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Your Faith Doesn’t Make Your Sexuality Wrong With Dawn Dimicco
“I am I’m a catholic lesbian and am out. I guess you’d say now I’m out and proud.”
In this episode, Nick speaks with Dawn Dimicco, the founder of Epic Redemption Coaching. She’s also a devout catholic who came out as gay and discusses how her religious beliefs comingle with her sexual orientation.
What to listen for:
“I’m an open book I share so much of my life so people that are new to me what they probably don’t know or see as much of anymore is a lot of my faith I am I’m a catholic lesbian and am out. I guess you’d say now I’m out and proud”
“I got baptized in a hot tub, you know? Did all the things, and I know that for me a lot of it was like being gay is wrong, you’re not supposed to be gay”
“There were a lot of tears I knew when I stopped trying to pry away my feelings”
About Dawn DiMicco
Dawn DiMicco is the founder of Epic Redemption Coaching. She has utilized her experiences as a mental performance coach, dual-sport collegiate athlete, military spouse, and business owner to help her clients gain the confidence, courage, and mental toughness they need in order to live the life they were meant to.
Resources:
Check out Episode #34 about “Being True To Who You Are Wherever You Are”
Interested in starting your own podcast or need help with one you already have? Send Nick an email or schedule a time to discuss your podcast today!
Thank you for listening!
Please subscribe on iTunes and give us a 5-Star review! https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-mindset-and-self-mastery-show/id1604262089
Watch Clips and highlights: www.youtube.com/channel/UCk1tCM7KTe3hrq_-UAa6GHA
Guest Inquiries right here: [email protected]
Your Friends at “The Mindset & Self-Mastery Show”
Click Here To View The Episode Transcript
Hello and welcome to the Mindset and self-mastery show. I’m your host, Nick McGowan, and today on the show we have Dawn
Dawn Dimicco (00:05.120)
I’m good how are you
Nick McGowan(00:30.059)
so there’s a lot that we’re going to get into but hey let’s just start this off don want you tell us what you do for living and what’s one thing that most people don’t know about you that’s maybe a little outer bizarre
Dawn Dimicco (00:39.960)
okay so i do coaching i currently have a fitness and nutrition coaching business and am transitioning to work with personal trainers and nutrition coaches and teaching them how to take their business online how to start it how to grow it as far as i was telling you like I’m an open book i share so much of my life people that are new to me what they probably don’t know or see as much of any more is a lot of my faith i am I’m a catholic lesbian and am out i guess you’d say now I’m out and proud i don’t know i don’t know
that that goes I’m new to the game i guess but i mean that’s definitely that’s that’s different for a lot of people a lot of people that follow my social media for years very very faith based and i’ve gotten away from a lot of the faith based social media more business purposes my faith is still hugely important but yeah that that throws people sometimes
Nick McGowan(01:12.499)
yah
Nick McGowan(01:17.139)
yeah
Nick McGowan(01:31.019)
sure that can throw people and i think it should throw people in a good way because faith isn’t tied to sexuality and i think your faith has to be important if your faith is important to you there’s certain people that they just don’t have faith at all and i don’t really know how they go through life but that’s a whole different story so with you being a les being catholic and now you’re saying you’ve actually stepped back a little bit from talking about your faith in your social media why is that
Dawn Dimicco (01:43.380)
yeah
Dawn Dimicco (01:57.100)
h a lot of it was a lot of my target market in my business i was working with a lot of faith based women and a lot of it was starting to feel a little bit less authentic and so i kind of pulled back from know really there was everything i posted had that faith connotation tied into it and so a lot of that was just how i moved through social media my faith didn’t change it was still who i was it wasn’t it just wasn’t everything that i put out there initially it was everything that was out there
Nick McGowan(02:04.459)
okay
Nick McGowan(02:09.759)
m
Dawn Dimicco (02:27.180)
um so now my faith comes through in how i speak how i do things you know when I’m in alignment when i am living fully and authentically my my faith will come out it’s shaped how i think and who i am so while it’s not it’s not necesarily in your face but it’s it’s important
Nick McGowan(02:27.239)
yeah
Nick McGowan(02:32.699)
yeah
Nick McGowan(02:41.699)
do you think
Nick McGowan(02:44.159)
yeah yeah that’s a good good point do you think it was one of those things where that kind of held you back a little bit from coming out
Dawn Dimicco (02:53.360)
absolutely but not necessarily the catholic faith i grew up with a really strong faith i attended church wasn’t anything that my family necessarily did as a family wasn’t anything they pushed on me it was really something that i had sought out and when i went to college i had been away from church for a long time after i had married i started going back and really digging into faith at that point i got connected to a lot of women’s groups did a lot of bible study when you know part of the non denominant non denominational church
Nick McGowan(02:55.259)
m
Dawn Dimicco (03:23.320)
i got baptized in a hot tub you know did all the things and i know that for me a lot of it was yeah like being gay is wrong you’re not supposed to be gay it’s okay to have those feelings but you can’t act on them i was one of those people that that justified it you know i was a duel sport college athlete i mean i couldn’t tell you how many women i played sports with that are now out or were coming out at the time and i just remember year
Nick McGowan(03:25.559)
yeah
Nick McGowan(03:49.339)
yeah
Dawn Dimicco (03:53.320)
ago i was at a field hockey camp with a couple of friends and we were sitting in the door room and we had this whole conversation and i remember saying that you know we were talking you know whether you’re born gay or not and i just remember saying you know i don’t know if you’re born that way or not but we can always choose how we act well yeah that that crab comes back to biting in the ass right i was like oh man and i remember sitting there very distinctly with these two women and we were talking through this and you know the one
Dawn Dimicco (04:23.300)
and it’s like no it’s just wrong and that woman is out she’s married to a woman she’s got two kids you know the other woman who was very supported very understanding it’s like you two are wrong is you know completely straight has a family beautiful family beautiful kids um and i think a lot of it was just we didn’t know what to do with it at the time you know because we lived in in that time and place where we there wasn’t an option i mean i guess there’s there’s an option but it didn’t feel like it
Nick McGowan(04:54.039)
sure what a spot for somebody to go no no no that’s totally wrong but at the same time i feel people do this a lot where they’re like no you shouldn’t do this thing or they like it complain about something and that’s really the thing that they’re arguing about in themselves you know
Dawn Dimicco (05:01.780)
yeah
Dawn Dimicco (05:07.440)
right yeah and that’s where i mean clearly that’s where she was at and then for me i was trying to justify it because i didn’t know it at the time i mean I’m sure there’s some inklings but it wasn’t an option it wasn’t something that i was i was going to pursue it didn’t matter so to me i justified it like hey that’s cool you know you can have these feelings you can have these urges just because you have them doesn’t mean you follow them just because they’re the doesn’t make them right and that’s what i really really believed at the time and yeah that conversation
Nick McGowan(05:19.119)
sure
Dawn Dimicco (05:37.320)
hers still hurts to this day and all the thinking about how many people i shared that view with very openly very out loud you know I’m a middle class white conservative catholic girl i shoot i mean talk about all my friends now they’re like wait you’re you’re conservative yeah they’re ike but you’re gay I’m like again they don’t they don’t come together and so for me it was just
Nick McGowan(05:40.099)
what hurts about it
Dawn Dimicco (06:08.320)
i wonder who who have i said those words to that i heard you know you look a look at paul look scripturally you know how many people did he persecute before he saw the light like literally you know but and so for me it was like how many people did i hurt with my words with my thoughts who didn’t i embrace the way i should have you know i was always the you know hate the sin and love the sinner but like who says who said when you say crap like that like you’re not really
Nick McGowan(06:12.779)
yeah
Nick McGowan(06:18.459)
yeah yeah
Nick McGowan(06:28.559)
yeah
Dawn Dimicco (06:37.180)
living in love with that person right it’s like that’s not how it goes you know you’re you’re judging and i look now at all the all the people that i’ve gone to church with over the years and I’m like man i know their deep dark stuff and you know me loving a woman doesn’t hold a candle with some of the things that i know about so I’m like oh yeah
Nick McGowan(06:37.819)
slap yeah
Nick McGowan(06:43.039)
yeah
Nick McGowan(06:56.259)
m
Nick McGowan(06:58.899)
yeah it makes me think of the they’re just hypocrites no matter what and it makes me sad to think about how hypocritical people are and how you and i have both been hypocrites at times because we’re just unsure of what the fuck is going on in ourselves let alone stuff outside of us but we see those things that come inside of us and go oh wait a minute this isn’t right what the fuck do i do with it i don’t know but I’m told it’s not right but what do you do with it fun just yell at them or say something weird
Dawn Dimicco (07:03.600)
right
Dawn Dimicco (07:10.560)
hm
Dawn Dimicco (07:28.240)
yeah
Nick McGowan(07:28.259)
