 not be with us tonight which is why Kim is standing in for her. Welcome Kim and thank you. Anne developed a very serious case of meningitis and after seven days in the hospital she is now in rehab for two more weeks of antibiotic treatments. I love you and we all miss you. See you next show. Hi I'm Kim. I'm Linda Krillin. I'm Keith Ghostland and this is All Things LGBTQ. We are taping on Tuesday May 4th and as we have acknowledged in the past we filmed this show at Orca Media in Montpelieu Vermont which we recognize as being unceded Indigenous land and now that interloper Kim is going to share some information with you. Hi. The LGBTQ protesters are voguing through the streets of massive during a massive strike in Columbia. Eurovision's Vassil Gerevomilev is ready to be a voice for LGBTQ people in North Macedonia and the Balkans. The Canadian National Railway or CN is withholding pension from a gay widower over the outdated definition of a spouse. A verdict is due soon in the killing of gay rights activists in Bangladesh who were hacked to death in their apartment five years ago. Same sex marriage bill has been passed first reading in the Chamber of Deputies in the Czech Republic and coming up on May 8th it's Asexual Visibility Day. That's my stories I'm going to be reading today. Well first I'd like to tell our audience a very sad event in that Madeleine Davis died at 80 a trailblazing lesbian activist historian. She was a founding member of the first gay liberation organization in western New York the Matashine Society of Niagara Frontier. She delivered a speech at the first gay march in Albany, New York in 1971 and she taught the first class on lesbianism in the nation at the University of Buffalo. She was the author of the groundbreaking novel Boots of Leather, Slippers of Gold. And Anne's going to do a kind of an expose on her next time she's here and she's going to be interviewing curator Dan Dallando, Dallandro, and he's agreed to give her tour of the Madeleine Davis LGBTQ Archives of western New York as a memorial to Madeleine Davis. So and the music industry leaders asked Tennessee lawmakers to stop disastrous anti-LGBTQ legislation, protests to a homophobic sign in Appleton, Wisconsin, rainbows full the streets and honks from passing cars rang out as members and allies of the LGBT community gathered in downtown Appleton. T2 Incomplete is a lesbian disabled love story that has lessons for Hollywood writer and director Suzanne Gauchy discovers the breakthrough representation in casting for her new film which even has a blind cat T2 Incomplete refers to a paralegic patients whose spine is severed but still has some feelings in her legs. CDC reports that four out of ten trans women in major cities are found to be HIV positive. Lil Shop is out as a movie with trans and gay leads and they win a prize at the Artoce Awards. Dominique Lucius a black trans woman was killed in Missouri. Corey Mulligan stars in Saturday Night Live. Sad, flirting, period drama and I'm just gonna stop here and I have more headlines but I'll do them later but here's a clip from Saturday Night Live which is really funny. So thank you. You've been staying up late again that was past your bedtime. Yes indeed. So May is Asian and Pacific Islander Heritage Month so this week's trivia question who might have been the first LGBTQ plus Asian Pacific Islander in the U.S. Congress and for bonus points who was the first LGBTQ plus Asian Pacific Islander in the Vermont legislature? Answers forthcoming. So first I want to talk a little bit about Massachusetts and the first is a sad and it's acknowledging the death of Valhera de Alto who was a transgender activist who lived in Dorchester. She and another person who was staying in her household were fatally stabbed over this past weekend and details are just starting to come out and in fact the police have not even confirmed the names of the people who had died. However the alleged perpetrator was the husband of the other person who was in the household to whom Valhera was offering sanctuary. So there will be more to follow up. Bay windows. Remember them? LGBTQ plus newspaper in Boston. First edition was February of 1980. If you're looking for a new career Bay windows and south and news are up for sale. The current owner said the local news has changed but it's importance to our community has not. They've run their course. Time for someone else to take it over and they've made suggestions that this might be a public digital media merger. Online, print, YouTube or maybe a total nonprofit ownership. But they're ready. If you're ready, they're ready to hand it over to you. Also looking in Massachusetts, Holyoke, the first LGBTQ plus specific group home for people dealing with addictions. Isn't Holyoke where they voted down that gay guy? Was that Holyoke? Remember you read from there? No. Well, I don't remember. That doesn't ring a bell. The only problem though, they only have 16 beds. And the name of the organization is mental health associates. So that's who a referral would go through. Rhode Island, now by regulation from their department of health. You can amend your birth certificate to align with your gender identity. And it's an FM or X option. So and again, this was not by statute. The department of health did this on its own. And in Maine, Newcastle, a new sort of nonprofit foundation purchased the family farm that had belonged to Francis Perkins. In Francis Perkins was the first labor secretary under FDR. She was the first woman to serve at a cabinet level. She is the person who is responsible for the social reforms and the creation of the social security system. And she did a lot of work relative to improving the quality of your life. Minimum wage was one of her big, but what's unique is that this new foundation that purchased the homestead, they're highlighting her long time relationship with Mary Harriman Rumsey, who was her constant companion in Washington DC until Mary died in 1934. And Francis