Speaker 1: But you know I'm gonna do that next time. I'm
Speaker 1: in a relationship. When I'm having sex with a dude
Speaker 1: and we're listening to Luther, I'm a whisper in his ear.
Speaker 1: You know, he was singing to a dude. See how
Speaker 1: he reacts, and based on that reaction, then we'll know
Speaker 1: we can move forward. If hey, if he gets soft,
Speaker 1: he's not the guy for you, and you gotta let
Speaker 1: him go. You gotta he's gotta stay hard through that information,
Speaker 1: you know, or maybe that might entact him. And then
Speaker 1: he gets harder and then you're like, hell, yeah, this
Speaker 1: dude's boke. Let's keep going racist. You can't tell me. Yep, yep, yep,
Speaker 1: there it is. There it is. Ladies and gentlemen, Welcome
Speaker 1: to another phenomenal episode of My Mama Told Me, the
Speaker 1: podcast where we died deep, deep into the pockets of
Speaker 1: black conspiracy theories and we finally worked to prove that
Speaker 1: each one of those bumps on Morgan Freeman's face represents
Speaker 1: another hard crux that allows him to live forever. That's right,
Speaker 1: ladies and gentlemen, he has split his soul amongst all
Speaker 1: of them little dots. I've counted him. He's about three
Speaker 1: hundred and seventy eight split souls at this point. And
Speaker 1: I don't know what his plan is. Why he would
Speaker 1: hide his hard crux is right in the center of
Speaker 1: his face. That is beyond me. But that's what the
Speaker 1: man is doing that I'm I'm not even sure we
Speaker 1: can call him a man anymore. That goddamn old ass
Speaker 1: wizard Morgan Freeman is out here just splitting in little
Speaker 1: ass pieces and and covering himself with it. With them,
Speaker 1: I'm your host, Nankston Kerman coming in misbehaving is always hot,
Speaker 1: as as I like to call it. I'm happy to
Speaker 1: be here. It's it's an exciting episode. This is a
Speaker 1: groundbreaking episode, which I'm not even sure my guest is
Speaker 1: aware of, but it's a groundbreaking episode because it's the
Speaker 1: first episode, the first ever episode where we are expanding
Speaker 1: the my Mama told Me multiverse. We are moving out
Speaker 1: of just just black shit and moving into communities that
Speaker 1: that also have conspiracy theories, that also know the dangers
Speaker 1: of Whitey and the White Devil. Do you know what
Speaker 1: I mean. We're we're moving into the my Mama told
Speaker 1: Me multiverse, and my guest today is the perfect introduction
Speaker 1: to that multiverse because she's so goddamn funny. She's hilarious.
Speaker 1: You've seen her on so many things. She was on
Speaker 1: Day Ready on Netflix. But more importantly, she has a
Speaker 1: brand new special that is out available to you now.
Speaker 1: It technically it's not out as we're talking, but it's out,
Speaker 1: motherfucker's by the time you're listening, and you bitches better
Speaker 1: go listening to it. You you better watch it. Fun
Speaker 1: listening to it, you watch it, you lock your eyes
Speaker 1: on it because it's amazing. She's so funny. It's called
Speaker 1: Fighting Words, and it's on HBO Max and you need
Speaker 1: to go watching, and she's great. Please give it up
Speaker 1: for my guests. Miss Ida Rodriguez, I've been laughing. First
Speaker 1: of all, I was like, when I heard the theme song,
Speaker 1: I started like grooving, and then I was listening to
Speaker 1: the words and I was like, is this Thundercat? Oh,
Speaker 1: we can't afford Thundercat. But we did get my comedian
Speaker 1: friend Nick Chambers to to put some lyrics and music down.
Speaker 1: So I'm honored. I'm honored that Danster our our dumb ship.
Speaker 1: I just want to say one thing, and in the
Speaker 1: Latin X Latin a Latino community. We got black ship too,
Speaker 1: because that's right, that's fairy. I do not mean to
Speaker 1: dismiss the blacks of all communities. I know there are
Speaker 1: blacks everywhere, and I only mean to say that we
Speaker 1: are expanding our universe and and and opening up to
Speaker 1: conversations beyond just black shit, if if we so choose,
Speaker 1: got it nice though, nice? Hell? Yeah, you know, we
Speaker 1: got conspiracy theories. We also are the descendants of slaves,
Speaker 1: so they're yeah. It's it's almost as if white people
Speaker 1: did the same trick to all of us and it
Speaker 1: just worked. It just worked differently, not better, not worse,
Speaker 1: just differently on everybody's ship. They did it in different
Speaker 1: dialects and languages. You guys got a sexier dialect. I
Speaker 1: think out of the whole thing, we got shitty ass English,
Speaker 1: and I I don't know, I would have rather. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Spanish sounds cooler for slavery. I think, oh my gosh, this,
Speaker 1: you know what, Let's get castle together, let's do this thing. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's that's my goal. I don't know what you came
Speaker 1: here for. If it's not for cancelation, what game are
Speaker 1: we playing? All right, let's dive in because you came
Speaker 1: with a conspiracy theory that I had heard for years
Speaker 1: growing up. I never knew enough to even verify or
Speaker 1: or deny the validity of this conspiracy theory, but I
Speaker 1: feel like it's a classic, a very classic conspiracy theory
Speaker 1: and pop culture in the black community and all sorts
Speaker 1: of communities, I imagine. But you said, my mama told
Speaker 1: me Luther van Drass was secretly gay. Man, I heard
Speaker 1: that so much. I guess what makes it so such
Speaker 1: a mystery is that you never saw a Luther with
Speaker 1: a partner, right, none. Yeah, And you know, I have
Speaker 1: a theory on a theory when it comes to this,
Speaker 1: because if Luther wasn't fact gay and his music that
Speaker 1: was about love resonated with so many heterosexual people, yea,
Speaker 1: then it would prove what we hear from the LGBTQ
Speaker 1: community all the time is that love is love. Yeah, Okay,
Speaker 1: I like this. Okay, So what you're suggesting is is
Speaker 1: that Luther being a person living in the closet for
Speaker 1: lack of a better term, is not at all a
Speaker 1: barrier from our ability to accept the love that he's
Speaker 1: offering to the world. That when he sings these songs
Speaker 1: even though he may potentially be singing about a man,
Speaker 1: it's still resonates so well with me or any other
Speaker 1: heterosexual person that maybe this gender fluidity isn't this foreign,
Speaker 1: dangerous theory, but really it's just the way that we've
Speaker 1: always been. Yeah, I agree. I mean, that's exactly what
Speaker 1: I'm saying. I just I was like my ex he
Speaker 1: dedicated Superstar to me, that was his song for me.
Speaker 1: But he he was also a little bit homophobic, and
Speaker 1: that would be like, yo, you feel about yourrible the
Speaker 1: same way Luther feels about his boom. Yeah, okay, So
Speaker 1: so was he Were you calling it out where you like, yo, hey,
Speaker 1: by the way that song you dedicated to me, you
Speaker 1: know that's a that's a gay man that's singing about
Speaker 1: another man when when he when he's singing it, well, yeah,
Speaker 1: I was like, allegedly, right, so what does that mean?
Speaker 1: And he did? He was? He like, nah, I get
Speaker 1: the funk out. What was his response to this? Then
Speaker 1: he would say, Luther is not gay, he just keeps
Speaker 1: his business to himself. I was like, okay, okay, okay,
Speaker 1: because that introduces I think a pretty complicated layer to
Speaker 1: all of this, right that that in a lot of ways.
Speaker 1: Luther sexuality was a very open secret in popular culture, right.
Speaker 1: We all, we is a royal we we all sort
Speaker 1: of knew that Luther was gay, but nobody really wanted
Speaker 1: to talk about it. Do you think that's that's a
Speaker 1: reflection of homophobia or is that merely wanting the story
Speaker 1: to still be able to exist for whoever we so
Speaker 1: choose to dedicate our music to. You know, he wants
Speaker 1: to be able to keep it so that when he
Speaker 1: dedicates this song to you, it's not quote unquote tainted
Speaker 1: by someone else's experience. Well, I mean, everybody's okay when
Speaker 1: the people are allegedly straight, right, So why does it
Speaker 1: matter even if he was openly gay? Why wouldn't matter?
