to this, and so I took a couple of weeks to think about it and I went to a lot of my just my advisors, some of the leaders I've already mentioned, and nobody seemed surprised that I had been asked and nobody seemed afraid of it, surprised that I had been asked and nobody seemed afraid of it. And so, kind of by way of their confidence in me, it made me feel a little bit more confident to say yes. And so in July I let Scout know that I would be willing to do it.
Speaker 3:A couple of my asks at the very beginning were to have some time with the mayor one-on-one and also to have the mayor approach our board early on.
Speaker 3:And my third ask was to make sure that the board, first of all, was a little smaller.
Speaker 3:I know the significance of the 49 original members is amazing, but now that we're trying to move into more of a position to be out in the community a lot and to be able to hone in on objectives and things that we'd like to see accomplished, I felt like pretty much cutting it in half was a great start, so that we have a little bit more just to be able to hone in a little better.
Speaker 3:And so the diversity part of it was also, honestly, probably my top priority. I wanted to make sure, not just racially but just across the span of LGBTQ and plus everybody was represented to some extent, so that we have voices from all sides of the community and all of the different organizations of big, small, medium and various corporations very proud of how that's come together. I think Scout did an excellent job with making sure that we're well represented, and so that has been. Probably the most exciting part for me is looking at the racial makeup, the makeup of people who identify with different genders and different identities, and then also making sure there's representation from the trans community, because the trans community is in a very sensitive place right now and I wanted the board to be positioned to advocate to the mayor in those situations when we need to.
Speaker 3:And the last thing I'll share on kind of the board journey and how it materialized all of my primary asks I mean we're not even a full month into the board being term starting They've all been answered. We've had the chance to sit down with the mayor for nearly an hour this week and I had the chance to chat with him one on one a little bit about how we could be, how we could help him and how I would like to see him kind of keep a listening ear and an open door for us. And so it's gotten off to a really, really positive start.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's really exciting and I do have questions about that exciting first meeting y'all had this week, the week of August 18th, for our listeners. But before I get into that, you mentioned the prior iterations of the advisory board and the incredible foundation that they laid. How is their work supporting y'all's work moving forward and what has that transition looked like?
Speaker 3:So, with the board being kind of, I guess, started again with a fresh set of individuals, the transition has been a little bit abrupt, just because the prior board was already kind of in a place where I think there was some rolling off. And while I don't know all of the nuances, what I'll say is we've gotten a lot of support from prior board members, including the prior chair, who put out a really beautiful statement about, just, you know, the foundation that they laid over the years. And any board is hard work, and so there's just no. You know, we want to make sure that nobody's hard work is discounted and brushed aside.
Speaker 3:And so I'm actually working on a chance to kind of sit down with the prior board chair here soon to just make sure that I understand what they were working on and that I understand what was important to them. If there was a stone unturned or if there was a door that's still cracked open, what can we do to pick that up and make sure that it's not lost in transition? And so I'm really excited for that to happen, because, even though you can call this a new board, it's not. I mean, the board has been in place nearly 10 years and so there are a lot of what I would call just legacy community members who everybody knows who they are and they have done so much work for the Houston LGBTQ community, for I mean decades on decades. And so you know, it's only fair and right that we make sure that we're hearing them too and caring over things that they feel are still maybe hanging in, the kind of hanging in the balance.
Speaker 3:And so, even though the transition is still transitioning, if you will, it's gone well and I was really pleased and just very honestly honored that the prior chair felt so positive and just so encouraged about the new board and the new members. And and again, if you look at the board slate which we've now posted, it's online on the city of Houston's page for like they have like a page you can Google it where you can look at the boards, all the mayoral advisory boards and city boards and so if you look at the names, I mean there's just an impressive group of people. And so if you look at the names, I mean there's just an impressive group of people, and so we definitely are going to be able to get some good work accomplished.
Speaker 2:Yeah, y'all have a very intentionally diverse board. But back to that, that first meeting that y'all had this week, tell us how that went. What were some items of discussion?
Speaker 3:Sure. So we kind of had a pivot in our agenda because, like I mentioned, it was very important that we heard from Mayor Whitmire. He's incredibly busy. He's still less than two years into his term and so one of the things he mentioned and this is what I've been trying to stay very aware of is, I mean, being that, new into your term, there's still a lot of reactive decision making that has to happen.
