Life Through a Queer Lens
Welcome to the Life Through a Queer Lens Podcast, where anyone with an open mind and heart can learn about the LGBTQIA+ Community from the people within it! We're your hosts, Jenene (she/her, they/them) and Kit (they/them).
Life Through a Queer Lens
EP60: Lifelines and Liberation: Lessons from Queer Elders and What's Next
Join us as we honor the resilience of queer elders, reflecting on their strength through monumental LGBTQIA+ history, from Stonewall to the 1980s AIDS crisis. Explore curated mental health resources like Trans Lifeline and Thrive Lifeline, alongside self-care strategies to foster resilience and defiance in the face of adversity. Stay tuned for future episodes on activism, accessible care, and tools for resistance, as we stand united for change. We share episode topics we plan to drop between now and the inauguration on Jan 20, 2025.
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None of the queer elders are scared that the queer elders who lived through stonewall the 80s. None of them are scared. Queer elders aren't really scared and I think I know why. I think I figured it out, I think I pieced it together. What is next? So, if any of y'all have been really just struggling because I get it no one knows what the next four years is going to hold. However, you need to be there. You need to make it through For us, for yourself, for the people who love you. You have to live to see the end of it.
Speaker 1:Okay, so here is a list of some hot and some warm crisis hotlines for in case you are experiencing a mental health crisis of any kind. So, just so you all know, hot crisis lines will call the police if they believe that you are at risk of hurting yourself or others, and it does not matter what you or family say to try to stop them from sending the police to your house. They will just send the police to your house. So we also have warm lines which do not call the police. So here are the hotlines. The first is the US suicide hotline. You can call or text 988 and it is available 24 hours a day and, I believe, seven days a week, though I am not 100% sure they might be closed on major holidays. Services Administration or SAMHSA for short. Their national helpline is 1-800-662-HELP or 4357.
Speaker 2:Support is available 24-7 through them, and the third crisis hotline is the Trevor Project. You can call 866-488-738 six or you can text start to six, seven, eight, six, seven, eight to chat online.
Speaker 1:And also just so you guys know, hopefully, by the time this episode goes up, I'm going to have all of these added to our link tree, because a lot of them have chat online options, some of them have apps and stuff like that, so I'm going to include links to their websites in our link tree. So if you also want to just go down there and go into the description of this episode and click the link tree down there, they will also be right there in a little group of links that I'm going to call mental health resources or crisis resources. Okay, next, the warm lines. The first is call black line, which is 800-604-5841. They also have an app under the same name and for Canada, it is 877-330-6366. They have hour restrictions, but are generally open Monday through Friday from 1 pm to 9 pm Eastern. They also have Spanish language options and are a helpline by and for trans people.
Speaker 1:I love Trans Lifeline. I remember when they first got started. I was at the Trans Health Conference in Philadelphia in I believe it was summer of 2015, with my parents. They took me for my birthday and they had a booth there and I got a pin from them that I don't think I have anymore, which is very depresso. But I got a little. Actually it might be behind me no, it's not. I think I lost that pin. But yeah, I got a little pin from them that had the phone number on it and at that point I believe, they only had a US line. They didn't have a Canada line and their hours were much shorter, didn't have a Canada line and their hours were much shorter. So, like this was during like their inception maybe not their inception, but it was early in in them getting together and stuff like that. It was really cool getting to talk to them.
Speaker 2:It's cool they have that.
Speaker 1:I love. Yeah, very cool. Next up is wildflower Alliance peer support line. Their number is 888-407-4515. They also have hour restrictions. They're run by trained peer support, so I believe they're more of a youth line, which is really good. And then we have Strong Hands Native Helpline. Their number is 844-762-8483. They're also available for chat online or via text. They focus on domestic and intimate partner abuse, as well as sexual violence, and they center Native American and Alaskan Native voices.