Speaker 1: Right that? In theory, Luther comes out he says, this
Speaker 1: song is that this song, I wrote it about a man.
Speaker 1: It shouldn't change the the lyrics, It shouldn't change the
Speaker 1: feeling that comes from this thing. It should just be
Speaker 1: a different intent. Yeah, then we've placed on it. I
Speaker 1: just stopped listening to Frank Ocean. Yeah, I never stopped, right,
Speaker 1: And you know when he was saying Gang, I've didn't
Speaker 1: think about you. Yeah, you know, he could have been
Speaker 1: thinking about some penis, Yeah, just like me. And honestly
Speaker 1: that probably makes it connect better for you, y'all boasting
Speaker 1: about dick. Yeah wow. Okay, So at what point, let's
Speaker 1: let's trace some of the history here for you. At
Speaker 1: what point do you think you be him aware that
Speaker 1: Luther Vandross may have allegedly been singing about men rather
Speaker 1: than his predominantly female audience. You know, I would think
Speaker 1: that it was when I got older, because the elders
Speaker 1: in my family used to listen to Luther and I
Speaker 1: was a kid, so I don't know. I thought it
Speaker 1: was just a man singing. But when I got older
Speaker 1: and they started sending me the song saying I'm dedicating
Speaker 1: this this to you, So I think that that's when
Speaker 1: I was like, hey, man, I've never seen this man
Speaker 1: where the woman or anybody. I'm always seeing him by himself,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, who is he singing too? And then
Speaker 1: when you watched him, you know, Luther used to wear
Speaker 1: the best eyeliner because he used to wear it, you
Speaker 1: know though, and the waterline is what we call and
Speaker 1: he got his eyeliner never ran and I'm always as
Speaker 1: a Puerto Rican girl, we we wear eyeliner. You know,
Speaker 1: sixth grade, we started sneaking the eyeliner to go to
Speaker 1: middle school, and and I would always try to find
Speaker 1: the perfect eyeliner I could put on my water line
Speaker 1: that wouldn't wouldn't smear. You wanted that Luther line. I
Speaker 1: wanted that Luther line. So I think it was a
Speaker 1: little bit older, like maybe when I became like a teenagers,
Speaker 1: you know, seventeen eight team. And to his credit in
Speaker 1: terms of the the makeup of it all, he was
Speaker 1: a very sweaty man, like objectively a a very sweaty person.
Speaker 1: And for him not to have running eyeliner or runnie
Speaker 1: makeup is that's that's impressive, absolutely impressive. And you know,
Speaker 1: not only if you say he was sweaty his costumes,
Speaker 1: remember the sequence tops the shirts, and that's really hot.
Speaker 1: It's super hot. So the lights, you know, And and
Speaker 1: then Luther was an actual reually a real singer, so
Speaker 1: it wasn't there was no auto tune or assistance. He
Speaker 1: wasn't singing the tracks. So that's a lot of cardio,
Speaker 1: you know. I'm like, that's a lot of work. His
Speaker 1: diaphragm is being compressed quite a bit to get some
Speaker 1: of them notes that he's sitting out. Yeah, so I
Speaker 1: I mean he was putting in the work. He was sweating,
Speaker 1: and the eyeliner never ran, never ran him and Prince
Speaker 1: never and so as you're growing up, because I do
Speaker 1: think that this is this is an important element to
Speaker 1: this whole like tracking of someone's sexuality in relation to
Speaker 1: popular music popular culture. Are you looking at Luther and going,
Speaker 1: this is a person that I guess is a sexual being.
Speaker 1: Is lutheror sexty to you as a kid or is
Speaker 1: he just Luther? Like? Where does he live in in
Speaker 1: that whole spectrum? Oh? Man, he was a captain of
Speaker 1: romantic like the captain of love music like it was
Speaker 1: just you know, the quintessential love love song like Superstar
Speaker 1: is probably one of the most beautiful songs I've ever
Speaker 1: heard in my life. Yeah, use a song with Gregory
Speaker 1: Hines that was there's nothing that, I mean, some of
Speaker 1: the most amazing music that I would say love just
Speaker 1: love music. But we did have sex to it, so
Speaker 1: it was wrong. I mean it was sexy music. It
Speaker 1: was sexual music, and yeah, it's I guess I asked
Speaker 1: that question because I'm I'm interested in sort of the
Speaker 1: ways that sexuality or a person sexuality rather doesn't necessarily
Speaker 1: matter in terms of our enjoyment of like the art
Speaker 1: that they create that in a lot of ways, if
Speaker 1: you look at these people as poets, right, Like I
Speaker 1: didn't need to want to fuck Walt Whitman to be
Speaker 1: able to enjoy the sexuality that came out of Walt
Speaker 1: Whitman's poetry, Like it still has all of the elements
Speaker 1: that you need to feel like a sexy, sensual person.
Speaker 1: And I think the same might be true for a
Speaker 1: Luther Vandros. Whereas you know, there are artists who they
Speaker 1: exude a sexuality that you do want to press into.
Speaker 1: I think Luther is one of those that, like, you
Speaker 1: don't you don't want to fuck Luther, but you kind
Speaker 1: of enjoy the sex he's able to create with with
Speaker 1: his music. Absolutely, it's a beautiful soundtrack. And you know
Speaker 1: that's the thing that people who belong to the lgbt
Speaker 1: q I A plus community Hell yeah, hit autum no, no,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. The reason that they probably
Speaker 1: feel like we objectify them, We absorb whatever they can
Speaker 1: give us, so long as they remain silent about who
Speaker 1: they are in terms in that aspect, and I think
Speaker 1: that's kind of shitty because, yeah, Kim Kardashian is always
Speaker 1: exuding her sexuality all over the place and people enjoy that,
Speaker 1: and she's rich, rich, rich off of it. So why
Speaker 1: can't Luke to talk about you know, That's why I
Speaker 1: respect Frank Osan, because Frank Osan flipped it. Frank Osen
Speaker 1: was like, I'm a thing about what I want to sing.
Speaker 1: I'm about to tell y'all how much I like, yeah,
Speaker 1: and you can rock with it or you can leave
Speaker 1: it alone. And I respect that. I'm like, why why
Speaker 1: aren't you able? We got We've been hearing these these
Speaker 1: other stories forever. Why not them again? Even more to
Speaker 1: that point, Frank did it at a time where it
Speaker 1: wasn't a convenient choice, right that, Like, I think Frank's
Speaker 1: you know, Frank probably came out if I'm remembering correctly,
Speaker 1: twenty fourteen, even it might have been that around that
Speaker 1: time with with Channel Orange and or at least preceding
Speaker 1: Channel orangin part of that it's his first album. He
Speaker 1: doesn't there's no this isn't a guaranteed like great response
Speaker 1: from the internet and from the communities that are receiving
Speaker 1: this he could have easily been put in a bucket
Speaker 1: that that ruins his career, but he's like, nah, this
Speaker 1: is who I am. I want y'all to know who
Speaker 1: I'm singing about and what these words actually mean, or
Speaker 1: at least some of what it means. And I'm not
Speaker 1: gonna like hide behind the facade of sort of like
Speaker 1: veiled general sex syenus in in order to get that across.
Speaker 1: I love Frank Ocean that that mixtape that he made
Speaker 1: before the album is probably one of the best pieces
Speaker 1: of musical art that I've heard. I mean, I I
Speaker 1: love I love Frank Ocean. Everything that he does that
Speaker 1: Channel Orange album is epic, and you know, just to
Speaker 1: hear someone just being true and I think, you know,
Speaker 1: Frank Ocean is younger than I am, and to he
Speaker 1: to see someone at that age teaching somebody older and
Speaker 1: I would say people older than me because I grew
Speaker 1: up around people that were fluid and people that were queer.
