Interview with Juno Roche

Monika: Today it is my pleasure and honor to interview Juno Roche, a Writer, and Campaigner, Patron of cliniQ, and a Trustee of the Sophia Forum. Juno writes for a wide range of publications and is currently writing her first book. Juno campaigns for transgender equality focusing on the education and sexual healthcare sectors. Juno has been HIV positive for over twenty years and considers herself a 'long-term thriver'. Juno was a Blair Peach Award winner, one of the most influential LGBTQ leaders in the UK, listed in the Rainbow List 2014/2015 and the World Pride Power List 2015. Juno was shortlisted for the European Campaigner of the Year in 2016 and has just been shortlisted for Campaigner of the Year by Diva Magazine. Hello Juno!

Juno: Hi Monika, it's lovely to chat with you.

Monika: Could you say a few words about yourself?

Juno: Mmmm, a few words, I'm known really for talking an awful lot so a few words always seem difficult, but I am a happy, energized, and driven woman who wants simply to make a world for trans peeps which is full of aspiration and equal chances and to enjoy my own life.

Interview with Elaine Walquist

Monika: Today it is my pleasure and honor to interview Elaine Walquist, an American advocate for the LGBT community, former model, retired high school teacher, vlogger, table tennis, and chess champion. Hello Elaine!

Elaine: Hi, Monika! Thanks for inviting me.

Monika: You are a lady of so many talents! Could you say a few words about yourself?

Elaine: I have a wide range of interests and I’ve experimented with different fun activities. I learned table tennis after high school and I was terrible at first. I kept at it and after joining leagues, clubs, training camps, and personal instruction; I ranked in the top 20 women in the U.S. as well as a four-time state champion. I love foreign languages and I wanted to share that love with others so I became a teacher for 20 years and Foreign Language Department Chair at my high school.

Interview with Karen Adell Scot

Monika: Today it is my pleasure and honor to interview Karen Adell Scot. Miss Scot is a very diverse woman. She is an award-winning California high school science teacher, a movie producer, and screenwriter of feature films, a former Major in the military, a law enforcement officer, and recently a beauty queen. Hello Karen Adell!

Karen Adell: Hi there Monika!

Monika: Could you say a few words about yourself?

Karen Adell: Thank you so much for interviewing me. It is an honor to share a little bit of my life with your readers.

Monika: You hit the headlines in December 2014 when the American media covered your coming-out story. Were you satisfied with the way the media covered your transition? 

Karen Adell: Absolutely not. I was outed against my will on the front pages of many newspapers, on over twenty local news broadcasts and then was outed on all the major American national news broadcasts and went viral on the net. Many stories used male pronouns and then allowed comments where others called me a “thing” and “it” even calling for me to die as some sort of filthy piece of garbage. Some stories about me were so bad other news stories were written using my example of how NOT to write about transgender women.