With Many Regrets

Your faithful journalette here, sadly reporting that I must discontinue this blog, as I have committed myself to too many other efforts to continue. If anyone is interested in taking over my post as interviewer, please do let me know at jflyles at gmail dot com, and in any case, take care.

I remain very truly yours,

Jenna Lyles

P.S. QUEER THE REVOLUTION

Interview with Landon Phillips

Need a hug? I sure do, and I know just where to get it. Landon loves giving out the Best Bear Hugs Ever, but don't let his sweet demeanor fool you, he's as tough as they come. What's that you say? You want proof? Well friends, this lovely young man returned recently from riding his bicycle across the U.S.A. on a mission created by the nonprofit Darkness to Light in order to raise awareness about child sexual abuse. Check it out, also, what have you done lately to help prevent child sexual abuse? Heh? Get to it, ladies, gents and bents...if Landon can pedal across the country raising awareness, you can find a way to contribute to this most excellent cause.

QQ: Tell me a little bit about yourself and where you’re from.

LP: My name is Landon Neil Phillips, and I’m twenty-two, my birthday is February 23rd, and I am a pisces, a distinct pisces, though I’ve heard recently that the zodiac has changed. But I looked at CNN and their website says it hasn’t. I’m strictly a pisces whether it’s changed or not! I was born in Charlotte, NC and raised by my mom and my brother and some crazy family members. I went to an art high school, where my majors were film and theatre. I spent a year after high school in Charlotte and got really involved in the music scene and DJing, which made me really want to break away from Charlotte, so I moved to Charleston.

QQ: Why did you choose Charleston?

LP: The charm, the beauty, the European vibe I got from it, it was just a feeling I got from this place, and I’m glad I stuck with it. I’ve lived here for the past four years and it’s been wonderful.

QQ: What is your definition of the term “queer”?

LP: Different, anything different. Anything could be queer. And you know these “homosexuals” are pretty different than these “straight” people, so I guess we’re a little queer ourselves, but I’m okay with being different, it makes me sleep better.

QQ: Tell me about your recent cross-country trip. Maybe start out with how you got into it and what exactly you did.

LP: Well, my friend Tyler works for Darkness to Light, which is a national nonprofit that works to prevent child sexual abuse. He had this idea to bike across the country and raise money and awareness for a prevention program they do. At the time I was really itching to do something, and when people start saying things to me such as: “No, you can’t do that,” or “There’s no way it’s going to happen,” it really pushes me. If you tell me I’m not going to be able to do it, I will do it. Biking across the country was something I never thought I would ever do, but as time went on, it just started happening. Tyler put together a packet, and we raised money for it before and during the trip, and the next thing I knew I was in the middle of Kansas, and I was like, “Holy crap, how the heck did I get here? And on a bike!” The trip was very eye-opening, and the cause of preventing child sexual abuse was something I hadn’t focused on before it was brought to light for me. I felt like I needed to bring it to light as well. Something you do very passionately, which is very difficult and takes over your entire 24/7 makes you really want to get the message across. I’ve heard some really bad stories. I feel like I’m a kid at heart, always and forever, and to hear some of these stories about these seven year olds having their whole childhood changed just because of one thing that a family member did...well, I quickly became very active in the cause.

What do you think is the most important thing you learned from doing the trip?

You can have anything you want, if you want it then it is yours. Hard work is all that it takes, and hard work sucks but the ultimate goal is your dreams, and there’s nothing stopping you from attaining those. And I know that sounds really cliche, but it’s true. I know now that I can have anything I want all I have to do is go for it, and I will.

What was your favorite place to go through?

I have two favorite places, for two different reasons. Wyoming was really hard, we’d be riding and there wouldn’t be a single place for hundreds and hundreds of miles. There’s so much room in America. I can’t even believe that we live in a country that has all of this. It’s like being on the moon, a big, red moon. You’ll go hundreds and hundreds of miles, and you’ll get to a town which consists of one family, and that’s it. It was mind boggling. My other favorite place was California. There was some really intense riding there, it was like being in a big video game the whole time. There are all these huge cars and huge mountains and huge trees and huge cliffs and you’re just up and down up and down, side to side, oh it was crazy! And beautiful, absolutely beautiful, and the people were crazy. I’ve never met as many weird people as I did in California and I loved it.

How did it feel to end your journey in the same place you began it?

It definitely felt like I was ending the story, in a good way. I had experienced so much that the way thought about Charleston changed. Before I left I was like, “Get me the heck out of here! I need to get out, I need to find new places and do new things.” But even halfway through my trip I wanted to come back, there’s no place like it. It takes something like leaving for three months to realize how lucky we are. You might work in a restaurant, but that’s better than being out in the middle of nowhere and having no culture whatsoever. There’s just so much culture here, I love that. Also, I had my boyfriend waiting for me back here, so everyday I was biking I was biking to get closer to him. And he really got me through it, even though he wasn’t with me. So I really missed him a lot. Coming back, I’ve never been so nervous in my entire life. When I saw my mom, who met me out in California, it was just such a huge shock. I knew I was going to see her, and I was shaking because I was so nervous about seeing her, because I knew I was done, I did it and I’m here, and my mom’s here. And you know, Tyler and Mike weren’t the most affectionate people, on the trip, and I’m a very affectionate person--

QQ: Hundreds of miles in Wyoming without hugs, not good for Landon.