Speaker 1: But it's dope. I love it, and I'm somewhere just
Speaker 1: goes it down. If I don't get it. People who
Speaker 1: get so bothered by this stuff, like go somewhere. This
Speaker 1: is not an invitation that sit down Yeah, don't make
Speaker 1: it weird. Just enjoy the thing or or move elsewhere.
Speaker 1: But you don't. You don't have to make this your
Speaker 1: ship either. Luther sweated so that Frank Ocean could perspire there.
Speaker 1: It is. We got to put that on a T
Speaker 1: shirt somewhere. Okay, let me ask you this, because I
Speaker 1: do think this is an interesting element to it. Right,
Speaker 1: You're introducing this Frank Ocean conversation, which I think is
Speaker 1: really important, of him making the choice to come out
Speaker 1: be public with his sexuality in a way that we
Speaker 1: haven't seen from a lot of artists, certainly not at
Speaker 1: that point in American history. What do you then think
Speaker 1: is the root cause of Luther not feeling that same
Speaker 1: safety to do what Frank did, or at least even
Speaker 1: remotely introduced the idea that he might be not a
Speaker 1: heteronormative man performing in front of you know, women who
Speaker 1: were swooning for him. I think it's generational, Like I think,
Speaker 1: I don't think Frank Ocean felt safe at all. I
Speaker 1: think Frank Ocean took a chance and and knew you know,
Speaker 1: the toxic masculinity has been around forever. I mean, it's
Speaker 1: connected to everything that has been a problem for all
Speaker 1: people on the planet. But I think that Luther was
Speaker 1: probably more engulfed in a generation of people that were
Speaker 1: religious because Luther did a lot of you know, a
Speaker 1: lot of music that you know, he he sang, you know,
Speaker 1: could sing a gospel song just as much as a
Speaker 1: love song. And I think that it was generational. It
Speaker 1: was a lot of religious connection to a lot of
Speaker 1: singers from that era who who initially started in the church.
Speaker 1: I think there was a lot of that. And I
Speaker 1: do think that the social consequences for being gay during
Speaker 1: a time when AIDS became popular and people were hearing
Speaker 1: a lot about AIDS was probably something that would deter
Speaker 1: somebody from saying they were gay because the identifying I mean, yeah,
Speaker 1: people would associate being queer with being with AIDS at
Speaker 1: that time, a gay disease is what they used to
Speaker 1: call it. And I think people would be like, no,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna just I'm gonna just roll with this, you know,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna just not say anything. I can't imagine. I
Speaker 1: can't imagine how hard it must have been at that time. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think that's a super fair point, and it it
Speaker 1: makes me think about we we've done episodes on like
Speaker 1: Easy E and and even we've talked a bunch on
Speaker 1: this show about Magic Johnson and just how quickly during
Speaker 1: the periods that they were sort of their HIV positive
Speaker 1: a they get AIDS, whatever it is for them, and
Speaker 1: how quickly it turns into a conversation accusing them of
Speaker 1: being homosexual, accusing them of sort of having like these
Speaker 1: sordid affairs with men simply because it is a quote
Speaker 1: unquote gay disease at that period, at that point in time,
Speaker 1: we're calling it something that it isn't. It doesn't need
Speaker 1: to be, and it it isn't. But that's that's what
Speaker 1: the world is. And so to your point, Luther may
Speaker 1: be making a choice to sort of like push against
Speaker 1: that connection by simply keeping his business to himself. And
Speaker 1: especially in the hip hop community, I can't even imagine,
Speaker 1: you know, like look at the stuff that Little Nozex
Speaker 1: goes through ine and lons X pushes back and leans
Speaker 1: into it. But I mean, people are really bothered by
Speaker 1: I don't, Like I said, I don't know for the
Speaker 1: life of me why people care so much about other
Speaker 1: people sexuality, sexual preferences and identities. I don't I don't
Speaker 1: for me. You could tell me and I identify as
Speaker 1: elemental P and that's what I want you to call me.
Speaker 1: I'll be like a elemental like crab nets, because let's go.
Speaker 1: I just don't. I'm just saying why people got so
Speaker 1: preoccupied with other people's business like that. Yeah, I do
Speaker 1: think to some extent I feel weird about this, not
Speaker 1: because I I disagree with you at all. I think
Speaker 1: you're absolutely right we should just mind our business. But
Speaker 1: I'm nosey as funk. I do want to know what
Speaker 1: people who people are working and how they're doing it,
Speaker 1: but not because either version of it grosses me out
Speaker 1: or any version of it grosses me out, but more
Speaker 1: because I want to copy you know what I mean,
Speaker 1: Like I'm trying to do something weird with my wife
Speaker 1: and see what she's into, and like let me know.
Speaker 1: In part of I think to your point, if we
Speaker 1: spent more time allowing people to just voice exactly who
Speaker 1: they are in a public way, we all become more
Speaker 1: liberal and comfortable in our own bodies, that we all
Speaker 1: can suddenly that our expectations shift and now it's not
Speaker 1: this scary, dangerous thing that a man presses into another
Speaker 1: man it's just like, oh, that's what y'all do. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna try that out but in my way and see
Speaker 1: if that makes me feel more whole as a person.
Speaker 1: Yeah absolutely, if also it'll it just listen. I think
Speaker 1: that the people who continue to be afraid of the
Speaker 1: that's what it is is underneath of it. Underneath it,
Speaker 1: it's fear, because if you don't agree with the lifestyle,
Speaker 1: you know, like my example, my goal to example, I
Speaker 1: don't really like country music like that. I don't ever
Speaker 1: go to Garth Brooks page and be like yo, yo,
Speaker 1: shot is trash like I never you know what I'm saying,
Speaker 1: never do this is not my thing. I just don't
Speaker 1: listen to country music. And I think that it is
Speaker 1: this very interesting to me how people feel the need
Speaker 1: to police others. And it has something to do with you,
Speaker 1: because the only things that I react to react to
Speaker 1: like that where there where you feel a visceral reaction
Speaker 1: for me, or it's something that it's it pokes at
Speaker 1: something that I'm feeling within myself. Sure you know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying. So lesbians can be around me having an
Speaker 1: orgy and I'm not gonna be like, oh, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: beat everybody with a belt. This is wrong. I just
Speaker 1: be like, I'm I'm gonna go outside because y'all might
Speaker 1: get something on me, and I'm gonna I like this shirt.
Speaker 1: You know, I'm not at where I need pussy juice
Speaker 1: flying on my good show. Yeah, I'll walk away, But
Speaker 1: but do your vot you know, can videotape it, but
Speaker 1: I'm not, you know, I just I just don't understand
Speaker 1: why it's it's such a big deal. And I do
Speaker 1: believe that because of those things, it's probably why someone
Speaker 1: like Luther who made so much money on love music
Speaker 1: that he was also protecting his bag. You know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying, like so many people, I mean, I everybody
Speaker 1: that I know when they list like top ten love songs,
Speaker 1: they always got to loop the song on the Yeah.
Speaker 1: I even even as you're saying it, I'm thinking of
Speaker 1: top ten, like top tens in my head and like
Speaker 1: immediately here and now boom, that's right, it's up there,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. I can't think of many
Speaker 1: that are above that. And I think you made the
Speaker 1: point earlier and that we should cover this before we
Speaker 1: run off the break. But I think it's also important
Speaker 1: you talked about safety. You talked about sort of like this,
Speaker 1: this question of whether or not people feel safe or
Speaker 1: afraid or whatever it is. And I think part of
Speaker 1: the way that they take advantage of this, this fear
Speaker 1: and this safety is by conflating those things with religion. Right,
Speaker 1: So you make it so that if you are not
Speaker 1: following this set of rules, this this traditional set of norms,
Speaker 1: you are not only safe for your lifestyle, but you
Speaker 1: are unsafe for your eternal soul. And so all these
Speaker 1: people start to hate the idea of Luther v. Andrew's
Speaker 1: coming out and being his free of self because it
Speaker 1: could potentially damn their eternal soul. And that's a pretty
Speaker 1: fucked up weight to put on both ends of things,
Speaker 1: that both the people that are hating and the person
Speaker 1: that is hated. Yeah, but you know, you know, and
Speaker 1: that's funny because it's it's simp a critical to me.
