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In the NoCo
In The NoCo

How Colorado comedian Ren Q Dawe found a way to respond with laughter to anti-trans legislation

By In The NoCo,
Ariel Lavery, Brad Turner, Erin O'Toole
Published February 27, 2025 at 5:40 AM MST
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A man holds a mic to his face while he leans over laughing. He is wearing a pink shirt, flower patterned tie, and glasses.
Courtesy Ren Q Dawe
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Courtesy of Ren Q Dawe
Ren Q Dawe created a fifty-state comedy tour with a lineup of all trans comedians. The tour is called "Here to Pee" and it debuts this Saturday, March 1 at Junkyard Social in Boulder.

Challenging anti-trans legislation – and finding a way to laugh about it.

That’s the idea behind a new national comedy tour created by a transgender comedian who lives in Gunbarrel, outside of Boulder.

Ren Q Dawe is the organizer of the tour – called – which launches this Saturday at in Boulder. The comedians have stops planned in all 50 states. And some of the comedy, which is performed by trans comics, revolves around literal potty humor. That’s significant in an era when public bathrooms can be contentious spaces for trans folks.

Ren joined Erin O’Toole to talk about why comedy is his way of standing up for his community.

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In The NoCo LGBTQComedyTransgenderBoulder
In The NoCo
KUNC's In The NoCo is a daily slice of stories, news, people and issues. It's a window to the communities along the Colorado Rocky Mountains. The show brings context and insight to the stories of the day, often elevating unheard voices in the process. And because life in Northern Colorado is a balance of work and play, we celebrate the lighter side of things here, too.
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Ariel Lavery
Ariel Lavery grew up in Louisville, Colorado and has returned to the Front Range after spending over 25 years moving around the country. She co-created the podcast Middle of Everywhere for WKMS, Murray State University’s NPR member station, and won Public Media Journalism awards in every season she produced for Middle of Everywhere. Her most recent series project is "The Burn Scar", published with The Modern West podcast. In it, she chronicles two years of her family’s financial and emotional struggle following the loss of her childhood home in the Marshall Fire.
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Brad Turner
Brad Turner is an executive producer in KUNC's newsroom. He manages the podcast team that makes In The NoCo, which also airs weekdays in Morning Edition and All Things Considered. His work as a podcaster and journalist has appeared on NPR's Weekend Edition, NPR Music, the PBS °µºÚ±¬ÁÏhour, Colorado Public Radio, MTV Online, the Denver Post, Boulder's Daily Camera, and the Longmont Times-Call.
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Erin O'Toole
As the host of KUNC’s new program and podcast In the NoCo, I work closely with our producers and reporters to bring context and diverse perspectives to the important issues of the day. Northern Colorado is such a diverse and growing region, brimming with history, culture, music, education, civic engagement, and amazing outdoor recreation. I love finding the stories and voices that reflect what makes NoCo such an extraordinary place to live.
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