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Immigrant Safety, Community Trust, and Queer Liberation with Eliazar Posada #42
37 Plays1 month ago
Co-hosts Daniel WK Lee and Kata d’Adamo sit down with Eliazar Posada to talk about what community protection looks like when national politics turn hostile. Eliazar breaks down practical local strategies—non-discrimination ordinances, language access plans, and building trust so people feel safe seeking help. He also reflects on the emotional weight and responsibility of being a “first,” and his commitment to making sure he’s not the last by supporting other queer Latino candidates. At Equality North Carolina, he describes the shift into LGBTQ+ work as an expansion of intersectional movement-building, not a departure from immigrant rights. A rapid-fire round brings levity, then the hosts share ways to stay connected and support the mission.
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Transcript
Interconnected Issues: Queer, Reproductive, Immigrant, and Disability Rights
00:00:00
Speaker
One of the that I treasure a lot about Equality NC is that we really have a mindset of we're doing this in community, right? No issue is siloed. Queer issues are reproductive issues, are immigrant rights issues, are voting rights issues, and they're disability issues. we We cannot say queer issues are only queer issues because it's not the reality. It's not a thing. It's a lie.
Podcast Introduction: Hosts and Guest
00:00:26
Speaker
Hello and welcome to Power Beyond Pride, a weekly queer changemaking podcast bringing you to voices and ideas from across our fierce and fabulous spectrum to transform our world.
00:00:38
Speaker
My name is Daniel Lee, poet, author, and life-size labubu. And I'm Kate, FEM organizer and former Gaby. We're a co-host on today's QueerCast journey.
First Openly Gay Latino Elected in NC
00:00:50
Speaker
In this episode, we're talking to Councilman Eliezer Posada, the Executive Director of Equality North Carolina. Welcome in Councilman Posada.
00:00:59
Speaker
Hey, welcome. Thank you all for having me. It's a pleasure to be here. How are you doing this afternoon? Doing okay. It was a little hot. We had a couple of events this morning on community, so it got a little sweaty out there, but back inside, back in the air conditioning, thank God it's working.
00:01:16
Speaker
It's doing good. That's really awesome. Well, want to just dive in. on and since you're kind of really a pioneer, why don't you tell us you know what it really meant to you to be the first openly gay elected Latino in North Carolina?
00:01:36
Speaker
Yeah, it was it was very interesting, right? When I first ran, i recognized that the Latina community in North Carolina didn't have the representation that we deserve, number one, right?
00:01:47
Speaker
And two, we didn't have any queer Latina folks selected in the state. So... One of the reasons I ran was for that, but also because like I love my community, right? I wanted to be able to be make an impact. I knew a lot of things happening in town and I've been very involved for years.
00:02:02
Speaker
So it was a natural progression for me to really run for office this and represent in a different way and bring some of my protective perspectives to town council. But it really didn't really hit me that I was the first until a couple of months after the election. Right. We had ah we did the election the campaign. we talk about it during the cycle and it becomes a couple of questions that people ask and we talk about it. Then we give it like the issues in town.
Posada's Journey: From Childhood to Public Servant
00:02:30
Speaker
And then a couple of, about a month and a half after I get elected, I'm invited because my election was in May. I got invited in June to Latinx Pride celebration after party where I was asked to take the mic while the Queens are doing their break and talk about the importance of voting and ah representation.
00:02:49
Speaker
And of course, I'm like, why not? I can do that. I can give speeches. So I'm thinking no one's going to know who I am when I come in, right? This is a couple of towns over. People are going to be like, yeah, sure. Okay, cool. But, you know, I'm introduced the crowd goes wild. And I'm like, holy, holy. Holy moly, here we watching OEM. That's funny. And then what really the moment that I realized how important this was. After the speech is done, after the show, I'm hanging out with some queens in the back patio of the space. And there's someone that's just chilling couple of feet away. And you can tell that they want to talk to you. They do want to talk to you, but they're like little nervous or whatever. And I'm like, right, I'm just going to say hi. So I was just like, hey, hey, what's up? How are you doing?
00:03:31
Speaker
And this is a queer person from rural North Carolina who had been following ah my my campaign and my work before that and who just wanted to say hi. And I'm like, oh, yeah, hi. get to know you. I gave him a hug and they start crying.
