Fruitbowl: An Oral History of Queer Sex

Nathan's story is, at once, extremely unique and totally relatable in that he comes from an Egyptian-American family but was raised in an insular Christian community in New Jersey where being gay was a red line that was not to be crossed. The youngest of his family with two much-older sisters, Nathan didn’t always fit in as the leader of his high school bible club. Fortunately, his best friend, Mi...

You'd think living 2 hours from LA would provide plenty of opportunities for a queer kid to explore queer culture; but when you live in a trailer on an abandoned citrus orchard with limited introductions to other people and spotty internet, eighty miles can seem like a million. Nonetheless, Patrick eventually learned about sex and found other queer people, in spite of his mom's objections. A first...

Elliott was raised in Caspar, Wyoming and has packed a lot of living in their 27 years including their own coming out, marriage, divorce, navigating their gender journey as well as figuring out their relationship to their faith, kink and the apps. Elliott also has a lot to say about the act of "squirting" and how to achieve it with a willing partner and also best practices for negotiating intimacy...

Alex grew up in Huntington, NY on Long Island for the first part of his adolescence and, at first, it almost seemed like a fairy gay-mother was watching out for him: a gay-friendly sex education class; a meaningful introduction to a trans woman; and a promising acknowledgement of gay life from his mom were all early examples of acceptance of gay life. But things with his family soon went south whe...

Erik came out early to a supportive family and an older sister who was also gay, but it took him a while to find his queer crew: one that honored creativity and alternative options for a gay kid who didn’t necessarily fit into the typical identity of musicals and Madonna. Instead, Prince was an early influence on Erik’s queer life in addition to his musical tastes. An unrequited love in high schoo...

Shavit was raised on a jewish Moshav in Israel and knew from an early age that he preferred men. When he came of age, his dad took him on a week-long road trip in Europe in order to have “the talk.” The week ended in a Roman hotel room with access to porn. But even though sex wasn't stigmatized in his communal community, being gay was definitely not embraced as an option.  Fortunately, Shavit’s pa...

Raised in Connecticut, Tai was often singled out by other kids because of his Chinese heritage. His parents split up when he was young and his mom came out as a lesbian which, predictably, made his own coming out pretty smooth with his mom and her partner but not so easy with his dad. Even though he knew he was gay pretty early on, Tai didn't have sex until college and, once he bottomed for his fi...

Salvador (who identifies as genderqueer and uses he, she and they pronouns) was raised in Whittier, California, between LA and Orange County. Growing up, he didn’t know that their twin was also queer, so most of her sexual explorations were conducted in secret: checking out queer erotic fiction and books about gay sex at the library and cruising the local mall’s bathrooms. The summer between their...

As a gay man who came of age in the 70s, Paul has had a front row seat for the highs of the sexual revolution, the excesses of the 80s as well as the lows of the AIDS crisis.  A self-described “snoop,” Paul discovered a sex manual in his parents bedside nightstand drawer and, as an early bloomer, experimented with masturbation from an early age. After a struggle with addiction, Paul rediscovered t...

I have a deep archive of interviews I am turning into podcast episodes and I'm planning on working hard this year to share them with you. I confess to not knowing what order I will share them. I kind of make it up as I go along. But after finishing the first three for this season, I knew we needed to hear from someone who DIDN'T grow up in a hostile and/or religious fundamentalist environment. But...

Deaunte grew up on the “souf” end of Seattle and lives just a few minutes away from Rainer Beach High School where he graduated high school. But between now and then he’s lived in Florida, Philly and Washington DC which was the first place he lived where he regularly met black gay doctors, politicians and, most importantly, activists. Since learning of his HIV positive status and surviving a meth...

This week’s featured interview requested an audio-only interview and asked that his real name not be used and with good reason. “Alan” was excommunicated from his family and church and has been fired three different times because of his sexuality. Needless to say, growing up Mormon in places like California’s conservative hotbed of the Inland Empire and rural Idaho has not been easy. But these cha...

Growing up in a house full of beautiful, angry women. Showering with a neighborhood bully and hooking up with an Amry guy in Manilla who is even hotter than his profile pics. These are just a few of the topics Josh discusses in this Season 3 premiere episode of FRUITBOWL! For those of you who have listened to seasons 1 and 2, you’ll notice a new, stripped down format. Why? Put simply, all the extr...

It’s a tale of two Daves! Dave Quantic welcomes guest co-host Dave White as they listen to and comment on a few memorable moments from Season 2! Dave White is the creator and co-host of the Linoleum Knife movie review podcast along with his husband and fellow film critic, Alonso Duralde. You can find out more about their Linoleum Knife podcast empire (including three other podcast series that are...

Growing up in Denver with a large, complex family, Adé got an early education in sex when they discovered their parents banging it out on the washing machine. During adolescence, Adé explored with both boys and girls and discovered very different reactions when adults discovered the experimentation. Luckily, an early sexual relationship with a neighbor, Quentin, became a safe, lasting partnership...