indeed was married. So you're going to be able to visit. Yes. Good. But they are not hiding her same sex relationship. They are highlighting. Good. Which is a big change. Good. So back to you and you're going to give me all kinds of depressing news. All kinds of international news. Although the idea of a title that says LGBTQ protesters vogue through the streets is just lovely. Unfortunately, it's because they're having to protest. There were some protests going on over tax issues. And during these tax reform protests, LGBTQ people led sizable contingents through the streets nationwide. Video reportedly recorded in Bogota and posted to multiple social media sites shows queer activists voguing their way to justice as part of a national strike yesterday that shut the country down. Trans women dancing in a plaza were met by police with riot shields in one video. LGBTQ people and especially trans women have faced outsized levels of violence recently recently in Columbia. A human rights report last year found hundreds of violent crimes against LGBTQ people in Columbia including 63 murders in the first part of 2020 alone. 17 of those victims were identified as transgender women. Marriage equality has been legal in the country since 2016 and courts have protected transgender people's rights to correct their gender markers on their official identification. But violence is continuing as it is, unfortunately, in every country that I know of. Also, Eurovision, this national European-wide contest where people stand up from each country and do a song that they have written. This very famous singer, Vasyl Garvonlyev, he is ready to be a voice for the LGBTQ people in North Macedonia and the Balkans. He and his family actually left Macedonia when he was young. He was singing and they came to the States just as he was about to enter college. They were expelled from the U.S. They ended up in Canada. He's lived in several places and he was out in all these places and then he decided to move home and realized he couldn't even be out in his own language because in his native language you can't just say, I have a crush on someone or I love, I'm in love. You have to say I love a boy, I love a girl. So he didn't want a straight jacket himself so he decided to come out. And his song that he has written is going to be, it's an outwardly love song to his partner. He says, my gut said this is the right moment to share everything about myself, to literally break down all my walls and to give you me as I am, which happens to be the most uninteresting thing about me, the fact that I'm gay. So that was a really great story. I have a couple others, shall I continue those two? So the Canadian National Railway, known as CN in this article, is withholding a pension from a gay widower over the outdated definition of a spouse. Ken Hare was devastated when his partner of 33 years, Gary Schwartz, died in 2012. He was even more distraught when he learned he wouldn't see a dollar of the survivor benefits built into Schwartz's pension because CN Rail's plan did not recognize same-sex relationships at the time of Schwartz's retirement. Hare has spent parts of the last nine years fighting to get CN's pension and benefits department to overturn his decision. Now at 71 years old, he has taken the fight public. He would be devastated if he knew what was going on now, Hare said of his late partner. He was a company man. He loved CN Rail. Gary Schwartz, and then I am going to read a quote from the picture that I don't have. Gary Schwartz and his partner lived together in Toronto before moving to Harbour Grace to be closer to their family. CN states, we realize that some former practices and decisions made in good faith in the past need to be reexamined in light of our engagement towards diversity and inclusion. There was a video of Ken's story on cbc.ca website, so if you are interested in more of that, take a look there. And a verdict is due soon in the killing of gay rights activists in Bangladesh who were hacked to death in their apartment five years ago. Baynar News journalist Karen Rena Chowdhury Daka reported on April 27th that a verdict is due soon in this case. When these two activists were killed, the work that they had done advocating for sexual minorities all but perished with them according to fellow campaigners. The social movement to establish the rights of the LGBTQ people in Bangladesh after the Zula's Tonoi murder has almost gone. Many of the activists have either gone into hiding or left the country. An activist who has to be identified only as Min told this to be in our news. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was among those who marked the fifth anniversary of the killing of US government employee Zula's Manon and theater artist Mabub Rabi Tonoi which prosecutors say were motivated by their activism on behalf of LGBTQ people. Zula's worked as an embassy at the US embassy in Dhaka for nine years and later for the Bangladesh office of the United States Agency for internal development. Police did charge eight suspects with the murder in 2019. The trial began in November of the following year. Four of the suspects are behind bars. The rest are fugitives but a verdict was expected on April 6th got postponed due to lockdown and COVID. So they're hoping certainly for a good outcome. I think it's clear from the news article that they obviously will be charged with these murders. The problem is that when asked if they could help protect people who are advocating for LGBTQ rights the government said they couldn't because our penal code penalizes homosexuality. It's a punishable offense so unless the laws change the government can't promote the rights of homosexuality in Bangladesh. So that was you know both a good thing that they're going to be dealing with this issue but a bad thing that you know there isn't a support right now. The penal codes have not been changed. I was going to say you have to wonder what there will ultimately be for a verdict