Isa Dessaline, a Black trans woman, went missing last Tuesday. Her friends started a campaign and now she’s been found. 65 companies signed an open letter published in the Dallas Morning News newspaper calling on Texas politicians to stop discriminating aginst our trans fam. Jussie Smollett’s brother goes on Instagram and tells us that Jussie has been placed in the psych ward at Cook County & we salute Moms Mabley for our Women’s Herstory Spotlight.

00:00 – Welcome & Intro

00:40 – The Qube Ad, The one and only app curating the best of BIPOC & QTPOC podcasts & music. Be the first to know when the app drops. Sign up for the newsletter at https://theqube.app

01:18 – Intro Music by Aina Bre’Yon

01:58 – Isa Dessaline, a Black trans woman, went missing last Tuesday. Her friends started a campaign and now she’s been found

03:25 – 65 companies signed an open letter published in the Dallas Morning News newspaper calling on Texas politicians to stop discriminating aginst our trans fam

05:31 – Jussie Smollett’s brother goes on Instagram and tells us that Jussie has been placed in the psych ward at Cook County

06:51 – We salute Moms Mabley for Women’s Herstory Month

8:46 – Anna’s Got A Word

Things for you to check out 

Full Letter from 65 companies expressing support for transgender young people and their families 

https://hrc-prod-requests.s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/assets/DallasMorningNews_ad_030922final2-1.pdf

E3 Radio coverage of the Jussie Smollett case

https://e3radio.fm/tag/jussie-smollett/

Jackie Moms Mabley – Nominee

https://legacyprojectchicago.org/person/jackie-moms-mabley

Listen to More Queer News

Transcript

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

Isa Dessaline, a Black trans woman, went missing last Tuesday. Her friends started a campaign and now she’s been found. 65 companies signed an open letter published in the Dallas Morning News newspaper calling on Texas politicians to stop discriminating against our trans fam. Jussie Smollett’s brother goes on Instagram and tells us that Jussie has been placed in the psych ward at Cook County & we salute Moms Mabley for our Women’s Herstory Spotlight. 

Our leading story for today is coming out of San Francisco where Isa Dessalines, a Black transgender woman, was abducted but has been found. She was on the phone with a friend last Tuesday while on Fisherman’s Wharf when her friend started suddenly hearing her struggle with a man. Her friend could hear the man’s voice and heard him tell her to “shut up”, she heard a car door slam shut, and the sound of someone choking right before the call got disconnected. How terrifying is that. One of Isa’s friends, going only by Liza, said she had recently reported having a stalker. Her friends launched a social media campaign #FindIsa to increase awareness about her disappearance and just a few days ago they reported her found. How amazing is that! All too often this is not how the story ends. Her friend posted on Twitter and said, “we found isa! She’s currently with me rn, i know there are many questions and things that ppl want answers to. But, rn she is recovering from a really traumatizing event so make sure not to overwhelm her in this moment. Thank you all for sharing and staying updated. #findisa” I’m sending so much love to Isa’s tribe for amplifying and taking it upon themselves to find their sister. 

I also want to send love out to the sixty-five companies in partnership with HRC that signed on to an open letter directed at the governor of Texas, governor Abbott, & their anti-trans & anti-lgbtq rhetoric, policies and legislation. The companies include Apple, Capital One, Google, Ikea, Meta, LinkedIn, Yelp, Microsoft, Patreon & Yahoo to name a few. The open letter ran in the Dallas Morning News newspaper with a headline that read “Discrimination is bad for business”. We’ve talked about Texas a lot in recent weeks as its attorney general and governor have unleashed the transphobic bigots across the state to report families who have transgender children & health care professionals providing gender-affirming care. For they have deemed gender affirming care as child abuse. It’s gone so far that the largest children’s hospital in the country, Texas Children’s Hospital, released a statement that they are no longer providing gender-affirming care due to the threat of prosecution. It’s just disgusting and families are living in real fear. A portion of the letter says, “The recent attempt to criminalize a parent for helping their transgender child access medically necessary, age-appropriate healthcare in the state of Texas goes against the values of our companies… This policy creates fear for employees and their families, especially those with transgender children, who might now be faced with choosing to provide the best possible medical care for their children but risk having those children removed by child protective services for doing so… we call on our public leaders — in Texas and across the country — to abandon efforts to write discrimination into law and policy. It’s not just wrong, it has an impact on our employees, our customers, their families, and our work.” Family, this letter took up a full page and is a wonderful way to publicly express their support. If you want to read the letter in full a link is in the show notes. 