that doesn’t do you any good but that’s a good point bringing up paul even because i’ve thought about that before he killed tons and tons and tons of christians and then spun imagine that whole community being like you’re what he’s going to kill us all you’re what and that shift i could only imagine what that would have had to look like for him to give grace to himself to be able to go all right god you’re calling me to do this and i believe but how am i supposed to
Dawn Dimicco (07:37.460)
yeah
Dawn Dimicco (07:41.440)
yeah
Dawn Dimicco (07:46.320)
yeah
Dawn Dimicco (07:52.860)
right
Nick McGowan(07:58.719)
go through life after i’ve done all of this that must have been so difficult on him and now literally you and i are having this conversation where you’ve gone through some of that so have you have you forgiven yourself and have you shown grace to yourself for that
Dawn Dimicco (08:06.720)
right
Dawn Dimicco (08:13.780)
yes to myself i still wonder and you know until we started talking which is cool where these go no i didn’t really think about all the people that i could have been herding along the way you know i worked in youth ministry for a short time when i lived in virginia you know what was my message to young you know teen agers that might have been struggling with this you know i was i was giving the party line right like i was reading the talking points i was that that person out thereon
Nick McGowan(08:20.839)
yeah
Nick McGowan(08:23.839)
yeah
Nick McGowan(08:35.259)
yeah
Nick McGowan(08:40.799)
yeah
Dawn Dimicco (08:43.520)
i did my job really well and that’s kind of scary
Nick McGowan(08:45.859)
m well lot of people um they’re good at doing a job and not good at understanding why they’re doing the job and why the thing matters to them and when you think about just having a deep purpose inside of you to be able to do that stuff a lot of people don’t get to that point so when you think about how you got to that point almost like the breaking point of being like all right fucking something s got to give what did that moment look like for you to go all right i need to shift this i need to chang
Dawn Dimicco (09:11.480)
it’s got to give
Nick McGowan(09:15.659)
it and start to step away from the old and into the new u
Dawn Dimicco (09:20.560)
i mean there was a lot of tears i knew when i stopped trying to pry away my feelings i mean we’re talking prayed away right you know for it had been a couple of years that i knew that i knew for sure and you know when when i didn’t want to pray it away anymore when i didn’t want to pray away the feelings i was having for somebody then i knew i knew that i couldn’t any more when i was i was still attending church regularly
Nick McGowan(09:28.559)
m
Nick McGowan(09:48.319)
yeah
Dawn Dimicco (09:50.780)
that that was the point in time i actually stopped taking communion at church and part of the reason is you know in the catholic church you’re you know supposed to go through confession before you take communion righ you’re sposed to clean your be absolved of your sins clean your soul especially of that and but i also believe that you’re not fully absolved if your heart is not there and you don’t want to be and because i knew i didn’t want to be absolved I’m like I’m not going to go through the motion
Nick McGowan(09:55.659)
m
Nick McGowan(10:07.819)
yeah
Nick McGowan(10:16.899)
yeah
Dawn Dimicco (10:20.540)
because I’m not I’m not clean i didn’t feel clean at that point i was struggling with that a lot and you know fortunately i came to the catholic church late in life and i fell in love I’m still in love with so much of what the church teaches not how the people screw it up people screw things up so badly I’m still in love with so much of the history and the tradition and for me it was also though being reminded a lot of people think that catholics don’t have a relationship with christ
Nick McGowan(10:38.759)
m
Dawn Dimicco (10:50.320)
i think the catholics don’t have this relationship it’s all this like outside rules and stuff but we do and my faith grew so much through my my conversion process into the catholic church and for me it was going back to and remembering like yes this is what I’m taught but we’re also supposed to be interpreting what we read we’re supposed to be when you’re in that relationship when you are actually opening yourself and listening to what god has for you and
Nick McGowan(10:50.939)
hm
Nick McGowan(11:12.139)
yeah
Dawn Dimicco (11:20.400)
he’s telling you that’s where i found peace when i finally accepted where i was and i felt peace that’s when i knew that it was okay and that’s when i knew like god didn’t make a mistake like i fought it now do i think that everybody that has this in claims don’t even want to talk about what’s going on in the world today um with this indoctrination of children and all of that but for me like i know this is who i am I’m very igh
Nick McGowan(11:20.799)
hm
Nick McGowan(11:36.099)
yeah
Dawn Dimicco (11:50.380)
believe very strongly in that and again because i had that relationship with christ and i did the work and i know that there’s there’s no more fighting it and when i stopped fighting it i felt peace about it and it’s the only way i can explain it
Nick McGowan(11:56.379)
yeah
Nick McGowan(12:02.439)
what a beautiful thing yeah well that’s pure surrender at that point and i know when people hear the word surrender that right off the bat they can think well i don’t want to just give up i don’t want to just give in but that is absolutely not the case so what is your take on that
Dawn Dimicco (12:16.940)
right
Dawn Dimicco (12:19.280)
i mean it was really i mean i had to follow i mean
Dawn Dimicco (12:24.580)
i know I’m gonna have a lot of people listen to his the’regon be like this is blasphemy but like this is god’s will it’s god’s will for my life right now right i have to follow what his will is until i stepped into that i wasn’t living fully and if I’m not living fully how can i use the gifts and the talents that he’s given me they’re not being used fully if I’m not living fully and i had to give that piece up in order to you know receive all of his graces and then be able to share all of his gifts and so
Nick McGowan(12:28.959)
preach
Nick McGowan(12:31.799)
yeah
Nick McGowan(12:42.659)
yeah
Dawn Dimicco (12:54.460)
yeah yeah and it definitely is definitely not easy but you know once i mean I’m coming out in a time when it’s it’s more accepted but i don’t think it’s any less scary
Nick McGowan(12:54.619)
not an easy thing to do
Nick McGowan(12:59.699)
m m
Nick McGowan(13:07.199)
sure
Nick McGowan(13:10.359)
oh i could only imagine I’m not gay and i haven’t come out in that sort of way so i could only imagine what that’s like for you but i can also understand yeah there’s a little bit more of an acceptance in some ways but not fully you know but no matter what we as people have things that we just continue to push down deeper and deeper and deeper and yeah i haven’t come out of the closet to say that I’m gay that’s not my thing but they have been massive
Dawn Dimicco (13:25.860)
hm
Nick McGowan(13:40.139)
ways that i’ve abandoned myself and i’ve shoved all that stuff to the bottom and it takes a lot of work to be able to tread it back up and be able to figure out what the fuck do i do with the ship and why the fuck did i do it that way before and again grace with yourself to be able to actually go through it but you touched on reading and going through the bible you have that relationship with god there are times and I’m sure you’ve had this too you read through something like all right whatever you just buy pass it you might read it six months or a year or years later and you go oh my god and the things like
Dawn Dimicco (13:51.400)
right
Dawn Dimicco (13:56.740)
yeah
Dawn Dimicco (13:59.740)
hm
Dawn Dimicco (14:08.740)
hm
Nick McGowan(14:10.259)
d popping out directly in your face and god’s like get the king point and you’re like all right dude i got it
Dawn Dimicco (14:11.280)
yeah it’s right in your face
Dawn Dimicco (14:16.060)
yeah everything everything just kept pointing in the same direction is like okay i think it’s time and it was it was crazy i had you know i had so much support i mean people that have known me they’ve known my whole life i was the one in denial for all the years i mean when it was finally shared on social media you know probably there were probably about three hundred comments like eight hundred loves you know all of that and probably two hundred of the three hundred comments were like
Nick McGowan(14:21.439)
yeah that
Nick McGowan(14:31.359)
m
Nick McGowan(14:42.759)
m
Dawn Dimicco (14:45.840)
we’ve been waiting thirty years for this or like you know i knew it I’m so happy right like all of this but i did you know because I’m so i was so faith based and most of my relationships came through friendships through church not everybody was super supportive of it but and i remember having conversations with friends that were like well you know screw them how dare they say anything to you and but the thing is the women that did you know i had two in particular that
Dawn Dimicco (15:15.980)
reached out to me and you know they’re like look like I’m not down with this you know and we talked about it and the fact that they had the courage to reach out and still share that and and for me i appreciated that because to me that’s that’s love like for them to reach out to me that’s them showing love and i have all these friends at just don’t understand and I’m like look this is what they believe they believe with all their heart that this is a sin
Nick McGowan(15:23.099)
hm
Nick McGowan(15:32.679)
sure
Nick McGowan(15:35.339)
yeah
Dawn Dimicco (15:45.820)
this is going to separate me from god and this is going to keep me from heaven and for them like to them i just cut myself off from god whether whether that’s the case or not that’s what they believe and so they’re trying to save me and they’re not doing they didn’t do it in a terrible way they’re like look i can’t support this I’m not going to say anything on your page i love ha you’re geting love and support i love you I’m always there for you but you know if you ever want to talk about this have a discussion about it you know I’m here and it was
Nick McGowan(15:56.299)
hm
Dawn Dimicco (16:15.900)