--not good, not good for Landon at all! And I remember hugging her, and it felt so weird, just to hug someone. I found that even on the trip, people who would let us stay at their house, I would give them a big hug and say thank you so much for everything you’ve done for us, it means so much,” and it did, it meant a lot. I don’t know, I’m a very huggy person--without touch you’re just so empty. It’s so important.

QQ: So, if you could wave your magic wand and make three things happen in charleston in the next year, what would they be?

LP: If I were the ruler of Charleston, what would I do? I have to think about that! There’s so many things you can do with a magic wand! First of all, you know that three story high rise that sits above that smelly Abercrombie & Fitch? I want to buy that and turn it into a triple level bar, and each level will have a different vibe, at the top you’ll have the crazy lights and dance, and you’ll have your sophisticated bar in the middle and you’ll have your trendy, modern bar at the bottom. So, I would wave my magic wand and get rid of that Abercrombie and rule that place because it is beautiful. Let’s see, I would turn St. Philip Street into a freaking bike lane! St. Philip just needs to be bike lane. Let’s see, third wish...I just have so many ideas! I’m on the spot! What would be some of yours?

QQ: Mine? If I could do three things? Wave my magic wand? I would stop gentrification. I would begin a community-wide dialogue about race and gender and class and the way those things operate in Charleston, and have a board of people specifically dedicated to fostering that dialogue and making reports to the mayors office, and they would all be paid well. And the third thing...I would probably do something about bikes, too...

LP: Ok, so, I would turn Abercrombie into the coolest triple bar ever, and also live there, and I would turn St. Philip into a bike lane, and I would become the mayor of awesomeness! I would love it if everyone came to my pad and hung out with me. Because I am the mayor of awesomeness and I love people and I love friends. I would also make everyone buy Stella By Starlight’s upcoming album, which is dropping soon!

QQ: So tell me about your experience as a teenager in Charlotte.

LP: I went to a very open high school, I was out when I was in tenth grade, and I had a loving boyfriend, and my mom loved him and his family loved me, and we were both the coolest kids in school, and the teachers loved him, and teachers hated me! So we were very fortunate to have what we had.

QQ: What’s your coming out story?

LP: Well, I always really wanted guys approval, but I thought that that was just because I wanted to fit in with them, but then around eighth grade I was like, “Holy crap, I’m gay!” But I was determined to be straight. And then I went to my high school and the first day, I saw so many gay people, and I was so freaked out, and I was like, “Oh my god, are those guys gay?” And my friend was like, “Yeah, are you a homophobe or something?” And I was like “No! No! No, I’m not a homophobe.” It was clearly okay, and I was like ‘Okay, well, that seems to be alright.” And my mom has millions of gay friends, so so many gay friends, I can’t take it. One day I went to get something out of the pantry, as simple as that, and my mom turned to me and said, “Are you gay?” And I was like, “Yeah, Mom, I’m gay.” And she was like “Thank God! I’ve always wanted a gay son!” I knew that if I had my mom’s approval everything was okay, so the next day at school I came out, and word got around. I remember going to one of my classes, and one or the straightest people I know, who was one of my friends, was like “Landon, I love you so much!” and ran over and gave me a big hug in front of everyone. It wasn’t awkward, it wasn’t embarrassing, it was very cool. Also, I won prom prince and king. I was just a goober, I didn’t really do anything but have fun with my friends.

QQ: I’m so glad you had such a good experience! What do you think about Dan Savage’s “It Gets Better” project?

LP: I think it’s amazing. Why not? It does get better.

QQ: Does it?

LP: Yes.

QQ: For everyone?

LP: Like I said, you can do anything you want. It might be really hard. It gets better if you want it to get better. It’s hard, it’s really hard sometimes, obviously more for some people. But it definitely gets better, how could it not get better?

QQ: I mean, I think it gets better for us because we have privilege, and we have education, and we’re in a position where we can make it better for ourselves, but not everybody is in that position. Maybe we can do anything we want but not everybody can.

LP: You’re absolutely right, not everyone is in that position. It is very difficult sometimes for people. But ultimately for those people it will get better. I mean I have faith in that, definitely.

QQ: I mean I want to believe it will, and I think there is a sea change in the way we’re thinking as a nation. I think that more people support gay marriage than don’t support it, people are coming around, if slowly, but at the same time, for the queer transgender woman of color living on the streets of Detroit, I don’t know if it gets better for her.

LP: What I’m saying, is if you want a better life for yourself, then you have every mean and possibility to make it better, it’s hard, it will be so hard.

QQ: How do you think that we can make it better? Because I don’t think it just gets better, we have to make it better.

