{"id":330,"date":"2021-12-13T05:22:36","date_gmt":"2021-12-13T05:22:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/calledtoqueer.com\/?p=330"},"modified":"2022-01-16T21:14:22","modified_gmt":"2022-01-17T04:14:22","slug":"introduction-episode","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/calledtoqueer.com\/index.php\/2021\/12\/13\/introduction-episode\/","title":{"rendered":"Introduction Episode"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In this episode, Colette and Kate introduce themselves, discuss how Called to Queer came to be, and talk about their vision for the podcast and the community.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Transcript:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[00:00:00]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Colette:<\/strong> Hello and welcome to Called to Queer, where we hold space for the queer Mormon women, nonbinary and trans experiences. I’m Colette and my pronouns are she\/her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kate:<\/strong> And I’m Kate and my pronouns are she\/they.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Colette:<\/strong> Today we’re here introducing this podcast. But before we jump into that, we wanted to start off by saying what brought us queer joy this week. So Kate, what brought you queer joy this week?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kate:<\/strong> Actually, I was scrolling through my Instagram and noticed that I missed a concert this week, that I was so excited to go to in Salt Lake City. It’s Katie Pruitt, which I know Colette knows because I introduced Colette to Katie.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Colette:<\/strong> It’s true.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kate:<\/strong> She was in Salt Lake this week and she posted about that show because someone proposed to their girlfriend [00:01:00] in the middle of her concert. And she had it on video and I watched, and I’m so proud of Salt Lake City right down. So I was really happy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Colette:<\/strong> That’s so cute! That makes me happy. That’s definitely queer joy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kate:<\/strong> Thank you. Yeah. That’s great.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Colette:<\/strong> Love that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kate:<\/strong> All right. How about you? What brought you queer joy this week?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Colette:<\/strong> So I love rainbows. Rainbows make me really happy. And my whole house is decorated in them. And I recently got a rainbow watercolor heart flag that I have outside my house. And I just hung it on a hook that was already there, but it kept flapping around everywhere and getting stuck in my rose bushes and whatever. And I figured out how to make it stay so it doesn’t get all twisted, just using a really simple hair tie.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So now every time I look out my kitchen window, I see this flag, flapping with all the queerness and happiness. And that brings me queer joy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kate:<\/strong> I love that so much. Can I expand on that a little bit? Cause I saw that somebody had posted [00:02:00] a while back about the lesbian couple had a pride flag up on their garage and they were afraid of people ripping it down. And so they created a whole contraption pulley system in order to prevent people from, being able to rip it off. And they like recorded people, trying to rip it off. They couldn’t. And the caption was something like this is the most lesbian thing I’ve ever seen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And I was like, “That’s awesome.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Colette:<\/strong> I love that. I’m grateful. I haven’t had any issues with anyone trying to steal mine. Luckily I’m in a pretty quiet neighborhood, so hopefully nothing happens and I’m just grateful that now it’s not all twisty and stuck in my rose bushes. Yay, hair ties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kate:<\/strong> I know, right. So like these simple solutions. And so I love that. I love that, first of all, that we have the ability to express ourselves that way, but also that you can manage with simple repairs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Colette:<\/strong> I was proud of myself for sure. [00:03:00]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, Kate, this is our first episode and we want to do this first episode where we just kind of intro brief intros of each other and just kind of talk about this podcast, how it came to be, what we hope to accomplish. So you want to introduce yourself briefly first?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kate:<\/strong> Yeah, I can go first. I am a PhD student at the University of California, Riverside. So normally I live in California, but right now I am living in Romania. I currently am a graduate researcher in Romania and my family lives in Utah, and that’s where I’ve spent most of the pandemic. So I kind of bounced between all three places. I identify as a nonbinary lesbian Latter-day Saint, and we can talk about what each one of those things means, they mean something very specific to [00:04:00] me and they’re all very important parts of my identity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Colette:<\/strong> Awesome.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kate:<\/strong> How about you?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Colette:<\/strong> Yeah so for me, I use a lot of different labels. I’m fine with queer, lesbian, gay, any of those. And I am also a licensed clinical social worker and therapist and I recently went into a group practice after working for the church for my entire professional career. And one of my favorite populations is working with queer people who grew up Mormon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And so I’m excited to be here. I know we’ll talk more about our experiences, but those are kind of just our brief intros and a little bit about us. As far as how we met, what would you say, Kate? The beginnings of this friendship and endeavor?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kate:<\/strong> I think like so many of my queer friends, I met, first of all, I’ve met them online, but also I can’t like, remember the first conversation we ever had, but so many people within this queer space meet one another through [00:05:00] social media, which is super, super cool.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So we met via social media. We met virtually before we met in person and we had chatted for a long time, just like little things back and forth until we were like, let’s be real friends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Colette:<\/strong> Well, and it was so funny. I remember we had been chatting back and forth. I think you and I both kind of created our social media educational platforms on Instagram around the same time at the end of last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And we started following each other, but it wasn’t till this last summer. It’s like the 4th of July, I think that there was a queer get together that we both went to and I saw you across the pavilion and I’m like, oh my gosh, I think that’s Kate, but I don’t know, like, can I approach them? Like, are we, will they react weird?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But then we started talking and then we became real life friends and it’s been great.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kate:<\/strong> Yeah, that’s right. That 4th of July event was eventful to say the least, but[00:06:00] I do remember also seeing you and being like, oh my gosh, like, cause it was like an hour in, before I noticed that you had been there. But immediately I thought, “Oh my gosh, Colette! Real life friends!”