607: Baby It's Joel Outside with Juliana Joel

Lez Hang Out | A Lesbian Podcast

Lez Hang Out

Personal Journals, Tv & Film, Society & Culture

4.7 • 545 Ratings

🗓️ 7 November 2022

⏱️ 80 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Picture it. The year is 2004. You’ve finished your homework and you’re ready to see your best friend in the whole world appear on your tv screen. You bite into a pizza roll and somehow the filling does not burn your tongue. Raven-Symoné comes on the screen and you smile. You are at peace. This week Leigh (@lshfoster) and Ellie (@elliebrigida) hang out with trans Puerto Rican actress Juliana Joel (@thejulianajoel) to talk about her experiences as the first out trans actor on Disney Channel. Disney may have a bit of a contentious relationship with the gays, but when they get it right, they really get it right. Juliana grew up watching That’s So Raven and dreaming of the day she could be an actor on Disney too, but believing it was out of reach because in those days it was impossible to imagine Disney hiring a trans actor. While we all wish it had not taken until 2022 for Disney to finally get some live action trans representation, they really got something right in hiring Juliana Joel to play Nikki on Raven’s Home. Nikki is the first live action trans character on Disney and the great thing about her character is that being trans is not treated like a big deal. Nikki is an airheaded heiress and jokes center around her being truly terrible at her job as Raven’s assistant rather than having anything to do with her gender. We chat with Juliana about the audition process, how she ended up getting the role as Nikki, and her experience on set getting to work side by side with her childhood hero (and bestie), Raven. We also talk about how Nikki being trans is handled in the show. In a recent episode of Raven’s Home, Nikki and Raven talk about Nikki being transgender out loud on the Disney Channel and the way the scene is handled is perfect and casual, showing viewers that Nikki’s gender is simply not a big deal and that it does not have to be a whole big thing. While Juliana has received backlash from angry conservative parents who want to boycott Disney over her mere existence on the show, she does not let that hate get to her and instead focuses on being who she wishes she could have seen on tv when she was growing up. Positive trans representation in media is few and far between, and it is pivotal to changing how everyday people interact with and view trans people in real life. Media does not exist in a vacuum and in today’s tumultuous political landscape, positive LGBTQ+ representation is more important than ever. Follow along on Twitter: Lez Hang Out (@lezhangoutpod) and answer our Q & Gay at the end of every episode. Leigh Holmes Foster (@lshfoster) and Ellie Brigida (@elliebrigida). You can also join us on Facebook.com/lezhangoutpod and follow along on Instagram (@lezhangoutpod). Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/lezhangoutpod. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Let's hang out.
0:02.7	Let's hang out.
0:03.8	And let's talk about what lessons are found.
0:06.4	Let's hang out.
0:07.3	And let's listen to two has me and shout.
0:09.9	Let's hang out.
0:15.2	Hey, out.
0:17.8	The podcast where my dad says the only way for me to get a trust fund is if I have a job. What even is that? It's not Les Hang Out, that's for sure. Sorry, you know what I should have done is my dad says the only way for me to get my trust fund is if I have a podcast. If you start a podcast, yeah, yeah. What even is a podcast? I don't know. After like six years, we still don't know.
0:38.5	So true.
0:39.2	The world may never know. The world may know. From the West Coast, I'm Lee Holmes Foster. And from the East Coast, I'm Ellie Bridgeta. To those of you who have been with us through this whole journey, thank you as always for listening. If you're a new listener, welcome, we're excited to have you here. Here's what's happening this week. This week in the Lesdom.
0:56.7	This Week in the Lesdom.
0:56.6	This week in the Lesnum is a place where we can touch base each episode about things going on with the podcast or otherwise.
1:01.7	And we want to let you all know that we are having a league of their own trivia.
1:05.5	We are super excited.
1:07.8	It's going to be on November 17th, 8 p.m. Eastern Standard Time 5 p.m. Pacific on Zoom. You can get your tickets at bit.ly slash a lot of trivia. And that's A-L-O-T-O. You know how to spell it. If you know a league of their own, you know it. So many of you have already gotten your tickets, so we know it's going to be a pretty big event. We're so excited. So get your tickets at bit.ly slash allotrivia. We also want to remind you that in season six,
1:32.1	we are now doing Patreon-only bonus episodes. We have three of them out already. And we are going to
1:38.7	have our next one coming out at the end of the month, just in time for Thanksgiving. So if you want to join our Patreon and be able to those episodes, you can get all the
1:48.5	ones that we've released so far.
1:50.1	And if you join before November 28th, I think, you'll get our next one.
1:54.4	You can do that at bit.ly slash les Patreon.
1:57.4	We also want to make sure that you fill out our survey for our Les Hangout Retreat. We want to start
2:02.7	planning a queer adventure for all of you and we need your help. So fill that out at bit.ly slash
	...

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