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Speaker 1: Previously on Weedian House.

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Speaker 2: The vast majority of our precious human beings and precious

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Speaker 2: fellows citizens are there because they're dealing with the effects

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Speaker 2: of a deeply unjust capitalist system that puts a priority

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Speaker 2: on profit rather than satisfying human need.

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Speaker 3: Do we have what it takes.

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Speaker 2: To acknowledge the rich humanity and creativity of each and

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Speaker 2: every one of us, including our precious on housed brothers

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Speaker 2: and sisters and sidects.

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Speaker 4: We need more services where people have options. You know,

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Speaker 4: you tell me, hey, I want you to get on

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Speaker 4: your feet, but you have to go to this one

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Speaker 4: program that's not helpful.

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Speaker 5: You know.

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Speaker 4: We need more therapeutic environments where you can say, what

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Speaker 4: do you need and let's work with you and create

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Speaker 4: something that's going to make you succeed.

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Speaker 1: Welcome back to Whedy and Howse. I'm your host, Theo Henderson.

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Speaker 1: This week we're going to talk about the increasing violence

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Speaker 1: done to the LGBTTIA community. We hope to add a

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Speaker 1: new dimension to the community. Our guests have experienced houselessness

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Speaker 1: are currently experiencing insecure housing situations. Our guests offer a

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Speaker 1: unique insight into the difficulties of living in a volatile

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Speaker 1: environment as well as a hostile one. But first let

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Speaker 1: us cover unhouse news first. Paul Carmarta, owner and manager

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Speaker 1: of Sunset Studios, is closing the studio due to the

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Speaker 1: unhoused community living nearby, citing Burglary arson and discomfort from

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Speaker 1: visiting artists. This is a developing story. Whedian House will

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Speaker 1: provide updates. Moving on to Chatsworth, California, Oberstein is council

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Speaker 1: Member John Lee's opponent for Council District twelve in the

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Speaker 1: November election. She is promising the same solutions to houselessness

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Speaker 1: that every clueless politician offers. She believes council Member Lee

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Speaker 1: relies on forty one eighteen too much. Oberstein drops out

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Speaker 1: the same tired popes with the unhoused, such as mental

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Speaker 1: health subs and usage shelter and last housing, despite research

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Speaker 1: showing otherwise. In similar news, LA City Council members have

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Speaker 1: kept a secret report on the failure of forty one eighteen.

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Speaker 1: I personally advocated against forty one eighteen, which is the

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Speaker 1: new Jim Crow, which states that it's illegal for unhoused

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Speaker 1: people to sit, sleep, or lie anywhere from a postage side.

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Speaker 1: Four years ago, forty one eighteen was voted in almost

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Speaker 1: unanimously by council members and signed into effect by former

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Speaker 1: Mayor Eric Garcetti. The report clearly state it does not

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Speaker 1: house the in housed, nor stops the in house from

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Speaker 1: returning to the place that were swept from. In fact,

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Speaker 1: eighty one percent came back, ninety four percent of the

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Speaker 1: in house one in housing, and eighteen percent were able

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Speaker 1: to get housed. Oberstein is more of the same. But

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Speaker 1: I also wanted to reiterate how awful council Member John

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Speaker 1: Lee has been to the young house community in the past.

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Speaker 1: I'm going to read Eric clip we had on a

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Speaker 1: previous episode of weed in house, showing you just how

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Speaker 1: bad it gets people.

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Speaker 5: But we have drug addicts causas feeding their habits with

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Speaker 5: things like top forty seven, protecting that everyone knows. I

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Speaker 5: don't think I don't think I need to educate anyone

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Speaker 5: here on about forty seven. But you can steal how much

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Speaker 5: nine hundred and fifty dollars not for day for incidents

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Speaker 5: you're having you walking their school steal down amount and

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Speaker 5: is still consider pettites.

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Speaker 1: And finally, we are reairing the list of with the

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Speaker 1: shelters available in the Los Angeles area through March thirty first.

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Speaker 1: As usual, Weedian House cannot confirm what is available. This

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Speaker 1: is what is listed on loss's website at the time

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Speaker 1: end of recording. Next week we will do a deep

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Speaker 1: dive and to Loss's effectiveness or lack thereof forty four

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Speaker 1: beds at Volunteers of America address forty five one hundred

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Speaker 1: and fifty sixtieth Street in West Lancaster, California. The population

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Speaker 1: they serve is co ED thirty five beds at Advancing

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Speaker 1: Communities Together. It is at thirty eight six hundred and

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Speaker 1: twenty six to ninth Street in East Palmdale, California. Only

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Speaker 1: open from seven pm to seven am on weekdays and

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Speaker 1: twenty four hours on Saturday and Sunday. Population served co

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Speaker 1: ED fifty beds at home at last eighty seven sixty

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Speaker 1: eight South Broadway, Los Angeles. Population served women eleven beds

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Speaker 1: at Assured Lifestyle Housing ninety five nineteen South Figaroa at

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Speaker 1: Los Angeles. Population served co ED nine beds at Assured

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Speaker 1: Lifestyle Housing seven hundred West Florence, Los Angeles. Population served

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Speaker 1: co ed forty one beds at First Served seventeen eighteen

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Speaker 1: West Vernon Avenue, Los Angeles. Population served coed sixty beds

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Speaker 1: at Bryant Temple Community Development fifty five hundred South Hoover Street,

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Speaker 1: Los Angeles. Population served men, thirty two beds at Abundant

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Speaker 1: Blessings eleven thirty three Southmore Avenue, Los Angeles. Population served men,

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Speaker 1: fifty five beds at New Reflections eighty three eleven Southwestern Avenue,

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Speaker 1: Los Angeles. Population served men, eleven beds at Whittier First

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Speaker 1: Day twelve four and twenty six Whittier Boulevard, Whittier, California.

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Speaker 1: Population served COIT and forty beds at First to serve

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Speaker 1: seven hundred and two West Anaheon Street. Long Beach, California

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Speaker 1: population served COIT. And that's on House News. When we

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Speaker 1: come back, we're going to speak with how self made

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Speaker 1: about his experience being on house and part of the

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Speaker 1: LGBTTIA community, talk about it. Two conversations with members of

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Speaker 1: the LGBQTIA community in Los Angeles. The three people I'm

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Speaker 1: speaking with today are all adults, but I wanted to

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Speaker 1: make a note here there are thousands of young LGBQTIA

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Speaker 1: on house people living on the streets of LA As

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Speaker 1: I record this, it's hard to find current numbers. The

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Speaker 1: last count made publicly available was around five thousand kids

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Speaker 1: in twenty twenty one, many of whom have become on

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Speaker 1: housed because they were turned out of their homes. We

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Speaker 1: would be remiss in not mentioning a recent tragedy involving

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Speaker 1: a sixteen year old non binary high school student who

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Speaker 1: was beaten to death at their high school, Owassa High

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Speaker 1: in Oklahoma. Next Benedict should still be alive, respected, loved,

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Speaker 1: and safe. Nexus death is the second violent killing of

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Speaker 1: a transgender or expansed a person in twenty twenty four.

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Speaker 1: This topic warrants further discussion, which is why Weed and

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Speaker 1: House wants to take this time to open the floor

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Speaker 1: to our three guests. First up, I'm speaking to my

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Speaker 1: friend How, self made and unhouse activist today in the studios.

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Speaker 1: It's one of my personal friends and the guests that

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Speaker 1: I've known since I started doing this podcast, and we're

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Speaker 1: going to talk a little bit about the successes, the challenges,

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Speaker 1: the rainbows, and sometimes the storms that is encountered with

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Speaker 1: the in house community. And it's particularly in the community

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Speaker 1: that How is a part of. So, without further ado,

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Speaker 1: How take it away, tell us a little bit about yourself.

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Speaker 6: Let's see, I came to LA in twenty eighteen. September

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Speaker 6: of twenty eighteen, we my husband and I slept on

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Speaker 6: the beach for a couple of months and came inland

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Speaker 6: to Hollywood between the middle of October and the first

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Speaker 6: of November, because I remember being in some a park

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Speaker 6: for Thanksgiving that year, and we moved inland to pitch

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Speaker 6: our tent because we found a tent row just south

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Speaker 6: of the LGBT Center, which is my epicenter for my

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Speaker 6: health care. That's where I get all of my referrals

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Speaker 6: and prescription.

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Speaker 1: This is an inland empire or this Hollywood.

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Speaker 6: Oh, this is in Hollywood, inland from the beach. When

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Speaker 6: when we came to the LGBT Center from the beach

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Speaker 6: one day because I had an appointment, we found that

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Speaker 6: tent row right across from Somema Park and we got

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Speaker 6: absorbed into that community. Not long after that, I was

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Speaker 6: in March of next year when we moved into the

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Speaker 6: Schrader Shelter. We're there for nine months or so.

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Speaker 1: So what was your experiences like there at you know,

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Speaker 1: just trying to.

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Speaker 6: Highlight you know, rapid turnover ninety day rapid turnover for

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Speaker 6: case management. Nowhere near ninety day turnover for the clients,

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Speaker 6: which was promised. There's no such thing as safety. Meth

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Speaker 6: smoke in the bunk areas was rampant. There was no enforcement.

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Speaker 6: What enforcement was was confiscating anything they found. But you

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Speaker 6: know there were people selling and making pipes there on

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Speaker 6: the property, so what were they going to do about it?

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Speaker 1: You bring up some interesting points because this conversation about

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Speaker 1: substance usage has expanded earlier before we came on. We

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Speaker 1: were talking about twenty or thirty years ago, how what

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Speaker 1: was seen as the pariah was marijuana smoking. I remember

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Speaker 1: my grandfather getting upset with my uncle because he smoked

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Speaker 1: we I mean this was eight seventies, but smoking weed

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Speaker 1: in the house and he had like a he had

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Speaker 1: a conniption. You know, it was like, you know, it

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Speaker 1: was like you thought he was Pablo Escobar and it

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Speaker 1: was just a joint. And the thing with it is

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Speaker 1: is that when we're dealing with people in broken spaces

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Speaker 1: or broken places, you know, it's not easy to get

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Speaker 1: off of things, and it's not easy to maintain sobriety

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Speaker 1: without having the infrastructure. One of my major points of

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Speaker 1: contention is lumping and putting everyone in the same facility.

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Speaker 1: And it's just like we're going to surgery. I wouldn't

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Speaker 1: have surgery for you know, my heart if I have

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Speaker 1: something wrong with my liver. So don't put people in

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Speaker 1: places that you know are not compatible. Put them or

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Speaker 1: create places so they can be able to get the help.

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Speaker 1: And we need to let the empathy to understand exactly.

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Speaker 6: I'm all for harm reduction, but when considering harm reduction

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Speaker 6: for one group, when does that become harmful to another group?

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Speaker 6: And where do you draw the lines and how do

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Speaker 6: you enforce those lines once they've been drawn.

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Speaker 1: Could it be they are having the same kind of

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Speaker 1: quandaries that we had like twenty or thirty years ago

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Speaker 1: with marijuana.

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Speaker 7: Oh.

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Speaker 6: Absolutely. The stigma doesn't change, It just moves its targets.

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Speaker 6: And I'm pro substance. Don't get me wrong. The state

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Speaker 6: of the world today requires that some kind of numbing happen.

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Speaker 6: If you are okay in today's world, you got a problem.

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Speaker 6: If you can't see the things going on in the

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Speaker 6: world and be sober and okay, got a problem. You're

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Speaker 6: not seeing the same world that I'm seeing. And that's

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Speaker 6: a problem because I feel like I'm firmly rooted in reality.

