History is made in the Dime Doe case, LGBTQ veterans get a win, and Raven-Symoné is back on television – October 21, 2024

[00:00:00] There’s no place like the Qube.

Family, it’s your favorite queer radio personality, Anna Deshawn, and this is Queer News, your favorite weekly news pod where race and sexuality meet politics, culture, and entertainment. We’re sharing queer history with you this month. And it just so happens to also be Hispanic Heritage Month and we wanted to honor that as well.

So Amanda, who are we talking about today? We’re going to talk about the first openly transgender soldier in Mexican military history. He was a colonel who fought under Zapata and his name was Emilio Robles. Do you know Emilio [00:01:00] Robles? I didn’t either till Amanda told me all about him. Now we out here sharing his story.

This special LGBTQ History Month episode will drop on the E3 Radio YouTube channel this Friday. I’m also going to drop it on the feed, but the video, Amanda did a great job. Okay. So make sure you go subscribe to our YouTube channel. Turn on the notifications so you don’t miss this video. Also family, don’t forget the Queer News tip line is open.

A link is in the show notes. Okay. And Q Crew, what’s going on? Thank you so much for helping to financially sustain this podcast. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. The Q Crew helps me. with podcasts, hosting, editing, marketing, PR, travel, all the things. So 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 [00:02:00] stories, I would love if you decided to join the Q crew.

A link is where? You already know. It’s in the show notes.

Now for the news. Dime Doe, a black trans woman who was murdered in 2019. Her case has made history. And I will tell you why. In politics, Hung Cow, Senate candidate out of Virginia, spits transphobic hate during a recent debate and more LGBTQ vets get justice after being dismissed under Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.

In culture and entertainment, a queer bar gets rescued after Hurricane Helene. Four queers received the MacArthur Genius Grant. And Raven Symoné is back on television. Let’s go. Our top story today is a follow up to a story I reported on back in February of 2013. [00:03:00] Yeah, so this is from my OG. It was episode February 6th, 2023.

In that report, a unanimous jury had found that DeQua Ritter, guilty of murdering Pebbles LaDime Dime Doe. And so she went by Dime. All right. And she was a black trans woman. And in 2019 in South Carolina, Daquah murdered her. She was only 24 years old. The story goes that about a month. Just before he killed Dime, his girlfriend found out that he was cheating on her with Dime.

When the girlfriend found out, she called him a derogatory slur, which infuriated him. Then word started to get around to his friends and that made him even more upset. And so he turned around, lured Dime to a remote spot near a family member’s house, and then shot her three times. Yeah, family. It’s reported that he said no one has to worry about Dime anymore.[00:04:00]

Does that make you just as disgusted as it makes me? Because that’s just pretty disgusting. You know what I’m saying? Since that time, Daquah Ritter has been awaiting sentencing and last week he was sentenced to life in prison. Now, this is historic because Daquah is the first First individual to be tried and convicted for a hate crime, motivated by gender identity under the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr.

Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009. This is the first one from this hate crimes legislation of 2009 family. We are in 2024. Now, will this case prevent other people from committing these types of crimes? I don’t know. I don’t know. Does the threat of life in prison stop someone’s hate? I’m not sure about that, but I do hope that this gives Dimes family maybe a little bit of peace.[00:05:00]

Maybe they feel like they got a little bit of justice. I’m sure that they feel like justice would have really been Daqua not having all this toxic masculinity built up and shame that drove him to kill their loved one in the first place. So today, Dime, we speak your name. In politics, take a listen to this clip.

When you’re using a. You know, drag queen to recruit for the Navy. That’s not the people we want. What we need is alpha males and alpha females who are going to rip out their own guts, eat them and ask for seconds that those are young men and women that are going to win wars. Now that was hung cow of Virginia.

He is a Trump endorsed candidate, and I’m not sure anything else needs to be said after that. To be honest, he’s running for a Republican seat in the Senate. He shared those unhinged. Okay. That’s the only word I could find to really describe what he said. It was just unhinged thoughts during a [00:06:00] live televised debate with incumbent Democratic Senator Tim Kaine.

Now you might remember the name Tim Kaine because he was Hillary Clinton’s running mate during the 2016 presidential election. Now you may be asking who in the world is hung cow talking about? Well, he’s talking about Joshua Kelly. AKA Harpy Daniels. So Joshua serves in the Navy, but Joshua is also a drag queen and their drag persona is Harpy Daniels.

Now, Joshua has been serving in the military for seven years. And from October of 2022 through March of 2023, Joshua was one of. Five Navy ambassadors and the Navy’s digital ambassador pilot program. So the whole goal of this campaign was to bring in more recruits and more diverse recruits as well. So hunk cows jabs during that debate were directly [00:07:00] informed by Joshua Kelly, because during this campaign, they showed up in their Navy.

Uniform, and then they would flip the switch and turn into Carpi Daniels, essentially inviting LGBTQ folks to join the Navy. Now, clearly hunk cow and other Republicans didn’t like this at all. To the point where in June of 2023, Republican representative, Jim Banks. introduced an amendment to the 2024 budget for the National Defense Authorization Act to suspend this particular program.

