Profiles in LGBTQ+ Courage: Recent Episodes
Rick Koonce
This podcast program, produced by Huntington Northstar Productions of Hyannis, Massachusetts, in collaboration with PFLAG Cape Cod, explores the lives of PFLAG Cape Cod members, including members of the LGBTQ+ community and their families, who have dealt with issues of sexual identity/orientation, gender transition, and social acceptance.
Many episodes offer moving and intimate portraits of individuals wrestling with their sexual/gender identity, and the path they have taken toward wholeness and healthy self-acceptance. Other episodes profile the parents, family members, and allies of LGBTQ+ individuals on their own journeys toward understanding and acceptance of loved ones.
Profiles in LGBTQ+ Courage is intended both to educate listeners about the challenges facing those who identify as LGBTQ+, and to help anyone struggling with issues of orientation and sexual/gender identity to find the resources and social support they need to lead happy, fulfilling lives.
Rick Koonce (Host, Interviewer and Producer) is a former print and broadcast journalist and author or co-author of seven books. A board member of PFLAG Cape Cod, he was a commentator on Public Radio’s popular business program, “Marketplace” for five years, and has conducted hundreds of interviews with people from every walk of life over the course of a 25-plus year long career in business and print and broadcast journalism.
Susanne Bennett describes herself as a white, queer, cis-gender, able-bodied, and educated elder woman.
At 78, this former college professor and retired clinical social worker also describes herself as a questioner, a doubter, and someone who’s always sought to better understand herself as a sexual and spiritual person.
These are just a few of the topics Susanne explores in a new memoir, Evolving: Faith, Sexuality and Aging.
The book chronicles a life that’s been full of unexpected twists and turns, moments of doubt and uncertainty, followed by hard-won personal clarity --- about the interrelationship of sexuality, spirituality, and the aging process.
Growing up in the south, the daughter of a Southern Baptist minister, Susanne considered herself straight and religiously conservative for many years. She married a man, became a mother to two children, and settled down to married life.
But then her husband announced he was gay, and her daughter came out as a lesbian at 17.
All this rocked Susanne’s world. And prompted her to ask a lot of questions; to become curious about herself and her faith, and to embark on a path of learning and self-discovery that changed her life forever.
Today, Susanne’s happily married to her wife, Cay and lives in Brewster, MA. She’s also a grandmother with three grandkids who identify as trans or non-binary.
In this thoughtful interview with PFLAG Cape Cod’s Rick Koonce, Susanne opens up – about faith, family, her unique life journey, and her fluid sexuality.
She talks too about her life today on Cape Cod, as a member of St. Mary’s Episcopal Church in Barnstable, MA.
And, about how her religious faith has evolved, just as her understanding of her sexuality has evolved over more than seven decades of living.
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For more information, visit the PFLAG Cape Cod website: https://www.pflagcapecod.org/podcasts.html
© 2020 - 2025 PFLAG Cape Cod
Lindsey Straus is a 73-year-old trans woman who’s also the biological father of three sons -- triplets -- now in their early 40s.
The story of Lindsey’s transition --- from husband, devoted dad, and little league coach to trans woman, social activist, and lay minister at her church in Brewster MA --- is truly inspiring and courageous.
But that transitional journey did not come easily or without pain.
After more than 20 years of heterosexual marriage, Lindsey decided to transition and become a woman at the age of 50 in 2001.
Years of separation and estrangement from her family then followed.
Lindsey moved out of the house, while remaining the family's sole breadwinner. But, she was excluded from major family events including vacations and graduations.
All that said, as she tells PFLAG Cape Cod’s Rick Koonce in this interview, eventually, reconciliation with her family DID take place. Even with Lindsey’s ex-wife, with whom she now talks almost every day.
As for her three sons?
Surprisingly, a common love of the Boston Red Sox by both Lindsey and her grown sons helped heal family wounds and bring her and her boys back into each others’ lives.
Lindsey even remembers the exact date: October 18, 2004.
It was the day after Game 4 of the American League Championship series, when the Red Sox scored a major comeback against the New York Yankees.
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For more information, visit the PFLAG Cape Cod website: https://www.pflagcapecod.org/podcasts.html
© 2020 - 2025 PFLAG Cape Cod
In the prolonged, often contentious battle for marriage equality in the United States, it can truly be said that Linda and Gloria Bailey-Davies are pioneers.
Together now for over 50 years, the happily married Cape Cod couple, both former therapists, were among the seven couples who were litigants in the Massachusetts same-sex marriage case (Goodrich vs Department of Public Health) that led to the landmark legalization of same-sex marriage in the Bay State in 2004. Victory in that case helped create momentum for the eventual legalization of same-sex marriage throughout the U.S. in June of 2015.
In this moving and wide-ranging interview with PFLAG Cape Cod’s Rick Koonce, recorded just before the 2024 presidential election, Linda and Gloria, who never imagined they’d become social activists, describe how they got involved as key players in one of the most important social movements of the last 50 years.
On a personal level, they also describe how they found each other, the role ping-pong played in their early relationship, what their journey toward committing themselves to one another has been like, and what they see as the secrets to anyone forming and sustaining a healthy and loving long-term relationship.
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For more information, visit the PFLAG Cape Cod website: https://www.pflagcapecod.org/podcasts.html
© 2020 - 2024 PFLAG Cape Cod
Sarah Messeck and Avery Condon are a young couple very much in love. The two met at a Cape Cod Pride event in June 2022 and soon afterwards began dating. Eventually they plan to marry.
