EP 233 Blake Mitchell

Julie Harris Oliver: [00:00:00] The Catch A Break podcast is the insider's guide to breaking into and navigating the entertainment industry with me, Julie Harris Oliver Project Greenlight is a do you follow show now Streaming on Max about the making of an independent film by an emerging director on season four of Catch A Break.

These two shows meet in Catch a Break. We will bring you the behind the scenes of the behind the scenes. We'll talk to producers, the director, the cast, the department heads to hear what it was really like. Watch the show and then come listen to hear what really happened on Catch a Break wherever you get your podcasts.

That season of Catch A Break Drops on July 13th,

you're listening to the other 50% A Herstory of Hollywood. I'm Julie Harris Oliver. You can find me in my consulting work julieharrisoliver.com, and you can find the podcast at Theotherfiftypercent.com, all spelled out in letters as well as on all the podcast places. Or you can find links to everything I'm doing on the link tree that is in the show notes.

Okay. Now one more thing before we meet today's guest. Have you checked out Circling the Drain [00:01:00] yet? Okay. Remember when Don Lemon said that Nikki Haley was beyond her prime and got rightfully torched online. He may as well have said she was circling the drain. The concept of a woman circling the drain or being past or prime is absurd.

But for the host of Circling The Drain podcast, they've heard this phrase due so many times in reference to perimenopause, menopause, and the plight of the aging woman, they have chosen to reclaim and repurpose the phrase in the spirit of humor. Co-host, longtime friends, Ellie and Julia take a deep dive into the sometimes embarrassing, often hilarious, always bewildering issues of hormonal changes that take the place in midlife.

Through honest accounts, thoughtful interviews and group panel discussions, their mission is to make you chuckle, make you nod your head in recognition, and hopefully make some scientific progress. Could someone please start studying women in medicine? That would be great. Turn into Circling the Dream Podcast every other Wednesday, wherever you get your podcast.

[00:02:00] Now, today on this podcast, we have the good fortune to speak with Blake Mitchell. Blake Mitchell, they/ them began their career in film production in Los Angeles, working for the VP of Production at Participant Media. After leaving LA, they worked at Google for over eight years where they managed teams in diversity and inclusion, learning and development and recruiting.

A Georgia native. Blake moved back to the South in the fall of 2022 to work as an operations manager on Stacey Abrams campaign for governor. They recently launched their own consulting business focused on workplace diversity and inclusion and organization culture. Blake holds bachelor's degrees in international business, finance and entertainment and media studies from the University of Georgia.

Also, Blake has been performing in drag as Mary Lou Pearl, she/ her., and sees drag as a powerful tool to entertain, educate, raise money, and spread positivity. Mary Lou Pearl got her start in the drag bars and clubs of San Francisco in 2017 where she became known as a kind queen who loves giving back and spreading positivity.

[00:03:00] She spent the last two summers working in teaching drag at Brave Trails LGBTQ plus summer camp where she's returned this summer as head counselor. Now I'm going to tell you right now, drag along with gay queer trans is under attack in this country. Hardly any of the talking heads screaming about indoctrination of children have any idea what they're talking about.

So we're going to take some time today and really unpack it. What is drag actually here? Have a listen. Blake Mitchell, welcome to the other 50%.

Blake Mitchell: Thank you so much for having me. I'm excited to be here.

Julie Harris Oliver: First of all, we should say that you are a D E I consultant, and you work with companies to bring, I imagine, equity and inclusion into their workplaces, and you also work as a drag performer.

So I wanna say upfront, for whoever's listening, we are gonna talk about this with a lot of nuance. Okay. I think there is so much need right now to really talk about things with nuance and really talk about what things actually are and talk about the history and [00:04:00] talk about the intent and, okay, so let's talk about all that stuff.

And we were, we were also talking about like the safety of it all. Cause I gotta tell you, four years ago, I did all kinds of interviews with all kinds of people. That to me, felt very risky because I was uncomfortable talking about it, like I had a dominatrix on. And I learned all about that. Mm-hmm. And this feels risky in such a different way than it did three or four years ago, cuz now it feels like it could be physically unsafe to talk about this.

And so I just want to, I wanna state that I wanna honor that and I wanna thank you for being willing to do this cuz I think it's so important that people really get educated

Blake Mitchell: about this. Yeah, absolutely. And I appreciate, I mean, first of all, thank you so much for the caring concern to even raise that and be thoughtful of it.

And you know, as we spoke about before we got started, it's something unfortunately many of us have to consider these days, given the climate of things. But. As I told a friend recently, um, I think that not going there is even more dangerous in different ways because there needs to be as much truth spouted [00:05:00] out amidst all of the, you know, lies that are being told about the queer community in this season.

So I'm very grateful to get, to have that conversation with you today and to your point, like, let's go there. We can talk about it in all levels of depth and, and confront the, the challenging edges of all of this.

Julie Harris Oliver: Okay, good. I think the people spouting nonsense are really loud and taking up all the space and it's very appropriate here we are in Pride Month and I'll do my best to get this edited and out during Pride month also.

So should we start with just what is drag?

Blake Mitchell: Yeah. You know, I think drag. It takes so many different shapes and forms. Maybe many of your listeners or many people are likely most familiar with the RuPaul's Drag Race version of Drag Super Fans, which is super fans. Yeah. Very legitimate and fun. And I think in many ways that show has brought drag performance into the zeitgeist in a way that it had not been before.

Certainly it's been around for a long time and important to a lot of people, but in terms of just exposure to wider audiences, that element, uh, which for a long time, RuPaul was [00:06:00] criticized for having. Largely cis gay men who are doing drag as women, but drag is so much more complex about the show, started to incorporate more trans and non-binary identities.

Even, uh, trans men who've been on the show now, trans women, but drag, you know, it, it's roots are complicated. There's not necessarily an easy answer, I would say, like we've seen. Examples of gender nonconforming dress and performance for thousands, hundreds of years. The current sort of drag scene really emerged out of the ballroom scene in New York and other major cities, uh, during the eighties.

Primarily. When I say ballroom, I don't mean like ballroom dancing, I mean like voguing culture and those sort of spaces that were largely led by, uh, trans women of color. And were not the drag necessarily that you see today, but. Even RuPaul got their start in that, in those spaces. And as that sort of evolved and came into the mainstream, I mean, many of us know Madonna's Vogue as like one of the moments when we really gotta look into what that, what that world meant.

It's become. More and [00:07:00] more, um, in some ways appropriated, but also, uh, many of those people have found their way into the main stage and the, the limelight, um, in a different way. And so, you know, drag, that's sort of the history and cultural context for, for me and for many, it's a playful exploration of gender, of queer identity.

