Season 9, Episode 2, of “The Q Agenda” is Out Now!

This week on The Q Agenda, we explore how our pasts inform the way we express queer identity as adults. From Colombia to Boston, Iran to San José, this episode’s guests share personal stories that have given their queerness meaning today.

Born in Colombia in the 1980s, Juan Pablo Espinosa was never interested in taking part in the machismo culture that characterized social norm. Instead of playing soccer during recess, he entertained himself in the school theatre. And when he discovered he was gay, he simultaneously understood his life was going to look different than his peers.

sourced from IMDb

Being gay, for Espinosa and so many others, means grappling with your identity solo. This is especially difficult when your surrounding environment upholds certain expectations about how to live your life, and with whom.

“I never had role models, I never had references, we didn’t have Ricky Martin, [and] we didn’t have the internet,” he says.

When he arrived in Boston for drama school, he found people like himself, and that was liberating. Here, in New England, he was granted the space to explore not just his sexuality but his artistry as well.

Espinosa’s career took off, especially in the realm of telenovelas. “I’ve gotten to make friends in the most unexpected places,” he says.

As for masculinity on screen, he goes on to say, “Men can be sensitive, too…[It’s] hard to see those macho stereotypes still being written.”

A leading man on and off screen, Espinosa is the example he wishes he could have looked up to when he was kid.

sourced from Sepi Shyne for Congress

Joining the show next is mayor of West Hollywood Sepi Shyne, who has recently announced her campaign for congress.

Her life story had a climactic start. When she was two-year-old, her family fled Iran during the revolution. Growing up in California, she understood how it felt to be ‘othered’ for several aspects of her identity.

At her elementary school in California, she was the only Brown kid in class. As a teenager, she had no choice but to come out as a lesbian because, as she says, “I can never be anyone but myself.”

Then, in 1997, she was having coffee with her then-girlfriend at a café in San Jose, and the manager asked them to leave. He didn’t want “their kind” at his establishment.

Enraged, she dedicated herself to a life of activism, then and there. She went to law school, worked as an attorney for twenty years, and became an advocate for the LGBTQ+ community. Representative of several marginalized groups, her priority in politics is to listen and to have frank conversation.

“Since 2016, our rights have been under attack, especially [our] trans siblings,” she says. “I can’t sit back and not do something.”

Watch the episode on the LATV+ app for the full exclusive interview with Juan Pablo Espinosa and Sepi Shyne. You’ll also catch the hosts discussing the ban on drag, how it connects to feminism, and fiery commentary on the freedom of expression.