LP: My opinion is that talking about it, but not being so forceful with it, is good. All we can do is just tell people that it’s okay, and then people will believe that it’s okay, and then more people will be open to it, and more people will start coming out, and then the more that happens, the more society has to change, so society will change. It takes a while, but I think we’ll see gay marriage legalized in the next decade.

QQ: Oh yeah? I hope so, when it happens we’re throwing a big party at your triple decker bar...would you ever get married?

LP: Well, I remember when I was on the trip, and we were all watching TV. We were watching the news about the repeal of Prop 8, and never in my life have I felt so different, than that moment, when I was talking to Tyler and Mike. It was kind of emotional for me, because I was really realizing that I am being denied a right, just for me being me. That really struck home, I’ve never felt something like that before. I started thinking about it, and I do believe that obviously we should have the option to be married. Will I ever get married? If it’s the right person yes, I would love to. I’m a hopeless romantic.

QQ: If you had to ask yourself an interview question, what would it be?

LP: I always like to ask people what their favorite color is, because I think it says a lot about them...

QQ: So what’s your favorite color? And what does it say about you?

LP: Sea foam green. Or mint. And it says that I’m a breath of fresh air! And sea foam reminds me of the beach a lot, when I get into water I become a different person...I swear I was a mermaid in my past life.

QQ: Thanks for telling me all of your deepest darkest secrets.

Courtney Abrams

Here's a long one, and let me tell you IT IS WORTH IT. If you know as little about privatized vs. nationalized healthcare as I do, this is the post for you. Courtney is like the really cool older sister you never had, and not only is she cool, she's actually nice to you, too. She shares her cool older sister stuff with you, lets you hang out with her friends, even gives you startlingly sage advice about your girl problems. And while most people drop the standard perfunctory "How are you?" as an invitation for you to ask how they are so they can talk about themselves for ten minutes, you can tell that Courtney really wants to know how you are. A third-year medical student at MUSC, she gives us the low-down on her future plans for her medical career and a golden nugget of a coming out story. Read on, fair readerling!

QQ: Tell me a little bit about yourself, where you’re from, that sort of thing.

CA: Well, I’m Courtney Abrams, and the most defining thing about me right now is that I am a third-year medical school student at MUSC. I grew up in Charleston, we moved here when I was three. I grew up in a really politically active household and from a really early age had instilled in me this really passionate fighting sense of social justice. I grew up canvassing with my Mom for the Mayor’s Council for Affordable Housing, and watching political debates on TV with her trying to explain it to me. That really defined a lot of my childhood, which was great, and both of my parents were so big on social outreach, so we would do Families Helping Families at Christmas and we would go serve at the Crisis Ministries soup kitchen. That was part of my childhood that I don’t think I valued until I got a little older. I went to college at the State University of New York at Geneseo near Rochester, New York, and I studied Political Science and did my thesis on the structure and sustainability of the Canadian single payer health care system, so I got really involved in health policy when I was in college, then did some graduate work at the University of Massachusetts, then dabbled in law school very briefly.

QQ: So how did you become involved in the LGBTQ community?

CA: Well I kind of grew up with it in a way. I have and had a lot of family members who are gay and lesbian, so technically my involvement started when I was three and we went to visit my aunt in San Francisco, and she was marching with her lesbian conga drum and maraca group, Sista Boom, so I marched in the San Francisco Pride parade with her at the age of three. My parents were very conscious of making it—it wasn’t even different it just was. Some aunts and uncles were married to each other, some aunts were with other women, some uncles were with men, it wasn’t even different, it was just part of our family dynamic. My formal involvement probably started in college, with the Women’s Action Coalition.

QQ: When did you come out?

CA: Oh God, I came out really late for some reason, and I still don’t know why, because I had no fear of retribution. There was no question in my mind that it wouldn’t change a thing about the way my family looked at me. Growing up, everyone always assumed that I was gay, and I never understood why, and so I think just to be contrary I was very determined that I was not going to be. Looking back I could kick myself, hindsight is 20/20 and all that. I came out to my parents probably about three or four years ago, I actually don’t really remember. It was a while after I first came out to myself and started exploring dating women and things like that; I think it was just something I wanted to have well researched. I wanted to be able to say, “This is something I have realized, and it’s something I realized a while ago and here’s how I can back it up.” I think because I come from a family of attorneys, that’s how we process things, I know that sounds really weird…

QQ: No, I understand, both of my parents are lawyers, too.

CA: So you get it, you have to have the background before you stake your claim.

QQ: Yeah, you have to be ready to fight to the doom…

CA: Yeah, and even though I knew they wouldn’t care, I knew that the first question would be, “Well that’s wonderful, have you been dating somebody?” And I wanted to be like, “Yes, I’ve dated this person and I’ve met this person and done this and so clearly, I am, in fact, a lesbian.”

QQ: That’s hilarious.

