Profiles in LGBTQ+ Courage
37 episodes - English - Latest episode: 15 days ago - ★★★★★ - 4 ratingsThis podcast program, produced by Huntington Northstar Productions of Hyannis, Massachusetts, in collaboration with PFLAG Cape Cod, explores the lives of PFLAG Cape Cod members, including members of the LGBTQ+ community and their families, who have dealt with issues of sexual identity/orientation, gender transition, and social acceptance.
Many episodes offer moving and intimate portraits of individuals wrestling with their sexual/gender identity, and the path they have taken toward wholeness and healthy self-acceptance. Other episodes profile the parents, family members, and allies of LGBTQ+ individuals on their own journeys toward understanding and acceptance of loved ones.
Profiles in LGBTQ+ Courage is intended both to educate listeners about the challenges facing those who identify as LGBTQ+, and to help anyone struggling with issues of orientation and sexual/gender identity to find the resources and social support they need to lead happy, fulfilling lives.
Rick Koonce (Host, Interviewer and Producer) is a former print and broadcast journalist and author or co-author of seven books. A board member of PFLAG Cape Cod, he was a commentator on Public Radio’s popular business program, “Marketplace” for five years, and has conducted hundreds of interviews with people from every walk of life over the course of a 25-plus year long career in business and print and broadcast journalism.
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Episodes
Interview with Mayor Brett Smiley | Ep #37
April 12, 2024 07:00 - 35 minutes - 24.9 MBBrett Smiley is the married, gay mayor of Providence, Rhode Island, the first in the city's 400-year history. Elected to office in 2022 on his second try for the job, Smiley got his start in Rhode Island politics years before, serving as Chief Operating Officer for Providence and Director of Administration for the Ocean State, as well as Chief of Staff to former Rhode Island Governor Gina Raimondo. In this revealing interview with PFLAG Cape Cod’s Rick Koonce, Brett talks about coming out ...
Interview with Rick Miller | Ep #36
March 15, 2024 07:00 - 37 minutes - 25.9 MBRick Miller is a psychotherapist who works extensively with gay men. Gay himself, he has pioneered the use of mind-body experiential therapy to assist gay men, and other members of the LGBTQ+ community, in dealing with early life trauma. Through doing such work, Rick has helped many in the community discover inner strength, build personal resiliency, embrace self-love, and build strong and healthy relationships with others. In this thought-provoking interview with PFLAG Cape Cod’s Rick K...
Interview with Mara Betti | Ep #35
August 18, 2023 07:00 - 40 minutes - 28.5 MBMara Betti is a successful, 50-something architect, working for one of the leading architectural firms in Boston. She’s also a transwoman and biological father of two sons, ages 18 and 22. In this deeply personal interview with PFLAG Cape Cod’s Rick Koonce, Mara talks emotionally about coming out and accepting herself as trans; a journey that has taken her decades, and which has put tremendous strain on her heterosexual marriage to her wife – whom she met in college and still describes a...
Interview with Jake Wanamaker | Ep #34
August 04, 2023 07:00 - 39 minutes - 27.8 MBAssigned female at birth, Jake Wanamaker is a 2023 graduate of Nauset High School on Cape Cod who today identifies as a Transman. For Jake, the awareness that he was born into a body of the wrong-gender for him came early, when he was only a few years old. But he didn’t have the knowledge or vocabulary with which to understand the feelings and emotions deep within him. So, he went online, at an early age, to learn more about the Transgender world and later found help from both a sensitive ...
Interview with Ann Burke | Ep #33
June 30, 2023 07:00 - 37 minutes - 26 MBAnn Burke is a registered nurse and long-time advocate for Transgender people who live on Cape Cod, Nantucket, and Martha's Vineyard. She serves as a board member of the Cape and Islands Transgender Resource Fund, and also acts as a counselor and facilitator of Transgender social support meetings, held twice monthly on he Cape, under the auspices of Fenway Health of Boston. In this insightful interview with PFLAG Cape Cod's Rick Koonce, Ann, who is NOT Transgender herself, explains why s...
Interview with Rikki Bates | Ep #32
June 16, 2023 07:00 - 42 minutes - 29.3 MBRikki Bates is a rock and roll drummer who has struggled much of her life with gender dysphoria. For years, like many Transgender people, she lived with deep depression, and a lack of adequate employment. Then, she managed to get gender reassignment surgery which changed her life. In the process, she also brought about precedent-setting changes in how Transgender health care is provided to people in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. In this fascinating and wide-ranging interview with PF...
