Finn Allen (formerly Wanda Mae). Wanda Mae was a little girl raised in a household with an alcoholic mother, an abusive father, and two sisters. She never felt “at home” in her female body, even though at an early age she excelled at sports and was a stand-out school athlete. From the age of 4 or 5, Wanda Mae felt like a boy, not a girl. But in her childhood, she didn’t have a lot of time to dwell on all that. And there was nobody to talk to about her shame, discomfort, and confusion. At home, a...
Aug 08, 2025•35 min•Ep. 45
Joan and Rick Francolini are the parents of a bisexual daughter, Renee, who’s about to marry a transgender man. They’re also committed social justice advocates who recently organized the first-ever Lower Cape Pride celebration on Cape Cod. Dubbed, “Unity in Community,” the three-day event, a multi-generational celebration of LGBTQ+ pride, drew hundreds of people to the towns of Orleans and Brewster, Massachusetts in June 2025. Activities included a parade, an LGBTQ+ community resource fair, musi...
Jul 25, 2025•32 min•Ep. 44
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 fr...
Jul 11, 2025•26 min•Ep. 43
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 tu...
Jun 20, 2025•36 min•Ep. 42
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 wo...
May 23, 2025•26 min•Ep. 41
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 cr...
Nov 15, 2024•48 min•Ep. 40
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 ...
Aug 02, 2024•42 min•Ep. 39
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...
May 10, 2024•38 min•Ep. 38
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 g...
Apr 12, 2024•36 min•Ep. 37
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, R...
Mar 15, 2024•37 min•Ep. 36
Mara 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 as “my be...
Aug 18, 2023•41 min•Ep. 35
Assigned 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 guidan...
Aug 04, 2023•40 min•Ep. 34
Ann 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 she took ...
Jun 30, 2023•37 min•Ep. 33
Rikki 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 PFLAG Cape...
Jun 16, 2023•42 min•Ep. 32
Transgender 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 legislato...
Jun 02, 2023•42 min•Ep. 31
At 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 secrecy and...
Oct 07, 2022•31 min•Ep. 30
Jere 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 for four...
Sep 02, 2022•39 min•Ep. 29
Connor 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 member at a s...
Aug 19, 2022•26 min•Ep. 28
Lilith 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 on topi...
Jun 24, 2022•42 min•Ep. 27
In 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 Found...
May 13, 2022•36 min•Ep. 26
Alex 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 int...
Apr 22, 2022•38 min•Ep. 25
Imagine 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 who specia...
Mar 11, 2022•43 min•Ep. 24
“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-person hou...
Feb 25, 2022•35 min•Ep. 23
Some 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... three...
Feb 11, 2022•40 min•Ep. 22
Dr. 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 looks bac...
Jan 28, 2022•35 min•Ep. 21
Hollis L. is a 25-year-old individual who identifies as both non-binary and transmasculine. That means that, though assigned a designation of female at birth, they don’t fully identify with being a person of either gender. But, in Hollis' case, it does mean they tend to embrace more of a “masculine” identity than a feminine one. In this fascinating interview with PFLAG Cape Cod’s Rick Koonce, the two explore the issue of gender identity in detail. As the interview reveals, agreeing on definition...
Jan 14, 2022•33 min•Ep. 20
David Bermudez and Bob Isadore are a same-sex couple who have been together for 47 years. David, a veteran of the Stonewall uprising of 1969, met Bob, in 1974, when the two were both living and working in New York City. At the time, David was a Manhattan-based interior designer. Bob, was an assistant buyer for Saks Fifth Avenue who hailed from Queens. As they tell PFLAG Cape Cod’s Rick Koonce in this insightful, wide-ranging interview, their relationship began with a bounced check, and a chance ...
Sep 24, 2021•40 min•Ep. 19
David Bermudez's work on behalf of gay rights has continued since the days of the Stonewall uprising. Listen, as he tells PFLAG Cape Cod's Rick Koonce, about the letter he received in the mail one day, acknowledging his decades of work on behalf of all gay and lesbian Americans. Please click the like button above and leave a review if your favorite podcast app has that ability. Thank you! For more information, visit the PFLAG Cape Cod website: https://www.pflagcapecod.org/podcasts.html © 2021 PF...
Sep 24, 2021•2 min•Ep. 18
In the history of the gay rights movement, there are few moments as pivotal as the Stonewall uprising – a night in June 1969, when, confronted by a police raid at the Stonewall Inn in New York City, members of the gay and lesbian communities fought back against police injustice. The rebellion that ensued that night – and on subsequent nights at the Stonewall – eventually helped spark the gay rights movement. It set in motion a social justice juggernaut that would see the nullification of same-se...
Jun 25, 2021•48 min•Ep. 17
Ryan R. is a 24-year-old non-binary lesbian. In Ryan’s case, that means that though they are lesbian and like to date women, they don’t identify with being a girl, a woman, or, with the attributes of traditional femininity. It was a discovery that Ryan made after dating boys in high school, faking physical attraction to males at the time, and then discovering their true gender identity in college and afterwards. “I don’t feel like the words girl or woman describe me,” Ryan tells PFLAG’s Rick Koo...
May 21, 2021•39 min•Ep. 16
