May 4, 2022 • 43 mins
Jonathan is joined by his husband Jaymes as they kick off the premier episode of Pridecast in celebratory fashion and explain what PRIDE means to them. They take us back to their beginnings...from enduring bullying to finding the strength to come out, only to be pushed back into the closet by their careers. They explain how they met, fell in love and used their love for one another to rise above the hate. It's a Pridecast episode full of love, laughter and endless inspiration.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
This is Pridecast with Jonathan Bennett James on I Heart Radio. Hey,
it's Jonathan Bennett and this is I Heart Radio's Pridecast,
your weekly dose of love, laughter, and hopefully a little
bit of inspiration and a reminder to be proud of
(00:23):
who you are. I am so proud to be gay,
but it took me a while to get here. So
that's why I decided to host this podcast to remind
us all that being l g B, t Q I
plus is something to be proud of all day, every
day right now. And since it's take your husband to
work day, well that turned into take your husband's work week,
(00:46):
which then was just hey, babe, will you host this
podcast with me? Joining me each week on podcast is
my husband James Vaughan. Hi baby, Hi baby, We're doing
a podcast together. This will there be amazing or this
will be the end of us. I don't know one
of the two things are gonna happen. So we'll see.
(01:07):
We'll see how this. We just got married, so it
better be good for us. It's gonna be great. They're like,
what's the honeymoon phase? Like, I'm like, it's podcast. Our
honeymoon phase is podcast. After spending the last ten years
interviewing celebrities on red carpets and on my TV shows,
I decided it was time to take on my hardest task,
yeah baby, and that is keeping you on topic and
limiting your iced coffee consumption during podcast. I love ice coffee.
(01:31):
You guys, and I talk really fast and I talk
a lot, so I mean, I guess it's good that
we're doing a podcast. But just if you need to
go back and play it in like half speech, you
can understand what I'm saying. No one's gonna blame you.
That's why I got my hand on your ice coffee
back here, blocking you from getting anymore. But seriously, we
are doing this because there's not enough celebration of our community.
(01:51):
I think that there's not enough celebration of the work
that's being done. I know, in our lifetimes we've seen
a lot change. We've seen a lot of progress, and
that is so beautiful. But we wanted to create a
space that we can celebrate that. And that's what podcast
is all about. It's about celebrating and building up are
amazing queer community. Yes, we are talking to you, hey, yeah,
And along the way, you're gonna get insight as to
(02:13):
what's going on in our lives. But you're also going
to get insight into our guest lives and also what's
going on in our community. But most importantly, you're gonna
learn about the amazing things are beautiful l G B
t Q I plus community are doing. And let me
tell you right now, they're really big. Ye'll do it.
(02:34):
I know. For me, the journey of getting to a
place of pride was a long one. I mean I
got into the entertainment industry during a time when I
wasn't encouraged to be proud of who I was. It
was actually the opposite, like when I started acting fifteen
thousand years ago, b C. It was, it was actually
it was. It was twenty two a d. When I
(02:55):
started my first audition in New York City and being
a being a person in the entertainment industry and being
a gay man. Needless to say, there was no pride
parade for you when when I started in the industry,
and too and to be where I am now hosting
a podcast about pride with my husband who I just married,
(03:15):
who is a dude. Obviously he's a husband, so he's
a dude, but like to be married to him and
to be living our life so boldly and proudly is
such such such, such such an amazing feeling, and it's
it's been a journey. So we're gonna talk about that journey,
my journey. We're gonna talk about our guest journey, and maybe,
hopefully long they will be able to inspire people that
(03:37):
they'll be able to listen to this podcast and say, wow,
I identify with that or oh, hey, me too, because
the journey to pride is different for each person, and
that's what we're gonna celebrate here on this podcast. And
speaking of people we are proud of proud to have
on this show with us, let's introduce our producers. Raymond.
What's up, buddy? I know Ray is here. Hey, hey guys,
(04:00):
how are you doing? Okay, So here's what happened. They're like, hey,
let's do a podcast and I'm like, okay, great, And
the real story is, I'm like, we're gonna talk a lot.
I ramble, I'm really hyper, James can barely keep tracking me.
What James is gonna be fact checking me? But who's
gonna be keeping us on track? And they said, don't worry,
(04:21):
we have a gen Z leading producer, Raymond, He's gonna
be there to help help you guys along the way,
and you're gonna tell us what the kids are thinking.
Yeah exactly. I'm like, I'm here to be like your Gellman.
You know what I mean. I'm gonna flash a cut cards,
keep you on tasks, make sure you don't go too
off the rails. Not for the kids out there. Gelman.
(04:41):
People listening to this don't know who Gelman are. Gelman
is the producer from what was Regis and Kathy Lee
that turned into Regis and Kelly, that turned into Kelly
and Ryan, Kelly and Michael, Kelly and Michael and then
Kelley Ryan. Gellman's the person like off camera that kind
of they need to check in with when they're saying
the wrongest one. He is the one that's really in charge.
And the best part is because Raymond is, uh, let's
(05:04):
let's just say ten years younger than us, the views
that we have are completely different than the views that
you know, people that are ten years younger than us
and people ten years anger that or ten years older.
Everyone's had a different journey to pride, and that pride
has been is that journey is really different in between
the different generations totally, and I yeah, it's it's it's
completely different. And it's also just like a different experience too,
(05:26):
because like you said, not only you guys older, but
I'm like, I'm half Mexican, have Chinese, and so I
have a different perspective in coming from like those lanes
as a gay man. And but then you know, there's
so many different voices. So we're just trying to be
like inclusive and I'm trying to give you guys just
a third set of eyes. Like everybody's experience is so different,
(05:48):
and you can't just say, oh, your experience looks like this.
You need someone to be to say, hey, that's what
the experience is, because that's how you learn from, right,
Like speaking of an experience that is here's one example
that I love talking about the word queer right there.
For us, my experience growing up is that the word
queer is the worst word you could call someone. Like
(06:08):
I was called queer before I was punched in the
face and shoved me into a locker on the third
floor and call me queer and that was or it
was that you effing queer. So like the word queer
is always associated with me and James, and we've talked
about this. Yes, a mean of the queer happen would
be throwing the football and tell us it to me
and the smear the queer and I'm like, dang, Like
(06:29):
it's it's so much trauma with that word. But then
when you have someone like Raymond. Raymond, you've said multiple
times during our conversations the word queer and that's what
you use as like you're an identification and we're learning
to love it. We are. We are learning to love
it because that's the thing about our community. L g
B t Q I A plus plus plus. I always
say like, the more letters we get, the stronger we get.
(06:51):
We are a squad, we are a team. We are
a mafia watch out. So you gotta learn to I
guess kind of for us, we just we saw people
love thing the word queer, and we realized that it
was people taking ownership and getting that word back, and
that's when we started to actually change our relationship with
the word and realize, oh, it's it's not the thing
(07:11):
that caused us all this trauma and pain and the
word we were hearing as we were getting beat up
but it instead is coming from a place of power
now and it's this is us. This is all part
of our team and our squads. So and Raymond, you
use that word. Is that a word you use to identify? Yeah?
I would say that, like people ask and they're like, well,
how do you identify, And I would say queer And
then to me it means To me, it means one thing,
(07:31):
and to some people it means something completely different. But
I think that, like, there's power in that word, um,
because you know, I grew up with I mean, I'm
obviously younger, but it was definitely a word that my
dad and his generation used derogative, like in a derogative way.
But now for me, I'm like, no, there's empowerment behind it. Ah.
And I love that because literally, you, Raymond, you and
(07:55):
people like you that are using that word as an
empowering word has been changed us and made us start
to use it as an empowering word word and feeling
empowered when we use it. Now. I love to say
that I'm a member of the queer community, and I
love when people ask me I say that I'm queer,
and it's because of you, ray Min, It's because of
your generation, and because of the work that you guys
(08:16):
are doing, you are able to empower us and it
is so so wonderful. So I can't wait for this podcast.
I think we're gonna talk about so many amazing things
and so many great topics that are just going to
really connect with people. And we're going to celebrate the
community because there are enough podcasts out there of people
throwing teeth, throwing shade, ripping the each other down in
(08:37):
the community, and that's not what we're gonna be doing
at podcast. There is enough hate out in the world.
We are only gonna build you up here and we're
only going to talk about how great it is to
be gay. So hey, thanks to all yeah younger kids
that made us proud of the word queer. Yeah, I
appreciate you. And speaking of being proud guys, like, why
(09:05):
don't you tell me more? I mean, Jonathan, you kind
of touched on it a little bit that like when
you first entered the business, it wasn't you know, it
wasn't like a celebration to be gay, So like, tell
us a little bit more about that journey to how
you got to where you are now. Literally so proud
and like literally the host of Pridecast. I am the
host of Pridecast on I Heart Radio. That sounds. That
(09:26):
sounds and feels good to say. Um, yeah, you know what.