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Speaker 1: You know, on my show, one of the things that

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Speaker 1: I try to do is that because the un houses

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Speaker 1: for all of us that has different maladies and challenges

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Speaker 1: that we have, particularly like substance and mental health, and

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Speaker 1: wanted to make sure that we had the understanding like,

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Speaker 1: for example, when you are not at your best, or

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Speaker 1: you're ill, or you are doing behaviors that are like

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Speaker 1: you're saying, maybe it will become triggering or harmful to

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Speaker 1: other people. People don't understand that you're not getting up

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Speaker 1: is thinking to do that. It's just a psychological or

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Speaker 1: medical issue. And because we don't, our society lacks empathy,

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Speaker 1: or we don't create places because we're going to have

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Speaker 1: to because it's a higher number of people on substances

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Speaker 1: that are housed than it is an out housed. The

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Speaker 1: only problem with this is unhoused people get vilified because

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Speaker 1: we don't have a place to hide or have a

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Speaker 1: place with treatment, because any mistake we do is and

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Speaker 1: then you're stigmatized, and then you're justified by creating these

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Speaker 1: punitive laws in order for us to justify behavior that's

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Speaker 1: also run them up in the House community. But we

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Speaker 1: don't have that same impetus, which incidentally can't remember the state.

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Speaker 1: But there's a place that's trying to put in the

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Speaker 1: death penalty for people that sell fentanyl.

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Speaker 6: Didn't they try that once before or twice before the crack?

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Speaker 6: And yes they're trying to do it. Yeah, now that

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Speaker 6: we've proven that punitive laws don't work, rehabilitation works. The

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Speaker 6: prison system. The jail system is not designed to help anyone.

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Speaker 6: It is design, at least in America, it is designed

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Speaker 6: to increase the rate of recidivism. Because I don't know

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Speaker 6: if anyone missed the memo, but slavery never ended in

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Speaker 6: the United States. They changed the name to protect the guilty.

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Speaker 6: They call it prison.

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Speaker 5: Now.

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Speaker 1: I was going to say, how did you become on house?

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Speaker 6: How did I become in house? I became on House

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Speaker 6: due to my transgender status. I'm from Tennessee, and I

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Speaker 6: left Tennessee just before they got the wild hair up

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Speaker 6: their ass and started all the anti trans and queer

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Speaker 6: and drag bills that are going on there. It became

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Speaker 6: apparent that I had started my transition. I was growing

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Speaker 6: some facial hair, I shaved my head, I was starting

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Speaker 6: trying to start my name change process, and my landlord's

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Speaker 6: made up some egregious things to get me kicked out.

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Speaker 6: It was They filed it as a lease violation, so

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Speaker 6: it was a civil case, not a criminal case. It

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Speaker 6: was basically a debt collection, so I was not afforded

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Speaker 6: a lawyer. I could not fight it. I represented myself.

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Speaker 6: I talked my way out of it without an eviction

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Speaker 6: on my record. But we packed up everything we own

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Speaker 6: or everything we could bring with us, and packed up

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Speaker 6: Honda Civic and started out here. September third, twenty eighteen.

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Speaker 1: I'm going to ask a very stupid question, so bear

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Speaker 1: with me. Why didn't your family come to your eight

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Speaker 1: What happen?

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Speaker 3: Oh?

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Speaker 6: Being from the South, my people were very conservative religious people,

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Speaker 6: and being queer and trands as I am was not

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Speaker 6: to their expectations of my lifestyle. And I came to

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Speaker 6: a point in my thirties where I was no longer

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Speaker 6: living for anyone else's expectations. I'm not responsible for your

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Speaker 6: perceptions of me, and that's a problem.

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Speaker 1: So that's basically played a cross role into your life development.

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Speaker 1: I came, yeah, so what made you leave Tennessee to

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Speaker 1: come here?

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Speaker 6: Three catastrophes in three months leading up to September, we

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Speaker 6: got the eviction notice. I broke my ankle and we

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Speaker 6: got scammed out of eight hundred dollars trying to find

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Speaker 6: a new place. Oh wow, for me, that just became

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Speaker 6: a signal from the universe.

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Speaker 3: To get the got a dodge, and I did.

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Speaker 6: I remember we were realizing that homelessness was becoming a thing,

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Speaker 6: and we were, you know, sorting through things to either

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Speaker 6: be sold or donated to take with us, and we

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Speaker 6: hadn't quite settled on our destination yet. We had been

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Speaker 6: thinking about Colorado Springs because I knew some people not

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Speaker 6: far from Colorado Springs. But then we realized that it

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Speaker 6: was September and the base of the mountains is no

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Speaker 6: where you want to be in the winter in a tent,

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Speaker 6: especially with you know, my particular sets of disabilities. So

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Speaker 6: I'm talking to a friend of mine who's in the

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Speaker 6: living room with me in our apartment in Antioch, and

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Speaker 6: Jay is in the back. I think he's cleaning the

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Speaker 6: bathroom or going through bathroom stuff. I don't remember exactly

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Speaker 6: what he was doing, but I looked over at my

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Speaker 6: friend and kind of under my breath, I was like,

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Speaker 6: maybe we should just go to a legal state, live

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Speaker 6: in the car. And here comes Jay. Here is a

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Speaker 6: little pitter patter of feet down the hallway, and.

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Speaker 3: He goes, let's do it, Like okay.

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Speaker 6: So I started doing some more research and with you know,

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Speaker 6: my need for health care and our love cannabis and

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Speaker 6: the weather, so cal was the only logical choice.

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Speaker 3: I felt like we could.

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Speaker 6: Survive a winter outside being as wet and not as

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Speaker 6: cold versus Tennessee or anywhere in the Southeast winters that

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Speaker 6: get both cold and wet.

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Speaker 1: Wow. And we're interesting to note that many people pass

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Speaker 1: away from hypothermia here than other places. But because of that,

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Speaker 1: because like you know, the warbid climbs and therein lies

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Speaker 1: a different issue. What was it like your first night

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Speaker 1: being on house out here?

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Speaker 6: The first night being in house, we stayed in the

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Speaker 6: car and we were on Santa Monica Beach. We were

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Speaker 6: not far from Satamnica be Okay. I think we parked

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Speaker 6: on Rose or Cherry Street. And then we pitched the

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Speaker 6: tent up next to a building where we saw other

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Speaker 6: people pitching their tents.

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Speaker 3: It was weird.

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Speaker 6: I'm not gonna lie. I did not feel safe. I

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Speaker 6: didn't sleep a whole lot that night and then come

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Speaker 6: to find out we were sleeping on the beach at

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Speaker 6: the time. A serial killer was active killing people under

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Speaker 6: Santa Monica peer and under Venice.

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Speaker 1: Pier, killing the house.

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Speaker 6: Let's yes, yes, killing on house people sleeping under the piers.

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Speaker 6: And if it weren't for Kelly A and she's moved

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Speaker 6: back to Tennessee now, but she gave us a place

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Speaker 6: to sleep on her living room couch for about a

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Speaker 6: week because she didn't want us live in on the

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Speaker 6: beach when there was an active serial killer of on

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Speaker 6: house people.

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Speaker 1: Oh wow, So these are the stepbacks I had the

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Speaker 1: question about the setbacks and challenges of this act. Definitely

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Speaker 1: answers that question. Yes, so I remember, just to give

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Speaker 1: full disclosure, I remember, or like over three years ago now,

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Speaker 1: I had started a podcast called Weedy and House and

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Speaker 1: I had been first. I started out small, started out

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Speaker 1: with my story and people that was living near me

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Speaker 1: that was unhoused as well and getting their stories, and

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Speaker 1: then I took it to another place like Echo Park

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Speaker 1: and other locations to start to get other unhoused people.

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Speaker 1: Because initially the original idea when I started it was

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Speaker 1: people were trying to only have me do unhoused in

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Speaker 1: skid Row. And I had lived as an unhouse person

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Speaker 1: all over and I knew that skid Row is always

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Speaker 1: heavily concentrated but also heavily focused on and a lot

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Speaker 1: of other communities get shafted or don't get these the

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Speaker 1: same kind of respective love. So I said, well, if

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Speaker 1: I want to make this more applicable for everyone, I

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Speaker 1: have to expand it to other places, because they have

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Speaker 1: different challenges than skid Row, you know, in which they

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Speaker 1: do you know and you have to understand. And there's

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Speaker 1: different policy sees that's going on in different treatments and

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Speaker 1: different realities. That's conversely very different than being on housed

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Speaker 1: in skid Row. So that's where I think we either

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Speaker 1: met there or we either met at Echo Park, because

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Speaker 1: I remember you were doing some activism as at that

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Speaker 1: time too.

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Speaker 6: My first interview was at Sunset and Cherokee when we

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Speaker 6: had just gotten kicked out of the Schrader shelter for

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Speaker 6: defending ourselves against a security guard.

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Speaker 1: Oh, I didn't hear this full story on that what happened.

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Speaker 6: So I spoke about meth being smoked in the bunk areas.

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Speaker 6: I don't judge anybody for their matthews. I just don't

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Speaker 6: want to be exposed to it. That's not my lane.

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Speaker 6: I don't like it, but it's not my business. If

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Speaker 6: that's what you choose to do, I just don't want

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Speaker 6: to be around it. So we had set up our

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Speaker 6: tent outside the shelter and we'd break it down every

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Speaker 6: day and take it back inside. Somebody came out of

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Speaker 6: the shelter screaming at the top of their lungs, and

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Speaker 6: we hollered back, and then the security guard came down

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Speaker 6: off of his post, off of the shelter's property to

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Speaker 6: attack us. When we defended, they called the cops on

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Speaker 6: us and had us kicked out.

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Speaker 1: That power dynamic that goes on in these shelters, in

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Speaker 1: these hotels, it's not nearly talked about enough, but you

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Speaker 1: know it should be, because these power dynamics make a

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Speaker 1: person that's an in vulnerable position even more vulnerable, and

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Speaker 1: much more in a place where they are going to

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Speaker 1: be impacted by, you know, whimsical decisions or cruel decisions.

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Speaker 6: I had a former security guard at that shelter. I

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Speaker 6: ran into them years later, and they no longer worked

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Speaker 6: for the security company. But They told me that during

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Speaker 6: their security team meetings at the beginning and end of

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Speaker 6: every shift, that they were told to antagonize the clients

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Speaker 6: as much as possible, that they wanted as much turnover

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Speaker 6: as they could possible to get.

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Speaker 1: Why am I not surprised?

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Speaker 5: Right?

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Speaker 1: How did you navigate out of being out on house?

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Speaker 1: What was the things that happened?

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Speaker 3: You were a big part of that.

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Speaker 6: THEO You got me in touch with a lot of

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Speaker 6: different Newspeople journalists. There were articles written about me. I

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Speaker 6: did interviews not just with you, but with Kate Cagele

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Speaker 6: and Sam Lutzker and several other knock dot la journalists.

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Speaker 6: I also wrote a couple of articles myself for knock

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Speaker 6: dot La. I was eloquent, credible, disabled and educated. I

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Speaker 6: got in front of every camera I wrote the articles.

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Speaker 6: I got in front of every microphone that would listen.

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Speaker 6: It looked real bad. This is a media town. I

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Speaker 6: learned very quickly that there's no such thing as bad press.

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Speaker 6: That bad press for them was good press for me.

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Speaker 6: And as soon as I started spilling the tea, things

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Speaker 6: started rolling.

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Speaker 1: That was that's why then we in the house. I'm

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Speaker 1: very proud to hear that it was an agent of

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Speaker 1: change or agent of positive movement, because that's what I

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Speaker 1: want to do for more on house community to get

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Speaker 1: their stories out. Because I was having a conversation a

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Speaker 1: while ago about the differences in how mainstream media covers

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Speaker 1: the stories and then how we did in house covers

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Speaker 1: because sometimes the lens is they only touch on the

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Speaker 1: surface or the shallow parts because they trying to make

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Speaker 1: it palatable for house people to either care, whereas we

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Speaker 1: take it more of a deeper dive. And then we also,

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Speaker 1: which I've been really trying to do now, is do

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Speaker 1: more follow up to make sure that the story doesn't

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Speaker 1: get lost into the next Taylor Swift concert or you

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Speaker 1: know those kind of things.

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Speaker 6: That unhoused lodge matters.

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Speaker 1: But it's unfortunately, you know, we have you know, it's

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Speaker 1: ingrained in us because we believe our media are forth

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Speaker 1: for state is going to tell us the truths or

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Speaker 1: it's going or it's the paragon on journalistic integrity. But

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Speaker 1: we've found as being on House and Spent, well, I've

399
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Speaker 1: been our revenue being a black man, But on House

400
00:25:08,400 --> 00:25:11,399
Speaker 1: and Black I knew that there is a lot of

401
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Speaker 1: key issues, a lot of key stories that are being omitted,

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Speaker 1: and I'm so glad to see the mainstream media get

403
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Speaker 1: a fire on the ass and start to do do

404
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Speaker 1: their job and reporting the whole story for it. And

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Speaker 1: it worked hopefully well for you too. I do remember,

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Speaker 1: I know if you may not remember that, I do remember.

