Latest / Queer Voices / October 28 - Five Shots Of Whiskey And A Voting Plan, Johnathan Gooch and Seth Daniel Cunningham

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October 28 - Five Shots Of Whiskey And A Voting Plan, Johnathan Gooch and Seth Daniel Cunningham · Queer Voices

• 0:02
  Brett: Welcome to Queer Voices on KPFT Houston 90.1 FM.
• 0:06
  Brett: We're also heard as a podcast online.
• 0:09
  Brett: We are a show about Houston's LGBTQIA plus community, and we've been on the air since the 1970s.
• 0:16
  Brett: I am Brett Cullum, and this Saturday it's Halloween.
• 0:19
  Brett: So we thought nothing could be scarier than the midterms, Dracula, and the news.
• 0:26
  Brett: First up, Matt Williams talks to Jonathan Gooch from Equality Texas about the elections and politics.
• 0:32
  Brett: Then I get to talk with Seth Daniel Cunningham about his career here in Houston and what led him to drinking while doing Shakespeare, and he's currently in drunk Dracula.
• 0:45
  Brett: And finally, our author R.
• 0:46
  Brett: Lee Ingalls and I do a news wrap session.
• 0:49
  Brett: Whether you're looking for a trick or a treat, we are glad you found us because Queer Voices starts now.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_03: Hello everyone.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_03: I am Matt Williams, and you're listening to Queer Voices on KPFT 90.1 FM in Houston.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_03: Today's guest is Jonathan Gooch, Deputy Director of Public Affairs at Equality Texas.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_03: He's a reader of Play-Doh.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_03: He has what I assume is a love for helping people and reading footnotes.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_03: So not only did he go to law school, he became editor-chief of a law journal.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_03: He worked on international human rights and Mauritius because apparently Texas was a c uh complicated enough.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_03: He helped build Equality Texas Communications Department because nobody somebody had to explain what the hell was happening to the rest of us.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_03: Now he helps lead Equality Texas.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_03: And of course, he was nominated for an LA Music Award before he was old enough to buy a drink.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_03: And I want to know that I want to hear that damn album on Spotify.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_03: He likes Texas Hill Country, apparently hiking Texas Hill Country, apparently on purpose.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_03: And he shears alpacas.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_03: And if I don't talk about that today, I failed as a curious human being.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_03: We just might get into some of that today, but first we need to talk about the Texas Republican Party platform, how we can survive another Texas legislative session, these midterms, whatever fresh anti-time queer bill somebody has dreamed up to distract us from the actual show we're in.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_03: Jonathan, welcome to Queer Voices.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_03: Thank you so much for having me here.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, so again, thank you for doing this interview.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_03: You helped build this communications department and now serve as the deputy director of public affairs.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_03: What originally brought you to Equality Texas and what made you want to take on this work?
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_03: That is such a good question.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_05: It's a fabulous team at Equality Texas.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_05: So I'm so grateful I've gotten plugged in with them.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_05: And it's, I think a lot of us went on a very similar journey.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_05: I'm a queer man who grew up in Central Texas, part of why I love the Hill Country.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_05: And growing up, you know, it's slowly coming out.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_05: My my mom found some pages in the browser history that gave gave away the game.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_05: And uh they sent me to conversion therapy.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_05: So the conversion therapy to law school, sort of uh all of that together just sort of made me think about the ways that we need to reshape the not only the culture, but the politics, right?
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_05: I was thinking about the way as a kid, uh when I went to conversion therapy, homosexual homosexuality was still illegal.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_05: Lawrence v.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_05: Texas legalized private consensual gay sex in 2003.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_05: And that's that's an insane thing to think about.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_05: So I wanted to make sure that the environment we're creating, uh the policies set a tone that encourage people to embrace, you know, their queer kids, right?
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_05: And if the state is telling you it's illegal and it's wrong to be gay, then conversion therapy seems like the natural choice.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_05: Right.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_05: So for me, it was very personal.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_05: It's I want the next generation to come up in a space where the norm is to think about inclusion rather than to think about will manipulate people into behaving in this heteronormative, cisnormative way that society is pushing on all of us.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_03: Yes.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_03: You're saying how personal these things can get and how much it can influence you.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_03: There were two things I wanted to ask about you, if it inf how much it influences your work.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_03: One, uh studying the great books, how much that kind of influences the way you see things, and two, stu uh studying international law or working on international law uh law abroad.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_03: What uh how much has that influenced the work you're doing now?
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_05: When it comes to the great books, I I loved learning them because the great books definitely shaped the way our culture exists today.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_05: There are certainly, you know, I'll spare you my critique of the great books program because it does mean that emphasis on white male authors because they're the ones that had the time and privilege to, you know, sit around and think and write thoughts down.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_05: But when you look at all of history in that way, you start to see that all of history is this really big conversation, right?
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_05: There are things that were accepted as the debated and philosophical circles that have evolved over time.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_05: And so this is just our opportunity to butt into the conversation and say, hey, we've got a couple points to make uh about where things are going.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_05: And when it comes to that global conversation about human rights, one of the things that really stuck with me about working in some international human rights spaces is how so much of the world really is interested in this goal of safeguarding human rights and international accountability.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_05: And that's different than the American approach.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_05: The American approach is very much to say, oh, who cares about the UN?
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_05: You know, we don't care about these global standards.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_05: But global standards from the UN, like the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and all these other ICCPR, they set a precedent that includes and protects trans and queer people everywhere.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_05: So there are international human rights norms that we are egregiously behind as a country.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_05: And it's very interesting to see how seriously other countries take the UN or how seriously they take accountability to the ICC, these other mechanisms that don't have a lot of force in American politics.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_05: I think it did in some ways give me hope because the the American political drama can seem so all-encompassing.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_05: And then you start to realize that it that's just us sort of staring at our navel, thinking that the world ends at the American border.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_05: I think we're seeing other countries employ international human rights mechanisms in order to create accountability for violations of human rights in a really meaningful way.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_05: And I hope that we can learn from that rather than resist it as a country.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_03: I'm just a huge political nerd, and I don't think people fully understand how much you need to uh use every tool, and I feel like it's what the right does use every single tool you can.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_03: And uh, how so much of what they've gotten is come from like a death of by a thousand cuts, where just over time it just piled up into them getting what they want.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_03: It didn't happen overnight.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_03: It happened with little things that we kind of take for granted and don't pay attention to.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_03: And you gotta be nerdy about to know and know what's going on.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_03: If you know your history of stuff that weighs the queer community, and for me, but for me especially the black and the queer community, different things just in Texas or even Houston that people have done to survive and get things done.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_03: It's like, oh, this is interesting.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_03: Um, we're talking about, you know, uh getting to the meet where we want to talk about the uh what's going on in Texas, what actually happened during the latest Texas legislative session, what do you think might be the most understood thing that happened?
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_03: The most misunderstood?