It's a way to spread joy to be on stage and perform. Um, the shape that my drag has taken, uh, has been much more about educating, uplifting causes that matter to me, raising money and finding an audience and a voice through social media in addition to live performance. So it really, you know, has taken a lot of shape and I, um, always tell people when we talk about drag and Mary Lou Pearl, my drag persona that she's taught me.

So much about myself and my own identity and that sort of journey of becoming, which we can of course get into as much as I feel like I've been able to do with the tool. So,

Julie Harris Oliver: Now let's separate for the uninitiated, separate sexuality from gender from drag.

Blake Mitchell: That's an [00:08:00] excellent starting point. Thank you for Yeah, asking that.

I would say, um, and I'm, I'm fresh on explaining this cuz I came out to my parents as non-binary about a year ago. So that we've had many of these conversations as well. I would say sexual orientation, um, gay straight. By lesbian is more about who you are attracted to, who you wanna sleep with or partner with in a more romantic sense, gender identity, which I would also distinguish from sex.

So sex is what you're assigned at birth based on chromosomes, body parts that is distinct from your gender, which is how you experience that. So the way that. You feel in your own body the way that what dress makes you feel affirmed, whether you feel man, woman, something in between, neither of the two. And so it's much more your experience and all of the other things.

You know, we often attach color to gender when we talk about babies and gender reveals and things like that. So it's much more about the all the other things versus just your genetics or anatomy. Then drag for some people is just a form of [00:09:00] expression. It's a form of performance. They enjoy the theatrical element of putting on clothes that are not traditional for their gender identity.

Using that in a performative sense to pay homage to certain artists to play and have fun for some, it begins that way and then becomes an exploration of deeper things. There are many people that I am friends with who started doing drag and realize like, wow, this feels affirming from an identity perspective.

And so they've discovered. They're trans or non-binary identity through that performance. So it can lead to that. But in its core is more about the performative element of drag versus it being necessarily attached to someone's identity.

Julie Harris Oliver: Are there straight men who do drag?

Blake Mitchell: There are actually, there was for the first time on RuPaul's Drag Race, somewhat a straight identifying man who was on the show.

I would say it's traditionally associated with the queer community. But, you know, drag, uh, there's a, a quote that's been way overused, but I'm gonna use it again, uh, that RuPaul says, which is, we're all born naked and the rest is drag. And so I think [00:10:00] where I grew up outside of Atlanta, The super country dudes driving their big trucks with the big tires.

You probably see something similar in Tennessee when you're there. Um, and the camo and the hat and the whole look. There's some in LA drag. Yeah, there's some in LA that's drag too, right? It's just a different, it's it's gender performance where you're putting on this hyper masculine thing that is affirming, which is great.

And you know, so I think they're doing it in their own way. But in terms of what we think of when we say drag, I would say it's traditionally queer, but. There are plenty of, uh, there are some straight men, I would say. I know a decent number of cisgendered straight women as well who do drag and find. It is a really fun, performative element too.

And in my book, there's space for everybody, so,

Julie Harris Oliver: So when women are doing drag, and I know my questions will try to keep jamming things into boxes, which isn't appropriate, but are they doing drag as women or are they doing drag as men?

Blake Mitchell: It can be either. So sometimes there are straight or cis identifying cisgender, as you know, for [00:11:00] listeners distinct from trans.

So they identify with the gender they were assigned. So cis straight women who love the just. Amping up of their femininity and, and being sort of hyper feminine. So they, they perform as drag queens and there are a number of them who are great friends of mine that I used to perform with in San Francisco when I lived there.

Some perform as drag kings, so then they put on a more masculine, um, identity and, and do that. Some do both. And then there's of course, like people who dress up in sort of a more androgynous, not typically ascribed to either gender, just more artistic sort of form that. You know, it's just sort of their own, but it really can be either.

Julie Harris Oliver: That's, I, I'm just remembering as you're saying that I was watching one of the hearings, cuz you know, every state is doing some shenanigan right now, so. Right. All, all those hearings are on TikTok or as I call it, um, npr. But I remember a, a woman sitting in female drag talking about it, trying to educate the legislature if you really don't know what you're talking about, cuz mm-hmm.

She was a woman doing drag and you know, they're all hysterical. [00:12:00] There's so many things I wanna dig into with you cuz we wanna talk about the legislation of it all. I wanna talk about your personal journey. Shall we talk about you? Let's talk about you and your journey.

Blake Mitchell: Sure. Yeah, absolutely. So I, uh, grew up in a very rural community outside of Atlanta.

I claim Atlanta, but we actually live, my parents live about 45 minutes outside of Atlanta. Um, grew up on a dirt road, went to a small school, graduated high school with 13 people. So very like rural, small town. Yeah. 13 people. 13 people in my class, as far as they knew I was the first person to ever come out at that school.

Um, and it was a whole thing. And at that time I came out as gay. Uh, so I was more understanding of my sexual orientation, but it was a big deal. That was not in high school. You, you came out in high school. Yes, uh, in high school, lived in a very religious community and went to church once or twice a week growing up, which was very disruptive when I came out.

And we were ultimately asked not to go there anymore because of that and sort of cast out. Mm-hmm. There was a lot of like tough [00:13:00] edges in being in the south. As a young queer person,

Julie Harris Oliver: did they ask your whole family to stop coming to church?

Blake Mitchell: So there was a day where I had not publicly told anyone there, but I'd come out at my school and it got back.

And as I was entering the building, The, I was confronted by the pastor and the deacons who pulled me into a side room and essentially said, if you don't choose to, to deny this and not be this way, you're not welcome here anymore. And we'll, we can help you, but if you're not willing to take our help, then you're not willing to be here.

And my parents said, number one, don't pull my kid into a room and have these conversations about us here. And two, we're never stepping foot in here again if this is like, if this is what's happening. So that was the last time I was ever there.

Julie Harris Oliver: I'm sorry that happened to you and also good for your parents.

Blake Mitchell: Yeah, they had not quite figured everything out, but they knew that wasn't right. Yeah. Um, and they knew that if it was somewhere that rejecting of someone, just based on this one element of their identity, that it was not safe. So it was a, you know, a challenging, there was a lot of edges there. I, I'm very grateful [00:14:00] to have, you know, over time parents who've become very accepting, understanding, but we struggled in our own right as well to kind like find a common ground, grew up conservative and religious.

