In this laughter-packed episode of "Buzzed and Balanced," hosts Colt and Connor, along with their uniquely wonderful landlords-turned-friends Kasey and Bri, dive into a riotous recount of their intertwined lives, sharing everything from their not-so-conventional landlord-tenant relationship to the whirlwinds of love, advocacy, and occasional mayhem. Their conversations twist through tales of impromptu love stories and the birth of "Hurricane Kasey," to more profound discussions on facing discrimination and making a tangible impact on LGBTQ+ rights, all while maintaining an atmosphere of camaraderie and hilarity. It’s an episode that perfectly encapsulates the essence of friendship, resilience, and the ability to laugh through life’s chaos, leaving listeners both enlightened and thoroughly entertained.
In this laughter-packed episode of "Buzzed and Balanced," hosts Colt and Connor, along with their uniquely wonderful landlords-turned-friends Kasey and Bri, dive into a riotous recount of their intertwined lives, sharing everything from their not-so-conventional landlord-tenant relationship to the whirlwinds of love, advocacy, and occasional mayhem. Their conversations twist through tales of impromptu love stories and the birth of "Hurricane Kasey," to more profound discussions on facing discrimination and making a tangible impact on LGBTQ+ rights, all while maintaining an atmosphere of camaraderie and hilarity. It’s an episode that perfectly encapsulates the essence of friendship, resilience, and the ability to laugh through life’s chaos, leaving listeners both enlightened and thoroughly entertained.
Welcome to Buzzed and Balanced, your favorite podcast, where your make-believe friends us tell you about life and help you get through all the fucked up times.
Speaker 2:I'm Colt and I'm Connor, and today we have some very special guests, my landlords.
Speaker 3:Hi, I'm Casey and I'm Brie.
Speaker 1:Welcome. I'm so excited that y'all are here today landlords are so excited to have um yes um the nice kind.
Speaker 2:It's not. It's not the first time that brie and casey are my landlords yes, well, we don't charge him.
Speaker 4:Like market rent, true, like well, under market rent.
Speaker 2:We don't have to market rent, true, well under market rent. We don't have to tell people that. No, we will not tell the price.
Speaker 4:But here we are. I don't know, I was going to think of something inappropriate.
Speaker 3:It's $525,600 a month.
Speaker 2:Yes, I make a lot of money. I sell clothing for a living Clothing, and he has an OnlyFans. That's where he makes the money yeah, it's just just of my thighs yeah, his thighs are legendary, that's what I've been told they have their own twitter account.
Speaker 1:I am.
Speaker 2:I'm actually wearing pants today for the first time in a long time so well.
Speaker 1:So he says, we don't know but here we are.
Speaker 2:Okay. Well, col, do you want to start us?
Speaker 3:off. We didn't even mention Meg.
Speaker 1:Sorry guys, meg is not here today. She is a little under the weather, so we decided to give it a shot. This might suck ass without Meg, because she is the go-to.
Speaker 2:She's our moderator.
Speaker 1:But we're trying it without her. So everyone, please wish Meg a speedy recovery and we'll see her on the next episode.
Speaker 2:We love you Meg. I do want to say, though, that we have. You know, as this is buzzed and balanced, we decided to go to a bar before this. We are a little buzzed and balanced, so maybe we should start off by saying I am drinking a simply spiked blueberry lemonade. I am drinking a simply spiked blueberry lemonade.
Speaker 1:I'm drinking a water.
Speaker 2:Only because he has to drive to go pick his boyfriend up at the airport. Casey, what are you drinking?
Speaker 4:Just water, really? No, I'm just kidding. I'm not drinking only water, I'm drinking a simply spiked lemonade strawberry.
Speaker 3:Y'all already know I'm bringing a Bud Light.
Speaker 2:Bud Light saves lives.
Speaker 1:Thank God, I had an emergency Bud Light on deck. It's called Bree's Emergency Bud Light. We have to pop it out every time. If she happens to stop by. It's critical, we have it.
Speaker 4:It's written in Connor's lease.
Speaker 2:It is I have to supply it. So downstairs, where I live, we have a fridge, the garage fridge, which is my fridge, and it has to be stocked at all times with Bud Light.
Speaker 3:You also mentioned that in your best man speech at our wedding.
Speaker 2:I did, and the fact that we couldn't even have Bud Light on the premises of y'all's wedding.
Speaker 1:That sounds like bullshit to me.
Speaker 4:I mean they had a different supplier. It was a whole thing. We almost had to drink a local beer Between my wife and my father. It was a whole thing.
Speaker 1:Well, talking about marriage, you guys kind of have an interesting story right.
Speaker 3:A little bit.
Speaker 1:Just a little bit, just a tiny bit.
Speaker 3:There's a couple bumps in the road.
Speaker 1:It's a book basically it could be a good book, a movie, kind of like Aaron Brockovich.
Speaker 2:Oh, the best.
Speaker 1:Aaron Brockovich. You know an activist saving people. It's on Netflix, so I feel like you guys have a comparable story. Alright, let's hear it.
Speaker 2:But I think we should start like the first date. Oh yeah, I want to really start because I happen to be there we we matched on bumble.