Sarah, an animal welfare advocate and horse riding enthusiast, identifies as a cisgender woman and uses the pronouns she and her. In the past, she had relationships with people of different genders.
Avery, who’s passionate about environmental and social justice issues, and was previously married to a woman, today identifies as transgender and non-binary and uses they and them pronouns.
In this fascinating interview with PFLAG Cape Cod’s Rick Koonce, Sarah and Avery talk in depth about their relationship – how they met, and the basis of their attraction to one another on many levels…
They offer illuminating insights into how the dynamics of physical and emotional attraction, gender identity, and gender presentation operate for them in the context of a non-traditional relationship…
But that relationship is traditional in at least one sense, as the two plan to tie the marriage knot – most likely in the fall of 2025 - with both their families and friends lovingly looking on.
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For more information, visit the PFLAG Cape Cod website: https://www.pflagcapecod.org/podcasts.html
© 2020 - 2024 PFLAG Cape Cod
Dr. Jane Fleishman is an accomplished sexuality educator, writer, program developer, and researcher. In 2016, at the age of 62, she received her doctorate in Human Sexuality from the Widener University Center for Human Sexuality Studies after a successful career as a consultant for a large public mental health system.
In this fascinating interview with PFLAG Cape Cod’s Rick Koonce, Fleishman delves deeply into the challenges LGBTQ+ seniors face as they navigate the passages of advancing age, and must deal with issues of health and wellness, self-esteem, companionship and intimacy, and continued sexual vitality and identity.
Fleishman has long believed that it’s important for members of the LGBTQ+ community to redefine their ideas of sexual vitality, beauty, and desirability, and to debunk old but enduring myths about sexuality and aging.
“Wrinkles and gray hair are as beautiful as a face without wrinkles,” she says, adding, “I’m a campaign to invite people to love their aging queer bodies and to upend the narrative that the only kind of beauty is associated with youth.” "That," she says, "is a binary way of looking at the world that doesn’t serve you, me or anybody else in the LGBTQ+ community.”
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For more information, visit the PFLAG Cape Cod website: https://www.pflagcapecod.org/podcasts.html
© 2020 - 2024 PFLAG Cape Cod
Brett Smiley is the married, gay mayor of Providence, Rhode Island, the first in the city's 400-year history. Elected to office in 2022 on his second try for the job, Smiley got his start in Rhode Island politics years before, serving as Chief Operating Officer for Providence and Director of Administration for the Ocean State, as well as Chief of Staff to former Rhode Island Governor Gina Raimondo.
In this revealing interview with PFLAG Cape Cod’s Rick Koonce, Brett talks about coming out as a gay man, and about being a political science and public policy nerd, even as a teenager, who developed an early passion for politics.
He talks, too, about the mark he hopes to make on Providence as mayor, and about the high school teacher and coach who helped him believe in himself.
Finally, he talks about being an uncle to his nephews, his love of running, his recovery from alcoholism in his early 20’s, and about meeting his husband, Jim, a prominent real estate agent in Rhode Island, and now the first First Gentleman of Providence.
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For more information, visit the PFLAG Cape Cod website: https://www.pflagcapecod.org/podcasts.html
© 2020 - 2024 PFLAG Cape Cod
Rick Miller is a psychotherapist who works extensively with gay men. Gay himself, he has pioneered the use of mind-body experiential therapy to assist gay men, and other members of the LGBTQ+ community, in dealing with early life trauma.
Through doing such work, Rick has helped many in the community discover inner strength, build personal resiliency, embrace self-love, and build strong and healthy relationships with others.
In this thought-provoking interview with PFLAG Cape Cod’s Rick Koonce, Rick talks about where his motivation to do this work comes from ... about the challenges gay men still face in today’s world ...
And, how therapy can help anyone to overcome pain and find happiness and self-empowerment in the process.
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For more information, visit the PFLAG Cape Cod website: https://www.pflagcapecod.org/podcasts.html
© 2020 - 2024 PFLAG Cape Cod
Mara Betti is a successful, 50-something architect, working for one of the leading architectural firms in Boston.
She’s also a transwoman and biological father of two sons, ages 18 and 22.
In this deeply personal interview with PFLAG Cape Cod’s Rick Koonce, Mara talks emotionally about coming out and accepting herself as trans; a journey that has taken her decades, and which has put tremendous strain on her heterosexual marriage to her wife – whom she met in college and still describes as “my best friend.”
She talks about the dark times she’s lived through and the steps she’s now taking, with the help of a therapist, to build a new identity, and to navigate a personal and social world she never imagined she’d be encountering at this stage of her life.
And finally, she talks lovingly about her relationships with her two boys, with whom she wants to remain close, though she understands that this will take time, patience, and love on everyone’s parts. Especially, as her boys focus on discovering their own identities as young adults.
As this intimate interview reveals, Mara, like other transgender people struggling to be themselves, displays tremendous resolve and resilience; qualities that indeed make her a compelling profile in LGBTQ+ courage.
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For more information, visit the PFLAG Cape Cod website: https://www.pflagcapecod.org/podcasts.html
© 2020 - 2023 PFLAG Cape Cod
Assigned female at birth, Jake Wanamaker is a 2023 graduate of Nauset High School on Cape Cod who today identifies as a Transman. For Jake, the awareness that he was born into a body of the wrong-gender for him came early, when he was only a few years old. But he didn’t have the knowledge or vocabulary with which to understand the feelings and emotions deep within him.
