Being Lgbtq

Rachel Krantz joins Sam to talk about her new deeply personal and honest memoir ‘Open: An Uncensored Memoir of Love, Liberation and Non-Monogamy’. A former senior features editor at Bustle, Rachel’s book explores polyamory and has been praised as a ‘smart original, ambitious, and deeply absorbing memoir’ which focuses on when Rachel met and fell for Adam looking for a committed partnership, but one that did not include exclusivity.

Award winning author and speaker Jenn T Grace joins us to talk about her life experience including founding 'Publish Your Purpose' which is a hybrid publishing company that gives first-time authors the secrets to getting their books out there. Jenn chats to Sam about the importance of LGBTQ stories, being successful despite childhood trauma and facing homophobia in a corporate work environment. 

Filmmaker Kieron Moore talks about his latest project ‘Secrets Of A Wallaby Boy’ which is due to be filmed in Manchester in Spring 2022. The film from ‘Weird Rainbow’ follows Tim who becomes a courier for the delivery app Wallaby. Tim is a gay man, and the film has been described as ‘Black Mirror-esque’ with a satirical twist. Kieron joins us to talk about why people should get behind the film, the need for better transgender representation in film and more. Kieron is currently crowdfunding on ‘Green Lit’ to get the project off the ground. http://greenlit.com/project/secrets-wallaby-boy

Brian McComak is founder and CEO of Hummingbird Humanity which focuses on helping organisations create ‘human-centred workplace cultures’ through embracing diversity, equity and inclusion. Brian is also an established speaker and author with a master’s degree in human resources and change management from the University of South Florida. Brian joins us to discuss the importance of diversity, living with disability, how we all make mistakes and how to engage everyone in the equality discussion.

Matt Bishop is an established journalist with 20 years in motorsport, he has worked and edited a number of racing publications including GP Racing and Sporting Life as an openly gay man. In recent years Matt has worked for McLaren where he worked with world champion Lewis Hamilton for a number of years and is now chief communications officer for the Aston Martin Formula One team. Matt joins Sam to discuss LGBTQ initiatives within F1, the importance of allyship from drivers including Sebastian Vettel, being a founding ambassador for Racing Pride, as well as his novel, released in 2020 which focusses on the HIV/AIDS crisis in the 80’s and early 90’s.

‘OutLoud’ are the boyband we all needed growing up and they join Sam to discuss their new aptly named EP ‘*NTWINK’. The band, based in Manhattan, New York is made up of Danny, Cameron, Daniel and Sean and describe their sound as ‘gay pop disco’ and ‘One Direction on poppers’. OutLoud talk about why they formed, being an all-queer boyband, allyship and much more.

Tacoma, Washington based author Marcus James joins us to talk about his writing and being a survivor of so called ‘conversion therapy’. Marcus explains knowing he was gay from a young age and being proud but then facing being put through ‘conversion therapy’ based on his family’s religious background mainly by his grandfather. Marcus is concerned that religious freedom legislation may prevent a total ban of the abusive practice being possible.Find out more about Marcus’ work: http://www.marcusjamesbooks.com

Author Celia Laskey talks about her debut novel ‘Under The Rainbow’ set in the fictional town of Big Burr, Kansas which is named the most homophobic town in the U.S. The novel focusses on a national non-profit organisation which sends in a ‘queer task force’ to live in the town for 2 years. Celia has an MFA from the University of New Mexico and was a finalist in the Glimmer Train’s Short Story Award for New Writers. Find out more about Celia: http://www.celialaskey.com

Welcome to 2022 and another year of Being LGBTQ. Sam is joined by gay author David Eugene Perry whose latest book ‘Upon This Rock’ has been described as a ‘twisty thriller’ and even the ‘gay Da Vinci Code’. Set in Orvieto, Italy David believes the book could be the first gay, holiday, mystery, thriller! So far ‘Upon This Rock’ has won at the San Francisco Book Festival and won the silver medal at the Ben Franklin Awards from the Book Publishers Association. David discusses the book and his previous work as one of the founders of the Rainbow Walk of Fame in San Francisco.Find out more about David and the book: https://www.davidperry.com/

Originally born in Brooklyn and raised in New Milford, Connecticut queer female artist Abby Nissenbaum joins us to discuss her new track ‘Glass Half Full’ and the barriers she has faced being a queer female artist due to queerphobia and sexism. Abby talks about her career so far, the role mental health plays in her music, sexism she has experienced and the need for more LGBTQ representation in mainstream music.Find out more about Abby: http://direct.me/abbynissenbaum 

Bisexual podcaster Hannah Rae Leach chats to us about her many projects and vast CV when it comes to podcasting. Based in Cleveland, Ohio Hannah’s work includes the audible series ‘Wholehearted’ as well as ‘Sleepover Cinema’ a podcast she presents with her sister analysing movies from their childhood in the late 90’s and early 00’s. In this interview Hannah discusses her podcasting career, being part of the band ‘The Prom Queens’ and bisexuality.More information about Hannah: http://www.hannahraeleach.com

