The Q Agenda: Platforms with Purpose

Grab a pen and paper to take some notes. Today on The Q Agenda, we’re getting into topics that may have been missed in the classroom. But don’t worry! There’s nothing boring about our guests and what they have to share.

When it comes to leaving a legacy, wealth activist Lea Landaverde empowers clients to explore their emotional relationship with money. Since filmmaker Michael D. Cohen came into his trans identity without role-models on TV, he advocates for representation on screen for the next generation. Lastly, content creator Kevin Norman uses his platforms to publish and promote books that highlight and normalize queer narratives.

Lea Landaverde, our first guest on the show, is a queer first-generation Salvadoreña from a small town in Utah, where it was predominantly white and hardly queer at all.

“I was one of the first in my generation to come out as queer en la comunidad,” Landaverde says on The Q Agenda. “Honestly, I can’t name five people who are queer in my city.”

The moment she stepped into her true identity, she began an ongoing fight for acceptance from her family and the people in her town. Though it broke her heart to kill her parents’ expectations, she had to choose her own happiness. In her small town, that happiness was heavily censored. Though marriage equality had been legalized, she couldn’t hold a girl’s hand without passing judgment. How was she to grow in such an environment?

She moved to Salt Lake City and found work in investment banking. The Utah capital was a gayer city than her hometown, but there were not many people of color and she struggled to find a partner. Plus, the social climate of the state didn’t quite empower her.

“I couldn’t be in Utah forever! I could not!” she says. “I was not going to find a wife. I wasn’t going to find an opportunity to grow in my career if I kept feeling small.”

Leaving home deepens your character. It takes bravery and endurance. Sometimes, that independence makes space for purpose.

Working in investment banking in Salt Lake City gave Landaverde an insider’s look into the movement of money. She saw firsthand how millions and billions of dollars were made — and the emotional gravitas needed to sustain wealth.

“I think it’s all about understanding that dinero is impacted by our mindset and our thoughts and our traumas,” she says. “When you think about your first relationship with money, ask yourself: how were your parents navigating money, and how does that impact you?”

She was forever impacted when her parents, due to a lack of financial literacy, lost their house in tough times. This was (and is) the case for many families, especially immigrants and their descendants. Landaverde knew she could do something to help, so she started making money-positive content on her social media channels—and her audience grew.

“I never saw that representation growing up of two bougie Latinas trying to live their life as a queer couple,” she says.

Landaverde encourages people to make financial goals, stick to their timelines, and explore different bank accounts that offer varied perks.

Next on the show, we have actor and filmmaker Michael D. Cohen, who’s been dedicated to advocacy for trans artists in Hollywood for years.

The trans-masculine creative was born during a snowstorm in Winnipeg. Growing up, he tried to make the “girl thing” work, but he could not avoid this underlying essence of boyhood within his being. He learned how to condition himself to fit into the world around him, but that innate voice never went away.

“We need to be mirrored. We need to see ourselves externally,” Cohen says on the show. “I knew that when I would see other boys, I would know that’s what I am. And I would see a girl—I know I’m not that—but everybody’s thinking I’m that.”

As a teenager, pre-transition, he dated women, but it never felt right to identify as a lesbian. Later, when he transitioned as a young adult, he came into himself entirely. His family was supportive.

For Cohen, people need to see themselves mirrored externally.

“I grew up at a time when there was no representation on TV or film,” Cohen says on the show. “I got on a Nickelodeon show and I had more of platform, [so] it became important to me that kids now know there are people who have their backs, [who] are looking out for them. I want them to have what I didn’t have.”

Cohen feels lucky to have partnered up with different organizations like GLAAD and Nickelodeon to improve trans representation in Hollywood. In his work with youth casting programs, he makes more space at the table for young trans actors and fights to include their lived-experiences in characters we see on TV.

Last on today’s show is Kevin T. Norman, a published poet and content creator who focuses on reading books that tell diverse and often queer stories.

“Books really helped me come out,” he says on the show. “When I was questioning my sexuality, I didn’t really have anyone I could talk to. With books, I was able to read stories about queer people and understand more of what it meant to be queer in a positive light.”

Countless narratives exist that focus on the trauma and isolation queer people face living in a homophobic world. While these stories are important and need to be told, Norman tries to promote books that celebrate queer joy, that normalize the queer experience within stories not focused on community-specific hardships.

Don’t miss Lea Landaverde, Michael D. Cohen, and Kevin T. Norman today on The Q Agenda. Across industries, these thought leaders pull from their own experiences, their own skill sets, and use their platforms to uplift and educate the queer and non-queer communities.