00:03:44
Speaker
Right. And I'm like, what did I just do? but What happened? Oh, my God. What did I just do? And then we talked a little bit and they let me know they are queer, Latina, ah in a rural area of North Carolina, a a teacher and by profession and and is afraid of coming out and has been following the work they were doing and never thought that they would ever see someone that looked like them in office and representing in the way that you do that do.
00:04:10
Speaker
It was just very impactful, right? Because it is it hit me right there, right? This is a person that lives like almost two hours away from Little Carrboro. But the work that I was doing in a small town is impacting queer Latina folks across the state. So it was since then I've made it my mission to not be the only one, right? We now have four queer Latina electeds in the state, two others of which I supported in in in their campaigns when they first ran and as they were doing it.
00:04:38
Speaker
Because yes, I was the first and I think there was a lot of really great things that came from that, but I never wanted to be a last. And I know that my colleagues serving other municipalities will continue that work to to push for representation, specifically queer folks in office.
Challenges and Policies for Immigrant Communities
00:04:55
Speaker
That's beautiful. Thank you for sharing that. And that's such an incredible impact to be able to see and feel, literally feel in real time. That's so beautiful. And I'd love to hear more and kind of start at the beginning.
00:05:07
Speaker
what Tell us a little bit about your journey. What politicized you? What made you even want to make change in the first place? Yeah. Believe it or not, this started when I was a kid. i was raised by a single mother. It was my brothers and I. And one thing that my mother always told us is that she wasn't going to leave us with any riches, but she was going to leave us with a damn good education. And part of that is recognizing that there's three things in life.
00:05:31
Speaker
that are for certain. One is your family. They don't have to be blood. They're your family, your community, and yourself. So you look out and you fight for those three things. So if you ask my mother, she'll say that everything I know, she i learned from her, right? She was an organizer of farm workers back when we were younger in South Texas and traveled across the U.S. s with, she would negotiate ah with farm owners and make sure that we had the labor and the pay and the living and all that fun stuff.
00:06:00
Speaker
ah So i have two brothers, all of them born in different states in different seasons, right? My younger brother was born North Carolina and tobacco season. I was born in Florida in sugarcane season. And my younger brother was born in Texas in cabbage season in South Texas. So it's interesting to see that, right? But growing up with a mother who was, even though we had some really tough times, right? When and we were young, i remember being in elementary school have to wake up at four five in the morning to help her peel potatoes that we make breakfast tacos to sell before we went to school and then helping her close the restaurant ah that she was managing afterwards.
00:06:35
Speaker
She always made time to be in community, right? There was this old lady in our block that I, we just, we could not get along. yeah I was like a sponges little kid. She was ah older and little grumpy. And my mom always made me go take her dinner. Always. And I'm like, she likes Josue, my older brother. She likes him. Why don't you send him? He's nice.
00:06:56
Speaker
But anyway, I say this ah because fast forward to... I go off to college. I have to wait pay my way through college. I get involved in different pieces of work, right? I went to Campbell University.
00:07:08
Speaker
There wasn't a queer organization or Latino or Latina student organization, so I was like, I'm a start one. Why not? So I gathered some folks and we started doing that work. And I recognized that I was very, ah one of my passions was similar to like my mother's is really representing community and being out in community.
00:07:25
Speaker
My whole plan was to go to law school. I got accepted into my top school. i was going to go to Georgetown and be this big time lawyer and make a lot of money and then be a judge and all this fun stuff.
00:07:36
Speaker
ah yeah That didn't happen. But I decided between caught on my four-year
Equality NC's Collaborative Approach
00:07:41
Speaker
degree and law school to take a break. I had just worked a lot, did a lot of work, and I was like, I'm burn out. So let me take let me take a year.
00:07:48
Speaker
And I started working at a nonprofit that I had been supported by called Centro Hispano. They were, at the time, the only Latino organization having a support group for queer kids, specifically queer Latina folks.
00:08:02
Speaker
So i was like, I'm going to go there work for a year. They'll be cute or whatever. That one year it turned into two, turned into three, turned into four, turned into five. And i started off as a volunteer and ended up as an acting president CEO of the organization. And this is in a five year span, the largest Latina nonprofit in North Carolina, helped it expand.
