Ep. 48: Bi+ (In)visibility w/ Meg O'Neill (she/her) and Rebecca Minor, LCSW (she/her)

01/11/24 • 45 min

This week we have two guests joining us, Meg O’Neill and returning guest to the pod, Gender Specialist therapist and educator Rebecca Minor (from episode 36!). They are the women behind bi+(in)visibility, a community and supportive space for folks who are discovering their biness and queerness later in life.
In this conversation, we chat about their group, Meg’s own personal story of understanding her bi identity in her late thirties, and about the wide variety of experiences folks can have when uncovering and integrating their biness into their lives, including:

the experience of bi folks, pan folks, and queer folks who are in straight presenting relationships,
how compulsory heterosexuality can become so deeply engrained for folks and lead to many bi and pan folks to acknowledge their own queerness,
the ways our culture seems more permissive and inclusive of women and femmes to be bi but not men,
the experience of feeling “not queer enough,”
navigating the privilege of straight passability and the need to not have our identities erased,
and so much more!

About the guests:
Meg O'Neill (she/her) seems like the "typical" suburban PTO mom. Married to her husband, Matt, of 13 years. Mom of three kids. Business owner, avid reader and passionate about all things equity. Enter lots of time at home during COVID and TikTok and she soon realized she needed to be more vocal about the other side of her life that he kept quiet for years. Deep on a healing journey of realizing she was neurodivergent, and bisexual, she started sharing more about these topics and soon realized other people desired community around being bisexual in a heter-presenting relationship. Meg and Rebecca started a monthly online group called bi+(in)visibility where people can come together to explore the topic of bisexuality. You can learn more about the group and sign up here.
Rebecca Minor, MSW, LICSW (she/her) is a neuroqueer femme, clinician, consultant, and educator specializing in the intersection of trauma, gender, and sexuality. As a Gender Specialist, Rebecca partners with trans and gender nonconforming youth through their journey of becoming, and is a guide to their parents in affirming it. Rebecca is part-time faculty at Boston University School of Social work and always works through a lens that is neurodiversity-affirming, trauma-informed, and resilience-oriented. In addition to her clinical work, Rebecca has provided cultural humility training and consultation to organizations, schools, and businesses for the past decade. You can follow her work on IG at @gender.specialist or visit www.genderspecialist.com.
For more, visit www.secondadolescencepod.com and @secondadolescencepod.
Download episode transcript here.

the experience of bi folks, pan folks, and queer folks who are in straight presenting relationships,
how compulsory heterosexuality can become so deeply engrained for folks and lead to many bi and pan folks to acknowledge their own queerness,
the ways our culture seems more permissive and inclusive of women and femmes to be bi but not men,
the experience of feeling “not queer enough,”
navigating the privilege of straight passability and the need to not have our identities erased,
and so much more!

Previous Episode

Ep 47: Dr. Leah Goodman (she/they) on Support Groups & Group Therapy for Queer Healing

This week’s guest is Leah Goodman, OTD, OTR/L, MSW, CYT (she/they). Leah is a therapist and education manager at The Expansive Group, a collective of queer and trans affirming therapists, led by Casey Tanner (also known on instagram as @queersextherapy). At The Expansive Group, Leah runs a support group for LGBTQ+ folks who are coming into/discovering their identity in adulthood (essentially going through their Second Adolescence!). This is the reason why I wanted to talk with Leah!

In this episode, we talk all things support groups and group therapy, and how these can be tools to support LGBTQ+ healing and liberation. Leah lets us in to really what goes on in a group, discusses the various obstacles/fears/stigmas that might keep people from pursuing joining a support group, why its particularly a fun and powerful space for LGBTQ+ folks, and so much more. This was such a tender conversation, I’m so grateful to Leah for joining us!

About the guest:
Dr. Leah Goodman (she/they) is a queer-identified therapist and educator based in Chicago, IL. She strives to build inclusive spaces full of warmth, humor, and affirmation, and finds joy in supporting folks as they navigate identity, relationships, sexuality, self-worth, and life transitions. Leah is a doctoral-level licensed occupational therapist and trained social worker with substantial educator experience in the fields of mental health, well-being and sex education. She has worked as a university professor, curriculum developer, and consultant, and is currently a therapist and the education manager at The Expansive Group. She is also a certified yoga instructor. For more about Leah, visit their website here.
For more, visit www.secondadolescencepod.com or @secondadolescencepod.

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Listeners! Submit YOUR Questions for Q&A Episodes!

Adam here, sharing about a new thing we’re going to be doing here on Second Adolescence!

Since launching this podcast and Instagram community a couple years ago, I’ve received SO many DMs and emails from listeners sharing about their own experience, where they are at in their own Second Adolescence and healing journey, and asking me questions for advice on their situation. I also keep hearing from folks that they’d love the opportunity for listeners to ask me questions and have them answered on the podcast as a Q&A. And so, we are going to be doing just that!

If YOU ever find yourself with a question you’d be curious to hear my take on and have these included in a future Q&A episode of the podcast, here are a few ways you can submit your question:

VOICE MESSAGE: If you’d like to submit your question by voice message with the possibility of your recording being included in a published episode of the show, you can leave your voice message at: https://memo.fm/secondadolescence/

WRITE IN: if you’d like to write out your question to remain anonymous, you can do so at secondadolescencepod.com/ask.

Stay tuned for a new episode later this week, and keep posted for future episodes where I’ll get to spend time with all your lovely questions. It continues to be such a treat to get to do this, I’m so grateful you are here.