Interview with Zooey Zephyr | Ep #31
June 02, 2023 07:00 - 41 minutes - 29.2 MBTransgender activist and first-time state legislator Zooey Zephyr made national headlines in April 2023 when she spoke out in support of Transgender rights in the Montana state legislature and was banished from legislative debate on the topic as a result. Courageous leadership is often defined by four compelling traits: Confidence in oneself, commitment to one’s values and beliefs, the ability to persist, and a warrior spirit! By those metrics, Transgender activist and first-time state l...
Interview with Felice Cohen | Ep #30
October 07, 2022 14:19 - 30 minutes - 21.5 MBAt the age of 23, Felice Cohen was, like many other college graduates, hesitant about entering the real world, and at the same time, uncertain about her sexuality. Focused on landing her first job as a writer, falling in love was the last thing on Felice’s mind. But fall in love she did -- with her boss, Sarah, a woman 34 years older than she. It was a relationship that lasted 9 years. And for Felice, it was the first taste of true love and deep intimacy. But the affair took place in sec...
Interview with Jere Mahaffey | Ep #29
September 02, 2022 07:00 - 39 minutes - 27.5 MBJere Mahaffey is a 35-year-old former Evangelical Christian. He’s also an out, married gay/bisexual man who has retained many of the tenets of his early Christian faith, while leaving other elements of evangelical doctrine behind him. As an adolescent, Jere was drawn initially to girls, and even had girlfriends while he was in junior high school. But eventually he discovered he found boys attractive as well. Today, he and his partner, Jesse, have been together for nine years and married ...
Interview with Connor Ryan | Ep #28
August 19, 2022 07:00 - 25 minutes - 18.2 MBConnor Ryan is an 18-year-old transgender male and 2022 graduate of Bourne High School in Bourne, MA. He’s also one of three recipients of the 2022 Anne Toran scholarship, an award given annually by PFLAG Cape Cod to high school seniors from the Cape in recognition of their courage and work on behalf of LGBTQ+ rights. In this insightful interview with PFLAG Cape Cod’s Rick Koonce, Connor talks about the time during his high school career when he boldly confronted a school committee membe...
Interview with Lilith Rose | Ep #27
June 24, 2022 07:00 - 41 minutes - 29.2 MBLilith Rose is a twenty-something individual who identifies as transgender and non-binary. At the time of this interview, they had also just been named executive director of PFLAG San Francisco. Lilith grew up in what she describes as a toxic home environment. Born anatomically male, they first came out as gay before eventually discovering they are transgender. Today, Lilith is committed to educating others about the LGBTQ+ world. A professional speaker and blogger, they speak frequently...
Interview with Jeff Mack | Ep #26
May 13, 2022 07:00 - 36 minutes - 25.2 MBIn October 1998, Matthew Shepard, a 21-year-old student at the University of Wyoming, was brutally attacked and tied to a fence outside of Laramie, Wyoming. Five days later he died of deep wounds inflicted in one of the most vicious anti-gay attacks in American history. In this wide-ranging interview with PFLAG Cape Cod’s Rick Koonce, Jeff Mack, a personal friend of Matt’s and today the Executive Vice President of the Matthew Shepard Foundation, talks movingly about Matt, his life, and the...
Interview with Alex Hagler | Ep #25
April 22, 2022 07:00 - 37 minutes - 26.2 MBAlex Hagler is a Latin and history teacher at a prestigious private school outside Boston. They’re also the recent co-founder of their school’s first Gay Straight Alliance. GSA’s (also known as Genders & Sexualities Alliances) operate in many school systems across the country today. As clubs, they’re intended to serve as safe spaces for LGBTQ+ youth in middle schools and high schools. Increasingly, however, they’re also serving as catalysts for social, racial, and gender justice. In this...
Interview with Kimberly Brooks Mazella | Ep #24
March 11, 2022 08:00 - 43 minutes - 30.2 MBImagine being in a traditional heterosexual marriage for many years and then discovering that your husband or wife is gay or lesbian. What would you think? How would you react? What would you do? And where would you go to get help and find understanding in dealing with your situation? In the late 1980s, Kimberly Brooks Mazella found herself in this very situation, after being married to her husband Rob for less than three years. Today, she is a McLean, VA-based counselor and therapist ...