So, he went online, at an early age, to learn more about the Transgender world and later found help from both a sensitive guidance counselor and a gifted therapist – who helped him better understand and claim his true gender identity.
In this intimate and revealing interview with PFLAG Cape Cod’s Rick Koonce, which took place just weeks before his scheduled top surgery in July of 2023, Jake talks about the struggles he endured as a child and adolescent, trying to come to terms with who he is.
He reveals the challenges he faced coming out to his parents, and how, with the help of friends, supportive and caring teachers, and healthcare professionals he began to fully embrace his gender identity.
Jake also talks about the enthusiasm he feels today for the future… his excitement about attending college in the fall… and his desire to pursue a career as a scientific illustrator, combining his deep interests in both art and nature.
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For more information, visit the PFLAG Cape Cod website: https://www.pflagcapecod.org/podcasts.html
© 2020 - 2023 PFLAG Cape Cod
Ann Burke is a registered nurse and long-time advocate for Transgender people who live on Cape Cod, Nantucket, and Martha's Vineyard.
She serves as a board member of the Cape and Islands Transgender Resource Fund, and also acts as a counselor and facilitator of Transgender social support meetings, held twice monthly on he Cape, under the auspices of Fenway Health of Boston.
In this insightful interview with PFLAG Cape Cod's Rick Koonce, Ann, who is NOT Transgender herself, explains why she took on a role as a committed advocate for Transgender people.
With a Master's Degree in Counseling Psychology, Ann shines a critical spotlight on the many challenges Transgender people face -- be it in navigating the legal and healthcare systems of Massachusetts, or dealing with discrimination in housing and employment.
"When a Transgender person comes out, they often lose their entire support system," says Ann. "This often includes a person's family, partner, friends, neighbors and job."
Despite those challenges, Ann says,"I have found Transgender people to be incredibly resilient in navigating legal, financial and healthcre obstacles as well as a modern world that is often hostile, intolerant, and ignorant about who they REALLY are.
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For more information, visit the PFLAG Cape Cod website: https://www.pflagcapecod.org/podcasts.html
© 2020 - 2023 PFLAG Cape Cod
Rikki Bates is a rock and roll drummer who has struggled much of her life with gender dysphoria. For years, like many Transgender people, she lived with deep depression, and a lack of adequate employment. Then, she managed to get gender reassignment surgery which changed her life. In the process, she also brought about precedent-setting changes in how Transgender health care is provided to people in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
In this fascinating and wide-ranging interview with PFLAG Cape Cod’s Rick Koonce, Rikki describes the bullying she encountered as a kid, the internal psychological confusion that she experienced as a child and adolescent, her struggles with depression as she entered adulthood, and the turn-around in her life that began to occur following gender affirming surgery and personal therapy. She also reveals the fascinating components of gender-affirming surgery itself, the challenges of dating as a Transwoman, and offers advice to others who may think they are Transgender.
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For more information, visit the PFLAG Cape Cod website: https://www.pflagcapecod.org/podcasts.html
© 2020 - 2022 PFLAG Cape Cod
Transgender activist and first-time state legislator Zooey Zephyr made national headlines in April 2023 when she spoke out in support of Transgender rights in the Montana state legislature and was banished from legislative debate on the topic as a result.
Courageous leadership is often defined by four compelling traits: Confidence in oneself, commitment to one’s values and beliefs, the ability to persist, and a warrior spirit!
By those metrics, Transgender activist and first-time state legislator Zooey Zephyr is a rare leader with few peers in the social justice arena.
The first-ever Transgender member of the Montana state legislature, Zooey, a newcomer to politics in 2022, made national and international headlines in April 2023 when she stood in opposition to Montana state legislation that would prohibit gender-affirming healthcare for Transgender youth.
Her statements in support of Transgender people caused her to be banished from the statehouse floor, denied the opportunity to debate, and forced to operate, as a duly elected representative of her state, from a public bench in a hallway of the Montana statehouse.
In this moving interview with PFLAG Cape Cod’s Rick Koonce, Representative Zephyr talks about the furor her presence caused on the statehouse floor, the passion she brings to her advocacy of transgender people, and how her experience as a champion high school wrestler helped prepare her for the nasty rough and tumble world of partisan politics.
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For more information, visit the PFLAG Cape Cod website: https://www.pflagcapecod.org/podcasts.html
© 2020 - 2022 PFLAG Cape Cod
At the age of 23, Felice Cohen was, like many other college graduates, hesitant about entering the real world, and at the same time, uncertain about her sexuality.
Focused on landing her first job as a writer, falling in love was the last thing on Felice’s mind. But fall in love she did -- with her boss, Sarah, a woman 34 years older than she.
It was a relationship that lasted 9 years. And for Felice, it was the first taste of true love and deep intimacy. But the affair took place in secrecy and ultimately ended in heartbreak.
Now, Felice has written a book about her experience called Half In: A Coming of Age Memoir of Forbidden Love.
When it was released in late September 2022 Felice’s book raced to the top of Amazon’s best seller lists in six categories.
As Felice tells PFLAG Cape Cod’s Rick Koonce in this moving interview, writing this memoir proved a therapeutic experience that helped Felice to mend her hurting heart, and bring her deep love for Sarah out of the closet for the first time.
