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PODCAST

Coming Out Pod

Coming Out Pod is a weekly podcast hosted by Lauren Flans where queer folks from all walks of life tell the tales of how they came out to friends, family, and the world at large! Because who doesn"t love a coming out story?

health & fitness sexuality

All Episodes

76:37

Episode 225: Eden Robinson

Coming Out Pod ·

2022/11/23

Eden Robinson's story has a little bit of everything: A dad who was both a rabbi *and* a pastor! Marlee Matlin as a gateway drug to The L Word! Kate McKinnon as the final nail in the coffin for compulsory heterosexuality! Eden shares how, despite an upbringing where she was praised for questioning everything, she nevertheless was too frightened to truly interrogate her own sexuality until she was much older. Plus, the confusing difficulty of finding femme lesbian representation IRL, and the choice

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66:17

Episode 224: Rainbow Wave!

Coming Out Pod ·

2022/11/16

Last week, America held its midterm elections, and many of us were nervously anticipating a so-called "red wave." What ended up happening, however, was a red...and orange...*and* yellow...*AND*--okay; we're just gonna cut to the chase: IT WAS A RAINBOW WAVE!!! Lauren and Nicole take a week off from coming out stories to discuss the historic wins queer candidates had in this pivotal, record-breaking election, and what it means for the country. Nicole gives a quick-and-dirty civics lesson! Lauren

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62:05

Episode 223: Tricia Friedman

Coming Out Pod ·

2022/11/09

We have officially set a new record with this week's guest Tricia Friedman, who has lived in a whopping *eight* countries as a result of her longtime work as an educator! And as if that weren't exciting enough, Tricia also gifts us with our first coming out story to ever involve being mistaken for a spy by Russian authorities WHO IS THIS WOMAN OF MYSTERY AND INTRIGUE?! From humble beginnings in New Jersey, Tricia details how her initial move to China gave her the continents-wide space she felt she

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71:32

Episode 222: Karen Frost

Coming Out Pod ·

2022/11/02

We have a rapid-fire discussion about one of our all-time favorite topics: queer female representation in media! Karen Frost describes herself as a "professional lesbian dabbler," but that majorly downplays the WEALTH of knowledge she has as a result of ceaselessly mining the data for queer TV shows, films, and web series! We discuss how (and why) projects like Nicole's As Love Goes face increasing difficulty when it comes to funding, and why outlets like Autostraddle are having trouble staying

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79:18

Episode 221: Val Hill

Coming Out Pod ·

2022/10/26

It's Intersex Awareness Day, and we are thrilled and honored to at long last have on our first ever out intersex guest, the brilliant Val Hill! Val (they/she) is a queer intersex community advocate who facilitates the group Club Intersex for the L.A. LGBT Center, so you would never in a million years guess that, pre-pandemic, she didn't even *know* the umbrella term "intersex!" Val shares how a routine sports physical at the age of fifteen led to them learning that they have complete androgen

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63:52

Episode 220: Jessi Hempel

Coming Out Pod ·

2022/10/19

At the age of nineteen, journalist and author Jessi Hempel came out. Tale as old as time, right? But far less traveled territory is what proceeded to happen over the next several years: four out of five members of Jessi's immediate family - including her father - *ALSO* came out! Two decades later, in the midst of lockdown-induced isolation, Jessi, her parents, and her two younger siblings somewhat unexpectedly began turning to each other for support, despite their tumultuous family history. Equally

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64:52

Episode 219: Janet Varney

Coming Out Pod ·

2022/10/11

Surprise! We're dropping this week's episode a day early because IT'S NATIONAL COMING OUT DAY, Y'ALL! And we're celebrating in a big way with none other than actor Janet Varney, who voices bicon Korra on The Legend of Korra! Janet was never "in" the closet ("The first kisses I ever had were with girls, and that never stopped"), so she found it confusing when the internet informed her that she had "come out." She discusses the eye-opening experience she had doing a comic-con in a

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62:22

Episode 218: Doug Plaut

Coming Out Pod ·

2022/10/05

Actor, writer, and longtime friend of Nicole's, Doug Plaut (Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt; Hurricane Bianca: From Russia with Hate), had what can only be described as a roughhhhh childhood. When Doug (they/he) began exhibiting non-heteronormative traits at an early age ("I was a four-year-old who loved Barbara Streisand"), his parents sought out medical intervention. By late high school, Doug had seen eleven psychiatrists, and been on a whopping *seventeen* different medications. Doug recounts his

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65:40

Episode 217: Kyrsta Morehouse

Coming Out Pod ·

2022/09/28

We're closing out Bi Visibility Month with makeup artist, photographer, and Leif Pacent-Lindquist's "Number One" Babysitter, Kyrsta Morehouse! Kyrsta grew up in a small, conservative town in Northern California and was raised in a "very Christian" home. However, when she became aware of her attraction to women, it wasn't being a lesbian that Kyrsta was afraid of, but rather "living in that weird liminal space." In fact, Kyrsta found herself praying to God to just make her straight *or* gay. Kyrsta

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72:13

Episode 216: Ash Holzer, REDUX!

