Rated LGBT Radio

Rated G Radio 2.0 - The Hot Minute Is Up

Rated G Radio is back, baby!
Tonight, get caught up with Garrett and find out what's been happening since we last spoke.  Oh yeah, baby, it's time to make the donuts tonight!

A Senator Fights to Solve the Mystery of COVID-19’s Effect on LGBTQ People

What is the impact of COVID-19 on LGBTQ folks in the state of California?  No one knows. The state currently collects data on COVID-19 based on race/ethnicity, age, gender and other demographic information. But not on sexual orientation or gender identity.
One state senator is seeking to change that fact… and he is our guest today. Senator Scott Wiener is in the house!
Senator Wiener represents San Francisco and northern San Mateo County in the California State Senate. Before being elected to the Senate, Senator Wiener served as a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, representing the district previously represented by Harvey Milk. He also served in a number of community leadership roles, including co-chair of the San Francisco LGBT Community Center and on the national Board of Directors of the Human Rights Campaign.  
His newly introduced legislation would require California to collect data on the health impacts of COVID-19 on the LGBTQ community, including infection, hospitalization, ICU, recovery, and mortality rates. If enacted, we would then understand the impacts of the pandemic on LGBTQ people. This would be the first legislation of its kind to compel a state government to collect this information; currently, neither the federal government nor any of the 50 states are doing so.
We will find out all about the COVID-19 effects and other LGBTQ issues.
With co-host Brody Levesque.

The Extinction of LGBTQ Media and Non-Profits as We Have Known Them

LGBTQ publications are folding.  Major LGBTQ non-profits are failing and in trouble.  The support landscape is being annihilated quickly and effectively.
What does this mean for millions of LGBTQ Americans, and what can we do about it?  What will the NEW landscape look like?
Today we take those questions to one of the foremost experts, Bob Witeck, the President and founder of Witeck Communications, Inc. and author of ""Business Inside Out: Tapping Millions of Brand-Loyal Gay Consumers". He brings us four decades of professional communications experience in the private sector and in public service. Among other credentials, he is a trusted crisis communications expert.
He served five appointed terms on the board of directors for the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association. He has served on the board of directors for the NEA Foundation, the Close Up Foundation and on the first national board for the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), and for the Gay Lesbian Straight Education Network (GLSEN).
With co-host Brody Levesque.
 

The Terror of ”Conversion Therapy” and the Team Saving America’s Youth From It

To date, 20 states and almost 70 municipalities in the US have passed laws to protect LGBTQ youth from conversion therapy through the legal work of a legal group called "Born Perfect." So-called “conversion therapy” that promises to make gay people straight has been condemned by every major medical and mental health organization, yet it continues to happen in every state. Kids subjected to it are often exposed to traumatic practices that often result in severe mental health challenges and suicides.
Our guest today is Mathew Shurka, the co-founder of Born Perfect. During his five years of conversion therapy from ages 16-21, Mathew endured many different types of fraudulent and scientifically discredited “treatments” that he was told would “cure” his homosexuality. Most traumatizing, he was instructed to stay away from his mother and two sisters for three years based on the false belief that being gay is caused by a man being too close to his mother or other female relatives. Mathew sought out treatment for the trauma he endured and reconciled with his family. At 24 he began advocating to end conversion therapy with The National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR) and worked with NCLR to create Born Perfect in 2014. 
Today we explore the terror that such bogus "therapies" instill, where they are practiced and what can be done to stop them.
With co-host Brody Levesque.

How the Teen CEO of Kids4Community Refuses to Let COVID-19 Stop Homeless Aid

Weeks ago, we interviewed Kenan Pala, the teen CEO of Kids4Community. He told us the inspiring story of how as a twelve year old walking on the beach, he saw a baby seal that was sick and in need. People were surrounding it with blankets, help and hope. A while later, he saw a homeless man on the sidewalk, even more sick and in need than the baby seal -- and not only was the man not receiving help, people were seeking to avoid him.
He felt this was not right and immediately founded Kids4Community. That was three years ago, and now as the organization's CEO has moved their effectiveness along. Monthly they were making 2000 hygene kits, and 500 "bags of hope" for distribution. The group was conducting a school supply drive, and takes on disaster relief. They have focused recently on homeless dinner projects and more.  All of this being done mostly by kids, just like Kenan.
Then COVID-19 hit.  Has that stopped Kenan?  No.  Today we find out what his NEW strategy is, adapting to the challenges of the current environment.
 We also have the latest on the roadmap ahead....  getting our society back to normalcy.
With Co-host Brody Levesque.

Landon Richie, Superstar Trans Teen Activist, Sounds Off!