Speaker 3:And one of the things that I asked about when this board was kind of being activated again, if you will, by the mayor was why? Because it's been a year and a half a little longer why now? And one of the things that and this will this is going to fall into your question because this was covered in our first meeting. I mean, the mayor and the scout both kind of shared that that you know he had been spending a lot of time dealing with just so many other things that had kind of fallen right into his lap. I think everybody knows trash and recycling, pickup has kind of been a struggle, and so there's been a lot of focus on that. And that's a lot more encompassing because that kind of falls into all of the households around the city and then just the different things going on with HISD and just a laundry list of other things. And so it was very obvious to me in our first meeting that my concern and ask about why now was being answered. The mayor pulled us into his office about halfway through our meeting and before that, our agenda, we really just had a chance to sit down and chat and get to know each other Before we visited with the mayor.
Speaker 3:What I shared with the board, you know, people have asked me over and over what are your plans, what are your goals? And while I do have some, I mean my underlying and just I mean top of the mind goal is to listen, because there are 20, are 21, 22 people on the board and all of those people are leaders. All of those people have a reason that they said yes. Nobody had to say yes, and there's reasons that people endorsed and recommended them and reasons that the mayor appointed them, and so I want to understand all of that before I come back around and say this is what we're going to do or this is what we would like to see, or because I, you know Clay can have a lot of opinions and a lot of goals and aspirations, but I want to hear it from the board members so that we can all be together and unify on what we want to accomplish.
Speaker 3:And so we really spent the first 30 minutes or so of our meeting doing that, just saying hello to each other and mingling around and sharing a couple of reasons that we were on the board and some of our background. And then we were kind of attentive to the mayor's schedule and kind of trying to cooperate with that. And so he kind of went above and beyond what I expected and had someone come take us from our meeting space into his office and we were able to sit with him in a conference kind of conference situation in his office and listen to him for nearly an hour. And what really spoke to me was he took the time to ask every single person, literally all of us who we were, where we were from and why we were on the board. And it's interesting because that's exactly what I was doing before we went down there or up there. And so it showed me that he's in listening mode too and trying to understand what's important to our community right now.
Speaker 3:We also had a chance to hear from him on, I mean, his five plus decades in different political positions, particularly as a state senator, and all of the different things that he did to support our community, including the trans community, to everybody and just. But he was very specific on each kind of each of it the trans community and the gay community and people who are in our community who were impacted by AIDS and HIV and he just was very supportive and just had and really pushed a lot against the grain when he didn't have to in a very conservative state, and so I was really impressed with that. And looking at people's faces as he was sharing these things, I think that a lot of people were realizing a lot of history from Mayor Whitmire that they maybe weren't aware of or, if they were, I'm sure it resonates differently when someone shares with you you know, face to face, like that but I think it left us with the impression that he really hopes and plans to have an open door policy for our board, particularly through me and the board going to me on things that I can go back to the mayor on or to his liaisons on, and so I think we all left really motivated and excited. Once we got done meeting with the mayor, we had a chance to take photos with him and to kind of get to know chief of staff and just some of the other folks that were in the room and make sure that we were all familiar with one another. And we also talked about things we would like to accomplish and kind of the visibility that we want the board to have and so some of the plans and things that the mayor even some of them he suggested is kind of getting more acquainted with our council members, having some kind of open environment settings where people can come in and talk to us and be there with us and maybe some of some council members, maybe at some point the mayor, when we can kind of get that figured out and scheduled.
Speaker 3:And so he was very open to those things and actually suggested kind of the open reception with council members so that we can make sure we're hearing and talking to the council members across the city, because those will also be a really important piece of the puzzle as we try to start getting initiatives moving and accomplished and making sure that we're on the same page as city council.
Speaker 3:And so I think that's a really great starting point and my plan, kind of after that meeting concluded, is I started yesterday with sitting down one-on-one with each board member, so I have another 20 or so to go, but I just got started and through the next four to six weeks my plan is to sit down one-on-one, understand a lot about who they are and honestly develop what I would call close enough to a friendship with each of our board members so that we can continue working together. And my hope is from there we start structuring our committees and kind of making sure committees check into what the community is wanting to see, and I think listening sessions will help get us there, and so that's. Another plan too is to start looking for places to do that, whether it's the Montreux Center, whether it's somewhere else in town I say the Montreux Center because it's such a hub for everything in our community but anywhere, I'm making sure that we're spreading across the city and listening to everybody.
