Welcome to Van Lath, this is the Red Hill where we give you the little reality of truth.

Today's episode was a very important one for me. We're sitting down with Jarrett Hill and

Schar Jossil. Jarrett is a man that I met. Last year when I did a panel that he

moderated over at the NABJ, he is a journalist, an activist,

and a member of the LGBT community.

Schar is a transgender woman who is a journalist and activist and sort of commentator as well,

who is also obviously a member of the LGBT community.

I felt it was important to have this discussion with both of these people who are African American

and who are out front in the battle for not only respect and rights

amongst from America at large, but really if we're being honest, trying to make their

experience normalized, accepted, and embraced amongst the African-American community.

The point of this podcast is very simple.

Just how hard is it being black and gay?

Just how hard is it being black and

transgender. It's an experience that we've talked about on the

podcast a little bit. I often talk about my sister who's

currently mad at me. She's always mad at me, but she lives in

Louisiana as a lesbian woman and I have watched firsthand her bravery and her

relentlessness in asserting herself and being fearless about who she is,

who she loves and her life.

And it hasn't always been easy down there in Baton Rouge

and it hasn't always been easy quite frankly with the members of the black community there.

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