Isn't It Queer

Jonny interviews Carbondale native, Ben. Ben was born in Carbondale and spent a significant chunk of his early life here before traveling to Peru and then settling down in Chicago. During CoVid, he returned to Carbondale. He and Jonny discuss their preference for being a rural queers and what queer even means, including neuroqueer and queer spirituality. In the back half of the show, Ben shares an...

Jonny and Heather review some of the recent Supreme Court decisions, celebating the surprisiningly good ones while also giving space to concerns and frustrations about decisions that immediately impact our lives as SCOTUS ties Title IX to "biological sex" and not gender, setting a dangerous precedent. In the back half of the show, they turn to evidence that a significant portion of the Democratice...

Jonny and Heather respond to data that suggests worldwide LGBTQ+ rights advanced in the 2010s but are stagnating in the 2020s. To put a little more hopeful spin on this news, they note how the anti-LGBTQ+ movements seem to be stagnating more recently, too. They start with the failures of the Trump Administration that have been piling up. In the back half of the show they turn to some international...

Jonny and Heather offer a brief recap of their Pride on the Strip, Carbondale PrideFest experiences before moving on to other festive events that happened this weekend. One such event on the White House lawn (next to the slimy green reflecting pool!) demonstrated how our current administration has normalized misgendering as a political insult. They contemplate that moment and point out other simil...

As part of Pride Month, Jonny and Heather conduct interviews with local LGBTQ+ advocates. In the front half of the shaow, Jonny interviews Father Jerry Anderson, author of Ordained by Angels; A Memoir of an AIDS Chaplain . Father Anderson, a native of Southern Illinoi and co-founder of The Episcopal Caring Response to AIDS (ECRA), will be giving a reading from his book at 11:30am this Sunday (June...

Jonny interviews local drag superstar Leah Fantasy about their life, their experiences growing up nonbinary and Southern Illinois, and their amazing performances in local venues. They discuss the vibe needed for this year's Pride and how to generate it. In the back third of the show, Heather and Jonny discuss the flexibility of labels in the Alphabet Soup and why we need to claim and deploy them g...

Heather and Jonny track a theme across recent stories impacting  LGBTQ+ communities that the smallness of a minority group severely limits its power. They examine several stories where a few people make a big difference, where a small local community beats a big cultural behemoth. They find queer joy in victories and hope in the ways isolating or targetting minority groups can also make them stron...

Jonny and Heather welcome summer on the other side of Memorial Day, remembering what this coming weekend is meant to recognize. The provide some updates on the Southern Illinois Pride plans in Carbondale for Saturday, June 13th. They then celebrate that Carbondale's Pride is not (as of now) being cancelled, as too manyothers are--including China's cancelling of Hong Kong's Pride festivities. Given...

Jonny and Heather face the summer with news of Southern Illinois Pride plans. This information has recently been circulated on local social media. In the process, of course, lots of anti-Pride community members have had...."interesting" things to say about Pride. Jonny and Heather remind them that their comments are public and turn to rebutting the common propaganda talking points critical of Prid...

Jonny and Heather dive into a series of headaches for the LGBTQ+ community, starting with the DOJ's investigation of 36 school districts in Illinois for teaching gender ideology. Connecting that story to many others in the news lately, they pursue the authoritarian tactic of manufacturing problems so that the supreme leader can provide solutions tat serve to consolidate power. They examine a host...

Jonny and Heather conduct separate interviews in this episode, featuring talks with transgender writers doing presentations in Carbondale this coming weekend. In the front half of the show, Heather interviews Nico Lang, an impressive award winning journalist who will be giving a talk about their book, American Teenager: How Trans Kids are Surviving Hate and Finding Joy in a Turbulent Era. In the b...

Jonny and Heather review a serise of recent current events where "kicking out" rather than "coming out" rings the queer content. They look at hypocritical standards for expulsion in Congress, in the Trump Cabinet, and in the military. They also discuss celebrities like Caitlen Jenner, Pete Buttigieg, Megan Rapinoe, and Sue Bird. They conclude with a quick scan of some of the cases the Supreme Cour...