two separate calls that i had gotten that were very similar and they re the two that i expected it from and but it was it was powerful and i tried to explain it to people like if if you see that somebody’s sick right somebody’s diet and you have the answer you have the antidote like you have what’s going to cure them and you don’t share it with them you’re an ass hole right like how can you say you love somebody you’re not going to but this is what they believe whether you know i believe it’s a little misguided
Nick McGowan(16:21.979)
okay
Nick McGowan(16:38.779)
yeah straight up
Dawn Dimicco (16:46.500)
right now that’s just where I’m at but these are two women who whose husbands are both pastors who they’ve gone through you know theological studies themselves like they know their stuff as well and it’s what they believe and I’m not going to take that away from them Iappreciate that i respect them so much more for sharing that with me than just giving me this false oh yeah congratulations I’m so happy for you
Nick McGowan(17:10.759)
yeah what a beautiful real life moment to be able to have those conversations it’s also hyper interesting to understand that people believe such a thing and somebody else that they can say i love they believe something different and you both individually believe the thing that you believe with all of your heart it makes me think of just religion in itself in the fucking system that it is you get pumped in just like almost a school system like the education system you’re pumped in to
Nick McGowan(17:40.719)
out to be a factory worker and that’s how it is but you have to break out of that to look at things different and i feel look some of my audiences they know this or they’ve heard me talk about it before I’m christian i’ve gone through churches i played in worship bands for ten plus years loved every bit of playing in the church band for the most part i didn’t really get the lack of authenticity and the understanding that for the most part everybody said you know we’ve got we we love all and we love all like yeah
Nick McGowan(18:10.639)
cool well how about how about we talk about drug addiction or porn addictions or people that have done some crazy ship in the past and how can you how can you not love on those people and help those people through that and a lot of there’s like almost that coolly that’s drunk in a sense of like no no no no well we were told this is it like i get what you were fucking told but what do you actually believe and i still think a lot of people have a hard time understanding what they actually believe because they’re not able to go through themselves to do it so how did you do
Nick McGowan(18:40.579)
that how did you get to your own belief to be able to do it
Dawn Dimicco (18:44.680)
i mean i think the biggest piece for me was finding that peace and you know that i did have such a strong love for and i spent so much time in the world i wasn’t spending all the time in the world for that reason i just didn’t realize that that’s what all that time was preparing me for and that’s where it ultimately got me and i had friends at the time you know when i was coming out there like well how can how can you still love your church how can you still want to be part of that and i was like well one it’s some
Dawn Dimicco (19:14.460)
the stupid people that’s not all of the people right it’s the people in my opinion that get get it wrong but you know at the time i was finessing nutrition coach and I’m like look just because you screwed up one meal you don’t throw it all in right like just because you ate the one bad thing doesn’t mean you don’t continue on your path to do better like I’m still going to work on every other area of my life I’m still going to you know follow jesus teaching now we can get into whether or not that you know i mean scripture is clear
Dawn Dimicco (19:44.480)
cripture’s like yeah now you don’t do this but there’s a lot of other scripture that depending on how you’re reading it and how you put it into context and we can talk you know that all day you know there’s there’s theories and beliefs like look i see what the government does out there do i believe that the bible that we have in our hands today was not corrupted by government at some point in time i mean i don’t know I’m not
Nick McGowan(20:07.759)
that’s where I’m going with this like as you’re talking about it I’m like look i get it and i read the bible every day i make sure that i read at least a verse to day and i understand that i can i can read the words and go right god what’s the message what’s the thing you want me to get and sometimes it’s just like i got another for you right now move along other times it’s like this thing specifically but the bible has been messed with it is one of those things where at some point it might come out we might not ever know but there’s definitely conversations about what happened back in what the six
Nick McGowan(20:37.139)
tenth century where vatican was like yeah yeah we get this we’re going to omit a bunch of books we’re going to admit a lot of things and we’re going to change things and that’s where i think people can attack the faith of it not even just religion but they go but yeah it was written by men and then edited and manipulated by man were just humans in general like yeah totally but i believe god speaks to us in different ways and shows us different things like you were seeing the different signs like think about how many times you’ve watched a movie or commercial
Nick McGowan(21:07.119)
comes on and something is said you’re like what and it’s almost like he’s talking directly to you and you’re like oh ship and it was a burger king commercial or something stupid you know what i mane you’re like what the fun is that about
Dawn Dimicco (21:15.480)
yeah
Dawn Dimicco (21:18.320)
absolutely well and even in scripture alone like you know you read one thing you’re like sweet i mean and you can take any piece of scripture and twist and manipulate it you know you can and you know that’s one of the things that i really did love about transitioning to the catholic church i’ve been to so many non denominational churches for so long and I’m like i mean to me a lot of those pastors are pompous arrogant asses that just want to listen to themselves they want to build a mega church and why are they building a mega church to bring
Dawn Dimicco (21:48.120)
fame to themselves right to be seen not because of the message that they want to share and I’m like you know i sit through this forty five minutes i don’t even no i guess it’s a sermon I’m like you shared one verse of scripture that you didn’t support with any other verse of scripture and i mean i remember going to a church when it’s when i was done i went it was it was palm sunday now i get it non denomination a churches they are bible believing bible following whatever it was pam
Dawn Dimicco (22:18.160)
sunday and the series that we were in we did not talk about the significance of palm sunday there were no palms i get you don’t have to have palms but i was like wait a second palm sunday is in the bible like that is a real like thing that happened like the laying of palms like this is actually very significant this is one of the most significant you know of course as we were coming up on easter and i remember that service so very clearly um in the i don’t even remember what the series was but they played a clip from despicable me
Dawn Dimicco (22:48.400)
and then they did this whole sermon off of this clip from despicable me and i was like yeah man like i can’t i can’t do this like at least in you know as much as as people like to think that catholics don’t know their bible a lot of them don’t know that they know their bible because there is so much scripture through out a catholic mass but it’s being read to you and you’ve got your you know you’ve got your missalet that you’re following so you don’t realize how much scripture you get
Nick McGowan(22:54.439)
yeah
Nick McGowan(23:13.059)
yeah
Dawn Dimicco (23:18.440)
throughout the service you hear the entire bible over the course of the year
Nick McGowan(23:21.879)
yeah yeah well it’s interesting because things can be given to you in so many different ways not going to do something that i don’t do on this show at all i never like to look at my phone at all but i felt as you’re talking about this I’m like all right what’s the verse of the day like i don’t know god just let me let me do this thing right you know but there are times ere it’s like all right so the bible ap greg rochelle made years and years ago there’s a daily verse that comes up and i read it basically every day maybe every other day like i said i have have
Dawn Dimicco (23:29.720)
okay sweet
Dawn Dimicco (23:32.600)
okay
Dawn Dimicco (23:37.520)
all right do it let’s hear it
Dawn Dimicco (23:41.300)
uh yep
Nick McGowan(23:51.739)
batch of books that i read every day and the bible being one of them jesus co is another one and there’s just stuff that i go through but i also have a rule of three that i subscribe to that i believe the holy spirit my intuition leads me if something comes up three times i have to do something with it so it’s come up three times while I’m sitting here with you mike fine i’ll pick up my fucking phone i’ll look at it so the verse is john then jesus turned to the jews who had claimed to believe in him quote if you stick with this living out what i tell you you’re my disciples
Nick McGowan(24:21.699)
sure then you will experience for yourselves the truth and the truth will for you
Dawn Dimicco (24:26.800)
m all right that’s kind of powerful
Nick McGowan(24:29.979)
that’s exactly what we’re talking about here like this is about it’s not about religion it’s not about what anybody else says or what anybody else believes it’s what you and your relationship with your creator says and with that that truth will set you free and that’s not a biblical thing in the sense of like oh well you know whatever all this stuff says i just need to follow it’s how you interpret what you do with it which just ties into this again i’ve never never read of
Dawn Dimicco (24:31.740)
yeah
Dawn Dimicco (24:34.800)
no
Nick McGowan(24:59.999)
a verse a scripture here on a podcast but this is pretty fitting and that is extra fitting like that just ties in
Dawn Dimicco (25:05.480)