Speaker 2:Yeah, thank you for outlining that vision, and that actually answered my last question, but it raised a follow-up question. Is that you know, in our region we have a lot of queer-serving coalitions and boards, such as Harris County's LGBTQI Plus Commission and Queens of Houston, and so you mentioned listening sessions but wanting to hear more, as we close off, about ways for community members to get involved with y'all's work and y'all's intentions to get involved with other regional activities and coalitions.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and the commission is a great thing to mention. I'm familiar with several people on that commission, including Thomas Lopez, who I've known for a long time, and so my hope is to start connecting with them too. I think a combined meeting at some point where we can have both boards together just to talk about some shared initiatives and also, maybe moving into 2026, like plans to come together and when there are community summits and I know that there's many NFPs starting to plan those, and the Mantra Center has already started that last year is how can we be present in those settings together and unified? Because, even though the county is broader than the city, when we come together, I mean we're going to be representing millions of people, and so I think there's just a lot of power in that, and I do plan on seeing us collaborate specifically with the commission on several things and to answer how the community can get involved, one of the things I'll be doing soon and so, hopefully, if any of our leaders or our board members or people who are volunteers that participate in any of the nonprofits that benefit the LGBTQ plus community, I encourage you to reach out to me so that I know who you are and where you are.
Speaker 3:I'm already trying to do that on my own, but one person can only scope out so many things, and hopefully the board members too will kind of help me kind of bubble some of those up.
Speaker 3:So I make sure we're seeing and talking to everyone, but my plan is to sit down with those community members whether it's in a group setting or one at a time, I don't know but I want to make sure that all of them have a seat at the table. When it comes to being at our table for the city's board, for the mayor's board, and so my plan from here is just to continue being in listening mode, and I would encourage literally anybody listening it really doesn't matter if you're a leader, anybody in the community to reach out. Go to the city's website, find the board members on the website, email us, call us, reach out and tell us what you're thinking and how we can benefit and what you want to see from the board. That that is what we're here for, and so it's important to me to hear from everybody honestly, allies included, and all of the above and so kind of to close out that the response to that, I just would.
Speaker 3:I would really ask that everybody just know that we're going to be out and about. We are already looking at I think one of the first committees everyone will be in agreement on is some type of events committee where we can start getting a community calendar, if you will, uh for us, for the board, uh together, so that we can start showing up for things, uh, not just for the organizations you see everywhere, for all of them, because they're all doing great things. I actually go to the Truth Project's open mic nights occasionally and it's some of the most touching and powerful testimonies and just talent that I've ever seen, and so let's say things like that that happened throughout town that not everybody may know about. I would just love to continue knowing more about that and what those events are and where they are. And one other thing, too, is as small and kind of silly as it sounds. The first thing I said was we need name tags so that when we're out people say, oh, that's one of the mayor's board members.
Speaker 4:I have something to say and you just walk up and talk.
Speaker 3:I mean, that's one of the mayor's board members, I have something to say and, like you, just walk up and talk. I mean that's what we're there for and so I already mentioned I would happily sponsor that. I just want us to have name tags so people know who we are and where we are, and so, as you see us, stop us. That was my ask of the board and that is what we're here for. We're in listening mode for the next several months.
Speaker 2:Thank you for sharing this. I've been speaking with Clay Melder, the brand new chair of the Houston Mayor's LGBTQ Plus Advisory Board in 2025. Houston Business Journal 40 Under 40. Honoree Clay, thank you so much for joining us.
Speaker 2:Thank you, davis, and we look forward to the work ahead with the former chair of the advisory board and president of one of Texas's largest LGBTQ plus fundraising events, Bunnies on the Bayou, Jacques Bourgeois, about his sudden dismissal at the hands of Mayor Whitmire after years of serving as chair under the former Mayor Turner. Thank you for listening to Queer Voices. I'm Davis Mendoza-Druzman and today I'm speaking with Jacques Bourgeois, a longtime Houston LGBTQ plus advocate, former chair of the mayor's LGBTQ plus advisory board and president of the Bunnies on the Bayou. And president of Bunnies on the Bayou, one of Texas's largest LGBTQ plus fundraising events. Recently, Jock has been at the center of a political shakeup involving Houston mayor John Whitmire's administration and the advisory board he once led. Welcome to the show. Jock hey, thanks for having me. Absolutely, I don't want to start this interview with the end. I want to start this interview with the beginning. So tell me about the beginning of your journey with the Mayor's LGBTQ Plus Advisory Board and some accomplishments and some things that you're proud of.
