A Queer Understanding
Weekly conversations about all things queer. A space for members of the LGBTQIA+ community to share our stories, struggles, and triumphs, and talk about how we're breaking glass ceilings and making an impact on society.
A Queer Understanding
Vic Basile: Trailblazing LGBTQ Activism & Bending Toward Justice
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What motivates someone to dedicate their life to LGBTQ+ activism and public service? Join us as we sit down with Vic Basile, a pioneering leader in the LGBTQ community, to unpack his extraordinary journey, from his early days as a VISTA volunteer to becoming the first executive director of the Human Rights Campaign (HRC). Vic shares the motivations behind his newly authored book, "Bending Toward Justice," a profound look into the evolution of HRC and a tribute to its founder, Steve Endean. Discover the pivotal moments of LGBTQ political advocacy and the foundational goals that have shaped the movement.
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Activist Career and LGBTQ Leadership
Speaker 1Vic Basile has enjoyed the rare opportunity and extraordinary privilege of a career dedicated to securing justice for the mistreated and the oppressed. A widely recognized national leader in the LGBTQ community, he has committed his efforts to guaranteeing rights for this constituency and generating health care funding for the AIDS epidemic. Vic's work as a VISTA volunteer in the rural South set him on a course of public service and advocacy. During the Obama administration he served as a senior counselor to the director of the United States Office of Personnel Management. In that role he was the director's principal lead on all LGBTQ issues affecting the civil service. Throughout the 1970s and early 80s he held positions at ACTION, the former umbrella agency for the Peace Corps, and VISTA. From that role he became a labor activist on behalf of federal employees.
Speaker 1After coming out, he transferred his energy and experience to the struggle for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer LGBTQ equality. He was the first executive director of the Human Rights Campaign and later co-founded the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund, now called the LGBTQ Victory Fund, to help openly LGBTQ candidates get the money they need to win elective office. In the mid-90s he did capacity building, consulting with many local and national nonprofits. During that time he executive produced the award-winning documentary After Stonewall and the PBS series In the Life. In 1998, vic returned to his volunteer roots by accepting a Clinton administration appointment as director of private sector cooperation and international volunteerism at the Peace Corps. In 2001, he became the executive director of Movable Feast Inc, a Baltimore-based nonprofit serving the HIV slash AIDS community. Most recently, he authored Bending Toward Justice, a memoir of his time at the Human Rights Campaign. Here's our conversation. Hi Vic, thank you so much for being on the podcast conversation.
Speaker 1Hi Vic, Thank you so much for being on the podcast. Thank you so much for having me. You have a very extensive bio, a rich history of doing so much activism work and starting some organizations. We cannot wait to dive into all of that.
Speaker 3Where would you like?
Speaker 1to start.
Speaker 2Gee, maybe why I wrote this book.
Speaker 1Yeah, let's start with the book. What's the name of it, where can people find it and why did you write it? Let's hit it again.
Speaker 2The name of the book is Bending Toward Justice, and people can find it either online at Amazon or Barnes Noble, or bookstores are carrying it and they certainly can order it if they don't have it in stock. And why I wrote it was there are several reasons. One is I wanted to memorialize, in a way, the founder of the human rights campaign, steve N Dean, who few people know who he was, and I thought that was kind of sad, that the person who put this all together and is on a shoestring, almost nobody knows who he is or was. And then I also wanted to commemorate those who were instrumental at the beginning of the organization and most of whom are now dead. And finally, I think it's a remarkable story how the colonel of an ID and the head of Steve and Dean evolved into what is now by far the largest and most influential LGBTQ organization in the country, and I thought that was worth noting as well.
Speaker 3You mentioned Stephen Dean, the founder of HRC Big, and I know when we buy the book and we read the book we can hear a lot about him. But is there anything you want to highlight about Stephen Dean for the listeners to hear?
Speaker 2Sure, before Steve came to Washington he was from Minneapolis and he came out there and immediately started to lobby the state legislature to pass a civil rights bill and to get rid of their sodomy law. And so he kind of cut his teeth on politics in Minneapolis, going in knowing virtually nothing about lobbying. But he was a quick study and worked very hard over three legislative sessions to try to pass a non-discrimination bill. He came very close but ultimately failed. And then there was an opportunity to come to Washington to head what was the parent organization for HRC called the Gay Rights National Lobby. And when he came to Washington he came with virtually nothing and a mountain of debt for the Gay Rights National Lobby. Steve was a tenacious guy and managed to start fundraising and to build the organization. Unfortunately Steve died of AIDS in 1993.