Speaker 1:Then we have Thrive Lifeline, which is 313-662-8209, which is a trans-led and operated helpline that functions mainly through text but is available 24-7. So that's nice and I know personally, as someone who has used a fair share of crisis lines, I personally prefer the text ones. I just I don't know. I mean, y'all have heard me this episode Speaking is hard, speaking when upset, nah, I'm good. So I usually use the text ones and I really enjoy them personally. They're very helpful. I wouldn't say I enjoy them, but they're very helpful. Um, and then we have the LGBT National Help Center and their main number is 888-843-4564. And that's their overall helpline. They are a queer-focused helpline with hour restrictions. They are generally open Monday through Friday, 4 pm to midnight Eastern time zone and Saturday noon to 5 pm Eastern. They also have specific lines for specific crisis. I don't want to say issues for specific crises.
Speaker 1:Yeah, for specific situations or for specific reasons behind calling their line for coming out of the closet is 888-688-5428.
Speaker 2:Their youth line four, six, seven, seven, four, three and their senior line is eight, eight, eight, two, three, four, seven, two, four, three. Their online chat is also available monday through friday, 4 pm to midnight eastern standard time, and saturday, from noon to 5 pm, also eastern standard time.
Speaker 1:So there we go. If y'all need, please take advantage of those. That's why they're there. I know that Trevor, specifically, was experiencing a just monumentous influx crisis situation I believe it was three day period of time situations. I believe it was a three-day period of time their chat and text services had to be shut down because they had too many people using them, so you could only call. I think it has settled down since then, but keep that in mind for some of these hotlines, especially some of the warm lines that have smaller staffing and have not been around nearly as long as lines of Trevor project and nine, eight, eight they're doing their best and they want to help, genuinely that they are. Also. I'm sure the person on the other end of the phone with you is equally as nervous about what is going on in the world around you, if that makes sense. So yeah, we got to have each other makes sense, that's a good point.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we got to have each other's backs and it's just good to keep that in mind, because I understand that in a crisis situation it's difficult, but just remember that these people are doing their best and have been experiencing wild influxes and calls since November 5th. All right, before we move into everything else, just not don't. Just, yes, stay alive for the next four years, but also remember, if you want to do anything to take care of other people, you have to take care of yourself. Eat, get rest, do whatever personal hygiene you are physically, mentally and financially capable of doing. Take care of yourself in whatever ways you are capable of taking care of yourself. Please take care of yourself.
Speaker 1:You matter, you need to be around. Your life and your joy in and of themselves are acts of resistance, so do them. Live, experience joy, love, be happy. We need you here, and we need you here as an entity that isn't just wallowing in despair, because that's again what they want. Your joy is your resistance, and if that's all you can do, if all you can do is survive and try to feel happy, that is enough, that's good enough.
Speaker 2:I love it. I love that message. Just yeah, staying alive, experiencing joy, all definitely acts of resistance and contribute to the movement forward. We already have days of remembrance for people, and those are for. We don't want that number to rise.
Speaker 1:We want numbers in the movement forward to rise and we can rise in numbers in the movement forward, to rise and we can rise in numbers, yes, and just to try to surge some hope into y'all, because this I don't know. I realized this, I learned this and this got me. This is actually you know what fuck it. This is our interesting fact for the day, because the end of the episode is just where we're going through what's next, that's the what's coming next for the podcast, and y'all when I tell you, I barely even know.
Speaker 2:Anyway, Join that club.
Speaker 1:So this is the interesting fact. Slash little bit of hope that I want to give you all.
Speaker 2:Actually, don't let Kit fool you, because he's way more organized than he comes across. I'm just saying I was like wait a minute. No, you are literally the backbone of this podcast. So go ahead and continue, stop making me cry.
Speaker 1:Oh, thank you. Oh, that's so sweet my heart. Thank you so much. I really appreciate that.
Speaker 2:I appreciate you.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, I don't know if anyone else has noticed this I personally have, but none of the queer elders are scared. And I'm talking like the queer elders who lived through Stonewall the 80s, who, like, went through it. None of them are scared. And yeah, we can say we've been here before in 2016,. But this is definitely a lot more than that. When he was campaigning in 2016, he at least pretended to like us. Now he's not pretending no more, and I understand like it's scarier this time around and it is different this time around because of that. But queer elders aren't really scared and I think I know why. I think I figured it out, I think I pieced it together and if any of y'all are listening, please let me know if I'm right. So we have been like, really been here before In 1984.