Speaker 7:Um, before we get into this end, um I would say so the start with my start with the board, uh, it kind of goes back before the board existed. Uh, kind of to go back. It started with hero. So, like 2014, dealing with, uh, mayor parker, uh and houston equal rights ordinance uh, that's really where I kind of got my start in just the real activism in our city and being involved in our local politics. And from there was towards the end of her term, you know, just being involved with Mae Parker.
Speaker 7:We had the privilege of being invited to a. I say we, a lot of the queer leadership within Houston that was involved with the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance. You know, your friend Watson's, your Mark, your Monica Roberts, your Brandon Max, etc. We're all invited by then candidate Mayor Turner when he was initially running for office. And I I share this little quip of everybody is in this dark room we're all having our one onon-ones with Mayor Turner as candidate. We're all having little one-on-ones with everyone. And he walked up to me and said hi, I'm Sylvester Turner, I'm running for mayor, and the first words out of my mouth were if you don't continue with what Mayor Parker has been doing with Hero or whatever, I'll run against you and I'll win, um, so kind of set a tone with him and he bust out laughing and we became fast friends then because he was like, if I don't do a good job, you're gonna run against me, uh, which I know I didn't really have the cloud cloud, but it's a really funny story and we started a friendship from there or professional relationship from then on, just kind of like he would see me either at my office or he would see me out and about in community doing things and he's like, oh, there's that guy who's going to run against me.
Speaker 7:But I had the opportunity whenever the advisory board was commissioned in 2016, post the Pulse massacre that happened in Orlando and Mayor Turner's response to that massacre was to create an advisory board of 49 people, which is a lot of people. But I was not on the initial board. It was initially chaired by, I believe, harrison Guy and Melanie Pang Also my co-brand marshal, melanie Pang, shout out. It was initially led by them and I was inducted into the board in 2018 as a member and I've served ever since. In November 2023, our chair, jeremy Edwards. He stepped down to be a part of the county's board commission and I was his co-chair for so technically, I've been the chair for a minute, but I was his co-chair and the bag was left in my table.
Speaker 7:November 2023 going into you know a very into the election year into, you know, a very into the election year. So we had now Mayor Whitmire and then Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee in the runoff. So we kind of we as a board being neutral just kind of stepped back and let everything lie where it did, land where it did and we gave then Mayor Whitmire, once he did win the election, some time. You know you're coming on board, you're getting your stuff together. You know there's a lot to do. We gave them some time to get their stuff together, which also gave me some time to get our stuff together Because, as you mentioned before, I also run buddies on the Bayou. So there's a lot of structure. I require a lot of structure in things, so you can't juggle a bunch of stuff if there's no structure in something.
Speaker 7:So there was a lot of restructuring of our advisory board to have some dedicated chairs, dedicated leaders within it and we did a significant slim down. Granted, at this point, coming out of COVID, or out of COVID, we were no longer 49 people, we were maybe 19 at this point. So it's much, much, much smaller and our goal was really to become a chamber of resource, very much mirroring what our Chamber of Commerce, our LGBTQI Chamber of Commerce does, but providing resources for community and that's kind of where we've landed. But part of that challenge with that was getting in touch with Mayor Whitmire. We've made several requests and just kind of fell on dead ears. We would get advisors, but you know, it's not exactly the same. We had very robust relationship with Mayor Turner Even, you know, going back from Mayor Turner, you know Mayor Parker was very involved with community, even though there wasn't an advisory board at the time. You know, I kind of think of like the task force that was for Hero was kind of a lot of the same.
Speaker 7:But you know you kind of lose that one on one interaction. But also you and now I'm rambling you kind of lose that one on one interaction. But also there's a brand new administration and office that's making pretty significant changes within the city. So we want to make sure we're. Our big thing was making sure what we were planning as a board was in line with what it is that Mayor Whitmire would like to do and what his priorities are. So we're not going completely left and he wants to go right and then everybody's in a tight and inside of an entire cluster, so to say.