Speaker 4:That is the start of. I mean, if I'm gonna be and tender, I was gonna say, should I tell the truth? We matched on tinder first and then bumble.
Speaker 4:I was on all the apps you, we both were um, and then I was working like two jobs at the time and going to school, so I was about to bounce on a date because I was like I can't do this. I've been working doubles all week. Um, but then we had a mutual friend who was like oh my god, you guys are gonna love each other. You have to go on a date.
Speaker 3:And so I was like, all right, I'm gonna kia pull oh yeah I was like I'm gonna pull my john guy also I was currently living with connor at the time, so I currently living with Connor at the time, so I was living with my father.
Speaker 4:We love daddy.
Speaker 2:We love daddy's home.
Speaker 4:And then we went on our first date and then all of her friends and I mean all of them crashed it and we ended up staying out really late. I met every single friend that you have ever had, and then the next morning morning, a lot of tequila shots were taken lots yeah uh, and then I had to have my stepmom drive me to my car in the morning uh, but she brought me bojangles the next morning, so I know I did good yeah I know, here we are now so here we are yeah because I do remember when I moved in you Brie, you were with your now ex, but in lesbian world y'all also like cordial and friends.
Speaker 2:I mean.
Speaker 4:Yeah, she filmed our wedding.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly, welcome to lesbian life. I wish the gays could do the same. But here we are. But, yeah, and there was like a good two, three, maybe I don't know how many months of just Brie and I just being single and being absolutely like trash human beings, absolutely trash, like feral human beings. Blackout wild shenanigans, yeah, like absolutely blackout wild. And then Casey comes along and Casey it continued Continued yeah.
Speaker 3:I would like to say Casey got our shit together for us, but no.
Speaker 2:Casey, why don't you tell everyone what your like drunk alter ego is?
Speaker 4:Oh, my drunk alter ego is Hurricane Casey that we discovered during a horrific hurricane that North Carolina had while I was in earth science class in college. So I was all about it. We had a hurricane party at the house. I fell down the stairs and Hurricane Casey was born.
Speaker 3:No, you cannot forget about the air vent outside the air vent was not where I got the name.
Speaker 4:You put a dent in it.
Speaker 1:You did.
Speaker 3:And an HVAC unit.
Speaker 4:I was spinning our dog around.
Speaker 1:She like metal yeah strong. How the fuck did you dent it okay?
Speaker 4:so let me tell you. Um, so our dog has really good grip strength and people would hold on to her bone and spin her in circles, so I did that. Uh, I don't even think I was drinking at the time.
Speaker 2:Oh, you were blackout drunk.
Speaker 4:No, I was not blackout drunk at the time I hit the HVAC. I was when I was dark.
Speaker 1:When you hit the HVAC, was this the dog flying into the HVAC? No, it was me.
Speaker 4:I released the dog and the momentum I fell into the.
Speaker 2:HVAC.
Speaker 4:I'm sure it's still there to this day.
Speaker 2:Physics? I think it is.
Speaker 4:It's probably not.
Speaker 3:They replaced the like Siding of the house but not the HVAC.
Speaker 4:They probably replaced the HVAC. I think they did Unrelated to my head injury.
Speaker 2:My concussion Same with the carpet.
Speaker 3:God, do you remember I? Tried to Like. What do you call that?
Speaker 2:Like you tried to like Vacuum. Like Power, wash the carpet Power wash the carpet, whatever you call it.
Speaker 3:Yes, deep clean.
Speaker 1:Shampoo, the ones you rent from the Stanley Steamer.
Speaker 3:Oh, I had my own Because I'm bougie like that. Where did it go? Because I don't remember that. I sold it on a Facebook marketplace because that is my new gig, oh, my god, you and Pedro. Leap that, leap marketplace, because that is my new gig. Oh my god, you and pedro anyway, leap that, oh my god but, yeah, I just remember you would shampoo the carpet.
Speaker 3:It'd be great it looked so good yes, and then all of a sudden it would as soon as it dried, it all came back to the surface and like that carpet was so fucked you don't even know it was. Like this white, like the cheapest carpet you can find, like that hard grainy, and the backyard was nothing but a mud pit, so fleek would come inside. Muddied up, but also, I used to throw ragers at this A-frame house Like people I didn't even know would come over. Cops would get called on a regular basis. Yes, early 20s, we were raging at that fucking house.
Speaker 1:That's how you got your felonies.
Speaker 3:Let's not talk about that 10-4. I have no felonies.
Speaker 1:Oh.
Speaker 3:Because you're felony free.
Speaker 1:The rumors are false, Misdemeanors. On the other hand, the rumors are false everyone Misdemeanors are nothing, mr Brie nurse.
Speaker 2:I'm going home. This has been so great. But yeah, I just remember the A-frame days and then it was just like Brie and I for a little while and then, casey, you kind of slowly moved in and the house became really clean Shocking, it was very tidy.
Speaker 1:It's almost like an adult was around.
Speaker 2:Correct but she was the younger one, much younger than us Old soul baby, not that much. Damn.
Speaker 3:Well, just younger, four and a half years.
Speaker 2:Three and a half, that's a half decade.
Speaker 3:How old are you?