if the underlying basis for the action is these were these were gay men and the action in which they were engaging was illegal in itself. Yeah how is the court going to react? Yeah certainly a brutal murder is a brutal murder it's going to be punished but it's not really dealing with the subtlety of the issue. We'll be coming back to that. Come back. Yeah so go ahead. Okay anti-LGBT processes march on the Florida school board members homes. A group with hateful messages showed up at the house of Robert County school board member Jennifer Jenkins a supporter of her county's inclusive policies. Her home in satellite her home was in satellite beach a man speaking for the group of protesters said his name was Thomas Jefferson and the protesters were aligned with Jesus Christ. In Bethel, Connecticut's coffee shops pride flag was burned and dropped at the front door. This is not the first time rainbow flags have been targeted in this area 10 miles north of New York City. Montana advances refusals I'm sorry Montana advances religious refusals and anti-trans bills. I mean they're happening all over the country I can't report every single one of them because I'd be here all day. But you can say there is a huge there is a huge basket full of these. God 273. I think they said something like 30 or 40 states at least I'm trying to pass these. Seattle police chief denies a deninvitation sent by evangelist evangelical group known for anti-LGBT stance. It was billed as a law enforcement and appreciation event. This event was allegedly hosted by Franklin Graham. I don't think he can cough. On a sad note here police make an arrest of two North Carolina trans women's deaths. Their bodies were found in hotel rooms less than two weeks apart. Jada Peterson and Remi Fennel were both black and engaged in sex work. Two men have been arrested but their names are not listed at this time. Neurologists all of sex legendary and final days are explored in his own life. He was 82 when he died. It was only two weeks before his death that his homosexuality was revealed publicly. The Rick Burns documentary premiered on April 19th but you can see it on PBS American Masters series. Arizona just voted to be in queer history education. The bill would allow parents to opt their children out of education classes which include LGBTQ history. It has taken 20 years to bring the story to the public of fashion designer and gay icon Halstead to life. He was a fixture at studio 54. Halstead the series comes to Netflix on May 15th. You may want to see it. He died of AIDS complications in 1990. The movie takes place in the magical era of New York City. The time of Warhol and Steve Rubble the owner of studio 54 so that might be something else you'd like to catch. And the question about Caitlyn Jenner says there's no biological boys who are trans should play on girls teams. And someone in the article said is she our new Tucker Carlson? So yes indeed probably. And the Jewish affiliated Yesheva University is sued after banding an LGBTQ club. The lawsuit follows multiple failed attempts to start an LGBT club at the New York City University. Students and alumni have filed a suit for denying them the right to form a student club. The denying the students club they say is violating the city's human rights laws. Natalia Smata trans woman and drag queen was stabbed to death in Northern California. She was 24 and the man accused of her death was in a relationship with her. A Tennessee CEO is fired after marking a teen boy who were addressed to the prom. Sam Johnson of Visuel told the teen that he looked like an idiot. He was also really confrontational with this young person you know getting up in their face and you know it was pretty bad. But the person who busted the CEO with what they did was Kathy Griffith. Yes I saw that. She she she had a copy of Kathy Griffith put it online and that's what happened. Yeah I think she tried to intervene too but. This is interesting that an LGBT group Asian group opposed Andrew Yang for New York City mayor. Yang met with the Stonewall Democrats of New York City to be interviewed. The group said that his answers were pandering and tone death. Young Catholics are deserting the church in droves to protest same sex union vans. I was gonna say that should have been one of the end stories. I know. And just as on my last story here former vice president Mike Pence launched a new advocacy group on Wednesday as he and other Trump officials looked to boost their post White House plans. Pence is advancing American freedom which could serve as a springboard for his own presidential campaign and will aim to promote the Trump administration's achievements and work as a counterpoint to the Biden agenda. I know the new group is one of several launched in recent weeks by former aides of president Donald Trump shunned by corporate big money gigs. They are instead opening their own shops and embracing Trump's legacy as they speak to capitalize on his continued popularity in the Republican base. They include Trump's former senior policy advisor Stephen Miller fellow the architect of polarizing immigration policies who on Wednesday announced the creation of America first legal a group that Miller envisions as an American civil liberties union for conservatives in a statement Trump lauded Miller and his group the former president whose administration was bombarded with lawsuits said that conservatives badly need to catch up and turn the tables in court and that Miller's group would fill this critical void. So I'm surprised you didn't choke on that story. I know I had to read it a few times so I could get ready. I think future shows we're going to have to end it with everyone saying one positive LGBTQ plus story. I like it. I've got one so that so that we were not ending with Steve Miller defending somebody else's rights but indeed on a positive note for a moment. Did you know that we have vaccinated more people per capita than any other state? I did hear that. If