Coming Out Pod ·

2022/09/21

Episode 33 guest Ash Holzer returns for an episode we've really been looking forward to, because WOW have things changed in her life since she was first on the pod! When we spoke to Ash (formerly "Ashley") in January of 2019, she had recently been part of the L.A. LGBT Center's Women's Coming Out group; she and her husband were living on different sides of the same house while co-parenting their three children, and legal separation papers had been filed. Fast forward to today: Ash and her husband

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79:42

Episode 215: Tawni Sofia Acosta

Coming Out Pod ·

2022/09/14

We talk to one of our co-facilitators at the L.A. LGBT Center, Tawni Sofia Acosta! Tawni is sixty-two, and was born at a time when there was zero information on being transgender ("or if there was information, it was just the freak show information"). As a result, she had no language to explain what she was feeling; she only knew that if she expressed it to her family and friends, things would not go well. Tawni ended up suppressing her true identity so ferociously that she didn't even begin

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59:48

Episode 214: Garrett Schlichte

Coming Out Pod ·

2022/09/07

We bask in the glow of the LUSCIOUSLY-MANED Garrett Schlichte (he/they)! When Nicole heard Garrett's essay "My Relationship Guru Is a 14-Year-Old Girl" on the Modern Love podcast, she knew we had to have him on to talk about "second adolescence," or as it is affectionately known in our community, "queer puberty." Garrett was in the fourth grade when he first got called "gay" by a classmate (because "people have eyes"), and was subsequently so afraid of being seen for who he was that he went through

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69:44

Episode 213: Nicole Serrano

Coming Out Pod ·

2022/08/31

Uh oh! We have a new BFF in Nashville and it's singer/songwriter GODDESS, Nicole Serrano! Nicole (she/they) identifies as non-binary ("I feel like 'female-plus'"), and remembers having crushes on girls as early as preschool. Growing up in the Pentecostal Church, however, meant constant messaging that "gay people were going to Hell," so when it came to her burgeoning sexuality, Nicole says, "I knew what I knew, but it was never an option." Meanwhile, she was singing regularly in church and began

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60:50

Episode 212: Sofia Fey

Coming Out Pod ·

2022/08/24

In the grand tradition of Sappho, Audre Lorde, and probably Emily Dickinson (just sayin'), the pod finally hosts our first ever lesbian poet! Sofia Fey has always "just gravitated towards terms that felt right," and found reclaiming the word "lesbian" to be important to them. However, it wasn't until years later when they began identifying as non-binary and exclusively using they/them pronouns that they finally felt like they were being seen. In addition to being a non-binary lesbian, Sofia also

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75:00

Episode 211: George Azar

Coming Out Pod ·

2022/08/17

Raised in a traditional Middle Eastern family, author and podcaster George Azar ("My Gay Church Days") knew that he was attracted to men even before puberty hit. But when his older brother came out in middle school and was summarily put into therapy, George receded even further into the closet. He became a Young Republican in order to gain his father's approval, and was subsequently drawn to Christianity, which promised a "remedy" for his homosexuality. George excelled so much in the way of the

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68:13

Episode 210: Lauren Ludwig's Mom!

Coming Out Pod ·

2022/08/10

It's a conversation that's been four years in the making! In her first appearance on the pod back in Episode 9, Lauren Ludwig (she/they) told us her coming out story, and detailed a number of parallels that it shared with her own mother's journey, which started back when Lauren was a child. Now, in a special guest co-host episode, Lauren and Lauren (double your Laurens, double your fun!) at long last sit down with Randi Ludwig, the woman who LITERALLY started it all! Randi was born in 1955, and

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9:15

We're Taking The Week Off!

Coming Out Pod ·

2022/08/03

Nicole is in Sweden, so we're taking the week off! But since Lauren is *not* in Sweden, she wanted to briefly hop on the mic to give some alternate listening suggestions, tease next week's very exciting episode, and share the single most lesbian thing she's ever done! Please enjoy all of her lip smacks and "um's" - she had to edit this minisode herself, and has absolutely no idea what she is doing!Links to the other podcast episodes Lauren and Nicole have guested on...The Bechdel

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71:38

Episode 209: Valentina D'Alessandro, REDUX!

Coming Out Pod ·

2022/07/27

When she was first on the podcast back in December of 2018, Valentina D'Alessandro had only been in the U.S. for three years, and had been married to her wife Cynthia for just under two. What we did *not* reveal during that episode was the fact that she and Cynthia had also spent the past year trying for a baby. At that point, they were still hopeful, despite a number of emotional, biological, and financial hurdles that they'd already encountered. But after five years of trying absolutely everything

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77:38

Episode 208: Shohreh Davoodi

Coming Out Pod ·

2022/07/20

Shohreh Davoodi (host of the Conjuring Up Courage podcast) has had a...tumultuous couple of years, to say the least. Raised in the strict, expectation-heavy Baháʼí Faith, Shohreh was always regarded as the "black sheep of the family." But the fact that she was naturally more feminine-presenting meant that her queerness didn't ping for anybody, including herself! Shohreh shares how her slowly-dawning awareness of her sexuality led her to the painful decision to end her marriage, but also guided her

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68:34

Episode 207: J.P. Der Boghossian

Coming Out Pod ·

2022/07/13

We've got J.P. Der Boghossian (he/they), creator of the Queer Armenian Library and host of the brand new podcast, This Queer Book Saved My Life! J.P. grew up with messaging from his religious Armenian community that AIDS and hate crimes were "divine punishment" for being gay; as a result, he believed well into his twenties that he was going to die young. J.P. walks us through his unexpected brush with mortality, what it means to be a queer Armenian-American, and how he went from never being in a

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