Speaker 2:Connor 31. 30, baby 32. I will be 29 in, like baby 5 weeks so we should also talk about the time you know.
Speaker 4:So we throw these big ragers on Saturdays, blah, blah, blah aka the three of us drinking 5 bottles of Matua Sauvignon Blanc that was our shit.
Speaker 3:That was our shit it's amazing.
Speaker 2:It's like really cheap, like $10 a bottle. You can get it in a case.
Speaker 3:We would both just keep like two bottles, like all three of us would keep both bottles beside us.
Speaker 2:Just double fisting basically. We literally would like drink out of the bottle.
Speaker 4:Just three of us.
Speaker 3:Yeah, f.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but I'll never forget the day when it was like a Sunday morning, we all get up, we're a little hungover and we just had like this, like we just had bacon and we were making bacon, and Casey has, as you can tell, has like amazing tattoos, and it's not just on her arms, she's covered and we ended up.
Speaker 1:That's for the Patreon, by the way. Yeah, you can see all of them.
Speaker 4:If you subscribe to the Patreon, you can see the bacon photos and many more. I don't even know if we still have the bacon photos.
Speaker 3:Oh, I do, they're in my bedside drawer.
Speaker 2:They were Polaroids, but I'll just never forget taking photos of cooked bacon on Casey's ass, and that was just when it concealed our like.
Speaker 4:That's when our best friendship was solidified 100% Was it cooked bacon.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:And did you eat it off her ass Like Sushi Girl style, and we also had Bloody Marys, so it was like Bloody Marys foodies and bacon Classy.
Speaker 2:We should bring that shit back on a Sunday. We should have done that for football season, but like but also back to the Polaroids.
Speaker 3:Let's not discuss those Now that Pornhub's gone in North Carolina. These Polaroids are my only source and I love them.
Speaker 4:They're valuable Facebook.
Speaker 1:Marketplace, baby, you can make some money. Which, speaking of that, contact your representatives.
Speaker 4:We should not be putting our. Ids in to look at adult content, because you know it's going to lead down the line to way worse things. Privacy concerns Contact your representatives.
Speaker 1:Amen People. Their numbers are on here. Well, I guess.
Speaker 4:Yeah, we can look it up, put the numbers up.
Speaker 1:For our representatives.
Speaker 4:Yeah, yes, because it's North Carolina based, and just Google it.
Speaker 1:These people don't know how to Google.
Speaker 4:No, baby, I'll do it, don't worry yeah.
Speaker 1:Our audience can barely read, so gotta be sensitive all three people yeah the train's going oh my god, this person keeps calling me do we have to?
Speaker 4:pause for the train is it no?
Speaker 1:no, it won't pick it up, we're good there's a train going by everybody, there's a thank god I don't still live right next to it I think, oh same the train should mean we have to choo-choo chug.
Speaker 3:Oh, let's do that. I already did. Anytime the train comes by, have to choo-choo chug. Let's do that.
Speaker 2:Anytime the train comes by, we're choo-choo chugging.
Speaker 3:Choo-choo chugging, I'm just trying to get all those funny bits I'm going to edit Just letting you know, your delivery is outside the apartment door 302.
Speaker 1:The pizza's here Can I call a good edit, just letting you know your delivery is outside the apartment, door 302.
Speaker 3:The pizza's here the pizza.
Speaker 2:Can I call?
Speaker 4:it, jennifer Lawrence. Where's the pizza, which actually is good, because I was about?
Speaker 2:to go into us talking about after they got together and then going into the living situation into marriage.
Speaker 1:Continue making small talk. I'm going to get the pizza.
Speaker 2:We need to eat the pizza. Yeah, well, we can do that.
Speaker 4:I'm not to get the pizza. We need to eat the pizza. Yeah, well, we can do that Muckbang. I'm not eating pizza on camera, I'll eat it with, like, holding the mic, and we can just like. Asmr eat pizza. Anywho, okay, so the three of us live together and at the time, the best part is I didn't actually live with him, I just spent a lot of time with him.
Speaker 4:She was just a freeloader. I paid rent at my own apartment once I moved out of my dad's. I don't know about that Well your Greensboro apartment. Yeah, I was going to school in another town, yeah, and I lived there, but I was with you guys every weekend and my whole entire winter break, and that's how we knew we could move in together when your lease was up. That's true.
Speaker 2:The winter break was like the true test.
Speaker 4:It was. Yeah, it was literally like I said, it was our test run of living together. And then the three of us separated. We rented a place and then COVID happened and we knew what rings we wanted to get engaged with.
Speaker 2:Oh my God, god also I, low key, put mozzarella sticks on the menu. I didn't tell you because I really wanted long story short.
Speaker 4:We bought a house we got engaged in like the end of 2020 yeah, 2020 was still like COVID year and then we did a photo shoot like a just like little quick one with this photographer, toujours Chelsea Clayton, and we loved her. She's amazing photo shoot like a just like little quick one with this photographer, toujours chelsea clayton, and we loved her.