And when I got through college, I was like, I need to get out of the south. I need to move and, and grow somewhere else. And so, uh, moved to Los Angeles where relevant to our, you know, your work. I, I worked in the film industry, was actually my first job. I studied film and finance in school and moved to LA to be a film producer.

Worked for one for a couple years and that was not, I guess, what I expected. I ended up having a great experience and learning a lot, but it just was, it was a, a career trial that just did not end up being where I wanted to be ultimately.

Julie Harris Oliver: So, you know, I always joke that, um, people like dream their whole lives about getting into the entertainment industry and then as soon as they're in, they're trying to figure out how to get out.

Blake Mitchell: I mean, that's how it felt a little bit. Yeah, I would be very open, I think, with some time and space to be. More plugged in and tapped back in in different ways, but I think at the time it was like also just the shock of going from what I just explained to Los [00:15:00] Angeles and living in that. And I was like, where on earth did I just move?

It's like, go to the moon, right? I was like, I remember I had just moved to LA and I was walking into work and there was someone in the building, not in my company, but at somewhere else, and I opened the door. Southern, you're always open the door, hold the door for someone when they go through. And this woman looked at me and scouted and she said, you chauvinistic pig.

I don't need you to hold the door for me. Fuck off. And then walked into the building and I was like, oh no, I'm just trying to be nice. This like nice southern kid.

Julie Harris Oliver: Many of us have been guilty of that over rotation. Yeah, me in my twenties, I apologize to everybody.

Blake Mitchell: No, I mean, I don't know what sort of day she was having or what that triggered, so legitimate response.

But for me I was just like, I dunno where I moved. And so some of it was just that, that I think LA was a bit overwhelming and, but learned a lot, had got picked up. A lot of fun stories and. Ultimately to make a long story shorter, uh, wound up moving to San [00:16:00] Francisco, um, after I'd been in LA a couple years to start, uh, what became a nine year career at Google.

Um, I started as a recruiting coordinator doing support work for HR and recruiting functions. And then over the time I was there, moved into doing learning and development work and managed a few teams there for a number of years. That was really my pull to HR was getting to like, Do the training and development and work with folks.

I felt like that felt like a really meaningful way to connect with folks in a corporate environment and you know, had always sort of been tangent to d e I work and there was a lot that we were doing in the training space also. Really, I was working on hiring programs there and of course a lot of work to do in, in equity and hiring.

And really felt drawn to that. And so, uh, that led me to my last couple years at the organization where I led a couple teams and Google Central Diversity and Inclusion team, uh, largely centered around, uh, retention and progression of underrepresented populations in tech. But also doing a lot of like organizational diagnostic work with leaders at YouTube and Google Cloud and Google Marketing, and really helping them understand [00:17:00] the landscape of their employee population, where there are gaps and where they could make changes or stage interventions to, I mean, one, retain people, but just make their organization more equitable and inclusive.

So, um, right. Learned a a lot in that space. And that's, you know, My current chapter of doing HR consulting, which we can get into, but I'll, I'll just say in the background of all of that, while I was in San Francisco, there was this whole personal transformation going on when Mary Lou Pearl and my drag was beginning because I, I joke that I never like saw drag on television.

It was like, I want to do that. That's the thing. How do I do that? It was just this like slow progression where I moved to San Francisco, which. As many know as a very historically like queer city, there's a lot of queer life and gay liberation movement. A lot was happening there simultaneously when Stonewall was happening in New York.

And so it has that legacy. And I, I moved and made friends with a much more queer circle and started to like go out wearing makeup and heels and met drag queens for the first time and was, [00:18:00] you know, like, I don't think I'm really into this, or I don't know if I even wanna watch these shows, which. Had this like deconstructing process that needed to happen from my upbringing of like what it means to be an L G B T person.

What gender and gender expression looks like, what's normal behavior and what I wanted, right. I these, yeah. Things that were tied up in that and I, you know, when I came out, one of the messages that I got from my family, um, Was like ultimately it's okay to be gay, but don't be quote that gay that's over the top, throwing it in someone's face, marching in the parades, wearing women's clothes.

These are the verbatim things that. Which now we joke about because I'm like, well, I did all of that. Mm-hmm. So I, I did exactly what I was told not to.

Julie Harris Oliver: You can be gay just don't be yourself at all.

Blake Mitchell: Right? Yeah. And don't make it. And it should never make anyone else uncomfortable, right? Yeah. Just it, it, which is the primary thing, which I thankfully unpacked and moved on from over time, but that was still stuck [00:19:00] in my brain.

And so I think when I, I got to San Francisco and realized like, oh. Community of people who, many of them have left those places back home and said, I'm not living that way. I'm living. For me, it took me some time to sort of de thaw, I would say, but as I did, I just revealed this beautiful part of me that I still am, you know, I feel like exploring and learning, and I'm so grateful that happened because I, I joke that I think Mary Lou Pearl was always there.

She's not some different entity. She's an extension of Blake. It's just that. She was so repressed and pushed down because of where I grew up, that coming to a place like SF really allowed that to come out. And you know, it, it's been a beautiful journey. I started performing in 2017 again, like I. Got to know drag performers in San Francisco and the Queen who became my, what we call drag mother.

So you're like sort of adopted, uh, drag parent who teaches you how to do it and gets you booked and all of that. Uh, Suga is her name and she taught me the ropes and got me [00:20:00] started and I thought, okay, well maybe I'll try once doing a show in this little dive bar. No one will ever see it. It'll be funny and a fun story.

And then I performed. Every month, multi times a month for the next four years until the pandemic hit. So it just sort of like became this thing that, you know, over time became such a critical part of my experience at the city. And you know, and along the way I was, as I was mentioning, learned so much about my own gender and gender expression.

And I think ultimately that sort of crack was the crack in the foundation that allowed me to explore my identity as a non-binary person as well. But, It's been a really cool journey and I would say, I mean, we can get more into sort of like what I'm up to these days, but I would say, you know, as I progressed, uh, a friend said something to me that really resonated, which was, it's amazing if, if performing is your focus and that's what you want.

It's just like the element of being on stage and entertaining people. But there's an opportunity when you have the spotlight on you, whether it be on stage or online to say something that matters and, and talk about things that [00:21:00] matter. And I think that. Really stuck with me and has challenged me as I've, you know, sort of grown over time and grown my online presence to really try to, as we said at the top of the call, like speak truth to power and speak truth to some of these things that are being so misconstrued these days, especially as it relates to young queer people who I think often.

Getting the, having some of the toughest time cuz they don't have the agency to always like, navigate out of the situation they're in. Um, and or feeling a lot of hopelessness. So that has really sort of pushed me to continue this work in different ways over the years.

