The Trump Administration’s explicit animus toward transgender people is a well-documented and very public fact.

Starting in his first term and now in his second, President Trump and his Administration have carried out a systematic, years-long effort to roll back protections for LGBTQ+ people.

Beginning in January 2025, the Administration issued a series of executive orders specifically targeted at trans people. Trump’s directives include targeting transgender students, banning trans Americans from military service, and giving federal agencies the go ahead to overtly discriminate against their trans employees.

While the Administration’s discrimination against transgender people is taking many forms, and fostering fear in people who identify as trans, it’s also impacting the friends and families of those who identify as transgender.

Roger Smith is a novelist and retired history teacher who lives in Brewster, MA. He’s also the father of a transgender son, Alex, whom he loves dearly.

In this poignant interview with PFLAG Cape Cod’s Rick Koonce, Rog describes the fear -- and outrage -- he feels at how the U.S. government is singling out and discriminating against transgender people today.

But, discrimination against people who don’t fit neatly into certain social, ethnic, cultural, and sexual categories has a long, long history in America, says this former history teacher.

Sadly and historically, Smith says, the “othering” of people seen as being on society's margins is part of our nation’s DNA.

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For more information, visit the PFLAG Cape Cod website: https://www.pflagcapecod.org/podcasts.html

© 2020 - 2025 PFLAG Cape Cod

Susanne Bennett describes herself as a white, queer, cis-gender, able-bodied, and educated elder woman.

At 78, this former college professor and retired clinical social worker also describes herself as a questioner, a doubter, and someone who’s always sought to better understand herself as a sexual and spiritual person.

These are just a few of the topics Susanne explores in a new memoir, Evolving: Faith, Sexuality and Aging.

The book chronicles a life that’s been full of unexpected twists and turns, moments of doubt and uncertainty, followed by hard-won personal clarity --- about the interrelationship of sexuality, spirituality, and the aging process.

Growing up in the south, the daughter of a Southern Baptist minister, Susanne considered herself straight and religiously conservative for many years. She married a man, became a mother to two children, and settled down to married life.

But then her husband announced he was gay, and her daughter came out as a lesbian at 17.

All this rocked Susanne’s world. And prompted her to ask a lot of questions; to become curious about herself and her faith, and to embark on a path of learning and self-discovery that changed her life forever.

Today, Susanne’s happily married to her wife, Cay and lives in Brewster, MA. She’s also a grandmother with three grandkids who identify as trans or non-binary.

In this thoughtful interview with PFLAG Cape Cod’s Rick Koonce, Susanne opens up – about faith, family, her unique life journey, and her fluid sexuality.

She talks too about her life today on Cape Cod, as a member of St. Mary’s Episcopal Church in Barnstable, MA.

And, about how her religious faith has evolved, just as her understanding of her sexuality has evolved over more than seven decades of living.

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For more information, visit the PFLAG Cape Cod website: https://www.pflagcapecod.org/podcasts.html

© 2020 - 2025 PFLAG Cape Cod

Lindsey Straus is a 73-year-old trans woman who’s also the biological father of three sons -- triplets -- now in their early 40s.

The story of Lindsey’s transition --- from husband, devoted dad, and little league coach to trans woman, social activist, and lay minister at her church in Brewster MA --- is truly inspiring and courageous.

But that transitional journey did not come easily or without pain.

After more than 20 years of heterosexual marriage, Lindsey decided to transition and become a woman at the age of 50 in 2001.

Years of separation and estrangement from her family then followed.

Lindsey moved out of the house, while remaining the family's sole breadwinner. But, she was excluded from major family events including vacations and graduations.

All that said, as she tells PFLAG Cape Cod’s Rick Koonce in this interview, eventually, reconciliation with her family DID take place. Even with Lindsey’s ex-wife, with whom she now talks almost every day.

As for her three sons?

Surprisingly, a common love of the Boston Red Sox by both Lindsey and her grown sons helped heal family wounds and bring her and her boys back into each others’ lives.

Lindsey even remembers the exact date: October 18, 2004.

It was the day after Game 4 of the American League Championship series, when the Red Sox scored a major comeback against the New York Yankees.

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For more information, visit the PFLAG Cape Cod website: https://www.pflagcapecod.org/podcasts.html

© 2020 - 2025 PFLAG Cape Cod

In the prolonged, often contentious battle for marriage equality in the United States, it can truly be said that Linda and Gloria Bailey-Davies are pioneers.