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_05: Oh, that's a really, really good question.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_05: So for a little context, the anti-LGBTQ campaign here in Texas has been escramatically over the past few years.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_05: So uh three sessions ago, the Texas legislature had 76 anti-LGBTQ bills.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_05: Then the next session, they had 144 anti-LGBTQ bills.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_05: And then they had over 200 anti-LGBTQ bills.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_05: So it's getting and bigger and bigger, which means that there's more to defend against.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_05: And it also means that just playing the numbers game, more is getting through.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_05: So we did see several really harmful bills get through in the latest legislative session.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_05: Some of them are a little more obvious.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_05: People understand the impact and the harm of, for example, the bathroom ban in on government property.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_05: That's obviously not great.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_05: Some of the things that are a little more complicated and a little more confusing are things dealing with insurance.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_05: Most of us don't even know how to handle our own insurance, much less what it means when the state starts intervening and saying there are these new rules.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_05: So I would say SB, I think it's 1257, is a really big one where the new law requires any insurance company that's going to cover gender care for trans folks to also cover any potential complications, any potential detransition care if that's what the patient wants later on.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_05: On its face, that might seem fine.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_05: Well, someone had an evolution in their gender journey and are, you know, are making some adjustments.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_05: That's part of life.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_05: I think anyone that's challenged their own gender is familiar with that.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_05: The issue here is that it's created a different set of standards for this particular type of health care.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_05: And since insurance companies are extremely risk-averse, if they know that when they provide gender-affirming care to a patient, they also have to pay for any of the potential consequences after that, it disincentivizes covering that care at all.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_05: So insurers might opt to not cover gender affirming care or might uh charge you more, right?
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_05: Maybe you want to have a plan that covers gender affirming care and they're gonna say, well, this is gonna be too expensive for us.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_05: So your monthly payment goes up.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_05: So that's a really subtle way in which laws coming out of the Texas legislature are making life more complicated and just piling on this administrative burden to trans folks on top of the discrimination they're experiencing just here in Texas.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_03: Uh I want to ask, like, how are how are organizations like Equality Texas doing more than just playing defense?
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_03: And one of the things that I've always wanted to know, because that's always confusing me about politics, is why, how did how did the left, how did we get to the point where the right is painting the left as always caring about the queer community, then uh especially which makes it a little bit hard to uh advertise certain people in red areas when it's actually them caring so much about queer people.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_03: Why can't we make campaigns about I care about affordable care and they're caring about this stuff, this is silly.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_03: I remember Waltz seemed like he was kind of getting into that.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_03: And then I think he seemed like he got pulled back a little bit by the Harris campaign.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_03: But I'm like, I why are we how did we let them control the conversation like this?
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_03: How organizations are doing more than just playing defense.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_05: So when thinking about the way that Republicans have latched onto this issue, you know, we throw the word scapegoat around a lot.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_05: Like they're scapegoating the trans community.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_05: We can all see that.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_05: And when you think about the historical meaning of scapegoating, right, it was this sort of ritual where the community would invest all of their sins into a goat and a priest would drive the goat out into the desert to die.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_05: And that's that's where that word comes from.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_05: Part of the reason the scapegoating strategy has been so effective for certain political operatives is that there's so much to complain about.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_05: Our system is completely broken in so many ways.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_05: So when you look around and you say, you know, the cost of gas and the cost of groceries are off the chart, don't understand what it is, and it's this big, complex system, and it requires this academic explanation to dig into why this thing isn't working and why this thing isn't working, it's much easier to say, hey, this group of people you don't know a whole lot about, they're the real problem.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_05: And because they're needed of information about trans people and because a lot of people haven't met a trans person, it's real easy for spin doctors to plug in those gaps with whatever they want to sell you.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_05: And so that's what's happening in this situation, right?
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_05: Republicans are saying, look, it's the folks using the bathroom that's the problem, and uh which still is just baffling to me.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_05: I don't understand how that uh could be a problem.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_05: But when it comes to what we're doing beyond just playing defense, I love that question.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_05: One of the things we did in this past year that I'm particularly proud to be a part of is the Rainbow Resource Road Show, which is where our field team has been going all across the state holding these listening conversations with queer communities, specifically in rural areas, just asking, what's going on in your community?
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_05: How where do y'all go to hang out?
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_05: Do you feel like there are safe businesses, safe coffee shops, safe spaces for you to be fully yourself and live a complete life?
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_05: And what we've learned from that is is really interesting.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_05: We've heard a lot of different issues that people are facing.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_05: It's the same stuff every other Texan is facing, right?
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_05: There's nothing unique about our struggles except that the state has made our struggles bigger, right?
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_05: We all just want to eat barbecue and hang with our friends and like have a laugh.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_05: And the government's just imposing itself in ways that makes that goal harder for the queer community.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_05: So I'm really proud of the listening sessions we've been doing, but we're engaged on multiple levels of government.
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_05: We're a team, but we still engage with city government, county government all across the state to think about ways we can improve the material conditions for queer people on the ground.
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_05: You know, maybe queer people in certain communities are facing trouble accessing housing.
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_05: Different type of niche challenges that maybe we can't flip the laws in the state as a whole, but we can do something for this specific community and build from there.
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_05: Let that momentum snowball into something bigger.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it kind of reminds me of how uh I grew up in Beaumont, Texas, and there was a legacy down the street for me.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_03: And a lot knew a lot of people that went there.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_03: I never knew what the history of that was.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_03: I just thought, okay, that's just that clinic that's down the street.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_03: Then I get to Houston and I'm like, and then I learn more about Montreal Center and Legacy.
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_03: I'm like, wait a minute, wait a minute, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_03: Is that the legacy that I grew up down the street from?
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_03: Like that just came out of trying to have something for the queer community, became its own thing, and it got big enough to spread across Texas.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_03: So it's those little things that I talk about with people, there's so many ways.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_03: And I think we get spoiled in Houston with so many resources we have.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_03: Like people don't realize we got we got a lot, a lot from that, you know, the Montreal Center and that that uh town hall meeting and this, that, and the other.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_03: And you go to another place and be like, oh, okay, yeah, yeah.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_03: This is okay, we got a lot of resources.
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_03: We have a lot, a lot of resources here.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_03: I want to go into how you're surviving and what gives you hope.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_03: And uh make the question a little bit longer.
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_03: What gives you hope today?
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_03: But also uh, how do you take a break from dealing with such heavy topics?
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_03: Is this when the the hike in in Texas Hill Country and the Sheeran Valpacas come in?
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_05: It is, yeah, absolutely.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_05: What gives me hope?
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_05: I was thinking about this question.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_05: Uh it is so easy to be just overcome with all the stuff that's out there, right?
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_05: Can be a brutal experience if you're just hearing bad news after bad news after bad news.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_05: One of the people that gives me hope is our field director, Sophia Sepulveda.
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_05: She's been organizing for years and years.
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_05: Uh Latina Transwoman is just always on the front lines.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_05: You'll see her yelling into a megaphone on the Capitol steps all during the legislative session.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_05: And she's just faced so many challenges her whole life.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_05: And she has this phenomenal life story.
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_05: And she's always reminding people and reminding me we've been through this before, right?
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_05: Things were really bad and we persevered and we pushed through.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_05: That's such a powerful testament, is to look at the people who have been doing this work for a long time.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_05: Look at even our the generations that came before that are no longer with us.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_05: They managed to fight back in a system that was built to push them down, and they won.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_05: And maybe it's small victories along the way, but that gives me hope for the future.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_05: Uh it's yeah, hiking.
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_05: I'm I'm about to tomorrow I'm leaving to go hiking again.
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_05: So headed up to Paladuro Canyon State Park and excited to unplug for a little bit.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_03: Talking about the history, I've already said it a couple of times.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_03: That's the biggest thing that gives me hope.
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_03: When I look at some things, just looking at, I mean, I don't think people realize there are places that we look at as liberal now that was not liberal back in the day.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_03: And San Francisco was not that liberal.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_03: That's a fairly new thing.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_03: Or California itself, because of the Cold War, that was just nothing but Republicans up there.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_03: And so some of those, the queer community out there being that out and loud.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_03: It was a definitely radical actor in New York, them raiding the gay clubs on a normal basis.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_03: And for weird rules.