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Speaker 1: There was a wedding marriage.

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Speaker 6: Yes, yes, so Jay and I got married while we

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Speaker 6: lived outside April the twentieth.

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Speaker 3: We tried the first time April the.

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Speaker 6: Twentieth of twenty nineteen. Our efficient did not mail in

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Speaker 6: our wedding our marriage license in time, so it did

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Speaker 6: not go through. We ended up making it official on

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Speaker 6: April the twentieth, twenty twenty one, two years later, which

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Speaker 6: was also featured on Weed The Unhoused. Yes, he provided

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Speaker 6: all the videography and images were provided by Jeremy Littenfield.

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Speaker 6: I think so, I'm probably murdering his last night, Okay,

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Speaker 6: but yes, lots of the activist community and we the

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Speaker 6: unhoused community, came together and threw us a nice wedding

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Speaker 6: and reception in I forget which park it was in,

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Speaker 6: but it was a beautiful park.

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Speaker 1: That's great. Like I said, you know, there's like there's

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Speaker 1: a whole economy of being on house, we'd always are

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00:26:30,320 --> 00:26:34,080
Speaker 1: not grim and looking, you know, looking very unhappy, which

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Speaker 1: it's a hard circumstance, but we tried to find joy

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Speaker 1: in all of the elements of living, which like house

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Speaker 1: people do too, which but I also wanted to point

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Speaker 1: that out that there was some positive things going on.

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Speaker 1: You were able to get your situation in a more

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Speaker 1: of a stable environment and then have the level of

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00:26:50,800 --> 00:26:54,480
Speaker 1: your life with you, yes, and take it from those

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00:26:54,600 --> 00:26:58,879
Speaker 1: extraordinary heights. And I wanted to ask just to make

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Speaker 1: sure what's next for you?

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Speaker 6: What's next? Jay and I are in the process of

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00:27:03,640 --> 00:27:08,080
Speaker 6: storyboarding and starting to create content for our own podcasts

436
00:27:08,119 --> 00:27:13,000
Speaker 6: that we want to start, and Jay is also writing

437
00:27:13,240 --> 00:27:17,760
Speaker 6: some music. I'm trying to write a couple of books.

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Speaker 6: I'm painting. I'm painting again, which is awesome. I haven't

439
00:27:21,800 --> 00:27:24,480
Speaker 6: been painting in a while. My life is kind of

440
00:27:24,480 --> 00:27:27,680
Speaker 6: boring theo I'm disabled. I don't, you know, I don't

441
00:27:27,680 --> 00:27:29,760
Speaker 6: really go out a whole lot, or at least I

442
00:27:29,800 --> 00:27:32,640
Speaker 6: hadn't until I gotten my new chair. I had been

443
00:27:32,720 --> 00:27:34,960
Speaker 6: getting out quite a bit, and then my chair started

444
00:27:34,960 --> 00:27:36,800
Speaker 6: to fall apart and I had to start staying home more.

445
00:27:37,240 --> 00:27:40,720
Speaker 6: And I got my new chair on Valentine's Day, so

446
00:27:40,920 --> 00:27:43,320
Speaker 6: I'm back in the mix. I don't have to worry

447
00:27:43,359 --> 00:27:47,960
Speaker 6: about my battery charge anymore. I'm good, I can go.

448
00:27:48,560 --> 00:27:51,119
Speaker 1: Oh, that's awesome. Well, I guess as one of the

449
00:27:51,119 --> 00:27:54,200
Speaker 1: benefits of you know, having upgraded you know wheelcha, I

450
00:27:54,280 --> 00:27:56,159
Speaker 1: can tell is thatch more sleeker than the other one?

451
00:27:56,200 --> 00:27:57,440
Speaker 1: That one was a little more cumbersome.

452
00:27:57,640 --> 00:28:01,040
Speaker 6: Yes, well, this one is a little wider, so I'm

453
00:28:01,080 --> 00:28:05,200
Speaker 6: having to get used to that, but it is more comfortable.

454
00:28:05,600 --> 00:28:09,640
Speaker 6: Also having to relearn my muscle memory because my control

455
00:28:09,760 --> 00:28:11,800
Speaker 6: arm is on the left instead of the right this time,

456
00:28:12,440 --> 00:28:14,600
Speaker 6: but I wanted it that way because it's easier to

457
00:28:14,960 --> 00:28:17,480
Speaker 6: open doors with my dominant hand and drive with my

458
00:28:17,560 --> 00:28:21,600
Speaker 6: non dominant hand. Getting doors open with my control arm

459
00:28:21,640 --> 00:28:24,720
Speaker 6: on the right hand side was difficult, to say the least.

460
00:28:25,920 --> 00:28:30,040
Speaker 6: I don't know why automatic doors are not the standard everywhere.

461
00:28:31,720 --> 00:28:35,639
Speaker 6: I just wish people would understand that accessibility for people

462
00:28:35,720 --> 00:28:39,560
Speaker 6: like me, if it were included everywhere, would grant access

463
00:28:39,680 --> 00:28:44,400
Speaker 6: to everyone. It's not just a benefit for me. It

464
00:28:44,440 --> 00:28:46,480
Speaker 6: makes things better for everyone.

465
00:28:46,680 --> 00:28:49,320
Speaker 1: Which pitfall is that you find that's going on with

466
00:28:49,520 --> 00:28:50,720
Speaker 1: making it accessible.

467
00:28:51,840 --> 00:28:56,120
Speaker 6: On my way here today, coming down from Hollywood Boulevard.

468
00:28:56,760 --> 00:29:02,560
Speaker 6: There is no accessible sidewalk I noticed. To get here today,

469
00:29:02,920 --> 00:29:05,080
Speaker 6: I could not find an accessible way to get up

470
00:29:05,080 --> 00:29:06,560
Speaker 6: to the sidewalk. I had to go out in the

471
00:29:06,560 --> 00:29:08,840
Speaker 6: middle of the street to get up to the parking

472
00:29:08,840 --> 00:29:10,640
Speaker 6: lot to get up to the ramp door, and then

473
00:29:10,680 --> 00:29:12,240
Speaker 6: when I got to the ramp door, the ramp door

474
00:29:12,320 --> 00:29:17,400
Speaker 6: was closed and locked. Accessibility is an afterthought in not

475
00:29:17,600 --> 00:29:19,680
Speaker 6: just in this city, but in general.

476
00:29:20,880 --> 00:29:24,360
Speaker 1: I saw recently too, there was a disabled woman that

477
00:29:24,480 --> 00:29:27,160
Speaker 1: made it a statement. I guess when she says, like,

478
00:29:27,200 --> 00:29:34,200
Speaker 1: there's a parking lot and someone parks close to where

479
00:29:34,240 --> 00:29:37,280
Speaker 1: they are and they can't get she can't get out.

480
00:29:37,360 --> 00:29:39,480
Speaker 1: It's like you had to spend like two or three

481
00:29:39,560 --> 00:29:41,640
Speaker 1: hours waiting for the person to come back to drive

482
00:29:41,680 --> 00:29:43,640
Speaker 1: away because you can't get a wheelchair.

483
00:29:45,360 --> 00:29:50,280
Speaker 6: If someone parks even just an inch into the space

484
00:29:50,600 --> 00:29:56,000
Speaker 6: beside an accessible space, you are preventing someone from getting

485
00:29:56,080 --> 00:29:59,560
Speaker 6: their ramp out or getting their chair in and out

486
00:29:59,600 --> 00:30:05,200
Speaker 6: of their vehare and that it makes me feel every

487
00:30:05,240 --> 00:30:08,240
Speaker 6: time I see it. I want to leave passive aggressive notes,

488
00:30:08,440 --> 00:30:12,280
Speaker 6: but like most of the time, I don't have time

489
00:30:12,320 --> 00:30:12,560
Speaker 6: for that.

490
00:30:12,600 --> 00:30:15,920
Speaker 1: I understand that's a very good point too. I didn't

491
00:30:15,920 --> 00:30:18,520
Speaker 1: think that's one of the difficulties where people that are

492
00:30:18,600 --> 00:30:22,720
Speaker 1: have the accessibility, I don't realize that not everyone has

493
00:30:22,760 --> 00:30:25,480
Speaker 1: and you have to be aware of that or even

494
00:30:25,600 --> 00:30:29,600
Speaker 1: tune into that. Because I am disabled as well, and

495
00:30:29,640 --> 00:30:32,760
Speaker 1: I sometimes when it like it's very cold and things

496
00:30:32,800 --> 00:30:35,320
Speaker 1: like that, my authorities accept. But one of the things

497
00:30:35,320 --> 00:30:37,200
Speaker 1: that I do notice is like where I need to

498
00:30:37,240 --> 00:30:39,479
Speaker 1: be able to sit. For example, I was in an

499
00:30:39,520 --> 00:30:41,440
Speaker 1: event and I want to name the event, but the

500
00:30:41,480 --> 00:30:45,480
Speaker 1: event was it was so crammed that there was really

501
00:30:45,480 --> 00:30:47,640
Speaker 1: no place for me to sit and it was so

502
00:30:47,760 --> 00:30:50,440
Speaker 1: uncomfortable because I couldn't really sit because everyone was on

503
00:30:50,480 --> 00:30:53,240
Speaker 1: the ground. And I said, and so I'm like, well,

504
00:30:53,320 --> 00:30:55,200
Speaker 1: you know, and I thought to myself, the next event

505
00:30:55,240 --> 00:30:58,480
Speaker 1: I'm going to we ever do we won't be doing

506
00:30:58,520 --> 00:31:00,960
Speaker 1: that because we have to understand not every money is

507
00:31:01,040 --> 00:31:03,600
Speaker 1: able to just PLoP in or just want to be

508
00:31:03,680 --> 00:31:06,640
Speaker 1: crammed in like that, because there's a lot of other

509
00:31:06,720 --> 00:31:07,760
Speaker 1: issues going on there.

510
00:31:07,840 --> 00:31:09,960
Speaker 6: So that's something else that a lot of people are

511
00:31:10,000 --> 00:31:13,280
Speaker 6: not aware of that I wish they would be. You're

512
00:31:13,400 --> 00:31:20,000
Speaker 6: able bodied and sound minded status, it's temporary for everyone.

513
00:31:20,360 --> 00:31:23,400
Speaker 6: Is it not the goal to live long? Enough to

514
00:31:23,400 --> 00:31:24,959
Speaker 6: get out of braid and feeble bodied.

515
00:31:25,560 --> 00:31:30,200
Speaker 1: They're true. Well, How, You've definitely given us a lot

516
00:31:30,240 --> 00:31:33,120
Speaker 1: to talk about. And is there anything that I've forgotten

517
00:31:33,160 --> 00:31:34,320
Speaker 1: to mention or want to bring up.

518
00:31:34,680 --> 00:31:38,800
Speaker 6: No, I think we've covered just about everything, and you

519
00:31:38,800 --> 00:31:40,480
Speaker 6: know I'm always down to come back.

520
00:31:40,560 --> 00:31:41,680
Speaker 3: I love talking with you.

521
00:31:41,960 --> 00:31:45,719
Speaker 6: I think you're doing good work here and I'm always

522
00:31:45,760 --> 00:31:47,200
Speaker 6: down to contribute any way.

523
00:31:47,200 --> 00:31:48,240
Speaker 3: I possibly can't.

