LGBTQ&A

As a young boy, Gamal Palmer — Senior Vice President of Leadership Development at the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles — would sit in his local synagogue, wearing a yarmulke and in mid-prayer, as people would routinely approach to ask if he was Jewish. As a Black man, his participation, even his presence, was treated with disbelief.  There are many stereotypes about Jewish people; that they are Black or People of Color is not one of them. In fact, a recent study found that the American Jewish community has been chronically undercounting the number of People of Color who are Jewish. They estimate the number is roughly 12-15 percent.  Talking on this week's episode, Palmer says he has just now begun to feel comfortable voicing his blackness in Jewish spaces, and also talks about why he's been comparatively less vocal about his sexuality. "A lot of it had to do with my own not wanting to lead with my queerness. Therefore, not only did I not lead with it, but I actually didn't really explore it." LGBTQ&A is hosted and produced by Jeffrey Masters. @jeffmasters1

"If you want to write history, you need to be brave with what you think." Before becoming the deputy mayor of Tel Aviv, Israel — the first openly gay person to hold the post and one of only a few women — Chen Arieli was an activist, one of the most visible and influential in the country. Now adjusting to life as a public official, she talks about working behind the scenes to assure that 2018 protests against Israel's discriminatory surrogacy law included other issues and to why the treatment of trans people is such an urgent matter in the nation. LGBTQ&A is hosted and produced by Jeffrey Masters. @jeffmasters1

In 1993, almost a decade before Uzi Even would make history as the first openly gay person to serve in Israel's parliament, the Knesset, he took part in the first-ever Knesset meeting on the subject of queer people serving openly in the military. This turned Even, who was dismissed from the Israel Defense Forces when they discovered that he was gay, into a national celebrity, and lead the government to change the laws to allow queer people to serve in the military. From there, working diligently over the years, his marriage, the adoption of his son, and his eventual divorce, were all among the first to be legally recognized in Israel, setting a legal precedent for other queer couples in the country. Now 78, Even talks about his experience with conversion therapy, the ongoing battles for LGBTQ rights in Israel, and his hopes for the future of Israel.  LGBTQ&A is hosted and produced by Jeffrey Masters. @jeffmasters1

It was the late '80s, the height of the AIDS crisis. Rabbi Denise Eger was 28 years old—"a newly minted rabbi"—who would don mask, gown, and rubber gloves to visit members of her congregation in the hospital. Nurses were too afraid to enter the hospital rooms so they'd leave patients' meals outside. It was "the years when they thought you could catch it through the air," she recalls. Rabbi Eger would feed those too weak to do it themselves, often removing her mask and gloves, providing a rare dose of human touch. Then she'd move to another patient, another hospital.  At the same time, she was coming out publicly. "If you're hiding and lying about who you are," she says, particularly for a rabbi, that's not a good thing. "It's not healthy...it's not good for the soul." She came out and has since become one of the most famous rabbis in the world.  LGBTQ&A is hosted and produced by Jeffrey Masters. @jeffmasters1

"On the one hand, you want to celebrate what feels like progress," Alana Mayo begins. She's describing the range of identities we've begun to see on and off-screen — people that have been historically underrepresented in Hollywood, or worse, completely invisible. But she warns that the work isn't over.  "Is this a trend, or do we feel like we've actually reached a tipping point of change? I think it's a trend that will have lasting power." Alana Mayo, the Head of Production and Development for Michael B. Jordan's production company, Outlier Society, is one of the many people in the entertainment industry ushering in this new era of representation and storytelling. After working with Outlier Society, one of the first production companies to adopt inclusion riders for all current and future productions, Warner Bros. changed their company-wide policies to also focus on and actively increase the number of women, people of color, members of the LGBTQ community, and other underrepresented groups. (An inclusion rider is a contract provision that can be used to mandate equity in casting and crew hires.)  LGBTQ&A is hosted and produced by Jeffrey Masters. @jeffmasters1

"Are you a boy or a girl?" It's the question Karen Tongson's been asked more than any other throughout her life. When she was in grad school, following in the footsteps of countless butches before her, she finally cut her hair short, leaving behind the performative version of femininity. "I finally just shed that last bit of gender trouble." "Gender is something that is fun and fluid," she asserts. The performance of it all, the reluctance to conform to historical gender norms, is just one of the many qualities that drew Karen Tongson to Karen Carpenter, the now legendary singer who died at the age of 33. Karen Tongson's new book, Why Karen Carpenter Matters, delves into the LGBTQ+ community's unlikely connection to the late singer. LGBTQ&A is hosted and produced by Jeffrey Masters. @jeffmasters1

John Cameron Mitchell talks about the evolving legacy of Hedwig And The Angry Inch, why Hedwig is not a trans character, and how growing up queer teaches you empathy. "Empathy comes from being an outsider." LGBTQ&A is hosted by Jeffrey Masters and produced by The Advocate magazine.

Not only do cities like Norfolk, Louisville, and Indianapolis have thriving LGBTQ+ communities, they're now seeing larger increases in their LGBTQ populations than places like San Francisco or New York. Samantha Allen documents this change in her new book, Real Queer America. It disproves the common my that if you want to be happy, you must move to a big city in a blue state.  LGBTQ&A is hosted and produced by Jeffrey Masters. Follow us on Twitter: @jeffmasters1 @lgbtqpod

Now that he's retired, Adam Rippon talks about the process of figuring out what the rest of his life is going to look like after skating. LGBTQ&A is hosted and produced by Jeffrey Masters. Follow up on Twitter: @lgbtqpod @jeffmasters1

Trans men exist; sometimes that feels like an important thing to remind people. While most people know who Laverne Cox, Janet Mock, and even Caitlyn Jenner are, the majority would have a harder time naming men of the trans experience. When Michael D. Cohen recently shared with the public that he transitioned in 2000, he instantly became one of Hollywood's most visible men in the trans community. The actor, most known for his role on Henry Danger, the long-running Nickelodeon sitcom, hopes that by talking more publicly about his gender history, he's signaling to the kids who watch the show to "just be who you are, whatever that is."  LGBTQ&A is hosted and produced by Jeffrey Masters. @jeffmasters1