Speaker 1: I grew up in the church. I'm like, y'all know what,
Speaker 1: y'all don't ever feel that condemned when you find out
Speaker 1: other people are sucking before they get married, you know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying, that they're fornicating. You know, y'all make
Speaker 1: jokes about the pastor fucking the lady and the pew
Speaker 1: and cheating on his wife. You don't worry about your
Speaker 1: your eternity. When you make jokes about side bitches. You're
Speaker 1: not like, oh, you got a side bach. You're not saying,
Speaker 1: oh a burn in hell because I got a side bitch.
Speaker 1: Why it's a fascination with this stuff that that is
Speaker 1: really intriguing to me. That it's like, why are you
Speaker 1: worried about it so much? If God is who you
Speaker 1: say God is, then God gonna take care of it.
Speaker 1: Why are you talking to guy's business? Yeah, And it's
Speaker 1: not like God was like, yo, these you can't break,
Speaker 1: but these other ones you you go crazy. You can
Speaker 1: you can eat out the neighbor as much as you want,
Speaker 1: but don't you get or suck the neighbor's dick. That's
Speaker 1: how dare you? It's like, now, it's like all this
Speaker 1: is and you're all sinners, So figure out how to
Speaker 1: be the best version of yourselves. That doesn't really matter
Speaker 1: until you know your your rooster comes to calling. You
Speaker 1: know that's and that's quoted from the Bible. Your rooster
Speaker 1: comes to calling, I think is that's in job somewhere
Speaker 1: you know what, The scariest scripture I ever saw in
Speaker 1: the Bible was about clergy. Like the Bible was scary, right,
Speaker 1: the Bible said, better you not be born than to
Speaker 1: mislead my sheep. Like that just creep me out. So
Speaker 1: so that means that all y'all people that are walking
Speaker 1: around leading the people and telling the people and condemning,
Speaker 1: you know, the poor gay feller in the church that's
Speaker 1: scared to come out and you condemning him, the consequences
Speaker 1: seem like they might be a little worse for you.
Speaker 1: Better you not be born an abortion, right, He's like, bitch,
Speaker 1: I'd rather you didn't exist than trick a bunch of
Speaker 1: people into believe in some bullshit exactly. So, I don't
Speaker 1: know what y'all doing out there, but I'm gonna tell
Speaker 1: y'all stop stop, you better stop. All right, We're gonna
Speaker 1: take a break. We'll be back with more Ida Rodriguez
Speaker 1: and more, my mama told me. And we are who sees, Yeah,
Speaker 1: we're back here with more Ida rodre Yes, more, my
Speaker 1: mama told me. We're still talking about God Damn. Luther
Speaker 1: Vandros arguably the greatest the male singer of all time,
Speaker 1: and his difficult, difficult history with coming out and being
Speaker 1: honest and honest. What is honest sharing with the world
Speaker 1: what he what he truly felt in his heart, which
Speaker 1: is that he wanted to kiss some boys. He wanted
Speaker 1: to to hug and kiss some sweet men. I didn't
Speaker 1: have to make that sound silly. I could have respected
Speaker 1: it and and been more decent to it. But you
Speaker 1: know this is where I'm at Ida, this is how
Speaker 1: I behave Hell. Yeah, let's jump into some of this
Speaker 1: research because I do think some of this is It's
Speaker 1: not gonna blow your mind. I'll be I'll be honest
Speaker 1: with you up front, because all of the research more
Speaker 1: or less confirmed what we already know to be true
Speaker 1: or to be allegedly true about Luther Vandro's but it will,
Speaker 1: I think, introduce some questions that I would love to
Speaker 1: hear a bunch of your perspective one, because I do
Speaker 1: think they are somewhat challenging questions. So so let's launch in.
Speaker 1: It seems to me that a fair amount of everything
Speaker 1: I found sort of confirms what we already know to
Speaker 1: be true, is that Luther Vandro spent the the whole
Speaker 1: of his fifty four years on this planet before he
Speaker 1: died in two thousand five, having to keep a secret
Speaker 1: about what he actually felt, which is that he was
Speaker 1: a homosexual man singing about men. That that seems to
Speaker 1: be confirmed, and it's largely confirmed by a bunch of
Speaker 1: other celebrities and peers in the industry that like a
Speaker 1: lot of his friends, came forward in the wake of
Speaker 1: his death to share the information that Luther was secretly gay,
Speaker 1: dose snitch as bitches. You can't even trust somebody you die,
Speaker 1: So that to me is the core of the question
Speaker 1: that this introduces that I really would love to hear
Speaker 1: your thoughts on, because there is a laundry list, a
Speaker 1: literal laundry list of celebrities who come for who have
Speaker 1: come forward talking about their relationships, not sexual relationships, but
Speaker 1: just closeness to Luther and the secrets that they shared
Speaker 1: between the two of them. And I'm wondering what is
Speaker 1: the responsibility in all of this? Do they do they
Speaker 1: owe it to him to keep his secret and keep
Speaker 1: it going? Should they? Should they feel okay sharing his secret?
Speaker 1: I want to know what you think. You know what
Speaker 1: I think that if it was a secret, you should
Speaker 1: have kept it. And I'm almost curious to think how
Speaker 1: relevant these people are, who would say, who would tell
Speaker 1: the secret and see if that would get them some hits,
Speaker 1: because you know what I'm saying, like, let's say you
Speaker 1: had a a sit com in the eighties and nobody
Speaker 1: checks for you no more, they put a microphone in
Speaker 1: your face, but actually they skipped past you to somebody
Speaker 1: who's relevant on the red carpet, and you're like, you
Speaker 1: know what, nothing was gay And then they get the
Speaker 1: camera into them and that and they're like, oh, okay,
Speaker 1: all right, yeah, go wait a minute, you ain't gotta
Speaker 1: keep walking, come back, don't step and repeat, just to
Speaker 1: step this way. So I think that that's interesting and
Speaker 1: too if he didn't want you to know when it
Speaker 1: was when he was alive, what would be the benefit
Speaker 1: of telling somebody after his passing. Yeah, that and that
Speaker 1: was one of the things that I sort of struggled
Speaker 1: with even as I was reading some of the sort
Speaker 1: of like breakdowns the pieces of information. I found. One
Speaker 1: of the first people that I bumped into who sort
Speaker 1: of talked about Luther sexuality and he does remain a
Speaker 1: pretty relevant person at least in pop culture is Lenny Kravitz.
Speaker 1: Lenny Kravitz wrote in his book, and this is I
Speaker 1: think it starts to connect to some of what you're saying,
Speaker 1: is that he waited until he had an autobiography. He's
Speaker 1: putting together a memoir that he's putting together, and then
Speaker 1: he talks about a relationship that day that Lenny Kravitz
Speaker 1: he was a roommate in the early parts of his
Speaker 1: career with this dude, David Lastly, who was a writer,
Speaker 1: producer and worked closely with Luther and Lenny, says that
Speaker 1: in the conversations he heard Luther had had with David Lastly,
Speaker 1: he understood Luther to be a very deeply sad and
Speaker 1: lonely person who was not able to ever come out
Speaker 1: and you know, express his sexuality in the way that
Speaker 1: he wanted to. That's what happens when your ex wife
Speaker 1: marries Kyle Jogo. You know what I'm about to tell
Speaker 1: it all? Yeah, yeah, I just think that I like
Speaker 1: Lenny Kravitz. I'm a Lenny Kravitz fan, but I I
Speaker 1: just think that that lacks integrity. Like if if you knew,
Speaker 1: I mean, if you if this is based on your
Speaker 1: suspicions and you want to tell somebody about it, and
Speaker 1: this is what your your speculation is. I guess it's
Speaker 1: one thing. But if it was a secret, and you
Speaker 1: knew it was a secret, what's the point in telling
Speaker 1: anybody now? Like what you're gonna out the people he
Speaker 1: was with, Like, it just brings pain to the people
Speaker 1: who love him. Yeah, and I think even more confusing, challenging.
