Radio show dives into LGBTQ+ community with local experts
Local radio show host Marianne Reese interviewed Johnny Vasallo and Hector Manriquez on the most recent Human Interest to discuss misconceptions surrounding the LGBTQ+ community and to educate the public on queer issues. Human Interest is a radio show that covers a variety of compelling topics and always features a well-known local guest. The show airs from 2 to 3 p.m. on the first Thursday of every month on KZSM - San Marcos Community Radio.
Reese said Manriquez and Vasallo both finished a Master’s Program at Texas State University in Communication Studies with a focus on Critical Queer Research. Manriquez said Critical Queer Research involves intersectionality.
“For us being two queer Latino men, how does us being Latino impact the identity of being queer or being gay?” Manriquez said. “How do those coexist with one another and affect our upbringing in comparison to someone who is Black and queer or Asian and queer?”
Manriquez and Vasallo discussed gender expression and how that differs from sex. Vasallo said that there is a foundational difference between sex and gender representation, saying that sex is biological while gender is related to social representation. Manriquez added that no one who identifies as nonbinary or transgender is arguing against science.
“We are aware that sex is a thing,” Manriquez said. “When we’re talking about gender, it’s more so the representation and how you feel comfortable representing yourself in front of others. So it’s more so psychological than it is… physical.”
Vasallo said there are misconceptions about the queer community’s role in changing someone’s gender identity.
“There is a misconception that people are being … forced to do something or forced to identify in a certain way. That’s not the case,” Vasallo said. “We encourage people to embrace the genuine aspects of themselves, and that could also be if you’re a heterosexual man or woman. That’s your truth. Live your life the way that you are. We’re not saying that you have to be like us, but it's more about recognizing that there are people in this world who are different from you. And we’re able to recognize these things at an early age.”
Manriquez pointed out how the idea of being cognizant of one’s gender identity at an early age also applies to one’s sexuality.
“It’s a very fascinating thing, because I grew up around all of the boys in my neighborhood and school who were aggressive and rough … and expressed more interest in women,” Manriquez said. “And somehow in that whole process, I still ended up attracted to men.”
Vasallo agreed that environment has little to do with a person’s sexuality and that both sexuality and gender identity, when outside of the heteronormative or cisgender standard, can be identified early in one’s life.
Manriquez said that television played a large role in being able to identify that he was gay, which he said underscores the importance of queer representation.
“It wasn’t until I saw queer people on T.V. that I was like, ‘Oh okay, so these are the things that I’m experiencing too,’” Manriquez said. “So I think once we get exposed to those kinds of things is when we start to understand more about ourselves or all of the other possibilities that are out there.”
Vasallo discussed identification as LGBTQ+ or queer. He said queer is an umbrella term to refer to sexualities other than heterosexual as well as trans and nonbinary people. He said other people don’t agree with that term because of the negative associations and how it was used as a derogatory term in the past, so those people prefer to use LGBTQ+.
“On top of that, people will also choose to isolate the letters from one another. Some people prefer for it to just be LGB and T on another side, and that, I would say is a pro and a con. As a pro, it helps trans individuals focus solely on issues affecting them to show that it is not the same as those affecting queer people or gay people. On the opposite end, when it gets bad, is when we see LGB people — Lesbians Gays and Bisexuals — isolating themselves from trans people, because they don’t want them a part of the same community,” Vasallo said. “So there’s this internal division within the community as well.”
Vasallo said that it is important for the entire queer community to unite, because trans people need that support.
“They are part of our community too,” Vasallo said. “They are the most marginalized community from the LGBTQ+ community. They’re constantly targeted, and they are killed the most statistically compared to the rest of us. And it’s all because people don’t fully understand. It is that fear of not understanding. It is that fear of what you’ve been told… When you interact with trans people and start to get to know them, that fear starts to go away… Trans people aren’t a concept; they are people.”
To here the rest of the episode, go to lllsanmarcos. org.