So they was like, y’all gonna put drag queens in this program to recruit folks for the Navy, then we gonna pull the funding for this said program. So you can’t do it no more. And that’s essentially what they did. They do a whole bunch of busy work. for absolutely no reason. I thought that this clip by Hung Kao, I mean it says everything about him and so right now he’s actually [00:08:00] losing in the polls by 12 points to Tim Kaine so it doesn’t look like he’s gonna win but my gosh can y’all please get over yourselves.

We have a volunteer led military. I think y’all need all the recruits you can possibly get. Now, more in politics, the military is trying to right the wrongs of don’t ask, don’t tell. Now I know y’all are very familiar with this, right? It was the most homophobic military policy ever, which was in effect from 1994 to 2011.

Right. And it prohibited openly gay and lesbian service members. Now, those who were found out were dismissed and being dismissed meant that you couldn’t receive your military benefits either, which is really one of the main reasons people are gay. Well, last week, the Pentagon announced that after a year [00:09:00] long review, they were able to successfully upgrade nearly 2, 000 discharges to honorable status.

This change allows these veterans to access the full military benefit portfolio that they were previously denied. I mean, this is a big deal. The defense secretary Lloyd Austin commended the proactive review process and emphasized the department’s commitment. To writing the harms of the past. And I think what’s really important to note here is that this was a proactive review.

Nobody was pressing them to do this review. I’m sure advocates were sending emails, but they decided to do this on their own, which I think is really, really dope. Now defense secretary Austin said this brave LGBTQ Americans have long volunteered to serve the country that they love. They love under president Biden’s leadership, the Department of Defense has taken [00:10:00] extraordinary steps to address the harms done by don’t ask, don’t tell, and other policies on these former service members.

He went on to say that what this means is that. Of the nearly 13, 500 individuals who were dismissed under don’t ask, don’t tell, and served long enough to receive a merit based characterization of service, 96 percent of them now have an honorable discharge. So basically family, what this means is that those who were dismissed and those who had reached the threshold to receive the benefits, 96 percent of them have it today.

Now, don’t ask, don’t tell ended in 2011. We are in 2020. 24, which means that took 13 years for these folks to get these benefits. Can we say too long, but we are still really pleased that it has finally happened because these folks deserve these benefits because it’s not just their families, it’s [00:11:00] their family’s family, right?

It’s their generations that get impacted when they don’t get these types of benefits. So it’s long waited. People have been waiting in this for this for a long time. And I think it’s the least that they can do, especially when someone decides to sign up and serve their country. So, way to go y’all.

Whoever’s involved in making this happen, way to go. Now I think it’s a great time to take a quick break, and when we get back, let’s jump into some culture and entertainment.

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Some promo, a little amplification hit us up at info at e3radio. fm. That’s info at e the number three radio. fm. We have a platform. You should use it. Family. Have you been thinking about starting a podcast or do you have a project that needs an editor, but you can’t find one? I got somebody for you.

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com. Hit contact and get a consultation today. Okay. And tell them Queer New sent you. Family, welcome back to the show. Now let’s jump into some culture and entertainment. Now y’all know these hurricanes have been wreaking havoc across the South and in Asheville, North Carolina A gay bar called daytrip was completely Destroyed just weeks family weeks after its grand opening owners Brandon and Davey our partners And they are just devastated as any of us would be.

Brandon said, even though we lost our livelihood and financial security, we feel so lucky to be alive. So many people lost their homes or parents or children or spouses. And Brandon tells no [00:14:00] lies. Okay. It’s reported that at least 242 people died. As a result of Hurricane Helene and its aftermath and it’s estimated that the cost of damages of Helene are around 47.

5 billion dollars. Now Brandon and Davie have an amazing friend named Meredith Sims and Meredith started a GoFundMe. for them. And she said this. They spent countless months and so much blood, sweat and tears renovating this space and realizing their dream of creating a cozy and quirky place for friends and neighbors to come and feel welcome.

It was that place. For a sweet, brief time. She said many other kind things about them and what they were going to do with the money. But since that GoFundMe went up, people have been donating, not just from Asheville, North Carolina, but from around the world, they have raised 196, 000. To [00:15:00] rebuild this bar, Brandon said that they will use the money to rebuild in the spring.

He said, they’ll also use it to pay employees who lost their livelihoods with the hurricanes destruction. And they’re also going to donate some of the money to local volunteering efforts too. I love to see this. This is community. This is how we show up for people when we can. There’s also a really touching video, the New York Times followed Brandon as he went to see the bar after the destruction and devastation and they captured his reaction.

I included that on the blog page for this episode on E3Radio. fm if you want to watch it. But that also helped to amplify and push this GoFundMe forward. I can’t wait for them to rebuild, right, and welcome community back to Asheville, North Carolina, because If we know we need it in any place, it is absolutely Asheville, North Carolina.

Now, [00:16:00] family, are you familiar with the MacArthur Foundation or the MacArthur Fellows? Or maybe you’ve heard of it as the Genius Grant. Well, the MacArthur Foundation is one of the largest funders in the country, and they started in my hometown of Chicago. As stated on their website, they fund creative solutions to Urgent challenges, sparking hope for our future.