Speaker 4:She's amazing we were like okay, we need to like go ahead and solidify our date so we can book this photographer. Uh, so I started reaching out to venues in winston because we both have family super far outside of winston. We knew they were all going to be traveling here. The last thing we wanted was to like add additional shit for like us to deal with. Uh, so one of the venues that I had reached out to to tour um then sent us an email back after. I was like yeah, these are the dates we're looking at. We are looking at a couple different months. Uh, between 150 and 200 guests, kind of depending on the venue. Uh, and they were like yeah, so like ask me a couple questions. And one of the questions they asked me was what is the groom's name?
Speaker 4:the groom is me, and I was like this is weird, uh, but you know what a lot of things in the wedding world are gendered so many are. So I was just like, oh, okay, so like blah, blah, blah, blah blah, and the other bride's name is Brianna. And they emailed us back and we're like, oh, we don't do same-sex weddings.
Speaker 4:And we were just like that's crazy and like the thing that I was thinking the whole time. Like it was I think it was a Friday night we had a couple of friends over, including Connor.
Speaker 2:Yeah, wait was I over. I'm pretty sure you were at the house. I think I had COVID during that time.
Speaker 4:Maybe you did, maybe it wasn't you then.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I know, betsy was.
Speaker 4:But yeah, we had just like a couple of friends over. We Is this real, did they just?
Speaker 3:email me this like from their iPhone? Yes, but like they. And.
Speaker 2:I was just like oh.
Speaker 4:OK, and we were all obviously very angry because that's horrifying to like get that email. But I was like, ok, let's sleep on it before we do anything. Rash because the last thing I want to do is like rage post on social media about this. Rash because the last thing I want to do is like rage post on social media about this. And then in the morning we were like you know what, let's just post this on our Facebook.
Speaker 4:I woke up and rage posted it because we were like we have a ton of gay friends in Winston and like also even non-gay friends in Winston, like our friends, aren't going to want to get married at this place. That won't let their friends get married there.
Speaker 4:We literally just wanted to mourn our peeps, you know yeah uh and then it kind I also posted it in like a lgbtu democrats of winston-salem page because that seemed like a very you know, accepting audience yeah, yeah, and I was like you guys should know this. Like you, I don't want, I didn't. Honestly the really thing, hold on, let me rearrange my words. What it boiled down to is I did not want somebody else in our community to have to email a wedding venue and feel the same way I felt Because it was a really shitty feeling, yeah, Like the happiest moments of your life.
Speaker 3:you're searching for your venue. You just got engaged to your sexy ass wife yeah and you're searching and you're like looking for the dream venue, and you found one that you thought you would like have a lot of fun in, you know, and yeah, sorry, jesus, so I.
Speaker 4:I did not respond back to them, uh, and when media did end up starting to reach out to them, their reasoning was that they're like it's against their Christian values.
Speaker 1:So have you ever previous to that? Was that like a reality check and oh shit, like people really are like this, or have you experienced that kind of thing before?
Speaker 4:I mean vaguely, but I didn't think like the. The main reason I stayed in Winston was because I had already seen on the internet I don't remember if it was like on Reddit or on a Facebook group but like a gay couple had reached out to like a barn venue in North Carolina and had been denied because they were gay. And I was like, okay, you know, like rural North Carolina is questionable but like Winston is a very blue pocket.
Speaker 3:We were getting away from the barn venues for aesthetic reasons for us.
Speaker 4:But also I was like, okay, we're sticking to like the city of Winston-Salem. This is the city of arts and innovation. We're a very blue pocket in a lot of red areas. Like I'm not. I honestly went into it thinking I'm not going to get this in Winston. So getting it in the city of Winston, I was like whoa, um, it's not as accepting here as I thought and I really didn't. Neither of us thought anything would come of it. And then it started just kind of moving. Uh, somebody in the LGBTQ Dems Facebook group was a reporter and also a performer and is a very gay person and very like activist person and asked to post it elsewhere. And I was like, yeah, I do not care, go for it. And that's when it like really took off. Um, we got reached out to on like facebook by a couple of reporters and at first we were ignoring them because we were both like laying in bed sweating, so anxious, because we were like our friends are gonna see this.
Speaker 3:Well, our phones just started blowing up. I've just posted it on my facebook and our phones just immediately started blowing up.
Speaker 1:We were like oh, from friends, from family, from everybody, yeah um, and then everything.
Speaker 4:We didn't respond to the first couple of reporters and then noticed they were just using our quotes from our Facebook posts to go ahead and post them anyway. So I was like, well, I guess, if they're going to go ahead and post it, we may as well talk to them. So the first reporter that we actually talked to was from Triad City Beat, and that was Katieie um, katie m. Yeah, katie m was amazing, uh, and a really great reporter to talk to, and I believe they ended up doing it as like a letter to the editor, so it wasn't like a, you know, quote, unquote, unbiased article or whatever you want to call it um.
Speaker 4:And then we were reached out to by equality north carolina um, because they wanted us to talk about it more, because this happened to be with the sun setting of a bill that happened because of hb I can't think of the name of it now, so I'm gonna need to look that up really quick, so we can be. Is that the bathroom bill? Yeah, it was.
Speaker 2:HB2?.