Speaker 7:But we, like I said, we made several requests to meet with mayor. We kind of did not hear from him and fast forward to November and January with the new federal administration federal administration, you know, a lot of communities lost steam with a lot of what to do, and we kind of reached back out and kind of said, hey, we can strategize together. And we still kind of didn't hear anything until June, which now we're, now we're current. We didn't really hear anything until June when, I guess, mayor Whitmire and his team posted a pride post and a few people online said something along the lines of what happened to your advisory board. And that's when Channel 13 reached out to us and I kind of gave them like, hey, we're just trying to get his attention, we're still here, we meet bi-monthly and if we're not meeting bi-monthly, we are in a group chat always. I have some great people on this board who are super enthusiastic about, you know, getting inside of the jails and making sure the surveys that we do send out to community are just making sure we're getting services down to people or at least answering people in community and reminding them that we're here, so to say.
Speaker 7:But I did an interview with Channel 13, because if you can't get information from within the government, you go to the fourth estate journalist. Hey, you go to the fourth estate, kind of put some pressure and say, hey, we're trying to meet with you, we'd love to meet with you, we want to strategize with you, yeah, yeah, yeah. And after that interview we had a conversation maybe two weeks later with the board and commission's director where they informed us that, hey, we would like to move a different direction. We're thinking of a board refresh, which I was super OK with. You know, you kind of speak up and you kind of expect like, hey, maybe we need to move another way and we I want to keep that clear we work, we serve at the leisure of the administration. We're an advisory board, you know. But we, oh we were informed that they were looking to do a refresh of the entire board, refresh of the board. And I was like okay. And I asked what does transition look like? And does is the current board allowed to, you know, reapply? And we were told you can reapply, et cetera. And but my big thing was what does transition look like? And then I was informed that we'd be in touch and maybe a week or so, maybe a week or two, we'll touch back with another meeting. And I was like, okay, that's fine, you know. And I sent out an email to the rest of the board members informing them that, hey, they want to transition, go ahead and apply here online, et cetera. And then, maybe a week later, everybody basically received a termination letter from the city, which I wasn't really expecting it to be so cut and dry of. Just okay, now you're out.
Speaker 7:There was discussion of a transition and that's what I conveyed to the rest of the board, but it really just felt abrupt and a little retaliatory. Not a little, it felt very retaliatory, which was fine if it was just me as the chair, but there's a lot of people on the board who were doing fantastic work and just really weren't ready for that. But it is what it is and I have nothing but like great enthusiasm for this next board because I really feel like the energy for the board, there's visibility for the board now, and that was always one of our primary functions was to make sure there's visibility for this board, was to make sure there's visibility for this board, make sure that there's accountability on behalf of the administration, to make sure this board and commission continues. Because a lot of the questions that we did have, without being able to actually meet with mayor and meet with the new administration, was do they want this to continue? And I'm really hopeful and really happy for the new board because I feel like they are left with the visibility of a new board and the accountability on behalf of the administration, because there's a weirdness in our community of, hey, you've got to make sure this is done right, because you kind of fumbled the bag a little bit and I don't have any animosity or whatever.
Speaker 7:Um, I know you. You said before we started this interview just like oh, and I'm like it's, it's not that deep. I promise it is. This is a board commission. It is all right. Like everybody, I'm fine. I am remarkably busy. All the time I am booked and busy, I I'm 100% fine. But that's pretty much the story right there. I've rambled for like five minutes.
Speaker 2:So you said in an interview that you reached out to the mayor five or six times over 18 months without success. Is that correct? That's correct. Can you walk us through what those requests look like? Was it through like email or phone call? And what responses you got back? Was it like through scouts or yeah, walk us through through that process of reaching out to the mayor.
Speaker 7:So it's a mixture of a few the. The initial reach out is through these. There is a portal in the city's website to actually make a request to meet with mayor and that is across the board. Any and everybody can make that request. It's kind of the public meetings type of thing and I believe it goes through like Moe's or something like that. We made our initial request through there and got nothing back.
