In the Season 1 finale of Living Queer, Carly Terkiel and Jessie Wang reflect on friendship, chosen family, and the relationships that make queer life possible.

Across the season, we’ve explored resilience, stewardship, belonging, and power. This final conversation brings those threads together through kinship: the ways we find each other, care for one another, and build lives that feel whole and true.

Carly and Jessie share what it means to grow alongside someone, to create spaces of trust and joy, and to navigate the world with a sense of shared grounding. Their conversation is both intimate and expansive, reminding us that queer life is not just about identity—it’s about connection.

As Living Queer closes its first season, this episode offers a simple but powerful truth: we do not become ourselves alone.

In this episode of Living Queer, Erwin de Leon speaks with James Lewis, director and screenwriter of the documentary Out Laws, about the global criminalization of homosexuality and its roots in colonialism. Through the stories of activists challenging these laws in court, James explores how history continues to shape the present.

The conversation examines the politics of queer existence, the weaponization of division, and the role of storytelling in shifting public narratives. James also reflects on his work at The Good Side and why communication—how we invite people into conversation—matters as much as the message itself.

At the heart of the episode is a question about how change happens: not only through confrontation, but through connection, shared values, and the difficult work of engaging across difference.

In this episode of Living Queer, Erwin de Leon speaks with Odell Mays, longtime LGBTQ+ and HIV/AIDS activist, nonprofit leader, and founding board member of the American LGBTQ+ Museum. With more than three decades of leadership across some of New York’s most influential LGBTQ+ institutions, Odell reflects on the experiences that shaped his commitment to community, service, and movement building.

Together, they discuss the early years of HIV/AIDS activism, the importance of organizing across difference, and the ongoing challenge of confronting race, power, and representation within LGBTQ+ movements. Odell also shares his work helping build the American LGBTQ+ Museum and why telling the full story of our community, including voices often left out of the historical narrative, matters now more than ever.

Reflecting on the present moment, Odell returns to two principles that guide his life: resilience and aspiration, drawing strength from history while continuing to work toward a more just and inclusive future.