Speaker 4:Yeah. So there were additional bills passed after HB2, the bathroom bill and one of the prongs of that bill was that local municipalities cannot have a non-discrimination ordinance. But it was only a certain time and it happened to be sunsetting at the end of 2020. So this kind of was the perfect storm. It happened at just the right time. Local municipalities were just about to be allowed to enact non-discrimination ordinances and when they first reached out to us, I was like, thank you, but like us getting denied a wedding venue isn't in reality of like life harming us.
Speaker 4:There's people who are like not getting health care at their jobs and people who can't even get jobs or housing because they're gay, and so, like this seems kind of like nothing. And they were like, exactly, this is like the most basic level of discrimination. This is like the tip of the iceberg, and you who are two white women, are getting denied this like do you know how much worse it is for everybody else, like trans people, people of color who are queer, and I was like, oh shit, like this is something that a lot of people can connect to. A lot of people get married straight people specifically. Um, and those are the people those voices like really help matter in getting shit passed, um. So that's when we started speaking out. We worked with campaign for southern equality and equality north carolina, um, to talk about this, and we talked to, like, the winston-salem journal. We talked to somebody from, like, a national news source. There was people articles written that were based in England about this, like it it spread like a rapid fire.
Speaker 4:Like.
Speaker 3:I was waking up to texts from cousins who hadn't spoke to me in like 10 years.
Speaker 2:Really yeah, oh shit.
Speaker 4:And so it went from just us being like pissed off and posting on Facebook for our friends to like oh shit, like we can make change happen. We can do something about this.
Speaker 1:And you did.
Speaker 4:Yeah, right, yeah, right. After that a couple got passed. Non-discrimination ordinances got passed in North Carolina. I want to say it was like Asheville, charlotte, like there were some big cities that they had already kind of been in the pipeline, but because of this it helped, like one in winston-salem got passed. Uh, not obviously not just because of us, but I joined the non-discrimination ordinance coalition, uh, with several other queer people and allies and north carolina or winston-salem winston-salem has a non-discrimination ordinance now. Um, it's probably not as like beefy as we all like it to be, but it is a huge step, but it's still something, yeah.
Speaker 3:It still exists Something to be proud of Exactly.
Speaker 4:Yeah, something that was not there before, and that's because a ton of people were like we had a lot of very shitty comments. We also had a lot of people being like, well, why don't you just sue? Um, because it wasn't illegal, like what they did was fully legal, and that was what was. The shittiest feeling is like this person emailed me like we don't do same-sex marriages and like that was fine. Um, like there was no backlash, like so many people in our comments were also forgetting that we were the ones who posted it, and so I was just like I can see what you're saying. Talking about the alphabet mafia yeah, we're here, but it it led to a lot of really great things. Uh, I met a lot of amazing people from equality, north carolina and Campaign for Southern Equality. I also then was able to join the board of North Star, which is a local community center we have, and then I also was put in touch with Family Equality, which is like a nationwide LGBTQ org.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so like theos were just the start yeah, and then, beyond that too, like after the whole fact, like I know, you all went to the white house, and so how did that come about? Like like the whole, like didn't you receive a letter?
Speaker 4:yeah, so, um. From joe bud yes, because of the the work that I was doing with, uh, csc and nc equality, um, I was trying to help get the equality act passed in congress, um, unfortunately, that one did not pass. But there was another bill that came up, uh, that was called the respect for marriage act. That compass encompassed a lot more things than just queer marriages, um, and I spoke to several senators, offices, with several other queer people, um, and that was what basically got us on the radar of this event at the white house, a night of when hope and history rhyme, and we received an invitation to the White House for this huge event that included.
Speaker 3:Elton, motherfucking John, woo, woo that was also my dream concert and my mother loved him, so that was like my dad loves him.
Speaker 2:that's amazing. Yeah, yeah, my tattoo on my arm with the butterflies.
Speaker 1:You know why I love butterflies so much?
Speaker 3:Because the song Someone Saved my Life Tonight says You're a butterfly. You're free to fly Free to fly Yep, I'm going to cry.
Speaker 2:Just kidding, it's okay, you can cry. We cry on the podcast.
Speaker 1:As a producer I encourage it, ratings gold, but like as your friend, then I feel really bad. But I would still put it in.
Speaker 3:But he didn't perform that song, so fuck you, elton John.
Speaker 4:Girl Just gonna eat it.
Speaker 1:Well, he's never coming on this podcast.
Speaker 2:He is banned from the podcast, but it was still amazing. We got a tiny dancer and, oh, that's, that's right, man, tiny dancer is my favorite I know classics, yeah, yeah we had to go through some probably severe background.
Speaker 4:they almost stole my jewel. It was not yours, it was mine, it was my vape and I was like I will throw. They were like I don't know if you can have this in here. I've had vapes yeah, but they didn't say anything to you about yours. We went through a different security line. Okay, Maybe we don't say that when we went the housewife that like snuck into. Like snuck in.
Speaker 2:Yes, that snuck in to the. Do you all remember that?
Speaker 3:There was a housewife there, but she did not snike in Sneak in, sneak in.
Speaker 2:Sneak in, Sniper in. But no, there was that like yeah, housewives of DC and they like everything.
Speaker 3:Yeah, not hear about that, know about that oh.
Speaker 2:Spencer would know.