00:08:24
Speaker
So along those lines, I realized again, that there were so many pieces that we can do a lot of work in. i So it just it was just kind of a natural progression, right? It was, I get invited to talk to someone here or but who Durham Council is doing something funny and here goes Eliezer to speak up against it And just being in a community, hilarious. One of my big time supporters in current elected official in Orange County met with me about two years before I ran and handed me a check that said, LA's right for mayor.
00:08:58
Speaker
I knew you're going to do this one day and I will be the first one to give you this check. And I was like, sir, calm down. You're crazy. No, it's fine. And lo and behold, two years later, I run for office and he gives me a check but for counsel. So yeah, a lot I think a lot of folks realize that I needed to be in this elected role before I did.
00:09:15
Speaker
But I knew that I wanted to represent community in in in a much deeper way since my young age. Where we'll go from here, I don't know. But I also know there's a lot of deep things, harmful things coming up in community, right? And like they're impacting our folks. We talk about queer issues here in North Carolina and across the United States, what we're seeing out of DC, what we're seeing out of Raleigh. and We talk about the immigrant folks in the state how that's impacting our queer, undocumented communities here in North Carolina, which have a significant population.
00:09:46
Speaker
We talk about reproductive justice and how that's impacting our trans folks, being able to access care. ah There's so many pieces that I'm very glad to be not only in local elected office where can actually do some change that are impacting people's later lives, but also in this ah this ah executive role with Equality NC and the mechanisms that i have the privilege of leading to be able but to impact them these policies.
00:10:12
Speaker
but That's incredible. And what what an amazing legacy that your mother has left. right Thanks for sharing this. Yeah, yeah. She'll tell you that it's amazing too. soon I mean, you kind of just touch upon it already and we might be just leaping a bit, but obviously in this current moment, we have a lot of antagonism towards immigrant communities in which you who are seated in the place where there are significant populations. And so what's kind of been ah the experience of or the temperature in the community now and what are the kind of interventions do you think like you've been able or that yeah the government has been able to create to allow these communities to feel more at ease or you know like that in these scary times that won't that they won't just get dragged away
00:11:05
Speaker
Yeah, and it's this is the unfortunate and very real situation that we're in, right? We're talking about administration at the federal level who does not see our American community as people, who does not see the harm in kidnapping folks from the grocery stores or from their work and how that's un impacting their kids at home. which also causes tremendous amount of fear, right? We here in Colorado actually, about seven years ago, i started the Latinx orgullo, which is Latinx pride. And i it started off as we didn't have a space in the big pride. So we were like, why complain about it? Like, just make one, right? And that's been a pride that has been growing every year. And it happens here in Colorado for the last six years.
00:11:52
Speaker
And this year we had a lot of folks who were very fearful, right? We had conversations with the organization. I'm obviously not in organizing that anymore. that left the central and they're the ones holding it, but we had conversations both as a town council member, as a member of the community and alumni of the program about what's happening. How are we responding to this very real fear
Intersectional Activism and Alliance Building
00:12:13
Speaker
from folks?
00:12:15
Speaker
And I come back to a couple of things that is truly crucially important for local electeds, right? We can't change what's coming out of of the Cheeto up in DC, right? Whatever he's going to do is what he's going to do, but we can prepare for it. You know, as local elected officials, we have the ability to create policies like non-discrimination policies, like non-cooperation with ICE and our in our law enforcement, like trainings for Know Your Rights, like information and sharing with community that maybe doesn't solve the whole problem, but allows folks to understand what's happening, to know that there's people who have their back and really be prepared, right? Because it's not about if or maybe ICE will be in our communities. It's like, when is this going to happen and how are we preparing for it, right? How are we creating policies so that our chief police has to inform our community advocates about any information they get about ICE coming into our communities?
00:13:13
Speaker
How do we make it so that folks have a power of attorneys ready to go, know what their rights are have different resources, right? How is the town working with our local advocates and organizations to make sure there's funding for that?