CA: And I have to tell this story cause I love it. When I came out to my Mom, we were walking the dogs, and I told her that I’d been dating someone and that someone was a girl, and she kind of paused and she said, “So, what you’re saying is, you kissed a girl and you liked it.” I was like “Mom! Come on!” And she goes, “Was it the taste of her cherry chap stick?” And then I told my Dad. He was watching the football game or some sporting thing on TV, and I was like Dad can I talk to you for a second, and he didn’t really look away form the TV, but he was like, “Yeah, what’s up?” And I said “I’m dating someone and that someone is a girl,” and he goes “Okay.” I was like, “Do you have anything to say about that?” And he was like, “Well, no republicans.” That was it. It was probably the easiest coming out in the history of gayness. I couldn’t ask for a more supportive family.

QQ: What are your future plans as far as the medical profession goes? Do you plan on melding your career with activism?

CA: Absolutely. I don’t think I could have a career that didn’t have a big foot in social justice. I have another year of rotations to do to figure out what I want, but I really like family medicine. I also really like emergency medicine, and I just did a child and adolescent psychiatry rotation that I loved, so I’m kind of on the fence. I’ll probably wind up in primary care because I can do a little bit of everything with that.

Regardless of what primary field I go into, my major, major goal is that I also want to be an abortion provider a couple days a week at a clinic like Planned Parenthood, because the number of providers is steadily declining, and the physicians who came into practice in a pre-Roe V. Wade world and know what that looks like are retiring, so we now have a very complacent generation of future physicians who take for granted that those rights are there, and that they’re not in danger, when in fact they’re in danger every day. So, in that sense, I think social activism will be a very big part of my work. I’m a big supporter of Planned Parenthood, and Physicians for Reproductive Health and Choice, and I’m the president of Medical Students for Choice at MUSC right now. So that aspect of my political and social views will be part of my work.

In terms of GLBTQAAI activism, I don’t think I can separate that from who I am and my job. One of the things I really liked about child and adolescent psychiatry was the chance to talk to some kids who were wrestling with their sexuality. Just to hear their fears and what about it was confusing and scary, and ways that they thought it could be better or easier, ways that they could feel safe. Just talking to them and hearing their stories has been invaluable. I would love to volunteer at a group like We Are Family, as their physician on call, to be there whenever they need someone to come talk to the kids, and of course my personal life is very wrapped up in that sort of activism.

QQ: What do you think the medical community’s role in the broader community should be, ideally?

CA: I think we are supposed to be the advocates for our patients, no matter who those patients may be, especially when those patients are youth, and may not have their own voice legally. I think our responsibility, as their providers, is to be their voice. We hold a unique position in the sense of confidentiality, in that what a patient tells us, short of some serious legal demands, has to stay confidential. I think it’s up to us to take those things that we hear in confidence, and find a way to incorporate them in our day-to-day practice. So, when a patient comes to us and says “I’m gay and I’m scared,” or “I think I might be a lesbian, and I said this to my Mom, and my Mom hit me.” Or when they come to you and they say, “I’m biologically a boy, but I think I’m a girl, I think I was meant to be a girl,” as a physician, it is your job not to judge these patients but to help them find their voices, to help them come to grips with whatever is concerning them or scaring them, and then to take that message to the community at large. It’s such a privilege to be in the position to become a doctor. To be, I guess, worthy of hearing these peoples stories, you need to do them justice, do not let these stories be told to you in vain. Take them to the community at large and say, “I’m a physician, and I’m here to tell you that homosexuality is not a psychiatric disease, I’m here to tell you that these kids are suffering and here’s how they’re suffering, and here’s how they’re vulnerable, and I can tell you this because these kids talk to me in confidence, and while I’m not going to break that confidence, I’m here to tell you that we do have a problem, and it’s time we address it.” And maybe you come at that from this old world view that the doctor has kind of a special place in professional society. I think you need to use that to your advantage, take that soapbox that they give you and step up on it. Take that authority and use it to help your patients outside of the office.

QQ: So I’m thinking of the pharmaceutical companies and of how so much of America is being privatized. What do you think is necessary to insure that those in the medical profession are able to prioritize the well-being of their patients over the profits?

CA: Very naively, I would hope that you would never compromise a patient’s care for profit, and that is supposed to be one of the tantamount pillars of our profession. Realistically, I know that’s probably not always the case, which is sad. Personally, I’m probably one of the biggest supporters of a national health care system you’ll ever meet. The profession has to be for-profit--I would like to make a living and pay off my student loans--but, I think when it becomes a profit-driven, capitalist profession, you do sort of lose that sense of, you know, well this patient really needs to talk to me for longer than the allotted appointment and I don’t have anything to do later, let me sit and talk with them, versus let me shoo them out the door anyway, and use that twenty minutes that I have free to do all my paperwork. I think part of the biggest problem is that it’s such a red-tape-driven profession, and unfortunately, it’s becoming a cover-your-rear sort of practice because as a country we can be somewhat lawsuit happy, and sometimes it’s completely warranted and sometimes it’s not, but there is such a fear of lawsuit that doctors wind up practicing very defensive medicine. So they are ordering unnecessary tests, they are being done with patients when the appointment is finished and they are then having to sit down and do hours and hours and hours of paperwork at the end of the day. That sort of thing shifts from being more patient-centered to being more bureaucracy-centered, and that’s a chicken-or-egg kind of thing, I don’t know where that started. It’s so refreshing to see physicians who are focused on their patients, and that is still the majority of people in the medical field, but I do think that when you take away the regulation on how much profit you can get from a patient, you stop focusing on the patient. In the countries where they do have a universal healthcare scheme, and doctors are certainly still well-paid, I think you do see a bit more focus on patient well-being. They’re not perfect by any means, but I think they do maintain a bit more focus on patients.