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For more information, visit the PFLAG Cape Cod website: https://www.pflagcapecod.org/podcasts.html
© 2022 PFLAG Cape Cod
Jere Mahaffey is a 35-year-old former Evangelical Christian. He’s also an out, married gay/bisexual man who has retained many of the tenets of his early Christian faith, while leaving other elements of evangelical doctrine behind him.
As an adolescent, Jere was drawn initially to girls, and even had girlfriends while he was in junior high school. But eventually he discovered he found boys attractive as well.
Today, he and his partner, Jesse, have been together for nine years and married for four.
In this fascinating interview with PFLAG Cape Cod’s Rick Koonce, Jere talks about growing up in an Evangelical Christian household, about his love of God, his journey toward embracing his bisexual identity, and about being both Queer and Christian.
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For more information, visit the PFLAG Cape Cod website: https://www.pflagcapecod.org/podcasts.html
© 2022 PFLAG Cape Cod
Connor Ryan is an 18-year-old transgender male and 2022 graduate of Bourne High School in Bourne, MA.
He’s also one of three recipients of the 2022 Anne Toran scholarship, an award given annually by PFLAG Cape Cod to high school seniors from the Cape in recognition of their courage and work on behalf of LGBTQ+ rights.
In this insightful interview with PFLAG Cape Cod’s Rick Koonce, Connor talks about the time during his high school career when he boldly confronted a school committee member at a school board meeting about her transphobic remarks on social media.
He also talks about his gender identity “journey of discovery” that has taken him, in his words, from “one end of the LGBTQ+ spectrum to the other.”
Assigned female at birth, Connor thought, at one point in his life, that he was a “demi-girl” – somewhat like a girl, but not entirely. He later determined he felt more like a “demi-boy” who identifies mostly with things masculine.
As he prepares in the fall of 2022 to go off to college at the University of New Hampshire, Connor describes himself as a Transman and says he’s focused these days on keeping a sense of humor about his gender identity and learning to be his own best friend in the process!
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For more information, visit the PFLAG Cape Cod website: https://www.pflagcapecod.org/podcasts.html
© 2022 PFLAG Cape Cod
Lilith Rose is a twenty-something individual who identifies as transgender and non-binary. At the time of this interview, they had also just been named executive director of PFLAG San Francisco.
Lilith grew up in what she describes as a toxic home environment. Born anatomically male, they first came out as gay before eventually discovering they are transgender.
Today, Lilith is committed to educating others about the LGBTQ+ world. A professional speaker and blogger, they speak frequently on topics of social justice and teenage mental illness before audiences of educators, students, faith leaders, and others.
In this wide-ranging interview with PFLAG Cape Cod’s Rick Koonce, Lilith talks about their own struggles with mental illness, with anxiety, ADHD, and depression. And all that came before confronting their challenges with sexual orientation and gender identity.
Lilith also talks about the challenges of coming out to friends and family as a transgender person, developing healthy self-esteem and self-acceptance, and living and dating as a transgender person in what is still largely a sexually binary world, even in San Francisco.
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For more information, visit the PFLAG Cape Cod website: https://www.pflagcapecod.org/podcasts.html
© 2022 PFLAG Cape Cod
In October 1998, Matthew Shepard, a 21-year-old student at the University of Wyoming, was brutally attacked and tied to a fence outside of Laramie, Wyoming. Five days later he died of deep wounds inflicted in one of the most vicious anti-gay attacks in American history.
In this wide-ranging interview with PFLAG Cape Cod’s Rick Koonce, Jeff Mack, a personal friend of Matt’s and today the Executive Vice President of the Matthew Shepard Foundation, talks movingly about Matt, his life, and the Foundation started by his parents, Judy and Dennis Shepard, just months after Matt’s gruesome death.
Jeff talks about the foundation’s ongoing work to combat hate and prejudice. He talks, too, about the Laramie Project, a now famous play by Moises Kaufman about the city and its residents that was produced after Matthew’s murder. And finally, Jeff talks about the day, in 2018, 20 years after his death, when Matthew was finally laid to rest in the safe sanctuary of Washington DC’s National Cathedral.
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For more information, visit the PFLAG Cape Cod website: https://www.pflagcapecod.org/podcasts.html
© 2022 PFLAG Cape Cod
Alex Hagler is a Latin and history teacher at a prestigious private school outside Boston. They’re also the recent co-founder of their school’s first Gay Straight Alliance.
GSA’s (also known as Genders & Sexualities Alliances) operate in many school systems across the country today. As clubs, they’re intended to serve as safe spaces for LGBTQ+ youth in middle schools and high schools. Increasingly, however, they’re also serving as catalysts for social, racial, and gender justice.
In this interview, conducted just after they founded their school’s GSA Chapter, Alex talks with PFLAG Cape Cod’s Rick Koonce about the valuable role GSAs can play in schools today. Not just as safe places for young people to be affirmed in their sexual orientation and gender identity, but also as resources for educating entire communities about human sexuality, sexual orientation, and gender diversity.
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For more information, visit the PFLAG Cape Cod website: https://www.pflagcapecod.org/podcasts.html
© 2022 PFLAG Cape Cod
Imagine being in a traditional heterosexual marriage for many years and then discovering that your husband or wife is gay or lesbian.
What would you think? How would you react? What would you do? And where would you go to get help and find understanding in dealing with your situation?
