Live from the Streets of NYC: Pride, Politics & Power

Hey y’all 💋 it’s Peppermint — and I’m literally recording this from the streets of New York City.

Yes. Taxis. Sirens. Sidewalk energy. All of it.

In this episode of Queer 101, Hugh and I are catching up on everything — from his cross‑country book tour to what’s happening right now in NYC politics, LGBTQ+ rights, Pride season, and the upcoming midterm elections.

Hugh just wrapped an incredible national book tour, and we talk about his stop in LA at the ASU FIDM Fashion Museum, where he revisited his iconic ’90s fashion looks with Michelle T. We love a fashion history moment — especially when it’s queer, nostalgic, and a little chaotic.

Meanwhile, I’m checking in from outside on the streets of New York (yes, we’re outside-outside), and I reflect on this season of my life — from filming to watching the final season of Netflix’s Survival of the Thickest to navigating this very intense political climate as a trans woman living in America.

We get real about:

✨ Finding joy during stressful political times
 🏳️‍🌈 Pride Month and the Queer Liberation March in NYC
 🏙️ The recent New York rent freeze
 💰 The pledged $15 million toward trans healthcare funding
 🗳️ The 2026 midterm elections and why local politics matter
 📰 Media narratives, party accountability, and why we shouldn’t idolize politicians

As people who live and work in New York City — and who care deeply about LGBTQ+ rights, trans healthcare access, and housing justice — Hugh and I truly believe local power shapes our daily lives more than we think.

We talk about how to stay engaged without burning out. How to celebrate Pride while still demanding more. And how to hold politicians accountable — even the ones we like.

This episode is funny, a little shady (because you know I can’t help myself), but also grounded in the reality of what queer people are navigating in 2026.

If you care about:
 • LGBTQ+ news
 • NYC politics
 • Trans healthcare funding
 • Rent freezes & housing justice
 • Pride and the Queer Liberation March
 • The 2026 midterm elections
 • Queer culture & pop culture

You’re in the right place.

Thanks for being here with us — on the sidewalks of NYC and beyond.

Make sure you subscribe, leave a review, and send us your questions for the next episode of Queer 101.

Love you. Stay engaged. Stay fabulous. Stay human. 💖

Follow us at:

• @peppermint247
• @hughoryan
• @pridehousemedia

Write to us at:

• questions@queer101podcast.com

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:09

And we're going to bring you all things queer history that you have.

SPEAKER_00 0:22

From the history that gets up to the cost that gets the five.

SPEAKER_02 0:28

And let's go ahead and queer history. Because these stories demand to be heard and must be celebrated.

SPEAKER_00 0:34

Welcome to Queer 101. Class is now in fact. Hey everybody, welcome back to Queer 101, the podcast where we talk about any and everything under the sun, including queer art, queer culture, and queer literature. I am Peppermint. And I'm Hugh the Historian. Hugh, okay. It is so good to have you back in the chair, back in the seat, back in the saddle. I have missed you so much. It's been a few weeks since we've been together. And I know.

SPEAKER_02 1:05

It's only been a few weeks. It feels like it's been months, months.

SPEAKER_00 1:08

I know, it does, it does. How's the book? How is the book launch going? The the the tour of it, all of it. How's it going?

SPEAKER_02 1:16

It has really been phenomenal. It has been so much fun. I have crisscrossed the country. I have been in LA. I've been in Providence. I've been in DC. I've been in Palm Springs. I've been in upstate New York. I've been in downstate New York. I've even gone to New Jersey. Basically everywhere.

SPEAKER_00 1:31

That is desperate. You know that's dedication. Honey, that is dedication if you're willing to go to Jersey.

SPEAKER_02 1:38

I would go anywhere, everywhere. People have been wonderful. I mean, that's the great. I love going on book tour because you get to talk to some of the like most beautiful, wonderful, amazing people across the country. When I was out in LA, I was talking with Michelle T, the fabulous author activist. Uh, and we were at the ASU fitum fashion museum, and they did a whole fashion show matching up images of me from the 90s with uh photos from their fashion collection of models in the 90s, and they reviewed all my 90s fashions as we talked about 90s nostalgia and my bad, and it felt like being a celebrity. It felt like getting my own version of um fashion photo review, you know, but of my whole life.

SPEAKER_00 2:22

Wow. Okay, that there's probably some moments where I would be like, oh, but not you, not you, but me for my own passion.

