In this reflective episode of Embracing All of Me, we step back from the Binary Bashers series to talk about why it was created in the first place...for that person searching at 2:17 AM. This conversation explores what it means to grow up searching for proof that people like you exist, and how storytelling can become a form of bisexuality support, community building, and healing.

Centering the experiences of bi, non-monosexual, and queer people of color, this episode reflects on visibility, lineage, and the quiet journey of embracing queer identity in a world that often asks people to pick a lane or shrink themselves.

If you’ve ever questioned where you belong, struggled with embracing identity, or looked for stories that reflect your full humanity, don't worry, you aren't the only one and this episode was made with you in mind.

In the ruins of post–Civil War Memphis, Frances Thompson lived her womanhood in public despite escalating danger. A formerly enslaved Black trans woman, she survived the white supremacist violence of the 1866 Memphis Riots and testified before Congress, placing her voice into the national archive at a time when Black women were rarely heard.

Later arrested under laws policing gender nonconformity, Thompson’s life reveals how race, gender, and state power intertwined during Reconstruction, and why her testimony still matters as debates over bodily autonomy and public identity continue 150 years later.

Music: “Hard in America” by Gabriel Kelley, licensed through Epidemic Sound.

This episode was made with care. It's based on established scholarship and publicly available information from credible sources. If we've made an error, please let us know at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://embracingallofme.org⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Embracing All of Me is a storytelling and advocacy platform for the multi, complex, and in-between, uplifting the voices of Bi+ people of color, our kin and friends. ⁠⁠⁠Visit our ⁠⁠⁠⁠FAQs⁠⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠⁠⁠Sources page⁠⁠⁠⁠ to learn more about how this episode was developed.

Born Donald Weems, Kuwasi Balagoon forged himself in the crucible of rebellion. A veteran of the Black Panther Party and later the Black Liberation Army, Balagoon’s life traced the fault lines of 1970s America, state violence, political imprisonment, and the unfinished work of liberation. He survived the uprising at Attica Correctional Facility, endured years in solitary confinement, and wrote fiercely about autonomy, queerness, and revolutionary love.

Balagoon rejected binaries: nationalist and anarchist, soldier and poet, gay man within movements that often erased queerness. His essays and letters reveal a thinker wrestling with strategy and selfhood, insisting that freedom must include the fullness of identity as a bisexual black man and revolutionary.

This episode was made with care. It's based on established scholarship and publicly available information from credible sources. If we've made an error, please let us know at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://embracingallofme.org⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Embracing All of Me is a storytelling and advocacy platform for the multi, complex, and in-between, uplifting the voices of Bi+ people of color, our kin and friends. ⁠⁠⁠Visit our ⁠⁠⁠⁠FAQs⁠⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠⁠⁠Sources page⁠⁠⁠⁠ to learn more about how this episode was developed.