Julie Harris Oliver: How did you come to the name Mary Lou Pearl?

Blake Mitchell: It's an amalgamation of a few things. I, um, many drag performers have like a punny name that has some secondary, you know, as an entendre of entendre,

Julie Harris Oliver: like Rhonda Sandis,

Blake Mitchell: Rhonda San. Yeah, exactly. There's so many. Also for anyone listening, if you haven't, uh, discovered the Instagram page, Republicans, which is a site that makes drag queens out of like the likeness of conservative [00:22:00] politicians using ai.

It's hysterical. And their names like that. It'll be like Rhonda Santis or something like that. So it's a fun little thing to look up, um, after this. But Mary Lou was my neighbor growing up next door, neighbor, and. Southern woman who helped care for me when I was little. My mom's name is also Mary, so there was like a sort of a double tie in there.

And I, I loved the southern name of like a, you know, Mary Beth, Mary Lou, Sarah Ann, like whatever. Felt very southern. And then my dad's mom who grew up in central Mississippi. She always wore this strand of pearls that now my mom has inherited. And my sister and I fight over who gets it, but I tell her they're mine because I literally named my drag persona after them.

Um, but those like pearls were just like so important to gran. And she, having grown up very, very poor without a lot of means, like it meant a lot to her that when she was able to afford and she wore them every day. And so I said that together one time. Mary Lou Pearl, I was just like running through names with a friend and I was like, that's it, that's it, that's it.

And I [00:23:00] don't know why it clicked. That's, that's it.

Julie Harris Oliver: Now let's talk about the different types of drag performance. Like I imagine the drag performance that happens in a bar may be different from a drag queen story time in a library.

Blake Mitchell: Absolutely. Yeah. It's a super important distinction I think for a lot of the conversation happening today, because I think.

Very often folks attacking drag performers will pull up these, you know, clips from a drag performance in the club and say, see, this is not something that kids should ever be looking at. And many of them it's not. That's why they're at an 18 or 21 and up club. Right? Yeah. And it was an adult, for an adult audience, very much that you wouldn't take your kids always to an R rated or NC 17 film, right?

They're for a specific audience in a time and place. And so many of those club performances are a bit more crass. They're, you know, Very often dance lip sync based, sometimes comedy hosting, kind of a burlesque feel to some of them as well, if you've been to a burlesque show. But on the flip side is like when there are performances or events [00:24:00] with kids, like the drag queen story hours, which I've done in the past as well, it's just.

Someone in a costume reading a book to kids and relating to them. And to be honest, kids, like even little kids who don't really have strong language skills, just immediately light up when they see a drag performer cuz the makeup is big and the costume is big. And it's, I, I realized one time a friend was like, will you look sort of like a cartoon character?

Or like, yeah, I was gonna say right, because you're just so overblown and the hair is big and their sequence, it's just like over. And so they sort of. Doe-eyed and like, kind of a little like, you know, overwhelmed by all of it, but, you know, it's, it's fun and playful. And I did some virtual, uh, drag queen story hours during the pandemic for parents who had their kids at home.

Uh, when I was working at Google, I would take part of the day and sign on and drag and, and Googlers would bring their kids on to just like have a moment to see and I would read and they'd go into the kitchen and be doing something in the background while the kids like glue to the computer screen watching.

It's very innocent and. I also do at [00:25:00] the, I work at an L G B T summer camp in the summertime where there's direct programming and that also is very tailored for a more junior audience where it's all about like, if kids want to and choose to opt in and participate, then they, you know, can come and just say like, Hey, heres some different ways you could like, put on makeup or try that, or if you wanna try on costumes that's here, and then we'll, you know, let you kind of like show off to the other people.

It's, it's honestly like, you know, when I was a kid, we would go play. Dress up or something and play games or something in that way, it's not too different. It's just that for them, especially for young queer people who are exploring maybe their own identity, there's an element of like feeling out what feels good or right to them.

But yeah, to your, you know, original question. All of it is scaled to the audience, much like film or television would be too, right? We put ratings and have specific spaces where people access and others don't, and the club drag shows are not what is happening with young people. Now,

Julie Harris Oliver: I know a lot of the language right now is that drag is grooming and that if you're doing it at a summer camp for [00:26:00] children, I can see people saying that that is definitely grooming Well, how would you respond to that before I start launching into statistics of who's actually grooming in this world?

Go ahead.

Blake Mitchell: Yeah. Well, I'll leave the stats to you then. I was gonna start there, but I, you know, we, no

Julie Harris Oliver: do, I don't have them. I just, yeah. I just know it's, you know, straight white guys and clergy doing the grooming.

Blake Mitchell: Exactly. That's the short of it is like when you look at statistics of what's actually happening.

It is, and not to, uh, and by any means, to mean anyone in a religious position of power. But that is often, those are often the people, sports coaches, uh, who are taking advantage of their position of power because it's not like, A drag queen who meets a kid at a story hour is all of a sudden convincing them that they should be queer, act a certain way, like for really talking about what grooming is.

It's, it's. There's like a built relationship and trust that then it's like, you know, over time you're like tricking or bringing someone in and that's just not, there's no evidence that that's happening at any sort of significant number with drag performers or group people, [00:27:00] and it's absolutely not what is, what is happening at this camp.

I mean, if we think about the kids that we interact with and that I get to work with there, number one, their parents or families or caregivers have opted for them to go to an L G B T summer camp and either they come on a scholarship or they've paid, they've brought them there and dropped them off. Once they have arrived, they have a huge array of activities they can choose to participate in.

So drag is one of them, but they could also go hiking. They could do swimming, they could do poetry or ukulele. We have a puppetry class. Like there's just all sorts of things. They're fun that they could participate in. I

Julie Harris Oliver: would think it's mostly about they can go to camp and feel safe.

Blake Mitchell: Exactly, and it's, it's a space where they don't have to explain themselves or question or feel like they have to be in defense mode.

They can just be themself. And for some of them, they want to come check out drag. And so if they make it, make their way to my workshop, start off and talk through history, cultural context, what it looks like, different examples of drag, and then it's kind of like, what do you wanna make of it? For some of them, they try on the heels or they try putting on [00:28:00] makeup and they're like, Nope, that's not for me, or I don't wanna be on stage.

And so then we're like, well, you can help with lights, you could do tech, you could, you know, just help me with the logistical piece and be behind the scenes. And that's great for the kids who do choose to do it. It's about them sort of exploring what works for them. And I think what's so sad about the narrative is like, to your point, it's very often like, Oh, queer people and drag performers are using this to trick and they want to groom young people and and convince them to be queer in some way.