Interview with Lady Di | Ep #23
February 25, 2022 08:00 - 34 minutes - 24.4 MB“Vernon Diannah Porter” is probably not a name you readily recognize. But that’s because he’s much better known by his stage name and alter ego, “Lady Di”, host of the popular Friday evening radio show, Leggs Up and Dancing, on WOMR-FM in Provincetown, Massachusetts. Lady Di has been a popular fixture at WOMR for the last 22 years. Each week, she hosts her show from her home in Sandwich, MA, playing music -- mostly from the 50s, 60s, 70s, and 80s, -- all the while presiding over a one-pers...
Interview with Jane Martin & Helen Malone | Ep #22
February 11, 2022 08:00 - 39 minutes - 27.9 MBSome life partners first spot each other from across a crowded room. But not Helen Malone. With a piece of birthday cake in hand, she literally bumped into her future wife, Jane Martin from behind, at a birthday party for a mutual friend back in 2002. From the moment they met, the lives of both women changed rapidly. And while their lives today on Cape Cod -- with three dogs – seems like the picture of domestic bliss, their back stories include marriages by both women to former husbands....
Interview with Rev. Dr. Joan Beilstein | Ep #21
January 28, 2022 08:00 - 35 minutes - 24.6 MBDr. Joan Beilstein is a Lesbian Episcopal Priest, and Rector of the Church of the Ascension in Silver Spring MD. Today, though a senior, well-respected pastor in the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, DC, there was a time when Joan was rejected by her own priest for being gay. And even after being ordained a priest herself in 1994, Joan struggled to find employment, because no one wanted to hire an openly lesbian priest. In this revealing interview with PFLAG Cape Cod’s Rick Koonce, Joan lo...
Hollis L. | Ep #20
January 14, 2022 08:00 - 32 minutes - 23 MBHollis 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 def...
Interview with David Bermudez & Bob Isadore | Ep #19
September 24, 2021 07:30 - 40 minutes - 28 MBDavid 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...
David Bermudez: Letter from President Barack Obama | Ep #18
September 24, 2021 07:00 - 2 minutes - 2.08 MBDavid 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 ...
Interview with David Bermudez | Ep #17
June 25, 2021 07:00 - 47 minutes - 33.4 MBIn 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 s...
Interview with Ryan R. | Ep #16
May 21, 2021 07:00 - 39 minutes - 27.3 MBRyan 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 ...
Interview with Nell Fields | Ep #15
May 07, 2021 07:00 - 31 minutes - 21.9 MBNell 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 s...
Interview with Deer Sullivan | Ep #14
April 23, 2021 07:00 - 34 minutes - 24.4 MBBisexuality... 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...
Interview with Dr. Maureen Osborne | Ep #13
April 09, 2021 07:00 - 37 minutes - 26.5 MBDr. 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 an...
Interview with Ali Sands | Ep #12
March 26, 2021 07:00 - 46 minutes - 32.3 MBAli 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 accompa...
Interview with Dirk Correia | Ep #11
March 12, 2021 08:00 - 33 minutes - 23.4 MBDirk 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 socie...
Lori Duron | Ep #10
February 26, 2021 08:00 - 44 minutes - 31.3 MBShe calls herself “a fierce Mama bear” when it comes to safeguarding the rights and safety of her two boys. So says Lori Duron, author of Raising My Rainbow, a book that chronicles her family’s adventures raising a gender creative child named C.J., a boy who, from the age of just two and a half, displayed clues that he wasn’t like other kids. While Duron’s older son, Chase, grew up as a sports-playing boy’s boy, even as a small child, C.J. enjoyed playing with Barbie dolls, and twirling arou...
Elias Lieberman: Ally | Ep #9
February 12, 2021 08:00 - 29 minutes - 20.5 MBRabbi Elias Lieberman has been Rabbi of the Falmouth Jewish Congregation on Cape Cod since 1990. In that time, he’s been a steadfast champion of LGBTQ rights, signing on early to support same-sex marriage when it first became law in Massachusetts, and later, becoming an outspoken advocate of transgender rights as well. His congregation also served as the host location for meetings of PFLAG Cape Cod for many years. For Rabbi Lieberman, social justice efforts are all in a day’s work, and in ke...