00:13:28
Speaker
So there's a lot of really great work that we've been doing here in Carrboro and a lot of our my colleagues across North Carolina have also been working at the local level. Because again, it's not about if, it's about when, right? And I'd make want to make sure that, or at least, you know, what we know that this is coming down the pipeline, so how we're preparing folks, right?
00:13:49
Speaker
Also, we have a lot of work to do in the and the General Assembly. Right. North Carolina is not unique when it looks at some of the bills that is being proposed and passed that are impacting not only queer, but also immigrant immigrant folks and like requiring different cooperations and different policies that are making it easier for the federal government to come in and destroy immigrant communities.
00:14:11
Speaker
And in North Carolina, we have a, we broke a majority in the House, right? So we're able to uphold vetoes. So now it's not only making sure that those bills are vetoed, but let's uphold that. And sometimes we don't have the votes. And I get that.
00:14:23
Speaker
But we have a voice. We can't simply just say, we don't have the votes. We can't do anything. Well, you fight every single second up until that thing becomes law. And even after it, you file some lawsuits, you do whatever it is you can.
00:14:36
Speaker
And many times local elected officials, need a little bit of push from community and auto community rightfully focuses on like the Congress or the White House or on the governor's mansion.
00:14:48
Speaker
But also, folks, I always encourage folks to to see what your local government is doing and how they're advocating for you and your communities and the communities you care about at the statewide and federal level. Because, yes, we are local folks who don't really have a ah direct line to the White House or to the Speaker of the House and Congress.
00:15:08
Speaker
But we're not powerless. We have a lot of work that we can't do, a lot of ah conversations we can have, a lot of people who are also going to be looking to us to lead. And it's our time, as we're looking at these perilous moments, to be leaders and bring in grassroots as we try to fight this this massive attack on not just our queer and undocumented community, but you know on women's rights, on voting rights, on everything we hold dear.
00:15:34
Speaker
Absolutely. so And I can't wait to talk more about kind of these interventions, this resistance, but we're going to need to take a quick break. So please stay tuned to this episode of Power Beyond Pride, where we're in conversation with Councilman Elie Saar-Pasada.
00:15:55
Speaker
Welcome back. This is Power Beyond Pride, a queer change-making podcast, and I'm Daniel Lee here with my co-host, Kate DiAdamo. Just to follow up with what we were saying before the break, I'd love to hear...
00:16:08
Speaker
more about what kinds of interventions, resistance that your town has been able to make um against
Blending Immigrant Rights and LGBTQ Advocacy
00:16:17
Speaker
really the move against ICE and the Trump administration to help protect immigrant communities, immigrant families.
00:16:24
Speaker
Like what are some ah ideas that have already been put in place and might be able to be replicated by other towns or other citizens trying to mobilize people to create resistance?
00:16:35
Speaker
Yeah. And this is a great question. There's a couple of things that I would mention on this, right? So first and foremost is creating non-discrimination ordinances that include legal status, right? So we always see sex, gender, sexual orientation, all that is great, but we also have to include legal status in those so that we are letting folks know that this is a a town, a space where no matter your status, you're welcome and you'll not face discrimination on any town services. Mm-hmm. There's also resolutions that can be passed.
00:17:06
Speaker
There's a ceremonial ones where we pass the statement condemning the administration, condemning actions, advocating for a change, which are great and important so that people know where we stand. But then there's also ordinances that can be passed, like changing policy.
00:17:22
Speaker
Forcing, not forcing, but basically forcing your police department to create policies that will ensure that local law enforcement does not cooperate with ICE. Right. We have those in place in Carborough. We work with our chief of police and all of our emergency services so that none of our emergency services will be cooperating with ICE in any way, shape or form.
00:17:42
Speaker
We're not going to be doing that. We can also create mechanisms between our time communications officers and advocates out in in in and the community to let them know if we hear there is a certain amount of time that ICE has to give us.
00:17:57
Speaker
Warning if they're going to be coming into our jurisdiction. Sometimes they follow that. Sometimes they don't. But in the moments that they do, we have a mechanism so that we can, are our community will know that's an alert that the town has received. Because that is public information. It's not private. It's just sharing that information with communities. So, hey, y'all, we heard this alert.
