Coming Out Pod

WHAT A WEEK, AMIRITE?!?!? 🫠 It's been seven days since we found out the less-than-desirable results of the 2024 presidential election, and it's feeling like we could all use a candid but encouraging conversation about where things stand. But not before we hear a 1987 lesbian meet-cute! 😍 Mary Ellen Capek (who will be eighty-three next month) is a writer, an activist, and a self-described "relapsed Methodist." Her first book of poetry ("Love Lessons: Poems 1973-2023") comes out this Friday, and she's been on an impressive number of boards and committees. Mary Ellen's story includes compulsory heterosexuality, marriage and (incredibly amicable!) divorce, being the "token heterosexual" in lesbian spaces, and a ten-day women's hiking trip that forever changed her life 🏞 An expert in organizing and community building, she discusses the importance of keeping our energy up in dark times ("I'm not gonna let that sonofabitch steal my joy!"), and shares practical ways to avoid burnout. It's a funny, tender, and inspiring conversation with someone who has been doing the work her entire life 💗 Link in bio 🔗

PHOTOS:
1) Mary Ellen and her wife Sue celebrate marriage equality passing in New Mexico in 2013
2) Mary Ellen and Sue's official wedding photo (2003)
3) Mary Ellen and Sue in 1987, shortly after they met
4) Mary Ellen and her former husband/close friend, Mike
5) Mary Ellen when she was married and living in Princeton, NJ; sporting what she calls her "Gloria Steinem hair"
6) Mary Ellen's first ever passport photo, circa 1967
7) LOOK AT DAT FACE!
8) "Love Lessons: Poems 1973-2023" is available November 15th wherever books are sold

.

.

.

#activism #activist #comingout #comingoutstory #community #communitybuilding #divorce #humanrights #lateinlifelesbian #lesbian #lgbt #lgbtactivist #organizing #poet #poetry #queer #queerelder #socialjustice #thinkglobalactloca #burnoutprevention #writer #1980s #comphet #lesbianpoetry #lesbianpoet #queerpoetry #lesbianwriter #lgbtpoetry #lgbtpoet #2024election