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_03: There's some weird rules like lesbians couldn't have so many buttons on their pants and all kinds, and they were just, okay, we've been raided.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_03: We'll be back next week.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_03: We'll go show up next week, you know.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_03: So you got people that have just survived, and is that something like as crazy as it sounds, like it's I think sometimes people get a little weird when you try to say that because it sounds like you're minimizing what the pain that's happening right now.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_03: But we've survived at least this is this uh just as much.
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_03: We've survived things before you can survive, we can survive this.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_03: I don't want to embarrass my ancestors doom scrolling and just being sad because I just read a bunch of sad stuff on a social media app.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_03: I don't want to be somebody in the future that a younger generation was like, Well, what did you do?
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_03: What was you doing?
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_03: You know, and I gotta be like, Well, I was sad.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_03: I was, you know, like, nah, I got involved and did something.
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_03: And it's so I remember one time too, we had a Republican sheriff at one period in Houston.
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_03: And I remember one of the things he was doing was he stopped separating the queer community, you know, and and uh then when we got the Democrat back in, it was uh they they started it back up to make sure to separate them.
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_03: And it's like that there's little, so many little things, and so many special elections that have swung wildly in our direction and mayors races that have been won.
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_03: One of our was is Willin, Sigoland, somebody.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_03: One of ours is just super known for always electing Republican mayors, just elected a Democrat mayor out here, you know, outside of Houston.
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_03: And so you the the the wind is at our backs.
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_03: It's like that it's not the time to be that kind of sad, at least giving up sad when you got that much wind in your back.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_03: It's gonna be, you know, like a good gay.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_03: I'm worried about how I look.
• 18:55
  SPEAKER_03: And it's I don't think it's a good look.
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_03: So I don't think it's a great look to be given up like that, especially with considering the situation, you know, the wind that we have at our back.
• 19:03
  SPEAKER_03: I just want to know what what kind of music was it?
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_03: What what was the album like?
• 19:07
  SPEAKER_03: Just a little just a little information.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_03: I know it's private right now, but just a little information about what what what kind of music did you put out?
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_05: Oh gosh.
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_05: Well, the the true internet sluice, I'm sure, can find it somewhere.
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_05: Um, I grew up playing piano.
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_05: So the album was uh piano-driven folk rock, which is a very niche space that had its moment about 20 years ago.
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_05: So Okay.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_03: All right, well, there you go.
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_03: I got my answer.
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_03: And that does sound like something that was the thing back then.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_03: I can definitely hear that in high school, that kind of sound being part of the scene back then.
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_03: So, anyways, Mr.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_03: Jonathan, thank you very much for taking some time to speak with us about queer voices, about the state of politics, and a little bit about yourself and how you got involved.
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_03: So, uh, thank you again for the interview.
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_03: We're gonna go ahead and end now.
• 19:52
  SPEAKER_03: This is Queer Voices, and I'm Matthew Williams.
• 20:02
  Deborah: This radio program, Queer Voices, has existed since the 1970s on KPFT.
• 20:11
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• 20:30
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• 20:38
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• 20:44
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• 20:48
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• 20:57
  Brett: Hi there, this is Brett Cullum, and Seth Daniel Cunningham is a Houston-based actor and a singer who is a company member of the Drunk Shakespeare Society.
• 21:07
  Brett: The concept here is this troop puts on a classic show, but one actor has to do five shots of whiskey or some other variation of hard alcohol before they start.
• 21:18
  Brett: The result anything can and will happen.
• 21:22
  Brett: I always say it's like the Indy 500, you come for the rex.
• 21:25
  Brett: So welcome, Seth.
• 21:27
  Brett: Hi, Brett.
• 21:28
  Brett: Thank you for having me.
• 21:30
  Brett: Yes, I'm so excited.
• 21:31
  Brett: I mean, first up, I want to know how did you get into this binge drinking and doing Shakespeare?
• 21:36
  Brett: How long have you been doing this?
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_06: How long have I been binge drinking or how long have I been doing junk Shakespeare?
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_06: Well, combining the two, you know.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_06: Well, before COVID happened, I was doing a bunch of like small gigs and a bunch of like children's theater and things like that.
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_06: And then so that was where a lot of my professional performance comes from or experience comes from, the children's theater.
• 21:59
  SPEAKER_06: And so it It was ironically.
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_06: It was a really, it was a really interesting shift when I got the Drunk Shakespeare gig, which was, which has been about a year and a half now.
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_06: I got hired in April of last year.
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_06: And yeah, it's just kind of like one of those things where it's like, oh, beautiful, you know, we all know how to drink, you know, but this type of theater that we're doing at Drunk Shakespeare does very often feel like children's theater.
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_06: And so it kind of felt like um, strangely enough, kind of like a natural transition from children's theater to doing this, because it is a bunch of audience interaction, a bunch of sometimes having to rein in the audience and controlling the audience to make it fit with whatever narrative or whatever, you know, stylistic tone that we're trying to make over at Drunk Shakespeare.
• 22:50
  SPEAKER_06: And I had a friend who was already working there at the time, and she said, Hey, we're we're hiring a couple people, a couple actors for Drunk Shakespeare.
• 22:59
  SPEAKER_06: You should throw in an application.
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_06: I said, Ah, I don't know.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_06: I don't know if I will, you know.
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_06: And then I went and saw Macbeth one time, and I was like, okay, this is right up my alley.
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_06: This is exactly the kind of theater that I enjoy, the kind of comedy that I enjoy.
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_06: So I was like, okay, let's do it.
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_06: I sent in a video audition, maybe about five-minute-long tape.
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_06: It had a Shakespeare monologue, and then I took that Shakespeare monologue, and um as we, as we do at the Drunk Shakespeare Society, threw in a bunch of jokes in between the lines to turn it on its head and give it a different uh comedic flair to it, I guess.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_06: Um, I had to do a few impersonations on that video.
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_06: Then they gave me a call for a callback, and I went in with um Lori, who is one of the founders of Drunk Shakespeare, and Zach, who is our general manager, and uh who is fantastic.
• 23:59
  SPEAKER_06: He's a great manager.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_06: We all love Zach so much.
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_06: Went in for a quick callback, and I was there for maybe about 10 minutes.
• 24:06
  SPEAKER_06: We had a we had a great conversation, we had some fun, and and that was it.
• 24:11
  SPEAKER_06: And they they they offered me, they offered me a job, and it was great.
• 24:15
  SPEAKER_06: Did they make you drink?
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_06: I think no, they did not make me drink at the audition.
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_06: No, they did not.
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_06: That is something that is something that we practice much later on in our in our time working there.
• 24:31
  Brett: We yeah, yeah, no, we'll we'll get into that, I'm sure.
• 24:34
  Brett: Um, but uh, one of the things I want to ask is do you guys get health insurance?
• 24:37
  Brett: Because I I worry about you all.
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_06: Are you numbered?
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_06: Unfortunately, we don't get health insurance.
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_06: We are actually the only non-union uh drunk Shakespeare company in the nation.
• 24:50
  SPEAKER_06: You know, there's a bunch of yeah.
• 24:53
  SPEAKER_06: Well, well, it's it's kind of a good thing and kind of a bad thing.
• 24:56
  SPEAKER_06: Obviously, if we were union, yeah, we would have more of those perks, right?
• 25:01
  SPEAKER_06: But because we're not union, that gives us a lot of freedom.
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_06: That gives us a lot of freedom.
