Brittney Griner’s defense team begins presenting its case, Martasia Richmond a Black trans woman was killed by her boyfriend & Khiara Bridges gets all her flowers from us – Monday, July 18, 2022

BG has been wrongfully detained for 151 days and she was back in court Friday. All the details will lead our Monday morning stories. We are BG. A Black trans woman was killed here in Chicago & we give all the flowers to UC Berkeley law professor Khiara Bridges for serving Senator Hawley. Let’s go.

00:00 Welcome & Intro

01:22 BG Update (#WEAREBG)

01:37 Today’s Top Stories

01:53 Intro Music by Aina Bre’Yon

02:33 Extended BG Update

03:57 Martasia Richmond

05:23 Khiara Bridges

07:29 Monday Motivation

Things for you to check out 

Law Professor Slams Sen. Hawley On ‘Transphobic’ Questioning During Senate Hearing

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Take the National LGBTQ+ Women*s Survey today

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Sign the Petition – Secure Brittney Griner’s Swift and Safe Return to the U​.​S.

https://www.change.org/p/secure-brittney-griner-s-swift-and-safe-return-to-the-u-s

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Transcript

Family, its your favorite queer radio personality Anna DeShawn with our queer news for today. Now, I want to make you a promise. We will continue to bring you the latest in queer news, culture and politics: 7 minutes a day, 5 days a week. So, if you are digging our intersectional take on the daily, consider joining the QCrew.

The QCrew is our monthly membership program we started to help us grow the podcast. With your help we can bring you more stories celebrating our lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer & comrade communities. This month we have our first QCrew exclusive interview with Felicia D. Henderson. She’s a Black woman television producer, writer, and showrunner in Hollywood who’s latest project First Kill is currently on Netflix and doing really well. If you want to watch it you have to join the QCrew. Now you’ve shown us your support by tuning into this episode. You can show your curiosity by clicking the link in the show notes to learn more about the QCrew.

For our BG update, she has been wrongfully detained for 151 days and she was back in court Friday. All the details will lead our Monday morning stories. We are BG. A Black trans woman was killed here in Chicago & we give all the flowers to UC Berkeley law professor Khiara Bridges. Let’s go. 

Our leading story for today is an update on the Brittney Griner trial. Now if you heard my previous update she was in court last Thursday. Thursday’s proceedings included witness testimony speaking to Brittney’s character; her Russian basketball club director, the team’s head physician and her teammate/captain all spoke to what Brittney means to their team. They all spoke positively about her impact personally & professionally. On Friday her lawyers presented evidence that Brittney has a medical marijana clearance from her attending physician due to a chronic injury. This permission was issued on behalf of the Arizona Department of Health. Her defense went on to submit tests from anti-doping checks which didn’t detect any prohibited substances in her system. She will be back in court on July 26th and her defense team believes the trial will be over by the beginning of August. For additional context, it has also come to light that Moscow has been sending pretty stern messages to the U.S. They have sent two warnings in the last couple of weeks from senior Russian officials that international pressure in the case would not help Griner’s cause. So they are hearing us. We are having an impact. We will of course continue to keep you updated as more news arises. 

Our next story for today is a sad one out of Chicago. Last week, Martasia Richmond, a Black trans woman was killed after a domestic dispute which resulted in her having multiple stab wounds in the West Englewood neighborhood. What’s so sad is that after going through her FaceBook page the man being accused of murdering her was there too. Him with her in pictures where the caption reads with heart emojis. Daniel Burley is in police custody and is facing one felony count of first-degree murder. According to Pgh Lesbian Corresponsdents, Martaisa is estimated to be the 20th trans person killed this year, the 13th Black trans person and the 16th woman of color. So it’s quite clear who is being most affected most by this violence and it’s Black trans folks and folks of color. The last few trans women who were killed are victims of domestic violence. DV is still alive and well in people’s relationships and it’s scary because you never know when their anger will go somewhere they can never take back. 

Now have ya’ll seen the viral video of UC Berkeley law professor Khiara Bridges giving it to Senator Josh Hawley during her senate testimony? She used the wording “people with the capacity for pregnancy” and the senator claimed to be confused and asked her “Would that be women?”. Well I loved her response because she smirked a little, smiled and replied, “Many women, cis women, have the capacity for pregnancy, many cis women do not have the capacity for pregnancy. There are also trans men who are capable of pregnancy as well as non-binary people who are capable of pregnancy.” Then he replied, “So this isn’t really a women’s rights issue?” And she said, “We can recognize that this issue impacts women while also recognizing that it also impacts other groups. Those things aren’t mutually exclusive.” Then they had more banter and Khiara told the senator that his line of questioning is, “transphobic and it opens trans people up to violence.” Ohhhhhh. She said that outloud, on the record and to his face. I love watching it and I wish more people had the courage. People don’t like being called a racist or homophobic or transphobic. They think those terms don’t apply to them, but they do more often than not. I’m grateful Khiara was chosen for that moment. So we are giving her all the flowers today. All of them cause she read him for the transphobe he is. Period. If you haven’t seen the video I’ve included a link in the show notes. Enjoy. 

Now, let us close out with some Monday Motivation. This quote comes from Michael Ely and he says, “Hey, I know it’s Monday. But it’s also a new day and a new week. And in that lies a new opportunity for something special to happen.” Make some magic happen this week family. Till tomorrow, peace. 

Sources 

WNBA star Brittney Griner back in Russian court as trial resumes

https://www.espn.com/wnba/story/_/id/34246519/wnba-star-brittney-griner-back-russian-court-trial-resumes

Reports: Chicago trans woman murdered in West Englewood neighborhood

https://www.windycitytimes.com/lgbt/Reports-Chicago-trans-woman-murdered-in-West-Englewood-neighborhood/73553.html

Black Trans Woman Martasia Richmond Murdered in Chicago

https://www.pghlesbian.com/2022/07/black-trans-woman-martasia-richmond-murdered-in-chicago/

Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley Called ‘Transphobic’ by Law Professor in Heated Senate Hearing

https://people.com/politics/missouri-sen-josh-hawley-called-transphobic-by-law-professor-in-heated-senate-hearing/