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Colette:<\/strong> We should be friends for real. Yeah. And then it was really sad when the United States finally allowed you to leave to go to Romania. So we’d only been friends in person for, you know, a couple of months at that point. But of course, we kept talking and kept sharing. I’m not really sure exactly how this idea came to be. I think I was just maybe talking about how I just was feeling more and more the need to create community for these queer individuals I keep working with, because it can be so isolating and somehow the idea of a podcast came up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kate:<\/strong> I mean, that’s the nice way to put it. Another way to put it would be that you had this great idea. And I snuck into it and said, “Colette, please let me be a part of this with you.” So, so that’s a nice way to frame it. I appreciate that. [00:07:00]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Colette:<\/strong> Well, no, I’m excited. Cause like I’ve played around with the idea of a podcast for ages, you know, part of why I created that professional, Instagram and Facebook is just to share good mental health info and a podcast could be another way. I’m a total podcast junkie, listening to podcasts all the time, but I would never have taken the step to actually start one, if I didn’t have someone else keeping me accountable and helping move stuff forward. So I’m really grateful that you’re like, please, please, please, please, please let me help. I’m like, yes, please. Cause this wouldn’t happen without someone else.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 What do you see the mission of this podcast being and how are we different than all the other podcasts out there?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kate:<\/strong> Ooh. Okay. Well, first of all, I think part of what we’re talking about is audience. Who are the people that we want to connect with? And from the beginning, from the very beginning, even before we, came up with the idea for a podcast, you and I had been talking about how there was a lack of community for women, nonbinary people, and trans [00:08:00] people within Mormonism. There isn’t a place for us to connect for a, for groups for us, for those, you know, all these different types of avenues that are available for the broader queer community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There, there isn’t as much for us and we wanted to create a space for that. A. A community. So I definitely think our mission is to build community. I also think our mission is to say something along the lines of Mormonism and what it means to be a Latter-day Saint and how we can reclaim whatever we want to reclaim about Mormon, newness and Mormonism being a spectrum rather than a binary, right? Active, inactive, active, less active. There’s a spectrum to Mormonism that we all get to claim whatever we need to claim, whether it’s just heritage, whether it’s trauma, even. [00:09:00] There is something for us to claim here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Colette:<\/strong> I love that. I think I kind of joked a lot that I felt like my experience was really hard. Cause I felt like I was too Mormon for the queers and too queer for the Mormons. And I know that there’s a lot of people who are in that in-between space and being able to claim whatever and have it be this spectrum of experiences and whatever you need it to be, instead of putting people in boxes of you’re not queer enough, you’re not Mormon enough. And just create this community of this togetherness. We hear the experiences and stories of queer Mormon women, nonbinary, and trans folks on other podcasts. But this will be the only one that I’m aware of that focuses exclusively on that. As we often see, even within the church, they tend to hold up a lot of cis men and their experience, which is great. We love that there’s any recognition that queer people exist, but I’m excited to focus on some of the [00:10:00] unique experiences for people that are not cis men.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kate:<\/strong> Yeah. Can we just be more explicit about that? We both listen to a lot of podcasts and we listen to queer Mormon podcasts. And they’re really valuable and excellent. Lots of them are run by allies, which is excellent because those people can be in between, you know, navigate the in-between spaces and others aren’t solely focused on what the patriarchy or the patriarchy that happens within the church. They’re not, they’re not as focused on that. And I think that this is a place for us to talk about those issues more readily and apparently, and explicitly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Colette:<\/strong> I love that. Yeah. Thank you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We want to talk a little bit about what the podcast name means to us. It makes me happy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kate:<\/strong> Yeah. Okay. I’ll start by [00:11:00] saying Colette just happened to be struck with inspiration on this,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Colette:<\/strong> Hopefully that word isn’t too triggering, but I really do feel like it was inspired.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kate:<\/strong> Yeah. So I was throwing around ideas about Sisters and Mxsters, which if you don’t know the term MX replaces, Mr. or Mrs. for, especially for nonbinary folks. So I really, I liked the idea of Sisters and Mxsters, but we needed something substantial. We needed something that focused on everybody and Colette just happened upon this brillance that is Called to Queer and everything designed its way into that name. I think everything fell into place with that name.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Colette:<\/strong> Well, I feel like this all came together pretty quickly that I was like, “Hey, we need to do a podcast.” And then you’re like, “Yes, we do. Let’s do it.” And then I [00:12:00] was up till like 12:30 or 1, one morning, just trying to figure out, well, what are we going to call it? Cause we want to make sure we can reserve like a domain and email and Instagram, Facebook, all that stuff. And so I’m like, well maybe how do we feel about like Queer Relief Society? And we’re both like, no that’s too gendered and that can be triggering for people, but we wanted something that was very quickly recognized as Mormon and queer. I was looking up different lists of Mormon words and things. And then it just came to me. It did, it was Called to Queer and I’m like, this is it. And then I was so excited for your idea for the logo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kate:<\/strong> Yeah. Things, things fell pretty quickly into place once the name came about. I think that everything can be pulled back to that name. It’s really, it’s a good one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Colette:<\/strong> Well, is there anything else you want to do on this first intro podcast before we sign off for this episode?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kate:<\/strong> Just welcome, everybody. Welcome. It doesn’t matter who you are, how you [00:13:00] identify, how you see yourself in this world. We want to make this a safe space for anybody who wants to join us on this journey. Whether you’re an ally, whether you’re part of this community as a queer person, whatever. This, this is meant to be a safe space, dedicated to people who might not feel like they have the safe space.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Colette:<\/strong> Yes. Welcome everybody. We hope you take the chance to follow rate, review, share and feel free to get in touch with us. We have a website, calledtoqueer.com and you can follow us on Instagram and Facebook @CalledToQueer. We will see you next time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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