In the late 1980s, Kimberly Brooks Mazella found herself in this very situation, after being married to her husband Rob for less than three years.
Today, she is a McLean, VA-based counselor and therapist who specializes in working with individuals and couples who find themselves in “mixed sexual orientation” marriages.
In this fascinating interview with PFLAG Cape Cod’s Rick Koonce, Kimberly describes the complicated psychological dynamics at play within mixed sexual orientation marriages. She explains the challenges for both the gay partner and the straight spouse in navigating these situations. And, she talks about why it’s so important that the pain and perspectives of both parties in such relationships be respected, acknowledged, and seen as valid in their own respective ways.
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For more information, visit the PFLAG Cape Cod website: https://www.pflagcapecod.org/podcasts.html
© 2022 PFLAG Cape Cod
“Vernon Diannah Porter” is probably not a name you readily recognize. But that’s because he’s much better known by his stage name and alter ego, “Lady Di”, host of the popular Friday evening radio show, Leggs Up and Dancing, on WOMR-FM in Provincetown, Massachusetts.
Lady Di has been a popular fixture at WOMR for the last 22 years. Each week, she hosts her show from her home in Sandwich, MA, playing music -- mostly from the 50s, 60s, 70s, and 80s, -- all the while presiding over a one-person house party that she enthusiastically invites all her listeners to attend.
And her fans? They’re both numerous and diverse. Young and old, they include lots of members of Provincetown‘s LGBTQ+ community but also legions of loyal straight listeners, as well as veterans, active-duty military, and fans who live as far away as Spain and Guam.
During her show, Lady Di makes her audience feel very much at home, calling listeners “Honey” and “Darling.”
And more often than not, when on air, she can be heard singing along – often off key – with the likes of Connie Francis and Anne Murray, the latter of whom was a childhood friend back in their hometown of Spring Hill, Nova Scotia.
But Lady Di is much more than her on-air persona might imply.
Besides being one of P’town’s most recognizable public figures, she’s also a life coach, a prodigious fundraiser for local causes, and a minister who’s officiated at over 900 straight and same-sex weddings.
In this wide-ranging interview with PFLAG Cape Cod’s Rick Koonce, Lady Di talks not only about the public personality all of her listeners know, but also about more private matters …
How she was bullied and made fun of as a kid. Why she’s been described by others as “gender-gifted.” Why she finds such a strong sense of purpose in helping members of the LGBTQ+ community embrace their true identity. And finally about her battle with cancer.
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For more information, visit the PFLAG Cape Cod website: https://www.pflagcapecod.org/podcasts.html
© 2022 PFLAG Cape Cod
Some life partners first spot each other from across a crowded room. But not Helen Malone. With a piece of birthday cake in hand, she literally bumped into her future wife, Jane Martin from behind, at a birthday party for a mutual friend back in 2002.
From the moment they met, the lives of both women changed rapidly.
And while their lives today on Cape Cod -- with three dogs – seems like the picture of domestic bliss, their back stories include marriages by both women to former husbands... three kids of Helen’s – one by artificial insemination... Jane’s journey to becoming a parent, and even a child custody battle that, at one point in their relationship, tested Helen and Jane’s collective mettle.
In this interview with PFLAG Cape Cod’s Rick Koonce, Jane and Helen, together now for over 19 years, describe what they say are the secrets to creating and sustaining a loving, long-term lesbian marriage.
What matters most, they say, are good communication, patience, compromise, and the courage and confidence to be yourself.
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For more information, visit the PFLAG Cape Cod website: https://www.pflagcapecod.org/podcasts.html
© 2022 PFLAG Cape Cod
Dr. Joan Beilstein is a Lesbian Episcopal Priest, and Rector of the Church of the Ascension in Silver Spring MD. Today, though a senior, well-respected pastor in the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, DC, there was a time when Joan was rejected by her own priest for being gay. And even after being ordained a priest herself in 1994, Joan struggled to find employment, because no one wanted to hire an openly lesbian priest.
In this revealing interview with PFLAG Cape Cod’s Rick Koonce, Joan looks back on a storied career that has spanned nearly 30 years. And she talks movingly about how, for her, human sexuality, sexual orientation, gender identity, and spirituality are all beautifully and inextricably intertwined.
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For more information, visit the PFLAG Cape Cod website: https://www.pflagcapecod.org/podcasts.html
© 2022 PFLAG Cape Cod
Hollis L. is a 25-year-old individual who identifies as both non-binary and transmasculine. That means that, though assigned a designation of female at birth, they don’t fully identify with being a person of either gender. But, in Hollis' case, it does mean they tend to embrace more of a “masculine” identity than a feminine one.
In this fascinating interview with PFLAG Cape Cod’s Rick Koonce, the two explore the issue of gender identity in detail. As the interview reveals, agreeing on definitions of what constitutes “masculine” and “feminine” can be a struggle, and open to broad, subjective, and personal interpretation.
The two also discuss the challenges of being non-binary at work, how to talk to one’s family about one’s gender identity, and what it means to be in a relationship with another person who also identifies as non-binary and transmasculine.
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For more information, visit the PFLAG Cape Cod website: https://www.pflagcapecod.org/podcasts.html
© 2022 PFLAG Cape Cod
David Bermudez and Bob Isadore are a same-sex couple who have been together for 47 years.
