“I can’t be queer, because I have too much going on.”
For a lot of us, this is a familia – if mostly unspoken – statement. It’s the feeling Kathy Tu had when she first realized she was queer on top of everything else. As a Taiwanese-American woman who had to come out to her mother three times, a queer identity on top of an already marginalized existence felt like a bit…much.
“Nancy,” a new podcast Tu hosts with Tobin Low, another queer Asian-American, takes an honest look at the pain, confusion, and endless subtleties of intersectional identity. The first two episodes of “Nancy,” available now on iTunes, cover everything from coming out to Asian tops in porn to Xena Warrior Princess with some “Billy on the Street”-style interludes in between – all without breaking a sweat. It’s the kind of podcast – not unlike the recent hit “S-Town,” that hits almost every emotional note in under 30 minutes, and leaving listeners both enriched and exhausted. In a good way, of course.
It’s also the kind of thing you’ll find incredibly familiar if you grew up queer. Low and Tu mix personal documentary style with a storytelling sensibility, throwing in bits of pop culture and questions about the direction of American culture. It’s almost hard to believe that something this comprehensive and good hasn’t hit the podcast scene before now, in what seems to be a kind of Golden Age for the medium. One thing is certain: Tu and Low are here now, and “Nancy” promises to be an instant classic.