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_06: It gives us, um, especially when it comes to like scheduling and um and like how many shows we can actually do throughout the week, that's really important to us, you know, where if we were to go to equity, then really about five, because there's 13 of us currently, only five actors would really be getting those week, those weekly contracts or those uh, yeah, the weekly contracts where um they're like the main ones.
• 25:32
  SPEAKER_06: And then everyone else would kind of be like on standby, right?
• 25:36
  SPEAKER_06: So with the non-equity, we get to have our freedom.
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_06: We get the we all get a good uh share of the uh performance opportunities.
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_06: We have like a certain like pay structure that really works for all of us as well.
• 25:51
  SPEAKER_06: Um, yeah, health insurance would be nice.
• 25:56
  Brett: I just think about it.
• 25:57
  Brett: I'm like, oh my gosh.
• 25:58
  Brett: At least just cover your liver or something.
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_06: I mean, right, right.
• 26:01
  SPEAKER_06: Well, any kind of work-related injury should be covered.
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_06: Well, definitely.
• 26:05
  SPEAKER_06: I mean, if if there's like an injury, then they'll they'll help us out, you know.
• 26:09
  SPEAKER_06: But like uh, but that's very rare.
• 26:11
  SPEAKER_06: Very rare that we have an incident over at the Drunk Shakespeare Society.
• 26:15
  Brett: Well, I have to tell you, I the last time I went and saw well, when I saw drunk Christmas Carol, I mean, what the actress that was doing the drunk roles, she was doing shots like standing on her head.
• 26:24
  Brett: I was like, what the heck?
• 26:26
  Brett: It's like this girl's gonna get hurt.
• 26:27
  SPEAKER_06: Well, we are professionals, we're professional drinkers and we're professional performers.
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_06: So it's a little one-two right there.
• 26:34
  Brett: Are there certain precautions that you take with this?
• 26:37
  Brett: I mean, as a performer, I I know that it's it's a kind of a tall order because you're Yeah.
• 26:42
  SPEAKER_06: Absolutely.
• 26:42
  SPEAKER_06: One of the misconceptions about drunk Shakespeare and about the drunk actor is that it's like sprung on us, you know, that the decision is just kind of like surprise, you're the drunk one tonight.
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_06: Um, when that's not necessarily true.
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_06: We do know a little bit ahead of time, like how like what shows, what day we'll be drinking.
• 27:03
  SPEAKER_06: And so that gives us time to like prepare.
• 27:05
  SPEAKER_06: We make sure that we are rested, we make sure that we have eaten the full meal before, um, we make sure that we've drank plenty of water before, after the drinking.
• 27:15
  SPEAKER_06: And sometimes when we have to do two shows in a row, two drinking shows in a row.
• 27:19
  SPEAKER_06: Um, we also have a like a uh blood alcohol count, uh, like a blow blow.
• 27:25
  SPEAKER_06: I'm not really sure what the machine is called, the blow blow the blow machine.
• 27:29
  SPEAKER_06: It tells us our blood alcohol number.
• 27:31
  SPEAKER_06: So that gives us a range of like, are we good to do the next show?
• 27:35
  SPEAKER_06: Like, are we good to keep doing the ideas and the different um uh different things that we want to change when while we're drunk, you know?
• 27:45
  SPEAKER_06: Um, so there are there are some factors, but really the main thing is make sure you eat, make sure you drink plenty of water, you know.
• 27:52
  Brett: Yeah, no kidding.
• 27:54
  Brett: It's wild.
• 27:56
  Brett: But through November 8th is of course the return, uh not a Shakespeare script, but the return of drunk Dracula.
• 28:04
  Brett: Yeah.
• 28:04
  Brett: I mean, you guys really missed it because Druncula was right there.
• 28:08
  Brett: But I mean, you know, that is good.
• 28:15
  Brett: But you did have to stay on brand.
• 28:17
  Brett: So what is it like doing a sauced up version of Bram Stoker?
• 28:21
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, you're right.
• 28:22
  SPEAKER_06: It's not Shakespeare necessarily, but it is a classical work, right?
• 28:26
  SPEAKER_06: And it's a work that has been translated, and people have taken their own ideas with it and made it their own.
• 28:35
  SPEAKER_06: We've seen so many different versions of Dracula, right?
• 28:38
  SPEAKER_06: And that's what's fun about it, is that we can take the bits and pieces of the important classical text and then throw in our own ideas and our own creativity and artistry into this uh production, which makes it something that nobody else has seen.
• 28:58
  SPEAKER_06: Even at other cities, other drunk Shakespeare, you know, ports and whatever, um, they they kind of have their own, not their own script, but their own jokes and their own, you know, flow and and how they do things, right?
• 29:13
  SPEAKER_06: Um, so like if you go see drunk Dracula in Houston, and then you go see drunk Dracula in DC, you're still gonna have two totally different experiences and two you're gonna see two totally different shows.
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_06: Um, and that's what's so fun about Dracula and about all the shows that we do is that we really get to make it our own, which makes it very special and very rare to see in Houston.
• 29:37
  SPEAKER_06: This is a true gem of Houston, and some people like don't even realize that we're that we're here, you know.
• 29:43
  Brett: It really is.
• 29:44
  Brett: And it's it's a cool theater, it's very intimate, which I was kind of surprised.
• 29:48
  Brett: Um, there's no bad seats.
• 29:50
  Brett: I mean, like I when I read the there's different tiers, and there's like a balcony, and uh, you know, to me, a balcony at like the hobby center means that you're like way up scraping the ceiling and yeah, you gotta have your your opera goggles and everything.
• 30:03
  Brett: Yeah, yeah.
• 30:04
  SPEAKER_06: But when I saw the balcony at John Shakespeare, I was like, oh well, this isn't that far from the stage, but that's kind of the it's kind of the best seat in the house, too, because you get a little counter that you can lean on, you get your place to put your drinks and your snacks.
• 30:15
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 30:19
  Brett: And it's uh it's a wonderful experience.
• 30:21
  Brett: It's great for friends.
• 30:22
  Brett: I have so many friends that go and they bring groups, oh yeah.
• 30:25
  Brett: Um, which is awesome.
• 30:27
  Brett: It's like perfect for a birthday party, bridal shower.
• 30:31
  Brett: Um I just got divorced, I just lost my job, that kind of thing.
• 30:34
  Brett: Yeah.
• 30:34
  SPEAKER_06: You'd be surprised how many people come to celebrate because they've just finalized their divorce or they just quit their job and they're feeling free and they're they're here to have a good time.
• 30:45
  SPEAKER_06: And and it really is uh one of those special things for us as well, is that people we find that people do come to us when they need a laugh.
• 30:53
  SPEAKER_06: They know that they can come to us to escape from the realities of the world that we're living in now and and and laugh and have a good time and let that go for a while, you know.
• 31:07
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, yeah.
• 31:08
  Brett: Well, it's nice and it's fun and it's never the same.
• 31:10
  Brett: Like you said, you can see the production several times, so it'll change night to night.
• 31:14
  Brett: Different actors, you know, obviously take it on.
• 31:17
  Brett: Um I I'm really curious to see Dracula because I am sort of a Dracula buff.
• 31:23
  Brett: I've read the book, I read the book like when I go to sleep, like sometimes just like when I don't have anything else.
• 31:27
  Brett: And I've seen almost every film version of it that you can imagine.
• 31:31
  Brett: So, and I've even done it on stage a couple of times.
• 31:34
  Brett: Well, there you go.