And actually, yeah. What's really happening is there are kids who are, yeah. Can you do that number one? No. But also like, what it really is, is it's young people who are dealing with a really, really tough world right now where it's hard for them to just exist and just to be themselves coming somewhere where they feel.

Fully affirmed and supported and getting to just play and explore with no judgment, right? It's like getting to try stuff on and say, this feels good, or this doesn't, or just feel free and not have to contort themselves into like their, you know, these [00:29:00] environments that don't fit for them back home. And seeing the joy and affirmation that that brings to them is so, Beautiful.

I mean, I had one, uh, one of my campers who I'll say was a bit of a, a tough one at times to work with, and they were always never quite prepared. Last minute, everything in like the day of the final performance. They came to me and were like, Blake, I need help with my makeup. They were addressing up as a drag king, and they're like, can you put on some like makeup to give me like a fake beard or something?

And I was like, well, we're, we're like literally walking out the door, but gimme, yeah, two minutes. I'll do what I can. I put it on, give them the mirror and they just start sobbing immediately. I was like, oh no, like what now? Like what's happening? And they just said, Just seeing myself with this facial hair and the makeup and like, I feel I've never felt more like right in my own body.

Like this feels so affirming and I just thank you for like doing that. And so it's about not trying to con like make them something they're not. It's allowing them the space to be what they already are, but [00:30:00] their home environment doesn't always allow. So it is sad that it, it's so misconstrued, but drag truly is such a beautiful, I think, tool for folks to just.

Play and have fun and explore themselves if they want to. But again, no one's forcing them to do that.

Julie Harris Oliver: I think the thing that probably needs to gain acceptance is the kids are already L G B, lgbtq. Yeah. And you can't do anything to make them that way.

Blake Mitchell: Absolutely. Yeah. It's not that. I mean, and you see over and over how much people, when their kids come out, try to change them or make them different and.

What that typically does is it just pushes them away or they have to run off to become themselves, or they, you know, are just unhappy. But there's not like anything that is done to them at a certain point that's like triggering this. It's, it's not about them like being indoctrinated, it's just them coming into who they're meant to be.

Julie Harris Oliver: Would you say you have known any adults who had the agenda of making kids gay?

Blake Mitchell: No. I mean, the, it just, it, it honestly [00:31:00] sounds wild to even think about. I, I joke that like straight people seem to be doing a well enough job of producing gay people. I don't need to go create more somehow recruiting, recruit anybody.

Like they, we keep showing up in straight families. So does that happen? There's many, yeah. And of course there's many, I don't mean to say that's the only way that kids come to be. Right. There's many different ways. Through the joy, the incredible progress and like fertility treatment and things like that that kids can be born or adopted.

But I all that to say like we've always been here and I think another like misnomer that has come up is like, well, all this queer identity is just a fab. Like all of a sudden so many people are saying they're trans and non-binary or. Use they them pronouns and like that this wasn't the case. Like you all are just, this is a fat, like a Gen Z fat that you're all hopping onto.

And it's like that's nonsense. Like we've seen over, over time at Ebb and Flow how out people are given the society and the context. But you know, through many different civilizations and cultures. In the Western world and the eastern world, like there have been queer people, and to [00:32:00] be honest, you know, in indigenous culture and especially in the East, non-binary and trans people were revered often in, in the cultures that the indigenous people in the United States called it Two-Spirit is what they, what we would call non-binary like folks that held both gender.

You know, men and women together and were more powerful cause of that. But because society had started to shift, I think in a more progressive way with marriage equality, passing and more progress in terms of legislation, we, I think we saw the condition shift and so more people started, have started to come out and be more public.

And feel like they can be themselves. And I think that's why the backlash happens again. It's like we make progress. People start to see the power and the progress and get scared or freaked out and it whips the other direction. But it's not like it's new. We've always been here. It's just, it's changed in terms of us feeling like there's more space for us to, to be out and be ourselves and have language around what that, what that means.

Julie Harris Oliver: Should we talk a little bit about the legislation sweep in the country?

Blake Mitchell: Yeah. You know, it's interesting. As part of my consulting work, I, uh, get asked to [00:33:00] review different corporations copy and things, especially around Pride Month from an LGBTQ perspective. And I was editing something today, uh, this morning that was, uh, talking about, I think it was an article from February that said A C L U saying 120 anti L G B T bills have been introduced across the us.

And I was like, I'm nervous to look up the current number, but I need to correct this. And so I did. And it's five now, just in the last six. 500 this legislative session in the United States. And

Julie Harris Oliver: why? Like why? I just like what's it to ya?

Blake Mitchell: I mean, I'm not a political analyst, but I will say from my perspective and um, did work on the last midterm election in Atlanta and I, you know, my perception is that the right optin uses these friend issues around identity and sort of this guys thing of like protecting tradition and family as a way to rally a more like, Radical conservative base, um, and distract from the real issues I think that are [00:34:00] impacting people today.

And so we hear all this rhetoric that we've talked a lot about already about threat to children of drag performers and them being indoctrinated. But we all know the statistics or maybe we don't, but we started to hear now the real number one thing that's killing children in the United States is gun violence.

But they don't wanna talk about that or make any changes to protect kids.

Julie Harris Oliver: That John Stewart clip was very powerful. Go look that up.

Blake Mitchell: Exactly. If you haven't, that is a, it's give you some good talking points if you get in a discussion with, uh, people about this. But that is the number one threat to kids in the United States right now is gun violence and shootings and schools and communities, but, Because I think of gun lobbies and NRA and other institutions, they're not making change there, so they need to distract people and pick somewhere else.

I think for a while in politics we, there was Roe v. Wade was, uh, overturned or, or rolled back and, uh, maybe abortion wasn't an issue that they thought in the midterms would be more polarizing or, or might galvanized people in a bigger way. It didn't, in many ways, for them it actually is like many people, [00:35:00] Most people, the majority are opposed to it being overturned.

And so I think their focus had to, they had something else. I mean, it's a's. Republicans for decades and decades of weaponizing identity. We saw it all the way back to like the war on drugs and these sort of guys like racial undertones that got people afraid of crime in cities and, and, and voting in certain ways.

And I think unfortunately, the current target is queer people, and I would say largely transgender people, transgender kids. And then drag queens as an extension of that. And because I think most people, many people don't know, can't make the distinctions that we made in this call. And so it's just this sort of unknown thing that feels scary and they've tried to equate to being a threat to a traditional family when there's no threat.