Speaker 1Now you were the executive director at. Hrc. When did you start your role there? Yeah, I was the first executive director and I started in 1983, june of 1983. And what prompted you to want to work for HRC?
Speaker 2Oh, I saw it as an opportunity of a lifetime to come into what was then a pretty tiny organization and I hadn't been out terribly long. But I'm a political junkie and here was a chance to do something in gay politics.
Speaker 3Right.
Speaker 2I jumped at the opportunity.
Speaker 3So we talked a little bit about HRC and how it was founded. But for people who don't know what HRC is which everybody should, because HRC has done so much work around the LGBTQIA plus community and make so many changes and partner with so many politicians and lobbies to make sure that we have some of these rights that we have today in the United States of America but can you tell us a little bit about the history of HRC and what they do?
Speaker 2Sure, when Steve N Dean started the lobby, he was a one-person operation and would go up to Capitol Hill and talk to members of Congress and their staff Most of the time it was staff to try to convince them to sponsor what was then called the Gay Rights Bill, which was a piece of legislation introduced by Congresswoman Bella Abzug in 1975.
Speaker 2Introduced by Congresswoman Bella Abzug in 1975. And it just amended the 1964 Civil Rights Act to add sexual orientation as a protected class. That was the sole purpose. But what Steve found was a good lobbyist has a couple of weapons in his holster. One is constituent pressure and the other is money. And Steve had neither because so many of us were closeted back then that it was hard to get anybody to write to a member of Congress and say I care about this issue. Steve knew that it was going to be practically impossible to deal with constituent pressure back then, but he thought maybe he could get money. So he created the human rights. It was called the Human Rights Campaign Fund then as strictly a political action committee, and a political action committee is a vehicle to get campaign contributions into the hands of people running for office.
Speaker 3Right.
Speaker 2So with that he could go up to Congress and say here's a check for your campaign. Now will you help us with our civil rights bill? And he turned out to be quite a fundraiser. Our civil rights bill, and he turned out to be quite a fundraiser. The organization was founded in 1980, but it didn't really launch in a major way until the 1982 election cycle and in that cycle he was able to raise about 600 and somewhere $650,000.
Speaker 3Wow 600 and somewhere 650 000 wow.
Speaker 2And he did it in a variety of ways. He put together committees to help him, but he was largely the driving force behind getting all that done. So it was later that hrc, now called hr, changed its name and during my tenure we expanded from just a political action committee to having a lobbying component and a constituent pressure component, which are the three legs of the stool that you need to do something politically.
Speaker 3Right. So when you look at HRC today and what it has become, how does that make you feel knowing that you were that person that were there on the ground rolling up your sleeve, trying to create this space for members of the community?
Speaker 2It makes me feel proud that I mean I am, by training, a community organizer, and the mark of a good organizer is someone who can go in and after he leaves, whatever he was working on keeps going.
Speaker 1Right.
Speaker 3And so I feel very proud of the fact that HRC has not just kept going but thrived Right Time to thrive.
Speaker 2I went to that event in DC a few years ago that HRC put on you say tribe it reminds me of that time to tribe Right Is there one single thing that HRC is doing that you just feel so passionate about and probably hear about it and you get chills. Gee, I don't that one.
Speaker 2It's kind of like asking me to pick your favorite child, or something like that it is, I think, the fact that it's really broadened its mission which was an accomplishment by Elizabeth Birch From just an organization to one that incorporated. They created a foundation so that they could do foundation-type work. So that they could do foundation-type work Dealt with family support, legal support, support in the workplace and I think that was a brilliant move by Elizabeth and it still is one that I love and I'm very fond of I also. What I like, too, is the diversity that HRC now enjoys. It hasn't always been. I mean, it was founded mostly by there were women involved, but it was mostly white men who founded the organization and the fact now I was just at their last board meeting and as I look around the room, it's a totally diverse crowd now and I like that a lot.
Speaker 3Yeah, that's very good. Diverse minds bring diverse ideas.
Speaker 2They do, they definitely do.