• 31:35
  SPEAKER_06: This is one you gotta check off your your list for sure.
• 31:37
  Brett: Yes, yes, no, absolutely.
• 31:39
  Brett: But um, Seth, I am such a huge fan of yours.
• 31:42
  Brett: I have seen you in Paul Hope's Cabaret, I've seen you in the Garden Theaters Company, and of course, I've seen you in Drunk Shakespeare.
• 31:50
  Brett: Um, I think I even saw you like lead karaoke at Winnie's.
• 31:54
  Brett: Um but yes, wow.
• 31:58
  Brett: Yeah, but what else would I know you from?
• 32:00
  Brett: I mean, you mentioned children's theater was your kind of entree.
• 32:03
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 32:04
  SPEAKER_06: I did kind of because of COVID, I kind of fell back into my cave and disappeared a little bit and had to come out with as something new, right?
• 32:12
  SPEAKER_06: Before that, I mean, I mean, you've hit all my main things, right?
• 32:16
  SPEAKER_06: The Paul Hope cabaret.
• 32:18
  SPEAKER_06: Um, I did, yeah, I recently did uh company with the Garden Theater.
• 32:23
  SPEAKER_06: Um I also sing every once in a while at the Broadsway at Michael's Outpost.
• 32:30
  SPEAKER_06: Yes.
• 32:30
  SPEAKER_06: Yes.
• 32:31
  SPEAKER_06: I've been a um, I've been a resident member with them for the past eight years.
• 32:37
  SPEAKER_06: Um eight years, yeah, yeah.
• 32:40
  SPEAKER_06: It's it's it's weird how this, again, it's like one of these places where I'm like, oh, this just fits.
• 32:46
  SPEAKER_06: It works.
• 32:47
  SPEAKER_06: I it fills my cup, you know.
• 32:49
  SPEAKER_06: It's like a small, you know, singing gig at a bar, but it's it means so much to me, you know.
• 32:56
  SPEAKER_06: I love it there.
• 32:57
  SPEAKER_06: Um, and then yeah, drunk, drunk Shakespeare.
• 32:59
  SPEAKER_06: Uh, when I was doing uh children's theater, I was with Main Street.
• 33:04
  SPEAKER_06: I did maybe five or six shows with them.
• 33:07
  Brett: Yeah.
• 33:08
  Brett: So and I think you guys should do a crossover.
• 33:10
  Brett: I think you should bring like a drunk Shakespeare to the Main Street Children's Theater and you know, serve cocktails to the young ones and let them.
• 33:18
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, you know, you know, some of uh some of those uh eight-year-olds can really throw back a martini, you know.
• 33:24
  SPEAKER_06: Yes, I'm sure.
• 33:26
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 33:27
  Brett: Well, I wanted to ask you this.
• 33:28
  Brett: How did you get into acting?
• 33:29
  Brett: Like what was like little Seth?
• 33:31
  Brett: Yeah.
• 33:33
  SPEAKER_06: My story's a little, I feel like a little typical.
• 33:35
  SPEAKER_06: Uh I was, you know, a young gay boy in a small town, not really sure where to go.
• 33:41
  SPEAKER_06: You know, everybody was like, oh, you know, play football or or, you know, do this or whatever.
• 33:48
  SPEAKER_06: And eventually, when I was in sixth grade, I believe, um, I got into band, right?
• 33:57
  SPEAKER_06: And I learned how to play trombone, and I played trombone for about seven years.
• 34:01
  SPEAKER_06: That's where my love for music really grew because I was learning so much, so much more about it.
• 34:09
  SPEAKER_06: So from there, it was like, I love being on stage and being performative.
• 34:15
  SPEAKER_06: How can I do this more, right?
• 34:17
  SPEAKER_06: So then moving on to community theater.
• 34:20
  SPEAKER_06: Um, my first show was The Music Man, which I love The Music Man so much.
• 34:25
  Brett: Did you study voice though?
• 34:27
  Brett: I mean, because you sing incredibly well.
• 34:29
  SPEAKER_06: I do, yes.
• 34:30
  SPEAKER_06: All through high school, I did choir and theater and community theater.
• 34:35
  SPEAKER_06: So there ended up being two community theaters in my town.
• 34:38
  SPEAKER_06: So I was kind of going back and forth to each one.
• 34:41
  SPEAKER_06: I took about six months after I graduated high school to figure out where I wanted to go.
• 34:47
  SPEAKER_06: One of my community theater friends was like, I'm headed to Huntsville, Texas.
• 34:52
  SPEAKER_06: I'm gonna go in Houston State.
• 34:55
  SPEAKER_06: They have one of the only musical theater programs in Texas, and it's not a private school that's gonna cost you hundreds of thousands of dollars.
• 35:03
  SPEAKER_06: So I was like, okay, I'll check it out.
• 35:05
  SPEAKER_06: And it took me a couple of tries to get into the musical theater uh program.
• 35:11
  SPEAKER_06: But I got in and then yeah, I was taking acting classes every semester, voice lessons every semester.
• 35:18
  SPEAKER_06: I just have stuck with it.
• 35:19
  SPEAKER_06: Uh it's one of those things that you know fills my soul.
• 35:22
  SPEAKER_06: And like, if I it's one of those things like if I stop doing it, then I'm then I'm I'm gonna die.
• 35:28
  SPEAKER_06: You know what I mean?
• 35:29
  SPEAKER_06: It's gonna be the end.
• 35:31
  SPEAKER_06: So I gotta keep going.
• 35:34
  SPEAKER_06: It's my life force.
• 35:36
  SPEAKER_06: Well, when did you come out?
• 35:37
  SPEAKER_06: Ooh, uh um uh I came out my last semester of high school.
• 35:45
  SPEAKER_06: Yes, yes.
• 35:46
  SPEAKER_06: I had uh I had a a friend of another friend of mine who was kind of like, I'm not sure if I'm gay or not, and like, I don't know.
• 35:53
  SPEAKER_06: And I, you know, kind of we had this, we were able to talk to each other and kind of like work it out with each other and be like, yeah, I I think that's what we are, you know.
• 36:02
  SPEAKER_06: I grew up in a small town called Cleburne, Texas, which is about Of course, yeah.
• 36:07
  SPEAKER_06: You know Cleburne?
• 36:08
  SPEAKER_06: I think we I think we've talked about this before.
• 36:10
  SPEAKER_06: Every time someone says, I know where Cleburne is, I'm like, you're full of but um but yeah, super small town and like not a lot of gay people, not a lot of representation.
• 36:22
  SPEAKER_06: So we weren't really sure what that was.
• 36:25
  SPEAKER_06: It finally kind of came clear at least a little bit that like, you know, I'm different than everybody else here, and I've gotta get out of here to figure out like what else is out there and like what what gay people are, you know.
• 36:38
  SPEAKER_06: And and then of course, you know, going into college, you've you find out what what uh all the different types of people that you can know going into Sam Houston's musical theater program, I'm sure how like this is where I belong.
• 36:54
  SPEAKER_06: This is it.
• 36:56
  Brett: Yeah, no, I could see that for sure.
• 36:58
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, so these days, what is your relationship status on there?
• 37:01
  SPEAKER_06: I actually uh got married.
• 37:03
  SPEAKER_06: Uh we just passed our one-year anniversary in March.
• 37:08
  SPEAKER_06: Thank you so much.
• 37:09
  SPEAKER_06: It's actually a funny story because um we after I uh auditioned for Drunk Shakespeare, they emailed me and they said, Hey, we would love for you to join us.
