Season 9, Episode 1 of “The Q Agenda” is Out Now!

Exploring the difficulties of coming-out, turning internalized prejudice into self-love, and getting real about bumper sticker politics: The Q Agenda is kicking off Season 9 with important and entertaining conversations.

Fashion designer Usama Ishtay kept his gay identity a secret for 32 years. Growing up in a conservative Arab family in Venezuela, straying from familial expectation wasn’t an option. So, to appease his father, he went to college to study engineering and even worked in the field after graduating. But in his heart, he was pretending to live a life that wasn’t his own. And finally, as an adult, he came to terms with who he was and what he was meant to do.

Ishtay came to the United States to study fashion design.

“[Like engineering], making a dress is like building something,” Ishtay shared on The Q Agenda, paying homage to the chapter in his life that came before fashion.

After years developing his style and fine-tuning his craft (while driving Uber to pay his bills), Ishtay’s career took off. He’s dressed many celebrities since — Eve, Tyra Banks, Carrie Underwood, and Lauren Jauregui, to name a few.

As for finally coming out to his family, Ishtay didn’t expect to be immediately embraced for revealing his truth. His mom didn’t speak to him for a week!

“Our families come out with us,” Enrique, host of TQA, says on the show. Choosing to be patient with loved ones is a part of the gay experience, especially in a family like Ishtay’s.

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Next on the show is Yaya Vasquez-Lopez, a trans composer and mariachi performer.

Though she doesn’t believe in the concept of coming-out anymore (a “social construct,” she says), Yaya was first outed as a gay teenager when her mom looked at her phone at the exact moment an online boy sent her a message. Talk about timing!

Fortunately, her family was supportive of her identity, her queer journey, and also her passion for music.

At first, Yaya loathed mariachi. She wanted nothing to do with it. As an adult, she attributes this to internalized prejudice, the sensation of being reminded of yourself and not loving what you see.

Desperate to get out of marching band in school, however, mariachi was the better of two evils, so she wound up joining the group. What she did not expect was falling in love with this simple, festive, Mexican artform.

“Mariachi is part of my whole ass identity today,” she says.

Yaya is passionate about carving space for Brown, big-bodied, trans people, and being unapologetic about who you are.

Watch the episode on the LATV+ app for the full exclusive interview with Usama Ishtay and Yaya Vazquez-Lopez, along with a heated conversation among the hosts about Trump’s indictment and the era of bumper sticker politics.

(images sourced from Instagram)