SPEAKER_02 2:31

There was one photo where I was like, hmm, I don't know if we really needed to discuss this. It's definitely showing my underwear, but it was still, it was wonderful. It was amazing. I know you have also been up to quite a bit this uh summer, but why don't you first let our listeners know where you are coming to them from live right now?

SPEAKER_00 2:49

It's true. I'm coming to them from New York City live on the street instead of in my apartment. I'm actually right outside of a film shoot that is also 90s themed that uh I'm filming today, and we I was running all around town and trying to get myself together. So um, yeah, uh it's just New York City. This is on the go. We have to be listening this day and age with the way this government and world is working, we gotta be ready to get up and go on the at the drop of a dive. So I'm just practicing in case I gotta run.

SPEAKER_02 3:18

Um being an artist.

SPEAKER_00 3:21

Yeah, exactly. I'm excited for um for the third and final season that just dropped of Surprise of the Thickets on Netflix, and it's been really great. You know, um seems like some people have been watching it. Hopefully a few more will people.

SPEAKER_02 3:36

Some fabulous wedding stuff happening this season. A little tease for those who have not yet watched.

SPEAKER_00 3:42

There's lots of stuff happening. So um, yeah, I'm super excited. And yeah, you know, it's like I go back and forth between feeling um, you know, I mean it's it's summer. It's summer in in the city, New York. We've had some political wins lately, and you know, for those who've been following New York politics, local New York politics, which has been great. Uh, and then in the country, there's been a little sprinklings of like decent news here and there. But of course, uh yeah. Yes. Uh but I mean, but even even for us, like stuff that's felt like um long-term empowering. Um, you know, like I'm really happy that there's a rent-free in New York. I'm really happy that uh mom Donnie pledged 15 million towards trans health care in New York. And so those are the wins that I'm really like, whoever dies, that's uh, you know, even if they all died, I don't want to be left without health care. And so I'm really feeling good about those, the the little moments that we've been able to celebrate because it's been so heavy um just in life and in this country. And so I forgot what it felt like to just have an enjoyable summer. So I am having an enjoyable summer in the midst of all of this stuff that's going on, and it just shows you that like we can experience joy and pain at the same time.

SPEAKER_02 5:06

Yeah, and honestly, how do you get through it without experiencing joy? Like, I think if we didn't have some degree of joy and community and life, and also, you know, a job, things that support us, it's like, how are we gonna actually make change if we are either like too poor, too hungry, or too sad to leave the apartment? So we gotta find these moments. And that I think is what, you know, I I've been joking that I missed Pride, but I also did Pride nonstop last month because I was on this book tour. But I think that's why we need it. You know, some people I hear say, like, oh, what do we need pride for anymore? You know, like why does it matter? And I'm like, in part it matters because it keeps us going, you know? It's like you've gotta celebrate the wins, the joy, see some great people. I mean, did I go to the parade? No. I did go to a little bit of the Queer Liberation march in New York City, which was fabulous and feels feeling community-based, and you see a lot of like great folks, and but it's like, yeah, we need these moments of joy. We need a little bit of summer because it's gonna be a long fall.

SPEAKER_00 6:04

Oh gosh, don't, don't. Yeah, I mean, where we are not that we haven't been, but we are definitely going into politics season, uh, official. Like, I feel like the the the past six months, a year has been political season, like local politics for wherever people live, you know. Uh, but we're going into the big ones, the big major midterms, um, which is, you know, a huge thing. And it seems like every couple of weeks, months, um, over the past few months, every few weeks we would get like news out of this state or that state, a local senator, a local mayor, a local this has been elected, and the their political platform has been front and center, which gives us an opportunity to sort of like, you know, uh debate and figure out like where where we want to go politically, right? And it also gives people an opportunity to examine these policies. And so we've seen over the past six months the mainstream establishment Democrats uh, you know, lambasting things like socialism and all these different things, and not supporting, you know, go this is over a year now, but not supporting even New York City's mayor Mamdani, uh Mamdani as uh the Democratic uh nominee for the party before the main election for mayor. And so we were seeing all of these opportunities, and that's just with inside the party, but then we keep getting reminded, and I'm I'm upset that we keep getting reminded why uh I I'll speak for myself. I keep getting reminded why I don't want to support a lot of the people who've already holding office, who've been in office for years, and who've consistently uh who've not only helped not provided nearly enough resistance to the moment that we're in, but they also provided zero resistance to getting us into the situation that we're in. And they're not really giving us any fight of how to get out of the situation that we're in. And I've heard for my whole life, it, you know, little, you know, just take it incremental change, take it little by little. But Zor Mamdani in every single day is doing a press conference. Today they did a press conference. Now I didn't quite understand what today's press conference is about, but it's about tech and using it. They're launching the pit crew, which is um I don't remember what it stands for, people in technology.