you're 16 or older if you haven't you can get vaccinated. Johnson and Johnson is a one and done and there are sites showing up if you go in the department of health website and some of them you don't need appointments. You can just I think I'm in a little more trouble than northeast kingdom to get people to get vaccinated from that area. It's spread out it's hard to get places. There are pockets and that's why the Johnson and Johnson is they're looking to one shot and done who are the who are the identified communities that we know that either you're not going to be able to or we're not going to be able to get back out. I would think it would be really good for kids to you know one shot done well right and that's who is being recommended for right now. So people may have seen an article in seven days about the treatment of transgender people who are incarcerated and there were 15 people who have gone through the correction system who identified as transgender all of them identified as being transgender women. What the article pointed out was the inconsistency in approaching treatment that there were people who were being denied access to medical care to ongoing you know supportive medications or treatments that were needed for their affirmation process. So there are indeed already conversations happening within administration about this is not acceptable. I have some other questions such as who's really monitoring this when I looked at who are the advocacy groups and looking at our own communities the people who have been the most active are the women's justice and freedom initiative and that's not one of our community groups. Where are we in this issue you know what are we doing to provide peer support to people who are incarcerated and then here is my larger question if this is how the incarcerated population is being treated how is corrections treating their non-binary and transgender identified employees because if you exactly you know it's this reciprocal because one of the things that you might advocate is that there be people who identify as transgender non-binary who are part of the corrections employment system are there as a resource for the incarcerated population not that it's the responsibility of one to take care of the other or to teach but as a resource. And they're seeing this behavior if they're not out about who they are only makes their work life more miserable because they then are forced to deal with it. It's not okay. So let's talk about our legislature. Sure. So people know that I have a fascinating interest in it. So some of the things that have actually passed is H-145 which is the use of force. However, in the final version that came over from the senate they had changed the absolute language that had been proposed by the house that a law enforcement officer could not use a chokehold. The senate version said gave an exemption saying that if you were at the you know lethal response level that a chokehold was not an unauthorized means by which for self-defense. I've got some questions and I'm not sure quite how that happened but both the house and the senate agreed to that language. So that's what's going to the governor for signature. The other bill that passed was H-128 which would allow a ban on the use of a train or gay panic defense and a criminal defense here in Vermont. When it first was passed out of the house it was a 146 to 1 vote. Well no it passed out of the senate 30 to 0 vote. The senate made some adjustment. They cleaned up some language they were really clear about not only could a trans or gay panic defense not being used in criminal prosecution but you also couldn't take it into consideration in sentencing. So because during the sentencing phase you can introduce information that may not have been introduced earlier. You can't do that. The house concurred unanimously with the senate version. So Vermont is the first state to issue a ban on the use of trans gay panic defenses by unanimous vote. Governor has already said he is signing this waiting for it to come to his desk. So a little overview. Our legislature thus far has passed 26 bills. They've gone both through the house and the senate on their way to the governor. In the house there were 452 bills introduced this session. In the senate there were 148. That's 600 bills. What could he think of? Well there's 150 members of the house so there's at least two bills of peace and there are 30 members of the senate so that's like five bills of peace. But some of the things we're still watching and Rainbow Umbrella is going to want to know about this one. H177 it's up for its third reading tomorrow. This is the bill that would allow the change to the Montpelier city charter for non-citizen voting. It passed on second reading in the senate 21-9 which was all of the republicans into the two democrats. So this is about to happen. Good. So the other things we're watching in the house S16 this is the bill that was dealing with inequities in discipline in Vermont public schools and originally as drafted it only dealt with racial inequities. It has since been expanded to include both racial, ethnic, social and disability so we're all I mean finally we're all in there. This actually may be up for a third vote tomorrow. Also looking at S15 and this is in the house as well as opposed to virtually you know 49 other states Vermont's one bill about voting is how do we deal with defective ballots such if someone happened to mail their absentee ballot back in and forgot to sign the envelope. A lot of people did that. There is a mechanism in place where the city clerk could reach out to the individual to correct it so your vote counts. Right. So our initiative was not to try and make it more difficult it's easier if we recognize there's a problem how can we reach out to you to get it corrected. I'm so pleased. The other in the Senate and this you know in my conversation with Lieutenant Governor Gray today this just passed H428 and what this does is that