Speaker 3:Well.
Speaker 2:Spencer is on an airplane.
Speaker 1:Oh wow, Cut that. We're going to bleep that and act like you said something terrible.
Speaker 3:You said you could edit. You're right, but this whole thing, is getting edited.
Speaker 1:Oh God, spencer is coming back from New York and I'm picking him up after this, so is coming back to New York and I'm picking him up after this.
Speaker 4:That's why I'm trying to speed through this part.
Speaker 3:Anyway, so the night when Hope and History Rhyme was not just for the gays, it was local change makers and teachers and first responders, and so we were very lucky to be included in that and we met some awesome people that we still are connected with today, which is amazing, and so we got to and we met some awesome people that we still are connected with.
Speaker 1:Really, she's amazing.
Speaker 4:Yeah, that's so cool, and so we got to go to the front lawn of the White House. We had to go through TSA security to get there. They were background checked beforehand, but it was still.
Speaker 3:We also saw where Obama used to sneak and smoke his cigarettes while he was in term.
Speaker 1:Did they have a plaque or something?
Speaker 4:No, the guy who was sitting behind us was a teacher term. Did they have a?
Speaker 1:plaque or something.
Speaker 4:No, the guy who was sitting behind us was a teacher and he was like you see, there, that's where Obama used to smoke his cigarettes.
Speaker 2:He's teaching that in civics. I want to know what cigarettes Obama smoked.
Speaker 4:I was like I don't know what Obama smoked.
Speaker 3:He smoked camel menthols, camel city baby. Camel city baby. Camel crushes or maybe he was like a Turkish delight man. Turkish royal, turkish royal.
Speaker 4:Turkish delight is like the candy. I said Turkish light, oh, turkish delight Would you fuck Divorce, divorce, it's okay, somebody today Our first divorce on the podcast.
Speaker 2:Oh my God, wow, that's a lot of money.
Speaker 4:Somebody today was like hey will you guys get divorced so you can get married again, so I can come to your wedding again. And then somebody else was like I'm mad that we weren't friends when you guys got married. And I was like well, don't worry, apparently, we're getting a divorce and getting remarried.
Speaker 3:You guys will do it again. You can come to the next one. Go back to fantasy football season. We got divorced at least 1,700 times.
Speaker 2:And I'll just re-sign your mayor's certificate. I've signed it before, so it's fine yeah, you can sign it again but anyway that's a secret. I know, but it's really funny anyway. I'm just kidding. What are you talking about, we?
Speaker 1:can break that out. You know which? Who did Tanya? You know I'm just kidding.
Speaker 3:What are you talking about? I don't know. We can break that out. Okay, so you know which. Who did Tanya?
Speaker 2:You know, I do know I'm so out of the loop and I'm glad about it. You have no idea what.
Speaker 1:I'm talking about, so went to the White House, did all this crazy shit. What are your plans next?
Speaker 3:Because I would love for you to run for office or something run for office or something, because you're like a badass yes, and you're. We all say that. People tell me all the time to run.
Speaker 1:She would be perfect for us a trophy wife, I feel like a great way to describe casey is. So when I was moving I was thinking about getting movers and I'm such like give me like big hockey, hulking like straight men I'm gonna be like terrified, like I don't know what to tell. But I was like I don't know what to tell. But I was like I would get casey to come because she would be directing those motherfuckers what to do, where to put shit, like that shit would be organized and she would like you know, just tell them and they would listen, because very drill sergeant intimidating yeah a little like when you turn when you turn the red on in.
Speaker 3:In a hot way yeah.
Speaker 1:So that's, casey, not wrong the adults in the room.
Speaker 4:I have been told I was intimidating literally, since, like middle school, Like always, I've always wanted a bad bitch.
Speaker 2:And a bad bitch you got.
Speaker 4:I did. Yeah, I have been asked to a lot to run. I think if I did anything, it would only be local. I think local stuff is much more important, right?
Speaker 1:now Grassroots yeah.
Speaker 4:Yeah, that's the thing. So when all of this was going on with the NDO, I was attending virtually attending city council meetings like every single month, and I'm not going to say which ward I'm in or who is my local city council person, but they were recently elected at the time and they had mentioned in a meeting that I wasn't in that I saw a recording of that. They had not attended a city council meeting until they won their primary and it's like that TikTok sound that's really popular right now, which probably won't be popular when this is posted, but it's like boys can do it, like it's so easy, and so I was like, if boys can do it, I can do it. Yeah, and that literally at the time I was like I've been to more city council meetings than this man has been. I could do it, but it's just a very big logistical thing and I would have to have a lot of talks, like you know, with my wife and with with my job and with the people who would be supporting me.
Speaker 3:She also has to wait until she's like 85 years old at least.
Speaker 1:That's when you run for Congress.
Speaker 4:I'm not running for Congress though, but like city council.
Speaker 1:Because right now, my city council rep who we won't name is a part of our LGBT community but, doesn't like to stand up and talk, he just bends over and ignores the problems. And he it's like we elected somebody thinking, oh, because the area he represents is very progressive, like oh, we're no, we're not naming names, we're gonna get somebody I think I know that, um, that would really fight for us. And instead we got somebody who was like kind of a yes, man, goes with whatever one else does it just bends over literally and like I get you're gay, but like in a workplace.