QQ: Okay, all of that being said, if you could pick three things that you would want to see happen in Charleston in the next year, what would you welcome to our community?

CA: One thing I would definitely like to see is more engagement, across all spectrums. I would love to see more political engagement throughout the city and the county. We have a nice arts community--I would love to see more engaged theater, more engaged art and music. I have found those very engaged underground arts communities in other places, and I really enjoyed that. In Massachusetts, I was in this really tiny town called Amherst, and the first weekend I was there, I walked into town and there was a big banner across the main road that said “Happy Untied Nations Appreciation Day!” and I was like, this is the greatest town ever! Little things like that, and honestly, having grown up here, I think Charleston has really made big steps in that. I would just like to see more, I would like to see people taking to the streets and trying to make their voices heard.

I would like to see the GLBTQAAI community unite better. I think that sometimes we can be our own worst enemy; we can be very divisive, amongst ourselves. And we’re a small community but we’re growing, and we have the capacity to be a very loud community, and make ourselves heard, but I don’t think we do that as well as we could, because we are very busy being cliquey, in some ways, and I hope that’s not offensive to anybody, that’s just what I’ve observed. I would love to see us come together better as a community more, not just on Pride weekends but come together in our day-to-day, and work together instead of against each other.

QQ: What do you think about all the stuff that’s going on with DADT, what’s your take on that?

CA: I don’t know why that policy still exists, I don’t know why in this day and age something like that is still acceptable, and why people are still fighting for it. You’re asking people to go to war for their country, to potentially give up their lives, and put their families on hold and their lives on hold to defend their country, which is, I think, one of the most honorable things you can ask of a person. But you’re asking them to defend rights that they don’t have, to defend rights and benefits that their families don’t have. I mean you’re asking people to go out and potentially die for rights that you’re not actually going to afford them, and you’re asking their families back home to not have the same stability that others have, simply because of who they love.

QQ: What is your definition of feminism and why do you think feminism is relevant and important to the LGBTQ community and rights movement?

CA: I always liked that quote, “Feminism is the radical notion that women are people.” I do consider myself a feminist, and feminism, to me, how I believe it and practice it, is the striving for equality. Not special treatment, not more than, not making up for past wrongs, just literally put us on the same playing field. I keep hearing and reading things about how there is no need for feminism because now women have achieved equality, but it’s just not true. I think we still have such a long way to go.

I don’t think that we can separate the two movements, necessarily, I think the two movements could help each other, but the flip side of that is that I go to Barnes and Noble and the feminist section and the GLBT section are the same thing, they throw the feminist books in with the GLBT books, and as someone who identifies in both communities it sort of irritates me because these are separate identities for me, I can be one without being the other. Because both can sometimes have a negative spin, from the public and the media, I do think we need to recognize them as separate movements, and let them help each other, and parallel each other, but not necessarily be lumped together.

QQ: If you had to ask yourself an interview question, what would it be?

CA: What do I think is a big problem in politics today? I see so little cohesiveness, and I’m really sick of party politics, and the idea that if you are a Republican you’re gonna vote this way and if you’re a Democrat you’re gonna vote this way. I think there are issues that don’t need to exist in party lines, things like gay rights and women’s rights, the environment, international aid. Nobody wants there to be starving children, nobody wants people to be bullied to the point that they commit suicide, nobody wants doctors to be gunned down in their homes or churches, nobody wants to see oil spills, nobody wants to see the environment falling apart and trees being chopped down, at least I hope no one wants to see these things. But I think we get so caught up in what’s supposed to define each party that we miss an opportunity to dissolve party lines, to reach across and say this is not a Democrat issue, this is not a Republican issue, this is not a political party issue, it’s not even a political issue, this is a human issue, it’s a human problem and humanity needs to work together.

We assign ourselves to those parties or candidates or ideologies based on factors that are incredibly personally important but that don’t need to be your political motivator. I hear a lot of people say they’re gonna vote for one person because they are a good Christian. Okay, but maybe that person’s policies don’t help you. Maybe you’re one of those people who really needs a strong public school system, because you can’t afford to send your kids to a private school. Maybe you’re one of those people who needs lower taxes on certain products. Maybe you’re one of those people who needs a strong public health system, or more benefits for Welfare recipients or disability recipients. But there’s this bizarre tie between certain political parties and certain religious beliefs and certain ideological beliefs, and certain by-lines, one word scare tactic bylines, and I don’t mean for that to sound like a conspiracy theory, but I think there are ties like that which don’t necessarily have a real basis in truth but they’re easy to glom onto. People cling to that. I think that becomes a massive problem with our voting population. It perpetuates stereotypes, and I would love to see those stereotypes broken. We have these ideas that the Democrats are gonna raise your taxes and the Republicans don’t care about the environment. It’s not that simple.