00:18:17
Speaker
Be on alert. Make sure you have your all of your things ready to go in the moment that you need to. Right. And there's also other things that you don't even have to just sit but talk about ICE. There's other things that can happen to make sure that folks are in community and following and making sure that things are happening. Right. So, for example, Carrboro is very unique because we have a language access plan that is extremely important.
00:18:42
Speaker
Expansive, depending on what you see in other communities, right? So in Carborough, not only can you participate in any town council or any community advisory board in any of the five any language that you speak, five of the most spoken languages will automatically be translated or interpreted if you're in the room, right?
00:19:00
Speaker
And that also means our communications goes out in the five most spoken languages in the town. If you are speaking of the languages that are not those five, there is mechanisms we have to bring in an interpreter to be able to have those conversations and provide all the information in the language that you need it.
00:19:18
Speaker
That is important because, again, it shows folks that we are listening and we're wanting to hear from them and then we want them to hear from us in a way that they can fully understand. Right. That's like step number one in building trust.
00:19:30
Speaker
We also have ah several community programs that we call Carrboro in Motion, where we go out into communities and like apartment complexes and bring services and do Zumba with them and ask them about what do they feel about our parks? How do you feel about this downtown vision plan coming down the road? We bring in our chief of police, our fire chief, different members of the town staff, our town manager, our mayor, some of us go to those things.
00:19:58
Speaker
And it's to build that community. So we need to do that before there's an emergency, right? Because if you have an emergency, even you have the most wonderful mechanism in the world that shoots it off in all the languages possible, it's emailed to every email in town.
00:20:14
Speaker
If you don't have the trust of community, that that doesn't go anywhere, right? You need to have to build that. So I would say that there's a lot of really great mechanisms. But when you're looking at specifically or against ICE, we have the power to make ordinances in our town. We have the power to dictate who our police department works with and who they don't. And we have the ability to make it very clear to all of our community members where we stand on these issues.
Strengthening Advocacy Through Collaboration
00:20:38
Speaker
And I think any community who's willing and wanting to support our immigrant communities needs to do all three.
00:20:45
Speaker
That's fantastic to have such a thoughtful and responsive local government. a that That sounds like such an incredible offering to the community and such a beautiful form of engagement.
00:20:57
Speaker
And I would love to pivot a little bit and talk about your work at Equality North Carolina. So first off, formerly you were the former head of Central Espanol. And I think the story of actually moving up and actually being served by an organization and then leading an organization is exactly what we dream up in those spaces.
00:21:17
Speaker
And you better than anyone knows that we don't live single issue lives. Just because you are Latino doesn't mean you're not LGBTQ. And so I'm curious, how has that shift been to kind of look at something from a different lens while still holding all of that history and that past of your the all of the places you have yeah worked and been in community?
00:21:41
Speaker
I will say it was a little challenging at first, right? Because I definitely came into equality and seized. I mean, of course, I've been with El Centro. I ran a lot of their queer programs and that was supported by portfolio and that was important. and But that was a small piece of the overall work, right?
00:21:58
Speaker
But I knew as a queer person that I needed to make sure that I was working for queer i community in a deeper level. And that's why I joined Equality NC. But it was very... First couple of months, very difficult to get out of like the immigration space, right?
00:22:13
Speaker
base right where um Because there's different mechanisms you have to follow in these different spaces, right? And there's a lot of emergency action that happens LGBTQ spaces, but it's very different than immigration, right? Immigration is like, move now.
00:22:28
Speaker
it With queer issues, it's like, all right, we need to move. We have a couple of hours to figure something out and respond. And there's most of it is policy based. So it's like, we have a little time to to fight back on that.
00:22:40
Speaker
And then I also have to realize that my hat changed. So folks who were now leading immigrant movements, there's other folks who moved into leadership. So I need to give them space to be able to to do that. Right. I was coming into some of these spaces and still sucking a lot of the air out of the room because that was what my role was to afford. And then I was like, folks were looking at me like, all right, what are we doing this? OK, we'll move this guy and talk to this other one. Get a collectivo up here. Make a press release.
00:23:08
Speaker
And then I was like, wait a minute, that's no longer my job. Someone else has that. I need to come in here and shut up and just like blanket support the work that other folks are doing, which was very difficult.