Speaker 1Yeah, so after also, I know that you co-founded what's now called the LGBTQ Victory Fund. How much time after you serving as executive director for HRC did you co-found that organization and what was the impetus for that?
Speaker 2I left HRC in 1989, and we officially founded the Victory Fund in May of 1991. There was about I don't know. There was the better part of a year that was involved in organizing it and preparing to launch it, raising initial funds for it and putting a board together. So it launched in 1991.
Speaker 3Are you still active with the Victor Fund?
Speaker 2No, not really. I'm on their mailing list but I'm not active any longer in it. The reason I wanted to do that was because when I was at HRCF, I would occasionally get requests to support an openly gay candidate who was running for office, and HRC had a pretty well-defined mission which was to support LGBTQ supportive candidates for congressional office, lgbtq supportive candidates for congressional office. And so if somebody is running for the school board or a city council seat or something else, that's just not within HRC's mission to do, but I thought it was important to do. I mean, to get us elected to openly LGBTQ people elected to office. So you have a seat at the table.
Speaker 3Right.
Speaker 2It was really important and, as Bernie Frank once said, if you're not at the table, you're probably going to be on the menu.
Speaker 3Yes, that is a profound statement. It is it is and nobody can tell our stories or know what the needs of our communities are other than us, and that's why I really like the LGBTQ Victory Fund. I know Marty Rose. He actually helped me in Prince George's County to lobby the school board there for them to pass the welcoming school there.
Speaker 2Oh well, that's good.
Speaker 1Yeah, is this LGBTQ Victory Fund still? Is the mission still the same to support candidates openly, get openly.
Speaker 2Yes.
Speaker 1Plus candidates to have a seat at the table.
Speaker 2Yes, the model is a little different now than it was then. Are you familiar with Emily's List?
Speaker 3Yes, yeah, I know Emily's List.
Speaker 2It was fashioned right after Emily's List, because Emily's List had what I think was a brilliant model, but it was portable. That is when Emily's List started. It was really a simple thing. You made a pledge to make a $100 contribution and you pledged that over the course of an election cycle you would make two other $100 contributions to people who appear on their list. And if it can work for pro-choice Democratic women, it ought to be able to work for us. Right, it's simple, and so that's how we set up the Victory Fund. It's grown and expanded over the years so that they have many more candidates now and they operate a little differently, but it's still the idea of providing support to openly LGBTQ candidates for office at any level. It could be for school board up through Congress.
Speaker 3Okay, it's a big endorsement when you get endorsed by the LGBTQ Victor Fund.
Speaker 1So, Vic, after that you founded Movable Feast, so Vic.
Speaker 2After that, you founded Movable Feast. I didn't. No, I managed to get a job as their executive director, so I moved to Baltimore to do that.
Speaker 1Okay, okay. So where were you doing the other work before? In DC?
Speaker 2Yeah, I consulted with LGBTQ organizations to do capacity building. Okay, and then in 1998, I got an appointment to the Peace Corps in the Clinton administration with LGBTQ organizations to do capacity building for them. And then in 1998, I got an appointment to the Peace Corps in the Clinton administration.
Speaker 3That's awesome. How was that? Because back then they had don't text, don't tell right.
Speaker 2Yes.
Speaker 3I know the Peace Corps is a little bit different from the regular military, but was it as similar to the military where people cannot be open?
Speaker 2No, they had openly gay volunteers.
Speaker 3Okay, so that's good.
Speaker 2Yeah, it was what they would not do back then. That I am critical of is to place openly LGBTQ couples together.
Speaker 3Oh, wow.
Speaker 2I fought that while I was there, but I was on the losing end of the stick.
Speaker 3Yeah, back then it was.
Speaker 2Yeah, it was. I think they now do place couples together.
Speaker 1So was it.
Speaker 2They would allow straight couples to be well, it's not deployed, but to be placed together.
Speaker 1Okay, so what was the rationale behind not letting LGBTQ couples Well, they would never articulate a rationale.
Speaker 2But it didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that they were afraid of the political repercussions to doing it Interesting.
Speaker 1So okay, back to Movable Feast as executive director there, I know that you know well, talk to us about the work and I know that HIV AIDS is a passion of yours. So talk to us a little bit about the Movable Feast work.