it emends the existing bias and hate crime statutes and removes the maliciously intended because that created well that created a standard which made it virtually impossible to prosecute because it goes to intent it goes to motive how do you determine that where do you get that information and it makes a direct connection though that one's actions was based on the actual perceived representation in a protected class. Right. So but what it didn't do is there had been a provision in here that would have allowed or required data collection by the office of the state's attorneys and the office of attorney general on the use of bias and hate motivated you know when was it attempted did it succeed what were the circumstances whatever and actually one of the things that's come up repeatedly during this legislative session and it was from the agency of education to the state's attorney to law enforcement you know to the office of attorney general the human rights commission we don't collect a lot of data we have enacted a lot of positive inclusionary intending on equity statutes but we didn't build in the mechanism to gauge are they working and if not where are they not working or put money or positions to associate with it there is one bill that's been introduced it was actually introduced by brian chena that would add positions to the human rights commission specifically to look at what needs to happen and there is a data collection provision in it and just really quickly human rights commission this is where you would report if you knew of a public accommodation that was not in compliance with the gender neutral bathroom bill well people had gone on to their site to try and report and it said complete form below there was no they they just had a vendor redo their website so now they're going through and looking at okay what didn't come over that shouldn't have so as of this afternoon you can report it it has been corrected it was one simple request of them saying uh and they were like within 15 minutes they had fixed it i think the wayside at least they used to but i haven't been there any year but they had but they had single use bathrooms male female men women that's that's okay one of the things where some of the public accommodations get confused if it was a traditional male bathroom and it had a urinal they're like oh well that's still in the old bathroom no the caveat is it's single use one person at a time you can use whatever fixture you want and you can lock the door and that's the provision yeah the other bill that the senate passed out of senate judiciary on the five to zero about h183 this is about sexual violence and consent and there was a lot of controversy once they get over to the senate because the senate was saying the house really didn't fully vet this and what people brought up there's a lot in here that talks about what doesn't constitute consent such as you're intoxicated unresponsive whatever but it never defines what does constitute consent so it was like we may want so they actually use language from oklahoma which apparently has some of the better language in the country so that it's clearly defined this is what needs to happen for consent to have been given the other bill we're really looking at closely is h210 and this has passed both the house and the senate but it looks as though it's going to a conference committee the house hasn't concurred with the senate yet this is equity in the health care system and again this is one of the bills that brian china may have been part of and it would create the office of health equity it would establish a health equity advisory council there would be money for giving grants to promote health equity good data collection bingo bingo and this is the part that i really liked if your license or certification requires a continuing ed component you have to have at least two hours in cultural competency so that's an ongoing and the other bill that i had actually talked with brian china about on our latest um interview show is h273 and this is a racial and social equity bill but what this does and the narrative along with this looks like somebody master's level dissertation about inequity with in relationship to land access and property ownership and one of the companion pieces of this was the initiative by the racial alliance racial justice alliance to try and get each township to designate a parcel of land for bipoc ownership so we've we've got a couple of minutes yeah i've got you have a couple things i have a couple things you go i also want to say and i know that she's not uh lgbtq but i heard on the news today that stacey abrams was writing romance novels intriguing check that out at the local bookstore under a student of stacey abram so yeah interesting yeah very interesting okay you've got to pay the rent somehow yeah all right well yeah absolutely so there was one international story that i hadn't quite gotten to which was the same sex marriage bill passes its first reading in the chamber of deputies in the check republic the bill that would legalize same-sex marriage in the check republic passed its first reading uh a couple of days ago and it will now be scrutinized by parliamentary committees interestingly enough a separate motion to define marriage as between a man and a woman also advanced it really gave me deja vu to hear that during the debate spd leader tomeo okamura said he would rather jump out of a window than be adopted by a same-sex couple okay it was nice knowing you yeah since 2006 the check republic has allowed registered partnerships for same-sex couples which grant several rights of marriage including inheritance and hospital visitation rights but not joint adoption spouses pension or joint property rights i know well it's killing me this thing is hot or something sorry my microphone if you turn your microphone over people can't hear what you're saying and then what i was saying was um it's just it's hot um okay so we want to do a whole lot on