00:23:22
Speaker
it's so so To be honest, it was very difficult. But then I also realized that now I need to take that space in the queer movement. Right. Because I'm taking over someone who was doing that work. So like we want to make sure that we're consistent.
Funding Challenges and Sustainability for Advocacy Groups
00:23:35
Speaker
But one of the things that I really appreciate is I was able to bring in my immigrant rights movement contacts into the queer space and do some really great collaborative work together. Not that been working together before, but it's just very different when you get to know these folks and you work with them directly. And that kind of building trust piece isn't it's not needed to to when I start this new role. Right.
00:23:59
Speaker
So it was really interesting. And I think one of the moments that I treasure or one of the things I treasure a lot about equality and see is that we really have a mindset of we're doing this in community, right? No issue is siloed.
00:24:12
Speaker
Queer issues are reproductive issues, are immigrant rights issues, are voting rights issues. And the disability issues, we we cannot say queer issues are only queer issues because it's not the reality. It's not a thing.
00:24:25
Speaker
It's a lie. So We really moved into very much a collaborative way of working with folks, right? When we first started equality, one of the first thing did is go to all the other folks who are also working on in the legislature, right? So we had the ACLU and Planned Parenthood and we were, there was work together that happened. But I realized that we're all going to the same people. We're all fighting the same bills, maybe look a little different. So let's work a little bit more together.
00:24:54
Speaker
And I started this group chat and I named it the Trifecta, T-R-Y-Fecta, because it's three of us. We try our darndest. We still get our butts whooped in that building, but we try our darndest. And we were able to really share resources, right? So if someone is in the building, like, hey, we just heard this dropped.
00:25:12
Speaker
Oh, Liz is in the building. Liz, can you go talk to them? Even if it's a queer issue and it's not Liz's kind of domain, but was able to do that. Same with myself. if I'm in the building and something comes up with Planned Parenthood. Like, hey, can you go talk to this person?
00:25:23
Speaker
I got it. And really building that intersectionality of work and sharing that has continued to this day. And we have a a working group where we're connecting with folks from different spaces and flanking and supporting. We all lead in the pieces that we are leading in, right? So when it comes to queer issues, the one that helps coordinate what our message is, who are going to go over here, who's going to do this, who's going to do that, how are we going to plan the rally, who's in charge of the permits.
00:25:47
Speaker
All that fun stuff. But when it's like Reaper writes, I'm all right. What do you need me to do? And kind of holding that type of work has been really crucial and important. And I think one of the reasons that I'm able to do that is because of the fact that I come from a space that it was so natural to work with so many other people, even when you didn't just didn't agree on 100% of the things.
00:26:07
Speaker
Sometimes you didn't agree on 90% of the things that you agreed on that, like 10% that we're working on. And knowing that you can't do this alone. So I think, yeah, I'm very proud of some of the work that we've done in Applix.
00:26:19
Speaker
Speaking of threes, you're kind of all organizations are under like a trifold, threefold pressure of of funding, right? of Federal funding gutting.
00:26:31
Speaker
Local ah municipalities, organizations, of course, too, or regranting organizations. Immigrants, of course, and people trans experienced or gender non-conforming folks.
00:26:43
Speaker
And so how has Equality North Carolina or Equality NC kind of been like either reshuffled its priorities or has it or like how has it kind of responded to current circumstances that turn current in terms of the work?
00:27:00
Speaker
Yeah, so I think one of the things that we started doing last year was preparing for the eventuality of having funding reduction, unfortunately. right We started looking at reading the tea leaves and not fun stuff and realizing regardless of what happens in November, we're going to see some changes. So we started planning what would that looked like.
00:27:22
Speaker
And thankfully, we ah don't have any federal funding or state funding that we seek, and that is on purpose, right? So most of our funding is through national and international funders, as well as donors and sponsorships, right? So we definitely have to hustle a lot to get people to be able to buy into our vision.
00:27:41
Speaker
But one of the things that I think has helped us is that we've kept our priorities, right? Our priorities are still queer liberation in North Carolina. it is still working with our partners to ensure that We, we flack and support ah anyone that that is in this fight with us, right?