Heather and Jonny extend April Fools to make sense of the foolishness of the Trump Administration in the last week. Behind the clearly mockable "accomplishments" of the administration this week is a persistent theme of targeting the LGBTQ+ community. In the back half of the show they offer even more shade to the growing list of states pursuing toxic anti-LGBTQ+ policies and legislation while they...

Jonny and Heather are a bit disturbed about recording Wednesday's show before the destructive deadline Trump has set for Iran. They discuss the posturings and firings of the administration recently, worried about what they might do with the power they have and no supervision or experienced counsel. In this light, the see Kristi Noem's hypocrisy around her husband's (perfectly okay!) kink a telling...

Jonny and Heather are joined by T--Dr. T!--who recently defended his dissertation about leaving a local cult. They discuss the No Kings protest, the Supreme Court's decision on conversion therapy bans, and the cult like qualities of MAGA all through the lens of surviving an actual cult. Now that the dissertation is done and the degree is earned, Dr. T moves on to diving into local engagement throu...

Jonny welcomes Heather back from complications with a routine operation removing a kidney stone. They dive right into the hot mess that is the war/not war with Iran, noting the slipperyness of the Administration in sticking with or abanding strict definitions when it suits their purposes. They connect this to the rationales for demonizing trans people for not fitting their rigid gender definitions...

Jonny is joined by Craig to discuss queer neurodivergence and bullying. In the front half of the show they focus on a TikTok video by Christopher Macken who responds to a woman who promises to be her son's first bully if he ever "acts gay." In the back half of the show they share an example of the work of TikTok and Instagram content creator, Emile Ennis Jr. and his regular videos on the "Gay Agen...

Jonny and Heater interview Samantha Boucher, Founder and Executive Director of Trans Liberty, the first US political action organization dedicated solely to defending the civil rights of transgenderAmericans. In the front half of the show they explore Samantha's background and the creation of Trans Liberty. In the back half of the show they talk about some of Trans Liberty's current projects, incl...

Heather and Jonny commiserate over the eruption og globala military actions and the controversyies around the Trump Administrations actions and (lack of) explanations. They posit the role of conflict in controling and manipulating others. They then take this theme of x vs. y to other conflicts recently impacting the LGBTQ+ community, some further illuminating the US vs. Iran conflict eclipsing all...

After taking a break for a few weeks from the Epstein Files, Jonny and Heather return to discuss them and other stories that show the limits of trying to control what the public can know. Even so, an administration and a party desperate to control our attention continues to go to extraordinary lengths to scapegoat minorities for ridiculous reasons. After reviewing some of those distractions by ass...

Heather and Jonny confront two stories of mass shootings this week, one in Canada with a confirmed transgender assailant and one in Rhode Island with an alleged transgender shooter. They approach this difficult topic with a couple of key reminders: First, an inventory of their local organizations and meeting groups available to help people struggling to know that they have support and a community....

Jonny and Heather celebrate an unnexpacted and probably lasting warmer rest of February. They turn their attention to the World Human Rights report that notes the USAmerican impact on LGBTQ+ rights globally. They examine several examples of this unfortunate trend in Democratic Recession. In the back half of the show they turn to the great cultural distraction of ahtletics where two big sporty ritu...

Jonny welcomes Heather back to the show, although there is still snow on the roads and the cold is only now slowly loosening its grip. They vortex out from Southern Illinois, discussing new assaults on LGBTQ+ rights, beyound ICE protests or the Epstein Files. In the back half of the show, they look to entertainment, significant political wins, and polling from a surprising source that this assault...

Jonny and Heather are both snowed in this week, but Jonny has a good mic and computer and power at home, so he offers this episode born from staying home during snow and SERIOUS cold. He begins with acknowledgement of the weather and the hypocrisy of climate change denial before moving to Trump administration hypocrisy about Anti-ICE protests in Minneapolis, especially around the shooting of Alex...

Jonny is fresh back from the annual winter retreat of Gay Spirit Visions' winter gathering where the theme was protecting our joy while we live through a dumpster fire. Heather helps him unpack the necessity to be aware of the dumpster fire even as we choose to put our energies elsewhere. They review several of the last week's turns in the news that build the flames even as Minnesota learns to use...