Speaker 2Well, are you familiar with the organization? Because it was very similar to other AIDS food service providers. We were just providing meals to people, homebound people with AIDS, and then I can't remember. I know there's a group in Atlanta that does the same thing, but I can't remember its name. Here in DC it was Food and Friends that did it, and when I was there we expanded to provide meals to women with breast cancer, and now they actually have expanded even more. They're providing it with, I think, several people who are disabled and are homebound.
Speaker 3Okay, that's really nice. You know you look at it. A lot of the LGBTQ plus organizations always expand out to people who are in need, not just people in the community.
Speaker 1So you've also produced some other works, your documentary After Stonewall. Tell us a little bit about that a little bit about that After Stonewall.
Speaker 2It was actually a sequel to a film that was done several years earlier called Before Stonewall, and Before Stonewall traced the history of our community from the early 1900s to the riots at Stonewall, and After Stonewall picked up that and the history from the riots to the turn of the century to, I think, 1999, it closed that and it was well-received and won a couple of awards and it's another thing that I'm very proud of.
Speaker 1And PBS and the Live.
Speaker 2That was a magazine format show that was on PBS stations across the country and the filmmaker for After Stonewall in both cases I was an executive producer, but the filmmaker was a guy named John Scagliani, who actually whose idea After Stonewall was and he created In the Life and he did before Stonewall, and so he's a pretty talented filmmaker.
Speaker 1So, after Stonewall, what was important about telling that part of the story?
Speaker 2Well, I think it was important to document how much progress we had made as a community Right that hadn't been done on, at least in that context it hadn't been done before, and so it was, I think, just important to get that down on film and to as wide an audience as we could find, and I don't know whether it still is, but it was used in diversity classes on college campuses too.
Speaker 1Yeah, I'm glad that you bring that up because I think about, like, black history and a lot of the documentaries or not documentaries, but movies that are made on. That really does highlight the struggle. It's important to highlight the progress that's been made, including what still needs to happen, but a lot of it's rooted in, don't forget, which is very important. But also the story of who any group is doesn't need to be entirely comprised of all the negative things that happen. All the bad things that happen. There needs to be entirely comprised of all the negative things that happen. All the bad things that happen. There needs to be individual stories, like the first open heart surgeon, you know, things like who was Black, certain things, but as a whole, recounting growth and progress from, let's say, post-civil rights to present. That's not a thing that I've really seen.
Speaker 3I'll definitely be interested in checking out that it's really important that we tell our stories, as I mentioned before, because a lot of those stories around LGBTQ plus were around HIV and AIDS, which was a big thing, but the successes you didn't really see them until recently. Like the writer of Martin Luther King's speech, nobody knew that until recently that King or that he was a gay man.
Speaker 2So the stories are there, but they were not I didn't know that either that he was a gay man. Yeah, there's a recent film about him and we'll have to look at it, we're talking about blanking on his name, Byron Rustin. The man who crafted much of the I have a Dream speech just got a Presidential Medal of Freedom award last Friday.
Speaker 1Oh wow, I did not know that.
Speaker 2Yeah, he was just honored. There were 19 people who were honored, one of whom was Judy Shepard.
Speaker 3Yeah, I saw that. I think two of those persons passed away that were honored as well. Okay, yeah, yeah, bayard Russell was also the organizer, the main organizer, for the March on Washington.
Speaker 2He was, that's true.
Speaker 3Yeah.
Speaker 2Very talented man.
Speaker 3Very. But his story was as you say. You know, as a person like yourself, that I've been a trailblazer, that I've been out there in the community and creating spaces and making history that didn't know that name. You know, that's just a little.
Speaker 1The successes have been told right right so one thing that you mentioned that I found very interesting was that you became the hrc executive director. Executive director shortly after coming out. It kind of in my head I'm imagining, like you're saying I'm out and then boom, I'm just going to do the biggest thing, the biggest gay thing that I can do.
Speaker 3To make a difference.
Speaker 2Well, I was involved. Before I got involved at HRC, I was involved in local gay politics in Washington and I started being involved in local politics right after I came out and, as I said, I'm a political junkie. So I mean I had been involved as a Vista volunteer in the South, in the segregated South, and doing community organizing there, and then I've just been involved in politics my whole life and when I came out it was exciting because here's a chance to now be involved in something that affects me directly.
Speaker 3Right yeah.
Speaker 1And so you came out as an adult About how old were you.
Speaker 2I was 33. I had been married for 10 years.