Together now for over 50 years, the happily married Cape Cod couple, both former therapists, were among the seven couples who were litigants in the Massachusetts same-sex marriage case (Goodrich vs Department of Public Health) that led to the landmark legalization of same-sex marriage in the Bay State in 2004. Victory in that case helped create momentum for the eventual legalization of same-sex marriage throughout the U.S. in June of 2015.

In this moving and wide-ranging interview with PFLAG Cape Cod’s Rick Koonce, recorded just before the 2024 presidential election, Linda and Gloria, who never imagined they’d become social activists, describe how they got involved as key players in one of the most important social movements of the last 50 years.

On a personal level, they also describe how they found each other, the role ping-pong played in their early relationship, what their journey toward committing themselves to one another has been like, and what they see as the secrets to anyone forming and sustaining a healthy and loving long-term relationship.

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For more information, visit the PFLAG Cape Cod website: https://www.pflagcapecod.org/podcasts.html

© 2020 - 2024 PFLAG Cape Cod

Sarah Messeck and Avery Condon are a young couple very much in love. The two met at a Cape Cod Pride event in June 2022 and soon afterwards began dating. Eventually they plan to marry.

Sarah, an animal welfare advocate and horse riding enthusiast, identifies as a cisgender woman and uses the pronouns she and her. In the past, she had relationships with people of different genders.

Avery, who’s passionate about environmental and social justice issues, and was previously married to a woman, today identifies as transgender and non-binary and uses they and them pronouns.

In this fascinating interview with PFLAG Cape Cod’s Rick Koonce, Sarah and Avery talk in depth about their relationship – how they met, and the basis of their attraction to one another on many levels…

They offer illuminating insights into how the dynamics of physical and emotional attraction, gender identity, and gender presentation operate for them in the context of a non-traditional relationship…

But that relationship is traditional in at least one sense, as the two plan to tie the marriage knot – most likely in the fall of 2025 - with both their families and friends lovingly looking on.

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For more information, visit the PFLAG Cape Cod website: https://www.pflagcapecod.org/podcasts.html

© 2020 - 2024 PFLAG Cape Cod

Dr. Jane Fleishman is an accomplished sexuality educator, writer, program developer, and researcher. In 2016, at the age of 62, she received her doctorate in Human Sexuality from the Widener University Center for Human Sexuality Studies after a successful career as a consultant for a large public mental health system.

In this fascinating interview with PFLAG Cape Cod’s Rick Koonce, Fleishman delves deeply into the challenges LGBTQ+ seniors face as they navigate the passages of advancing age, and must deal with issues of health and wellness, self-esteem, companionship and intimacy, and continued sexual vitality and identity.

Fleishman has long believed that it’s important for members of the LGBTQ+ community to redefine their ideas of sexual vitality, beauty, and desirability, and to debunk old but enduring myths about sexuality and aging.

“Wrinkles and gray hair are as beautiful as a face without wrinkles,” she says, adding, “I’m a campaign to invite people to love their aging queer bodies and to upend the narrative that the only kind of beauty is associated with youth.” "That," she says, "is a binary way of looking at the world that doesn’t serve you, me or anybody else in the LGBTQ+ community.”

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For more information, visit the PFLAG Cape Cod website: https://www.pflagcapecod.org/podcasts.html

© 2020 - 2024 PFLAG Cape Cod

Brett 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 as a gay man, and about being a political science and public policy nerd, even as a teenager, who developed an early passion for politics.

He talks, too, about the mark he hopes to make on Providence as mayor, and about the high school teacher and coach who helped him believe in himself.

Finally, he talks about being an uncle to his nephews, his love of running, his recovery from alcoholism in his early 20’s, and about meeting his husband, Jim, a prominent real estate agent in Rhode Island, and now the first First Gentleman of Providence.

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For more information, visit the PFLAG Cape Cod website: https://www.pflagcapecod.org/podcasts.html

© 2020 - 2024 PFLAG Cape Cod

Rick 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 Koonce, Rick talks about where his motivation to do this work comes from ... about the challenges gay men still face in today’s world ...

And, how therapy can help anyone to overcome pain and find happiness and self-empowerment in the process.

Please click the button to subscribe so you don't miss any episodes 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

© 2020 - 2024 PFLAG Cape Cod