In Part I of this three-part deep dive into Project 2025, we open the hood on a nine-hundred-page plan crafted by the Heritage Foundation and a coalition of over 100 conservative groups. This isn’t just a policy wishlist — it’s a machine designed to remake government from the inside out.

We break down how Project 2025 uses its four pillars — the Mandate for Leadership policy manual, a personnel database of nearly 20,000 vetted loyalists, a training academy, and a 180-day transition playbook — to “deconstruct the administrative state” (Heritage Foundation, 2025; The Guardian, 2024).

We unpack the foreword’s coded language — phrases like “restore the family” and “cultural Marxism” — as dog whistles that set the stage for erasing queer, trans, and racial justice protections. We examine Schedule F, a bureaucratic maneuver that would allow the mass firing of career civil servants and replace them with partisan loyalists, effectively gutting civil rights enforcement, scientific integrity, and data collection (Finding Tangle, 2025).

We also trace how the plan calls for erasing the words themselves — stripping “sexual orientation,” “gender identity,” and “diversity, equity, and inclusion” from every corner of federal life, from the Department of Defense to Treasury to higher education. As Ruha Benjamin reminds us, when you erase naming and data, you don’t remove discrimination — you design it in. And as Kimberlé Crenshaw shows us, shrinking protections always compounds harms for Black girls, trans youth, and queer people of color.

Finally, we shine a light on how these strategies hit schools and workplaces. Project 2025 aims to redefine Title IX to “biological sex at birth”, cutting trans and queer youth out of federal protections, and to narrow Bostock v. Clayton County to hiring and firing only, leaving LGBTQ workers vulnerable to harassment and benefit denials (L.A. Times, 2025; Wikipedia, 2025).

This episode sets the stage: Project 2025 isn’t sloppy or chaotic — it’s precision engineering designed to erase protections and rewire government against queer, trans, Black, Brown, and progressive communities. Join us as we expose the blueprint and name the stakes.

TW: Mentions slavery & sexual abuse.

In this vital episode, we explore the history, harm, and reclamation of Black femininity—particularly as it exists within white queer culture. From the violent myths born on the plantation to the modern dynamics of white-dominated queer spaces, we trace how Black womanhood has been distorted, denied, and policed. We center the experiences of Black queer women and femmes as we unpack the tensions, dangers, and double standards that define our interactions with systems and communities that claim to be liberatory. Finally, we uplift the work of reclamation: how Black femmes are creating spaces of tenderness, visibility, and belonging on our own terms.

What You’ll Hear in This Episode:

• The origins of distorted Black femininity: Jezebel, Mammy, and the plantation’s racial-gender order
• How Black femininity is policed or erased in white-dominated queer spaces
• The failures of white-centered feminism to address the realities of Black womanhood
• The work of reclaiming softness, tenderness, and humanity in a world that often denies it
• The importance of intentionally curating the spaces, relationships, and media we engage with for affirmation and healing

Referenced Works & Further Reading:

• Patricia Hill Collins, Black Feminist Thought (1990)
• Deborah Gray White, Ar’n’t I a Woman? (1985)
• Jacqueline Jones, Labor of Love, Labor of Sorrow (1985)
• Monique Morris, Pushout (2016)
• Margaret Hunter, “If You’re Light You’re Alright” (2002)
• Bailey, M. & Trudy, “On misogynoir: citation and the epistemic violence of invisibility” (2018)

Support the Show:

Consider supporting South Sound Sapphic to help us continue producing bold, intersectional content. 🔗 https://www.southsoundsapphic.org

In this episode of South Sound Sapphic, we take you on a journey through the history of queerness—where we’ve been, who we’ve lost, how we’ve survived, and how we keep resisting. From Boston marriages and the hidden lives of sapphic ancestors, to the defiance of Compton’s Cafeteria and the terror of the Lavender Scare, to the ways queerness continues to challenge systems of power today—you’ll hear the stories that built our present and continue to shape our future.

This episode isn’t just history. It’s an invitation to learn, reflect and hopefully, connect. To honor the people who came before us and to imagine the world we are still fighting to create.

What does it mean to be queer? Where did the word come from? How has queerness shaped—and been shaped by—resistance, survival, and defiance? We explore the deep, complicated, and beautiful history of queerness. We trace its meaning from the 1500s to today. We honor the lives of sapphic people who loved in the shadows, fought back against oppression, and dared to imagine something different.

We’ll talk about:

• The hidden histories of Boston marriages and Wellesley marriages
• The riot at Compton’s Cafeteria (1966) and early trans and drag resistance
• The terror of the Lavender Scare and the cost of being queer in mid-century America
• How queer identity today resists patriarchy, white supremacy, and capitalism
• Why queer joy, mutual aid, art, and chosen family are acts of defiance

This is an episode for everyone who has felt othered. For everyone who has fought to exist. For everyone dreaming of a world where queerness is not just accepted, but celebrated.

👉 Support this work on at www.southsoundsapphic.org