that’s well and and how can you have self mastery if you don’t live your truth like if you don’t have truth well and it’s funny because since i’ve come out you know where you would think i would want to dig into scripture more to support my beliefs right i didn’t you know i talked to a good friend who has done the digging and done the research and you know she told me she’s like if you ever need the research you know you need to have those biblical conversation like i can have any biblical come
Nick McGowan(25:11.199)
yeah yeah one hundred percent
Nick McGowan(25:22.179)
hm
Dawn Dimicco (25:35.300)
station i want with anybody who knows more bible than me because it’s not about it’s not about just the words like anybody of faith knows that the bible is a living and breathing thing right it’s alive and so what it’s saying to me and what it’s saying to you and without looking i don’t does jesus even ever talk about sexuality I’m trying to think
Nick McGowan(25:41.899)
yeah
Nick McGowan(25:59.239)
i don’t believe he does but on that note think about how many times people will throw it at you and go cool so that was old testament right so from that perspective we’re not even talking new testament where jesus came and was like the reason why I’m here is because you didn’t get it my dad had to send a human so that you’re fucking get it and now he’s going to kill me so that you really get it that’s the way that i look at that
Dawn Dimicco (26:19.560)
yeah now and i could be totally wrong and I’m sure that we’re going to get people pissed off at you and pissed off at me but m and well and i always and i always just throw it back to like leviticus I’m like dude like i wear cotton like every day right like wasn’t it cotton you’re not supposed to wear because it’s unclean or whatever i mean yeah so like yeah there’s there’s some things that yes you have to take it in context and and i don’t want to be mistaken for saying that we need to change the bible to fit today
Nick McGowan(26:26.639)
hello and welcome
Nick McGowan(26:37.059)
sure yeah i also had bacon it was delicious
Dawn Dimicco (26:49.400)
times right like i don’t believe it’s in context with like today society but we need to look at it in context of the society that was in again like that’s why jesus came
Nick McGowan(26:50.219)
at all yeah
Nick McGowan(26:58.459)
yeah a good call so i’d mentioned a couple minutes ago that i had a stack of books that i read through one of them is jesus c o and the beginning of that book the author writes that she saw in a dream she just dreaming and just imagined seeing like a white light or whatever you know but you can tell there’s a person walking towards you and then the person walked up and had like a t shirt and blue jeans on then she realized it was jesus and was like what why are you wearing jeans he’s like well they wore robes and ship so that’s what i wore then but you wear jean so that’s what i wear now
Nick McGowan(27:28.459)
that’s what this looks like so it’s fitting the context of jesus in the way that our faith is but it’s not changing out how things are but i think context is a key that a lot of people forget but they’re like yeah well in the bible it states this like yeah but the bible was thousands of years ago the world looked drastically different they didn’t have the internet like we have yeah
Dawn Dimicco (27:47.980)
right well and a lot of those rules yeah and a lot of those rules were for health and safety reasons
Nick McGowan(27:54.399)
yeah yeah yeah well what about the amount of alcohol that they drank the wine they drank and people are like you shouldn’t drink wine like all right so first thing that jesus did was the whole wine thing and it was the best wine that they’ve ever had
Dawn Dimicco (28:05.660)
i was like yeah his first miracle like this is what he did first after he yeah well yeah that’s what Jesus did first. God created the world and then Jesus was like hey I’m just gonna turn turn water into wine he’s like i don’t have a lot of time left here let’s let’s kick this up a notch
Nick McGowan(28:14.899)
that was the main thing first in his thirties a time of party folks
Nick McGowan(28:25.559)
it’s funny have you seen the show the chosen
Dawn Dimicco (28:28.360)
you know i have not got i haven’t gotten into it i want to i need to i just have not
Nick McGowan(28:31.939)
well it’s awesome and it’s really really well done and it’s mainly about the story of the disciples around jesus but even when his mom mary was like hey they’re running out of wine can you do this he’s like my time is not now she’s like i get it but you know party wine he’s like all right so it’s cool to even see some of that and then how they all interacted with it but yeah you’re totally right there is health and safety in certain way is like the reason why they drank a lot of wine because the water was bad they couldn’t really drink water so they drank wine and it
Nick McGowan(29:01.899)
wine like what we’re used to probably more of a meat or something like that but even in that sort of sense like we have to put context of the things that matter for us and with you being able to go through the space that you’re in i mean what a what a crazy journey in a sense for you to be able to go through all this and be as up beat and excited about everything you are but to me it seems like it makes more sense now because you don’t have to hide you don’t have to hide the bullshit so if you could look back at yourself from years ago what would you have
Nick McGowan(29:31.719)
hold yourself in a nice loving or as fucking direct as you want to be i mean you’re in to be direct if you want you know but go for it
Dawn Dimicco (29:34.440)
in a nice loving way
Dawn Dimicco (29:38.160)
yeah i mean it’s it’s hard to listen to and find yourself when you’re trying to follow society’s rules family rules you know traditions history you know all of that i think it’s really listening to who you are a little bit more and not being afraid to be you and i mean that it’s super simple to say obviously it’s so darn hard to do and it’s and i think i would have ben a lot more intense
Dawn Dimicco (30:08.040)
with the people i surrounded myself with while i happen to be surrounded by great people i was an athlete so i was around a lot of like minded people but the older i’ve gotten you know the more personal development i do the more i grow it’s having the right people around me you know that right wise council that people i don’t always listen to but i need to listen to what they have to say i kind of digest it um but yeah really like thinking for yourself taking what people have to say thinking for yourself
Dawn Dimicco (30:37.920)
and you know not being afraid to be you and actually and actually coming to yourself i went too many years where you know i was starting to come into myself and then i vanished for like twenty years and I’m trying to find find me again through all this and the first step was just being true to me
Nick McGowan(30:58.419)
yeah and by you stepping out and doing that even with the dormant years there’s still stuff that was processing through but now you’re inspiring other people to do that so if you could boil all that down to one piece of advice for people on their path towards self mastery what would that be
Dawn Dimicco (31:04.220)
yeah
Dawn Dimicco (31:08.640)
right
Dawn Dimicco (31:15.620)
it’s really finding ways to be an alignment and alignment has been my my big word this year because now I’m finally in alignment with who i am i in a podcast earlier today it was funny i was talking about um an ex girl friend and she was going through my you know when you first meet somebody and you’re going through social media you got a scroll and keep scrolling and she came back and she goes please never wear address again and i was like why she goes you look
utiful but you look so uncomfortable right because i was trying to i was trying to live in this other box i was trying to be what other people thought i was supposed to be instead of like now forget like I’m in a sports brim in a teacher I’m comfortable and when I’m comfortable on me and and so i think it’s really just not being again not being afraid to be you m you know don’t wear the dress can we make that the line don’t don’t wear the dress don’t wear the dress i mean
Nick McGowan(31:48.099)
uh uh
Nick McGowan(31:55.779)
yeah
Nick McGowan(32:02.559)
m
Nick McGowan(32:10.559)
well noted i won’t yeah i don’t wear the dress that’s good
Dawn Dimicco (32:16.060)
i mean that and i think that’s that’s just you know something that i’ve just been thinking a lot about is I’m at my best when I’m comfortable and doesn’t enyougtabe a slob I’m usually a slob um but but it’s got to be comfortable and s got to be authentic when i was in address i wasn’t authentically me and to be in alignment you have you know your words your thoughts your actions need to come together and my thoughts words and actions were not aligned for too many years you know there were pieces
Nick McGowan(32:32.079)
yeah
Nick McGowan(32:44.559)
yeah
Dawn Dimicco (32:45.420)
i’d say some good things but then do the bad things or they just didn’t all come together
Nick McGowan(32:49.059)
m
Nick McGowan(32:51.859)
what a great way to put that and i like the comfort that you’re talking about and obviously there’s a balance where you want to be uncomfortable but comfortable but you need to be able to be comfortable with who you are to them be uncomfortable with the other things as you continue to grow don’t you’re awesome thank you for being on the show it’s been a pleasure having you here i always love when we get the chat about stuff tell the audience where can they find you and where can they connect with you
Dawn Dimicco (33:00.260)
hm
Dawn Dimicco (33:02.680)
right
Dawn Dimicco (33:07.960)
well thank you
Dawn Dimicco (33:16.800)
I’m old but i like i love facebook I’m still on facebook all the time just at dawn de mico you can find me I’m the only dan demico there same thing on instagram linked in easiest ways to get in touch would love to chat with whoever about this or anything else you want to talk about
Nick McGowan(33:32.879)
good stuff you all that stuff is going to be in the show notes again dan it’s been a pleasure to have you on i appreciate your time today
Dawn Dimicco (33:38.320)
thank you
https://youtu.be/QsAhgCog_b4
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By Nick McGowan“I am I’m a catholic lesbian and am out. I guess you’d say now I’m out and proud.”