We're not coming after anybody. We're just trying to exist. Right? Yeah. Trying to live, I want, I want these kids to grow up, period. And we, period. That's it. Like just to have, be happy, healthy, and live because. There's so much, so many issues with mental health and self-harm of, of [00:36:00] queer youth who feel hopeless.

And we've seen that spike even more in the statistics that like the organizations like the Trevor Project put together around mental health and queer youth. And it's just devastating that these political tactics, they're not only misguided and, but they're harming people actively. And hopefully we, we get enough critical, massive understanding and progress that.

That moves on, but it's just sick that that continues to be a tactic and that it harms so many people across different communities right now, the LGBT community over time as that happens. There was,

Julie Harris Oliver: I saw yesterday, I wish I remembered her name or her position, but she was speaking about cuz here in Los Los Angeles, north Hollywood School was going to do an assembly about pride and protesters showed up.

Someone, uh, I think they put their trans teacher on leave, like all kinds of shenanigans. And an administrator in that school gave a speech that was so powerful and so beautiful and made me think like, okay, PE people are in charge, who are gonna be able to handle this? And she was like, all of the [00:37:00] shenanigans surrounding this, you've just made, all the queer kids in this school know that they're not safe here.

Like good job. The whole talk is about protecting the children and saving the children and it, and, and in fact, it's doing the opposite, making people feel unsafe.

Blake Mitchell: Yeah. With many of these topics and issues, like, it again is framed as like wanting to help children or protect them, but to your point, it just makes them feel less safe or question their space in society or if they even are welcome and so it actually is harming them as the ultimate outcome.

To kind of tie together a couple threads of what we were talking about. I think those protests of these events and the threats and the legislation and all of that are disheartening and, and discouraging. But I think like the ultimate outcome is they do want to silence us or intimidate us into not living existing doing the things that we need to do.

And honestly, it, it really just galvanizes me to push harder, I think, and continue to find ways to support young, queer people, um, and can continue the work of the nonprofit, the. Lgt Summer can't break trails that I work with because, you know, at the end of the day, like I've said a [00:38:00] few minutes ago, just, I just want these kids to be able to grow up and know that they're loved and supported.

And there's so many messages to the contrary right now that I think we have to work double time to make sure they hear the truth and also

Julie Harris Oliver: that they can have happy lives and they can have families and they can have all the things that straight people have.

Blake Mitchell: Exactly. Yeah. I, I mean, I remember I came out first as gay when I was 15.

And I remember thinking like, well, I'm choosing at this point to, yeah, not have a family, never get married, you know, not be able to be a part of the church. Like all these things. And I, I just over time seeing how like, this is not some like, foreclosing on any sort of life. Like of course we get to choose.

What we want. And maybe some of those things don't fit for us, but like if you want all of that, you can have it. It's just, it's just who you love or how you identify in your skin, right? But people I think want you to believe that it's some sort of like death sentence if you're come out as queer and that your life's gonna be terrible and.

It's not. And if it is, it's probably because they're making it that way, not cause it has anything to do with actually identifying that way.

Julie Harris Oliver: Yeah. And I, I think [00:39:00] that's probably really hard to see if you are, you know, brought up in a community where everyone you're surrounded with, you know, that's the norms of your dominant culture.

Absolutely. What are some other myths that are important for us to unpack?

Blake Mitchell: I guess for parents to, sometimes they feel like they did something wrong or this was like a, a result of, I remember all these messages about like, well, maybe you know, someone's dad is too absent or mom is overbearing, and then you, you know, whatever thing, like somehow that influenced sexual orientation or gender identity.

And again, it's just like who someone is. Right? I think also that, you know, one thing that can maybe is less of a like misunderstanding, but just something that I would, I felt sometimes and would raise is like, I think it feels hopeless sometimes to do anything because this has been so sweeping and overwhelming at the rate at which, you know, these laws are passed and things have like come to be, um, that it just feels like there's nothing we can do.

And I think that. We all have to play [00:40:00] our small part. And so for some people that's going down to their capital and protesting and being very present in an agitator in a real way. Not everyone can do that or feel safe too. So it's also just like educating yourself on these issues and understanding how you can support the l g BT people in your life.

It's. Speaking with your vote and voting for people and local elections especially who are going to like defend and protect and donating. Like there's just so many different like ways I think to challenge things that it's not hopeless that like we see over time. There are these sort of like moments of where we sort of take a couple steps back and there's a lot of pushback when.

There's been progress, but I think the arc of, you know, justices long MLK used to say, and we need to be thoughtful that like we just have to continue to work and push and it's not dire by any means. It's just a tough moment.

Julie Harris Oliver: Yes. It was striking to me just watching these legislative sessions and so many people telling their stories and telling the nuance and telling how these, how these bills [00:41:00] would be harmful and.

In the face of all that evidence, still passing the bills, like it's so unfathomable to me and, and yet it's really happening.

Blake Mitchell: Another misunderstanding sometimes that people have around like queer trans identity that I think is important when we're talking about queer youth and legislation to raise is that many people and many of the, a lot of the rhetoric that the right has pushed is that surgeons are doing procedures and like.

Gender surgeries on like young children, which is not true, and they're by and large. If a kid is undergoing gender affirming care from a physician, it's largely hormone blockers, which just slows puberty while they figure out how they identify or what feels right to them, which is all reversible. There's sometimes, if it's taken at certain developmental stages that.

It can be some nuance, but I would say in general, like you can stop taking it and just continue to progress, you know, as in whatever way your body is going. But it also allows for time for families to slow down and say like, okay, you may be thinking about this, but let's take [00:42:00] some time to consider. And then if in a few years we're sure that you do wanna like start to socially transition or transition through medical care once you're.

Of an appropriate age, you can start to take, um, H r T or hormone replacement therapy and then down the road, once folks are older, perhaps undergo gender affirming surgery. But I think there's this like idea and, and my dad, who's a physician also asked me, like, with the camp, like, can you help me understand, like I'm, I'm reading or I, I'm seeing things about like the surgeries happening on young kids and that that is, uh, really, really not true.

There are even laws being passed in states. To ban that when it's not happening. Like there's no medical professional conducting those procedures for enough kids under 18. And so it's like this again, is not actually changing anything that's actually going on in practice. It's just a tactic and, and by and large, like when kids are undergoing that, it much more nuanced.

And I guess I would just like into that thought was saying that like all the major medical organizations and collections of physicians in the United States, Agree that that [00:43:00] type of care is appropriate and despite that laws continuing to be passed, blocking it and restricting parents for making these decisions for their own families with healthcare providers in a way that works for them, which is just so frustrating to see when the actual people who know and done their research say like, we should be allowing families to make these decisions with for themselves.