Andrea Klassen-Koop is a queer, pansexual podcaster based in British Columbia, Canada. Their latest project ‘Imaginings: Moments of Magic’ invites the listener to leave their own world and imagine being somewhere completely different ‘taking you to places you didn’t know existed but have always wanted to go’. In this interview Andrea talks about being queer, the aim of the podcast series, LGBTQ interest in science fiction and fantasy and much more.Find out more about ‘Imaginings’: http://imaginings.ca 

It’s been a long journey with hundreds of guests but in this episode Being LGBTQ reaches the 200 milestone and it’s time to reminisce and have a look back at an incredible 35 months of podcasts. With highlights from our most poignant episodes and thoughts from Being LGBTQ creator Sam Wise remember the past and set the stage for the future. Featuring Rosie O’Donnell, Stephanie Davies, Brandon Wolf, Skylar Cote, Andy Brennan, Fred Rosser, Jen Winston, Hazell Dean, Tommy Atkins, Ryan Cassata, Precious Brady-Davis, Jeffrey Bowyer-Chapman, Lucy Clark, Tea Uglow, CB Lee, Dan Glass, and many, many more! 

Blake Allen is an award-winning composer, musician, orchestrator, and educator who had a Mormon upbringing in El Paso, Texas. In this interview Blake talks about his life experiences including coming out as gay to his religious family at the Thanksgiving table, the trauma of losing a friend to suicide and facing sexual assault which are all themes explored in his new album ‘The Shards of an Honour Code Junkie’ which has been 9 years in the making. Among his many accolades Blake’s debut album ‘Sonatas’ went straight to number 1 on iTunes and he’s also music director for Tina Burner from Ru Paul’s Drag Race.Find out more about Blake: http://www.blakeallen.org 

In his second appearance on Being LGBTQ writer David Lord discusses the final book in his fantasy series ‘The Figment Wars’. David also talks about a number of key issues impacting the LGBTQ community in 2021 including rising anti-trans rhetoric in the UK. from groups who want to separate the LGB from the T. David explains why he is a trans ally and the importance of solidarity in the community. Also – David shares his thoughts on the upcoming U.K. government consultation on Conversion ‘Therapy’ abuse which could see a law banning the practice being introduced as early as Spring next year.Find out more about David’s work: http://figmentwars.blog

Ontario, Canada based event host, artist, and entertainer Tyle Boyle who has worked as an entertainer for 10+ years talks about his life experiences and work. Tyler speaks on a range of topics including changing how LGBTQ people are perceived by changing our own mind set and challenging the narrative that LGBTQ people are in some way “not normal”. Tyler has been a public elementary school teacher since 2007 and has a YouTube channel dedicated to guided meditations and relaxations aimed at youth in schools which highlights the importance of talking about mental health at a young age in order to better prepare young people for later life.Find out more about Tyler: http://www.tylercboyle.com

Kieran joins Sam to talk about his master’s degree dissertation exploring bisexuality and how it is often overlooked, misrepresented, and even dismissed as invalid in western popular culture. Kieran identifies as bisexual after what he describes as a ‘long journey’ and wants his work to change perceptions of bisexuality and end the ignorance which has been so damaging to bisexual people.

William is the veteran author of the new novel ‘Here We Go Loop de Loop’ completing his trilogy of books based in his home state. He is an award-winning author and writer from Alice in South Texas and won the Southwest Regional Playwrights Competition for ‘Governor’s Mansion’. William joins us to talk about his latest book, the changing political landscape in Texas and the changes he’s seen in terms of LGBTQ rights over the years.Find out more about William and his work: http://www.williamjacksibley.com 

In the 2nd in our series on ‘COVID Sex Lives’ Professor of Digital Society Ben Light and research assistant Lisa Garwood-Cross from Salford University join us to talk about their second research survey which looks into ‘men who have sex with men’ (MSM) and what that means in the context of the COVID19 pandemic. This episode explores people’s feelings when it comes to getting vaccinated, whether someone being unvaccinated would put them off and the need for more effective health messaging. The study is a joint project between Salford University, Birmingham City University, Newcastle University and Kings College London. Find out more about the study: http://www.tinyurl.com/covidsexlives

Sindu is a genderqueer Tamil-American author, born in Sri Lanka who moved to the United States aged 7. Sindu joins us to talk about her latest book ‘Blue-Skinned Gods’ which follows the story of a young boy born with blue skin who people believe to be the tenth human incarnation of the Hindu god Vishnu. Sindu’s family tried to force her into an arranged marriage which became a theme of her debut novel ‘Marriage of a Thousand Lies’ which followed the story of two gay South-Asian Americans who married in order to stay in the closet. The book was selected by the American Library Association as a Stonewall Honour Book. Find out more about Sindu: http://www.sjsindu.com