Irene Chavez was found dead in Chicago police custody & now her family is suing the city of Chicago, Ariana DeBose makes history at the SAG awards & we salute Shirley Chisholm during our Women’s Herstory Month spotlight – Tuesday, March 1, 2022

The family of Irene Chavez sues the city of Chicago and Chicago police for her death. Ariana DeBose becomes the first Latina & queer woman of color to win a film award from SAG. We kick off Women’s Herstory Month honoring one of favorite people in herstory, Shirley Chisholm. 

00:00 – Welcome & Intro

00:31 – The Qube Ad

01:09 – Intro Music

01:49 – The family of Irene Chavez sues the city of Chicago and Chicago police for her death

05:30 – Ariana DeBose becomes the first Latina & queer woman of color to win a film award from SAG

06:14 – We salute Shirley Chisholm for Women’s Herstory Month

08:14 – Anna’s Got A Word

Things for you to check out 

Irene Chavez’s sister sues city, police officers over in-custody death

https://chicago.suntimes.com/news/2022/2/22/22946230/irene-chavez-death-police-custody-lawsuit-chicago-officers-cpd

First Latina SAG film actress winner Ariana DeBose: ‘Doors are opening’

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/first-latina-sag-film-actress-winner-ariana-debose-doors-are-opening-rcna17930

Shirley Chisholm

https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/shirley-chisholm

https://www.biography.com/political-figure/shirley-chisholm

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Transcript

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

The family of Irene Chavez sues the city of Chicago and Chicago police for her death. Ariana DeBose becomes the first Latina & queer woman of color to win a film award from SAG. We kick off Women’s Herstory Month honoring one of favorite people in herstory, Shirley Chisholm. 

Our leading story for today is an update on the Irene Chavez story I shared with you back in late December. I do want to preface before going any further that her death might be triggering so take a moment and decide if you’d like to continue listening. Our show notes include timecode so you can choose to move past this one. I’ll give you a second. Okay, Irene Chavez, 33, was found hanging in the 3rd district police station in Chicago on December 18th. This is after being arrested for a misdemeanor offense at the Jeffery Pub. An iconic LGBT bar located on the Southside of Chicago. Irene was a Black Latinx queer woman, military veteran, basketball player, Packers fan, dog lover, and activist who loved Christmas and had dreams of creating urban gardens and urban farms for Black and Brown communities. Well now her family is suing the city of chicago and police. 

Last week the Chavez family attornies filed a 55-page lawsuit in federal court & held a press to share the details. The lawsuit names the city of Chicago and several Chicago police officers and alleges that officers failed to recognize that Chavez was experiencing a mental health crisis and did not properly monitor her while she was in a police holding cell. When she was picked up at the Jeffery Pub her friend pleaded with police officers to take her to a hospital instead of jail as Chavez cried out that she was a veteran with PTSD. Instead, the officers were seen on body camera footage laughing, cussing at her and singing along to “You Are My Sunshine” with her as they took her to the Grand Crossing police district station for a misdemeanor battery charge. About an hour later, they found Chavez unconscious in the lockup with her shirt tied around her neck. Her attorney Sheila Bedi said, “Police violence is often thought of as a gun or a punch, but Irene died from police violence…It’s an act of violence to arrest someone who is clearly no threat to public safety and who is begging for mental health services. It is an act of violence to house someone in crisis alone in a jail cell that practically invites self-harm.”

The lawsuit alleges that “Once alone in the cell, Irene repeatedly cried out for help—reasserting that she was a veteran who lived with PTSD and needed to see her therapist…Multiple CPD Officers heard Irene’s cries for at least 45 minutes and each one ignored her. After Irene was quiet for a few minutes, an officer climbed on a desk to peer over the paper obscuring the window to the holding cell. The CPD officer then saw Irene slumped over with one end of her shirt tied around her neck and the other secured to the metal bar. Medical professionals removed an unconscious Irene from that cell, and she was later pronounced dead at the hospital.”