In this episode, Nick speaks with Dawn Dimicco, the founder of Epic Redemption Coaching. She’s also a devout catholic who came out as gay and discusses how her religious beliefs comingle with her sexual orientation.
What to listen for:
“I’m an open book I share so much of my life so people that are new to me what they probably don’t know or see as much of anymore is a lot of my faith I am I’m a catholic lesbian and am out. I guess you’d say now I’m out and proud”
“I got baptized in a hot tub, you know? Did all the things, and I know that for me a lot of it was like being gay is wrong, you’re not supposed to be gay”
“There were a lot of tears I knew when I stopped trying to pry away my feelings”
About Dawn DiMicco
Dawn DiMicco is the founder of Epic Redemption Coaching. She has utilized her experiences as a mental performance coach, dual-sport collegiate athlete, military spouse, and business owner to help her clients gain the confidence, courage, and mental toughness they need in order to live the life they were meant to.
Resources:
Check out Episode #34 about “Being True To Who You Are Wherever You Are”
Interested in starting your own podcast or need help with one you already have? Send Nick an email or schedule a time to discuss your podcast today!
Thank you for listening!
Please subscribe on iTunes and give us a 5-Star review! https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-mindset-and-self-mastery-show/id1604262089
Watch Clips and highlights: www.youtube.com/channel/UCk1tCM7KTe3hrq_-UAa6GHA
Guest Inquiries right here: [email protected]
Your Friends at “The Mindset & Self-Mastery Show”
Click Here To View The Episode Transcript
Hello and welcome to the Mindset and self-mastery show. I’m your host, Nick McGowan, and today on the show we have Dawn
Dawn Dimicco (00:05.120)
I’m good how are you
Nick McGowan(00:30.059)
so there’s a lot that we’re going to get into but hey let’s just start this off don want you tell us what you do for living and what’s one thing that most people don’t know about you that’s maybe a little outer bizarre
Dawn Dimicco (00:39.960)
okay so i do coaching i currently have a fitness and nutrition coaching business and am transitioning to work with personal trainers and nutrition coaches and teaching them how to take their business online how to start it how to grow it as far as i was telling you like I’m an open book i share so much of my life people that are new to me what they probably don’t know or see as much of any more is a lot of my faith i am I’m a catholic lesbian and am out i guess you’d say now I’m out and proud i don’t know i don’t know
that that goes I’m new to the game i guess but i mean that’s definitely that’s that’s different for a lot of people a lot of people that follow my social media for years very very faith based and i’ve gotten away from a lot of the faith based social media more business purposes my faith is still hugely important but yeah that that throws people sometimes
Nick McGowan(01:12.499)
yah
Nick McGowan(01:17.139)
yeah
Nick McGowan(01:31.019)
sure that can throw people and i think it should throw people in a good way because faith isn’t tied to sexuality and i think your faith has to be important if your faith is important to you there’s certain people that they just don’t have faith at all and i don’t really know how they go through life but that’s a whole different story so with you being a les being catholic and now you’re saying you’ve actually stepped back a little bit from talking about your faith in your social media why is that
Dawn Dimicco (01:43.380)
yeah
Dawn Dimicco (01:57.100)
h a lot of it was a lot of my target market in my business i was working with a lot of faith based women and a lot of it was starting to feel a little bit less authentic and so i kind of pulled back from know really there was everything i posted had that faith connotation tied into it and so a lot of that was just how i moved through social media my faith didn’t change it was still who i was it wasn’t it just wasn’t everything that i put out there initially it was everything that was out there
Nick McGowan(02:04.459)
okay
Nick McGowan(02:09.759)
m
Dawn Dimicco (02:27.180)
um so now my faith comes through in how i speak how i do things you know when I’m in alignment when i am living fully and authentically my my faith will come out it’s shaped how i think and who i am so while it’s not it’s not necesarily in your face but it’s it’s important
Nick McGowan(02:27.239)
yeah
Nick McGowan(02:32.699)
yeah
Nick McGowan(02:41.699)
do you think
Nick McGowan(02:44.159)
yeah yeah that’s a good good point do you think it was one of those things where that kind of held you back a little bit from coming out
Dawn Dimicco (02:53.360)
absolutely but not necessarily the catholic faith i grew up with a really strong faith i attended church wasn’t anything that my family necessarily did as a family wasn’t anything they pushed on me it was really something that i had sought out and when i went to college i had been away from church for a long time after i had married i started going back and really digging into faith at that point i got connected to a lot of women’s groups did a lot of bible study when you know part of the non denominant non denominational church
Nick McGowan(02:55.259)
m
Dawn Dimicco (03:23.320)
i got baptized in a hot tub you know did all the things and i know that for me a lot of it was yeah like being gay is wrong you’re not supposed to be gay it’s okay to have those feelings but you can’t act on them i was one of those people that that justified it you know i was a duel sport college athlete i mean i couldn’t tell you how many women i played sports with that are now out or were coming out at the time and i just remember year
Nick McGowan(03:25.559)
yeah
Nick McGowan(03:49.339)
yeah
Dawn Dimicco (03:53.320)
ago i was at a field hockey camp with a couple of friends and we were sitting in the door room and we had this whole conversation and i remember saying that you know we were talking you know whether you’re born gay or not and i just remember saying you know i don’t know if you’re born that way or not but we can always choose how we act well yeah that that crab comes back to biting in the ass right i was like oh man and i remember sitting there very distinctly with these two women and we were talking through this and you know the one
Dawn Dimicco (04:23.300)
and it’s like no it’s just wrong and that woman is out she’s married to a woman she’s got two kids you know the other woman who was very supported very understanding it’s like you two are wrong is you know completely straight has a family beautiful family beautiful kids um and i think a lot of it was just we didn’t know what to do with it at the time you know because we lived in in that time and place where we there wasn’t an option i mean i guess there’s there’s an option but it didn’t feel like it
Nick McGowan(04:54.039)
sure what a spot for somebody to go no no no that’s totally wrong but at the same time i feel people do this a lot where they’re like no you shouldn’t do this thing or they like it complain about something and that’s really the thing that they’re arguing about in themselves you know
Dawn Dimicco (05:01.780)
yeah
Dawn Dimicco (05:07.440)
right yeah and that’s where i mean clearly that’s where she was at and then for me i was trying to justify it because i didn’t know it at the time i mean I’m sure there’s some inklings but it wasn’t an option it wasn’t something that i was i was going to pursue it didn’t matter so to me i justified it like hey that’s cool you know you can have these feelings you can have these urges just because you have them doesn’t mean you follow them just because they’re the doesn’t make them right and that’s what i really really believed at the time and yeah that conversation
Nick McGowan(05:19.119)
sure
Dawn Dimicco (05:37.320)
hers still hurts to this day and all the thinking about how many people i shared that view with very openly very out loud you know I’m a middle class white conservative catholic girl i shoot i mean talk about all my friends now they’re like wait you’re you’re conservative yeah they’re ike but you’re gay I’m like again they don’t they don’t come together and so for me it was just
Nick McGowan(05:40.099)
what hurts about it
Dawn Dimicco (06:08.320)
i wonder who who have i said those words to that i heard you know you look a look at paul look scripturally you know how many people did he persecute before he saw the light like literally you know but and so for me it was like how many people did i hurt with my words with my thoughts who didn’t i embrace the way i should have you know i was always the you know hate the sin and love the sinner but like who says who said when you say crap like that like you’re not really
Nick McGowan(06:12.779)
yeah
Nick McGowan(06:18.459)
yeah yeah
Nick McGowan(06:28.559)
yeah
Dawn Dimicco (06:37.180)
living in love with that person right it’s like that’s not how it goes you know you’re you’re judging and i look now at all the all the people that i’ve gone to church with over the years and I’m like man i know their deep dark stuff and you know me loving a woman doesn’t hold a candle with some of the things that i know about so I’m like oh yeah
Nick McGowan(06:37.819)
slap yeah
Nick McGowan(06:43.039)
yeah
Nick McGowan(06:56.259)
m
Nick McGowan(06:58.899)
yeah it makes me think of the they’re just hypocrites no matter what and it makes me sad to think about how hypocritical people are and how you and i have both been hypocrites at times because we’re just unsure of what the fuck is going on in ourselves let alone stuff outside of us but we see those things that come inside of us and go oh wait a minute this isn’t right what the fuck do i do with it i don’t know but I’m told it’s not right but what do you do with it fun just yell at them or say something weird
Dawn Dimicco (07:03.600)
right
Dawn Dimicco (07:10.560)
hm
Dawn Dimicco (07:28.240)
yeah
Nick McGowan(07:28.259)
that doesn’t do you any good but that’s a good point bringing up paul even because i’ve thought about that before he killed tons and tons and tons of christians and then spun imagine that whole community being like you’re what he’s going to kill us all you’re what and that shift i could only imagine what that would have had to look like for him to give grace to himself to be able to go all right god you’re calling me to do this and i believe but how am i supposed to
