This weekend, Blackness and queerness will be at the center of Houston’s music scene. On Saturday, April 30, Black and queer people from all over the nation will gather in Space City for the Black Queer AF Music Festival, an unforgettable night of celebration, empowerment, and community. …
Enby Tznius: Examining Modesty as a Non-binary Person
Posted on April 20, 2022Finding progressive and empowering conceptualizations around dressing and behaving in ways that protect my energy—how I would define modesty—is a challenge. Bringing those resources into a fold that includes non-binary fashion, however, can feel even harder—and super limiting.…
QTPOC OUTsider Fest Artists Felix III, mirrored fatality, and Kalup Linzy Find Moments of Liberation
Posted on April 14, 2022I was grateful for the opportunity to speak directly to OUTsider artists of color Felix III, mirrored fatality, and Kalup Linzy, who all took the opportunity of this difficult moment in the world, in terms of the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond, to push their work into new dimensions.…
AFAF 9: Sex Education in Black Southern Communities with Jasmine Phillips
Posted on April 5, 2022On this episode of the Asking for a Friend podcast, host Dr. Laura McGuire sits down with sex educator, Ph.D. candidate, and disease intervention specialist Jasmine Phillips to discuss being a Black LGBTQ researcher, sexual satisfaction and communication among partners, healing generational trauma, and how to meet communities where they're at when it comes to sex education.…
AFAF 8: LGBTQ Inclusion and Christianity with nakedpastor David Hayward
Posted on March 1, 2022On this episode of the Asking for a Friend podcast, host Dr. Laura McGuire chats with David Hayward, AKA the NakedPastor, about moving past the “love the sinner, hate the sin” narrative, blending art with spirituality, and making change through cartoons.…
A Dream Realized: The Mahogany Project Opens Houston’s First Black Trans-Led Community Center
Posted on February 24, 2022When I speak with Verniss McFarland III, founder of The Mahogany Project, the excitement is palpable. On February 26, the Houston-based non-profit will celebrate the grand opening of its new physical space, The Mahogany Project Center and, in turn, will become the first Black trans-led organization to open a brick-and-mortar location in the city.…
AFAF 7: Kink, Non-Monogamy, and Consent with Susan Wright
Posted on February 1, 2022On the season two premiere of the Asking for a Friend podcast, host Dr. Laura McGuire sits down with Susan Wright, executive director for the National Coalition for Sexual Freedom, to discuss defining kink and consent, eliminating fears around our sexual fantasies, and the Fifty Shades of Grey phenomenon.…
What it is to be an Active Witness: T Lavois Thiebaud and Jason Nodler Talk Collaboration and the Catastrophic Theatre’s ‘4.48 Psychosis’
Posted on January 8, 2022I first learned of the playwright Sarah Kane through Houston’s Catastrophic Theatre and founder Jason Nodler in 2011, just a few months after I embarked on a dance theater collaboration with a contemporary ballet and dance theater company I had followed avidly for many years. I was running off the high of what the best collaborative relationships can be. It was through that collaboration that I would meet and date one of the actors cast in the Catastrophic Theatre’s production…
Unlearning Leviticus: Bridging the Gay-Christian Gap
Posted on December 29, 2021However, from the boundaries of my own lived experience, and despite Christ “ending the old law,” Christians who condemn LGBTQIA+ identities and experiences often cite one Old Testament passage in particular, and there has perhaps been no text with a larger influence on attitudes toward gay people than the biblical book of Leviticus.…
On Containing Multitudes: Discovering My Jewish Roots
Posted on December 20, 2021When I was seven years old, I asked for a rather unusual gift—a menorah. Now, if I had been growing up in a Jewish household, this might not have seemed so out of place; but, as a second-grader who was raised between two Baptist and Catholic families—and attended a Methodist church—this was an odd request. Nevertheless, my mom took me to a craft store and we picked out a paint-it-yourself clay menorah with beautiful Stars of David all across it.…