Thank you. Thank you. One more rose and I’m in there.

Sorry, podcast. I’m on TikTok and I got a rose. If you ever want to join me, follow me on TikTok. Okay. Back to the story. Well, the MacArthur foundation is one of the largest funders in the country. And they started in my hometown of Chicago as stated on their website, they fund creative solutions to urgent challenges, sparking hope for the future.

They are committed to building a more just, verdant and peaceful world. Yeah. Now in Chicago, I’m familiar with them because [00:17:00] they invest in journalism and media, they invest in creating more just and inclusive news and narratives. Well, the genius grant winners have been announced and four of them are queer, and we want to show these four queer genius fellows a lot of love.

Okay. Justin Vivian Bond, performer Jericho Brown, poet, Shamil Pitts, choreographer, and Alice Wong, disability justice activist. The director of the MacArthur fellows, Marlies Carruth, said this of the cohort, the 2024 MacArthur fellows pursue rigorous inquiry with aspiration and purpose. They expose biases built into emerging technologies and social systems and feel critical gaps in the knowledge of cycles that sustain life on earth.

Their work highlights our shared humanity, centering the agency of disabled people. The humor [00:18:00] and the histories of indigenous communities, the emotional lives of adolescents and perspectives of rural Americans. Now, family, why I want to share this with you all is because the genius grant is not like a normal grant.

It’s not like a normal fellowship. That’s right. Besides the fact that it’s hella prestigious to be a MacArthur fellow, it comes with a lot of money. I’m getting to the money. Everybody, you know what I’m saying? These grant winners receive 800, 000 over five years and they get paid every quarter. So when you break it down, that’s 160, 000 a year and 40, 000 a quarter to create and work on their passion.

That thing that is going to change the world. They get to focus. for five years. They don’t have to get a job [00:19:00] necessarily if they don’t want to. They don’t have to go pursuing gig after gig after gig, which so many of us creatives have to do in order to live. This genius grant provides them the opportunity to be financially stable for five years.

And to do the work that they feel like they are called to do in the world. And that is pretty amazing. So I want to say congratulations to all the MacArthur fellows, but especially these four queer folks who are out here in the world doing their work. Now, before you get to Googling, this isn’t something you can apply for.

This is a nomination based system that is intricately designed by the MacArthur Foundation. So essentially you got to know somebody that knows somebody that think you worthy of this nomination. You feel me? So get to networking because relationships are everything. For our last story in cultural entertainment, I like game shows.

I don’t know. Do y’all watch game [00:20:00] shows? Me and my wife watch game shows. And we saw that there were two new game shows coming on television, Trivial Pursuit and Scrabble. Do you know who’s hosting Trivial Pursuit? Dee LaVar Burton. And do you know who is hosting Scrabble? That’s right, our very own Raven Symoné.

Y’all know Raven Symoné from her days on The Cosby Show. But chile, she had done a whole lot of stuff since she was three until she’s a grown human today. And We watched the Scrabble episodes and we really liked them. I didn’t know how they were going to translate Scrabble to television, but they did it in a really cool way and Raven is doing a really nice job.

She said, I was so honored when I was asked to host Scrabble because I am a game player. I play games all the time and when the opportunity came to host one of the most Iconic board games ever. I jumped at the opportunity. So family, what you got to do? You got to watch Scrabble, give us some ratings, make [00:21:00] sure, right.

That they know that we watching and we enjoy it. Cause I really do think if you like Scrabble, you can’t really enjoy watching the television show. Congrats, Raven. Now fam, we’re at that part of the show for Anna’s got a word because Anna’s always got a word. And this week I want to talk about the experience I had over the weekend.

Afros and Audio. Afros and Audio is a podcast festival specifically for Black podcasters and audio professionals. It’s a place in Baltimore, Maryland. And what I enjoy most about this conference are the people. There are communities in the podcasting space like Black Podcasting Association and the Black Podcasting Awards.

And there’s Afros and Audio. And there are forums and places where we support each other and message and provide information and job opportunities, but it’s all online. And so we don’t get to see each other in real life very often. Afros and Audio. Bring people together to see each other and to be in community.

And my word for today, family [00:22:00] is to find your people. If there is something you want to do, if there’s something you want to pursue, you need to find the people in that space and introduce yourself, share your goal and your vision for what you’re looking to do. And you go out there and you find your people.

Yes, none of us should do any of this alone. It is no fun doing things by yourself. It is so much more enriching to share the wins. With someone to share the lows with someone. It makes the journey that much easier. So family, if you hear nothing else from me ever on this podcast, please hear this message, find your people and go together.

It’s way better that way. All right, family, this was wonderful. It was good to be back with another traditional episode. Be on the lookout. On Friday for a special drop on the feed and on our YouTube channel for LGBTQ history month. And until next week, [00:23:00] peace.

If you’ve enjoyed what you heard, rate and review us inside your favorite podcasting app. This podcast is written and produced by me, Anna Deshawn. Podcast editing by Ryan Woodhull and brought to you by E3 Radio and distributed on the Qube. We are Queer News Done Right.