Today our special guest is trans activist Landon Richie.  We will be discussing the various attacks on trans kids that are being proposed, and in some cases passed, in state legislations across the country.
Landon, an award winning artist, realized his trans identity in middle school. During that time, Landon created a SAGA (Sexuality And Gender Alliance) club, and brought it to his high school, where he currently serves as co-vice-president. Through SAGA, he co-founded FortGenderBenders, a student advocacy group aiming to strengthen protections for LGBTQ+ students, teachers, and administrators in his school district. Landon has lobbied and testified at the Texas State Capitol, and has attended ACLU Summer Advocacy Program during his junior and senior years in high school. Through his involvement with the GenderCool Project, Landon has been able to share his story with major corporations such as CitiBank, Allstate, and Conagra Brands. Landon has been interviewed on television and radio, both locally and nationally, and has been featured in Rolling Stone magazine.  
With co-host Brody Levesque

How Hate Crimes Have Risen With COVID-19 Spread

As we are bombarded with daily news and numbers of the COVID-19 virus and its effects, one aspect has be sidelined: the sharp rise in hate incidents particularly against Asian-Americans, LGBTQI+ people, and immigrants. These incidents represent a spike in an already worrisome trend of anti-LGBTQI+ animus.
Lecia Brooks, Chief Workplace Transformation Officer of the Southern Poverty Law Center, (SPLC) joins us today to discuss the issue and what can be done to fight it. Prior to her current role at SPLC, she previously served as the SPLC’s outreach director, where she traveled across the U.S. and abroad to counter hate and extremism and to promote the celebration of difference. 
"A significant factor fueling the frequency of this trend is the racist rhetoric of President Donald Trump," Lecia told the LA Blade Newspaper.
Trump has refused to refer to the virus and it accompanying pandemic by its given scientific label, instead referring to it as ‘the Chinese Virus,’ in press briefings and press photo opportunities. This has also caused some members of the West Wing staff to label it inaccurately and in a seemingly racist way. On March 17, CBS News White House correspondent Weijia Jang, a Chinese-American tweeted, “This morning a White House official referred to #Coronavirus as the “Kung Flu” to my face. Makes me wonder what they’re calling it behind my back,” she wrote.
Today, we unpack the hate...
With Co-host Brody Levesque.

Garden Grove California’s Modern Day Gay Entrapment Scheme

For years in the past, different police organizations stalked gay men in "cruise" areas and entrapped them into seductive situations so that they could be arrested and shamed as sex offending criminals.  These were actions that often raised no complaints.  Society was not found of gay men, and those entrapped were mortified and ashamed... only wanting for the situation to go away so they could return to a normal life... if possible.
With the evolvement of LGBT visibility, many of these vendettas have been curtailed.
Not so in Garden Grove California where undercover police go into private adult establishments to seduce, lure and entrap gay and bisexual men... so that they can then arrest them and prosecute them as sex offenders.
Today, our special guest, Phil Zonkel, editor of Q Voice News, joins us to tell us of the latest story of a man that the Garden Grove police have sought to ruin, Tri Phan.  We hear Tri's story and discuss why and how this has been manipulated for the Orange County District Attorney to prosecute.
With co-host Brody Levesque

Exclusive Interview With Raechel Anne Jolie, Author of the New ”Rust Belt Femme”

Our exclusive interview with author Raechel Anne Jolie!  Her new book Rust Belt Femme is launching now!
RUST BELT FEMME by Raechel Anne Jolie is a beautifully written memoir that addresses working class poverty in Northeast Ohio, identity, the saving grace of music, and the universality of the human condition. With shades of Sarah Smarsh, Michelle Tea, and Nico Walker, it has been called a compulsive read – something about the way Jolie writes just keeps you intrigued, and before you know it, you’ve read the whole thing in one siting!
“I am offering this story of a queer Midwestern life to you in these pieces and parts, like spirits who materialize in the shadows when they are feeling restless and forgotten There is no way to make entirely coherent a life that is more assemblage than intersections, an existence that weaves in and out of time and space. But I think you’ll be able to follow along, because whether our neurology is burdened by trauma or not, I think most of us who are drawn to memoir are burdened with an incurable case of nostalgia.”
—from Rust Belt Femme by Raechel Anne Jolie
With co-host Brody Levesque
 

Exclusive Interview With Brian K. Bond, the New PFLAG Executive Director

Impeachment, executive orders, threat of pandemics and injustices against LGBTQ people... Brian K. Bond has seen them all as a Washington DC mover and shaker.  In January, he took the helm of one of the most significant activist organizations, PFLAG 
PFLAG is the first and largest organization for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+) people, their parents and families, and allies. With over 400 chapters and 200,000 members and supporters crossing multiple generations of families in major urban centers, small cities, and rural areas across America, PFLAG is committed to creating a world where diversity is celebrated and all people are respected, valued, and affirmed. 
Brian is a former Obama Administration official and LGBTQ+advocate with an extensive background in constituency outreach and coalition bridge-building. Brian most recently served as the Coalitions Director for the Climate Action Campaign in Washington D.C., working to protect clean air and promote action to limit climate change. Prior to that, he was the Deputy CEO for the 2016 Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 
During the Obama Administration he served as Deputy Director for the White House Office of Public Engagement and primary liaison for the LGBTQ+ community, where successfully led on the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, and marriage equality.  
Today, we have our exclusive interveiw with Brian on the Washington goverment and political environment, the vision for PFLAG and what LGBTQ families need to do to survive and thrive.
With co-host Brody Levesque