Speaker 1Okay, so tell us about that. I always find that interesting. I came out later in life too actually a little bit later than that so and had been married. So yeah, tell us about, because we've heard a lot of different stories. Some people we've heard say I knew I was gay but I was trying not to succumb to that quote unquote sin because of my religion and how I was brought up. Some people say, with that background, their partner knew about it and accepted that that was something that they were quote unquote struggling with or fighting with. And others, their partner didn't know and they just waited till they and they just got divorced because they couldn't hide it anymore. So tell us a little bit about you growing up and at what point you realized that you were gay.
Speaker 2Well, first I was raised Catholic, which you know. It didn't help the guilt any Right. It's a lot of guilt there, any right, there's a lot of guilt there. So I knew I was different when I was very I mean very young, but I didn't really understand what it was, but I knew that there was something about my life that was different than what's going on with the other boys around me right but before I was married I remember, in fact, I think all I would admit to myself was that I was bisexual.
Navigating Coming Out and LGBTQ Community
Speaker 2I just couldn't quite bring myself to say I was gay. In fact, I remember seeing a therapist when I was in college and I remember I brought up the issue, the homosexuality issue, with him and I remember saying I would have less recrimination if I turned out to be an ax murderer than if I was gay. I was that repressed about it. So, and then I met Marianne and I told her that I was bisexual before we were married, which again was all I was admitting to myself at that point. So we got married anyway and it was quite a good marriage in a lot of ways. It was just this one thing that wasn't right.
Speaker 1One big. Thing.
Speaker 2One big thing. That wasn't right and it just got to the point where we had a couple of gay friends that we spent a lot of time with and traveled with, and and I got to the point where it was just too, because I was getting more comfortable with the gay world. I just got to a point where I had to deal with it. But my now ex-wife and I are still very close.
Speaker 3That's good.
Speaker 1That's good. So would you say that you coming to terms with being gay was the reason for your split, or did that happen later?
Speaker 2No, it was the reason for the split.
Speaker 1And what was her response to that?
Speaker 2Well, we certainly had our rough moments during that, but she was I mean, she was very supportive. She's a remarkable woman and continues to be very supportive. She's remarried and she and her husband are both supportive and have contributed to the human rights campaign and gone to black tie dinners and they've been. You know, when I've needed them, they've been there.
Speaker 1That's awesome, you had a good pick.
Speaker 2I was very lucky.
Speaker 1Yes, what about your? So? How did you actually come out? Was it to her first, to your family? How did and how did you react?
Speaker 2It was. It was her first how did and how did? No, it was, it was her first. Um, I didn't come out to my family until a little later when and I came out to them because I I was getting my name in the paper occasionally with respect to local politics in washington and it was the was Post, and I was just afraid that somebody would see it, who knew my family and would tell them, and I clearly did not want them to learn that way, learn about me that way. So I sat down with them and told them that I was gay, and they were. Well, my mother was pretty quickly supportive. My father was not. He never, he never acted hostilely towards me. He just didn't say a word. You know, it's just total silence that I had. And my father is, uh, was a pretty staunch catholic and he, he was first born in the US of Italian immigrants and quit school in the sixth grade because he had to go to work to support his family, right, so not exactly the image of somebody who would be supportive.
Speaker 1Right.
Speaker 2But I got my love of politics from him and he was always for whomever he perceived the underdog to be.
Speaker 1Okay.
Speaker 3Yeah.
Speaker 2So once he got the fact that gay people were discriminated against, he came around quickly.
Speaker 3Okay, that's good, that's very good.
Speaker 2And became quite supportive Wow, in a very public way. He wasn't just supportive to me, he was, he was. He lived in Northampton, massachusetts, which I don't know whether you're familiar with, but it's dubbed Lesbianville.
Speaker 1Oh, really, I heard that.
Speaker 3I did hear that from my one other person and I jotted it down somewhere, but thank you for reminding me. So is that where we should move to?
Speaker 2There was a non-discrimination bill. It was before the city council and there was one holdout on the city council who was about my father's age and they were friends and my father went to see him and lobbied him to pass the bill. And the guy changed his vote, so my father was very publicly supportive.
Speaker 1That's great. Yeah, do you have siblings?
Speaker 2I have three brothers.
Speaker 1Okay.
Speaker 2Two of them are fine. One, brother, I'm estranged from.
