Welcome to our summer interview series. This week Anna DeShawn has a powerful conversation with Nadine Smith the executive director of Equality Florida. She is a LGBTQ legend who is leading the fight on the frontlines against Ron DeSantis and his facist policies. You may not know Nadine right now but by the time you hear this interview you’ll want to donate  your treasure ot the work Equality Florida is doing every day.

00:00 – Welcome to the Queer News podcast 

00:29 – Join the 40 at 40 campaign 🥳

2:00 – The Qube is on tour. Get your tickets, https://events.eventnoire.com/e/qube-tour-2023 

3:08 – Intro Nadine Smith 

4:40 – Subscribe to The Head Nod, https://pod.link/1699870161 

7:34 – Subscribe to Rebound Revolution, https://pod.link/reboundrev 

8:11 – Buy an Ad on the Queer News podcast, https://bit.ly/3ohYXAw 

8:39 – Intro Music by Aina Bre’Yon

9:15 – Interview with Nadine Smith

16:57 – You don’t get a pass, you don’t get to opt out 

24:34 – Parenting with Pride 

44:19 – Anna’s Got a Word

46:52 – Outro

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Follow Ken on Twitter: @KMBFORDUPAGE

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More on the Summer Interview Series

The Queer News team is changing it up for the next couple of months so we have a little more time to enjoy the summer, our families, and rest. We hope you enjoy these conversations with some really wonderful queer folks doing good in the world. Those are the stories we want to amplify here on Queer News. 

During the interview series we won’t leave queer news stories on the sidelines either. Anna will provide brief commentary about the top one or two queer news stories happening that we should be following. Not full stories but know we are still closely following the queer news feeds. You can always follow Anna on social media to stay up to date. 

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Things for you to check out

Join the QCrew

Watch the Authentic Selves Interview

Watch the Samiya Bashir Interview

Watch the Wyn Starks Interview

Watch the Brandon Wolf Interview

The Qube Tour! Get your Tickets! 

Watch the Replay: UNAPOLOGETIC: Being Black and Queer in Podcasting

Listen & Subscribe to Rebound Revolution

Watch the full interview

Tre’vell Anderson talks Black Trans Life in TV & Film with Anna DeShawn

Order Tre’vell’s Book Today!

Queer News Pride Specials – Get You An Ad Today

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Listen to Black HIV in the South: How Did We Get Here?

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Listen to More Queer News

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The Blog Post by Chat GPT

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Transcript

Family, it’s your favorite queer radio personality Anna DeShawn and this is the Queer News summer interview series. Y’all already know I’ve been changing it up for the summer to take a little break from the research and script writing. 

So last week I told you all about my 40 at 40 campaign to celebrate my upcoming 40th birthday. That’s right I’m turning 40 on August 30th and it’s a big milestone. It’s a moment. To celebrate this moment I’ve set a goal to bring on 40 new monthly subscribers to the pod. This past week I welcomed 15 new members to the QCrew. Can you believe that? In a week! Let’s welcome Tresalyn, Krystal, Elsie, Kelly, Amy, Kyla, Yhane, Nikki, Donte, Shirley, Angela, Maia, Tiffany, Dominic, Vernice. Thank you all! 

The recurring monthly support of the The QCrew helps to support the Queer News podcast by supplementing the costs; podcast hosting, editing, marketing, travel, etc. If you believe in the work we do. If you believe LGBTQ stories need to be amplified. If you love and respect how I report on the news and tell our stories help me not only reach this goal but exceed it. I mean I only turn 40 once. A link to join the QCrew is in the show notes. 

Family, we are still on tour! Do you live in Denver? Do you live in Minneapolis? Meet us outside! For Denver, our activation is taking place August 25th in collab with the BIPOC Podcast Association. For Minneapolis, our activation is taking place September 9th in collab with Matriarch Digital Media. The Qube’s immersive listening experience has been making its way across the country and the people have really been loving it. We listen to the Qube’s podcast trailers and then talk about our experiences with that topic. It’s been such an enriching experience. Get your ticket today. You already know a link is in the show notes. 

Now I typically have a few top queer news stories for you but I just ran out of time. The wife & I had to make a quick road trip weekend to take our nephew-son to college in Mississippi. For those that don’t know, that’s 11 hours both ways, okay. I just didn’t have the time to pull it all together but I did have the time to rough cut edit this week’s interview and pass it along to our super editor Xperience J to make this episode sound amazing per usual. 

And about this week’s interview. It is so good because Nadine Smith is so good. She is a LGBTQ legend and I won’t read her bio here because I do it during the interview but just know she is the Executive Director of Equality Florida who is leading the fight against Ron DeSantis. She is leading the team who wakes up every morning to fight for our humanity. You may not know Nadine right now but by the time the interview is over you should be ready to give whatever treasure you have to Equality Florida and their work. 

So stay close because after this quick break we’ll be back with this powerful conversation. 

I hope y’all enjoyed that conversation. 

Now, let us close out with a word. Walk by faith is my word for the week. I have a hat that has this embroidered on it and I’ve been wearing it all week. Because this life journey I’m taking is all about faith. Everytime I wake up I’m trusting that God’s already made a way. This way of life can be really unsettling for most. Sometimes its unsettling to me too. But when you try God. When you try stepping out on faith and you learn that the divine has been carrying you the whole time. That your ancestors already prayed you through this moment. That your own actions have created a moment where in the end you are okay. You build your faith muscle up till it starts looking like a body builders bicep, okay. Thats what I desire and I’m getting there. So, till week, peace!

You don’t get a pass, you don’t get to opt out of this fight says Nadine Smith, Executive Director of Equality Florida- Monday, August 21, 2023