Resources:
Sarah Rigg's Feature Article: Ypsi organizations rally to support LGBTQ+ community in challenging times
Transcription:
Rylee Barnsdale: You're listening to 89.1 WEMU. I'm Rylee Barnsdale, and this is On the Ground Ypsi. In response to the wave of anti-LGBT legislation currently affecting queer communities all across the country, Ypsilanti area organizations and community members are supporting local members of the LGBT community in a variety of ways, from supportive health care to queer takeovers of public spaces around Ypsi. Today, I'm here with Danya Youssef-Agah, co-organizer for the local grassroots LGBT org Cheers to Queers, or C2Q, to talk about how the org is helping spread joy and positivity during a time that is very much uncertain for a lot of folks. Hi, Danya! Thanks so much for being here today!
Danya Youssef-Agha: Hi! Thank you for having me!
Rylee Barnsdale: Let's talk about C2Q and its inspiration first. So, for those who don't know, C2Q runs LGBT-friendly events throughout the Ypsi area: things like silent discos, hangouts at bars and coffee shops, and most recently, Queer Prom. What made you and your co-organizer, Marisa Quiery, want to get into this kind of queer event-planning space?
Danya Youssef-Agha: Yeah. So, it was actually in 2022. Ypsi Pride didn't happen for the first year. They took a break, one, because of organization and, two, because of COVID and COVID exhaustion as well. So, Marisa and I were just hanging out, and we were just talking, "Man, like, that sucks! Ypsi is not gonna have a Pride this year!" You know, we can go out to Ferndale Pride and Detroit Pride, but they've always been so different than what Ypsi Pride stands for.
Rylee Barnsdale: Sure.
Danya Youssef-Agha: So, we were just talking about it. And I mentioned maybe we should try to do like a meet-up. Like, it can be something that's super casual, no structure. And we just say we're going to meet up at this bar at this time and put out some promotion for it. And so, we decided to get like a little flyer together, talk to 734 Brewery and see if they would be open to the idea, which they were, which was awesome! I actually ended up getting COVID. So, I was actually never able to make it to our first one. But from the beginning, it started just Marisa and I. And from what I heard from it, it was just people coming, wanting to talk to people, wanting to make connection, wanting to share a drink with somebody to celebrate pride and get together. And after our first event, which I don't even think we realized at the time, like this is going be our first event. We just kind of thought, "Well, let's try to just do something." And after that first event, we sat down and we really looked at what Ypsi is needing. Ypsi is a very queer town. It's always been a queer town. And how do we lift that up? How do we make that more of a permanent thing? So, we just started talking about doing like bar takeovers. And we did a few takeovers. We did a takeover at Corner. We did it take over at Keystone when it was open. We did a takeover at Mash as well. So, yeah, it was really just started because of Pride not happening in 2022. And then, it was actually after our first event. So, before we continued with doing more takeovers--I think maybe there was one in there. Sorry for my timeline. I have a terrible memory. There might have been another takeover in between that and our first prom. But we were sitting, and it was, of course, after a softball game. And we were just sitting there, having a drink after the game. It was me, Marissa, a few other queer people. And we were just talking everybody at the table was talking about how like their prom experience was crap. And I actually selfishly, I think part of me, was like, "Okay. Well, maybe we should do a prom." Because I never got to go to prom. It was funny with my parents. I grew up in a pretty strict Muslim household, and they were like, "No, you can't go and hang out with boys. You can go to prom." And I was like, "Okay. Well, I didn't want to hang out with the boys anyways." So, we kind of just started talking. We were like, "What if we did a prom?" And so, we looked at a few venues, and we landed on the Freighthouse. And we had our first prom, and it was awesome! And then, this year, we finished our third one.
Rylee Barnsdale: The organization, as you know, Sarah Rigg in her article describes it as grassroots.
Danya Youssef-Agha: Yeah.
Rylee Barnsdale: And it really does sound like that getting all of these different Ypsi orgs and businesses together to also support the community in this way. What does that mean for, to you and Marisa as the leaders of C2Q, to have all of this really broad support from the community?
Danya Youssef-Agha: Yeah. I mean, each year, we've had great support. And this year's was absolutely phenomenal! Everything on our list besides, I'm going to be honest, I had to order some tablecloths off Amazon, and that was like out of the $4,000 budget, like that 70 bucks was the only thing I spent outside of that, because it was very last minute thing. So, yeah, out of $4000, we put it into the rent of the Freighthouse. All the drinks came from local vendors. We had Holmes Brewery, Corner Brewery. We had Bloom Cider. We had our mocktails from Vertex, which then turned into cocktails with the liquor from A2 Distillery--Ann Arbor Distillery. We had a local DJ, DJ Audio, Audrey Cooke. She's awesome! And we had a a local photographer, Evan, from Valentinezwaaay. And we had a disco floor provided by Whoa Disco, which is a man named Tucker, who's living his dream of doing silent discos. And he invested in a really cool dance floor. It's like an infinity-mirrored dance floor.