QQ: What is your definition of the term queer?

CA: I think queer would be the label between traditional labels, if that makes sense, more of an all-inclusive label. If you say you are gay, you are a man who is only sexually attracted to and only sleeps with men; if you say you’re a lesbian, you’re a woman who is only sexually attracted to and only sleeps with women. If you say you’re a girl, that has a specific connotation to it both biologically and socially; if you say you’re a boy, same thing. Queer is the fluidity between all of the set labels.

QQ: As far as healthcare goes, what is a single-payer system versus a multiple-payer system? Tell me a little bit about your thesis, and how Canada and the U.S. differ. Where are we right now and is that enough?

CA: Well, right off the bat, no, it’s not enough, in fact I don’t even think it’s a good bandaid. I went to school about half an hour south of Lake Ontario, so we were right on the Canadian border, and this was when it was a lot easier to go across the border and get your prescriptions filled. I got really interested in health policy while I was in college, and I had a fantastic thesis advisor who sort of helped me as much as he could and then let me loose to tear things apart! So, the Canadian system is what’s known as a single-payer system. In privatized healthcare systems, like in the US, we have multiple payers, and so we have the patient, their private insurance system, the government, and any government-run health insurance (medicare, welfare, medicaid, any child assistance program). It becomes incredibly complicated in terms of who is responsible for paying what, and insurance companies, depending on which one you have, might cover this procedure, might not, might deny you for having a preexisting condition, might not, so there’s no guarantee that you’re going to have insurance, and there’s no guarantee about who is going to be the primary payer. The problem is we have a huge portion of this country that doesn’t make enough to afford private insurance, but doesn’t make little enough to qualify for government-assisted insurance.

I looked at the single-payer system in Canada, and it is single-payer in that there is one person responsible, and that is the government. So if you are a citizen of Canada, it is actually written into their constitution that you are guaranteed healthcare coverage. I looked at the structure of the single-payer system, how it worked federally and provincially, the balance that they had established between the federal and provincial governments, and what the most recent studies were finding as far as overall health and overall satisfaction with the healthcare system. In this piece of legislation called the Canada Health Act, the federal government says that all citizens will have coverage of things that are medically necessary, and it lists a few criteria for what is medically necessary, and then it leaves it up to the provinces to decide if they are going to expound upon that, or leave it at that bare minimum. So there are differences in terms of coverage between the provinces, just like there are in the States. The flip side is that if you are a citizen of Canada, you have health insurance, it’s not a question of can you afford to go to the doctor, are you trying to decide between going to the doctor or putting food on the table, it’s not a question of that. It’s comprehensive coverage for everyone, and it’s made even more comprehensive for people below a certain income level. I was incredibly impressed by it. Also, I found that a lot of what we hear in the States, about there being long waiting lines and everything, is so exponentially exaggerated, for reasons I still don’t understand. It’s a very flawed system but it’s also a very comprehensive system. At the time I was writing my thesis, eighty seven percent of Canadians were satisfied with their health care system. When I was there, doing my research and talking to people in the policy sector about what they thought, as analysts, I found that it’s such a part of their national identity that they think of access to healthcare as a right.

The only thing I see that system doing is improving, whereas for the U.S., we’re just digging ourselves into a bigger and bigger hole. The more complicated we make this health insurance system, the worse it’s going to be for everybody. The beauty of the Canadian single-payer system, the beauty of the NHS in England, the beauty of the healthcare systems in Scandinavian countries, which, not even arguably, have the best healthcare in the world, is that they are so simple, and that healthcare is provided, bottom line, for everybody. There are also private insurance companies, so if you choose to supplement, if you can afford to supplement, that’s fine, but you’re not going to do that at the expense of anyone else.

I think what we have in the U.S. is not even really a band-aid. It was such a double-edged sword, I was glad that it passed because I felt like if it didn’t pass it would be another two or three administrations before we made any headway with healthcare, but the flip-side is that I don’t think we actually did any good, I don’t think it was good legislation by the time it passed. They took out the public health aspect of it, theres no longer any part of government health insurance. So I don’t think we did anything to fix it.

QQ: Do think there’s a way we could do it in the U.S. that would appease the majority of people?

CA: I think what’s very different about the U.S. is the national attitude, our national identity. The U.S. has such a grip, sometimes to its own detriment, on the “pull yourself up by your bootstraps” mentality. I support that, but everybody needs to have boots to begin with. So, if you’re not providing the boots, as a country, what are you expecting people to do?

QQ: Thanks Courtney!

Interview with Bill Bowick

Bill Bowick's Lady Baltimore cupcakes are almost--almost--as famous as his really awesome spectacles. When you ask any given Charlestonian if they've been to Sugar Bakeshop, they'll say, "Oh, is the place run by the guy with the really cute spectacles? I love those things!" But besides the beloved eyewear, there are many things to love about Bill. For example, he moved all the way to Charleston with his partner, David, from New York City, to bestow the cookies and smiles readily available at his bakeshop upon us undeserving philistines. What else is there to love, you may ask? Well, read on, fair patron, and see for yourself...that is, if you can get past the most awesomest spectacles ever.