Speaker 1: The harder part of this decision is that this wasn't
Speaker 1: even firsthand information from Luther. Right, you are overhearing a
Speaker 1: private conversation in phone calls and then sharing that information
Speaker 1: in a public way. And it's like, all right, if
Speaker 1: Luther told you personally, maybe there's more of a gray
Speaker 1: area and you sharing this as a part of your
Speaker 1: personal journey. But for you to just be like, hey,
Speaker 1: you know what I heard on the phone one time
Speaker 1: when I was chilling at the crib, is that's that's dangerous?
Speaker 1: You know what I mean? Yeah, it's not cool. I
Speaker 1: don't think that's cool. Yeah, Okay, here's another example. Bruce Valanche.
Speaker 1: You know Bruce Valanche. You're familiar with Bruce Valance. He's
Speaker 1: a dude who's guests, a comedian, a comedic writer. He's
Speaker 1: always in a scooter. He looks real crazy. You'll recognize
Speaker 1: him as soon as you see him. But Bruce Valanche,
Speaker 1: for some reason was very close friends with Luther Vandross.
Speaker 1: I had no idea. I don't I don't know why
Speaker 1: these two people would have ever looked at each other
Speaker 1: and wanted to hang out other than the fact that
Speaker 1: they were both. I guess Bruce is gay and Luther
Speaker 1: was allegedly gay, so maybe it was some you know,
Speaker 1: cool gay ship that they were hanging out on. Either way,
Speaker 1: Bruce Valanche says that Luther spent the entirety of his
Speaker 1: life and career deeply in the closet. That those are
Speaker 1: the words that that he he used, and sort of
Speaker 1: what says that his friend constantly wished that he could
Speaker 1: have had a boyfriend. That's what he talks about, is
Speaker 1: that by the end of his career and life, he
Speaker 1: just really wanted a boyfriend. Should get in line, Bruce, Luther,
Speaker 1: we all just want a boyfriend. Like I said, I
Speaker 1: think it's kind of it's kind of corny to tell
Speaker 1: on somebody after they you know that, because that there
Speaker 1: are no consequences for that, like from the person. Yea,
Speaker 1: you feel like Luther's cousins. The need they need to
Speaker 1: go get all these people talking about Luther. They need
Speaker 1: to go put hands on all these people. Yeah, just
Speaker 1: beat the ship out of Bruce Valande, break his big
Speaker 1: as red glasses, you know what I mean? Why you
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying, Like, why y'all snitching on the
Speaker 1: alley like this is? I don't know. I just think
Speaker 1: I wouldn't do that too. I mean, any of my
Speaker 1: friends that they passed away, I wouldn't tell none of
Speaker 1: the secrets. Yeah, I do think, And you made this
Speaker 1: point earlier, and I think it's one worth repeating. Is that.
Speaker 1: The The other sort of like frustrating part of this
Speaker 1: is is if Luther were allowed to be his free
Speaker 1: of self, him wanting a boyfriend wouldn't even be newsworthy, right,
Speaker 1: Like that's not an interesting tidbit about a legendary performer
Speaker 1: and singer. That's just some ship we all go through.
Speaker 1: But because he wasn't allowed to be himself, this very small,
Speaker 1: almost meaningless piece of information now becomes coveted and treated
Speaker 1: as like gossip. And that's crazy. Yeah, I know it's
Speaker 1: You're right, it's true. And you know, like you know,
Speaker 1: all these women who they got whole reality shows trying
Speaker 1: to find a man. You got men and our reality
Speaker 1: reality shows trying to find a woman. They've got all
Speaker 1: kinds of different versions of this show. Naked and people
Speaker 1: and running through the jungle trying to find and made
Speaker 1: people going to an island, detesting each other with sex,
Speaker 1: you know, nineteen Bitches in the House trying to get
Speaker 1: a roll from corny Dude every week on the Monday.
Speaker 1: They are all kinds of versions that and you know,
Speaker 1: people find it is entertained that they're not writing think
Speaker 1: pieces about it. Or but poor Luther, who just wanted
Speaker 1: to be with somebody that loved him and that he loved,
Speaker 1: couldn't even live out loud because it could affect his career. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, get kicked out of the church or whatever
Speaker 1: it was, had to live. That's just foolishness. We talked
Speaker 1: too much time on our hands to be worried about
Speaker 1: other people's business, truly, And and can I just say
Speaker 1: that that if they changed the name of The Bachelor
Speaker 1: to nineteen Bitches in the House, I watch, I would watch.
Speaker 1: I know they lose a lot of viewers who we
Speaker 1: are sensitive about language and the weird misogyny cooked into
Speaker 1: calling people bitches. But no, I would watch nineteen Bitches
Speaker 1: in the House. That sounds like a great show to me.
Speaker 1: And I'm subscribing immediately and listen in the true fashion
Speaker 1: of pause. I am a woman. Therefore I am owning
Speaker 1: the word bitch, and I can call myself a bit
Speaker 1: and I can use the word bit and oh, don't
Speaker 1: get me wrong, I'm not shaming you at all. I'm
Speaker 1: nearly representing the American audience who's gonna sit there and
Speaker 1: go how you can't call people bitches. It's like, listen,
Speaker 1: you don't know which bitch I was talking about when
Speaker 1: I said the word I was talking about some boy
Speaker 1: bitches too, the boy bitches. We all bitches, and there's
Speaker 1: nineteen of us. So the other person, and I think
Speaker 1: this gets into a slightly more complicated and maybe complicated
Speaker 1: this and even the right way of approaching this, but
Speaker 1: it is a slightly more complicated conversation, is that the
Speaker 1: other person who has been very public about quote unquote
Speaker 1: outing Luther was Patti LaBelle. Patti LaBelle, who was dear
Speaker 1: friends with Luther. Luther actually at one point was the
Speaker 1: president of her fan club, which I didn't know that that,
Speaker 1: like he was the official president of the Addie LaBelle
Speaker 1: Flan Club. But she went on watch What Happens Live
Speaker 1: The Andy Cohen Show, and he asked Andy Cohen asked
Speaker 1: about Luther's sexuality, at which point Patti LaBelle talked about it.
Speaker 1: She said, you know, I think that, but she said, basically,
Speaker 1: he did not want his mother to be although she
Speaker 1: might have known, but he wasn't gonna come out and
Speaker 1: say it to the world. And he had a lot
Speaker 1: of lady fans and he told me he just didn't
Speaker 1: want to upset the world. And so I guess my
Speaker 1: question is, what responsibility do you think a person like
Speaker 1: Andy Cohen has, who is a homosexual person who does understand,
Speaker 1: maybe better than most, the dangers of outing a person,
Speaker 1: be they alive or dead, to not even introduce this
Speaker 1: question to an old lady who's probably just gonna be like, oh, yeah,
Speaker 1: I know about that, and you know, say some stuff
Speaker 1: on TV. Well, you know, Andy Cohen is part of
Speaker 1: this entity that makes a lot of money off of
Speaker 1: the exploitation off of black people and people, you know,
Speaker 1: like black women, and these shows that perpetuate you know,
Speaker 1: stereotypes and shows some ugliness, which is real and everybody,
Speaker 1: not just black women and women of color. But I
Speaker 1: just think it's interesting that a gay man would take
Speaker 1: that well, you know, that's disappointing to say, what about like,
Speaker 1: why would you do that? Why would you do that
Speaker 1: to that black man man? Why do you do that?
Speaker 1: Like when you when you yourself have complaint about bigotry
Speaker 1: towards you for being a gay man, why would you
Speaker 1: do that? Yeah, that's part of the problem. That's what
Speaker 1: we pushed back against, right, is that whole idea that
Speaker 1: people who are you know, homosexual, people who are queer
Speaker 1: have to have to live in this place of secret
Speaker 1: who perpetuates So asking somebody who do you think such
Speaker 1: a sense was gay? It's part of the problem. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And I'm so glad you said that, And I think
Speaker 1: you put it in words that I wasn't even sure
Speaker 1: I knew how to put it in. But I do
Speaker 1: think that this sort of leads us into a great
Speaker 1: example of where intersectionality ain't intersecting, right that, Like you're
Speaker 1: talking all this ship about like wanting to be progressive
Speaker 1: for your community, wanting to protect the people that live
Speaker 1: the life that you live, but when it comes to
Speaker 1: another person's experience who doesn't look like you but does
Speaker 1: then diagram with you slightly, you're unable to see them
Speaker 1: with the same sensitivity and care that you probably would
Speaker 1: have seen a white counterpart. A word. You just said
Speaker 1: it a word. And that is why, you know, even
Speaker 1: when it comes to the argument of women, you talk
Speaker 1: about black women and brown women and white women who teither.
