About this episode

Lauren Leggieri, Jamie Reed and Cori Cohn interview Ben Kawaller.

Ben Kawaller is a journalist, playwright, and gay man whose writing and video reporting have appeared in the New York Post, Racket News, The Times UK, and The Free Press, where he hosted the sociopolitical interview series Ben Meets America. He’s a Harvard sociology graduate based in New York and a former Blocked and Reported contributor.

His new three-part investigative podcast series — Strange Bedfellows: When LGB Met T, produced under Longview Investigations’ Reflector feed — is one of the most thorough attempts yet to document how a gay civil rights movement became something else. Episode 1 traces the arc from social outcasts to the most successful civil rights story of the 20th century. Episode 2 examines the arrival of the Q — and what it changed. Episode 3 follows the thread into the National Sex Education Standards, where the philosophical underpinnings of gender ideology are most visible and most consequential.

The series includes an extraordinary moment: Herndon Graddick, former president of GLAAD, says on the record that he believes pediatric medicalization of minors was a mistake. Former GLAAD president. On the record.

We had a lot to discuss.

We also had a specific accountability question to raise — one that involves Lauren directly. Her testimony, her voice, and her words appear in the series. Her name and her organization do not. We asked Ben about that.

Strange Bedfellows is publicly available at no cost through the Longview/Reflector feed.

Links

Strange Bedfellows: When LGB Met T — Longview/Reflector

Part I: When LGB Met T —

Part II: The Q —

Part III: Backlash —

Lauren Leggieri’s testimony — Missouri House Emerging Issues Committee, January 20, 2026 —

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