Life (UN)Closeted: LGBTQ+ Coming Out Stories & Advice for living out and proud!

It's Pride month and that means go, go, go. Celebrate, celebrate, celebrate. Then you hit the block wall of overdoing it, overthinking it, and even getting down on yourself because everyone else is doing Pride so much more fabulous than you are. WRONG. But what do you do when you start getting in your head? How do you get back to you? What if you could navigate Pride in a very health way and state...

How do you live with courage to become an everyday leader in your life? As an LGBTQ individual? As a Human? Let's ask Ash Beckham. She's got a new book at - Step Up: How To Live With Courage and Become an Everyday Leader , where she takes everything she's learned about leadership since her TEDx Talk "Coming Out of Your Closet" went viral, and distills it down in an easy to understand and apply way...

It's Pride Month and we are kicking it with a celebration and a deep dive into loving yourself in your prideful skin as an LGBTQ person - regardless of your flaws and addictioins. During this fun and deep conversation, David Houle a multidisciplinary artist shares his coming out and addiction recovery journey with ways to celebrate you and your life this pride season. Happy PRIDE everyone! About D...

Imagine being a gay dad. Cool. Now imagine your child loving, loving, loving sports. Is that your worst nightmare come to life? Maybe and if so, you will love this conversation with writer, journalist and hopeful TV Writer of a new sitcom - looking for a home - Bradley Jacobs. No he's not looking for a home but his sitcom, "One of the Guys," needs to land in the public eye in order to bring laught...

We all want to experience freedom, joy, confidence. Many of us also want to keep it simple. When you bring all those desires together, along with burning desire to carve your own path, you meet a woman named Meg He - a clothing brand innovator, a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu athlete and a queer, British-Chinese digital nomad. She's here keeping it real simple about living her life uncloseted. About Meg Meg...

Our LGBTQ bodies are beautiful machines, but not unless we take care of them. Now add the stress of being LGBTQ, plus normal life stuff, and it can easily become a recipe for disaster. But what if you had a plan that stoked your body full of good just by eating right and know what is best for your body, not the fit you in the box way most medical professionals try to make you fit into. Enter Andre...

We've all heard the term "life imitates art, and art imitates life" or something along those lines. Now add to the mix a person who lives, as themselves, as trans and nonbinary opera singer and you have today's guest - Aiden K. Feltkamp (they/he). They are breaking the molds of opera and musical theater with their intimate perspective of their release of the Anthology of New Music: Trans & Non...

Regardless of what's going on in the world, or how you struggle to find yourself in this crazy world, the one thing I want you to know, is you can, should, and have the right to be UNAPOLOGETICALLY YOU! That's what this short little solo episode with me, Rick Clemons, your host is all about. You can also listen to the podcast on…        

Who are you and why are you? Do you ever entertain those thoughts as you navigate your life? As you wander out of the closets of your life? Of course we do, but what if you could step deeper into those questions and uncover that we are on an ever evolving journey into discovering yourself as yourself, completely uncloseted. Benjamina and Azrya Bequer, co-founders and stewards of BEQOMING, a platfo...

Sara Church , author of the new book  Mending My Mind , spent much of her childhood living below the poverty level.  Her mother was a crystal meth addict. One summer she lived in a tent. This caused her severe, constant anxiety and distress. Filled with shame, she became hooked on receiving external validation as she grew older through both her studies and ultimately, her career.  She put herself...

Life is a series of change and transitions. Yet, when we get most frustrated with change - coming out, losing relationships, navigating a career change, battling life threatening diseases - do we really take the time to pass through that change and honor, release, and welcome in the new way of being in our life. Today, we venture into creating rituals for some of life's biggest moments with Author...

We've all got our story and stories. Yet, in this day and age where books are being burned that inform young minds about LGBTQ+ people, it's more apparent than ever that we need a hero. An author hero. That hero is author Greg Howard who lovingly and bravely puts pen to paper, or in this modern age types like a mad man on his computer the stories that bring LGBTQ+ life to spotlight, unlike when mo...

