Today, I’m talking with Kristina, a queer, black, sexual assault survivor who's been married to a straight, white man for 17 years. We had a great conversation about growing up in a Christian, black, heterosexual family, how her possibly-gay pastor's death from AIDs led to her understanding her own sexuality, living in a mixed-race, mixed-orientation marriage, understanding her nonbinary child when they came out to her, and many other great topics!

Note: I had some microphone issues and so fade out a few times during our conversation. Hopefully, it's not too distracting.

Show Notes

Find Kristina on Twitter.

Be sure to check out her books:

i wandered, lost: poemsCivil Rights Then and Now: A Timeline of the Fight for Equality in America

* Affiliate links. If there is any income received from these links, it will go back into funding the podcast.

Kristina was also a guest on the Get Drunk Get Woke Podcast, where she discussed "cancel culture".

Episode Transcript

2021-05-10: Kristina Daniele

Mike: [00:00:00] Welcome to the human tapestry podcast, the podcast where we explore the rich tapestry of humanity through conversations about gender, sexuality, relationships, and sexual practices. 

Today, I'm talking with Kristina, a queer black sexual assault survivor. Who's been married to a straight white man for 17 years. We had a great conversation about growing up in a black Christian heterosexual family. How her possibly gay pastors death from aids led to her understanding her own sexuality. 

Living in a mixed race, mixed orientation, marriage, understanding her non binary child when they came out to her. In many other great topics. Couple of quick notes. I did have some microphone issues. And so I do fade out a few times during the conversation. Hopefully that's not too distracting. And also Kay mentioned her upcoming book. I wandered lost poems. We talked back in September. The book actually came out in October, so you can get your copy today. I've included a link in the show notes. If you do want to go ahead and order one.  Now let's get to the conversation. 

Okay, thank you for, uh, coming on this. 

Kristina: [00:01:06] You're welcome. Thank you for doing this. 

Mike: [00:01:08] Um, yeah, so, um, you, you, you, when you emailed me, you said you're, you're queer and you're in a mixed oriented, mixed orientation marriage of your husband's straight, and you have a nonbinary child.

So, um, Yeah. Why don't you just we'll start just about your queer identity, just, 

Kristina: [00:01:33] okay. Um, it's weird because I don't have like a revelation story or a coming out story. Um, I just was always attracted to intelligent people. Um, and gender or sex rather, never played a role in it. Um, it was just connection if I felt like it's very, I don't know, I'm very attracted to smart people.

Like, I guess that's a really, and it's, it's strange because, um, it started out just, you know, heterosexual because. That's what I, I was raised in a heterosexual family. Um, my mom was Christian. Um, I grew up, Episcopalian and then Presbyterian, um, in the black church where a heterosexual is the only sexuality.

Um, at the time there was nothing else. Um, and I was really, really good friends with the youth director and choir youth choir director at my church. And his name was Mark and Mark, people always asked questions about Mark sexuality, because he was never seen with a woman.