Also I know the Jussie Smollett verdict came down last week. I’ve reported on the story in the past & I’ve linked to those episodes in the show notes if you’d like some more back story and a run down of the facts. Well he got 150 days in Cook County jail, 30 months probation, restitution of $120,000, and a fine of $25,000. Yesterday, Jussie’s brother posted on Jussie’s Instagram page to let folks know that he has been placed in the psych ward at Cook County jail. He went on to say that “What’s very concerning is that there was a note attached to his paperwork today and put on the front of his jail cell saying that he’s at risk of self-harm… I want to just make it clear to folks that he is in no way, shape, or form at risk of self-harm. And he wants to let folks know that he is very stable, he is very strong, he is very healthy, and ready to take on the challenge that ultimately has been put up against him.” I will say this that no matter if you think he did it or not this sentencing is absolutely ridiculous. This sentencing is awful and fueled by ego and the need to make an example out of someone. My problem is this is someone’s life and the law should not be used like this. 

Now it is women’s herstory month & I will be sharing some of my favorite women who have made profound impacts on the world around them. The inequities women still face today are awful from the wage gap to attaining leadership positions to #MeToo. The journey has been long since the suffrage movement and there is still such a long way to go. So, telling these stories & learning more about these icons brings me so much joy. So with that we salute Moms Mabley. 

As reported by the Legacy Project, Moms Mabley was born in 1894 as one of 16 children in North Carolina. After surviving an incredibly hard childhood her grandmother encouraged her to leave home at 15 as her mother was pressuring her to marry an older gentleman. So she ran north to Cleveland and began performing. She worked the Chitlin Circuit and was known for her raunchy style. She lived her entire adult life as a lesbian, Moms “dirty old lady” routine – always on the prowl for a young man – was a sensation. She played at The Savoy and The Cotton Club, and she appeared at the Apollo Theater more than any other performer in history, earning $10,000 a week; eventually she even played Carnegie Hall in 1962. Billed as “The Funniest Woman in the World” she tackled topics too edgy for many other comics of the era, such as racism, poverty, and sexism. In a career that spanned over six decades, Moms appeared in several films, recorded over 20 comedy albums, and eventually gained a new audience in variety shows in the 1960s/1970s, including ‘The Smothers Brothers,’ ‘Laugh In,’ ‘Flip Wilson’ and ‘The Ed Sullivan Show.’ In the final year of her life she had her first starring role in a motion picture, ‘Amazing Grace.’ She is considered the first successful female stand-up comic. Moms Mabley we see you and we salute you. 

We always end with a word of the day and today I want to say thank you to you. You listening right now. We hit a milestone last week when the Bring Brittney Home special edition episode hit 350 listens in one day. I currently average 100 listens a day family. My post was shared over 200 times. I’m so grateful that all of us can continue amplifying this story and I will not stop. It’s now being reported that she was detained on February 17th which means it’s been 25 days. The word for today is Bring Brittney home. Till tomorrow, family. Peace.  

Sources

Friends Launch Campaign to Find Transgender Woman After Hearing Her Struggle with Abductor on Phone Call

https://people.com/crime/friends-launch-campaign-to-find-transgender-woman-after-hearing-her-struggle-with-abductor-on-phone-call/

Sixty-five businesses sign ad in newspaper calling on Texas governor to abandon anti-LGBTQ+ initiatives

https://www.cnn.com/2022/03/13/business/businesses-sign-newspaper-ad-texas/index.html

Full Letter from 65 companies expressing support for transgender young people and their families 

https://hrc-prod-requests.s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/assets/DallasMorningNews_ad_030922final2-1.pdf

E3 Radio coverage of the Jussie Smollett case

https://e3radio.fm/tag/jussie-smollett/

Kim Foxx calls Jussie Smollett prosecution failure of justice system

https://nypost.com/2022/03/11/kim-foxx-calls-jussie-smollett-prosecution-failure-of-justice-system/

Jackie Moms Mabley – Nominee

https://legacyprojectchicago.org/person/jackie-moms-mabley

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