Rylee Barnsdale: Very cool!
Danya Youssef-Agha: It was really cool! We had FedUp Ministries serving free food, and we had Cold Comfort with popsicles. So, each year, we've had great support. This was, I think, just out of this world! I work for the City of Ypsi, and I work for the Downtown Development Authority, so I do have some pretty strong relationships based off of that already. But just from, I think, the community need of this event, a lot of people were very grateful to help out.
Rylee Barnsdale: And I know that C2Q didn't necessarily start as retaliation to what's going on politically right now. But unfortunately, there's something about being a queer person in this country that is kind of automatically political. Hosting these events and promoting things like positivity and joy within the queer community, how does that kind of fold into things like queer activism and making sure folks are aware of what's going on and are fighting back when it is safe for them to do so?
Danya Youssef-Agha: Right. You know, I think fighting back starts from getting the rest that you might need. I think these events really provide a safe place for people to recharge, for people to connect to people who are similar to them and just for a space for you to feel safe and comfortable and be yourself. It's really hard, I think, to fight back without having that type of support.
Rylee Barnsdale: This is WEMU's On the Ground Ypsi. I'm Rylee Barnsdale chatting with Cheers to Queers co-organizer, Danya Youssef-Agha. So, Danya, obviously C2Q isn't the only organization here in Ypsi that's doing this really integral work for the LGBT community here. Sarah Rigg's article also goes into transmedical care from the Corner Health Center here in Ypsi, EMU right here does a lot of work for its LGBT students through the LGBT Resource Center. What does having all of this kind of support, academically, medically, socially as well, say to the community members that are directly impacting from these resources, but also the allies, the folks who aren't queer that kind of just see all of these going around downtown and maybe want to get involved and maybe want to support as well?
Danya Youssef-Agha: I mean, there are a lot of orgs to reach out to you. I know that volunteering nowadays, it it can seem exhausting--what everybody has going on in their personal life and their outside activities. But volunteering is so important to our community. I think Ypsi's basically built off of volunteers sometimes. But I can't speak on other organizations, but if anybody was ever interested in volunteering for C2Q, they could always reach out to us via email at C2QYpsi@gmail.com or on Instagram.
Rylee Barnsdale: And looking toward the future past this administration that we're in, the need for orgs like C2Q, that's never gonna go away, right?
Danya Youssef-Agha: Right.
Rylee Barnsdale: There's always going to be need for support in some fashion for these communities that are marginalized. How would you go about encouraging orgs who maybe want to show more support to the LGBT community, orgs or businesses, folks that see a need that they can fill, how would you say, "Go out and do it?"
Danya Youssef-Agha: So, Uplift opened in Ann Arbor actually not that long ago.
Rylee Barnsdale: That's right.
Danya Youssef-Agha: And one of the owners reached out to C2Q because they were more familiar with just the population of gay men. And he reached out wanting to get an insight on the queer community as a whole, which C2q is pretty queer-focused in general. So, I think the way that they went about that was awesome, asking a panel of people of what would you like to see. And it's the same thing if you want get involved. You don't need to recreate something. You don't need to start without any resources. You can ask. I think everybody in Ypsi is always open to help if they can.
Rylee Barnsdale: And for folks who are hearing about the work and the events that C2Q puts on, when can they find you next? When can we come out and party with all the queer folks here in Ypsi?
Danya Youssef-Agha: Yeah. So, our entire point of C2Q is to fill in the months outside of Pride, so we won't be doing anything for June. And we never do. But I would say look at our Instagram. That's usually where we post everything. And then, we'll put flyers up around the community, and we'll probably have something going in August.
Rylee Barnsdale: Great! Thank you so much for being here today! And thank you for sharing about the work that C2Q does for our community! It's very much needed right now as it is any other time of the year, and it's very special to have a resource like this right here in our town here!
Danya Youssef-Agha: Thank you! Yeah, it was great meeting you!
Rylee Barnsdale: For more information on today's topic and links to the full article, visit our website at WEMU.org. On the Ground Ypsi is brought to you in partnership with Concentrate Media. I'm Rylee Barnsdale, and this is your community NPR station, 89.1 WEMU-FM Ypsilanti. Celebrating 60 years of broadcasting at Eastern Michigan University!
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