Isn't It Queer

There is a hard truth about our USAmerican culture: our commerce and our politics are deeply entwined . The products we purchase contribute to the politicians and policies that impact our lives. We usually become most aware of this when a specific corporate act leads to a general call for a boycott . Such refusals to consume from a particular company or brand do have impacts, but they are not particularly lasting, being more about headlines than actual material consequence. The harder path is to be continually aware of how our purchases contribute to policies and politics. We get it; that is difficult on many fronts. First, just knowing who and what the businesses we use support isn’t easy. Most corporations play a both-sides game, making sure that they can indicate their support for any candidate or party when they need a policy to lean their way. Moreover, most companies of any size support the politics that privileges a freer market and reduces regulations and responsibilities for ...

By Clare Killman , Carbondale IL City Councilwoman From the end of World War One in 1918 to 1933, my people—in this instance referring to transgender women specifically—enjoyed unprecedented freedom and liberation in Germany. We were given legal recognition, transitioned publicly, enjoyed medical care, and had social spaces carved out just for us in the vibrant culture of Berlin's nightlife.  By 1933, when Hitler came to power, some of the harshest treatment under Nazi rule for holocaust victims was reserved for transgender women. We were seen as a contingent of the mentally ill, and thus destructive to the German racial ideal, and an aberrant variant of homosexuality- an anathema to the production of Aryan babies. The Reich Central Office for the Combating of Homosexuality and Abortion was designated responsible by the Nazi government for "collaborating in the design of the security police’s treatment of sexual degenerates", such as "transvestites, fetishists, and o...

  The Stage Company Presents a Staged Reading: Eve Ensler’s  The Vagina Monologues When:  Saturday, February 22nd, 2025, 7:30pm Where: The Varsity Center 418 South Illinois Avenue, Carbondale, IL The Stage Company is pleased to announce its upcoming staged reading of The  Vagina Monologues , by award-winning playwright and performer, Eve Ensler (V). Written in 1996, this episodic play is based on interviews with over 200 people, examining such  themes as bodily autonomy, gender-based violence, relationships, sexuality, transgender experiences and childbirth.  The Vagina Monologues  received an OBIE award in 1997 and the  Isabelle Stevenson Award at the 65th Tony Awards. Now known as V, Ensler created the V-Day Movement’s One Billion Rising, distributing funds to national and international grassroot organizations working to stop violence against girls and women. Although the movement lost momentum during the Covid-19 pandemic,  the Vagina Mon...

We are proud to announce that you can now access “Isn’t It Queer” on You Tube . We finally got through all of the steps to get our RSS Feed on a You Tube podcast. This past weekend, we uploaded the last three months of the show. This week’s episode is the first to go directly to the You Tube podcast channel. Everything seems to be working! 2025-02-05 DEI Distractions  on You Tube One of the upsides of having a You Tube channel is that we may soon supplement the weekly podcast with some shorter video content. We’ll see. We are trying to grow the channel and are experimenting with new ideas. Well, new to us. We encourage patience, though, as all of this podcast work is volunteering on top of already busy jobs and schedules. So, now the usual You Tube sign off… Please “Like” 👍 this episode and Subscribe to our channel!