00:27:58
Speaker
but The team is very clear as to the fact that no matter what's happening and in DC, no matter what's happening in Raleigh, we are still here for the queer community and we're here for our partners. So we will continue to do the work that we're doing, whether it's showing up at Pride's, because we also know that joy is crucial piece of resistance, right?
00:28:19
Speaker
And that's the first thing that the opposition comes for. They come for our joy. They come for our spaces of gathering. So we work to make sure that those continue to happen. We work for policies that are going to be ah supportive of our community rather than attack them and try and fight back against those who who seek ah to limit our rights. Right. And we make sure that our partners know that we're here for them. We have their back.
00:28:42
Speaker
Then it's also helped them really dive into some of our work too, right? So it I am very privileged in the fact that we have a team who who started planning for this this shift.
00:28:55
Speaker
Then we have funders who have kept the line on a lot of of the funding that's coming in. Obviously, there's always a lot of work to do when it comes to making sure that corporations continue to give us their sponsorship values because those are important, right? And we've had a couple of folks who are like, well, we don't know with everything coming up. And we've had to have some come to Jesus moments with some of these folks and really ah push them to stand with their values rather than to let those wane.
00:29:23
Speaker
So it's there's always a work in progress, right? Nonprofits, we don't we're not known for having boatloads of money, right? And Equality NC is three different organizations in one, right? So we have RC3, which is the non-political park, RC4, which is political work, and then our PAC, right? So RC4 is really lobbying and our PAC is the one that really helps out with candidates.
Posada's Personal Mission and Challenges
00:29:45
Speaker
And depending the time of the year, it might be easier to fundraise for the nonpartisan part. When we get close elections, it might be easier to fundraise for the political side of it. So working with my my directors also, making sure that we are staying on top of it. That's been how we're dealing with some of these changes coming in the pipeline.
00:30:04
Speaker
um We're worried about sustainability, right? That's always a key thing because we can only do so much in the day. We can only do so much in the week and there's other things that we have to do and asking for money is a part of it, but it can't be our whole job.
00:30:18
Speaker
So we're always cautious ah as to what's coming on the pipeline. But again, I'm very privileged of having a team who we're looking at the long a long game and we're a little prepared. we At least we were prepared before this administration came on board.
00:30:35
Speaker
But as always, we can always use any any support. So if anyone out there listening wants to support Equality NC, go to equalityc.org and give us your dollars. Of course, you can't have any shame about needing support. Absolutely. Oh, no.
00:30:52
Speaker
Well, that just sounds great. And we're going to take a quick break here and and stay with us because we'll be back in a minute to play a speed round of questions with Councilman Blastata.
00:31:06
Speaker
We'll be right back.
00:31:13
Speaker
Welcome back to Power Beyond Pride, where we're talking with Councilman Eliezer Posada of Carrboro, North Carolina. I'm Kate and I'm here with my co-host Daniel W.K. Lee. And so for our last question, ah Councilman Posada, what are you fighting for these days?
00:31:29
Speaker
I think what i'm fighting for these days hasn't really changed since I was a kid. I'm fighting for my family, and my community and myself. Right. As I think I told y'all, yeah, that's the one thing I learned ah from my mother when we were growing up. And my family is not just my blood, it's the community that we've built around me. It's the folks who have been supporting not just my work, but my life over over the last years. um It's my chosen family. It's folks that I adore and sometimes fight with.
00:32:00
Speaker
And that's always a fun fight. My community, of course, people who are not only relying on me to show up, but I'm relying on all of our elected officials and my colleagues to really show up for folks, right? They're folks that are looking for leadership, who are looking for services, who are looking for that help. So that's my community. And then, of course, me, right? I'm a queer Latino person.
00:32:23
Speaker
What, how am I, 32 year old in a red state, well, somewhat a purple state? And all these things are impacting me as well, right?
Personal Insights: Speed Round with Posada
00:32:34
Speaker
you know, I've called, I've been told to go back to my country in in grocery stores. I've been profiled by law enforcement, unfortunately. i've I'm a queer person who wants to build a family with my fiance, right? I'm...
00:32:49
Speaker
Someone who who can easily fall into different pieces of of this work if we don't but we don't stand up for us, right? So think that's it. I'm always and will continue to fight for those three things. my My family, my community, and myself.