Julie Harris Oliver: Yeah, and I don't know how you get to be, especially right now my age and not know many people with trans children and just. No one is rushing into treatment. No. I mean, everybody is rushing into, let's understand it, let's evaluate it. Let's make sure we're getting the best possible care for my child. No one is just first of all, talking their kid into changing their gender and then secondly, doing radical things to make it happen.

It's, it's just not a thing, and it's the same. I mean, it's the same legislators who are trying to, trying to do reproductive health. I mean, it's, mm-hmm. It's absurd. It's absurd. It's the same people who are talking about post-birth abortion. It's

Blake Mitchell: nonsense. Right. [00:44:00] That's not happening. None of it's based in truth or fact.

Yeah. Uh, there are very little of It is right. Again, it's just a scare tactic. Now

Julie Harris Oliver: going back to the drag of it all, I wanted to rewind 45 minutes and you talked about your, was it drag mother? Was that the term? Mm-hmm. Showing you the ropes. I'm curious. Yeah. What are the ropes?

Blake Mitchell: Well, it's, Dolly Parton says it costs a lot to look this cheap.

It takes a while, a lot of work to get into the look. Um, which is always funny for people when they're like around me when I'm. In process, but I would say foundationally, it's like the makeup technique and how to use different makeup to reshape your face and, and create the illusion or the look that you want on top of that, in terms of like just the physical transformation, it's costuming.

Very often, uh, people are using hip pads, breast plates, cinching here, tucking a bit here, cinching here. Just sort of like. However, you're sort of adapting to like look a bit different or, or usually build this like bigger than life personality, right? That kinda accentuating different things. And so all of [00:45:00] that is something that's usually taught or people like can show you how to do.

And then from there it's like how do you, if you don't know how to edit music, how do you edit the musical track? How do you like what? How does, what does the choreography look like? How do you get booked at a different clever bar? Um, who are the people in town to get to know, like all those little things, the tricks of the trade that you pick as you go, um, is something you would typically like tap your drag mom to ask about.

Julie Harris Oliver: And is it mostly performing as, you know, music artists?

Blake Mitchell: I would say yeah. A lot of people do impersonation. Some people like pick a persona and like sort of do his, that I, um, a lot of mine. Like classic divas. I'm a big share fan. I love country music. I've done Dolly Drag, I've done Shania Twain Drag, uh, with like the leopard print look from the, that don't impress me much video if folks are country fans like me and know that iconic look, that was like a childhood favorite that I got to recreate.

So it depends. But yeah, very often it's doing like lip sync to different artists and sort of like paying homage to them.

Julie Harris Oliver: And we talked a little bit [00:46:00] before we were doing this podcast about how, you know, you really came into your own in San Francisco and Los Angeles and, but you've been returning to the South and thinking about making your home there knowing that you could make more of a difference there.

Can you talk a little bit about that?

Blake Mitchell: Yeah, so at the point where I felt like ready for my chapter at Google to wrap as I was sort of considering next steps, you know, I think often the universe gives us little like. Signals or nudges. And I, um, I remember sort of having this thought and then the same day I opened Instagram and Stacey Abrams announced that she was running it for governor in Georgia again.

And I've been a longtime follower and fan of hers and her work in the south and in around voting rights and access, and I thought, Dang. Wouldn't that be a cool thing to do if I left Google? Yeah. And lo and behold, a year later, uh, I was in the throes of things working on that campaign and in Georgia, many steps to get there and a lot of help from people.

But yeah.

Julie Harris Oliver: How do you get a job on a campaign? [00:47:00]

Blake Mitchell: Oh, you, you hustle everyone in your network trying to find a way in. I guess. I ultimately, I had a friend who after school, had gone to work for Elizabeth Warren and then was working for Raphael Warnock, the senator from Georgia, who just was reelected. Thank goodness.

Thank goodness. Oh my word. What a cliffhanger that was. But he, he, I talked with his, that campaign a bit and then he connected me, um, as well with Stacy's campaign. But it ended up being through the random way of like, network. A friend from San Francisco went to college with her chief of staff and so, um, I got linked up.

But to be honest, I talked to them months before I moved back. But they were like, great, you seem great. We'd love to work with you, but like, We're not, we only hire when you can start, like right now because everything changes, you know, immediately. So reach out when you're moving back. And, um, I did a couple weeks before I decided to just go back to Georgia regardless and figure it out when I got there.

And I ended up signing an offer five days before I moved. So it was through, you know, some [00:48:00] friends who were tapped into that world. And again, I would've come back and like scrubbed the floors in the headquarters if they wanted me to, or like volunteered. Like I was just wanting to be involved. Any, anything from Stacy Abrams?

Literally anything like I would, would've done anything. I'm really grateful I got to, I ended up doing an operations role for her field team and doing a lot of the LGBT outreach and planning around Pride in Atlanta, which happens in October. So it was an amazing experience, but. That was sort of my first feeling of like, hey, there's some really cool things happening in the south and a lot of progress in Georgia has become really a hot button political state in terms of it's, you know, become truly purple in terms of the electorate and changed pretty quickly.

I think a lot of due to the work I think that Stacy and team have done to get more people registered and involved in the process. But you know, I thought at first I would go and then move back to California and when I got back I. You know, with some time to sort of decompress despite the, her loss was really interested in, okay, there's a lot happening here and I [00:49:00] feel ready at a place in, you know, of feeling steady and good in my own identity and where I'm at to sort of return and try and be a part of that.

And I feel, you know, particularly drawn to supporting queer communities, but I think there's many different. Causes and things that are happening right now that are really interesting. And so I've, you know, made the decision to move back to Georgia and be there permanently. And in working with the summer camp that I've been at Brave Trails to help with some expansion to the South in the coming years and hopefully be a small part of this progress, um, happening in the South.

And I think. Georgia does provide an interesting opportunity because legislatively has not been as tough for queer people. It provides a bit of a, a haven, and Atlanta certainly is a very progressive city with a lot of queer people living there and a lot of like, support from bigger like corporate organizations.

So I'm really excited. Um, I was nervous given what I shared about my upbringing, about going back. Yeah. Um, and my therapist said something to me that I will never, ever forget as I was thinking about it. He said, you are not the same person that you were when you left. Georgia is not the same [00:50:00] state that it was when you left.

And so go reintroduce yourself and see how it feels and maybe you'll be surprised. And I was, and um, I'm really. Excited to grow there in this next chapter, to be there and, you know, honestly, just to get to know the already incredible people on the ground doing work. And it's been really neat to see all the organizations that already exist, both in, in and outta the political sphere.