Speaker 1:We've spoken a little bit about what was happening for and in the queer community in 1984. But for anyone who doesn't know, that is when infections of HIV and AIDS were some of the highest. That's when things were bad, like mid 80s. That's, the virus was discovered early. It was in 1979, I believe that one of the first papers about it was written, or maybe it was a little bit earlier than that. But either way, infections were starting to happen. You know what I mean.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the late 70s as a starting point might refer to earlier isolated cases, but it wasn't until the early 1980s that things were reported. The mid-1980s were really misunderstanding high infection, high mortality rates and all of that disproportionately impacted queer communities due to the systemic neglect and discrimination.
Speaker 1:Things were starting to get not great for queer people and no one really cared. And the 1984 presidential election was won by Ronald Reagan, by every single state except Minnesota. Minnesota was the Democratic candidate in 1984, got 13 electoral votes. You think everyone around you hates you. Now Imagine what a young queer person felt like then. Every like there is. Where do you find safety? Where do you even begin to build a safe place? Remember, there's no internet. You have to do it face to face. You have to risk them punching you or worse. And still they didn't just survive. They made it. They made it and they were loud. They made it and entire organizations were built from.
Speaker 1:You know, organizations that still exist to this day, organizations that are still going strong all around us, organizations that I am sure would love to have your support. That's where we start, guys, and if you stay tuned with us, we're gonna get you there, you there. We're going to give you the names of these organizations. That's what we've got coming down the pipeline. We are giving you the information you need so that you can hopefully step out into your community and start building real world connections with the people close to you, so that you can have a safety net should shit hit the fan, should things get too expensive, a unit to share skills and goods with. That's what we're going to hopefully give you the first steps to doing, but we can only give you the first steps. You got to take those and do something with them. You got to run with it, and that's where it's really going to matter. So we're going to make the ball. I'm going to make a big-ass ball. I got a lot of shit coming down the pipeline. I hate to use the word pipeline, but we had a lot of shit coming. I'm going to make a big ball with that. I'm going to hand it to you. You guys got to do something with it.
Speaker 1:Don't just let it sit there, especially considering that if shit really does hit the fan, I love y'all, but I'm not risking my own life and safety to keep this on the internet. I will wipe this so fast if shit hits the fan. You know what I mean. Guys, learn from these episodes while you can, because if shit gets bad and it hits the point where it's, oh, I'm visibly queer on the internet and that's a danger to me. We have to wipe this. We have to wipe this for the sake of our own physical safety and the safety of our friends and family. That's what fascism is. We've called them fascists for how long? If they're going to do it, we have to be prepared for them to actually do it, and that's part of it is wiping any instance of just wipe it from the Internet. No one needs to know. Keep that shit offline and do what you have to do in secret. Keep your cards close to your chest. Not everyone needs to know what you have going on. Do the work, but do it quietly.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and we're all responsible for our part.
Speaker 1:Absolutely.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Personally, even if this ends up having to go away and even if it doesn't end up having to go away, whatever ends up happening, I am personally getting much more into the dissemination up happening. I am personally getting much more into the dissemination of information. I am making close to 150 zines by hand. Wish me luck.
Speaker 2:So cool. I love that, thank you.
Speaker 1:I'm starting with ones centered around my community specifically, so I have one going right now about resources at the local libraries that everyone can and should be taking advantage of, like tool rentals and just a bunch of shit. You know what I mean? Our library has a passport service. Our local library does passports all year round. No one knows that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so I'm making a sign to share what resources our local library holds so that people in the area can hopefully better understand that. And then I was thinking about making one about secret queer languages, just in case we need to go back to things like coding and flagging and stuff like that. But I'm still working on that, I don't know, trying to figure out how to make it a little more. I don't want to say age appropriate, but I want this to be able to get into the hands of anyone who wants it. And a lot of things like the hanky code do have some suggestive elements to them, but are also just very much like the way of letting people know that you were queer back then, it didn't matter how old you were.
