April 1st 2022 Queer Voices

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Pride Grand Marshal nominees -- New Play at Stages

We speak with two candidates for Pride grand marshal, Andrew Edmonson and Melissa Vivanco. Andrew is one of the male identifying candidates while Melissa is a finalist for female identifying candidates. We speak the work each has done in Houston’s LGBTQ community as well as how they came out. Voting for grand Marshal is restricted to Houston and the surrounding areas (100 mile radius from downtown). Voting ends Friday, April 15th at 5pm

GUEST: Andrew Edmonson and Melissa Vivanco
https://pridehouston.org/participate/grand-marshals/

 Then we speak with Travis Torrence, a finalist for male identifying grand Travis Torrence is a lawyer, philanthropist, and community organizer who has dedicated his life to promoting justice, equity, and inclusion for the LGBTQ+ community in all its diversity. Travis currently serves as President-Elect of the Board of Directors of the National LGBTQ+ Bar Foundation, which focuses on legal issues that impact LGBTQ+ people, such as leading the effort to ban the LGBTQ+ “panic” defenses across the country and the discriminatory blood ban, which places limits on people assigned male at birth who have had sex with other people assigned male at birth from donating blood. Travis has also chaired numerous philanthropic events, including the World AIDS Day Luncheon (which raises funds for AIDS Foundation Houston), the Victory Fund Champagne Brunch (which works to increase the number of openly LGBTQ elected officials at all levels of government), the Montrose Center’s Out For Good Gala, Dining Out for Life, the Camp For All Gala, and the Houston Boychoir Luncheon. Travis also currently serves as Secretary of the Board of Directors of the Hollyfield Foundation, which fosters and protects individual rights and freedoms by providing direct and indirect funding to qualifying 501(c)3 organizations that work to prevent discrimination, educate and secure equal rights for LGBTQ+ people, and assist in health care issues for the community, particularly in the areas of HIV/AIDS education, care, and treatment.

GUEST: Travis Torrence
https://pridehouston.org/participate/grand-marshals/

Finally, we speak with playwrite,  Brendan Bourque-Sheil author of Sunrise Coven. The play is at Stages Houston.  The play follows Hallie who spent her life caring for her geriatric patients as a nurse in the nearly abandoned town of Buckstop, Texas. When her eyesight fails her, she finds a new way to heal her patients: bypassing Big Pharma with the help of a local coven. As funny as it is morbid, this brilliant gallows-humor comedy from the author of Stages’ hit The Book of Maggie speaks to the ills of American health care with love, wit, and a little magic. The play is going on March 25 through April 10th.

Guest: Brendan Bourque-Sheil
https://www.stageshouston.com/Online/default.asp?doWork::WScontent::loadArticle=Load&BOparam::WScontent::loadArticle::article_id=F84A9AE4-914F-4DEB-9F1D-C36A9738240D&menu_id=E8278111-3055-423C

Queer Voices airs in Houston Texas on 90.1FM KPFT and is heard as a podcast here. Queer Voices hopes to entertain as well as illuminate LGBTQ issues in Houston and beyond. Check out our socials at:

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