Profiles in LGBTQ+ Courage: Real Stories of Identity & Acceptance

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.

Please click the like button above and leave a review if your favorite podcast app has that ability. Thank you!

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.

Please click the like button above and leave a review if your favorite podcast app has that ability. Thank you!

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.

Please click the like button above and leave a review if your favorite podcast app has that ability. Thank you!

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.

I'd really appreciate it if you would click the like button above and leave a review if your favorite podcast app has that ability. Thank you!

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.

I'd really appreciate it if you would click the like button above and leave a review if your favorite podcast app has that ability. Thank you!

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