Being LGBTQ

Neil Basterfield from Pride House Birmingham talks about the project which is being organised for the Commonwealth Games in 2022. A Pride House is a safe space where LGBTQ fans and allies can meet to enjoy the games. Jane Upson from Safeword Theatre in Wimbledon discusses domestic violence. Jane spent many years working for the police supporting victims of abuse and hate crime. The theatre group recently released a play 'When The Birds Stopped Singing' about abuse in a same sex relationship.

Brian Falduto – LGBTQ music artist and gay life coach. Brian is known for his role in the major motion picture ‘School of Rock’, in which he became known as the ‘gay kid’ for his flamboyant performance and sassy attitude. But after filming Brian found it hard to embrace that! Brian chats about his experiences, supressing his sexuality and becoming a gay life coach.

Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer for Proctor and Gamble and lesbian writer Shelly McNamara joins us to talk about her book ‘No Blanks, No Pauses: A Path to Loving Self and Others’. In the book Shelly shares her life experiences including coming out at work in 1997, getting married and bringing up three children with her wife.

Jonathan Larkin is a writer for the British TV soap 'Hollyoaks' writing a number of high impact stories including on LGBTQ storylines. Now he's back with his first stage play in 10 years 'Cherry Jezebel' which follows three drag queens in Liverpool. The play has been described as 'hilarious and heart-breaking' and looks beyond the glitter and the makeup of drag. Sam chats to Jonathan about the play, writing for TV, homophobia in the UK and more.

Featuring... ​ Sarah Kellysen - Queer music artist from Calgary in Canada, Kellysen who was once part of a long running web series has just released her latest album 'Rainbow Rhythm'. Sarah talks about the album, wanting to raise people's spirits after what has been a difficult year so far and educating others in the community about trans identities. T.F. Wright - Creator of the new Queer witch digital novel 'Wicked Willow', T.F. tells us about storytelling, the inclusion of LGBTQ characters, the uniqueness of digital novel storytelling and their time campaigning for LGBTQ rights which included calling for the overturning of proposition 8 and working on Barack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign.