Sarah Messeck and Avery Condon are a young couple very much in love. The two met at a Cape Cod Pride event in June 2022 and soon afterwards began dating. Eventually they plan to marry.

Sarah, an animal welfare advocate and horse riding enthusiast, identifies as a cisgender woman and uses the pronouns she and her. In the past, she had relationships with people of different genders.

Avery, who’s passionate about environmental and social justice issues, and was previously married to a woman, today identifies as transgender and non-binary and uses they and them pronouns.

In this fascinating interview with PFLAG Cape Cod’s Rick Koonce, Sarah and Avery talk in depth about their relationship – how they met, and the basis of their attraction to one another on many levels…

They offer illuminating insights into how the dynamics of physical and emotional attraction, gender identity, and gender presentation operate for them in the context of a non-traditional relationship…

But that relationship is traditional in at least one sense, as the two plan to tie the marriage knot – most likely in the fall of 2025 - with both their families and friends lovingly looking on.

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For more information, visit the PFLAG Cape Cod website: https://www.pflagcapecod.org/podcasts.html

© 2020 - 2024 PFLAG Cape Cod

Dr. Jane Fleishman is an accomplished sexuality educator, writer, program developer, and researcher. In 2016, at the age of 62, she received her doctorate in Human Sexuality from the Widener University Center for Human Sexuality Studies after a successful career as a consultant for a large public mental health system.

In this fascinating interview with PFLAG Cape Cod’s Rick Koonce, Fleishman delves deeply into the challenges LGBTQ+ seniors face as they navigate the passages of advancing age, and must deal with issues of health and wellness, self-esteem, companionship and intimacy, and continued sexual vitality and identity.

Fleishman has long believed that it’s important for members of the LGBTQ+ community to redefine their ideas of sexual vitality, beauty, and desirability, and to debunk old but enduring myths about sexuality and aging.

“Wrinkles and gray hair are as beautiful as a face without wrinkles,” she says, adding, “I’m a campaign to invite people to love their aging queer bodies and to upend the narrative that the only kind of beauty is associated with youth.” "That," she says, "is a binary way of looking at the world that doesn’t serve you, me or anybody else in the LGBTQ+ community.”

Please click the button to subscribe so you don't miss any episodes and leave a review if your favorite podcast app has that ability. Thank you!

For more information, visit the PFLAG Cape Cod website: https://www.pflagcapecod.org/podcasts.html

© 2020 - 2024 PFLAG Cape Cod

Brett Smiley is the married, gay mayor of Providence, Rhode Island, the first in the city's 400-year history. Elected to office in 2022 on his second try for the job, Smiley got his start in Rhode Island politics years before, serving as Chief Operating Officer for Providence and Director of Administration for the Ocean State, as well as Chief of Staff to former Rhode Island Governor Gina Raimondo.

In this revealing interview with PFLAG Cape Cod’s Rick Koonce, Brett talks about coming out as a gay man, and about being a political science and public policy nerd, even as a teenager, who developed an early passion for politics.

He talks, too, about the mark he hopes to make on Providence as mayor, and about the high school teacher and coach who helped him believe in himself.

Finally, he talks about being an uncle to his nephews, his love of running, his recovery from alcoholism in his early 20’s, and about meeting his husband, Jim, a prominent real estate agent in Rhode Island, and now the first First Gentleman of Providence.

Please click the button to subscribe so you don't miss any episodes and leave a review if your favorite podcast app has that ability. Thank you!

For more information, visit the PFLAG Cape Cod website: https://www.pflagcapecod.org/podcasts.html

© 2020 - 2024 PFLAG Cape Cod