Speaker 1: You know, they jumped back and forth between being victims
Speaker 1: and the oppressor, like when you see it in the
Speaker 1: in the dynamic of the l g b t Q
Speaker 1: I A plus community, it's the same thing. It's like,
Speaker 1: you know that that someone said to me it was
Speaker 1: my son because we were talking about the l g
Speaker 1: b t Q community and this complexity that we talked about,
Speaker 1: and he's like, yeah, because white men can belong to
Speaker 1: that oppressed group. So in that group there is a
Speaker 1: hierarchy where they sit at the top. So that's why,
Speaker 1: you know, we have to talk about intersectionality and we
Speaker 1: have to honor it because the truth of it is
Speaker 1: is that you get to son Luther andros when you're
Speaker 1: a gay white man. You know what I'm saying, And
Speaker 1: can you imagine if somebody would. I mean, you just
Speaker 1: think about it, like if it would have been the
Speaker 1: other way and they did it to him, nobody would
Speaker 1: have let that stand even for a second. And furthermore,
Speaker 1: there was some pushback in Patty saying what Patty said,
Speaker 1: but to your point, I think the larger and then
Speaker 1: it's unfair. I don't know that we have the right
Speaker 1: to decide whose fault is. It's what right. I don't
Speaker 1: know that Patty went on there being like, you know
Speaker 1: what I'm about to do is out my boy. I
Speaker 1: think Patty was just like, oh, we drunk, we're talking ship. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'll talk ship with you. And the reality is it
Speaker 1: was somebody choosing to be messy and a lady went
Speaker 1: in the dirt with him. But in doing that, you know,
Speaker 1: she becomes the target rather than he, And I think
Speaker 1: Andy knows that before he even asked the question. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's easy to come for her because there are no
Speaker 1: consequences for attacking an older lack woman. But if you're
Speaker 1: gonna come for this white Jewish man, there will be
Speaker 1: some consequences. Yes, I think I think that's fair to say.
Speaker 1: So the other thing that this got me sort of
Speaker 1: cooking on as we're asking this question of whether or
Speaker 1: not it's okay to out person in their death, I
Speaker 1: ended up stumbling on this article about Whitney. It was
Speaker 1: an article called Whitney, Houston and the Ethics of Posthumous Outing,
Speaker 1: And one of the things that it talks about is
Speaker 1: the fact that Whitney, who was allegedly a bisexual woman,
Speaker 1: was outed by her ex husband. Right that, like Bobby
Speaker 1: Brown doesn't interview with us weekly when he is then
Speaker 1: working on his memoir called Every Little Step, which I
Speaker 1: know you all have in your homes. I know every
Speaker 1: single one of you listening is has already read Every
Speaker 1: Little Step, so there's no reason for us to plug it.
Speaker 1: But Every Little Step, the Bobby Brown story is available
Speaker 1: for your reading if you so choose. But Bobby is
Speaker 1: working on his memoir and he then explains that Whitney
Speaker 1: was bisexual and had a relationship with her for her assistant, Robert.
Speaker 1: And I'm wondering if that falls in the same category
Speaker 1: for you of somebody just trying to take advantage of
Speaker 1: they're they're sort of waning celebrity, or if this is
Speaker 1: something more complicated because they are in a relationship or
Speaker 1: had been in a relationship. Uh, and we're married, have
Speaker 1: children together. All of that. Well, this is a really uh,
Speaker 1: this is a touchy space because I know Bobby and
Speaker 1: I know his wife Alicia, and I don't think that
Speaker 1: he First of all, I don't think Bobby Brown is
Speaker 1: the king of New Edition, whether you want to admit
Speaker 1: it or not. And I know I'll probably get pushed
Speaker 1: back from that, but he's probably him is the most
Speaker 1: dynamic one they come out, you know, for all the
Speaker 1: reasons that he was a bad boy of R and B.
Speaker 1: He had the issues, he married the superstar singer. They
Speaker 1: you know, you gotta lay low. They got all the
Speaker 1: you know, they got all the they got the Diane
Speaker 1: saw your interview like, he's the most dynamic thing to
Speaker 1: come out of there. I've been in the presence of
Speaker 1: Bobby Brown for a birthday party and he was not
Speaker 1: with Whitney anymore, and I remember him singing on stage
Speaker 1: and started he started crying and he said he missed her.
Speaker 1: And from what I know, and I don't know first
Speaker 1: time because we don't talk about it. We're not that close.
Speaker 1: We see each other in passing. We've known each other
Speaker 1: for years, but we were not like close, we're not
Speaker 1: like homies. I believe Bobby Brown adored the ship out
Speaker 1: of wit and he loved her in a way that was,
Speaker 1: you know, toxic, painful, deep deep though, And I do
Speaker 1: I do think that that him sharing that. And I
Speaker 1: didn't even know he had a book. I didn't know
Speaker 1: about every little step, but the fact that he uh
Speaker 1: probably is talking about it because he's still processing that.
Speaker 1: And you know, you have to think, Bobby Brown is
Speaker 1: married to Whitney Houston, the mother of his daughter who
Speaker 1: also passed away, you know what I'm saying. So there's
Speaker 1: a lot of pain and all of that things, that
Speaker 1: whole thing. And I did hear a lot about Whinney
Speaker 1: Houston being bisexual. I heard it when I first moved
Speaker 1: to l a from one of from one of these
Speaker 1: dancers that danced in the videos and was like, she's
Speaker 1: you know, he called out a bunch of names of women.
Speaker 1: He was like, they're always talking about the men, but
Speaker 1: he was like this woman, this woman, and this woman.
Speaker 1: They turned off all the girls. And it was very
Speaker 1: interesting to hear his list, but he was I want.
Speaker 1: I went and found him. He was in all their
Speaker 1: videos and I was like, he might be making it up,
Speaker 1: but he's definitely been around these people, So I don't
Speaker 1: think that he would do that too maliciously or to
Speaker 1: try to bring attention to himself, because I think, I mean, Bobby,
Speaker 1: you give him the mic and a drink and he
Speaker 1: can find it. He can find a way. He don't
Speaker 1: have to even talk about with me. But they say
Speaker 1: in Jurassic Park, Bobby finds a way, you know. I
Speaker 1: think that was just rooted in his pain. I do
Speaker 1: think that he adored that woman, and I don't think
Speaker 1: that he would do that to try to get, you know,
Speaker 1: attention off of her, not not the Bobby Brown that
Speaker 1: that I've met, you know, I got you. It introduced
Speaker 1: a even more complicated question in my head, not just
Speaker 1: of whether or not his intentions. And this isn't even
Speaker 1: about Bobby at this point, but more just generally about
Speaker 1: this This entire idea is is more about the question
Speaker 1: at least that sort of like came to life, is
Speaker 1: the question of public responsibility, or rather how much these
Speaker 1: celebrities even owe to the public in relation to their
Speaker 1: sexuality and sexual identity. Right. So, for example, in the article,
Speaker 1: some people are arguing that it's obviously awful to out
Speaker 1: somebody posthumously that like, if they weren't ready to tell
Speaker 1: the world when they were alive, they're not suddenly ready
Speaker 1: to tell the world just because they passed away, and
Speaker 1: we should respect that. But then there are other people
Speaker 1: who argue that by sharing these people's stories, you are
Speaker 1: bringing more light to the communities that they potentially could represent.