Family, this story breaks my heart for so many reasons. All of our mental health is incredibly fragile right now so imagine compounding that with PTSD after serving your country. A night out at the local gay bar where you get drunk & get kicked ouyt shouldn’t lead to death. It just shouldn’t. The cops had options and they chose not to use them. Just heartbreaking. If you want to read the full article I’ve put a link in the show notes.   

Our next story is one that will lift our spirits. Ariana DeBose made SAG award history. After winning SAG’s best supporting actress award for her performance as Anita in Steven Spielberg’s “West Side Story,” DeBose is now the first Latina to win a film award from the guild, along with being the first queer woman of color to be recognized for acting. How dope is that! Ariana said, “It’s indicative that I will not be the last. That’s the important part. Whatever firsts are attached to my name, they’re important to me, but I’m focused on the fact that if I’m the first of anything it means I will not be the last.” That’s it right there. Congratulations Ariana! 

Now it is the start of women’s herstory month & I’ve been thinking about what I should do. I really enjoyed sharing Black+Queer history makers during Black History Month so why not keep it going with women’s herstory month. So I will be sharing some of my favorite women who have made profound impacts on the world around them. Telling these stories & learning about these icons brings me a lot of joy and I hope they bring you joy too. 

So with that the first woman I’d like to salute is Shirley Chisholm. 

Chisholm began her career as a teacher and went on to earn a master’s degree in elementary education from Columbia University. She got involved in the political scene in Brooklyn, NY advocating for more women’s voices to be heard. The inequities and discrimination she experienced fueled her to run for office. In 1968, she became the first African American congresswoman representing New York State in the U.S. House of Representatives for seven terms. In 1969, she became one of the founding members of the Congressional Black Caucus. She went on to run for the 1972 Democratic nomination for the presidency- becoming the first major-party African-American candidate to do so. Shirley survived three assassination attempts on her life during her campaign for president. Not to mention she was blocked from participating in televised primary debates, and after taking legal action, was permitted to make just one speech. Still, students, women, and minorities followed the “Chisholm Trail.” She entered 12 primaries and garnered 152 of the delegates’ votes (10% of the total)—despite an under-financed campaign and contentiousness from the predominantly male Congressional Black Caucus. Shirley Chisholm was a force and her legacy still vibrates today. Shirley Chisholm we see you & we salute you. 

Now it only makes sense to end the podcast today with one of my favorite Shirley Chisholm quotes of all time. It says, “If they don’t give you a seat at the table, bring a folding chair.” That’s exactly what she did too and did it unapologetically. Today family, I challenge you to either pull up your folding chair or build your own table. The opportunity is yours, feel me. Till tomorrow, family. Peace.

Sources

‘There was no care there.’ Family files lawsuit against city and police officers after woman’s apparent suicide in lockup.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/criminal-justice/ct-lawsuit-chicago-police-detainee-custody-suicide-20220222-hatwnpqy3bdgdidjrl27qnegui-story.html?fbclid=IwAR2ot8dzMUhkDjtTxIBLk97ilbJOz7RxnL9cQ2aTvPFn6Neg0vK9z8m_GtU&emci=3ee1c057-db98-ec11-a507-281878b83d8a&emdi=cdedc81d-e098-ec11-a507-281878b83d8a&ceid=2299041

Irene Chavez’s sister sues city, police officers over in-custody death

https://chicago.suntimes.com/news/2022/2/22/22946230/irene-chavez-death-police-custody-lawsuit-chicago-officers-cpd

First Latina SAG film actress winner Ariana DeBose: ‘Doors are opening’

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/first-latina-sag-film-actress-winner-ariana-debose-doors-are-opening-rcna17930

Shirley Chisholm

https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/shirley-chisholm

Shirley Chisholm

https://www.biography.com/political-figure/shirley-chisholm