Speaker 7:Fast forward to about May of last year of 2024, I think somebody gave me a contact with the new board and commission's chair, scott Odegaard, and I was able to. I was actually meeting with or I was speaking in front of council in regards to the two pride situation that we had going on and just because mayor and council member Castillo had made a comment about why do we have two prides and I went in front of council to really reiterate there's really not a reason for us to have two prides and it actually creates a safety hazard because there's a lot of coordination that happens for these large events and our primary goal as a board and commission, the primary reason we were created was to make sure nothing like Pulse ever happens again and that raised the flag to our entire board of this is a high, high, high risk.
Speaker 7:We need to actually talk to city and to council and see if they can influence us to like it's not a problem to have two prides or whatever, but back to back a week after each other, it's a lot and it creates a higher risk. A week after each other, it's a lot and it creates a higher risk. And, ironically, the very next day a whole FBI report came out about it being higher risk. Am I rambling again? Because I'm rambling again?
Speaker 2:This is good, but I also this is a good like segue I think into like another question that I had as you were speaking earlier. So the mayor's office has said that the board, the mayor's office, had said that the board, the mayor's office, had said that your board had been inactive and that most members terms expired back in 2020. But, from your perspective as a chair up until this year, how active was the board during that time?
Speaker 7:We've been active pretty much this entire time. We would meet, like I said, we'd meet bimonthly officially and then our executive team would usually meet monthly, so fairly active. The answer to that is were we able to really accomplish or do anything? The answer is not really no, because we didn't have input from mayor and part of what we were told, whenever we actually did get a conversation with Scout, was we are to function as again a full circle back to.
Speaker 7:I require structure to run multiple things. We were informed that we are required to run the board ourselves as a as pretty much as private citizens. So there's really no city support. There's work. So we're not a governmental entity as an advisory board. We are not a nonprofit as an advisory board, so that if you understand anything, anything of the nonprofit world, there's a lot of coordination stuff. Google workspace is very expensive. If you're not a non-profit, you can't get it free and you kind of work through the grace of other non-profits and fortunately I was able to do a lot of stuff through bunnies on the bayou just because I'm the chief officer and my board had approved like well, we can help out the board commission, just because I'm the chief officer and my board had approved like well, we can help out the board commission just a little bit here.
Speaker 7:But once it started to get too expensive, it's like we got to cut it off and that's part of the problem is there was really no structure from the city. How do we actually function financially? Are we a business, Are we not? There's a lot of question. If we go away, where is where does how do we fundraise? You know there was a lot of questions that we were not able to get answered. So, and whenever you're completely volunteer run board it's, it's hard to corral the cats when there's no direction from you know up top. Do I still want y'all to exist? Did that make sense? I'm sorry.
Speaker 2:No, yeah, no, that is helpful, and I also wanted to touch on something else that you had mentioned earlier, but the red line is pulling in, so I might need to hold off or I might need to repeat myself. So, as you mentioned, the advisory board was formed in response to a tragedy Pulse in 2016. And it's meant to be a channel between the mayor's office and the LGBTQ plus community. What message do you think the mayor is sending by dissolving the current board without any dialogue? How does that speak to the mission? Do you think?
Speaker 7:Well, I kind of think the overall message isn't anything towards like not wanting to have a board and commission. I think the overall message about that was uh, and we kind of got that with like the tires of, I'll just kind of do whatever I want whenever I want. That's kind of terrible to say, um, but it it kind of eroded the trust of community that we've had with our elected officials, or our highest elected officials in this city, because it made people ask questions of well, do you want to have this? Which shouldn't have been a question any of us have had to ask is do you want to have this? It should be a given because mayor, support of community dates back to 2003, you know, with um lauren to be ferguson, lauren to be ferguson with the texas autonomy laws when he was, in words, the texas legislature. So it's they were.
Speaker 7:I think it brought into question just his, his track record. Um, for most part of you should want to champion this more. Why aren't you? And the excuse that we kind of got with that was there's 170 some odd boards of commissions. We don't have time for all of that, but fast forward to two months ago. They suddenly had time to interview 50, 60 odd people um and replace the board for us um in place of us or whatever, without our input as a as the current standing board, you know. So zero transition. It just said I don't care what you want, this is what we're gonna do and that makes me sound like a terrible person but like still within his right to do.
Speaker 7:But it kind of went like baby, that's not the move.
Speaker 2:As a follow up. What do you think is the move? What would you feel is the right way to bring in these new voices? Sure, but without losing that continuity. Without losing that continuity.