Speaker 1:Stop bending over correct amen.
Speaker 4:Well, and that's what I'm saying, like if I were to do this, I would have to strategize, and that's. I've had people who are much more politically inept than I am, because that's, at the end of the day, like I have so much more to learn, like I have done a lot of advocating, but mostly I know how to advocate for things that, like, I know firsthand, because I don't want to speak out about something that I'm uninformed about or I'm not in that community. You know I don't. I need to be educated.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you don't want to speak for that community.
Speaker 4:So if I were to do it, I would really need to like do it and I would like I would probably be the city council person that everybody was angry at, because I want to be the voice for the people. And so if everybody is like complaining about a certain intersection that constantly has accidents and needs a stoplight, like amen well, we can't say the name, because then that gives away which council person we're talking sorry, I'm so sorry it's okay.
Speaker 1:That's why I'm saying it, so it I don't give a fuck, we'll call him out. We didn't say his name, but you know who you are, you slimy motherfucker. Grow a pair or just resign.
Speaker 4:Yeah, you kind of suck but we have to be careful, because I don't need him to know I'm coming for him he already hates us no, he doesn't. He likes us but be terrified he like knows me we're friends on facebook he knows me, we've had conversations I've had.
Speaker 2:I've had conversations too with this gentleman.
Speaker 4:But like if I was going to be on city council, it would be a whole thing and I'm not ready for that currently. Possibly in a couple of years, but yeah, I'm not currently ready for that. But even has said things like Casey, why don't you run for?
Speaker 3:office you would.
Speaker 4:Fucking kill it. And I was like it's funny because, like a lot of people who vote in a similar way of talk shit about somebody who's in our like Senate right now, because she was a bartender. And I'm like, do you not remember like a couple of years ago, I was just a fucking bartender.
Speaker 4:And now you're sitting here in the car with me, like telling me I should run for office. You obviously believe in me because you know how smart I am personally, but a lot of people who are like you and vote like you would just be looking at me and being like she was a fucking bartender and I'm like that's how things like that go. It's true, you know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we have our president, who's a reality TV star, but here we are.
Speaker 3:That makes a lot of fucking sense, yeah.
Speaker 1:So I have a question as we start to wrap this up yeah, given all you've gone through, do you have any advice for other members of the LGBT community that might be facing something similar? And I know how you handled it and you had. You had no background in that, like you just had to figure it out. Do you have any advice for people that if they run into this, especially in the current climate like this isn't going to stop, unfortunately right now. How do they deal with it? How do they anything that you would change as far as how you handled that?
Speaker 4:Um, I think, relying on your community is community is huge, super amazing. Uh, we had and I know it's like cheesy, but like we, there were facebook groups and we had people who we had never met like just giving us affirming words. Uh, we're very lucky that we have a lot of close friends who are also in our community that we could just like call and like commiserate with and like be talked up with, uh, but there's a lot of really great virtual communities that you can hopefully connect with.
Speaker 3:So many people reached out to us and it was just like it made it easy to ignore the shitty comments because, we did, we received a lot of hate rolling in
Speaker 4:of dms of comments like and I just honestly laughed at them because at the end of the day I was like you don't know me, you don't know my life and your, your shitty little facebook comment doesn't haunt my feelings, but I know some of them can. Um, so like leaning on your community, because that's, there were so many people who we didn't know well, who, like my friend lindsey she initially I met her because she owns a wedding business and she is part of the LGBTQ community and at the time she just like reached out and was like offering support and like, over time, like she is my best friend now.
Speaker 1:Shout out to Lindsay she's a real one.
Speaker 4:Ivory Hound Weddings Love you, Lindsay. But yeah, we were able to make a lot of friends and just like really leaning on our community, the like queer people and allies and the allies a lot of times make a really big difference and you don't realize you do.
Speaker 4:Surround yourself with people that love you and care about you, and that's pretty much all you can do and call your representatives. Amen. In North Carolina, thanks to Campaign for Southern Equality and Equality NC, we have like a really amazing website that you can literally share a link and just input your information and it will send all of the representatives.
Speaker 1:They write the letter for you.
Speaker 4:Yeah, share that, write that, get all your friends to do it. We would not let people in our house without filling out that form, and it takes three seconds.
Speaker 1:I had family members who don't even vote the same way I do that were like careening out on their senators, which is what you need to do, like, if you don't annoy them, they won't care.
Speaker 4:Yeah, the thing is you need to call your representatives. That's what they're there to do. Do not like yell at them for 45 minutes because it's just a staffer who's doing it, but like call and make your voice known. Um, they're supposed to listen to you, yeah and maybe a little plug for north star yeah, north star lgbtq community center. Uh, we're located on berk street, winston-salem. Uh, we're open, I believe, friday, saturday, sunday right now we have programming. Uh, check out our website, check out our instagram and uh come check us out or donate.
Speaker 1:Yeah they have a great queer library that has some funny books, some real books, some just I think it's a fantastic resource. They do. Yes, they do you know, free sti cleaning or not, I wish, I wish my boyfriend spencer happens to work with casey on the and it's just, it's a great support. I guess it's a great community.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it really is.