SPEAKER_02 8:28

That was like the pit crew.

SPEAKER_00 8:30

I know it sounds very drag race. Um yeah, it's basically as an initiative a tech initiative that serves the people, not the not the tech overlords. Uh you know, it there's more to it, obviously. I don't I didn't get a chance. I didn't stay and listen. Uh but they do a press release every single day. Uh there was a press release to, like we said, freeze the rent, to you know, uh pledge millions of dollars towards health care, towards free childcare, opening up every single day, opening up the pools, he's jumping into a pool in his suit.

SPEAKER_02 9:04

He is getting things done, showing up and and letting people know, like you can like obviously all politicians are politicians, right? But he's I think showing that he is dependable, he will follow through on the things he says, and that people need to know what the government does for them that's good, because usually we only hear about it when it's terrible, and especially like given New York City's last few mayors, like I think there's a lot of needing to restore some faith, some trust that like they care. I mean, Adams just felt like he was like using it like as a you know a way to get bribes from Turkey, uh, and and it's nice to have like a different energy in the air, but you're right that it is like every day and it is going to ramp up from here. I had a friend, uh good friend writer who's like totally brilliant, working on this incredible book, and she's finishing up a draft right now. She went out to her agent, and her agent said to her, This was just like a little while ago, mid-July. Agent says, you know, I think we should wait until after the midterm elections to try to bring your book out to sell it, because that's how much they're expecting the political landscape to take over everything. Yeah, that it's gonna be just nothing but politics wall to wall between now and the end of November. And Mam Dani is a good version, right? But it's gonna be a good crazy version.

SPEAKER_00 10:20

I think one thing to keep in mind as we watch, you know, you know, uh, we were there have been a lot of people comparing themselves to Mam Dani. Mom Dani was it's been really inspirational, and a lot of people have been really excited about his election, both in and out of New York. And so he's really um become sort of the face of the party. And I think that that's a big mistake because I think when we start worshiping these politicians as idols and only pay attention to them as sort of like these characters that are the the champions that are here to save us, then we have to, then whatever they do is where we go. So if we're attached to the champion, then if the champion goes right or goes left, then that's where we're going. And it really needs to be the champion, needs to be the platform. And so when, you know, watching the sort of very political fallout um around uh Graham Platner from Maine and how he's been accused of sexual he's been accused of he's been accused of rape, but yeah, you know. It was also his girl, his his ex-girlfriend. There's a lot of details there. I'm not sure exactly what the story was there, obviously. Uh, you know, and the undeniable uh fact that he should step down and not continue to be in office is only clouded by the fact that today, yesterday, and the day before, there were other uh right-wing politicians. One got caught in this car smoking crack, the other one is raped raped his daughter allegedly, uh, you know, sitting politician. And zero repercussions for those things. Um not I want to say zero repercussions, but certainly not the overwhelming outcry to step down immediately and resign or whatever the thing is. Um everything on the planner, yeah. You know what I mean? And so it's it's all this has done has what this moment has done politically has shown me that there is very little um there is very little repercussion. There's no I'm waiting for someone to say we're we're charging this person with a criminal offense uh of sexual, you know, uh misconduct or whatever they've done, and we're going to try them in a court of law, and we are going to use that evidence, and then what how we will act based on the um verdict. That doesn't happen anymore. Now it's you're just it's just public opinion, and that's it. Even if it's just accusations that there's no follow-through, there have been all these people that have, you know, we are paying the price right now. We're being told that we can't talk about Lindsey Graham's death, or we can't talk about this because you know the left is too extreme and the left is too that, and they're they're the left is cr um committing political violence and the left is doing all these things. And then we're getting yeah, we're getting blamed for like these attempts on part President Trump's life. Where what happened to that? Why did the person not get arrested? What is there a trial? What what's going on?

SPEAKER_02 13:23

It's just like the trial is going on with the the Charlie Kirk killer right now, and I feel like I've heard nothing about it. And I'm like, the only reason I've heard nothing about it is it must be really bad news for the like Republicans in power because otherwise, if he if it was that story they were trying to sell us months ago, we would hear it wall to wall. It would be on every anti-trans podcast.