• 37:22
  SPEAKER_06: We would love for you to have to come to your first rehearsal on March 25th.
• 37:28
  SPEAKER_06: Um, and then we'll work out the rest of like your rehearsal schedule for the rest of the week.
• 37:32
  SPEAKER_06: And I was like, Thank you so much.
• 37:34
  SPEAKER_06: I really appreciate that.
• 37:36
  SPEAKER_06: I'm getting married on this very day.
• 37:39
  SPEAKER_06: Oh no.
• 37:39
  SPEAKER_06: I'm getting married on this very day.
• 37:42
  SPEAKER_06: If you can maybe give me a couple of days after this, that would be incredible.
• 37:48
  SPEAKER_06: And they were all, you know, take the week.
• 37:51
  SPEAKER_06: Congratulations, of course.
• 37:53
  SPEAKER_06: So, so you know, to my most important moments of my life right now, you know, my husband and drunk Shakespeare, they all kind of converged at the same time.
• 38:02
  SPEAKER_06: And it was it's a beautiful time of the year for me to reminisce on.
• 38:06
  Brett: So um it's amazing that all of that changes at once.
• 38:11
  Brett: I mean, that's a lot of stress.
• 38:12
  Brett: They say that like change starting a new job, getting married, and moving are the most stressful things.
• 38:19
  Brett: And it sounds like you probably did all of that at once.
• 38:21
  SPEAKER_06: All of that at once.
• 38:23
  Brett: Well, do you ever feel I know that in the drunk Shakespeare show, I I don't think that your sexuality necessarily comes up in the show.
• 38:31
  Brett: Um No, it doesn't.
• 38:32
  Brett: But do you ever use it?
• 38:33
  Brett: Do you ever like use that as part of your arsenal in the comedy?
• 38:38
  SPEAKER_06: Absolutely.
• 38:39
  SPEAKER_06: Um, not that I'm the only homosexual in in the um in the company or the only um queer one in the company, but I am the the only standalone gay man in the company, right?
• 38:55
  SPEAKER_06: So I use I use it as much as I can.
• 39:00
  SPEAKER_06: Um in Drunk Romeo and Juliet, I uh play Mercutio.
• 39:04
  Brett: Oh yeah.
• 39:05
  SPEAKER_06: And my Mercutio is very much inspired by uh the Leo DiCaprio version of Romeo and Juliet, where uh that Mercutio is just bold and flamboyant and like obviously gay and like plays with uh with gender a lot, you know.
• 39:25
  SPEAKER_06: I might even be weaponizing it at this point, you know what I'm saying?
• 39:30
  SPEAKER_06: I might be weaponizing at this point because I I try my best to make to just put it into all of my arcs, you know, Romeo and Juliet, um, Dracula with uh pirates even in in pirates um uh during my drunk shows.
• 39:48
  SPEAKER_06: Uh because, you know, when you know that you're drunk, you kind of start coming up with ideas and different things that you can change in the show, right?
• 39:57
  SPEAKER_06: So basically, my character in drunk uh pirates was was in drag the whole time.
• 40:03
  SPEAKER_06: I had I had a wig, I had a dress, I put on some bad makeup.
• 40:08
  SPEAKER_06: It's very important for me to put that on stage and to represent for my queer community.
• 40:16
  SPEAKER_06: That's a big deal.
• 40:17
  Brett: And it's definitely one of those things where we need that representation, yeah.
• 40:20
  Brett: Um, especially in today's political uh climate.
• 40:24
  Brett: I think it's a big deal.
• 40:25
  SPEAKER_06: It's kind of strange how a show that can be so raunchy or so, you know, we have this reputation for being gaudy and like uh very out there, you know.
• 40:36
  SPEAKER_06: We have people who come back and they they say, This is important to me.
• 40:40
  SPEAKER_06: This was this was healing for me.
• 40:43
  SPEAKER_06: And specifically, I remember last year during Romeo and Juliet, I had a a wonderful patron at the show named Max.
• 40:52
  SPEAKER_06: Max is a trans man and you know, very, very young and was with his mother.
• 40:58
  SPEAKER_06: And I just remember afterwards Max coming up to me and just like with tears in his eyes, being like, This was I loved seeing you like this.
• 41:07
  SPEAKER_06: And I loved seeing this kind of, you know, this explosion of queerness.
• 41:14
  SPEAKER_06: He said it was so important for him.
• 41:16
  SPEAKER_06: His mom even came up and was like, this was really, really important for for both of us and really healing for both of us.
• 41:23
  SPEAKER_06: Um, so it yeah, it's kind of strange how this silly little show can be so important to some people.
• 41:29
  SPEAKER_06: Absolutely.
• 41:30
  Brett: Well, what would you warn people about if they have never been to drunk Shakespeare before?
• 41:34
  Brett: What would you like be like, okay, here's the skinny and here's what you gotta watch out for?
• 41:38
  SPEAKER_06: Nothing that we don't try to warn them about beforehand, right?
• 41:42
  SPEAKER_06: Even now we've put up um like these big posters in the hallway that have kind of like our guidelines for drunk Shakespeare, being like, this is what you should expect, right?
• 41:53
  SPEAKER_06: Expect to be very close and intimate to the actors.
• 41:58
  SPEAKER_06: Expect um audience interaction.
• 42:01
  SPEAKER_06: It's not gonna be the classical work that you're expecting, right?
• 42:07
  SPEAKER_06: It's we're turning it on its head.
• 42:09
  SPEAKER_06: We're adding as many silly, uh irreverent, you know, jokes that we can, and just throwing a bunch of stuff into the to the pot to make a beautiful weird soup, you know, and you gotta come, you gotta come hungry, right?
• 42:24
  SPEAKER_06: Because there's gonna be a lot on stage and uh a lot to take in.
• 42:29
  SPEAKER_06: Um expect the unexpected, right?
• 42:31
  SPEAKER_06: Just wrap in, grip, and get ready to go, you know, because it's gonna be it's gonna be a wild, fast time every single time.
• 42:41
  Brett: Well, I'll tell you something.
• 42:42
  Brett: One of the things that impresses me the most about your company here is not only do you do really funny stuff, and it's a laugh a minute, and it's great, and the gags are awesome, but you do honestly base it in the Shakespeare.
• 42:55
  Brett: You are doing a lot of the text, and it is wild when you think about how much Shakespeare you all have learned and are doing in a legit way.
• 43:06
  Brett: You are honoring the the base, but then exploding it to the silly, and it's just it's really fun to watch.
• 43:14
  Brett: Yeah, um, I I always want to ask you guys, you know, um, the Allie does quite a bit of your shows, and traditionally you guys kind of have this turf war of Christmas Carol running simultaneously.
• 43:26
  Brett: Have you seen the Alley's Christmas Carol?
• 43:28
  SPEAKER_06: Oh yeah, yeah, a hundred times.
• 43:31
  SPEAKER_06: Honestly, whenever last year, because last year was the first time that we did Christmas Carol when we did it running simultaneously with the Alley.
• 43:38
  SPEAKER_06: I was like, oh my gosh, this is actually brilliant.
• 43:42
  SPEAKER_06: This is brilliant because you go keep your holiday tradition, you go see Christmas Carol at the alley.
• 43:48
  SPEAKER_06: Everybody loves it, and everybody knows, you know, what they're expecting, right?
• 43:54
  SPEAKER_06: And then turn around, go see drunk Christmas Carol.
• 43:58
  SPEAKER_06: That's a win win for for all.
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_06: Of us.
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_06: That's a win-win for all of us.
