Arizona Equals Gav

On this week’s episode of the Arizona Equals Conversation, Jeanne interviews Gav Orman about their experience relocating to Arizona in the early months of the pandemic, their career in the environmental sector, and the way they approach disclosure of their identities as a queer, neurodivergent person. Full Episode Transcript Jeanne Woodbury From Equality Arizona, you're listening to the Arizona Equals Conversation, a podcast about queer people and queer communities in Arizona. I'm your host, Jeanne Woodbury, and each week on the show, I talk with a new guest about their story. In today's episode, I interview Gav Orman, who's been an active member of our own volunteer community and who had a lot of really interesting things to say about what it means to be queer and neurodivergent in all the different ways those things can overlap and mirror each other. It's really one of my favorite conversations I've had about those ideas, and I was really excited that we could record it and publish it on the podcast. So I'm going to run through a couple important announcements, and then we'll jump into the interview. First, we're always looking for new guests to interview on the podcast, so if you're interested in sharing your story, get in touch. You can email us directly at [email protected], or you can sign up through the form on equalityarizona.org/stories. I'd love to talk to you. Also tonight, Wednesday, March 22nd, we're having another in-person event for Ask Smart People Smart Questions, where we'll be talking with a panel of experts about LGBTQ+ experiences with criminalization and incarceration in Arizona. If you're interested in attending, we'll be at the Tempe Public Library at 6.30 p.m. You can find more information and sign up in advance at equalityarizona.org/events. All right, now let's roll the tape. (beep) (film reel clicking) [MUSIC PLAYING] Jeanne Woodbury So OK. The other thing I usually forget to do is ask people to introduce themselves. So could I get you to say your name, your pronouns, however else you'd like to introduce yourself? Gav Orman Yeah. My name's Gav Orman. I use they/them pronouns. That's it. That's the spiel. Jeanne Woodbury Nice. So one of the things that I used to really always start with is just asking people how long they've been in Arizona. Because I think it's interesting to just get a sense of like — you know, for people who grew up in Arizona, how has it changed? For people who have moved to Arizona, why did you make that decision? So how long have you been here? Gav Orman Yeah, I moved here in 2020. Jeanne Woodbury Oh wow. Gav Orman In the middle of the pandemic, like I moved in July of 2020. So it was hot and terrifying. Jeanne Woodbury Right. Gav Orman I moved from Southern California. So I lived in like Orange County area, near Laguna Beach for probably about a decade, ignoring like college years. Jeanne Woodbury Oh yeah. Gav Orman And then before that I was in Dallas, Texas. Jeanne Woodbury Okay, so a lot of like the Southwest and everything. Which I guess means like the terrible summer wasn't like totally out of the norm. Gav Orman No, it was probably only like 10 degrees worse than normal. Jeanne Woodbury Moving during the pandemic, I've actually talked to a bunch of people who have something like that in their story. They get a new job, they move, they graduate from college, and it just seems terrible. I mean, like, I can't imagine. I — and I did have to do a move like a year into the pandemic. And that was a little challenging. But like we kind of understood safety stuff. I feel like in July of 2020, people didn't even understand how COVID really worked yet. So what was that like for you? And did you come here for a job? Or what was the reason for the move? Gav Orman Yeah, that's a good question. I moved because I quit a job that I did not like, and my parents had moved out here a few years before. So I was kind of running away from adulthood and going back to family. Moving was kind of terrifying 'cause I had to hire movers to pack the house 'cause I was moving by myself, and I didn't have roommates, I couldn't lift my bed down three flights of stairs. And that was kind of terrifying, like inviting complete strangers into the house to touch my stuff, which I don't like people touching my stuff anyways, packing up a van, having to drive across, you know, having to do pit stops, and everything's shut down… with a cat. That was, it was just really anxiety-inducing, mostly. It was very relieving to be done, though, at the end. Jeanne Woodbury Were, like, gas stations shut down on that drive? Like, I'm guessing on the 10? Gav Orman Some were, yeah, some were shut down. Most of them would have, like, those, you know, those temporary bathrooms they pull up for like festivals. Jeanne Woodbury Oh yeah. Gav Orman They would have those out front, but they weren't letting you like inside the building still. Jeanne Woodbury I think that's something I never really knew because I was living with my parents at the start of the pandemic and I basically just didn't leave the house for a year. And so those questions of like, how did Kingman handle the pandemic, is something I'm still kind of learning. And then, so then you moved here, which feels like a decision a lot of people made. I remember reading a bunch of stories from the beginning of the pandemic where people were living in New York, and they all left New York to go live with their parents in Ohio or something. Arizona, I guess, is like the Ohio of the Southwest on some level. Gav Orman I can't disagree, but yeah. Jeanne Woodbury And then now that it's been like three years, right? What's kept you in Arizona? Gav Orman Honestly, my options kind of came down to, I could stay in Arizona or I could go back to California. And one, it's so expensive in California. Not that it's getting cheaper here, but it's more expensive in California. And then I work in the environmental sector. In California, there's not much of a — this is gonna sound a little weird — there's not much of like a fight to be had. Everyone's kind of in agreement. Jeanne Woodbury Oh yeah, I can see that. Gav Orman Yeah, like you're not making any real progress 'cause everyone's just kind of working towards the goal of improving the environment, whereas in Arizona, there's still so much of a fight to be had over protecting the environment versus welcoming in these kind of big polluters to secure our economy. Jeanne Woodbury Right, that makes sense. I would kind of think, you know, my first instinct would be, okay, California's the place to do that work because you can get a lot done, there is no fight. But I also understand like, well, if you can win that fight that has a big, maybe bigger impact. Now thinking about like polluters, I think the big thing I would think about with environmental stuff in Arizona is water. So is this something that you've been working on for a long time? Is this, what's your focus in that, I guess? Gav Orman Yeah, I've been interested in environmental stuff probably since high school, so almost a decade ago. And then in college, I was really focused on water. It's the same issue California has. We don't have enough water, everything's getting polluted, everything's gross and yucky and too expensive. When I moved here, I actually took a job in hazardous waste, which was kind of a whole side sweep of dealing with industries really directly. But I'm starting to get back into water just because we're running out and we don't have any and no one really seems to be making any decisions about it, including the agencies that are in charge of making those decisions. They just seem to be like, oh no, what do we do? Jeanne Woodbury Do you work directly with those agencies? Gav Orman Yes and no. I work in an adjacent agency, so I talk to a lot of those folks and am in a lot of those meetings, generally. Jeanne Woodbury Getting involved in hazardous waste during the pandemic feels, like, extra scary. Although I'm guessing maybe it's not a j… This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit equalityarizona.substack.com