UNCLOSETED with Spencer Macnaughton

Don Lemon is one of the most well-known journalists in America. He became a household name during his 17 years working for CNN before breaking out on his own in 2023 and starting Lemon Media Network the year after. That project has grown into one of the most successful independent news outlets in the U.S. The Don Lemon show, for example, boasts 1.4 million YouTube subscribers and 2.9 million Insta...

The debate over trans athletes has reached a fever pitch. Riley Gaines , a former collegiate swimmer who tied for fifth place with a trans swimmer in 2022, has become a star in the world of conservative politics. Former NBA players Enes Kanter Freedom and Royce White recently announced their intentions to enter the WNBA draft and “expose” the league’s lack of policy for transgender players. And le...

On July 4, 2025, a protest outside of the Prairieland Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention facility near Dallas, Texas, escalated as some protestors broke off and committed acts of vandalism . The protest had started hours earlier as a noise demonstration where activists set off fireworks and used other noise makers to alert detainees in the facility that they supported them. ...

Tristan Schukraft started his first business when he was 21, selling Razor scooters out of his pickup truck to help finance his idea for an e-ticketing platform for the airline industry. Now, he boasts a portfolio of 68 businesses, which he says have led him to become a “billionaire.”  Schukraft has become widely known as the “CEO of Everything Gay.” He is the CEO of MISTR, a major LGBTQ...

Dr. Demetre Daskalakis is one of the foremost LGBTQ health professionals in the U.S. In November 2020, the waning months of Trump’s first term, he was appointed director of the Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Through part of his tenure with the Biden administration, he also served as the deputy response coordinator for mpox at the White Hous...

Lindsey Graham, who passed away on July 11 at 71 years old, served in the Senate for 23 years and garnered a reputation for his hawkish views and hardline anti-LGBTQ beliefs . Years before his death, rumors swirled as allegations surfaced about the Republican senator engaging with male sex workers. The public and the media underscored the hypocrisy of the senator publicly working to roll back LGBT...

In her first video interview from Johnson County Jail in Texas, Hill tells Uncloseted Media she is a “political prisoner.” She says she and her co-defendants—two of whom are also trans—have been unjustly locked up by the Trump administration, who has claimed that they are part of an antifa cell. “UNCLOSETED with Spencer Macnaughton” is a new podcast by Uncloseted Media, an investigative LGBTQ-focu...

In February, Doug Wilson made headlines after giving a sermon at the Pentagon as part of Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s monthly Christian worship service. Wilson, the lead pastor at Christ Church in Moscow, Idaho, holds a number of controversial views: He believes the U.S. should become a Christian theocracy, married women shouldn’t have the right to vote and gay sex should be illegal. ...

Brien James, who joined the Ku Klux Klan as a teenager, speaks with Uncloseted Media about far-right extremists’ views on LGBTQ people in 2026. For my newsletter this week, I wanted to take a deeper look into Patriot Front, the white nationalist group that made headlines last weekend with huge rallies across Washington, D.C. One photo, taken by a Reuters journalist, displayed a Black woman on the...

After appearing on the 11th season of RuPaul’s Drag Race, the first season of Canada's Drag Race: Canada vs. the World, the sixth season of RuPaul’s All Stars and now the 11th season of All Stars, Silky Nutmeg Ganache, known by many as the Reverend, is undoubtedly a legend.  Born and raised in Moss Point, Mississippi, Ganache bears all in this episode of “UNCLOSETED with Spencer Macnaughton.”...

In April, dominatrix and sex worker Shy Sotomayor revealed that she had had a nine-year professional relationship with Bryon Noem, the husband of former Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem. Following reports in March that Bryon Noem had allegedly engaged in feminization and “bimbofication” fetishes with other sex workers, Sotomayor is sharing more details about his interest in trans identit...

“UNCLOSETED, with Spencer Macnaughton” is a new podcast by Uncloseted Media, an investigative LGBTQ-focused nonprofit news publication. Follow and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. YouTube // Spotify // Apple Milo Miles, a Toronto-based adult film actor, was recently banned from entering the United States for the next 10 years after he says he was detained and questioned by Customs and Bor...