Speaker 1Oh, I know, Because of this, or just some.
Speaker 2Yeah, largely because of this he's. He's a conservative Republican on a Trumper.
Speaker 1Oh Lord Okay.
Speaker 2Every family must have one, I guess, right.
Speaker 3That's what keeps the world going right, and he's probably going to be really disappointed come November.
Speaker 2I hope.
Speaker 3I hope too. Fingers crossed.
Speaker 1So, Vic, you mentioned that early on. You kind of knew that there was something different about you. What would you say is your earliest queer memory?
Speaker 2Well, I didn't understand it, but I remember there was a cowboy star in the movies that I developed this huge crush on, a star named Audie Murphy and this goes back to the 50s now, and I remember he used to wear black leather in his cowboy outfits. I just I couldn't wait to see his next movie. You know, it was always so. I didn't understand that those were gay feelings I was having. Clearly they were. So that was my earliest recollection that here's somebody that I've got to you know and I didn't. I clearly didn't develop a crush on the female lead.
Speaker 1Right, a light statement.
Speaker 3So Big. When you realized you were gay, what was your concern? What was your biggest concern?
Speaker 2Oh, I thought I would be ridiculed and shunned by family and friends. As I said before, there wasn't anything worse I thought you could be than the VA.
Speaker 3Right, yeah. Yeah, I understand because I grew up in Jamaica and I came out pretty young, at 15. And you know if anybody knew anything about Jamaica. It's getting better now. But especially, you know I came out in the 90s. You could hear it in the music. It was like the worst thing you could ever do.
Speaker 2Yeah, I'm familiar with Jamaican attitudes.
Speaker 3Yeah.
Speaker 2But you're saying it's changing now.
Sharing Experiences and Political Insights
Speaker 3It is changing. The Boogery Law is still a thing we're trying to. I don't know if you heard about Maurice Tomlinson. He's a civil rights attorney at Gay Men. He lives in Canada now but he's working really hard in the Caribbean to try and get it overturned. I know Barbados overturned it, so hopefully this will happen. So we had a prime minister that was moving towards it, but she did not win the second term oh well, that's too bad yeah, she used a way ahead of her time and she was not afraid to support the community.
Speaker 1So big about all the relationships that you've made and people that you've met and all the work that you've made and the people that you've met and all the work that you've done. What would you say you love most about the queer community?
Speaker 2One of the things I love the most is the humor.
Speaker 3I can't wait, baby instead of you.
Speaker 2Once I got to know other gay people. I don't think I ever laughed so hard. So I remember I was arrested once in a demonstration in Washington. It was on the Ronald Reagan still had. He had uttered the word AIDS in public once in response to a reporter's question, but he still hadn't said the word on his own volition AIDS in public at all, and we were protesting the lack I mean it wasn't any effort on the part of the Reagan administration to do anything for AIDS. So 64 of us were arrested and we were taken to the DC jail and all of the women were placed in one cell and all the men in another cell. And all of the women were placed in one cell and all the men in another cell. And I think the cops had even the cops were laughing at one point because it was, you know, it was just all this acting out that was going on.
Speaker 1Right.
Speaker 2So I mean we were doing something serious. We were getting arrested to make a political statement here and it was hard to maintain your seriousness with all the antics that were going on in the jail cell.
Speaker 1That would be. I'm sure that was quite the sight.
Speaker 3Because you put in all the lesbians in one set and all the gay men in one set.
Speaker 1Okay.
Speaker 2I guess they wanted to keep the men and women separated so there wouldn't be any hanky-panky.
Speaker 3Oh yeah, wrong strategy, wrong strategy.
Speaker 2I think they didn't get it.
Speaker 1I think they didn't get it. So, vic, about the life that you've lived and experiences that you've had, what advice would?
Speaker 2you give your younger self. Oh, I would have given myself advice to come out much sooner than I did. Coming out was an incredibly liberating experience the ability to be your authentic self is, I think, irreplaceable.
Speaker 3Yes, yes. So, Vic, I wish I could start to you all night, because you have just so much. You have done so much to pave the way for people like myself and other members of the community, not just with the LGBTQ plus community, but people who feel like there are minorities, are looking for a space, because a lot of these organizations you know provide just uplift people and give them that courage to do things that they wouldn't normally do. What last word would you share to the audience? What last words do you have to share?