SPEAKER_00 13:44

Which is so you know it's yeah, the media is is definitely playing a part in this. So I'm over the like finger wagging from the not only from the right, from from the Democrats, you know, watching after Lindsey Graham's like if if you didn't know who Lindsey Graham was and you look for a video of him, most of it is let's flatten him, let's get rid of Gaza, let's kill him all. Like it's like that's how he talks.

SPEAKER_02 14:12

And now all these people are talking about how great he is and what a friend he was across the aisle, and you know, and it's like why why why do we do this when someone dies? You don't you you could just say nothing. You don't need to pretend like he was this like saint that he wasn't. Like we're all we were all here too, you know? It's like oh I I often wonder like who do they think they're scoring points with? Because the only people that that scores points with are the people who already agree with Lindsay Graham yelling flat in Gaza. And are those the people I want like on our side? No, it's just it's gross to watch it, you know.

SPEAKER_00 14:43

I don't want, I don't want my elected officials who are supposed to represent the views of the people. Like, if anything, you could say, I'm sorry for his death, but now we won't, now we have one less person who's trying to further this illegal war. Not even that from people like Cory Berger. Suddenly he's great, you know, he's wonderful, he was a wonderful person, and that really does whitewash the you know and sanitize the the reputations of these people. And I'm sorry, if we're gonna be facing the like suffering the consequences of their actions, then we get to talk about it in any way we want.

SPEAKER_02 15:26

Yeah, that's right. I think the one like really good thing coming out of this, you know, is that both because Mitch McConnell is weak ended burniesing it right now, and because Lindsay Graham is actually admittedly dead, uh, it's gonna be really hard for the Senate to move much in the way of bills. Like they if if all the Democrats stick together on the appropriations committee and the budgeting, like they have the votes. And I want to see are they gonna use them? No, they won't. Now they've been saying all this time, oh, we don't have the votes, you have to vote, you have to get us win elections. All right, well now you have the votes. So yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:03

The insurance policy that they will not follow through is the fact that they also get paid by the same people who are paying, you know, like who are paying off and bribing the politicians all over. The corporations well that sounds like Batman just went right by you. Yeah, it did. I know, I'm sorry. Uh yeah, so I just I don't I have very little faith that they will do the right thing because they constantly find a way to to to they have constantly found a way to evade um uh um uh accountability and to doing their jobs. It's just been terrible. Uh and it's almost been laughable. It almost feels like it's so comical, right? The way that they're um conducting themselves and providing zero pushback and just like you know, Corey Booker himself stood up in Congress and did that filibuster speech that was purely symbolic. He wasn't fighting, there was nothing, there was nobody, he was just like started talking on randomly. Nobody was there was no conversation to be had. There was no bill to be pushed, there was no there was nothing. He wasn't advancing any legislation, he wasn't blocking any legislation, he was just just doing a show. Like I think it was in the middle of their lunch break or something, he just started standing up and they were like, What's going on? And he was like, I'm blah blah blah blah blah blah. But when it counts.

SPEAKER_02 17:30

But nothing.

SPEAKER_00 17:31

This is how you talk?

SPEAKER_02 17:33

I cannot, I I, you know, there was that disclosure a couple weeks back, I think a month, I don't know, about uh all those folks who are part of Peter Thiel's secret like meetup politics group, and Corey Booker was on the list.

SPEAKER_00 17:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 17:48

I mean, that tells you something.

SPEAKER_00 17:50

It should tell us a lot. And it's the Democrats have to be so happy that, or you know, like people like Corey Booker, I should say, probably are really, really happy that nobody's talking about that right now because the world is so wild and and we keep getting distracted. And I think a lot of people just are feeling like they don't have the like you said, like the bandwidth and the the energy to to focus on this and to keep continue continuously put energy into this while trying to make sure that they have their housing covered and their you know whatever it their food and like office.

SPEAKER_02 18:28

So much just to live these days. It's like crazy. And I do you go to the grocery store and the prices are shocking. It's like everybody's talking about the gas lines. I don't drive, I'm in New York, but like the grocery store is where I see it. It's like everything is so much more expensive.

SPEAKER_00 18:43

A friend of mine showed me a picture of uh uh Mitch McConnell. This is where Mitch McConnell was, y'all. Uh okay, I guess you have to react to Hugh if Mitch McConnell having gender affirming care and coming back as Michelle Connell. Uh that's where she's been, darling. If uh in case you've been curious.

SPEAKER_02 19:06

This year, nothing would surprise me, honestly. You know, there is nothing this year could show up that I wouldn't be like, yep, yep, there we go.

