Queer Everything

Hi everyone, we’re on hiatus for a bit! Our next season will be focused on queer spirituality, broadly defined. Thank you to everyone who made Season 2 such a success and so much fun, from our brilliant guests to all of you, who have listened and passed these episodes along. It’s great to hear your feedback. Find us! Website/Substack: http://www.queereverything.com YouTube: Queer Everything's chan...

I'm excited to be on today with two longtime friends. They met in medical school in Beirut and have been together for 18 years. I jokingly call their story the worst one night stand ever– because 18 years, two countries, several cities, and two children later, they’re still going strong. Their story is beautiful, and it has it all – from years of one having no idea that the other was pursuing them...

In this episode, I continue my conversation with Mx. Yaffa, a queer, indigenous, displaced Palestinian person who currently serves as the executive director of the Muslim Alliance for Sexual and Gender Diversity.  In this episode, we talk more about the challenging and necessary work that they do with queer muslims and Palestinians. I am struck by Yaffa’s commitment to doing work that is really ha...

My guest today is Mx. Yaffa, Executive Director of the Muslim Alliance for Sexual and Gender Diversity, or MASGD. Yaffa is a queer Palestinian poet, author, activist, and death doula whose family history of multiple displacements goes back 3-4 generations. In this episode, Yaffa shares their and their family’s history of displacement and movement. In the next episode, we will hear more about what...

My guest today is Paul Nabil Matthis, whom you can find on Instagram and TikTok as @paulnmatthis . Paul is an author, musician, social media educator (among other things). Paul’s channel is great- he posts a variety educational videos, ranging from topics in middle eastern/SWANA history to nerdy videos about different percussion styles in the Arab world , to social justice topics , to history of s...

I'm happy and also sad because of the circumstances to welcome back Ali for a conversation about what is happening Gaza right now. Ali previously spoke with us in Season 1 episodes 9 and 10, and shares his perspective as a queer, Muslim, Palestinian man. We recorded this episode on October 19, 12 days after the attack by Hamas on Israeli civilians, and 10 days into the displacement, civilian bomba...

My guest today is Dr. Eman Abdelhadi, professor at the University of Chicago, author of a forthcoming academic book called Impossible Futures: Why Women Leave American Muslim Communities, as well as the co-author of a speculative fiction novel called Everything for Everyone. Eman is also the subject of a documentary called Coming Around that is now, if you’re listening to this at the end of July 2...

A conversation with Lamya H, author of Hijab Butch Blues, which came out earlier this year. Lamya is South Asian and grew up in a wealthy Arab Gulf state. The book is a series of memoir essays drawn from their life, told alongside beautifully personal, queer readings of stories of the prophets from the Quran.  Find Layma on:Instagram @lamyaisangry Twitter @lamyaisangry Or at www.lamyah.com Buy the...

My guest today is Mohammad Mertaban, a proud, publicly out, queer Muslim man. He’s a physician, a father, and a devoutly religious person who always knew he was gay but followed the path laid out by his community’s interpretation of his faith. He was married for 8 years, and only came out in his mid-30s. And, because of his standing in the community, and how he struggled, he made the decision to c...

My guest today is Mohammad Mertaban, a proud,  publicly out, queer Muslim man. He’s a physician, a father, and a devoutly religious person who always knew he was gay but followed the path laid out by his community’s interpretation of his faith. He was married for 8 years, and only came out in his mid-30s. And, because of his standing in the community, and how he struggled, he made the decision to...

Join me for a conversation with Bushra Rehman, author of Roses, in the Mouth of a Lion, out recently from Flatiron Books and already up for a number of literary awards and accolades! I greatly appreciated Bushra's warmth, expansive way of thinking and being, and generosity of spirit, and found so many resonances with the book and in this conversation. Roses, in the Mouth of a Lion: https://us.macm...

Sarah Cypher is the author of The Skin and its Girl, out now from Ballantine Books! The novel follows  the blue-skinned, queer second-generation Palestinian-American protagonist Betty Rummani, as she navigates difficult questions in her own life by turning to her memories of her great-aunt Nuha for guidance.  The fictional Rummani family are in exile from Palestine, where they had owned a soap fac...