• 44:02
  SPEAKER_06: I think we should be promoting them simultaneously.
• 44:05
  SPEAKER_06: You know, oh, it should be a package deal.
• 44:07
  SPEAKER_06: It should be a package deal.
• 44:08
  SPEAKER_06: Because I mean, our show is going to be totally different than their production, right?
• 44:14
  SPEAKER_06: We still have the story.
• 44:15
  SPEAKER_06: Like you said, like we're still rooted in the classical text and the truth of the story, right?
• 44:22
  SPEAKER_06: But we're we're adding the unexpected.
• 44:25
  SPEAKER_06: We're adding things that are gonna make you laugh when that show sometimes makes you cry, you know?
• 44:32
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 44:32
  SPEAKER_06: And I think in that show, actually, too, there is moments where where we can get a little choked up too.
• 44:37
  SPEAKER_06: But but yeah, I think it's I think I don't know, you say turf war and it's like I do it.
• 44:44
  SPEAKER_06: There might be there might be, but I think I think the the grander scheme is that like we're all a theater community and we can support, we can we can be doing almost the same show and still be supporting each other, you know.
• 44:58
  Brett: Oh, absolutely.
• 44:59
  Brett: And in fact, the last time I talked to Elizabeth Bunch, I we were conspiring to get with Rob Melrose and have you both switch casts one night.
• 45:06
  Brett: Like the Alley cast just goes over to the drunk Shakespeare, and you guys go over to the big theater and you do yours and they do theirs, and then both audiences are completely shocked and appalled.
• 45:16
  SPEAKER_06: Can you imagine?
• 45:17
  SPEAKER_06: Can you imagine David Rainey coming through Drunk Shakespeare?
• 45:21
  SPEAKER_06: No, the hundreds of them.
• 45:22
  SPEAKER_06: David, it's time for your first challenge.
• 45:26
  Brett: Yeah, no, the hundreds of them on that tiny stage.
• 45:29
  SPEAKER_06: Oh my gosh, that'd be so funny.
• 45:32
  SPEAKER_06: But you're right, like it's such like I don't know, it's such a brilliant move, I think, for for drunk Shakespeare to be like, yeah, we're doing Christmas Carol and we're doing it right next door to someone who's doing the legit production, you know, and then we're gonna have fun with it.
• 45:50
  Brett: Yeah.
• 45:50
  Brett: It's a total apple in an orange scenario.
• 45:52
  Brett: I mean, obviously, you know, they're both wonderful.
• 45:54
  Brett: And I think that uh theater feeds off of each other.
• 45:57
  Brett: I think that, you know, i they they complement each other very well.
• 46:00
  Brett: So I don't mean to say that that's a turf war, but maybe it could in a fun way it could be.
• 46:04
  Brett: But right now you're you're you're obviously into the drunk Dracula, and that goes through November 8th.
• 46:12
  SPEAKER_06: After Dracula will be Oh, it's Christmas Carol.
• 46:14
  SPEAKER_06: Christmas Carol.
• 46:15
  SPEAKER_06: And then yeah, and then Romeo and Juliet.
• 46:18
  SPEAKER_06: Mm-hmm.
• 46:19
  SPEAKER_06: Mm-hmm.
• 46:19
  SPEAKER_06: And I'm told there is a new production in the works for Drunker.
• 46:26
  SPEAKER_06: Probably maybe around March or April.
• 46:28
  SPEAKER_06: There are rumors going around that we're there will be a new production coming up next year as well, which is super exciting.
• 46:34
  Brett: But I'm very curious.
• 46:35
  Brett: I'm I'm still waiting for Drunk Cymbaline.
• 46:38
  Brett: Oh, just kidding.
• 46:42
  Brett: One of the lesser known works.
• 46:44
  Brett: Yeah, yeah.
• 46:45
  Brett: Let's go down the rabbit hole.
• 46:46
  SPEAKER_06: You know, it's fine.
• 46:47
  SPEAKER_06: Well, drunk tempest would kind of work.
• 46:49
  SPEAKER_06: That would kind of work.
• 46:50
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, I don't know.
• 46:52
  SPEAKER_06: There's still so so there's so much fruit to pick from the Shakespeare tree.
• 46:58
  SPEAKER_06: Like, there's so many options that we can do to like to make a fun drunk version of.
• 47:04
  SPEAKER_06: The possibilities are endless.
• 47:05
  Brett: Yep.
• 47:06
  Brett: Well, Seth Daniel Cunningham, thank you so much.
• 47:08
  Brett: Um I appreciate you taking this time and walking down the the whole journey of Seth into imbibing with the bard.
• 47:20
  Brett: You know, I think it's a good combination, and you're so brilliant in the show.
• 47:23
  Brett: So uh break legs, and I'll be there cheering you on.
• 47:29
  Brett: So there you go.
• 47:29
  SPEAKER_06: Thank you.
• 47:30
  SPEAKER_06: I can't wait to see you in person.
• 47:32
  SPEAKER_06: Yes, hi there.
• 47:45
  Brett: This is Brett Cullum, and we are looking at the news wrap segment, and I am joined by author R.
• 47:52
  Brett: Lee Ingalls.
• 47:53
  Brett: Thank you.
• 47:54
  Brett: Glad to be here.
• 47:55
  Lee: Yeah, why don't you lead us off?
• 47:56
  Lee: I will.
• 47:57
  Lee: So we looked at the news stories that hit the media last week, and and some of them were more important.
• 48:02
  Lee: One of them that kind of stood out uh is in Colorado and Washington.
• 48:06
  Lee: Voters will decide in November 2026 whether to restrict transgender girls and women from participating in female school sports.
• 48:15
  Lee: The ballot measures are significant because both states have Democratic-led governments that previously rejected similar restrictions.
• 48:22
  Lee: Supporters argue that the proposals are necessary to protect fairness, safety, and athletic opportunity for female athletes.
• 48:30
  Lee: Opponents say the measures discriminate against transgender students and could subject them to invasive eligibility checks.
• 48:38
  Lee: Washington's proposal would require medical verification of biological sex based on specific physical or biological criteria.
• 48:45
  Lee: Critics warned that these requirements could lead to unnecessary medical examinations or testing.
• 48:51
  Lee: According to the Associated Press, these are the first transgender sports restrictions in the United States to be decided directly by the voters rather than the state legislatures.
• 49:03
  Lee: Interesting.
• 49:04
  Brett: Yeah, I'm not so sure.
• 49:06
  Lee: Sad to say that very sad, yes.
• 49:08
  Brett: Uh six former employees of Planned Parenthood Southeast, they have filed a federal lawsuit alleging that the organization retaliated against staff who questioned changes in its priorities.
• 49:19
  Brett: So they basically asked about the organization's objectives.
• 49:23
  Brett: Uh the lawsuit claims that leadership discouraged certain abortion rights advocacy and reduced its focus on transgender health care and LGBTQ plus issues.
• 49:32
  Brett: So plaintiffs allege that employees were told to remove LGBTQ plus issues from a legislative scorecard and stop participating in pride events.
• 49:42
  Brett: So they weren't supposed to go and march.
• 49:45
  Brett: They say that they faced retaliation after raising concerns about these changes.
• 49:49
  Brett: Planned Parenthood Southeast disputes the suggestion that it has abandoned LGBTQ plus patients, maintaining that it continues to support individuals' healthcare decisions.
• 49:59
  Brett: And the allegations have not been established in court, and the lawsuit remains ongoing, so no decision there.