524
00:31:48,080 --> 00:31:50,959
Speaker 1: The same here, So I said, you know, you've been

525
00:31:51,000 --> 00:31:53,040
Speaker 1: an integral part of Weed in House when I started,

526
00:31:53,080 --> 00:31:55,280
Speaker 1: and I always wanted to always follow up and check

527
00:31:55,280 --> 00:31:58,520
Speaker 1: out how things are going. I'm in the process of

528
00:31:58,720 --> 00:32:01,240
Speaker 1: doing some other exciting things and hopefully you will be

529
00:32:01,280 --> 00:32:04,080
Speaker 1: part of that too as well. And like I said,

530
00:32:04,120 --> 00:32:12,320
Speaker 1: thank you again, how for coming in. Thanks so much

531
00:32:12,320 --> 00:32:15,320
Speaker 1: to HOW. When we come back, we'll be talking to

532
00:32:15,400 --> 00:32:24,640
Speaker 1: Leslie and d Welcome back to Weedy and How. I'm

533
00:32:24,680 --> 00:32:29,200
Speaker 1: your host, Theo Henderson. Our next conversation is with Unhoused

534
00:32:29,240 --> 00:32:30,960
Speaker 1: Plans activists Leslie.

535
00:32:30,560 --> 00:32:39,239
Speaker 3: And d Hi. My name is de my friend uns

536
00:32:39,240 --> 00:32:39,680
Speaker 3: are Shive.

537
00:32:40,120 --> 00:32:42,320
Speaker 8: I'll be talking on this podcast about my partner and

538
00:32:42,400 --> 00:32:45,880
Speaker 8: I story regarding our experiences on Nile's individuals, as well

539
00:32:45,920 --> 00:32:49,120
Speaker 8: as our experience with our negative experiences with some of

540
00:32:49,160 --> 00:32:51,640
Speaker 8: the airbnb industry as well as Motel's.

541
00:32:52,200 --> 00:32:54,560
Speaker 3: Other than that, Leslie, do you want to take it away?

542
00:32:54,840 --> 00:32:59,680
Speaker 7: Yeah, Leslie. Here, I'm also with my partner as well

543
00:32:59,720 --> 00:33:03,920
Speaker 7: as well the kind hosts of the show. I also

544
00:33:04,000 --> 00:33:06,280
Speaker 7: will be talking about the trials and tribulations of being

545
00:33:06,280 --> 00:33:09,960
Speaker 7: on house as well as especially the plight that happens

546
00:33:10,000 --> 00:33:12,800
Speaker 7: to befall a lot of the trends in Queer community

547
00:33:12,920 --> 00:33:17,320
Speaker 7: and then that happens to have numerous disadvantages and is

548
00:33:17,440 --> 00:33:25,280
Speaker 7: frequently really just inaccessible in terms of resources out there.

549
00:33:25,640 --> 00:33:29,640
Speaker 7: Many folks out there just do not understand the amount

550
00:33:29,880 --> 00:33:34,000
Speaker 7: of problems that many many in our community happened to have,

551
00:33:34,240 --> 00:33:39,920
Speaker 7: and how rampant issues of being unhoused as well as

552
00:33:40,200 --> 00:33:45,040
Speaker 7: just the really really bad situation that happens out there

553
00:33:45,320 --> 00:33:47,239
Speaker 7: in just the streets as is.

554
00:33:47,760 --> 00:33:50,040
Speaker 1: A few years ago, I was stabbed and I had

555
00:33:50,080 --> 00:33:54,120
Speaker 1: to take have convalescing care. And the reason I'm prefacing

556
00:33:54,120 --> 00:33:56,720
Speaker 1: the story because I want to point out where I

557
00:33:56,800 --> 00:33:59,240
Speaker 1: was convalescing at. It was that one of the self

558
00:33:59,280 --> 00:34:03,440
Speaker 1: Asian Army type of shelters. Now, in this particular instance,

559
00:34:03,480 --> 00:34:07,120
Speaker 1: it was extremely rainy, it was a cold, rainy day

560
00:34:07,680 --> 00:34:11,160
Speaker 1: and there was an unhoused trans woman that was trying

561
00:34:11,200 --> 00:34:15,640
Speaker 1: to get entry into the Salvation Army shelter and they

562
00:34:15,680 --> 00:34:18,759
Speaker 1: gave her, I'm going to go on the limits to

563
00:34:18,880 --> 00:34:21,680
Speaker 1: her a very hard time. They didn't admit her. That

564
00:34:21,880 --> 00:34:25,200
Speaker 1: was one of the most vivid incidents that really one

565
00:34:25,320 --> 00:34:27,839
Speaker 1: angered me because everyone needs you. I don't give them.

566
00:34:28,640 --> 00:34:32,120
Speaker 1: What part of humanity do you you align yourself with

567
00:34:32,200 --> 00:34:35,040
Speaker 1: the humanity of us? As understanding, it was a cold night,

568
00:34:35,280 --> 00:34:38,680
Speaker 1: it was rainy, she had no place to go, and

569
00:34:38,760 --> 00:34:42,160
Speaker 1: she was trying to get into guess what, a shelter

570
00:34:42,440 --> 00:34:45,320
Speaker 1: in order for there to be saved, and they turned

571
00:34:45,320 --> 00:34:49,160
Speaker 1: her away because Salvation already has that religious homophobic and

572
00:34:49,200 --> 00:34:53,920
Speaker 1: transphobia phobia, and it trickles down into the staff security

573
00:34:53,960 --> 00:34:57,000
Speaker 1: and no one to really push back for them to

574
00:34:57,120 --> 00:35:01,640
Speaker 1: do better. And that really carried over with understanding that

575
00:35:01,800 --> 00:35:04,800
Speaker 1: you know, we all are maybe in the same ocean,

576
00:35:04,840 --> 00:35:06,480
Speaker 1: but some of us are not in the boat, or

577
00:35:06,520 --> 00:35:08,880
Speaker 1: some of us are being thrown off the boat or

578
00:35:08,960 --> 00:35:11,080
Speaker 1: not even getting entry into the boat in order to

579
00:35:11,480 --> 00:35:15,040
Speaker 1: find refuge. So with that I will lead into the

580
00:35:15,040 --> 00:35:19,839
Speaker 1: conversation with as trans community members, what is the most

581
00:35:19,840 --> 00:35:23,160
Speaker 1: difficult thing that you find that our society should understand.

582
00:35:23,280 --> 00:35:26,160
Speaker 8: Oh wow, that's a good question. There's a lot be

583
00:35:26,239 --> 00:35:29,719
Speaker 8: it with the shelters. Salvation Army is absolutely no, is

584
00:35:29,760 --> 00:35:31,759
Speaker 8: not the only one doing this type of stuff. It's

585
00:35:31,800 --> 00:35:34,640
Speaker 8: even a lot of the non religious shelters. The religious

586
00:35:34,640 --> 00:35:37,160
Speaker 8: ones are definitely the worst ones. Like this trans woman

587
00:35:37,280 --> 00:35:40,080
Speaker 8: you're talking about with the Salvation Army is not the

588
00:35:40,120 --> 00:35:43,640
Speaker 8: exception us as trans people ourselves have even gone to

589
00:35:44,040 --> 00:35:47,439
Speaker 8: non religious shelters and face the same experience. But where

590
00:35:47,440 --> 00:35:50,000
Speaker 8: we're from back home, there's what is it called the

591
00:35:50,000 --> 00:35:52,880
Speaker 8: one in Lancing, the shelter that we tried to go

592
00:35:52,960 --> 00:35:56,560
Speaker 8: Holy Cross, Holy Cross, same thing, same thing. Like you

593
00:35:56,640 --> 00:35:59,120
Speaker 8: go in there, a lot of them will pretend to

594
00:35:59,160 --> 00:36:01,680
Speaker 8: be accepting and say they're trans friendly, but you'll go

595
00:36:01,719 --> 00:36:06,040
Speaker 8: in there, you'll face numerous microaggressions even hell, even macroaggressions,

596
00:36:06,080 --> 00:36:07,560
Speaker 8: and they'll they'll just put you on a waiting list

597
00:36:07,640 --> 00:36:09,840
Speaker 8: until the end of time. They'll put you down the

598
00:36:09,840 --> 00:36:13,839
Speaker 8: priority list. Even at secular shelters, you'll face that same thing.

599
00:36:14,000 --> 00:36:16,120
Speaker 8: And it's it's a disgrace, is what it really is.

600
00:36:16,200 --> 00:36:20,400
Speaker 8: And it's hard enough being unhoused as anybody in this country,

601
00:36:20,400 --> 00:36:24,000
Speaker 8: but especially as a minority, be it bipop, trans, anything

602
00:36:24,080 --> 00:36:28,240
Speaker 8: like that. And yeah, no, if we're talking about shelters,

603
00:36:27,640 --> 00:36:30,560
Speaker 8: it's a nightmare out there, like all over the country,

604
00:36:30,600 --> 00:36:32,440
Speaker 8: and it needs to be talked about an address.

605
00:36:32,440 --> 00:36:33,480
Speaker 3: I would definitely say that.

606
00:36:34,400 --> 00:36:39,240
Speaker 7: Yeah, So speaking on that exact issue about Holy Cross,

607
00:36:40,160 --> 00:36:42,879
Speaker 7: we originally from Michigan and we came out here because

608
00:36:42,920 --> 00:36:45,719
Speaker 7: we had no other options, like I mean, otherwise would

609
00:36:45,760 --> 00:36:47,319
Speaker 7: be freezing out in the snow in a tent, trying

610
00:36:47,360 --> 00:36:50,719
Speaker 7: to get by with an alcohol eater and some propane heater.

611
00:36:50,800 --> 00:36:55,160
Speaker 7: And there's numerous issues of that one, especially speaking from

612
00:36:55,440 --> 00:37:00,320
Speaker 7: experience organizing. When it comes to Lansing, where we actually

613
00:37:00,440 --> 00:37:04,840
Speaker 7: came from and Lancing, there is the shelter holy Cross,

614
00:37:04,920 --> 00:37:09,560
Speaker 7: which already itself does not have the capacity to handle

615
00:37:09,640 --> 00:37:14,120
Speaker 7: the issues. Gentrification no matter where it is is rampant.

616
00:37:14,160 --> 00:37:18,320
Speaker 7: It's is such a crisis. There is no ectable housing

617
00:37:18,520 --> 00:37:22,719
Speaker 7: for POC queer folks, especially a trans community. When it

618
00:37:22,760 --> 00:37:25,560
Speaker 7: comes to holy Cross, the shoot, we're talking about a

619
00:37:25,680 --> 00:37:29,239
Speaker 7: few dozen beds and we're talking about hundreds that led

620
00:37:29,280 --> 00:37:34,520
Speaker 7: to encampments bewew thousands being set up, and then there's

621
00:37:34,560 --> 00:37:37,200
Speaker 7: cities like Grand Rapids where.

622
00:37:37,400 --> 00:37:40,279
Speaker 1: Finished my undergraduate and Grand Rapids, so I know you

623
00:37:40,440 --> 00:37:42,200
Speaker 1: get Christian Reform.

624
00:37:46,680 --> 00:37:53,200
Speaker 7: Fast country for sure. No even there, we have Guiding

625
00:37:53,320 --> 00:37:58,640
Speaker 7: Light and that program happens to be a very work exchange,

626
00:37:58,760 --> 00:38:01,919
Speaker 7: also religious based, where you have to work and then

627
00:38:02,120 --> 00:38:04,360
Speaker 7: all of your proceeds happen to go right back in

628
00:38:04,400 --> 00:38:08,480
Speaker 7: the program. Go to Detroit. You have Detroit Rescue Mission

629
00:38:08,600 --> 00:38:14,040
Speaker 7: and that's let's be honest, it's a joke because the

630
00:38:14,239 --> 00:38:19,200
Speaker 7: money isn't there. The city does not pour funds into it,

631
00:38:19,440 --> 00:38:22,239
Speaker 7: the nonprofits in the area do not pour funds into it.

632
00:38:22,280 --> 00:38:27,080
Speaker 7: And the housing crisis is astronomical, with one out of

633
00:38:27,080 --> 00:38:31,200
Speaker 7: four houses being condemned. And just fall on far you

634
00:38:31,280 --> 00:38:35,160
Speaker 7: got a complete it's it's it's it's fucked up.