Speaker 2I think, as I just said, coming out was the most liberating thing I think I've ever done and and I was very fortunate to have my family and friends, for the most part, to be very supportive. I, except for my one brother, I've never had a problem with it and I guess I would encourage young people to come out as soon as they can, as soon as they can feel comfortable with their families, because I think being out is. There was nothing like it for me. I just wish that I'd come out earlier, like it for me.
Speaker 3I just wish that had come out earlier. That's amazing. Unfortunately, in 2024, it's a lot of people that are afraid of coming out because of what might happen to them with their family, their jobs, just overall, what may happen to them. We're fortunate to the United States has issues, but at least we're fortunate to live in a country that we still can be liberated somewhat. You know, if you live in one state and you feel like you can't be, you were very courageous.
Speaker 2You came out at 15.
Speaker 3Yes, I was. I was actually put out. So I was homeless for a little bit. Yeah, my parents put me out because it's a big sin and I'm going to contaminate a household and all the other stuff. You know that they thought up in their head. Yeah, because I had siblings and niece, but fortunately for them nobody got contaminated and you look like you've landed on your feet.
Speaker 3Yes, oh yeah, definitely, definitely it was. You know, I would tell people I would be like you know what. I would forever live my true, authentic self after what I've been through when I was a 15-year-old girl in Jamaica and still able to achieve what I've achieved in life, like even at work. You know, I'm very open because I feel like if I cannot be open working here, I cannot work here.
Speaker 2That's so true.
Speaker 3Yes, and I'm a little bit of a political junkie like yourself. My wife not so much. She gets you like man because you know I was heavily involved in the prince rogers counter politics while I was there, so I love politics. When you say that, I got lit up and I had to bring myself and I said we're not here to talk about politics, we're here to talk about the LGBTQIA plus community even though politics is a big part of what's affecting the community.
Speaker 2You know that the county executive in Prince George's County is in a heated battle for the US Senate seat that's open here.
Speaker 3Yes.
Speaker 2Angela, also BrooksS Senate seat that's open here.
Speaker 3Yes, angela, also Brooks. Yes, I don't know if I could support Tron because I don't know him. So who Tron? The one that she's running? I don't know him.
Speaker 2Unfortunately, he's got a lot of money he's, he's outspent.
Speaker 3Also brooks by a good deal, right, I'm hoping that she's gonna I'm hoping she's gonna pull it out yeah, me too, I I, you know he made some racial comments as well, and you know, because I'm not there. If I was there, I would probably be heavily involved in that race, but I'm not there. If I was there, I would probably be heavily involved in that race, but I'm not there, and you can, of course, cut this part out if you want to. But, um, it's very interesting to me to see people the people that are that should be progressive in prince charlotte's country running behind him when he him, when he made those racial comments, and some people that are supporting him. I was at protests with them, protesting liquor stores, and I'm like sorry, I don't understand what the motive is. Is he buying them out? What exactly is going on?
Speaker 2Because he's got a good deal of Black endorsements.
Speaker 3Oh yes, In the county. Yeah, and one of the progressives on the council endorsed him as well.
Speaker 2Yeah, but she's got a lot of endorsements as well. She's done very well, I think, in the endorsement department.
Speaker 3Yeah.
Speaker 2Denny Hoyer is one of them.
Speaker 3And Westmore endorsed her, and Jamie Ruskin endorsed her as well.
Speaker 2He did.
Speaker 3I think I think the endorsement that Angela has, even though Tron is getting endorsed, but I think Angela's endorsements are more solid and people respect them more. That's just my thought from being involved in politics a little bit in Prince George's County and across Maryland, but I hope she pulls it off too. I got people to support but I was really really shocked to see the endorsement that Tron is getting, especially with the racial stuff and they. I can't ever say that word. But he spoke bad about women massaging. I can't ever say that word but, he has.
Speaker 3I can't ever say that word, vic, so some words you know, as Jamaicans we just don't, we butcher them, so we don't say that. But it's just really interesting to see. But I'm hoping also Brooks really pulled it off. I saw that she had a walk in Montgomery County. When was it Yesterday?
Speaker 2She did yeah.
Speaker 3She walked to the pole and you know we would love to see her. I don't like these people that think that they can have all this money and just come and buy the election, and that's what Trump is trying to do.