SPEAKER_00 19:13

Yeah, so that's Mitch McConnell and drag, darling. That's where everybody's been saying. But in all seriousness, seriousness, I mean, I would never, I would never realistically bestow the honor of transness onto uh somebody like Mitch McConnell that takes entirely too much um uh self-awareness and self ex self-reflection and uh humanity. And that's not true.

SPEAKER_02 19:37

He's just an evil fucking turtle.

SPEAKER_00 19:40

Exactly. Not at all.

SPEAKER_02 19:41

I my the the conspiracy theory I do believe, however, though, I don't know if you saw this, is like right after he was supposedly brought to the hospital and they they took out the floors in his apartment or in his building, he had it refinished, and I saw all these people who were like, that's evidence. They are taking the evidence right out of his house. Like it just felt the timing was weird, and I was like, he's under those floorboards, or there are drugs on those floorboards, or something.

SPEAKER_00 20:10

Yeah, it is a lot of action. I mean, if I had a husband who was in the um hospital like this, redoing the floors would not be on my list of things.

SPEAKER_02 20:23

Although if my husband was Mitch McConnell, I might be selling throwing a party when he went to the hospital.

SPEAKER_00 20:28

I mean, putting in a new dance floor.

SPEAKER_02 20:30

Yeah. That's what they need.

SPEAKER_00 20:35

Oh my god. Did you see that picture of Mitch McConnell? Uh the like one that people are saying is the AI, or like where he's in jeans and a fear sucker shirt looking like one eye's going that way and one eye's going that way. Yeah. Wild. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 20:50

No, looks dead to me. Looks weekend at Bernie's. That's all I can think. It is full on weekend at Bernie's. They are gonna like pilot him like a marionette through the streets to vote on things. Like, that's just it is so.

SPEAKER_00 21:03

I know. You're gonna be like, okay, yes, pass the Save Act, yes, pass the Anti-Trans Act, yes, and it's like Trump's hand coming on the I I I the last person I ever want to imagine uh is Trump fisting Mitch McConnell, but my god, you could see him like a puppet. Something tells me it wouldn't be the first time.

SPEAKER_02 21:23

Um I hope by the next time we meet up and the next time we chat, like we either know if he's dead or alive, and we get a three-peat. You know, they say celebrity deaths come in three. We've got two down, like one more. Come on, one more.

SPEAKER_00 21:37

We all know who we're looking at. It's just it's just the news that I've it would be a great way to end the summer. And I know that like there's this is wild that they're uh we that we've flown through their summer so quickly. Uh, but just a reminder to all of our listeners that we are here every other week through the end of the summer, and we'll be back with our weekly schedule for the fall. And we have some big changes to announce, some exciting things to announce, but we'll we'll announce at a later date. Um, we would love to hear what you, the listeners and the viewers, have to say about this. Do you think that uh Mitch McConnell is trans? Definitely not. Do you think that Mitch McConnell is alive, dead? Do you think that there's a cover-up, or do you think that this is like, you know, uh just a natural, natural selection?

SPEAKER_02 22:20

Um, if you're one of the many uh sex workers coming out with stories about either or both of them, please drop us a comment, send us a voice memo. We would love to hear the T.

SPEAKER_00 22:31

Attach video. Oh, maybe not, maybe not. Hold the video, hold the video, hold the video. You can find us wherever you get your podcasts, uh, wherever you listen to them. You can uh make sure wherever you listen to those things to favorite us, give us a like and a subscribe and a follow, comment on the YouTube. Please just uh, you know, engage with this actual video or stream that you're watching or listening to. It costs you nothing and it really does help us out a lot. It helps other people find us so that we can continue to do things, I guess, more and more in the future. But um, thanks so much for listening, everybody.

SPEAKER_02 23:03

Uh it's Withcase Loth Month.

SPEAKER_00 23:06

Okay. We'll see you in the next one. Bye, everybody.

SPEAKER_02 23:10

Bye.

SPEAKER_00 23:11

With Case Loth Month. Thank you so much for joining us today.

SPEAKER_02 23:15

This podcast is part of Pridehouse Media, hosted by us, written cube, produced and edited by Josh Rosenpike, with original music composed by Nel Balaban.

SPEAKER_00 23:24

If you enjoyed this episode, then don't forget to subscribe wherever you listen to your podcast. And while you're there, leave us a rating and a review. It really helps others discover the chat.

SPEAKER_01 23:34

You can stay connected.

SPEAKER_00 23:43

Thank you for this. And remember, our history is your history. Stay proud, stay curious, and we'll see you next time on Square 101.