• 50:05
  Brett: The case raises broader questions about how nonprofit healthcare organizations balance their missions, internal management, and political and financial pressures.
• 50:15
  Brett: And certainly, if there is any institution that has had a lot of pressure politically and financially, we planned parenthood.
• 50:20
  Lee: Yeah, and this next one is particularly interesting, and I think it's going to be an ongoing story.
• 50:24
  Lee: Pamplets claiming to provide information for transgender and LGBTQ plus students were mailed to households across Texas under the name of an organization called Texas Transgender Student Union, which has been registered in Wyoming only for a few weeks.
• 50:41
  Lee: The material included content associated with the Transgender Education Network of Texas, or Tent, which denies creating or authorizing them and says that it had faced threats and harassment because of them.
• 50:56
  Lee: On October 22nd, uh Republican district attorney Sarah Stogner announced a criminal investigation into possible forgery, and the following day, Tent filed a court petition seeking to identify those responsible.
• 51:10
  Lee: Outyouth temporarily had to suspend some of their in-person services as a precaution after being named in the unauthorized materials.
• 51:17
  Lee: They were able to continue their telehealth counseling.
• 51:20
  Lee: The controversy raised concerns about political misinformation and the LGBTQ plus organizational safety, particularly as voting begins in Texas.
• 51:30
  Lee: Although identities and political affiliations of those responsible have not been established.
• 51:35
  Lee: And that's why I say I think it's going to be an ongoing story.
• 51:38
  Brett: Well, it's interesting because it's a political move that's going to affect people and they're impersonating, basically a transgender organization.
• 51:46
  Brett: So it's very concerning as far as that goes.
• 51:49
  Brett: But in a better story, a new study from the Trevor Project followed 1,689 LGBTQ plus young people, and they were aged 13 to 24.
• 51:59
  Brett: They followed them for two years and found that they were actually encouraging improvements in several mental health indicators.
• 52:06
  Brett: So self-harm has gone down a little bit, 39% to 34%, and suicide attempts declined from 9% to 7.
• 52:14
  Brett: Although they did find out that anxiety and depression increased during the study period.
• 52:20
  Brett: So the percentage of young people reporting LGBTQ plus affirming home environments rose actually, 53% to 61%.
• 52:28
  Brett: That's a move in the right direction.
• 52:29
  Brett: And researchers also found that family support was associated with 45% lower odds of suicidal ideation or thoughts of that.
• 52:38
  Brett: Overall, the findings highlight the importance of family acceptance, supportive communities, and appropriate care in promoting better mental health outcomes for LGBTQ plus youth.
• 52:47
  Lee: Yeah, yeah, that is good news.
• 52:48
  Lee: And in other good news, the military review boards, composed of service members, have recommended retaining several transgender colleagues despite policies directing their removal, according to reporting published in October 23rd.
• 53:01
  Lee: So the Navy and Marine Corps boards recommended retention of nine out of the 12 cases that they have, and some Army boards have made similar recommendations.
• 53:12
  Lee: The bad news is, however, the boards, particularly the Air Force, have recommended separation.
• 53:17
  Lee: These recommended recommendations may be overturned by higher authorities, but findings highlight how some military personnel are uh weighing their colleagues' qualifications, professional performance, and service when evaluating whether or not they should remain in the military service.
• 53:32
  Lee: So good news there.
• 53:33
  Lee: I'm glad to see that.
• 53:34
  Brett: Yeah.
• 53:35
  Brett: Well, if you do your job and you do your job well, there's no reason that they should separate you from the peers that are around you, support you being there.
• 53:41
  Lee: That's that's all good news.
• 53:42
  Lee: Yeah.
• 53:43
  Brett: Well, Austin Out Youth is rebuilding its little blue bungalow.
• 53:47
  Brett: It was a beloved gathering place for LGBTQ plus young people since 1998.
• 53:53
  Brett: Now it was severely damaged by flooding in that area in 2024.
• 53:58
  Brett: So they had groundbreaking earlier this month on October 6th, and the new facility is going to expand from approximately 1,700 to 4,500 square feet.
• 54:09
  Brett: So a significant upgrade there.
• 54:11
  Brett: Plans include adding counseling staff to the little blue bungalow, expanding youth programming, and providing a permanent home for a significant LGBTQ plus lending library.
• 54:22
  Brett: So place where you can go and get books concerning that.
• 54:25
  Brett: So Out Youth has raised over 2.2 million.
• 54:29
  Brett: Now they want to get up to 3.5 million.
• 54:33
  Brett: That's their fundraising goal.
• 54:34
  Brett: And it sounds like the community is pretty committed to creating a safe, supportive space for future generations.
• 54:40
  Lee: So good for Austin.
• 54:41
  Lee: What a great story that is.
• 54:42
  Lee: And really demonstrates the resilience of our community.
• 54:45
  Lee: We will not be deterred no matter what happens.
• 54:47
  Lee: So good for them.
• 54:48
  Lee: I'm wishing them much success.
• 54:50
  Lee: Okay, so next, Texas.
• 54:52
  Lee: Early voting period for November 3rd, 2026 elections runs through October 30th.
• 54:58
  Lee: So this Friday.
• 54:58
  Lee: Voters are deciding at a range of federal, state, and local races with contests between Republican Kent Paxton and Democrat James Telarico for the U.S.
• 55:07
  Lee: Senate drawing particular attention.
• 55:09
  Lee: As of October 24th, more than four million Texas had passed their early or mail-in ballots, with Harris County leading the state and total ballots reported.
• 55:19
  Brett: Yeah, and it's very important to get out there and definitely vote.
• 55:22
  Brett: Yep.
• 55:23
  Brett: I would say if you need a card, the the caucus actually does have it on their website, but it's pretty easy.
• 55:30
  Brett: I had an easy time navigating it because this is uh midterms.
• 55:32
  Brett: It's just basically Republicans versus Democrats.
• 55:35
  Brett: So it's it's pretty easy to figure out who is on the better side of that equation.
• 55:40
  Brett: So definitely take a look at that and get out there and vote.
• 55:44
  Brett: You've got until this Friday.
• 55:46
  Brett: And then after that, November 3rd is the official one.
• 55:49
  Brett: And I will be so glad all of this is over and we can stop looking at political ads.
• 55:53
  Brett: What yes, that is a story in itself.
• 55:55
  Brett: Yes.
• 55:55
  Brett: And actually, if you want to hear a story about political ads, we are actually Lee Ingalls and I do a podcast called Prairie Rainbow Review, and we are going to dive into that, into the world of that.
• 56:06
  Brett: Exactly.
• 56:06
  Brett: We're working on the segment now.
• 56:08
  Brett: So thank you for listening to Queer Voices.
• 56:10
  Brett: Our executive producers are Brian Lavinka and Deborah Moncrief Belt.
• 56:15
  Brett: Our Lee Ingalls is a contributor, and you just heard him.
• 56:18
  Brett: So, and also this week featured a segment from contributor Matt Williams.
• 56:23
  Brett: I am Brett Cullum, and I produced and hosted this week's episode.
• 56:27
  Brett: I am also the audio engineer for this program.
• 56:30
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• 56:36
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• 56:39
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• 56:41
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• 56:44
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• 56:49
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• 56:55
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• 57:00
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• 57:05
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• 57:11
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• 57:12
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• 57:14
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• 57:26
  SPEAKER_02: This has been Queer Voices, heard on KPFT Houston and as a podcast available from several podcasting sources.
• 57:36
  SPEAKER_02: Check our webpage queervoices.org for more information.