00:33:05
Speaker
That sounds perfect. ah Well, we've been talking a lot about a lot of deep stuff. And so we're going to shift over to our speed round of questions.
00:33:19
Speaker
where we're going to get to know a little bit about you and maybe idiosyncratic things possibly. I'm going to ask you to tap into your reptilian brain and not not overthink and just kind of give us the first answer that comes to mind. Are you ready?
00:33:35
Speaker
i got it. Let's go. Okay. All right. First question. What makes North Carolina barbecue better than Texas barbecue? It doesn't.
00:33:48
Speaker
That's it. No. Unacomable. So quick. Yeah. Love it. ah Who is your political inspiration? i
00:34:02
Speaker
Oh, too many. But RGV with Bader Ginsburg. Nice. Worst place to take a first date. Worst place? Worst place. The movies? Like, who does that? You can't talk.
00:34:16
Speaker
Yeah, I wonder why that's such a persistent, like, first date idea. I don't know. I want to talk. I want to get to know somebody. movie, you have to sit there. It's a little awkward. It works when we were teenagers and didn't know what to do on a first date and just needed to do it to get out of the way. I think then it was perfect. Yeah, that's fair. That's fair.
00:34:36
Speaker
Or maybe it was just the thrill of maybe being able to hold hands or something in the dark and not have like your friends judge you. i don't know. Maybe. i don't know. Favorite junk food?
00:34:48
Speaker
Hot Cheetos. Nice. One piece of advice for your younger self? Go crazy, dude. Things are going to happen. You'll get over it. Don't be too passionate.
00:34:58
Speaker
Right on. ah Cats, dogs, or neither? Dogs, but I live with two cats. So that's a little fun to go. Mountains or beach?
00:35:11
Speaker
Beach. Yeah. Who's the morning person? Your partner or you? Or neither. That's me. Yeah, that's definitely me. How early? feel I'm an all-day person. Okay.
00:35:22
Speaker
Yeah. How early are you going? i don't know. Maybe six. Huh. That's not bad. No. Ideal vacation spot. Rio Grande Valley, West La Cotejas. That's where I grew up and love that place.
00:35:38
Speaker
And what does Power Beyond Pride mean to you? It means holding joy, holding space, showing up, knocking some heads when we need to, but, you know, just continuing to be ourselves in the community, I think.
00:35:55
Speaker
And last question, where can people follow you and support your work? Yes, so you can go into equality and see dot org to follow all the work that we're doing at
Conclusion and Call to Action
00:36:04
Speaker
Equality NC. Also, we all have all the socials, Instagram, Facebook, ah Blue Sky, at Equality NC.
00:36:10
Speaker
And you can also follow me at Elizabeth Posada on all of the socials, including, well, no no longer Twitter, because we don't like her. But you can follow me on Instagram, Facebook, and Blue Sky.
00:36:22
Speaker
And you can always find my email at the Carrboro Town Council. If anybody wants to get in touch with me, just go to CarrboroNC.gov to find my info there. Well, I want to thank you so much for being here with us. but We are out of time for this podcast, but we'd love to have you join us again and share more of your work and your thoughts.
00:36:41
Speaker
I'm down. Yeah, let me know. awesome Well, thank you Councilman Posada for taking time. And I'm your host, Daniel W.K. Lee, author, poet, shredder, aficionado.
00:36:56
Speaker
And I'm Kate High Femme and Forber Gaby. And you can follow me at reframehealthandjustice.com or on Instagram at harmreductionfemmes. Remember to subscribe and get your friends to subscribe to Power Beyond Pride on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And check out our site at powerbeyondpride.com.
00:37:16
Speaker
Power Beyond Pride is a project of A Great Idea, queer-owned design and content agency. Learn more about them at agreatidea.com. This episode is produced by Shane Lucas. Maddie Bynum is our project director. Our editor is Jarrett Redding with support from Ian Wilson.
00:37:33
Speaker
We're both part of this podcast awesome host team and we invite you send in your questions and comments powerbeyondpride.com. Check out our new episodes each week and we look forward to career change making with you next time.
00:37:47
Speaker
Thank you from all of us at Power Beyond Pride.