In this episode I welcome the brilliant Dr. Kareem Khubchandani, Professor of Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies at Tufts University also known as their drag persona, LaWhore Vagistan!  You can find them on Twitter at:  @lawhorevagistan  and  @kareempuffand on Instagram at: @lawhorevagistan @kareempuff  @auntologies Watch their TED Talk, "How to be an Auntie"   Find us! Website/Substack: http...

We're out with new episodes on April 17th! The (loose) theme this season is family-- queering family, queer family, and of course, queer found family. Join me for exciting conversations with a range of amazing people. We have merch! Take a look at https://www.queereverything.com/shop ! Find us ! Instagram: @queereverythingpodcast Website: http://www.queereverything.com YouTube: Queer Everythi...

Thank you to everyone who made Season 1 such a success! We're on a brief hiatus while we develop Season 2.The theme for Season 2 is FAMILY-- queer family, queering the notion of family, and being queer family to others. Do you have ideas about what you'd like to hear or whom we could talk to? Drop us a note and let us know! Find us! Website/Substack: http://www.queereverything.com YouTube: Queer E...

Join me for the second part of my conversation with Ali and Mohammed, where we talk about telling close family and others and engage in a dialogue about reconciling faith and spirituality. In the introduction I mention Imara Jones' enlightening (and frankly scary) podcast series The Anti-Trans Hate Machine. Please listen to it. It's here: https://translash.org/antitranshatemachine/ Find us! Websit...

In this episode I speak with two friends whom I know from an affinity group that I'm a part of: Ali who is Palestinian, and Mohammed who is from Ethiopia. We talk about their journeys around realizing they were queer as young people,  coming to terms with their identities in contexts with few positive messages about LGBTQ people, and navigating telling people who were close to them. Find us! Websi...

In this episode I'm excited to speak with Elika Dadsetan-Foley (she/they), director of VISIONS, Inc. VISIONS is a non-profit diversity, equity, inclusion and organizational cultural change non-profit that I do work with in addition to having my own consulting practice. The theme of this conversation is not queer identity as much as it is the queerness of identity. Elika and I navigate similar tens...

Today I speak to the formidable Nicole Joy Alexander, director of the Al-Fitrah Foundation and  Pride Shelter Trust (a project of Al-Fitrah). Pride Shelter is one of the few LGBTQ homeless shelters operating in South Africa, and does incredible work supporting both LGBTQ people who stay there and the broader queer community. Nicole talks about taking over the reins of both organizations as a non-M...

Join me for the second part of my conversation with Joe Steele, where he talks about connecting with his birth mother, learning the story of his parents' relationship, and how it impacted his view of self.  You can find Joe's book, Forbidden Love: The True Love Story of a Black Priest and  White Nun who Defied the Church and Society at forbiddenlovememoir.com.  Queer Everything is going on a brief...

Join me as I speak with the inimitable Joe Steele, a friend and colleague and someone whom I love talking to. Joe shares his extraordinary story in he book Forbidden Love: The True Love Story of a Black Priest and  White Nun who Defied the Church and Society written by Lisa Jones Gentry as told by their son Joe. In this episode, we talk about his early experiences growing up and coming to an aware...

Khalil and I continue our conversation, this time talking about what it has been like to be a queer person from the Middle East in the United States over the past two decades, and about the importance of found family, community, and belonging.  ' Find us! Website/Substack: http://www.queereverything.com YouTube: Queer Everything's channel Socials: Visit our LinkTree This is a public episode. If yo...

In this episode I speak with Khalil, a childhood friend and classmate from elementary school, about growing up as expats in Saudi Arabia, coming to an awareness about being queer, and navigating the complexities of being out to his very conservative Lebanese parents. Part II of the conversation will be out on February 23.  Find us! Website/Substack: http://www.queereverything.com YouTube: Queer Ev...

In this episode, I continue my conversation with Boston-based educator, author and activist Neema Avashia. We talk about rites of passage (including why she did a surprise wedding!), her activism, and about what led her to write her book, Another Appalachia: Coming Up Queer and Indian in a Mountain Place , forthcoming from West Virginia University Press on March 1, 2022.You can learn more about Ne...

In this episode, I speak to Boston-based educator, author and activist Neema Avashia about her experiences growing up as a person of Indian origin in West Virginia, how she's navigated living at the crossroads of different cultures, and about exploring her identity through writing. Neema's forthcoming book Another Appalachia: Coming Up Queer and Indian in a Mountain Place will be available from We...