635
00:38:35,840 --> 00:38:37,600
Speaker 1: Allow me to ask. I don't want to say it's

636
00:38:37,600 --> 00:38:41,120
Speaker 1: an ignorant question, but a common question when I was

637
00:38:41,160 --> 00:38:43,960
Speaker 1: on house and then people ask me this question, but

638
00:38:44,040 --> 00:38:46,120
Speaker 1: where are your parents? Where are your family? You know

639
00:38:46,200 --> 00:38:49,000
Speaker 1: that kind of thing, that question because you know, magically,

640
00:38:49,040 --> 00:38:51,120
Speaker 1: I just love to be out here in the elements.

641
00:38:51,200 --> 00:38:54,439
Speaker 1: But there's always complexities, so can I asks.

642
00:38:54,760 --> 00:38:57,920
Speaker 8: Yeah, as for family, I have two sides of the family.

643
00:38:57,960 --> 00:39:00,319
Speaker 8: One is my father's side, and as a trans person,

644
00:39:00,560 --> 00:39:02,560
Speaker 8: like I feel like I don't really need to say

645
00:39:02,560 --> 00:39:05,719
Speaker 8: anything else about that they're not in the picture. My

646
00:39:05,800 --> 00:39:08,080
Speaker 8: mother's side is more tricky when it comes to them,

647
00:39:08,160 --> 00:39:10,719
Speaker 8: they either don't have the financial resources to really help

648
00:39:11,400 --> 00:39:13,520
Speaker 8: or I'm just gonna be honest, like I like part

649
00:39:13,520 --> 00:39:15,640
Speaker 8: of them, like don't really approve of my relationship with

650
00:39:15,680 --> 00:39:17,719
Speaker 8: my partner, and I've come forward and say like, hey, look,

651
00:39:17,760 --> 00:39:20,160
Speaker 8: I love this person and I'm going to choose to

652
00:39:20,160 --> 00:39:22,359
Speaker 8: live my life the way I want to live it.

653
00:39:22,520 --> 00:39:25,360
Speaker 8: And when it comes to my father's side of the

654
00:39:25,360 --> 00:39:28,880
Speaker 8: family is conservative and that's easy, you just cut contact.

655
00:39:28,920 --> 00:39:31,799
Speaker 8: But the other one, like with the some of the

656
00:39:31,840 --> 00:39:34,439
Speaker 8: neoliberal types, it can be harder because it's like more

657
00:39:34,719 --> 00:39:37,839
Speaker 8: microaggression YE toward and it's hard to really tell if

658
00:39:37,920 --> 00:39:40,279
Speaker 8: it's from disapproval or if it's just from not having

659
00:39:40,280 --> 00:39:43,400
Speaker 8: the financial resources to really help. Some of them have

660
00:39:43,440 --> 00:39:45,439
Speaker 8: been great, like some of them have helped any way

661
00:39:45,440 --> 00:39:48,080
Speaker 8: they can, but has has not been substantial enough to

662
00:39:48,080 --> 00:39:49,760
Speaker 8: get us on our feet, and that's not their fault.

663
00:39:50,440 --> 00:39:52,320
Speaker 8: But when it comes to the other side of the family,

664
00:39:52,360 --> 00:39:55,160
Speaker 8: you know, there's just not the support really there to

665
00:39:55,160 --> 00:39:56,520
Speaker 8: get me on my feet.

666
00:39:56,440 --> 00:39:57,640
Speaker 1: Very well, Leslie.

667
00:39:58,280 --> 00:40:00,560
Speaker 7: Honestly, how I got into a relationship trip with this

668
00:40:00,600 --> 00:40:03,040
Speaker 7: one was it happened to be during the pandemic.

669
00:40:03,160 --> 00:40:05,759
Speaker 3: I remember that.

670
00:40:05,760 --> 00:40:10,439
Speaker 7: We were good friends and kind of a relationship going,

671
00:40:11,120 --> 00:40:15,200
Speaker 7: but we were never involved, especially because of all the

672
00:40:15,320 --> 00:40:20,719
Speaker 7: duress that well just society places upon us. We ended

673
00:40:20,800 --> 00:40:26,320
Speaker 7: up as a result, getting into fine enough the George

674
00:40:26,360 --> 00:40:29,799
Speaker 7: Floyda Uprising. This is where we met, and both of

675
00:40:29,880 --> 00:40:35,400
Speaker 7: us were also in an extreme housing crisis during the pandemic.

676
00:40:35,480 --> 00:40:39,319
Speaker 7: No less, as a result, I ended up trying to

677
00:40:39,560 --> 00:40:43,120
Speaker 7: reach out to this one. We went out together and

678
00:40:43,160 --> 00:40:48,520
Speaker 7: got involved and started we're finding ourselves and finding community.

679
00:40:49,520 --> 00:40:52,440
Speaker 7: My family, they did not approve that. They did not

680
00:40:52,520 --> 00:40:56,920
Speaker 7: approve of that whatsoever. And that's a real story for

681
00:40:57,160 --> 00:41:02,480
Speaker 7: many weather politically involved, door just trying to find themselves

682
00:41:02,640 --> 00:41:07,440
Speaker 7: or transitioning. One of the most terrifying and sad prospects

683
00:41:07,480 --> 00:41:10,560
Speaker 7: I've ever seen when it comes to trans meetings happens

684
00:41:10,600 --> 00:41:16,320
Speaker 7: to be that anyone comes in regardless of their expression,

685
00:41:16,400 --> 00:41:21,200
Speaker 7: whether they're transitioning from you know, female the male or

686
00:41:21,239 --> 00:41:23,760
Speaker 7: male to female where they're non binary, their gender fluid,

687
00:41:23,800 --> 00:41:26,560
Speaker 7: or their genderqueer. It does no matter anywhere in the umbrella,

688
00:41:27,000 --> 00:41:28,799
Speaker 7: and it's going to apply to us, to square folk

689
00:41:28,800 --> 00:41:33,440
Speaker 7: as well. Big issue in the first question always asked

690
00:41:33,480 --> 00:41:36,839
Speaker 7: by the entire group as well as the coordinators, is

691
00:41:37,480 --> 00:41:40,800
Speaker 7: I'm glad that you're coming out. Do you have somewhere

692
00:41:40,880 --> 00:41:46,000
Speaker 7: to go? And then my case, I I was thrown out,

693
00:41:46,040 --> 00:41:48,200
Speaker 7: and I'm like, only thanks to this one, did I

694
00:41:48,239 --> 00:41:49,040
Speaker 7: have somewhere to go?

695
00:41:49,400 --> 00:41:51,719
Speaker 8: I was happy to do it because we're we're all

696
00:41:51,719 --> 00:41:55,040
Speaker 8: in this together, and I love you so sorry, I'm

697
00:41:55,040 --> 00:41:58,280
Speaker 8: getting choked up here and yeah.

698
00:41:58,480 --> 00:42:01,440
Speaker 1: That and it's distressed and I do know that the

699
00:42:01,520 --> 00:42:04,520
Speaker 1: untold stories of the harm that that's gone on, it's

700
00:42:04,880 --> 00:42:07,719
Speaker 1: you know, I've only did a piece of it watching it,

701
00:42:08,200 --> 00:42:10,160
Speaker 1: and it was really distressing to me. I could just

702
00:42:10,200 --> 00:42:15,480
Speaker 1: only imagine the horror having to go through that, and personally, well,

703
00:42:15,560 --> 00:42:18,080
Speaker 1: let's get to a little bit more happier kind of thing.

704
00:42:18,560 --> 00:42:23,720
Speaker 1: So what have you? You know, breaking down too much,

705
00:42:24,120 --> 00:42:27,719
Speaker 1: But I wanted to talk about as the experience, what

706
00:42:27,840 --> 00:42:30,480
Speaker 1: made you come to California? What propelled you guys to

707
00:42:30,520 --> 00:42:30,919
Speaker 1: come here?

708
00:42:31,200 --> 00:42:33,879
Speaker 8: Well, what made us come to California is we have

709
00:42:33,920 --> 00:42:37,520
Speaker 8: a wonderful support network through our comrade that put a

710
00:42:37,520 --> 00:42:40,000
Speaker 8: word on us to even be on this show, and

711
00:42:40,520 --> 00:42:45,239
Speaker 8: he has been absolutely fantastic. It's kind of like a

712
00:42:45,280 --> 00:42:49,000
Speaker 8: fold of just queer folks that just we stick together,

713
00:42:49,120 --> 00:42:52,280
Speaker 8: we do actions, and we all have each other's backs.

714
00:42:52,280 --> 00:42:56,480
Speaker 8: It's about queer community and self determination and are just

715
00:42:57,160 --> 00:42:59,120
Speaker 8: mutual aid, like true mutual aid.

716
00:42:59,200 --> 00:43:01,440
Speaker 3: And was really really eye.

717
00:43:01,200 --> 00:43:05,040
Speaker 8: Opening to see true mutual aid because some of the

718
00:43:05,040 --> 00:43:06,719
Speaker 8: groups that we have been involved with in the past,

719
00:43:06,760 --> 00:43:08,400
Speaker 8: they'll claim to be a mutual aid, but there'll be

720
00:43:08,440 --> 00:43:12,000
Speaker 8: an expectation there. In this case, great folks, they they

721
00:43:12,480 --> 00:43:14,279
Speaker 8: took us out here, they took us under their wing,

722
00:43:14,920 --> 00:43:18,000
Speaker 8: and I'm just gonna be honest, like save their lives.

723
00:43:18,040 --> 00:43:20,960
Speaker 8: Like if it weren't for them, like our and our comrades,

724
00:43:21,000 --> 00:43:23,160
Speaker 8: like we would not be in a good spot. And

725
00:43:23,960 --> 00:43:27,080
Speaker 8: here we are in sunny Hollywood, California, like being able

726
00:43:27,160 --> 00:43:29,400
Speaker 8: to tell our stories on this podcast. So I just

727
00:43:29,400 --> 00:43:31,480
Speaker 8: wanted to give like a big shout out to those folks.

728
00:43:31,800 --> 00:43:34,879
Speaker 1: Perfect what's the group? What's the name of the group?

729
00:43:35,000 --> 00:43:36,719
Speaker 3: I don't really think we go by any name. We

730
00:43:36,800 --> 00:43:39,200
Speaker 3: just wear the just pink rags.

731
00:43:39,239 --> 00:43:40,319
Speaker 1: Yet, Okay, we.

732
00:43:40,360 --> 00:43:45,200
Speaker 7: Believe in the decentralized, autonomous kind of model based on

733
00:43:46,120 --> 00:43:49,160
Speaker 7: various principles of queer liberation. Right now we are in

734
00:43:49,440 --> 00:43:54,160
Speaker 7: I would say this olver lining to the horrors that

735
00:43:54,200 --> 00:43:58,840
Speaker 7: are occurring in many states with us being you know,

736
00:43:59,480 --> 00:44:02,240
Speaker 7: I'm not gonna and dance around the issue. It's apocrim

737
00:44:02,280 --> 00:44:07,440
Speaker 7: it's genocide. And housing and economic injustice is a form,

738
00:44:07,640 --> 00:44:12,319
Speaker 7: especially perpetrated and not all the unhoused community, but especially

739
00:44:12,680 --> 00:44:15,919
Speaker 7: those of color, and those are trands. And if you're

740
00:44:16,400 --> 00:44:20,160
Speaker 7: trans enough of color, I'm so sorry because of the

741
00:44:21,520 --> 00:44:22,880
Speaker 7: shit that happens.

742
00:44:22,800 --> 00:44:23,759
Speaker 3: Especially immigrants.

743
00:44:23,920 --> 00:44:27,120
Speaker 1: Well and particularly this is sailing it to the point too.

744
00:44:27,120 --> 00:44:30,120
Speaker 1: As you probably heard, the Supreme Court is now listening

745
00:44:30,160 --> 00:44:32,960
Speaker 1: in on how to treat unhoused people and that's going

746
00:44:33,040 --> 00:44:36,040
Speaker 1: to be applicable to every facet of houselessness. As you

747
00:44:36,080 --> 00:44:39,520
Speaker 1: can understand, the nimbies are waiting with baited breadth, you know,

748
00:44:39,719 --> 00:44:42,239
Speaker 1: you know, the law enforcement everyone's trying to find that

749
00:44:42,360 --> 00:44:45,759
Speaker 1: way to have that final solution. And their solutions are

750
00:44:45,800 --> 00:44:49,480
Speaker 1: always guided by a carcorough or carrot stick approach kind

751
00:44:49,560 --> 00:44:52,200
Speaker 1: of thing. So we know where there are aren't it.