Speaker 2He's put $54 million of his own money into the race.
Speaker 3Yeah, because he owned all those liquor stores.
Speaker 2I know.
Speaker 3Yeah, okay, interesting All right, he owned them.
Speaker 2Interesting, he's got very deep pockets.
Speaker 3Yes, he has the money. Can somebody reach out to me about supporting him? Earlier on in the race I asked me to see if I could get the LGBTQ plus committed there to support him, because I actually was that person that politicians come in to get the LGBTQ plus support and I told him.
Speaker 1I said I don't know him.
Speaker 3What has he done for the community? And they're like he, you know he's got to do stuff. I'm like I don't know him so I cannot get in touch to support him. But anyway, we could sit here all evening and talk about his politics, because I'm just ready In Atlanta. I'm supporting a few candidates that I really like, but not a lot because I'm still fresh in Atlanta. So I don't want to. I'm not the type of person to just jump out there and look at your social media and support you. I got to really pay attention to how you answer my questions and how you react to stuff in the community.
Speaker 2You know, you both must have been fans of John Lewis Of course, of course. I have. If you've got time for one John Lewis story, I'll share with you?
Speaker 2Yes, I have, if you've got time for one John Lewis story I'll share with you. Before he was a congressman he worked in the same government agency that I did, which then was called Action, and it was the umbrella agency for the Peace Corps and all the domestic volunteer programs. And he was a Carter administration appointee to head up all the domestic side of the agency and I was president of the staff union there. And it turned out that in our chicago regional office we this is 1979 now, so I want to put this in context we had a trainer in the, the Chicago Regional Office, who decided to transition and her name was first name was Kit, and so it didn't change her name, she just kept that. And it was a very liberal agency.
Speaker 2So at first everybody was supportive of this transition until it came time for Kit to start using the women's restroom and then the women went nuts and so they decided to fire Kit and, being an aggressive union, we decided to representitt before I was out and we kept losing. All the way up to John, Lewis was the final decision maker, but all the way up the ladder we kept losing grievances until I and I remember Lewis was our last stop and I remember writing him a letter and made all the parallels to the civil rights movement and asking for a meeting, which he granted. And I got to the meeting and before I could even sit down he said Vic, you're absolutely right, we're going to rehire Kit, Wow.
Speaker 3I know I really have a reason to like that guy. Wow, wow, yeah. And that's when it was a popular and especially, you know, the black community took a. The black community is still not very accepting of the LGBTQIA plus community and especially transgender, so that was a very progressive move by John Lewis back then.
Speaker 2It was given the year.
Speaker 3Yeah.
Speaker 2Wow, it's been.
Speaker 1Really I'm sorry, but go ahead.
Speaker 2I think he was just incapable of doing anything he considered morally wrong.
Speaker 3Yeah, and that's what we need in office. You know, it's just about people who have morals and people who understand that. You're here to represent everyone, not just people who look like you, people who love like you or worship like you. You are a representative of all people when you get in office, except for racists and misogynist, misogynist, homophobia those things you don't represent, but what's morally right? You represent.
Speaker 1Well, I mean, for some people that's what they think it is. It's not.
Bending Towards Justice Book Recommendation
Speaker 3I don't think most people think so. They just don't want to see other people getting right. I couldn't think most people think so. They just don't want to see other people getting right. Oh I, I couldn't think my mind would have. Let me just believe that somebody actually believe that those things are morally right right I'm probably naive.
Speaker 3All right, vick. Um. So listeners, there you have it, vick. Basil Basil is a trailblazer in the LGBTQIA plus community who has been creating spaces for member of the community for decades. Vic has worked with previous president of the United States and have founded the largest organization to elect LGBTQ candidates to office, both locally and federally, called the LGBTQ Victor Fund. Thank you, vic, for being on A Queer Understanding and provide us with some great information and some really interesting stories about your life and your accomplishment. So, listeners, please go on Amazon and get the book. It's called Bending Towards Justice. If you go on Amazon or Barnes Noble and you can't find the book, just go online and you will definitely get this book. Myself and my wife are going to get it so we can read it and learn a little bit more about the HRC as well. So, vic, I want to say thank you so much for being on A Queer Understanding. It was a pleasure having you. Thanks, vic, thank you very much.
Speaker 2It's been a pleasure on my end too.
Speaker 3Thank you.