Speaker 1: Right and specifically they talk about Ed cock of of
Speaker 1: New York, former mayor of New York City. He dies
Speaker 1: and in two thousand thirteen, and then it becomes exposed,
Speaker 1: and maybe it was exposed the entire time, maybe that
Speaker 1: everybody knew, similar to you know, a Luther Vandros's kind
Speaker 1: of situation, that he was homosexual, that he had homosexual relationships.
Speaker 1: But one of the things that that happened is that
Speaker 1: during his time in as mayor, he's constantly getting all
Speaker 1: this pushback from AIDS activists basically saying, why won't you
Speaker 1: speak up for the community that you could represent here
Speaker 1: they're calling this a gay disease and you, a gay man,
Speaker 1: should be out and open about how this isn't a
Speaker 1: gay disease. And if you support me, you support the unity,
Speaker 1: said you're hurting with by saying all of these things.
Speaker 1: And Ed never said anything, and he never stepped out
Speaker 1: of his way to protect these communities. And so I
Speaker 1: guess my final question to you before we we run
Speaker 1: off to another break, is what do you think about that?
Speaker 1: In public responsibility? Does Ed oh the gay community anything
Speaker 1: or is he just meant to like keep rocking the
Speaker 1: way he wants to rock And it doesn't matter one
Speaker 1: way or the other. No, he doesn't owe anybody anything.
Speaker 1: And I know people are going to probably push back
Speaker 1: on this, but nobody knows what Ed's emotional or psychological
Speaker 1: state was, where he had process, what where he was
Speaker 1: in terms of his own sexuality, and what if that
Speaker 1: man wasn't ready to deal with that and came out
Speaker 1: and they got dealt with some crazy stuff and ended
Speaker 1: up killing himself because of it. You know, Like it's
Speaker 1: just the fact that the public feels and entitled to
Speaker 1: people's business because people have some sort of even as
Speaker 1: a public figure, his responsibility to his community is to
Speaker 1: do the work that is described in that job description.
Speaker 1: It is not that he owes his personal life to
Speaker 1: anybody else, you know, And there are a lot of
Speaker 1: people dealing with a lot of different issues. Are you
Speaker 1: demanding that straight men tell you about their affairs? Are
Speaker 1: you demanding that straight men tell you about all the
Speaker 1: stuff that they're doing or straight women. It's just it's
Speaker 1: only when it comes to that community that people feel
Speaker 1: entitled to know, like even the terminology we're gonna out you,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, Like like there are consequences
Speaker 1: for people finding out about it, and that why wouldn't
Speaker 1: you be petrified? Like you don't know what it's gonna be,
Speaker 1: you know. And his responsibility with what's going on with
Speaker 1: AIDS was to make sure that policy was in place
Speaker 1: and that it was enforced and that, you know, whatever,
Speaker 1: those responsibilities, those responsibilities connected to office. Anything that he
Speaker 1: does is above and beyond. So if you decided to
Speaker 1: say I am and I'm gonna speak up for this
Speaker 1: community because you know because of this, this, this, then
Speaker 1: that's that should be admirable. But that's not something it's
Speaker 1: not required, right, I I think that's fair. I think
Speaker 1: they're The responsibility a person in office has, in my mind,
Speaker 1: is to be careful and caring about every single person
Speaker 1: that they represent. It's not necessarily to just place preference
Speaker 1: on the communities that they're deeply connected to. And ideally,
Speaker 1: the way that you represent all of these communities and
Speaker 1: care about all of these people is you are connected
Speaker 1: in small communities and so you do the extra work
Speaker 1: to make sure that everybody is is fairly represented. That said,
Speaker 1: it doesn't mean that, like, like you said, there are
Speaker 1: a lot of great leaders who love to cheat on
Speaker 1: their wives or their husbands or whatever it is, and
Speaker 1: that's not they don't owe more to the non monogamous
Speaker 1: community simply because that's who they represents. Yeah, they were
Speaker 1: all doing what we can to to protect each other
Speaker 1: as best we can. And he he clearly didn't feel
Speaker 1: comfortable telling everybody is business and so maybe he doesn't
Speaker 1: have to to suddenly out himself just because he's a
Speaker 1: famous person. I mean, are all women who have had
Speaker 1: abortions that are in office have to do? They have
Speaker 1: the obligations to tell people that they have abortion when
Speaker 1: they're dealing with abortion, you know, Like it's it's just
Speaker 1: like that's what drove like Bill Clinton to say he
Speaker 1: didn't exhale or he didn't inhale or whatever. It's just that,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying, All of that this Salem
Speaker 1: attitude towards people, and and and feeling like we old
Speaker 1: that you know that the general public is entitled to
Speaker 1: the t It's just a function of you know, how
Speaker 1: celebrity culture has become so toxic in this country, and
Speaker 1: you know, and it leads into politics because politicians are celebrities,
Speaker 1: whether we want to admit it or not. And it's
Speaker 1: just it's just gross. It's just gross. Yeah, let people's
Speaker 1: business be their business. Let let everybody do their own
Speaker 1: freaky ship. And if they want to tell them about
Speaker 1: the freaky ship, you know, I'm happy to hear it.
Speaker 1: God damn do I want to hear about it. But
Speaker 1: but if not, that's okay. I'm on my business. I'm
Speaker 1: with it. All right. We're gonna say one more break.
Speaker 1: We'll be back with more, id Rodriguez and more, my
Speaker 1: mama told me. And we are back. We're not gonna
Speaker 1: let Joe Biden and Kamala Harris cut America's me. That's that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we're back here with more Ida Rodriguez more. And my
Speaker 1: mama told me. We're still talking about Luther Vandros and
Speaker 1: his secret that he took to his grave and the
Speaker 1: one that Bruce Valance would not allow him to keep
Speaker 1: Bruce had to tell people that Luther Vandross was gay.
Speaker 1: And I don't, none of them, neither of us know why.
Speaker 1: You know that motivation is I don't. I don't know,
Speaker 1: Like maybe even the fact that they were friends seemed
Speaker 1: so off, and that's because of what we you know,
Speaker 1: how we perceived people, and we're like, how do these
Speaker 1: two people know each other? But like I said, it's
Speaker 1: also it's just that Andy Cohen thing, like I just
Speaker 1: don't think it's cool. Yeah, I did that. I think,
Speaker 1: especially coming from a quote unquot white friend, you have
Speaker 1: extra care to probably take in outing somebody of a
Speaker 1: different race, and you know, a black person specifically in
Speaker 1: terms of like what's going to happen with his community,
Speaker 1: with his relationships with his mother, no less, you know,
Speaker 1: his mother is this deeply religious person. And that was
Speaker 1: part of what Patti LaBelle said, was that, like it
Speaker 1: was his mother's religious perspective that kept Luther in the
Speaker 1: closet in the first place. And the last thing she
Speaker 1: needs to learn it from, or the last person she
Speaker 1: needs to learn it from, is a goofy looking motherfucker
Speaker 1: like Bruce Valanche. You know, I would when I run
Speaker 1: into him, I'm gonna tell him he gotta recite the
Speaker 1: first ten lines from Never Too Much? Uh? I like that? Yeah?
Speaker 1: Make him. Make him say it on one knee so
Speaker 1: he really earns it, you know, because it's gonna take
Speaker 1: him a minute to get down there. Bruce ain't built
Speaker 1: for for kneeling. But up he he owes us an apology,
Speaker 1: he owes Luther and as an apology. Okay, let's let's
Speaker 1: play a game. This is This is a fun game.
Speaker 1: It's a brand new game that that I I've cooked
Speaker 1: up for this podcast. It's called make It makes Sense.
Speaker 1: Your thoughts create your reality. Well you already knew that, Yeah,
Speaker 1: you still live a life that you dread. Make it
Speaker 1: makes sense. This is a brand new game where I
Speaker 1: am going to introduce to you a conspiracy theory I
Speaker 1: had never heard of, and it's specifically a conspiracy theory
Speaker 1: that comes from the Dominican Republic. It's a conspiracy theory
Speaker 1: that that y'all over in the Dominican are rocking with.
Speaker 1: And I would love for you to make it make
Speaker 1: sense for me, help me understand what's happening in this scenario.
