Queer Story Time The Podcast · Stevie Inghram

From False Arrest to 2026 U.S. Senate Candidate: A Black Gay Man’s Journey

·51 min·3 clips

Dakari says the trooper mocked his African name and called him “fruity” before any sobriety test.

Stevie Ingram opens Queer Storytime as a brave space for queer and trans stories of radical affirmation, acceptance, empowerment, and healing. He also welcomes listeners into the wider community through the free monthly Queer and Trans Community Connections group and the show’s Patreon. Dakari Larriette is introduced as a proud Alabama native and son of a U.S. Army veteran. Stevie names him as the show’s first official U.S. congressional candidate and brings real gratitude into the room. The story turns toward a police incident that stayed with Dakari long after it was over. He talks about how the experience kept replaying in his head and how therapy helped him start putting the pain into words instead of letting it loop forever. Writing became part of that release. The book grew out of the need to get the incident out of his body and onto the page. Dakari reaches back to the years before the incident. He says he spent 20 years serving his community. He served on the board of a Bronx community center, where he cared for unhoused and LGBT youth in the South Bronx. He also worked in harm reduction with the National Harm Reduction Coalition. That meant helping build capacity across the country while fighting the opioid crisis. The conversation keeps moving from personal injury to public responsibility. Dakari says that once he looked at what happened to him and what was happening in the country, he knew he had to do more. He was already protesting and pushing for change. He was already working two or three rings out from the center of power. What shifted was the recognition that he could try to write the laws instead of only fighting around them. Michigan becomes a major part of the story. Dakari explains that he lived in Alabama but had political ties in Michigan. He had meetings with Governor Whitmer’s office. His state representative, Joey Andrews, also reached out on his behalf. He says he contacted the attorney general and the public safety directors as well. At one point, he tried to file a police report against the police and was basically laughed at. That experience leaves him with a plain demand. Do your job. He says the people in power were clearly working off a script. He describes the internal investigations and official responses as part of the same evasive pattern. The frustration is not abstract. It is tied to how institutions refuse to hear harm when the person harmed is also the person asking for accountability. Stevie stays with him there and lets the anger breathe without rushing past it. The tone remains validating, urgent, and rooted in care. The episode keeps making room for both the wound and the will to act. It never treats the pain as a detour from the politics. By the end, the conversation folds back into community. Stevie closes by reminding listeners about the show’s community offerings, the Patreon, and the mutual aid work supporting queer and trans health. The whole thing holds a steady belief that testimony matters, service matters, and political imagination can grow directly out of survival.

As heard by us

A queer political story built from service, pain, and the choice to run.

This episode is shaped by Dakari Larriette's path to elected office, and it works best when it ties personal hardship to public duty. Stevie Ingram frames him as someone whose work moved through community care, harm reduction, and years of service before he chose to enter…

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You want a queer campaign story about turning community service, harm reduction, and a Senate run into action.

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