752
00:44:52,239 --> 00:44:55,560
Speaker 1: But the Supreme Court justices, we wanted to know where

753
00:44:55,600 --> 00:44:58,239
Speaker 1: do they stand because some of them are Republican and

754
00:44:58,280 --> 00:45:02,239
Speaker 1: they have that relief system that maybe they do, who knows,

755
00:45:02,280 --> 00:45:06,359
Speaker 1: because they can surprise me, and you know, believing that

756
00:45:06,760 --> 00:45:10,000
Speaker 1: houselessness is a personal choice and you know, in which

757
00:45:10,080 --> 00:45:11,880
Speaker 1: I used to hear if all you have to do

758
00:45:11,920 --> 00:45:14,360
Speaker 1: is pick yourself up off your footstraps and all of

759
00:45:14,360 --> 00:45:19,200
Speaker 1: these nonsensical things, and it gets frustrating sometimes. I think

760
00:45:19,239 --> 00:45:22,040
Speaker 1: it's much more difficult to talk to people that have

761
00:45:22,520 --> 00:45:25,279
Speaker 1: experienced it for a brief period but don't understand the

762
00:45:25,400 --> 00:45:28,480
Speaker 1: nuances or to back your story and believe because they

763
00:45:28,520 --> 00:45:30,040
Speaker 1: did it that you should be able to do it

764
00:45:30,080 --> 00:45:33,440
Speaker 1: magically as well. Conversely with the Nimbi Nimbi Union like well,

765
00:45:33,480 --> 00:45:35,480
Speaker 1: because they don't want to know, They just basically are

766
00:45:35,560 --> 00:45:39,160
Speaker 1: comfortable with, you know, blaming you. And that's easy. They

767
00:45:39,160 --> 00:45:42,239
Speaker 1: don't have to encapsulate or even you know, calculate any

768
00:45:42,280 --> 00:45:44,600
Speaker 1: kind of compassion. They don't care. You know, they'll use

769
00:45:44,600 --> 00:45:48,520
Speaker 1: their religion, they'll use whatever personal things, or use stereotypes,

770
00:45:48,600 --> 00:45:50,920
Speaker 1: whatever it is to get them to going and feeling

771
00:45:50,920 --> 00:45:55,160
Speaker 1: that they are justified and dehumanizing you. So further on,

772
00:45:55,480 --> 00:45:57,880
Speaker 1: I wanted to as we talk about dealing with this,

773
00:45:58,600 --> 00:46:01,520
Speaker 1: you guys were activist as well, because I understand my

774
00:46:01,640 --> 00:46:04,120
Speaker 1: mutual friend mentioned a little bit about that. Can you

775
00:46:04,160 --> 00:46:05,400
Speaker 1: talk a little bit about that please.

776
00:46:06,680 --> 00:46:08,759
Speaker 8: I'm not really sure about like how much I can

777
00:46:08,800 --> 00:46:11,759
Speaker 8: say over the air, but we were very involved with

778
00:46:12,040 --> 00:46:15,719
Speaker 8: a lot of direct action and mutual aid. We had

779
00:46:15,760 --> 00:46:18,720
Speaker 8: put just as much into mutual aid for the unhoused

780
00:46:18,880 --> 00:46:21,800
Speaker 8: in many a city now for the sake of operational security.

781
00:46:21,840 --> 00:46:24,439
Speaker 8: I don't want to name which cities, but we had

782
00:46:24,480 --> 00:46:28,720
Speaker 8: our own collectives set up back stateside in Michigan. And

783
00:46:29,200 --> 00:46:31,680
Speaker 8: what we did is basically when we were unhoused ourselves

784
00:46:31,840 --> 00:46:34,160
Speaker 8: is we had our little van and it was it

785
00:46:34,200 --> 00:46:36,000
Speaker 8: was just a beat her up, beat me up van.

786
00:46:36,280 --> 00:46:38,320
Speaker 8: Just had to start the dang thing with a butter knife,

787
00:46:38,360 --> 00:46:41,200
Speaker 8: and we gathered up as many supplies as we could,

788
00:46:41,880 --> 00:46:44,000
Speaker 8: and we would use a model of we were like

789
00:46:44,040 --> 00:46:47,520
Speaker 8: a mobile distro, and we would drive down to encampments

790
00:46:47,520 --> 00:46:50,760
Speaker 8: and we'd pass out food, we'd pass out supplies, narcan,

791
00:46:52,080 --> 00:46:53,719
Speaker 8: just about anything we could get our hands on to

792
00:46:53,719 --> 00:46:56,520
Speaker 8: help the community. And I think that there needs to

793
00:46:56,600 --> 00:46:58,719
Speaker 8: be more of that, and I see that within our

794
00:46:59,040 --> 00:47:01,560
Speaker 8: queer folk, and just as we the in house is

795
00:47:01,600 --> 00:47:03,440
Speaker 8: the name of the podcast, we would go down and

796
00:47:03,440 --> 00:47:05,560
Speaker 8: help the people at the encampments. That's what I like

797
00:47:05,600 --> 00:47:08,080
Speaker 8: to see with our queer community folks here is it's

798
00:47:08,160 --> 00:47:09,200
Speaker 8: very much the same approach.

799
00:47:09,320 --> 00:47:11,280
Speaker 3: It's it's not top down structure.

800
00:47:11,360 --> 00:47:15,400
Speaker 8: It's helping hands across the board and when the systems

801
00:47:15,400 --> 00:47:18,200
Speaker 8: in place fail to serve us. And that's very much

802
00:47:18,200 --> 00:47:20,279
Speaker 8: what I see here with our queer folks. Is just

803
00:47:20,320 --> 00:47:22,120
Speaker 8: like the in house helping the in housed. It's queer

804
00:47:22,160 --> 00:47:25,480
Speaker 8: folks that are all from some type of background that

805
00:47:26,640 --> 00:47:30,560
Speaker 8: is oppressive, is extremely oppressive. Like, we all help each

806
00:47:30,560 --> 00:47:33,600
Speaker 8: other and that's what I love to see. So when

807
00:47:33,600 --> 00:47:36,160
Speaker 8: it comes to mutual aid, we do that type of

808
00:47:36,200 --> 00:47:39,400
Speaker 8: stuff direct action. That's the spicier stuff. I don't want

809
00:47:39,440 --> 00:47:41,480
Speaker 8: to say on the air, but we we have an

810
00:47:41,520 --> 00:47:43,680
Speaker 8: extensive resume. I guess you could say. We've been all

811
00:47:43,719 --> 00:47:47,799
Speaker 8: around the country. We've been over in Minnesota, We've been

812
00:47:47,960 --> 00:47:51,240
Speaker 8: all over the place. So lots of lots of stuff,

813
00:47:51,400 --> 00:47:53,320
Speaker 8: lots of stuff. That's all I can really say. Would

814
00:47:53,320 --> 00:47:55,120
Speaker 8: you like to add in, yes, Yeah.

815
00:47:55,320 --> 00:48:01,439
Speaker 7: We first got involved with especially various centralized asymmetrical Black

816
00:48:01,480 --> 00:48:06,560
Speaker 7: Lives Matter based groups based on concepts of anti capitalism

817
00:48:06,880 --> 00:48:13,680
Speaker 7: and intersexual liberation, trying to uplift especially black voices in

818
00:48:13,719 --> 00:48:18,080
Speaker 7: the wake of George Floyd and Brionna Taylor and many

819
00:48:18,120 --> 00:48:24,520
Speaker 7: other issues happened. I mean, police brutality was like our

820
00:48:24,640 --> 00:48:29,600
Speaker 7: main focus, as was abolition. Originally there was a group

821
00:48:29,600 --> 00:48:32,160
Speaker 7: of Grand Ramperts called Justice for Black Lives. That was

822
00:48:32,200 --> 00:48:34,839
Speaker 7: our big group that we started with. Then we ended

823
00:48:34,920 --> 00:48:37,000
Speaker 7: up drifting order Lancing. We were part of a group

824
00:48:37,000 --> 00:48:41,000
Speaker 7: of rise up Lancing that's no longer really in existence,

825
00:48:42,840 --> 00:48:46,120
Speaker 7: and we ended up helping both Palestinians as was anti

826
00:48:46,160 --> 00:48:48,920
Speaker 7: fascists in those areas. In Detroit, we ended up working

827
00:48:48,920 --> 00:48:53,319
Speaker 7: with the Troal Breeds, amazing group. We then end up

828
00:48:53,360 --> 00:48:59,279
Speaker 7: going to even counter protest various like reactionary elements that

829
00:49:00,040 --> 00:49:05,200
Speaker 7: even Bowiatami in Chicago. We've also may may or may

830
00:49:05,239 --> 00:49:08,439
Speaker 7: not have been yes able to talk to a few

831
00:49:08,440 --> 00:49:12,640
Speaker 7: people in Minnesota, maybe a Minneapolis.

832
00:49:12,080 --> 00:49:13,279
Speaker 3: Or maybe so, maybe not.

833
00:49:14,800 --> 00:49:18,640
Speaker 7: So we've been all over the place when it comes

834
00:49:18,640 --> 00:49:20,840
Speaker 7: to it, and we try to help every single group

835
00:49:20,920 --> 00:49:24,560
Speaker 7: because if we don't all rise together, much like ann

836
00:49:24,600 --> 00:49:28,040
Speaker 7: Nius community, if we don't all come together, if we

837
00:49:28,120 --> 00:49:31,440
Speaker 7: don't as oppressed peoples under the same system with the

838
00:49:31,480 --> 00:49:36,279
Speaker 7: common enemy. We are doomed, but together it's it's I'm

839
00:49:36,320 --> 00:49:39,360
Speaker 7: going to take a quote from the IWW, which is,

840
00:49:39,400 --> 00:49:42,600
Speaker 7: you know, one big union. So I have loved to

841
00:49:42,680 --> 00:49:46,919
Speaker 7: see more homeless unions here and I'm just starting to hear.

842
00:49:47,160 --> 00:49:49,480
Speaker 3: I've heard some good things, starting to hear.

843
00:49:49,760 --> 00:49:52,760
Speaker 1: We're finding our way. I think, like many other places,

844
00:49:52,800 --> 00:49:56,120
Speaker 1: they are slowly understanding that no one's coming to help them.

845
00:49:56,560 --> 00:50:01,560
Speaker 1: And because they're the atopathy that's so virulent in our

846
00:50:01,600 --> 00:50:05,719
Speaker 1: society about you know, especially houselessness and the walks of

847
00:50:05,760 --> 00:50:09,080
Speaker 1: life that we are encapsulate that we have to look

848
00:50:09,080 --> 00:50:11,240
Speaker 1: after our own and we have to find our own networks,

849
00:50:11,280 --> 00:50:14,759
Speaker 1: because without that happening there, we're going to end up

850
00:50:14,800 --> 00:50:17,280
Speaker 1: in some dire straits. We're going to take a break

851
00:50:17,360 --> 00:50:28,160
Speaker 1: and we will be right back. We're back turning a

852
00:50:28,200 --> 00:50:30,839
Speaker 1: little further into more into now. We have talked about

853
00:50:30,920 --> 00:50:33,920
Speaker 1: mutual aid, We talked about a little bit how you

854
00:50:33,920 --> 00:50:37,759
Speaker 1: guys got out here, Where do you guys see yourselves

855
00:50:39,120 --> 00:50:41,320
Speaker 1: in the movement now to how what do you guys

856
00:50:41,520 --> 00:50:44,440
Speaker 1: plan on doing when you get here? Now you're here now, so.

857
00:50:44,960 --> 00:50:46,600
Speaker 8: Well again, I guess I could say the future is

858
00:50:46,640 --> 00:50:49,840
Speaker 8: really uncertain. Definitely, I'm going to stick to my guns

859
00:50:49,840 --> 00:50:53,319
Speaker 8: with everything that we've been doing. Time will tell. I

860
00:50:53,320 --> 00:50:55,359
Speaker 8: guess we could say we're going to stick around our

861
00:50:55,360 --> 00:50:56,080
Speaker 8: group for one.