Speaker 1:I don't know what to do about that, but I'm working on the dissemination of information in my area and in general. If anyone is interested in disseminating some zines or zines, however the fuck you pronounce it in your area go into our link tree down below and go to the episode topic suggestions and send a message to that letting me know like, hey, this isn't a topic suggestion, but I would really like some zines to hang out in my area and I can get those sent out to you and you can start handing those out. There is also a Tik TOK page called decolonization coven. I believe that is working on a dissemination of information through zines across the country, kind of thing. So also check them out if that's something that interests you, and they are helping to make those so you don't have to be a crazy bitch like me and hand make them because I'm tight.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah all yourself too yeah, what are you gonna do?
Speaker 2:do you want?
Speaker 1:to go into the episode list.
Speaker 2:so kit put together this amazing list of episode topics that are going to be between now and the inauguration in January. So the first one after this one drops, you can stay tuned for Staying Loud, proud and Safe. That's going to cover some basic safety tips, some signs of safe people and a few easy basic self-defense techniques that you can employ should you find yourself in an environment or situation that is unsafe. And then, on 12.9, we're going to talk about the safest countries to immigrate to and the first steps in doing so. If you're able and you want to, here's the first steps for how that kind of thing Countries accepting LGBTQIA plus identities, many of whom have a far longer history of acceptance than our own. So we're going to be talking about that on December 9th. And then, kit, what are we going to be talking about on December 16th?
Speaker 1:We're going to do documents, getting your papers in order and the first steps for state by state, and just some safety things when it comes to your documentation. Remember, don't shoot the messenger. I care more about your safety than whether or not you like me, so keep that in mind.
Speaker 2:And the following episode after that, which will drop on December 23rd, is called Love in Stone, and that'll be a brief history of queer grave vandalization and basically a how-to for getting laid to rest under the name you know to be yours.
Speaker 1:Yes, we have a lot of people on specifically TikTok who are very excited about this episode. So when it drops I will be sure to have a clip posted. I'm excited about it. Same, I will be sure to have a clip posted and I'm going to respond to the comment that a bunch of people liked about this episode with the clip so that people know it's posted. Any of you who use TikTok get it. I'm going to do the magic thing.
Speaker 1:So hopefully y'all get a notification that this episode is happening. Fingers crossed it works. But after that, on the 30th of December that is the last episode of December we have learning from our elders activism of the 1980s and the steps we can take now to learn and enact change. So that's like going into the different organizations that were started during the Reagan administration of 1984 and are still around to this day Could probably maybe use your help, maybe some donations, maybe some volunteering, maybe some donations, maybe some volunteering. Or even if they don't specifically need your help, if you contact them they can direct you to other organizations that do need your help. You know what I mean. Even if they are experiencing an influx, they can direct you to the right people to then volunteer with, if that makes sense.
Speaker 2:And then on January 6th we will be dropping an episode about gender-affirming care and the ability to access gender-affirming care both for minors and for adults. We'll go over accessibility by state, the legality surrounding that by state, what are some of the challenges and just some things to do in the next four years to keep yourself on gender-affirming care things on gender-affirming care things.
Speaker 1:I just want to say real quick, for episodes like the gender-affirming care episode and the documents episode, where a lot of the information is going to be different state by state, just so those episodes aren't like seven hours long of us going through every state I am going to do my best to have a master doc put in our link tree for both of those episodes, one of which contains information links, stuff like that for each state for documents, and one of which contains the same stuff but for gender-affirming care. I'm hopeful that those will be included with the episode drops, but if they aren't, they will definitely be in the link tree by the inauguration.
Speaker 2:Great.
Speaker 1:And then after that, on the 13th of January, we have mutual aid and community organizing an extension of learning from our elders. This will be a brief overview of how to get started in mutual aid work and connecting to your community, building a safe net of close-by people to share skills and goods with and for a shit-hits-the-fan situation. Because either way prior to outside of a shit-hits-the-fan situation, having close-knit people who you're good at cooking and budgeting and someone else is good at grocery shopping or sewing, having a tight knit group of people, each of which has a skill set, that is important. That is good. That's good to have. That's A+ the amount of listen I am. The amount of time I have friends literally two shirts in the other room that I still have to stitch up for my friend. I have friends who will hit me can you fix this? I have a hole in this shirt. My boyfriend I'm fixing holes in his stuff. It's good to have a friend who knows how to sew.
Speaker 2:I'll second that.