David, a veteran of the Stonewall uprising of 1969, met Bob, in 1974, when the two were both living and working in New York City.
At the time, David was a Manhattan-based interior designer. Bob, was an assistant buyer for Saks Fifth Avenue who hailed from Queens.
As they tell PFLAG Cape Cod’s Rick Koonce in this insightful, wide-ranging interview, their relationship began with a bounced check, and a chance glance by David of Bob in a New York City phone booth.
Soon afterwards, the two realized they’d both met someone very special.
And so began a decades-long relationship between a Portuguese Catholic from Fall River, Massachusetts who loves to cook, and a burly, Bronx-born Puerto Rican who loves Judy Garland, and has a passion for rhythm and blues.
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For more information, visit the PFLAG Cape Cod website: https://www.pflagcapecod.org/podcasts.html
© 2021 PFLAG Cape Cod
David Bermudez's work on behalf of gay rights has continued since the days of the Stonewall uprising. Listen, as he tells PFLAG Cape Cod's Rick Koonce, about the letter he received in the mail one day, acknowledging his decades of work on behalf of all gay and lesbian Americans.
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For more information, visit the PFLAG Cape Cod website: https://www.pflagcapecod.org/podcasts.html
© 2021 PFLAG Cape Cod
In the history of the gay rights movement, there are few moments as pivotal as the Stonewall uprising – a night in June 1969, when, confronted by a police raid at the Stonewall Inn in New York City, members of the gay and lesbian communities fought back against police injustice.
The rebellion that ensued that night – and on subsequent nights at the Stonewall – eventually helped spark the gay rights movement. It set in motion a social justice juggernaut that would see the nullification of same-sex sodomy laws by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2003, and the legalization of same-sex marriage by the Court in 2015.
One of those present in the bar in the early morning hours of June 28th 1969 was David Bermudez. A window dresser for a leading NY department store at the time, Bermudez was grabbing a beer with friends at the Stonewall shortly after midnight. Then, the lights came on and the police burst in.
In this moving interview with PFLAG Cape Cod’s Rick Koonce, Bermudez, today a member of PFLAG Cape Cod along with his partner, Bob Isadore, describes the events of that fateful evening more than a half century ago.
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For more information, visit the PFLAG Cape Cod website: https://www.pflagcapecod.org/podcasts.html
© 2021 PFLAG Cape Cod
Ryan R. is a 24-year-old non-binary lesbian. In Ryan’s case, that means that though they are lesbian and like to date women, they don’t identify with being a girl, a woman, or, with the attributes of traditional femininity.
It was a discovery that Ryan made after dating boys in high school, faking physical attraction to males at the time, and then discovering their true gender identity in college and afterwards.
“I don’t feel like the words girl or woman describe me,” Ryan tells PFLAG’s Rick Koonce in this wide-ranging interview. Ryan goes on to say that being non-binary means different things to different people, but, in their case, has given them the freedom to pursue both personal relationships -- and their continuing discovery of self -- without feeling hemmed in by traditional gender roles or social expectations.
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For more information, visit the PFLAG Cape Cod website: https://www.pflagcapecod.org/podcasts.html
© 2021 PFLAG Cape Cod
Nell Fields is a born-again Christian, social justice advocate, and a happily married lesbian who’s been with her wife Sarah, a lawyer, for over 20 years. She’s also the minister of Waquoit Congregational church in East Falmouth, MA.
The youngest of five daughters whose father was a career Army officer, Nell initially pursued a career in business and journalism. But, at a pivotal point in her early professional life, when living in the closet was exacting a heavy personal toll, Nell says she felt God’s call to enter the ministry.
As she tells PFLAG Cape Cod’s Rick Koonce in this compelling interview, her coming out story wasn’t easy. In fact, she and a partner were once told by a minister at their church in California not to share with other members of the congregation that they were lesbian.
For Nell, it was a moment of shock, hurt, and deep disappointment. Yet, in retrospect, that moment of exclusion -- of being the other, the outsider -- proved a key turning point in Nell’s pastoral career. In fact, it has shaped her progressive pastoral vision and inclusive ministry to people of all kinds ever since.
“God gives all of us the gift to be who we are -- be it straight or LGBTQ+,” says Nell.
She goes on to say, “God loves diversity. There’s so much diversity and variety in nature, why wouldn’t there be diversity in humanity as well?”
For more information, visit the PFLAG Cape Cod website: https://www.pflagcapecod.org/podcasts.html
© 2021 PFLAG Cape Cod
Bisexuality... Even among members of the LGBTQ+ community it’s a concept and reality that often is not fully understood – or appreciated. As a result, bisexuals sometimes feel marginalized and rejected, even among people who identify as members of other sexual minorities. And that means being bisexual can be a lonely and misunderstood place to be.
So says Deer Sullivan, a bisexual educator and counselor who, over the years, has had long-term relationships with both women and men.
In this revealing interview with PFLAG Cape Cod’s Rick Koonce, Deer talks about the realities of being bisexual in a world that tends to see sexuality in binary – black and white – terms.
"I don’t like to put people’s sexuality in boxes," says Deer. She goes on to say, with a combination of both passion and good humor, that there are a lot more people in the MIDDLE of the sexuality continuum than we commonly imagine.
For more information, visit the PFLAG Cape Cod website: https://www.pflagcapecod.org/podcasts.html
© 2021 PFLAG Cape Cod
Dr. Maureen Osborne is a psychologist and gender therapist who has spent over two decades serving the needs of transgender clients.