Tell me a little bit about yourself, where you’re from.

I was born in Cartersville, Georgia, but I was only there for a few months. My Dad is a Baptist minister, so my family moved a good bit when I was young. I grew up mostly in Chattanooga, I would spend my winters and fall there, and my summers in Charleston with my Dad. My parents divorced when I was eleven, and my Dad’s family was from Charleston and my Mom’s was from Chattanooga. So I would come to Charleston when most people were leaving because of the heat. It was a very interesting place, it was a different city then. I’m glad I was here then. At the time, I wasn’t very well entertained, I was pretty bored, but in retrospect it was a pretty interesting time to know Charleston, it was more off the beaten path.

So what brought you back here?

I really wanted to be in a smaller community where I could make more of an impact. And I knew Charleston. It’s such an interesting, charming, vital city, especially for a city of its size. I actually like the small size of it. When I was younger I wouldn’t have appreciated that but I do now. I had this idea of opening a business, but the idea of doing that in New York sounded so cut-throat, and maybe more difficult than it really needed to be, and we were kind of looking for a whole lifestyle thing, so for all of those reasons Charleston came up on our radar.

What motivates you to do what you do?

I like to do things for people, I like to make people happy. There are a lot of people with negative energy in the world, and it’s hard to be negative all the time. The whole time I lived in New York I had to remind myself not to smile too much. I feel like here I can just be myself and be happy and I can do this thing that I love to do for other people, thereby making them feel good. And baking is creative. In architecture, a creative thought might take a year or two, minimum, to be implemented. So I love the instant gratification from baking, it’s great and it’s very aesthetic, even in the approach, and in the final result.

Tell me about your original idea for Sugar, and how it’s developed.

The idea for Sugar is that we would sell small baked goods, and we wanted everything to be fresh, and local. I know its so trendy right now to be local. We see that as a sea change in the way people think. I hope that in the next few years, it won’t even be that big of a deal to identify as local, you’ll just expect that it would be. But we did want that, too. We wanted it to be local, fresh, and made from scratch. So that was the major concept. The name ended up being one of the most difficult things for us to decide on. We hit upon “Sugar” because, as architects, we like things that are pure and elemental. I like the idea of things that can be read in two ways as well, and there’s a lot of that in “Sugar, it’s a term of endearment in the South. So people can read it in two different ways, and appreciate it in both.

Tell me about an interesting experience you’ve had as a result of being in the community in such a public way, and owning a business.

Well, recently there was an article in the paper about us and out of the blue, we got a little note from another couple saying how great it is to see a positive impression of a gay couple in the community. That’s something that we really made an effort towards when we moved here. I have to admit, having grown up in the South, it was a little bit scary, because I had grown up here years previous, and I wasn’t sure what kind of reception we would get. I thought people might even avoid our store because of that. And we just decided that we were going to be--not in your face--just natural, and even in New York, sometimes you have to strive to make that happen. It feels real comfortable to us. We’ve had lots of positive interactions from people coming into the shop.

How do you define community?

To me a community has to be people who are bonded and working together. My utopian community is that everybody is there. I am not an elitist, I really want everyone to be there. Thats a good thing, to me, whereas a lot of people don’t want certain elements. That’s community, everybody is there and you’re dealing with each other.

What are three things you would want to see happen in Charleston in the next year?

Gay marriage would be a nice thing. I would also like to see more gay clubs in high schools, more outreach programs to younger people. I know there’s some of that, but I’d like it to become a normal thing, rather than an unusual thing. I would like to see a gay pride parade in downtown Charleston. I really am so happy that the parade happened this past year, but I feel like to really own it in this area, the parade needs to be downtown.

What projects are you currently involved in in the community?

I’m organizing the Halloween parade and fair, which is something that is new that I came up with because of community. This is a busy area, with a lot of streets that run through it, and we’re trying to create a cohesive community rather than something you just pass through. We’ve reached out to all different groups, we hope everybody will be there. I really want it to be a creative thing.

We also give our leftovers away to My Sister’s House and a soup kitchen. We also help with the YMCA.

Tell me what you think about the state of the gay community in Charleston. What do you think we have going on here? What do you think we could work on? What do you think are our strengths?

Well one of the greatest things is that campaign that AFFA had along the interstate. The thing is that--not just in Charleston but in the South--people really hid. I had friends who I grew up with, who stayed in the South, and they really lived through difficult times because of it. What I’m really looking for in the Charleston gay community is for people to feel at ease to be themselves. I really want that to happen, not for my own reasons but for everybody's happiness. They should be free to live their lives and not worry or live in fear or hide. They shouldn’t have to hide...One of the things that other cities have that I wish we had was a gay publication. they have them in lots of places, even Savannah has one. A little publication, a great guide, that really helps gel the community, it has ads for people who live and work here, it has events that are going on, it has ways to meet people, groups that are meeting. It’s a one-stop thing and you can take it with you.