And there's actually a really beautiful overlap between the activists and nonprofit community and drag performers there who I've gotten to know because so many of us are tapped in different ways and are in the ways we wanna support our, our community. So I'm excited, excited about this next chapter.

Julie Harris Oliver: I'm excited for you. And there was a time when, cause you know, so much of Hollywood has gone there and there's so much production work there. It's really become like the second hub. Mm-hmm. I'm sure there are times of the year where it's the first hub, but when, uh, I think it was the bathroom laws came down, That, that was Georgia, right?

Yep. And Hollywood is really talking about, do we pull out of Georgia? You know, it's, it's [00:51:00] not, it's not safe for people and we don't agree with all that. And Stacey Abras herself made a plea to a lot of the companies saying, please don't pull your money out. There's so many people here that still that need your help, that need your votes.

My understanding is she made a really personal plea to have the Hollywood studios not pull out and try to help on the ground. So it sounds like perhaps some of that is happening.

Blake Mitchell: Absolutely. Yeah, I remember that actually. And I, I remember thinking like, you know, I was still in California at the time, being like, wow, Georgia's such a complicated place and sometimes embarrassing.

We think we've made it forward and stuff like this will happen. But it is actually really, I think, uh, beneficial to progress that there are, um, Like a lot of, you know, Hollywood organizations and folks doing film production there and a lot of money, obviously a lot of also big corporations that have sway in terms of like, hey, you know, the Deltas and Coca-Colas and companies like that, that have been there a long time, that have like a bit of an influence.

Um, but I think Stacy's point is, was really [00:52:00] good and true and that. You know, there is this shift happening where the folks who've controlled, you know, the libras of power in Georgia and the South are slowly getting, I think, sort of phased out. And I think they're gripping even tighter and doing things to try and disenfranchise people and keep them out because they see the electorate shifting.

And I think to her point, there's a whole new generation of people stepping in. And there's also folks who've just never felt like they had a place in the system and the electric electoral like system and, and their voices didn't matter who. She and others have really like re enfranchised and helped them to understand like it does matter.

And if we all show up in, in collective, we can elect two democratic senators, uh, and send them to DC from Georgia and, and, and have that influence and flip the Senate as we did in 20. I think that's really re-energized folks to see that they do have a part to play. But certainly, yeah, having, uh, many of our LA friends kind of relocating out to Georgia certainly has helped with that progressive influence.

Julie Harris Oliver: Well, I wanna start a campaign and I can't remember if I've said this on the podcast before or not, but go home to vote. Yeah. [00:53:00] If everyone from the cities went back to where they came from vote, how different would our electoral map look?

Blake Mitchell: Yeah. I had this conversation this morning with a friend. We went on a a little hike and we were saying like, so many of us flee the place we grew up cuz we don't feel like we fit there.

And there's often this arc that I feel like I'm in right now where we then return. Once we feel like we've done the work and growing that we need to, to then be a part of like trying to move it forward and give back maybe.

I think you're right there. You know, there's so much, there's, uh, I, I don't fault anybody for going to a more progressive place or being on the coast cause I did it right. And I, it was really, really transformative to me as I shared in our time today. But I think like when you can, if you can, there's so much opportunity and these places, I, you know, I don't want to be misunderstood.

They don't need to be saved. Right. We don't need to go back and save these communities. Like, there's a lot of really incredible resilient people who've been on the ground for decades fighting the fight day in and day out. But they need support. They need resources. They need more of us to show [00:54:00] up. And so I think even if it's from afar, we can think of how to continue to.

Support that work and, and support small organizations doing it on the ground. I think the big groups like A C L U and Trevor Project and these big national, um, H R C like groups are really important, but they are also pretty well funded. Often I think finding the small grassroots groups that are on the ground doing it and, and providing support in real time are so important because they're really helping impact.

One on one and any way we can and give that back to the places that we grew up and help people who are less fortunate than ourselves, I think is always really, really good.

Julie Harris Oliver: And I think it takes, what I'm hearing from you is really your journey of coming from a place of really being oppressed to standing in your own power and, and knowing who you are and knowing what, what you can bring.

And you're not, I think as a person, you're probably not as vulnerable to what that church thinks, you know?

Blake Mitchell: Yeah, exactly. And you know, there is so much [00:55:00] privilege in my story of being able to get out and go somewhere else and find an environment that felt supportive and affirming to me. I know not others can do that, but with that I certainly feel a push.

And for me, I would say probably a personal obligation to then find a way to like pay that forward. You know, my chosen way right now is to try and uplift and support young, queer people and, um, you know, as I mentioned, also help out in the electoral process. I. Yeah, I think like coming back I'm like, I know who I am now.

Like I was definitely less sure and scared and uncertain at that time when those messages were being portrayed, but I don't feel like those people have power over me anymore. And alternatively, like I feel able to sort of cut through that noise and get to others who maybe need to hear a different perspective as well, who may be hearing a lot of the same things that I did and are just like unsure how to progress or what future they can even have.

I mean, this is the work, right? Yes. And it's, it can be exhausting, but also very energizing. And I think sometimes when it feels so [00:56:00] overwhelming and big and like, how do we tackle this behemoth of law that are being introduced? I think I, you know, if I enc, I encourage my team on the campaign and I encourage friends, or even people I work with at the camp, like just think about each day.

How you can show up for the people in your day-to-day life and make a difference for them. Be kind, you know, and, and pass on, you know, good things in that way cuz that that often is all, all we have control over it, but it makes a difference.

Julie Harris Oliver: That feels like a good place to stop. Blake Mitchell, thank you so much for being on the other 50%.

Blake Mitchell: Thank you so much for having me.

Julie Harris Oliver: You have been listening to the other 50% A Herstory of Hollywood. I'm Julie Harris Oliver, thank you to Blake Mitchell for the conversation and for sharing their story. Go look at Mary Lou Pearl's Instagram if you want a treat. There is the sweetest video of Mary Lou Pearl dressing Blake's father in drag, and it is beautiful to witness the love and the support of the father.

Special thanks to Jay Rowe, Dani Rosner, [00:57:00] and Alison McQuaid for the music. Please subscribe wherever you get your podcast and rate and leave a review. If you have a company you would like to be a sponsor, please reach out. You can find me in my work at julieharrisoliver.com. If you're looking for simple, yet effective tools to bring to your production or even just want some help in starting to talk about it, gimme a call.

I'd love to work with you. Thanks for listening. See you next time.