43 min listen
Strange Fruit #131: Sharpe Suiting Designer Leon Wu
FromStrange Fruit
ratings:
Length:
29 minutes
Released:
Aug 5, 2015
Format:
Podcast episode
Description
Suit designer Leon Wu sees a person's first suit as a milestone. "Historically, a father will bring in his son," Wu says. "It's like a coming of age sort of thing." But what about a person who didn't grow up as a boy? Wu can relate: "Ever since I was five I would envision myself as a more masculine person," he explains. "Growing up I was happy getting my older brother's hand-me-downs. I didn't need to go buy any 'female' clothes." Wu founded Sharpe Suiting, a clothing company catering to masculine-of-center folks who want to look dapper in suits custom-tailored to every type of body. He joins us this week to talk about their work, and what it's like to work with transmasculine populations. "Whenever somebody transitions or they decide to adopt a certain type of gender representation," Wu explains, "it is in a sense like another puberty." Also this week, we meet Louisville Public Media's new executive editor, Stephen George. We chat about diversity in newsrooms and news coverage, and how it seems like we only see black neighborhoods on the news when it's about crime. "It often gives people a very wrong idea about what's happening in certain parts of this community," George says. In Juicy Fruit, we bring you the story of Jesse Jacobs, a 32-year-old gay man who died in police custody in Galveston, TX. Jacobs had been taking Xanax for over a decade to treat severe anxiety disorder. But after he turned himself in to serve a 30-day sentence for DUI, jail personnel would not give him access to his medication. He started having seizures (a known effect of sudden Xanax cessation) and died a few days later. Galveston County Sheriff Henry Trochessett insists Jacobs died of "natural causes." And we take a look at The Advocate's list of 10 Tips on Growing Older for LBGTQ folks under 40. Some make perfect sense (build a support system and be part of a community), while others left us scratching our heads (don't drink, and prepare to die alone if you don't have kids?).
Released:
Aug 5, 2015
Format:
Podcast episode
Titles in the series (100)
Strange Fruit #31: Urmi Basu of New Light India; Kaitlyn Hunt, Statutory Rape & Queer Relationships: Activism runs in Urmi Basu's family; her grandfather was a doctor who set up a school for _dalit_ children (India's untouchable caste) in his own home. Urmi says her family "always challenged everything that's traditional in India." Thirteen years ago, she combined her passion for gender equality and her background and education in social work—along with 10,000 rupees, or $200—to found [New Light India](http://www.newlightindia.org/). New Light is non-profit organization based in the red light district of Calcutta, intended to help victims of sex trafficking and provide healthcare to people living with HIV/AIDS. With an estimated 40,000 new trafficked sex workers in the city each year, it's no small task. But Urmi is a woman of great determination. She was in Louisville recently and she sat down to talk with us about her work, and how sex trafficking in India is part of the larger globa by Strange Fruit