Dawn Dimicco (07:37.460)
yeah
Dawn Dimicco (07:41.440)
yeah
Dawn Dimicco (07:46.320)
yeah
Dawn Dimicco (07:52.860)
right
Nick McGowan(07:58.719)
go through life after i’ve done all of this that must have been so difficult on him and now literally you and i are having this conversation where you’ve gone through some of that so have you have you forgiven yourself and have you shown grace to yourself for that
Dawn Dimicco (08:06.720)
right
Dawn Dimicco (08:13.780)
yes to myself i still wonder and you know until we started talking which is cool where these go no i didn’t really think about all the people that i could have been herding along the way you know i worked in youth ministry for a short time when i lived in virginia you know what was my message to young you know teen agers that might have been struggling with this you know i was i was giving the party line right like i was reading the talking points i was that that person out thereon
Nick McGowan(08:20.839)
yeah
Nick McGowan(08:23.839)
yeah
Nick McGowan(08:35.259)
yeah
Nick McGowan(08:40.799)
yeah
Dawn Dimicco (08:43.520)
i did my job really well and that’s kind of scary
Nick McGowan(08:45.859)
m well lot of people um they’re good at doing a job and not good at understanding why they’re doing the job and why the thing matters to them and when you think about just having a deep purpose inside of you to be able to do that stuff a lot of people don’t get to that point so when you think about how you got to that point almost like the breaking point of being like all right fucking something s got to give what did that moment look like for you to go all right i need to shift this i need to chang
Dawn Dimicco (09:11.480)
it’s got to give
Nick McGowan(09:15.659)
it and start to step away from the old and into the new u
Dawn Dimicco (09:20.560)
i mean there was a lot of tears i knew when i stopped trying to pry away my feelings i mean we’re talking prayed away right you know for it had been a couple of years that i knew that i knew for sure and you know when when i didn’t want to pray it away anymore when i didn’t want to pray away the feelings i was having for somebody then i knew i knew that i couldn’t any more when i was i was still attending church regularly
Nick McGowan(09:28.559)
m
Nick McGowan(09:48.319)
yeah
Dawn Dimicco (09:50.780)
that that was the point in time i actually stopped taking communion at church and part of the reason is you know in the catholic church you’re you know supposed to go through confession before you take communion righ you’re sposed to clean your be absolved of your sins clean your soul especially of that and but i also believe that you’re not fully absolved if your heart is not there and you don’t want to be and because i knew i didn’t want to be absolved I’m like I’m not going to go through the motion
Nick McGowan(09:55.659)
m
Nick McGowan(10:07.819)
yeah
Nick McGowan(10:16.899)
yeah
Dawn Dimicco (10:20.540)
because I’m not I’m not clean i didn’t feel clean at that point i was struggling with that a lot and you know fortunately i came to the catholic church late in life and i fell in love I’m still in love with so much of what the church teaches not how the people screw it up people screw things up so badly I’m still in love with so much of the history and the tradition and for me it was also though being reminded a lot of people think that catholics don’t have a relationship with christ
Nick McGowan(10:38.759)
m
Dawn Dimicco (10:50.320)
i think the catholics don’t have this relationship it’s all this like outside rules and stuff but we do and my faith grew so much through my my conversion process into the catholic church and for me it was going back to and remembering like yes this is what I’m taught but we’re also supposed to be interpreting what we read we’re supposed to be when you’re in that relationship when you are actually opening yourself and listening to what god has for you and
Nick McGowan(10:50.939)
hm
Nick McGowan(11:12.139)
yeah
Dawn Dimicco (11:20.400)
he’s telling you that’s where i found peace when i finally accepted where i was and i felt peace that’s when i knew that it was okay and that’s when i knew like god didn’t make a mistake like i fought it now do i think that everybody that has this in claims don’t even want to talk about what’s going on in the world today um with this indoctrination of children and all of that but for me like i know this is who i am I’m very igh
Nick McGowan(11:20.799)
hm
Nick McGowan(11:36.099)
yeah
Dawn Dimicco (11:50.380)
believe very strongly in that and again because i had that relationship with christ and i did the work and i know that there’s there’s no more fighting it and when i stopped fighting it i felt peace about it and it’s the only way i can explain it
Nick McGowan(11:56.379)
yeah
Nick McGowan(12:02.439)
what a beautiful thing yeah well that’s pure surrender at that point and i know when people hear the word surrender that right off the bat they can think well i don’t want to just give up i don’t want to just give in but that is absolutely not the case so what is your take on that
Dawn Dimicco (12:16.940)
right
Dawn Dimicco (12:19.280)
i mean it was really i mean i had to follow i mean
Dawn Dimicco (12:24.580)
i know I’m gonna have a lot of people listen to his the’regon be like this is blasphemy but like this is god’s will it’s god’s will for my life right now right i have to follow what his will is until i stepped into that i wasn’t living fully and if I’m not living fully how can i use the gifts and the talents that he’s given me they’re not being used fully if I’m not living fully and i had to give that piece up in order to you know receive all of his graces and then be able to share all of his gifts and so
Nick McGowan(12:28.959)
preach
Nick McGowan(12:31.799)
yeah
Nick McGowan(12:42.659)
yeah
Dawn Dimicco (12:54.460)
yeah yeah and it definitely is definitely not easy but you know once i mean I’m coming out in a time when it’s it’s more accepted but i don’t think it’s any less scary
Nick McGowan(12:54.619)
not an easy thing to do
Nick McGowan(12:59.699)
m m
Nick McGowan(13:07.199)
sure
Nick McGowan(13:10.359)
oh i could only imagine I’m not gay and i haven’t come out in that sort of way so i could only imagine what that’s like for you but i can also understand yeah there’s a little bit more of an acceptance in some ways but not fully you know but no matter what we as people have things that we just continue to push down deeper and deeper and deeper and yeah i haven’t come out of the closet to say that I’m gay that’s not my thing but they have been massive
Dawn Dimicco (13:25.860)
hm
Nick McGowan(13:40.139)
ways that i’ve abandoned myself and i’ve shoved all that stuff to the bottom and it takes a lot of work to be able to tread it back up and be able to figure out what the fuck do i do with the ship and why the fuck did i do it that way before and again grace with yourself to be able to actually go through it but you touched on reading and going through the bible you have that relationship with god there are times and I’m sure you’ve had this too you read through something like all right whatever you just buy pass it you might read it six months or a year or years later and you go oh my god and the things like
Dawn Dimicco (13:51.400)
right
Dawn Dimicco (13:56.740)
yeah
Dawn Dimicco (13:59.740)
hm
Dawn Dimicco (14:08.740)
hm
Nick McGowan(14:10.259)
d popping out directly in your face and god’s like get the king point and you’re like all right dude i got it
Dawn Dimicco (14:11.280)
yeah it’s right in your face
Dawn Dimicco (14:16.060)
yeah everything everything just kept pointing in the same direction is like okay i think it’s time and it was it was crazy i had you know i had so much support i mean people that have known me they’ve known my whole life i was the one in denial for all the years i mean when it was finally shared on social media you know probably there were probably about three hundred comments like eight hundred loves you know all of that and probably two hundred of the three hundred comments were like
Nick McGowan(14:21.439)
yeah that
Nick McGowan(14:31.359)
m
Nick McGowan(14:42.759)
m
Dawn Dimicco (14:45.840)
we’ve been waiting thirty years for this or like you know i knew it I’m so happy right like all of this but i did you know because I’m so i was so faith based and most of my relationships came through friendships through church not everybody was super supportive of it but and i remember having conversations with friends that were like well you know screw them how dare they say anything to you and but the thing is the women that did you know i had two in particular that
Dawn Dimicco (15:15.980)
reached out to me and you know they’re like look like I’m not down with this you know and we talked about it and the fact that they had the courage to reach out and still share that and and for me i appreciated that because to me that’s that’s love like for them to reach out to me that’s them showing love and i have all these friends at just don’t understand and I’m like look this is what they believe they believe with all their heart that this is a sin
Nick McGowan(15:23.099)
hm
Nick McGowan(15:32.679)
sure
Nick McGowan(15:35.339)
yeah
Dawn Dimicco (15:45.820)
this is going to separate me from god and this is going to keep me from heaven and for them like to them i just cut myself off from god whether whether that’s the case or not that’s what they believe and so they’re trying to save me and they’re not doing they didn’t do it in a terrible way they’re like look i can’t support this I’m not going to say anything on your page i love ha you’re geting love and support i love you I’m always there for you but you know if you ever want to talk about this have a discussion about it you know I’m here and it was
Nick McGowan(15:56.299)
hm
Dawn Dimicco (16:15.900)
