A school district bans books about gender identity and puts rules in place that endanger the safety of LGBTQ young people. A lesbian saves her girlfriend’s homophobic grandmother’s life at Christmas dinner. Candace Parker is still winning in 2022. This time it was the AP female athlete of the year award for the second time.

00:00 – Welcome & Intro

00:31 – The Qube Ad

00:54 – Intro Music

01:35 – A school district bans books about gender identity and puts rules in place that endanger the safety of LGBTQ young people

03:58 – A lesbian saves her girlfriend’s homophobic grandmother’s life at Christmas dinner

06:00- Candace Parker is still winning in 2022. This time it was the AP female athlete of the year award

06:51 – Anna’s Got a Word

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An intersectional approach to a daily news podcast where race & sexuality meet politics, entertainment and culture. Tune-in to reporting which centers & celebrates all of our lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer & comrade communities. Hosted by Anna DeShawn. 7 minutes a day, 5 days a week, ready by 9 a.m.

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About this Episode

Family, this is your favorite Queer radio personality Anna DeShawn here with our Queer news from today.

A school district bans books about gender identity and puts rules in place that endanger the safety of LGBTQ young people. A lesbian saves her girlfriend’s homophobic grandmother’s life at Christmas dinner. Candace Parker is still winning in 2022. This time it was the AP female athlete of the year award.

Our leading story today is coming out of the Pennridge School District in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Get this family. They have announced it will remove all books on gender identity from its elementary school libraries. They sent out an email to elementary school principals and librarians instructing them to remove all “content regarding gender identity.” Now this email goes on to say that they are doing this to protect the children and they are moving the books into the offices of school counselors and administrators. They are doing this so if a student wants a book they actually have to get approval from their parent or guardian. Now we know how incredibly dangerous that can be for a young person in the closet or living in a homophobic home. The email goes on to say, “Developmentally, these topics should always involve conversations between the student and trusted adults, both at home and at school.”… “Creating this resource library will ensure that our students are fully supported.” Well that would be nice if it was true for the LGBTQ students in their care. The books were just the tip of the iceberg for this district. They also issued new rules for the students in elementary, middle and high school. The rules state that students are not permitted to change their names or pronouns without express permission from their parents.

Teachers have been instructed to ignore requests from students to call them by new names or pronouns until their parents have approved it. The rules also say that mental health resources may not be shared with students unless parents are involved. Ya’ll this is just outrageous and happening more & more across the country. The legal director for ACLU Pennsylvania, shared that the district’s policies not only “raise very serious concerns about professional confidentiality requirements,” but also that they are bound to alienate LGBTQ students who don’t feel safe turning to their parents. Big Facts. Family, the more I report on these stories the more I want to do more than just report on them. Do we flood this school district with letters? Do we reach out to ACLU Pennsylvania and see how we can help? I’d love to hear your thoughts. Drop me a DM on Instagram or TikTok or the website. I’d love to hear if you’d take some action with me. 

Our next story is coming from TikTok and it’s pretty mind blowing. Lesbian couple Lizzie (ie) & Lizzy (y) were visiting Lizzie (ie) family for Christmas. The family affectionately calls Lizzy with a y “Two” to minimize confusion and we are going to do the same for this story. This isn’t the first Christmas that “Two” spent with Lizzie’s family. They are very supportive and really like her a lot. Now this year was a little different because grandma Dana joined them for dinner. COVID restrictions have lifted a bit and grandma was well enough to join. Well grandma Dana isn’t known to be very supportive and asked “Two” if she was the boy in the relationship. Le sigh. Well “Two” ended up sitting next to grandma at dinner and ya’ll won’t believe what happened next. Grandma Dana started choking on a piece of steak. Lizzie’s brother tried the heimlich but it didn’t work. He didn’t really know what he was doing. Well “Two” stepped in because she’s CPR certified. She started with the heimlich but the food didn’t come up. Grandma ended up passing out in her arms and started turning blue. Everyone is panicking, lots of crying, and emotions are incredibly high. Well “Two” lays grandma down and begins CPR. Pressing so hard on her ribs that she actually ends up breaking them. She’s going in, breathing for grandma and doing compressions. After a few minutes she feels grandma’s lungs respond back to her & the piece of steak appears in her mouth. They pull it out and grandma comes back. Amazing! On TikTok “Two” describes the entire experience and said she felt like she won the superbowl. I’d say that feat was far more life changing than winning the superbowl. She literally saved homophobic grandma’s life and she’s advocating everyone to get that CPR training. You just never know when you’re going to need it. 

In sports news, we gotta show Candace Parker some more love today. She was named the AP Female of the year for a second time. She is the only woman in the award’s history to have won while competing in the WNBA and the third female basketball player to have ever received it. The great Sheryl Swoopes won in ‘93 and Rebecca Lobo won in ‘95. Parker’s amazing year is rolling into 2022 and she deserves all of it. Leading the Chicago Sky to their first championship after being criticized that she was to old and her career was coming to an end. Coming out publicly just a couple of weeks ago while also announcing that her & her wife are expecting a baby. Now this. We all need some Candace Parker magic in our 2022. 

Ya’ll know we always end with a word of the day. Well the word today is coming courtesy of the Billy Porter. He dropped his new single “Children” a couple of weeks ago. My favorite line says, “See I know times are hard (you’ll get through it, baby) I mean it from the heart. You’re not losing the fight. Love will make it alright ’cause I’ve. Been there, done that, worn that dress. So you know mama knows it best.” If you haven’t seen the video go ahead and make that happen for yourself but at the end he dropped a word and we’re going to close with it. Take a listen, okay. Till tomorrow family, peace.

“Show you how to know the children. Show you how to grow, show you how to let the children know what time it is. Okay, this is about empowerment. This is about all of us coming together and empowering anybody that’s under the sound of my voice. Talking about. This is about empowerment each and every single one of you. Okay, that’s the energy I want. In this moment. We’re doing this together. I’m teaching you and then we’re teaching. Okay, we’re all okay. So it’s about hope. You know, it’s helpful. Yeah. And I know there’s not a lot to be hopeful. So we’re counting in that apartment. Okay. That’s what this is about. All right.” 

Sources

LGBTQ Nation

School district bans books on gender identity and students’ chosen pronouns

https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2021/12/school-district-bans-books-gender-identity-students-chosen-pronouns/

Heroic woman saves life of girlfriend’s homophobic grandmother during Christmas dinner

https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2022/01/woman-saves-girlfriends-homophobic-grandmother-dying-christmas-dinner/

them.

Candace Parker Just Won a Top Women’s Sports Award — Again

https://www.them.us/story/candace-parker-female-athlete-of-the-year-award

YouTube

Billy Porter – Children (Official Video)

A school district puts dangerous homophobic policies in place, a lesbian couple visits for Christmas dinner and saves homophobic grandmother’s life, & Candace Parker wins AP female athlete of the year – Monday, January 3, 2022