In this fascinating interview with PFLAG Cape Cod’s Rick Koonce, Maureen talks, in depth, about her work with a variety of transgender men and women over the years. She describes the human anguish, confusion, and shame transgender people often experience, when they feel trapped in bodies that feel alien to them.
And, she offers both compassion and hope to anyone who either thinks they might be transgender, or who has embarked upon the difficult path of gender exploration and transition.
For more information, visit the PFLAG Cape Cod website: https://www.pflagcapecod.org/podcasts.html
© 2021 PFLAG Cape Cod
Ali Sands is an author and professional speaker who writes and speaks frequently on the topics of love, relationships, intimacy, and gender expression and identity. They’re topics she knows a lot about.
Married for 23 years to a straight man, and mother of two children, in 2002 Ali began a relationship with a new partner, who, at the time, inhabited a physically female body, but who soon told Ali that they were, in fact, transgender. Thereafter began an epic 10-year journey, as Ali accompanied her partner, who took the male name “Rhys,” as he embarked on the emotionally and physically painful transition to become a transgender man, a story Ali tells in riveting day-by-day detail in her book, I Know Who You Are but What am I?
As Ali tells PFLAG Cape Cod’s Rick Koonce, in this moving and wide-ranging interview, the journey Ali took with her partner was one that taught her a great deal, not only about love, intimacy, and gender expression, but also about perseverance, courage, her steadfast commitment to the love of her life, and the simultaneous search for her own identity.
For more information, visit the PFLAG Cape Cod website: https://www.pflagcapecod.org/podcasts.html
© 2021 PFLAG Cape Cod
Dirk Correia is a twenty-something transgender male who identifies as nonbinary -- meaning that they don't identify with being either entirely male or female, as society typically understands those terms.
As Dirk explains to PFLAG Cape Cod's Rick Koonce in this illuminating interview, their journey to accepting themselves as nonbinary has been a long, and at times, difficult process -- one that has required courage, grit, and a steadfast resolve and self-reliance to be something that society today doesn't yet fully understand, appreciate or embrace.
For more information, visit the PFLAG Cape Cod website: https://www.pflagcapecod.org/podcasts.html
© 2021 PFLAG Cape Cod
She calls herself “a fierce Mama bear” when it comes to safeguarding the rights and safety of her two boys. So says Lori Duron, author of Raising My Rainbow, a book that chronicles her family’s adventures raising a gender creative child named C.J., a boy who, from the age of just two and a half, displayed clues that he wasn’t like other kids. While Duron’s older son, Chase, grew up as a sports-playing boy’s boy, even as a small child, C.J. enjoyed playing with Barbie dolls, and twirling around in a pink sparkly tutu.
As Duron tells PFLAG’s Rick Koonce in this interview, raising C.J. and his brother Chase, hasn't been easy. Over the years, she’s had to become a fierce advocate of C.J. with teachers and psychiatrists. On playgrounds, she had to sometimes face down other, non-approving parents. And at home and on social media, she and her family have been targets of hate mail and angry tweets.
For more information, visit the PFLAG Cape Cod website: https://www.pflagcapecod.org/podcasts.html
© 2021 PFLAG Cape Cod
Rabbi Elias Lieberman has been Rabbi of the Falmouth Jewish Congregation on Cape Cod since 1990. In that time, he’s been a steadfast champion of LGBTQ rights, signing on early to support same-sex marriage when it first became law in Massachusetts, and later, becoming an outspoken advocate of transgender rights as well. His congregation also served as the host location for meetings of PFLAG Cape Cod for many years. For Rabbi Lieberman, social justice efforts are all in a day’s work, and in keeping with Reform Judaism’s focus on “repairing the world through a commitment to social justice.” A concept referred to as Tee Koon oh lahm.
As he tells PFLAG’s Rick Koonce in this interview, the roots of Rabbi Lieberman’s commitment to social justice run deep, and have been a constant in his life, since his boyhood years in Baltimore, when his family gathered for the observance of Shabbat, often welcoming others to their Friday night dinner table.
For more information, visit the PFLAG Cape Cod website: https://www.pflagcapecod.org/podcasts.html
© 2021 PFLAG Cape Cod
You might call Joanne Hush a social pioneer. It’s probably not a label she would ascribe to herself. But, Joanne is the mother of a gay son and a lesbian daughter, both of whom came out to her (and her husband Paul) decades ago –- in the 1980s and early 90s -- when having openly gay or lesbian children was far more controversial and uncommon than it is today.
Joanne learned her son was gay in the late 1980s, at the peak of the AIDS epidemic. Back then, there wasn’t a good public understanding of how the disease was transmitted. There was, however, widespread fear and stigma associated with AIDS; factors that Joanne, her husband, and their two straight children had to deal with.
There was also the challenge that Joanne and her husband faced in “coming out” themselves -- as the parents of gay children.
As Joanne tells PFLAG’s Rick Koonce in this moving interview, it was through her involvement with PFLAG Cape Cod, beginning in the mid 1990s, that Joanne and her husband Paul found a community of support and encouragement among other parents of gays, lesbians, and transgender youth.