two separate calls that i had gotten that were very similar and they re the two that i expected it from and but it was it was powerful and i tried to explain it to people like if if you see that somebody’s sick right somebody’s diet and you have the answer you have the antidote like you have what’s going to cure them and you don’t share it with them you’re an ass hole right like how can you say you love somebody you’re not going to but this is what they believe whether you know i believe it’s a little misguided
Nick McGowan(16:21.979)
okay
Nick McGowan(16:38.779)
yeah straight up
Dawn Dimicco (16:46.500)
right now that’s just where I’m at but these are two women who whose husbands are both pastors who they’ve gone through you know theological studies themselves like they know their stuff as well and it’s what they believe and I’m not going to take that away from them Iappreciate that i respect them so much more for sharing that with me than just giving me this false oh yeah congratulations I’m so happy for you
Nick McGowan(17:10.759)
yeah what a beautiful real life moment to be able to have those conversations it’s also hyper interesting to understand that people believe such a thing and somebody else that they can say i love they believe something different and you both individually believe the thing that you believe with all of your heart it makes me think of just religion in itself in the fucking system that it is you get pumped in just like almost a school system like the education system you’re pumped in to
Nick McGowan(17:40.719)
out to be a factory worker and that’s how it is but you have to break out of that to look at things different and i feel look some of my audiences they know this or they’ve heard me talk about it before I’m christian i’ve gone through churches i played in worship bands for ten plus years loved every bit of playing in the church band for the most part i didn’t really get the lack of authenticity and the understanding that for the most part everybody said you know we’ve got we we love all and we love all like yeah
Nick McGowan(18:10.639)
cool well how about how about we talk about drug addiction or porn addictions or people that have done some crazy ship in the past and how can you how can you not love on those people and help those people through that and a lot of there’s like almost that coolly that’s drunk in a sense of like no no no no well we were told this is it like i get what you were fucking told but what do you actually believe and i still think a lot of people have a hard time understanding what they actually believe because they’re not able to go through themselves to do it so how did you do
Nick McGowan(18:40.579)
that how did you get to your own belief to be able to do it
Dawn Dimicco (18:44.680)
i mean i think the biggest piece for me was finding that peace and you know that i did have such a strong love for and i spent so much time in the world i wasn’t spending all the time in the world for that reason i just didn’t realize that that’s what all that time was preparing me for and that’s where it ultimately got me and i had friends at the time you know when i was coming out there like well how can how can you still love your church how can you still want to be part of that and i was like well one it’s some
Dawn Dimicco (19:14.460)
the stupid people that’s not all of the people right it’s the people in my opinion that get get it wrong but you know at the time i was finessing nutrition coach and I’m like look just because you screwed up one meal you don’t throw it all in right like just because you ate the one bad thing doesn’t mean you don’t continue on your path to do better like I’m still going to work on every other area of my life I’m still going to you know follow jesus teaching now we can get into whether or not that you know i mean scripture is clear
Dawn Dimicco (19:44.480)
cripture’s like yeah now you don’t do this but there’s a lot of other scripture that depending on how you’re reading it and how you put it into context and we can talk you know that all day you know there’s there’s theories and beliefs like look i see what the government does out there do i believe that the bible that we have in our hands today was not corrupted by government at some point in time i mean i don’t know I’m not
Nick McGowan(20:07.759)
that’s where I’m going with this like as you’re talking about it I’m like look i get it and i read the bible every day i make sure that i read at least a verse to day and i understand that i can i can read the words and go right god what’s the message what’s the thing you want me to get and sometimes it’s just like i got another for you right now move along other times it’s like this thing specifically but the bible has been messed with it is one of those things where at some point it might come out we might not ever know but there’s definitely conversations about what happened back in what the six
Nick McGowan(20:37.139)
tenth century where vatican was like yeah yeah we get this we’re going to omit a bunch of books we’re going to admit a lot of things and we’re going to change things and that’s where i think people can attack the faith of it not even just religion but they go but yeah it was written by men and then edited and manipulated by man were just humans in general like yeah totally but i believe god speaks to us in different ways and shows us different things like you were seeing the different signs like think about how many times you’ve watched a movie or commercial
Nick McGowan(21:07.119)
comes on and something is said you’re like what and it’s almost like he’s talking directly to you and you’re like oh ship and it was a burger king commercial or something stupid you know what i mane you’re like what the fun is that about
Dawn Dimicco (21:15.480)
yeah
Dawn Dimicco (21:18.320)
absolutely well and even in scripture alone like you know you read one thing you’re like sweet i mean and you can take any piece of scripture and twist and manipulate it you know you can and you know that’s one of the things that i really did love about transitioning to the catholic church i’ve been to so many non denominational churches for so long and I’m like i mean to me a lot of those pastors are pompous arrogant asses that just want to listen to themselves they want to build a mega church and why are they building a mega church to bring
Dawn Dimicco (21:48.120)
fame to themselves right to be seen not because of the message that they want to share and I’m like you know i sit through this forty five minutes i don’t even no i guess it’s a sermon I’m like you shared one verse of scripture that you didn’t support with any other verse of scripture and i mean i remember going to a church when it’s when i was done i went it was it was palm sunday now i get it non denomination a churches they are bible believing bible following whatever it was pam
Dawn Dimicco (22:18.160)
sunday and the series that we were in we did not talk about the significance of palm sunday there were no palms i get you don’t have to have palms but i was like wait a second palm sunday is in the bible like that is a real like thing that happened like the laying of palms like this is actually very significant this is one of the most significant you know of course as we were coming up on easter and i remember that service so very clearly um in the i don’t even remember what the series was but they played a clip from despicable me
Dawn Dimicco (22:48.400)
and then they did this whole sermon off of this clip from despicable me and i was like yeah man like i can’t i can’t do this like at least in you know as much as as people like to think that catholics don’t know their bible a lot of them don’t know that they know their bible because there is so much scripture through out a catholic mass but it’s being read to you and you’ve got your you know you’ve got your missalet that you’re following so you don’t realize how much scripture you get
Nick McGowan(22:54.439)
yeah
Nick McGowan(23:13.059)
yeah
Dawn Dimicco (23:18.440)
throughout the service you hear the entire bible over the course of the year
Nick McGowan(23:21.879)
yeah yeah well it’s interesting because things can be given to you in so many different ways not going to do something that i don’t do on this show at all i never like to look at my phone at all but i felt as you’re talking about this I’m like all right what’s the verse of the day like i don’t know god just let me let me do this thing right you know but there are times ere it’s like all right so the bible ap greg rochelle made years and years ago there’s a daily verse that comes up and i read it basically every day maybe every other day like i said i have have
Dawn Dimicco (23:29.720)
okay sweet
Dawn Dimicco (23:32.600)
okay
Dawn Dimicco (23:37.520)
all right do it let’s hear it
Dawn Dimicco (23:41.300)
uh yep
Nick McGowan(23:51.739)
batch of books that i read every day and the bible being one of them jesus co is another one and there’s just stuff that i go through but i also have a rule of three that i subscribe to that i believe the holy spirit my intuition leads me if something comes up three times i have to do something with it so it’s come up three times while I’m sitting here with you mike fine i’ll pick up my fucking phone i’ll look at it so the verse is john then jesus turned to the jews who had claimed to believe in him quote if you stick with this living out what i tell you you’re my disciples
Nick McGowan(24:21.699)
sure then you will experience for yourselves the truth and the truth will for you
Dawn Dimicco (24:26.800)
m all right that’s kind of powerful
Nick McGowan(24:29.979)
that’s exactly what we’re talking about here like this is about it’s not about religion it’s not about what anybody else says or what anybody else believes it’s what you and your relationship with your creator says and with that that truth will set you free and that’s not a biblical thing in the sense of like oh well you know whatever all this stuff says i just need to follow it’s how you interpret what you do with it which just ties into this again i’ve never never read of
Dawn Dimicco (24:31.740)
yeah
Dawn Dimicco (24:34.800)
no
Nick McGowan(24:59.999)
a verse a scripture here on a podcast but this is pretty fitting and that is extra fitting like that just ties in
Dawn Dimicco (25:05.480)