862
00:50:56,480 --> 00:50:56,799
Speaker 3: For two.

863
00:50:56,880 --> 00:50:59,960
Speaker 8: I really came out here for just getting getting back

864
00:51:00,200 --> 00:51:01,960
Speaker 8: of my feet and figuring out what I want in

865
00:51:01,960 --> 00:51:06,760
Speaker 8: my life. And then once that's done, I'll evaluate my principles.

866
00:51:06,800 --> 00:51:09,360
Speaker 8: And I know what my principles are, and so do you,

867
00:51:09,719 --> 00:51:10,880
Speaker 8: and I guess just stick to it.

868
00:51:11,000 --> 00:51:13,439
Speaker 3: I can't really say I'd love to do more mutual aid.

869
00:51:13,800 --> 00:51:16,560
Speaker 8: I'd love to give back to the massive, massive amounts

870
00:51:16,560 --> 00:51:18,840
Speaker 8: that have been given to us and give just just

871
00:51:19,840 --> 00:51:22,600
Speaker 8: help other queer folks. I guess because we've had we've

872
00:51:22,600 --> 00:51:25,480
Speaker 8: been helped. Once we get on our feet, we want

873
00:51:25,520 --> 00:51:28,320
Speaker 8: to bring other marginalized queer folks out here too, because,

874
00:51:28,360 --> 00:51:30,920
Speaker 8: like you said, Leslie, like there's a massive program of

875
00:51:31,000 --> 00:51:34,560
Speaker 8: queer folks coming out and needing to flee their state,

876
00:51:34,640 --> 00:51:38,279
Speaker 8: be it Michigan, be it in Alabama, Indiana, like all

877
00:51:38,400 --> 00:51:41,360
Speaker 8: these regressive states, there's going to be people in need,

878
00:51:42,239 --> 00:51:44,640
Speaker 8: and the more of us get out here, the more

879
00:51:44,719 --> 00:51:47,680
Speaker 8: we can help people in those states get out here.

880
00:51:47,840 --> 00:51:51,560
Speaker 8: Basically almost like a trans railroad, if you will, And

881
00:51:51,800 --> 00:51:54,400
Speaker 8: that's that's definitely something that you and I they have

882
00:51:54,480 --> 00:51:56,160
Speaker 8: like look and look forward to doing. I guess you

883
00:51:56,160 --> 00:51:59,399
Speaker 8: could say with what our priorities are that I guess

884
00:51:59,440 --> 00:52:01,239
Speaker 8: that could be one of them for sure, that's one

885
00:52:01,280 --> 00:52:01,680
Speaker 8: of them.

886
00:52:02,560 --> 00:52:06,080
Speaker 7: Hit the nail on the head with rear Road. So

887
00:52:06,239 --> 00:52:09,319
Speaker 7: our comrade is the ones who have actually recommended we

888
00:52:09,400 --> 00:52:12,640
Speaker 7: come on here and talk about our story. You could

889
00:52:12,719 --> 00:52:17,160
Speaker 7: say that there's there's been some individuals have been the

890
00:52:16,000 --> 00:52:21,399
Speaker 7: uh test and starter case, a beta testing, if you will,

891
00:52:21,760 --> 00:52:25,320
Speaker 7: for establishing this transfer road and our networks and everything.

892
00:52:25,760 --> 00:52:28,919
Speaker 7: There happens to be so many, so many, so many

893
00:52:29,000 --> 00:52:32,120
Speaker 7: folks coming out here and they come over to trans

894
00:52:32,160 --> 00:52:34,680
Speaker 7: Wellness Center and they get like their basic health care,

895
00:52:34,719 --> 00:52:37,160
Speaker 7: and they get basic food, and they get some hygiene products.

896
00:52:37,320 --> 00:52:41,839
Speaker 7: By the end of the day they are told to pretty.

897
00:52:41,560 --> 00:52:42,480
Speaker 1: Much go to a shelter.

898
00:52:42,600 --> 00:52:45,839
Speaker 7: And the only real shelter that they are offering at

899
00:52:45,840 --> 00:52:49,040
Speaker 7: the transfer in Koreatown or the Lubt Center is offering

900
00:52:49,120 --> 00:52:51,239
Speaker 7: creatown is you can take a car and you can

901
00:52:51,280 --> 00:52:53,840
Speaker 7: buy in a parking lot that's surrounded by private security,

902
00:52:53,840 --> 00:52:56,000
Speaker 7: and your fenced in doesn't really And they say it's

903
00:52:56,160 --> 00:52:59,520
Speaker 7: you know, for your safety. I'm gonna I'm gonna say,

904
00:53:00,040 --> 00:53:02,600
Speaker 7: after passing Bioles places, I don't really.

905
00:53:02,360 --> 00:53:04,959
Speaker 3: Think I feel that way.

906
00:53:05,080 --> 00:53:09,240
Speaker 7: Yeah, So right now, what we're doing is making sure

907
00:53:09,280 --> 00:53:12,360
Speaker 7: that we can put into the collective and we're making

908
00:53:12,400 --> 00:53:15,279
Speaker 7: sure that we're gonna be working for a long time

909
00:53:15,360 --> 00:53:18,919
Speaker 7: getting established and making sure we're going to be able

910
00:53:18,920 --> 00:53:22,520
Speaker 7: to build collectives and communes and cooperatives and safe places.

911
00:53:22,920 --> 00:53:25,719
Speaker 7: Unlike the city and the nonprofit indust for a complex,

912
00:53:25,920 --> 00:53:27,200
Speaker 7: it's not unable to do.

913
00:53:28,080 --> 00:53:29,840
Speaker 1: I was going to ask you, you know there is

914
00:53:29,880 --> 00:53:34,200
Speaker 1: a LGBT community here. Have you checked into that? What

915
00:53:34,200 --> 00:53:37,800
Speaker 1: what is your honest opinions about that group? Are they

916
00:53:38,000 --> 00:53:42,600
Speaker 1: helping or Like the Pride Center, there is the LGBQT

917
00:53:42,680 --> 00:53:43,120
Speaker 1: there too.

918
00:53:43,400 --> 00:53:46,360
Speaker 8: Have you guys dealt with that one personally? But my

919
00:53:46,440 --> 00:53:48,880
Speaker 8: opinion is I very much second her opinion. But like

920
00:53:49,760 --> 00:53:53,240
Speaker 8: they still deserve credit where credit is due. Like everybody's

921
00:53:53,280 --> 00:53:55,080
Speaker 8: got to needs a place to go and get their

922
00:53:55,080 --> 00:53:58,719
Speaker 8: medical care established or get their hormones, but there needs

923
00:53:58,760 --> 00:54:01,440
Speaker 8: to be that community on top of just the basics

924
00:54:01,719 --> 00:54:05,120
Speaker 8: that are provided well, Like I firstally went down to

925
00:54:05,120 --> 00:54:07,240
Speaker 8: the trans Center and they'll help me with my hormones

926
00:54:07,280 --> 00:54:09,759
Speaker 8: and help me with medical treatment. But yeah, if there,

927
00:54:09,800 --> 00:54:11,719
Speaker 8: if the trans Center was all I was relying on,

928
00:54:11,880 --> 00:54:13,759
Speaker 8: like they wouldn't be able to get me housing, they

929
00:54:13,800 --> 00:54:16,200
Speaker 8: wouldn't be able to get me up on my feet.

930
00:54:16,719 --> 00:54:20,240
Speaker 8: It's just the basic trinket things which are still absolutely needed.

931
00:54:21,000 --> 00:54:24,719
Speaker 8: But the thing is, yeah, we need better resources and

932
00:54:25,040 --> 00:54:27,840
Speaker 8: better funding and better checks and balances with some of

933
00:54:27,880 --> 00:54:32,680
Speaker 8: those nonprofits to ensure that they help the community like appropriately.

934
00:54:33,600 --> 00:54:36,399
Speaker 7: I guarantee right now, if we decided to walk over

935
00:54:36,440 --> 00:54:40,680
Speaker 7: that center, I only was one straight down from the studio.

936
00:54:42,239 --> 00:54:46,120
Speaker 7: I have went into even the Hollywood one. And when

937
00:54:46,160 --> 00:54:48,720
Speaker 7: I went in there looking for resources, I was told

938
00:54:49,280 --> 00:54:52,200
Speaker 7: why are you here? Like you have no reason to

939
00:54:52,200 --> 00:54:54,920
Speaker 7: be here? You just said an appointment. And then I

940
00:54:54,960 --> 00:54:58,480
Speaker 7: was like asking and begging, like can I get some

941
00:54:58,560 --> 00:55:02,439
Speaker 7: housing resources the time, we didn't know we were going

942
00:55:02,480 --> 00:55:05,920
Speaker 7: to be we don't know for go or ahead of

943
00:55:06,000 --> 00:55:09,799
Speaker 7: that night, and I was begging and saying like is

944
00:55:09,800 --> 00:55:13,000
Speaker 7: there someone I can talk to? And I was more

945
00:55:13,080 --> 00:55:17,120
Speaker 7: or less escorted off by a private security member, which

946
00:55:17,760 --> 00:55:22,200
Speaker 7: is a huge issue here. I've noticed, even if they're

947
00:55:22,480 --> 00:55:27,280
Speaker 7: allegedly a queer organization, they do not care about those

948
00:55:27,360 --> 00:55:29,000
Speaker 7: most excluded.

949
00:55:29,320 --> 00:55:31,359
Speaker 1: Are the unused LGBTT up here.

950
00:55:31,360 --> 00:55:32,879
Speaker 3: Are you talking about the LGBTQ Center.

951
00:55:32,880 --> 00:55:34,759
Speaker 8: Are you talking about the trans Center on top of

952
00:55:34,800 --> 00:55:37,600
Speaker 8: the lgbt Okay, yeah, no, with the LGBTQ Center, you're

953
00:55:37,600 --> 00:55:39,839
Speaker 8: absolutely correct. I was specifically talking about the trans Center,

954
00:55:39,920 --> 00:55:40,680
Speaker 8: just to make that clear.

955
00:55:40,760 --> 00:55:44,040
Speaker 7: Okay, So you see, the trans Center is merely an

956
00:55:44,080 --> 00:55:48,080
Speaker 7: extension of the LGBT Pride Center, which is an impressive network.

957
00:55:48,120 --> 00:55:51,280
Speaker 7: It has eight hundred employees and you can't access multiple

958
00:55:51,320 --> 00:55:54,680
Speaker 7: resources through them. But if you are ever in a bench,

959
00:55:54,800 --> 00:55:57,960
Speaker 7: you can't go in there. They won't help you. They

960
00:55:57,960 --> 00:56:02,719
Speaker 7: are just as much guilty, not maybe out of like

961
00:56:03,040 --> 00:56:08,040
Speaker 7: a religious like ignorance, but because they don't dedicate those resources.

962
00:56:08,080 --> 00:56:10,759
Speaker 7: They are far more interesting keeping their organization to flow,

963
00:56:10,840 --> 00:56:17,200
Speaker 7: interviewing various us I mean lobbing, and that's important. I

964
00:56:17,480 --> 00:56:19,759
Speaker 7: like to make sure that there are legal protections of

965
00:56:19,880 --> 00:56:25,240
Speaker 7: the groups like that are really helpful. But the bottom

966
00:56:25,320 --> 00:56:29,200
Speaker 7: line is in a state like California, they are areas.

967
00:56:30,320 --> 00:56:35,080
Speaker 7: There needs to be more for solving immediate crisis media issues.

968
00:56:35,440 --> 00:56:38,719
Speaker 7: If these organizations care so much about us, and they

969
00:56:38,719 --> 00:56:41,719
Speaker 7: care so much about so many people going through this

970
00:56:41,920 --> 00:56:46,520
Speaker 7: exact sort of pain. I can't guarantee hundreds. You walk

971
00:56:46,560 --> 00:56:49,160
Speaker 7: in then Anya's Pride Centers, you'll see the exact same story.