“UNCLOSETED, with Spencer Macnaughton” is a new podcast by Uncloseted Media, an investigative LGBTQ-focused nonprofit news publication. Follow and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. YouTube // Spotify // Apple You may know Peppermint as a runner-up on season 9 of “RuPaul’s Drag Race.” Or for her stint as the first trans competitor on the runaway hit “The Traitors.” Or for her relentless act...

On May 6, the Trump administration released their new counterterrorism strategy . It delineated three “major types of terror groups,” including “narcoterrorists and transnational gangs,” “legacy Islamist terrorists” and “violent left-wing extremists, including anarchists and anti-fascists.” In a glaring departure from the Biden administration’s strategy focused on far-right extremists and white su...

LGBTQ kids make up a third of the American foster care system and transgender kids enter it at five times the rate of the general population. But in 2026, there are few legal protections for LGBTQ youth in the system. Uncloseted Media’s Sam Donndelinger spoke with case workers, advocates and survivors of the foster care system and uncovered why it’s failing trans kids . In this episode of “UNCLOSE...

Peter Boykin founded Gays for Trump 10 years ago as an organization to “get out the vote” for gay Trump supporters during the president’s first run for office. The organization grew fast by creating Facebook campaigns and hosting events at the Republican National Convention. Now, over one year into Trump’s second term, Boykin’s group is smaller but still boasts 11,000 members.  In this episod...

In 1992, James Dale sued the Boy Scouts of America after they kicked him out for being gay. The case lasted nearly a decade and made it all the way to the Supreme Court.  While SCOTUS ultimately ruled against Dale in a 5-4 decision, his case paved the way for LGBTQ inclusion across the organization. In 2014, the Boy Scouts started allowing gay boys to join the organization. Three years later,...

Matt Bernstein, also known as Mattxiv on Instagram, where he boasts 2.2 million followers, is one of the most influential Internet voices for young queer progressives in the U.S. Through vertical videos, uniquely curated social posts and a podcast called “A Bit Fruity,” Bernstein tackles the most pressing—and controversial—issues of our time, but presents them in an accessible and bite-sized way t...

On March 31, the Supreme Court (SCOTUS) voted 8-1 to overturn Colorado’s ban on conversion therapy. In their ruling, which was seen has a huge blow for LGBTQ rights, SCOTUS sided with lawyers from the Southern Poverty Law-Center designated anti-LGBTQ hate group Alliance Defending Freedom and in turn paved for 23 other states and D.C. to overturn bans. More than half of the 700,00 Americans who hav...

Ketamine use is on the rise among Americans. But if you’re a gay man, that probably comes as no surprise. Gay and lesbian adults are almost four times more likely to use ketamine than their heterosexual counterparts, and a 2011 study from the U.K. found that queer men were over three times more likely than queer women to use the drug. For many gay men—who disproportionately suffer from trauma and...

On his first day back in office, President Trump signed an executive order that banned all forms of gender-affirming care for trans people in federal prisons. Six months later, a federal judge issued a preliminary injunction blocking the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) from enforcing the order. This block is still in effect today. Despite the judge’s order, Uncloseted Media’s Hope Pisoni spoke with eight...

When Katy Faust was 10 years old, her parents divorced. After that, her mom began a relationship with another woman.  Faust says she loves her mom. So it may surprise you to learn that she’s now at the helm of The Greater Than Campaign, a new coalition of at least 47 anti-LGBTQ groups fighting to overturn gay marriage. Faust and her campaign argue that children are victims when raised by same...

LAUNCHING MARCH 25th: UNCLOSETED with Spencer Macnaughton is a new podcast that investigates the people, money and power behind America’s anti-LGBTQ ecosystem. Join Spencer each week as he interviews Uncloseted reporters as well as the leading voices on issues facing the LGBTQ community today. From highlighting the voices of people fighting back against systems of injustice to covering breaking ne...