that’s well and and how can you have self mastery if you don’t live your truth like if you don’t have truth well and it’s funny because since i’ve come out you know where you would think i would want to dig into scripture more to support my beliefs right i didn’t you know i talked to a good friend who has done the digging and done the research and you know she told me she’s like if you ever need the research you know you need to have those biblical conversation like i can have any biblical come
Nick McGowan(25:11.199)
yeah yeah one hundred percent
Nick McGowan(25:22.179)
hm
Dawn Dimicco (25:35.300)
station i want with anybody who knows more bible than me because it’s not about it’s not about just the words like anybody of faith knows that the bible is a living and breathing thing right it’s alive and so what it’s saying to me and what it’s saying to you and without looking i don’t does jesus even ever talk about sexuality I’m trying to think
Nick McGowan(25:41.899)
yeah
Nick McGowan(25:59.239)
i don’t believe he does but on that note think about how many times people will throw it at you and go cool so that was old testament right so from that perspective we’re not even talking new testament where jesus came and was like the reason why I’m here is because you didn’t get it my dad had to send a human so that you’re fucking get it and now he’s going to kill me so that you really get it that’s the way that i look at that
Dawn Dimicco (26:19.560)
yeah now and i could be totally wrong and I’m sure that we’re going to get people pissed off at you and pissed off at me but m and well and i always and i always just throw it back to like leviticus I’m like dude like i wear cotton like every day right like wasn’t it cotton you’re not supposed to wear because it’s unclean or whatever i mean yeah so like yeah there’s there’s some things that yes you have to take it in context and and i don’t want to be mistaken for saying that we need to change the bible to fit today
Nick McGowan(26:26.639)
hello and welcome
Nick McGowan(26:37.059)
sure yeah i also had bacon it was delicious
Dawn Dimicco (26:49.400)
times right like i don’t believe it’s in context with like today society but we need to look at it in context of the society that was in again like that’s why jesus came
Nick McGowan(26:50.219)
at all yeah
Nick McGowan(26:58.459)
yeah a good call so i’d mentioned a couple minutes ago that i had a stack of books that i read through one of them is jesus c o and the beginning of that book the author writes that she saw in a dream she just dreaming and just imagined seeing like a white light or whatever you know but you can tell there’s a person walking towards you and then the person walked up and had like a t shirt and blue jeans on then she realized it was jesus and was like what why are you wearing jeans he’s like well they wore robes and ship so that’s what i wore then but you wear jean so that’s what i wear now
Nick McGowan(27:28.459)
that’s what this looks like so it’s fitting the context of jesus in the way that our faith is but it’s not changing out how things are but i think context is a key that a lot of people forget but they’re like yeah well in the bible it states this like yeah but the bible was thousands of years ago the world looked drastically different they didn’t have the internet like we have yeah
Dawn Dimicco (27:47.980)
right well and a lot of those rules yeah and a lot of those rules were for health and safety reasons
Nick McGowan(27:54.399)
yeah yeah yeah well what about the amount of alcohol that they drank the wine they drank and people are like you shouldn’t drink wine like all right so first thing that jesus did was the whole wine thing and it was the best wine that they’ve ever had
Dawn Dimicco (28:05.660)
i was like yeah his first miracle like this is what he did first after he yeah well yeah that’s what Jesus did first. God created the world and then Jesus was like hey I’m just gonna turn turn water into wine he’s like i don’t have a lot of time left here let’s let’s kick this up a notch
Nick McGowan(28:14.899)
that was the main thing first in his thirties a time of party folks
Nick McGowan(28:25.559)
it’s funny have you seen the show the chosen
Dawn Dimicco (28:28.360)
you know i have not got i haven’t gotten into it i want to i need to i just have not
Nick McGowan(28:31.939)
well it’s awesome and it’s really really well done and it’s mainly about the story of the disciples around jesus but even when his mom mary was like hey they’re running out of wine can you do this he’s like my time is not now she’s like i get it but you know party wine he’s like all right so it’s cool to even see some of that and then how they all interacted with it but yeah you’re totally right there is health and safety in certain way is like the reason why they drank a lot of wine because the water was bad they couldn’t really drink water so they drank wine and it
Nick McGowan(29:01.899)
wine like what we’re used to probably more of a meat or something like that but even in that sort of sense like we have to put context of the things that matter for us and with you being able to go through the space that you’re in i mean what a what a crazy journey in a sense for you to be able to go through all this and be as up beat and excited about everything you are but to me it seems like it makes more sense now because you don’t have to hide you don’t have to hide the bullshit so if you could look back at yourself from years ago what would you have
Nick McGowan(29:31.719)
hold yourself in a nice loving or as fucking direct as you want to be i mean you’re in to be direct if you want you know but go for it
Dawn Dimicco (29:34.440)
in a nice loving way
Dawn Dimicco (29:38.160)
yeah i mean it’s it’s hard to listen to and find yourself when you’re trying to follow society’s rules family rules you know traditions history you know all of that i think it’s really listening to who you are a little bit more and not being afraid to be you and i mean that it’s super simple to say obviously it’s so darn hard to do and it’s and i think i would have ben a lot more intense
Dawn Dimicco (30:08.040)
with the people i surrounded myself with while i happen to be surrounded by great people i was an athlete so i was around a lot of like minded people but the older i’ve gotten you know the more personal development i do the more i grow it’s having the right people around me you know that right wise council that people i don’t always listen to but i need to listen to what they have to say i kind of digest it um but yeah really like thinking for yourself taking what people have to say thinking for yourself
Dawn Dimicco (30:37.920)
and you know not being afraid to be you and actually and actually coming to yourself i went too many years where you know i was starting to come into myself and then i vanished for like twenty years and I’m trying to find find me again through all this and the first step was just being true to me
Nick McGowan(30:58.419)
yeah and by you stepping out and doing that even with the dormant years there’s still stuff that was processing through but now you’re inspiring other people to do that so if you could boil all that down to one piece of advice for people on their path towards self mastery what would that be
Dawn Dimicco (31:04.220)
yeah
Dawn Dimicco (31:08.640)
right
Dawn Dimicco (31:15.620)
it’s really finding ways to be an alignment and alignment has been my my big word this year because now I’m finally in alignment with who i am i in a podcast earlier today it was funny i was talking about um an ex girl friend and she was going through my you know when you first meet somebody and you’re going through social media you got a scroll and keep scrolling and she came back and she goes please never wear address again and i was like why she goes you look
utiful but you look so uncomfortable right because i was trying to i was trying to live in this other box i was trying to be what other people thought i was supposed to be instead of like now forget like I’m in a sports brim in a teacher I’m comfortable and when I’m comfortable on me and and so i think it’s really just not being again not being afraid to be you m you know don’t wear the dress can we make that the line don’t don’t wear the dress don’t wear the dress i mean
Nick McGowan(31:48.099)
uh uh
Nick McGowan(31:55.779)
yeah
Nick McGowan(32:02.559)
m
Nick McGowan(32:10.559)
well noted i won’t yeah i don’t wear the dress that’s good
Dawn Dimicco (32:16.060)
i mean that and i think that’s that’s just you know something that i’ve just been thinking a lot about is I’m at my best when I’m comfortable and doesn’t enyougtabe a slob I’m usually a slob um but but it’s got to be comfortable and s got to be authentic when i was in address i wasn’t authentically me and to be in alignment you have you know your words your thoughts your actions need to come together and my thoughts words and actions were not aligned for too many years you know there were pieces
Nick McGowan(32:32.079)
yeah
Nick McGowan(32:44.559)
yeah
Dawn Dimicco (32:45.420)
i’d say some good things but then do the bad things or they just didn’t all come together
Nick McGowan(32:49.059)
m
Nick McGowan(32:51.859)
what a great way to put that and i like the comfort that you’re talking about and obviously there’s a balance where you want to be uncomfortable but comfortable but you need to be able to be comfortable with who you are to them be uncomfortable with the other things as you continue to grow don’t you’re awesome thank you for being on the show it’s been a pleasure having you here i always love when we get the chat about stuff tell the audience where can they find you and where can they connect with you
Dawn Dimicco (33:00.260)
hm
Dawn Dimicco (33:02.680)
right
Dawn Dimicco (33:07.960)
well thank you
Dawn Dimicco (33:16.800)
I’m old but i like i love facebook I’m still on facebook all the time just at dawn de mico you can find me I’m the only dan demico there same thing on instagram linked in easiest ways to get in touch would love to chat with whoever about this or anything else you want to talk about
Nick McGowan(33:32.879)
good stuff you all that stuff is going to be in the show notes again dan it’s been a pleasure to have you on i appreciate your time today
Dawn Dimicco (33:38.320)
thank you
https://youtu.be/QsAhgCog_b4