Speaker 7:I think what I brought up to the director in the first place was the question I immediately asked was what does transition look like? Because it's not about we need to sit here and be the ones to be the champion. That's never the case. We plant seeds as leaders. We plant seeds and we walk away and let something grow Like. That's something you that's the core of me. I'm going to say that I'm very much. The core of me is I'm going to plant a seed and walk away. I don't need to be the end all be all champion for that.
Speaker 7:My ego is not there, but at least the transition of we've been working on a lot of stuff. There's, uh, a lot of historical stuff. You know that we've been working on since 2016. You know that just needs to have that constant flow and it just felt very abrupt to just go boom, gone, or we don't care about it, we'll start fresh. And that's that's a disadvantage to the new board, honestly, because you're making them start off without any like prior information or prior structure. That could be slightly beneficial or slightly helpful or whatever it could be or it couldn't be whatever. But, like, part of that transition is closure for, you know, the current board.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Thank you for that. A couple of questions left. Next week I have an interview with the new chair of the mayor's LGBTQ advisory committee, and you mentioned that the mayor's move may have eroded public trust in the LGBTQ community due to this administration's abrupt proceedings. So how can the mayor and his administration in your eyes earn back that trust?
Speaker 7:Just by doing right by community, doing right by this board. You know the new board that's coming online. You know being accountable to them and actually meeting with them, that'd be fantastic. And, like I said before, I have nothing but the highest hopes for this new board and I'm excited that part of what our board, going out on the note that we kind of went out on, gave them a lot of, has given them a lot of visibility and a lot of, I would say, a little bit of leverage with mayor. That wasn't there before. You know, for our on behalf of our community, because at the end of the day, it's about making sure our community has the resources and has the representation that matter. That is what really, really matters. You know, as any random drag queen would say at my drag, it's not about me.
Speaker 2:Well, thank you for that. A couple final questions. Thank you for that. A couple final questions, yeah, so a couple final questions. What is next for you? What are next steps for you in your life and in your journey in terms of advocacy and work with the lgbtq community?
Speaker 7:we'd love to learn, we'd love to know more my journey moving forward is well, it's always going to be bunnies involved, that's for sure. Um lord, come join us. But overall, like my journey, community is always going to continue. Um, I love the houston lgbtqia community. It is, uh, my core. I've been active in community since 2009, um back whenever some friends and I started houston gamers, way back when. Um, like, I'm always going to be involved, I'm always going to be an advocate, I'm always going to be a champion and, you know, especially with this new board coming online, I'm always going to be behind them. If they ever need anything or whatever, like, I'm here by all means. I'm always an avid supporter of our community. You know, liga bigaiga first. Um lgbtqa plus people first. I didn't mean to say liga bigotiga. It's such a stupid acronym. I love it I love that.
Speaker 2:and finally, what's your message to houston's lgbtqa plus community about staying engaged, especially when it comes to holding leadership accountable and making sure our voices are heard?
Speaker 7:My message to them about get involved, get involved, get engaged at every and any level, because we need it, especially now, under our current administration regime, or whatever you want to call it. Even within our legislate, our local legislator, we need as many new leaders as new leaders, old leaders, et cetera, because the burnout's real. I will tell you that about a lot of our community leaders, the burnout is very, very real and we need as many people as possible who are passionate. A leader looks like what you want yourself to look like. You don't have to be degreed to the tens and nines or whatever. You just have to care and be passionate, that's it.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much for that. I've been speaking with Jacques Bourgeois, a longtime Houston LGBTQ plus advocate, former chair of the mayor's LGBTQ plus Advisory Board and president of Bunnies on the Bayou, one of Texas' largest LGBTQ Plus fundraising events. Jacques Bourgeois, thank you so much.
Speaker 1:Thank you. 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 Davis Mendoza-Druzman Ethan Michelle Gans. Mel Peterson and Joel Tatum are contributors. The News Wrap segment is part of another podcast called this Way Out, which is produced in Los Angeles.
Speaker 6:Some of the material in this program has been edited to improve clarity and runtime. This program does not endorse any political views or animal species. Views, opinions and endorsements are those of the participants and the organizations they represent. In case of death, please discontinue use and discard remaining products.
Speaker 1:For Queer Voices. I'm Glenn Holt.