How do you define queer?

I am really infatuated with the idea of ownership of things, like when you talk about derogatory terms for someone. My partner David doesn’t really like me to use this, but sometimes I’ll use the term queer in a powerful way. It’s all about how you think about it. I do think we are different, and that’s a great thing. If a white straight guy was different he’d celebrate, and we shouldn’t be ashamed of being different, we should celebrate it and be happy about it. I don’t totally know the roots of the term, but it comes from otherness and difference. I think it’s a good thing, a term that we can use to empower us.

Name one stereotype that has been deployed against gay people and debunk it.

Let’s talk about promiscuity and relationships. In the seventies, people used to talk about that a lot. Most of society was in these monogamous relationships, and it was like look at these gay people, they’re sleeping with everyone they have no relationships, they can’t even do it, they’re too childlike, you’d hear things like that. What I really think is that what we were missing was the institution of relationships in gay heritage. There wasn’t much written about it, and people didn’t really even--you know, in my generation, we were inventing how to be a gay couple that would stay together for a while. So I think we have that now, we have that example, so I think, you know this whole thing about gay marriage--it’s not so important that we have to be exactly like everyone else, but we should have that capability, and I think that when you look at the fact that we are striving to be in these relationships and have them be named legitimate, that really debunks that theory. We’re the same as everybody else. We may have our faults, but humans are social creatures. So that’s a myth.

What is your definition of feminism, and do you think it’s important to the LGBTQ movement and community?

Yeah, I think, and I read something about this, that a lot of the feminist movement was tied in [with the gay rights movement], it just wasn’t really addressed that way at the time. I see it as equality and power for women. Ironically, I think that feminism has really--I know that in an earlier generation men had a lot of difficulty with it, but I think it’s freed a lot of us form boxes that we were living in... My mom was a feminist when I was growing up. I think I’ve mentioned this to you before, but one thing I really like about younger feminists is that you sew and knit and things, or maybe you like to bake, and you know it doesn’t make you any weaker. And I think the earlier generation felt like they couldn’t do that and still be a feminist. So I think it’s great that women are embracing that past knowledge. Even a few years ago there was a commercial that said “Real men don’t bake” or something and it just makes me so mad every time I see stuff like that!

Tell me about growing up gay in the South.

It’s interesting because I just tried to behave a certain way. Even when I was a little boy I used to behave a certain way. My family was always tolerant of it, or they might’ve tried to guide me certain ways, but they would give me dolls for Christmas. So from a family standpoint it was supportive. But there’s definitely a religious element in the South. In my opinion, a lot of the religious element isn't really based in scripture, it’s interpretation. If you look at, for instance, divorce, it’s so prevalent in our society, well if you read the bible that’s a pretty terrible thing. Eating shellfish is pretty bad, too, but people choose to focus on gayness. So that’s a cultural thing. And that was difficult. I just hid, I mean even in school I didn’t join the art club or take art classes because I was trying to hide my creative aspect. So from those things it was bad. I think a lot of creative forces have come out of the South, if you look at great writers like Truman Capote or many, many others; a lot of great designers like Paul Rudolph, the architect. And I think a lot of that is from the adversity they experienced when they were growing up. So through that anguish or difficulty, good things have come, so I always try to focus on that as well.

Tell me how you feel about the rhetoric of choice we use in the gay community?

I don’t see how anyone could help to be conflicted about that. In all honesty, if I had a child, and I wanted them to live an easier life, I would probably wish that they weren’t gay. It would be easier. But at the same time, we shouldn’t be ashamed of it, or be unhappy, if we were to have a child who is gay. Differentness isn’t bad. It’s just different, so regardless of the reason, we shouldn’t be discriminated against. I’ve certainly used that “I didn’t choose this” discussion with religious people, and I do think it’s true. I am constantly mystified by people who say that gay people choose it. They’re not gay, they don’t really know. There are a lot of religious people who are never going to believe it, but I don’t think that should stop us from putting ourselves out there. I honestly think that the more familiar people become with it, the less religious people will bring it up. Like with feminism or segregation. Billy Graham used to speak that segregation was laid out in the bible. But things change, things will change.

What group in the community is doing a really great job trying to achieve social justice?

I think AFFA. We were impressed and pleased to find AFFA here when we moved to Charleston, and I’m sure other people have felt that way. It seems to be a good, solid force. It’s interesting because it’s out there, but it’s not confrontational, and I think they’ve achieved things, already.

If you had to ask yourself an interview question, what would you ask?

I would ask myself if I am happy here in Charleston. And we are. At first when we got here we weren’t sure. David was still working away, and we didn’t know that many people. I knew Charleston could be kind of a closed place. I didn’t want to live in a city where we were here but not really part of it. So we’ve just been delighted to become part of it and feel at home here.

Thanks Bill!

*Also, a note of apology for my absence from the ranks of bloggers who update in a timely manner. Some of us have to graduate okay? But don't worry, I'm back in the game.*