For more information, visit the PFLAG Cape Cod website: https://www.pflagcapecod.org/podcasts.html
© 2021 PFLAG Cape Cod
36-year-old Alex Smith knew, from an early age, that he was different. But, as a child, he didn't have the vocabulary to describe his feelings, or the psychological maturity to understand the emotions that stirred in him. Born female, it would be years before he realized he was, in fact, transgender. In this revealing interview with interviewer and PFLAG - Cape Cod member Rick Koonce, Alex describes his decades-long journey in search of himself, a journey that was both colorful and insightful, affirming and sometimes mind-blowing, but which ultimately laid the foundation for Alex's happy life today.
For more information, visit the PFLAG Cape Cod website: https://www.pflagcapecod.org/podcasts.html
© 2021 PFLAG Cape Cod
Susan Smith is the mother of a 36-year-old transgender son who she raised with her husband, Roger, on a rural Pennsylvania farm. Back in the 1980s and 90s, sexuality wasn't a topic that even most progressive, open-minded parents eagerly discussed with their kids. But from an early age, Susan realized that something was going on with her daughter. The event became a turning point in Susan's dawning awareness that her daughter was transgender.
In this touching interview with PFLAG's Rick Koonce, Susan talks about how she came to discover that her child was transgender, how it impacted her parenting style, and how the journey toward accepting her child for the person he truly is, was a transformative, life-changing experience for her and her entire family.
For more information, visit the PFLAG Cape Cod website: https://www.pflagcapecod.org/podcasts.html
© 2020 PFLAG Cape Cod
Max Archer is the 38-year-old father of an adult daughter and three school age boys. A nurse by training, he works from home for a major health insurance company, and in his spare time, volunteers for several justice organizations on Cape Cod.
So, what makes Max different from many other single parents?
Max is a Trans man.
In this revealing interview with PFLAG's Rick Koonce, Max describes the many twists and turns in his transition from female to male; what he's learned about life, family, and the subtleties of human sexuality in the process, and why he identifies so closely with the Klingon character of "Worf" on the hit TV show, Star Trek: The Next Generation.
For more information, visit the PFLAG Cape Cod website:
https://www.pflagcapecod.org/podcasts.html
© 2020 PFLAG Cape Cod
Robyn Keating is a 26-year-old transgender woman. Born into a male body, she knew, from an early age, that she didn't identify with boys, but did identify with being a girl. While her mother (Dina) was always supportive of her being whoever she felt herself to be, Robyn was afraid of her father. Consequently, she remained in the closet for years, until, one autumn day, in 2017, at the age of 23, she told her mother she was transgender. From there, mother and daughter began a journey together.
Today, Robyn thinks of her mother as "my best friend." And while Robyn's journey has had rough patches, her mom continues to be a source of love and support. In this interview with PFLAG's Rick Koonce, Robyn explains the differences between sexual orientation and gender identity. She also describes her life today as a transwoman: her transition; the challenges of navigating a world that treats sexuality as binary; dating as Trans during COVID; and, her career as a successful attorney.
For more information, visit the PFLAG Cape Cod website: https://www.pflagcapecod.org/podcasts.html
© 2020 PFLAG Cape Cod
When you have a child who comes out as transgender, it can be an emotional rollercoaster to deal with. You can also feel like nobody in the world understands what you’re dealing with. So says Dina G. of Cape Cod.
In 2017, Dina’s 23-year-old son shared with her that he was, in fact, a woman. Since that time, both Dina and her daughter, Robyn have been on a journey of exploration, discovery, and acceptance together. At times, that journey has been a difficult one for Dina, as she tells PFLAG's Rick Koonce in this interview. A parent who learns their child is transgender struggles with issues of confusion, worry, isolation, and self-doubt. And it’s often important to find a support group whose members understand what you’re going through, she says. Still, the love she feels for her child has never waivered, since her daughter first came out to her on a crisp, autumn day while the two were mowing the lawn together at Dina’s home.
For more information, visit the PFLAG Cape Cod website: https://www.pflagcapecod.org/podcasts.html
© 2020 PFLAG Cape Cod
Imagine being in your mid-sixties, married (for the second time) and discovering you’re transgender!
The life of Paula Degree is a compelling story of courage, self-exploration, long sought answers, and fearless personal honesty. Married twice and the parent of three children, Paula says the day she realized, in her therapist’s office, that she was transgender was a life epiphany, and a moment that FINALLY set her free.
In this interview with PFLAG’s Rick Koonce, she describes a life full of pain, confusion, unresolved feelings, and unusual turns. But also insights that led her to discover who she truly is.
For more information, visit the PFLAG Cape Cod website: https://www.pflagcapecod.org/podcasts.html
© 2020 PFLAG Cape Cod
Courage is a quality we usually associate with age, wisdom, and years of lived experience. But what if you’re just 18 years old, full of vibrant enthusiasm and energy, and a young gay man who’s already found his voice when it comes to LGBTQ+ rights?
You’d be describing Joey Morisset, a young gay man from Cape Cod who is already a profile in LGBTQ+ courage, and the First Place Winner of The 2020 Anne Toran Scholarship. This scholarship is awarded annually by PFLAG -- Cape Cod to a graduating high school senior from the Cape, for demonstrating support and advocacy of the LGBTQ+ community.
In this interview, conducted with PFLAG’s Rick Koonce, learn more about how Joey became an advocate for LGBTQ+ rights, and discovered who HE is, in the process.
For more information, visit the PFLAG Cape Cod website: https://www.pflagcapecod.org/
© 2020 PFLAG Cape Cod