Coming out late in life has its moments. In this case it started with a graveside moment that made him realize, "It's time to be me." He called himself out of hiding and shares his story in his book "Leather and Lace: a gay man, lost love, and a road trip with his dead sister," Matt Bays takes us on the road trip of love, loss, and redemption. About Matt Matt Bays is a writer, speaker, and life co...

We're all creating stories and doing sales jobs in our lives - all day long. From coming out to getting a new job, to finding the right relationship, to closing your next big client. There's always a story we tell ourselves and a sales job that leads to us finding our next level of happiness and trust in ourselves. Using the art of selling and our own smarts, sales coach and lesbian (gasp) Leah Ne...

This is not where you anticipate being but yet here you are. Ever had one of those moments? Maybe when you finally decided to come out? Or, maybe it was when you took that next big career move, or wrote that song you thought would never hit the airwaves? Regardless of where you are, here you are. Elisa Nicolas - singer, songwriter, and proud member of the LGBTQ community - shares her story, her cr...

We all have secrets. We all keep Secrets. And, all those secrets cause pain and trauma. Sharing her own secret, as an LGBTQ ally, Elaine Pasqua takes us on a journey of a family secret that took her own Mother and Step Father that led her to turn to one community, that helped her find solace, while that community was having the world turn their backs on them. About Elaine A 6’5″ 250-pound man once...

Imagine being gay, and being institutionalized. Imagine being gay and being jailed for being gay. Nothing to imagine, this is reality. The reality of being gay in the 1950's, just a little over 70 years ago, this was our LGBTQ reality. Robert C. Steele, captures Jim Foshee story in the book he authored, Banned From California - of what it was like to grow up as an out gay man, in the '50s being ba...

Diversity and inclusion isn't just a once a year endeavor to be brought out of the closet and then shoved back into the closet. It is a daily practice of learning to stand in other peoples stories. Taking us into the diversity zone, Don Reed - master storyteller and entertainer - guides us to step into other peoples world so we can be better humans for all. About Don Don Reed (NPR Storyteller/Toni...

From South Africa to New York City, you never know when you are going on your journey or where you will find yourself to finally be yourself. Speaking straight from a very purposeful heart, Yumna Aysen - aka Yumi - helps people find themselves so they can be the best version of themselves. Funny, insightful and full of energy, Yumi joins us today with tips on how to be you regardless of where you...

You need to make more space. Get a storage unit for the crap in your life so you can make space for more PEACE in your life. Why? Without PEACE, it's a pretty miserable existence here on the good old planet earth. To help us get there, I've found an awesome guest - Diana Cutaia -  who is witty, funny, and GASP a lesbian who coaches people and team to bring more PEACE into their lives and work plac...

Imagine, growing up in a cult, being married to a female-to-male transgender individual for 10 years, and through all of that, plus life's other twists and turns, you find your calling to help others come out of their subconscious closets to live their fullest life! Today, Dr. Frances Yahia, tells her story and guides us to uncover the one impure thought we have about ourselves that '"we closet" r...

Religious trauma. Seems to be the norm for a majority of LGBTQ people that you encoutner. “You’re damned to hell!” or “You’re a sinner!” Of course most those people hurling those words for get that they’re divorced (a sin), have committed adultery (a sin), have eaten pig (a sin), worn woven fabrics (a sin), but all of that is forgivable, but you just can’t be a man and lay with another man, or a w...

In 2014 when my friend Leah Jantzen approached me to take over her radio show - I scoffed and said, "Not my thing!" Well, it's very much my thing and here we are at the 500th Episode of Life (UN)Closeted. What started as an Internet radio show known as The Coming Out Lounge, has now become one of my greatest joys. A place where guiding and inspiring people to come out of the closets of their lives...

Imagine, being told by your Commander In Chief - "You don't matter, you don't count, and you're a danger to our military!" The reality is, he got fired and she's still there, serving the US Space Force and living her best transgender life. Bree Fram, a woman of courage and perseverance, continues to pass the test with honor and integrity. Today we explore her story and her book aptly entitled, Wit...

Whether you're stripping your clothes off or coming out of the closet, it's all about the big reveal. But, what happens when you are terrified to let people see the real you, the you that you're meant to be? Do you freeze, and get scared of exposing your true self to the world? It's time to be confident and stop concerning yourself with what others think and unleash your inner vixen on the world....