Joanne Hush: Mother | Ep #8
January 29, 2021 08:00 - 27 minutes - 19.4 MBYou might call Joanne Hush a social pioneer. It’s probably not a label she would ascribe to herself. But, Joanne is the mother of a gay son and a lesbian daughter, both of whom came out to her (and her husband Paul) decades ago –- in the 1980s and early 90s -- when having openly gay or lesbian children was far more controversial and uncommon than it is today. Joanne learned her son was gay in the late 1980s, at the peak of the AIDS epidemic. Back then, there wasn’t a good public understand...
Alex: Trans Man | Ep #7
January 15, 2021 08:00 - 28 minutes - 20.3 MB36-year-old Alex Smith knew, from an early age, that he was different. But, as a child, he didn't have the vocabulary to describe his feelings, or the psychological maturity to understand the emotions that stirred in him. Born female, it would be years before he realized he was, in fact, transgender. In this revealing interview with interviewer and PFLAG - Cape Cod member Rick Koonce, Alex describes his decades-long journey in search of himself, a journey that was both colorful and insightfu...
Susan Smith: Parent | Ep #6
January 01, 2021 08:00 - 34 minutes - 24.1 MBSusan Smith is the mother of a 36-year-old transgender son who she raised with her husband, Roger, on a rural Pennsylvania farm. Back in the 1980s and 90s, sexuality wasn't a topic that even most progressive, open-minded parents eagerly discussed with their kids. But from an early age, Susan realized that something was going on with her daughter. The event became a turning point in Susan's dawning awareness that her daughter was transgender. In this touching interview with PFLAG's Rick Koo...
Max Archer | Ep #5
December 18, 2020 08:00 - 33 minutes - 23.1 MBMax Archer is the 38-year-old father of an adult daughter and three school age boys. A nurse by training, he works from home for a major health insurance company, and in his spare time, volunteers for several justice organizations on Cape Cod. So, what makes Max different from many other single parents? Max is a Trans man. In this revealing interview with PFLAG's Rick Koonce, Max describes the many twists and turns in his transition from female to male; what he's learned about life, fa...
Robyn Keating | Ep #4
December 04, 2020 08:00 - 40 minutes - 28.1 MBRobyn Keating is a 26-year-old transgender woman. Born into a male body, she knew, from an early age, that she didn't identify with boys, but did identify with being a girl. While her mother (Dina) was always supportive of her being whoever she felt herself to be, Robyn was afraid of her father. Consequently, she remained in the closet for years, until, one autumn day, in 2017, at the age of 23, she told her mother she was transgender. From there, mother and daughter began a journey together...
Dina Guarino | Ep #3
November 19, 2020 17:00 - 27 minutes - 19.4 MBWhen you have a child who comes out as transgender, it can be an emotional rollercoaster to deal with. You can also feel like nobody in the world understands what you’re dealing with. So says Dina G. of Cape Cod. In 2017, Dina’s 23-year-old son shared with her that he was, in fact, a woman. Since that time, both Dina and her daughter, Robyn have been on a journey of exploration, discovery, and acceptance together. At times, that journey has been a difficult one for Dina, as she tells PFLAG...
Paula Degree | Ep #2
November 04, 2020 23:19 - 29 minutes - 20.9 MBImagine being in your mid-sixties, married (for the second time) and discovering you’re transgender! The life of Paula Degree is a compelling story of courage, self-exploration, long sought answers, and fearless personal honesty. Married twice and the parent of three children, Paula says the day she realized, in her therapist’s office, that she was transgender was a life epiphany, and a moment that FINALLY set her free. In this interview with PFLAG’s Rick Koonce, she describes a life ful...
Joey Morisset | Ep #1
October 21, 2020 20:40 - 25 minutes - 18 MBCourage is a quality we usually associate with age, wisdom, and years of lived experience. But what if you’re just 18 years old, full of vibrant enthusiasm and energy, and a young gay man who’s already found his voice when it comes to LGBTQ+ rights? You’d be describing Joey Morisset, a young gay man from Cape Cod who is already a profile in LGBTQ+ courage, and the First Place Winner of The 2020 Anne Toran Scholarship. This scholarship is awarded annually by PFLAG -- Cape Cod to a graduatin...