that but it was interesting to hear this and uh the government commissioner for human rights uh noted in within the check republic noted that the current system of registered partnerships discriminates against lgbt couples we owe it to same-sex couples to settle their situation she said um and a colleague of hers agreed marriage for everyone is the solution everyone should have this right um the other story i just wanted to touch base on uh is that uh coming up on may 8th it is asexual visibility day uh and for those who aren't familiar with it asexuality exists on a spectrum it's a term used to describe people for whom sexual attraction may not exist at all or sometimes maybe on a on a lower spectrum um and and there can be varying levels of asexual of sexual romantic or emotional attraction for aces asexuals and there there was some interesting information online so may 8th has been asexuality visibility day for a while but there was some concern over how that day was initiated through some sort of pop song that dealt with um like using decks from a card you know card decks with for the aces and they felt like the the reference to the song and the date was just not really positive and so recently it's been moved to april 6th so either way april 6th was or april 8th is uh asexual visibility day and i think it's also a clear indication that within the queer community we're always also negotiating and debating what our realities are and how really current we are on whether we're being open enough and inclusive enough in what's going on so because i was just thinking about like i was thinking well how many famous people or people that are in the news or politics or anything ever talk about this or whether they are or they are yeah oh yeah yeah yeah that's true yeah yeah you know well i mean it doesn't seem to be you know a term that asexuality that the people feel comfortable yeah it's a tougher sell and a lot of times people are asked time and time and time again well what is it we can do to fix this for you maybe you haven't read the right person maybe there's something wrong with you you know people will spend a good portion of their lives looking for hormone treatments or something because they think there's something wrong with them and they're they're not broken it's just it's just who they are they're asexual i don't want to say going back to the victorian era yeah what we lovingly refer to is a boston marriage right which was this intimate emotional mutually supportive but totally non physical non sexual relationship but people acknowledge the level of commitment between the two yes because everything is not about sex right and when you talked about consent oh for some people okay when you talked about consent earlier we would be helped by including all of us whether it's an lgbtq community or anywhere the viewpoints of asexual people because consent is so much more complex than yes no now then whatever it's just and what how we communicate as human beings there's companion love there's just wanting to have somebody to put their arm around you which people can relate to now that covid is it right just getting a hug right yeah so these things are connected just cuddling yeah so these are all connected yeah so what you got it was i think that's very interesting and i'd like to see more people come out yeah well i will tell you here let me be let me be like the first international whatever beyond the people in my personal life that know that i identify as a bisexual grace which means i'm a gray ace which which look it up but um but you know i i and it's it's hard to explain bisexuality to people let alone to then go what and now you're asexual what is that so people don't come out about it because it's confusing and you know you just don't want to have to advocate like if you say well i'm just not interested in a second they're like yeah they're like i'm like chocolate is way better than sex so anyway i after you i just have one story that i'd like to um and it's about the tennessee it's it takes place in tennessee and it's the music industry um and they want to stop the disastrous anti-lgbtq legislation leading record labels streaming services and publishing companies in nashville issued an open letter urging lawmakers to denounce legislation targeting the lgbt community last month governor bill lease signed a bill requiring trans students in tennessee that they couldn't compete in they could only compete in sports according to the gender at birth you know i'm like well you know the part that you know it's the new demon it's a new demon because they can't do gay people anymore because nobody cares right you know so well one of the thing we need to be looking at with some of these pieces of legislation is that some of them require a genital examination before you can it is unacceptable so going on to our trivia question yes yes so may asian pacific islander heritage month first asian el asian pacific islander lgbtq plus u.s congressperson might have been mark tecano who was elected in 2012 that's not that long ago not still there front no he's still he's still serving oh okay he's been reelected if if he was elected to the u.s house of representatives which means every two two years he has to run again yeah um yeah that's for the house at the senate's every six yeah but what's unique about mark is he identifies as japanese sand sai and the sand sai is an acknowledgement that his grandparents were in a war relocation camp during world war two which means they lived in california and they were sent to one of the internment camps in the desert in narizona which is a piece of our history that we really don't talk about he's now actually by the new democratic majority in the house he's the chair of the veterans affairs committee so so vermont's first asian pacific islander lgbtq plus legislator it's a trick question because we haven't had one i was gonna say we need one so with that linda well what do we usually do we resist