972
00:56:49,200 --> 00:56:51,800
Speaker 7: You'll see the exact same like folks out there begging

973
00:56:51,880 --> 00:56:55,280
Speaker 7: almost like breaking down, crying or sitting outside the center,

974
00:56:55,400 --> 00:56:59,279
Speaker 7: unsure what their next move is, and none of them

975
00:56:59,320 --> 00:57:03,560
Speaker 7: are getting that. Oh, it's just not there. At most

976
00:57:03,800 --> 00:57:06,920
Speaker 7: it's a band aid. It's a band aid solution, and

977
00:57:06,960 --> 00:57:09,640
Speaker 7: they can keep you alive. And that's good, just like

978
00:57:09,800 --> 00:57:14,280
Speaker 7: harm reduction or any of these other services, Like they're great,

979
00:57:14,920 --> 00:57:17,440
Speaker 7: but there needs to be so much more, especially when

980
00:57:17,440 --> 00:57:21,280
Speaker 7: there are empty homes where there's rampant Airbnbs oh yeah,

981
00:57:21,400 --> 00:57:24,960
Speaker 7: or there's so many rentals they are horribly overpriced. There

982
00:57:24,960 --> 00:57:30,040
Speaker 7: are tents everywhere, there are so many folks wandering the

983
00:57:30,080 --> 00:57:33,920
Speaker 7: streets have nowhere to go. And these exact same private

984
00:57:33,960 --> 00:57:37,520
Speaker 7: security that happen to escort you off a corporate property

985
00:57:38,080 --> 00:57:42,520
Speaker 7: are literally at the same goddamn queer spaces, at the

986
00:57:42,560 --> 00:57:46,560
Speaker 7: same trans spaces. They'll ask you why are there, They

987
00:57:46,600 --> 00:57:51,320
Speaker 7: don't care about you. These exact same structures that happen

988
00:57:51,400 --> 00:57:54,880
Speaker 7: to exist will end up killing you just as much,

989
00:57:55,240 --> 00:57:58,160
Speaker 7: even if there's through neglects there happen to be a

990
00:57:58,240 --> 00:58:01,720
Speaker 7: chrysto fascist running around talking about how they want to

991
00:58:01,760 --> 00:58:06,360
Speaker 7: go you. I think, honestly, there is just as much,

992
00:58:06,560 --> 00:58:09,720
Speaker 7: just as much guilt on these exact same systems that

993
00:58:09,720 --> 00:58:12,560
Speaker 7: they're supposed to be here for us, because it's neglect,

994
00:58:12,800 --> 00:58:18,400
Speaker 7: it's abuse and neglect. They're intrinsically connected. And I guess

995
00:58:18,400 --> 00:58:20,400
Speaker 7: that's all I gotta say about that. Kind of went

996
00:58:20,440 --> 00:58:22,360
Speaker 7: a little bit of tangent there. My apologies.

997
00:58:22,560 --> 00:58:24,640
Speaker 8: Oh no, it's we're here to have our voices heard,

998
00:58:24,640 --> 00:58:27,400
Speaker 8: and I think that I couldn't have said it better myself.

999
00:58:27,880 --> 00:58:32,160
Speaker 1: And you guys wanted to talk a little bit about airbnbs,

1000
00:58:33,560 --> 00:58:35,000
Speaker 1: so let's let's hear it.

1001
00:58:35,200 --> 00:58:38,040
Speaker 8: Okay, So first off, with the airbnb industry, it is

1002
00:58:38,080 --> 00:58:42,480
Speaker 8: a awful rotten industry, I would say up there in

1003
00:58:42,560 --> 00:58:45,600
Speaker 8: terms of like the worst type of landlords, because what

1004
00:58:45,640 --> 00:58:48,440
Speaker 8: you see with airbnbs is you see if you just

1005
00:58:48,520 --> 00:58:50,400
Speaker 8: drive through a neighborhood and you're not native to their

1006
00:58:50,560 --> 00:58:52,640
Speaker 8: Like you go through an area with a bunch of

1007
00:58:52,720 --> 00:58:55,840
Speaker 8: hotels or apartments, you see apartments and hotels. If you

1008
00:58:55,920 --> 00:58:58,080
Speaker 8: drive through a neighborhood with a bunch of airbnbs. You're

1009
00:58:58,080 --> 00:58:58,520
Speaker 8: not from there.

1010
00:58:58,560 --> 00:58:59,520
Speaker 3: You just see houses.

1011
00:58:59,560 --> 00:59:02,720
Speaker 8: You don't see that these airbnbs are buying up people

1012
00:59:02,760 --> 00:59:06,200
Speaker 8: that have for closed their homes and renting them out

1013
00:59:06,240 --> 00:59:10,080
Speaker 8: to people like that are under distress. And it's just

1014
00:59:10,120 --> 00:59:13,040
Speaker 8: an awful business. And there are several types of these airbenbes.

1015
00:59:13,080 --> 00:59:16,480
Speaker 8: There's ones that appeal to tourists, that will gentrify up

1016
00:59:16,600 --> 00:59:20,280
Speaker 8: entire neighborhoods, drive up the property value. Then you have

1017
00:59:20,360 --> 00:59:23,120
Speaker 8: ones that blatantly are just taking advantage of people that

1018
00:59:23,200 --> 00:59:26,680
Speaker 8: are in poor situations, that are basically just motel scumlords.

1019
00:59:26,720 --> 00:59:29,320
Speaker 8: But like with a house, then you have some of

1020
00:59:29,320 --> 00:59:32,720
Speaker 8: the worst kinds, which is her and I have faced

1021
00:59:32,960 --> 00:59:34,960
Speaker 8: this worst kind And there are these types that like

1022
00:59:35,040 --> 00:59:39,640
Speaker 8: almost like to facade as helping or facade almost as

1023
00:59:39,680 --> 00:59:42,520
Speaker 8: a shelter or communal living, but they're not. They are

1024
00:59:42,680 --> 00:59:46,400
Speaker 8: very much still an airbnbe. And in Lansing we had

1025
00:59:46,440 --> 00:59:48,840
Speaker 8: to deal with one of these places by I'm just

1026
00:59:48,840 --> 00:59:51,400
Speaker 8: going to call it by its name, Emoja House. And

1027
00:59:51,960 --> 00:59:54,760
Speaker 8: what they did is they for tax purposes. They started

1028
00:59:54,800 --> 00:59:56,680
Speaker 8: off almost as a collective and then switched to a

1029
00:59:56,680 --> 01:00:00,000
Speaker 8: for profit model to very much take advantage of marginalize

1030
01:00:00,200 --> 01:00:03,880
Speaker 8: people and drive up the cost of rent. And sorry,

1031
01:00:03,920 --> 01:00:05,320
Speaker 8: this one's the one line kind of get heated on.

1032
01:00:06,080 --> 01:00:09,960
Speaker 8: And it's terrible because they took advantage of us. They

1033
01:00:10,640 --> 01:00:13,560
Speaker 8: kicked both of us out when we had already had

1034
01:00:13,600 --> 01:00:16,560
Speaker 8: our rent paid. They've screwed us over, They've screwed a

1035
01:00:16,560 --> 01:00:19,360
Speaker 8: good friend of mine and several others out. And the

1036
01:00:19,400 --> 01:00:21,680
Speaker 8: worst part is that they were like kind of embedded

1037
01:00:21,920 --> 01:00:24,120
Speaker 8: in the local activists. I guess you could say a

1038
01:00:24,120 --> 01:00:27,920
Speaker 8: scene and we're frankly just kind of bribing people to

1039
01:00:29,200 --> 01:00:32,000
Speaker 8: keep silent about it. And when they saw us as

1040
01:00:32,080 --> 01:00:35,320
Speaker 8: people that might say something about it, they went around

1041
01:00:35,360 --> 01:00:37,800
Speaker 8: town and said that we were addicts, even though we

1042
01:00:37,840 --> 01:00:40,200
Speaker 8: are in recovery admittedly, but at the time we were

1043
01:00:40,240 --> 01:00:44,520
Speaker 8: completely sober, and it kind of perpetuated that cycle of stigma,

1044
01:00:45,120 --> 01:00:47,400
Speaker 8: and because of that, it was harder for us to

1045
01:00:47,400 --> 01:00:51,040
Speaker 8: get cleaned, so we relapsed, and it let us down

1046
01:00:51,120 --> 01:00:54,240
Speaker 8: a cycle of constantly being on housing when.

1047
01:00:54,120 --> 01:00:56,040
Speaker 3: We had just gotten on our feet. So I just

1048
01:00:56,080 --> 01:00:57,640
Speaker 3: wanted to make that part of our story known.

1049
01:00:57,840 --> 01:01:00,680
Speaker 1: Yes, hey, thank you guys for this conversation. I want

1050
01:01:00,720 --> 01:01:03,240
Speaker 1: to ask you, is there anything that I've missed that

1051
01:01:03,280 --> 01:01:04,480
Speaker 1: you guys want to talk about.

1052
01:01:05,040 --> 01:01:09,240
Speaker 8: Not necessarily, there is our experience at Orange, which let

1053
01:01:09,320 --> 01:01:12,080
Speaker 8: us here. We were just staying at an airbnb over

1054
01:01:12,160 --> 01:01:16,240
Speaker 8: on Orange Drive by sunset, and ironically, like that's the

1055
01:01:16,280 --> 01:01:19,320
Speaker 8: reason why we're on this podcast, because our friend stuck

1056
01:01:19,560 --> 01:01:21,439
Speaker 8: his neck out for us to have us on the show,

1057
01:01:21,560 --> 01:01:25,080
Speaker 8: And ironically we've brushed on just about every airbnb experience

1058
01:01:25,120 --> 01:01:27,280
Speaker 8: aside from that one, because the point of the issue

1059
01:01:27,320 --> 01:01:30,320
Speaker 8: is the microaggressions that got us thrown out of there,

1060
01:01:30,600 --> 01:01:32,920
Speaker 8: and the crap we dealt with there is actually on

1061
01:01:32,960 --> 01:01:36,440
Speaker 8: the smaller end of the stuff, like that's relatively minor

1062
01:01:36,600 --> 01:01:40,720
Speaker 8: compared and that I think that's really shameful and that

1063
01:01:40,760 --> 01:01:43,280
Speaker 8: should be a major issue. And the point I'm making

1064
01:01:43,280 --> 01:01:46,320
Speaker 8: here is we've been through so much awful shit before

1065
01:01:46,840 --> 01:01:49,080
Speaker 8: even like dealing with that, that it almost like makes

1066
01:01:49,160 --> 01:01:51,080
Speaker 8: us go, oh, what happened at Orange.

1067
01:01:50,880 --> 01:01:54,800
Speaker 3: Is just it's just a Tuesday, but it's not. And

1068
01:01:56,320 --> 01:01:57,360
Speaker 3: thanks for having us on the show.

1069
01:01:57,680 --> 01:02:03,200
Speaker 1: Thank you guys, thank you, thank you for these ripping

1070
01:02:03,240 --> 01:02:06,720
Speaker 1: and compelling stories from our guest today, and thank you

1071
01:02:06,840 --> 01:02:10,200
Speaker 1: again to our listeners. If you have any suggestion for

1072
01:02:10,280 --> 01:02:13,400
Speaker 1: show topics you'd like to hear about, please reach out

1073
01:02:13,440 --> 01:02:17,880
Speaker 1: to me at www dot medianhouse dot com or by

1074
01:02:17,960 --> 01:02:23,440
Speaker 1: email Medianhows at gmail dot com. Until then, keep sharing

1075
01:02:23,480 --> 01:02:25,840
Speaker 1: the show and may we once again meet in the

1076
01:02:25,920 --> 01:02:31,000
Speaker 1: light of understanding. Willian Howes is a production of iHeartRadio.

1077
01:02:31,480 --> 01:02:34,840
Speaker 1: It is written, posted, and created by me, Theo Henderson.

1078
01:02:35,280 --> 01:02:39,920
Speaker 1: Our producers are Fami Loftus, Lyra Smith, and Katie Fisher.

1079
01:02:40,360 --> 01:02:43,520
Speaker 1: Our editor is Adam Wong, and our logo art is

1080
01:02:43,600 --> 01:02:46,160
Speaker 1: also by Katie Fisher. Thanks for listening.