Speaker 4:It really is we have here, we have some peer support groups, we have STI testing, we have tabletop gay.
Speaker 3:There's also a problem.
Speaker 1:It's definitely a safe space. Yeah, it is a safe space.
Speaker 4:Ok, maybe you don't say that on a drinking problem. It's definitely a safe space. It is a safe space Okay, maybe you don't say that on a podcast either we're like literally drinking Reverse.
Speaker 1:That was a joke. We all know that was a joke, but yeah, we have Rainbow AA.
Speaker 4:We also have Ambi. That used to be there, but they are actually moving to a location because they outgrew us, which is very exciting for them. That's exciting which is very exciting for them. But yeah, and if you want to start your own programming, there is a form on our website and you can start your own programming, most likely for free.
Speaker 1:And they have great snacks, I would add.
Speaker 3:We do oh do y'all. Solid snackies.
Speaker 2:And they also like. Y'all have condoms, you have libs, you have all the sexual things too.
Speaker 1:We threw out the expired condoms the other day.
Speaker 2:Oh, did you get it from there?
Speaker 1:because when I yeah, because they were, they were flavored and like one was like neon and I was like hell yeah, we're about to do sword fights and then we're like they're expired. They're only good for aesthetics, but we can't use them sword fights are you using condoms with your boyfriend?
Speaker 2:I mean because you're in a committed relationship.
Speaker 1:We just wanted to play sword fighting, but we were like if other people come in, they need to be safe. Yeah, it's like you've been tested do you use protection oh, normally we do lately oh, you are using condoms, oh so you're like, so you are okay there's nothing wrong with having safe sex like yeah, okay, I
Speaker 2:don't know I don't know what to say right now because I'm like wait what? I'm just confused.
Speaker 1:Like so are you? No, it depends on the time, like last time.
Speaker 3:I'm confused. What is happening? Sometimes you use condoms, sometimes they don't. Yeah basically Connor why, are you so concerned about this? I know because I want to know, I instinctively, because like that's habit.
Speaker 2:Yeah, do you feel like there's like a reason for you to wear the condom? No, oh, and I'm black out, I'm not. Huh, did you put the condom on, connie? Yes, what do you mean? I'm just want to know like, are we doing like open relationships, no they're just using.
Speaker 1:sometimes I I was shit-faced, my default I'm going to be honest, I had tacos that night. Okay, valid. And I was like I don't want to shit if things go sideways. So yeah, apparently that time it was rough.
Speaker 2:That's why they call it taco. Hell when it comes out.
Speaker 3:Well, that's the thing that makes sense.
Speaker 4:We don't use condoms, but that's because female condoms are very hard to find. We went to Charlotte Pride one year and there were like 85 booths.
Speaker 1:Don't you just use like denterdams or some shit?
Speaker 4:Well, yeah, that's the thing. So there were like 85 booths. They don't have this goddamn gas station. That offered free condoms and there was one place at the Charlotte Pride we went to that had dental dams.
Speaker 3:I still never used one, though.
Speaker 4:Well, I mean no, because we were in a committed relationship from the very beginning. Yeah it's a lot harder to find for women, or not even just women People without standard condom genitalia.
Speaker 3:Yeah, they don't really talk about safe sex with women at all. Yeah, that's, true I remember the first time I went to the gynecologist in college and I told her I was hooking up with women. She was like oh good, you can't get STDs. What your gyno said that that's West Virginia y'all.
Speaker 2:Truth.
Speaker 3:Even though half of.
Speaker 2:West Virginia. Y'all Truth, Even though half of West Virginia is gay as fuck. Yeah.
Speaker 3:West Virginia is a very gay state.
Speaker 2:It is so gay One of the best gay bars I've ever been to? Yes.
Speaker 3:Anyways, yeah, wow, that was a full-ass doctor that said, oh good, you can't. Maybe she just thought women were just not having sex.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Honestly yeah, Probably they don't understand how women have sex. She was probably a.
Speaker 1:Christian lady. Well, on that note, I think we've got to wrap up.
Speaker 3:We do Wrap it up before we tap it up Great. We're out.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that sounds like a high school. I love that Like sex ed.
Speaker 4:No, that's just absence.
Speaker 1:Someone rapping. Yes so do you guys have any final thoughts comments? I know you guys are coming back later this season. Yeah, this is just part one.
Speaker 4:I would just like to say don't forget to contact your representatives. That's what they're there for. You voted for them, Even if you didn't specifically vote for them. You're in their jurisdiction and they're supposed to vote for you, so they are supposed to vote for you so contact them and encourage all of your friends to contact theirs.
Speaker 1:And we're going to add links to be able to find that in the bio, or we'll have it somewhere around this video so you guys can reach out and start, you know, making change.
Speaker 3:Yeah, making the change.
Speaker 1:All right guys. Well, thank you for this amazing episode of Buzzed and Balanced with our amazing guest and landlords. Thank you, Bree and Katie. Thank you for this amazing episode of buzzed and balanced with our amazing guests and landlords.
Speaker 3:Thank you. Thank you, guys, for having the best. We'll see you next week. Bye.