Speaker 1: So apparently in twenty nineteen, there was a string of
Speaker 1: deaths from a hotel where six different tours visiting the
Speaker 1: Dominican uh suddenly died. They just they died in these
Speaker 1: mysterious ways after drinking from their mini bar. And apparently
Speaker 1: more than a few people started to speculate that this
Speaker 1: was a serial killer working the Dominican Republic, that there
Speaker 1: was somebody out intentionally trying to kill tourists as they
Speaker 1: were moving and shaking around the Dominican And what I
Speaker 1: would love for you to do, ITAs tell me what's
Speaker 1: happening here. What do you think the real mystery is
Speaker 1: from these people who are drinking from this mini bar
Speaker 1: and all dying in these mysterious, tragic ways. So that's funny.
Speaker 1: I never heard that one. I'll tell you what I heard.
Speaker 1: I heard it was a governmental ploy to try to
Speaker 1: keep American people from going to the Dominican Republic. Because
Speaker 1: whoa hold on, wait a minute, Oh, this sounds like
Speaker 1: you're about to spit some ship. This I never heard
Speaker 1: this before. This is brand new to me, and all
Speaker 1: of this brand new to me. Can we do some
Speaker 1: some talk that talk? Can you bring it all down
Speaker 1: in thirty seconds? Yeah? No, this is what I heard. Okay,
Speaker 1: here we go. I'm gonna press the button and then
Speaker 1: you go crazy. So I heard that the Dominican Republic
Speaker 1: and Haiti are on the island of Espanola. So France
Speaker 1: is you colonized Haiti Spain commonized the Dominican Republic and
Speaker 1: Haiti owes France for slavery. They owned for being the
Speaker 1: ones to kick down the door for liberation. But what
Speaker 1: I heard was that there's this big old governmental choice
Speaker 1: so that they can take over the island. That's why
Speaker 1: they're letting these people struggle. But tourism generates a lot
Speaker 1: of money, so they were trying to deter tourists from
Speaker 1: going there, and that's why they were doing that, because
Speaker 1: it would keep the economy from flowing with the tourism
Speaker 1: dollars and let the country crumble so that they can
Speaker 1: go in and gentrify it and rehollow Holy sh it,
Speaker 1: Wait a minute, that's cool, mother goddamn it. So you're
Speaker 1: saying that they are this is an effort, or at
Speaker 1: least the theory is that this this is an alleged
Speaker 1: effort to tank the island too across the board because
Speaker 1: he ain't doing too great on its own. It's the
Speaker 1: between the funked up economy, that the damage that is
Speaker 1: intentionally being done from other colonizing places, and certainly like
Speaker 1: the earthquakes and hurricanes and ship that hit that side
Speaker 1: of the island, it's already struggling, which is alar is
Speaker 1: another conspiracy that those are done by those heart machines,
Speaker 1: and that those those are those are man made to
Speaker 1: cause destruction on the islands so that they can go
Speaker 1: ahead and take it. Yeah, we've we've talked about that
Speaker 1: a little on the podcast before that hades fucked up
Speaker 1: weather and earthquakes and all that ship as a results
Speaker 1: of weather control machines that the governments are intentionally creating.
Speaker 1: But to your larger point that there there might be
Speaker 1: a a real effort, a conspiratorial level effort by all
Speaker 1: of these countries or by a powerhouse country to make
Speaker 1: these islands tanks so that they can rebuild them. It's
Speaker 1: basically big ass six flags for for people to go
Speaker 1: and visit. Yep, that's exactly what fuck big six flags.
Speaker 1: That's funny. What what do you? What do we do?
Speaker 1: Is there anything that can be done about stuff like this?
Speaker 1: Is this just what it is? And we gotta eat
Speaker 1: a dick after all of this, you know, I think
Speaker 1: about that every day of my life. What do we do? Like,
Speaker 1: is there something we can really do? We just not.
Speaker 1: I don't think we'll we'll do we'll do it. I
Speaker 1: think that we're not gonna We're not revolutionaries. Were some
Speaker 1: punk as bitches like we like we are revolutions are
Speaker 1: on Twitter? Like, ain't nobody? Like when I saw that
Speaker 1: what do they call themself? That no fucking around coalition?
Speaker 1: I was like, whoa ship? They rolled up in some
Speaker 1: mountain with guns and fatigues, but it was like, what
Speaker 1: three hundred of them? I was like, you gonna take
Speaker 1: a whole? Like you know what I'm saying. We need
Speaker 1: more people like that. And that's why I'm like, probably nothing,
Speaker 1: because we're also not who people are, Like, I ain't
Speaker 1: watching the NFL, and then you I walk down the
Speaker 1: street and all I hear is people screaming watch the
Speaker 1: NFL games, and people that I know that said they
Speaker 1: were not gonna watch the NFL. So I think, I
Speaker 1: don't know, I don't. I don't know. If they were
Speaker 1: not gonna stop going to Target, we're not gonna stop Starbucks.
Speaker 1: So not. I think we're gonna eat that day the
Speaker 1: god damn it man. And that's it. You're I think
Speaker 1: you're right, because at the end of the day, even
Speaker 1: the COVID that that fucking you know, the minute men
Speaker 1: that you're referring to, who like are willing to take
Speaker 1: up arms and and take on a government, they could
Speaker 1: only find three hundred because there's only three hundred people
Speaker 1: in that place that are that principled and believe in
Speaker 1: that ship that much. The rest of us are living
Speaker 1: pretty passive lit us. We were like, yeah, I don't
Speaker 1: I don't like what the government is doing, but like,
Speaker 1: I don't know, bro, I'm not about to start for
Speaker 1: this ship, so I'm good. I don't want to get shot.
Speaker 1: I don't want to put myself in any line of fire,
Speaker 1: So go crazy, government, you know what I mean. It's
Speaker 1: like you just like, you know what, I'm gonna going
Speaker 1: to Disneyland this weekend, Like you just don't. And and
Speaker 1: it's it's not that you don't care, it's that it's
Speaker 1: so overwhelming it feels hopeless. Sure, yeah, I think if
Speaker 1: even if you are a passionate person, there are so
Speaker 1: many problems in the world that it's it's too challenging
Speaker 1: to pick a thing and just focus on that, because
Speaker 1: then you're like ignoring a ton of other responsibilities you
Speaker 1: probably also have in terms of protecting people, are taking
Speaker 1: down the evils of the world around us. Goddamnit just
Speaker 1: so overwhelming. So you're like, oh, go get that's the
Speaker 1: weepy meal that make now, and that's the biggest lesson
Speaker 1: we can walk away with. I think if we gotta
Speaker 1: send people away with anything, if you feel sad, if
Speaker 1: you feel overwhelmed by everything that's happening in the world,
Speaker 1: get that sweetie meal at the at McDonald's. You get
Speaker 1: the negats and the big Mac. You dip that in
Speaker 1: some chocolate like that nasty bitch. Does you gotta go
Speaker 1: crazy with the sweetie meal at McDonald's. Well, all right,
Speaker 1: I think we did it. I think I think we
Speaker 1: did what we could today. Could you tell the people
Speaker 1: at home where they can find you and what cool
Speaker 1: ship you have going on? Sure they can find me
Speaker 1: on HBO Max. The name of the special is fighting words.
Speaker 1: Don't tweet me, don't at me because I don't read
Speaker 1: none of it. Uh So, don't waste your time and
Speaker 1: you can find me on Instagram and Twitter at funny
Speaker 1: a I d a funny either, And that's it. All
Speaker 1: of the stuff is not real until it happens. Hell yeah,
Speaker 1: well we'll follow her watch the special November four Fighting
Speaker 1: Words and as always, you can follow me at at
Speaker 1: Langston Herman and if you so choose, please send us
Speaker 1: your drop, send us your messages, review, subscribe to whatever
Speaker 1: the funk you're supposed to do to the podcast, and
Speaker 1: you can send us everything in my mama pot at
Speaker 1: gmail dot com. Uh, and that's everything. That's all I know. Okay, bye, bitch.
Speaker 1: My crop chips in your qualibatars are racist. Money stuff
Speaker 1: can't tell me