Speaker 1:Build a community, build a little niche of people. You have a skill and I promise you listen. You have a skill, I promise you. I spent so long thinking, oh, there's no way I have a skill for a group like this, all of a sudden realizing like, oh, no way, I know how to like hand sew and I know how to cook and I have a lot of ingenuity and shit like that. I'm really good at MacGyvering stuff. I promise you you have the thing to contribute to that thing I'm talking about. You just got to believe it's there, I promise you.
Speaker 2:Love that message.
Speaker 1:And last but not least, on the inauguration, because fuck me.
Speaker 2:Exactly On January 20th. We're going to be talking about resisting fascism. We're going to be talking about some of the first steps to keeping yourself and those that you love or those around you safe should things get bad. We're going to be giving you reminders that there's going to be mainstream narratives out there testing people. It's really important to look toward the lgbtqia plus journalists and legacy networks like the Advocate. Keep an eye out on Southern Poverty Law to know the hate groups in your area, because you definitely need to know that to keep yourself safe. We're going to be discussing tips like that to understand what is happening around you and to help you stay safe.
Speaker 1:And also some tips for protesting and stuff like that, and maybe I'll do it a little bit before the 13th, maybe I'll do it on the 6th, maybe we'll do it with the gender affirming care episode, who knows? But pretty soon I'm going to try to gather together a list of different protests and actions that are occurring on or around the inauguration in different cities across the country. I know that the Women's March is happening again. I think I think it is is. I think it's the day after the inauguration again, because I know that's what it was in 2016, because I was there in 2016. I think that's what they're doing again. I would love to be there this year. I don't know if I'm going to be able to pull it off, but I would love to be there this year, because I was there in 2016.
Speaker 1:It was fucking awesome, but I would love to be there this year. I don't know if it's gonna happen. We'll see. Yeah, we'll see. I'm gonna try to have different uh list of actions that are happening. And, yeah, in the resisting fascism episode, we're gonna go over protest tips, like what to do at protests to keep yourself and those around you safe, and yeah, again, just this is something you could be doing now. Actually you should be doing.
Speaker 1:Go to southernpovertylawcenterorg I believe it is. If you just Google Southern Poverty Law Center, their website will come up and look at your area and see, keep an eye out on what hate groups and extremist groups are active in your area. There will always be more than you think. Don't let it freak you out. Don't let it. You know what I mean. Don't let it become the thing of oh God, I'm never leaving the house. There's 32 in my area. Take a deep breath, but no, be informed If you want to look into their symbols. So if, while you are out, you see someone with a symbol like that, you know to stay the fuck away or contact the authorities. Just keep yourself safe. You know what I mean.
Speaker 1:Do what you got to do to keep yourself safe and that we're hoping, with all of those episodes, we're going to give you what you need to keep yourself safe. And again, the first thing that I would recommend doing literally as soon as possible, literally as soon as you're done listening to this episode, literally right now, if you want to go to Southern Poverty Law Center and look at your state, look at your area and get familiar with what extremist groups exist in your area, it is important to know, it is important to know, it is important to understand and I promise you it is not just the rural areas that have these. In fact, usually it's cities. Usually they're in rural areas around cities Like how, like in Lancaster, there's Lancaster City, but there's a lot of rural areas around Lancaster City. That's what I'm saying. Just go to that website, take a look at some shit, know what you've got going on in your area so that you can keep yourself and your loved ones safe, because that's important.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I would be remiss if I didn't bring this up because we didn't mention this in our previous episode and this will be dropping after the 20th. But I just wanted to acknowledge that Wednesday November 20th, which is tomorrow, the day after we're currently recording on Tuesday, the 19th, but Wednesday November 20th this year, 2024, is Transgender Day of Remembrance. So I wanted to acknowledge that is Transgender Day of Remembrance. So I wanted to acknowledge that it's a day that we come together to honor the lives lost to transphobic violence over the many years. And this day serves as a reminder not only of the challenges that the trans community faces, but it's a call to action that we need to stick together, band together. It's a call to action for solidarity, support, advocacy that we don't stop, we keep going, which is the entire message of this episode. So I just wanted to acknowledge that day. I hope you take a moment of silence for that.
Speaker 1:Stay safe, stay queer. I love you all you.