Here's the thing. Growing up, you know, in Ohio, I
didn't have many pride parades in general. But what happened
was when I moved to New York City. I was
nineteen years old and I was finally out in New
York and I went to we ust to do this
place called Tiger Heat, which was like eighteen and over,
(09:48):
and you could go when they would play all the
pop music of the time, which was two thousand, so
it was like Brittany in sync when all of them
were on the top of their game. You'd go there
and you'd dance, and it was so good to be gay.
It felt so good, like, oh my gosh, I can
be myself. And I remember just feeling the sense of
awe being at this at this club. And I booked
(10:10):
all my children the soap opera where I was playing
Kelly Rippa's brother, and I was at the at Tiger
Heat on Thursday night and I was dancing and the
next day the head of ABC, which is uh it
was I think it's all my Children publicity. The head
of All My Children Publicity, I think his name is Mike.
(10:30):
He called me into his office and I thought I
thought I was going in. I'm like, oh my gosh,
I'm gonna be on on Regis and Kelly like this.
I have my big moment. I'm happy, like, oh did
I get the cover of people? I'm the new hot
guy and all my children. I'm the new like young
like thing on the show. They got me some big publicity.
He calls me in. I'm like, I'm ready for my
(10:52):
close up? What are we doing? And he goes, were
you at Tiger Heat? And I said, yeah, it's so
much fun. Have you been? Oh my god, they played
Britney Spears. They play and seeing it's so much fun.
He's like, you know you can't go there, right, And
I was like why. He goes, well, you can't be gay.
You're the you're the young hot guy on the show.
Now like you can't do that, And in that moment,
(11:12):
your whole world is rocked. Right, your whole world comes
crashing down on you. Because what has happened is since
the time I was two years old, I've dreamed about
being an actor, There's never been another job I wanted
in my whole life. And then I moved to New
York and I make it, you know, like the you're
(11:35):
literally your dreams come true and when I'm and when
your dreams come true and it's the only thing you've
ever wanted, you will do anything to make sure that
dream is sustained and that dream and that you keep
having your living your dream. Right, So when they tell
you that you can't be gay, your whole world crashes
down because you realize, oh, I will sa sacrifice anything
(11:57):
to keep this dream alive, Like I I need this dream.
So what you do? You go into the closet and
this this I was out one minute and in the
closet the next. And they even gave me a fake
girlfriend and I had to go to like premieres with
a fake girlfriend and lie to everyone. And it was
just the most awful feeling in the world. And that
(12:18):
carried throughout the first probably ten years of my career
because it was a different time. Back then. It was
we didn't have we had will and Grace was just starting.
Glee didn't exist. I always say, b G before Glee,
before Glee, and before it was cool to be gay,
like it wasn't cool to be gay, and if there
were characters on TV, you only saw them as caricatures,
(12:40):
not actual people with feelings and heart. And so you
go in the closet, and my whole first ten years
of my career you just live in this like state
of misery where it's like if everyone, if anyone finds
out about you, you're gonna lose it all everything you've
worked for, all the dreams you do, mean girls you're
playing Lindsay Lope and love interest, like everything that you
(13:02):
know is gonna be thrown away because they're gonna find
out that you're gay. And if they find out you're gay,
the girls won't want to go see your movies. And
when the girls won't want to go see your movies,
you won't have any box office poll. And we don't
have any box office poll. You fail. Like that's literally
what is told to you by every single person in
the industry. There wasn't ever a single person. And I
(13:23):
mean this, unless I can barely, I can't remember one.
If there is one out there and you're listening, feel
free to text me and say, hey, I didn't say that,
but I don't remember a single person that ever said no,
just live your truth, go be gay, like it's fine,
not a single person, because it was a different time.
And I don't fault any of these people. I don't
fault any of the people that you work with, any
people that are around you, because what they're saying was
(13:45):
true in a way, because it's all the industry new right.
So I'm not mad at it. I'm not like there's
no vengeance like, it's no, that's they were doing what
they thought they needed to do to protect me, to
keep me working. So it's a very mixed bag of
feeling things with this whole thing. So, you know, fast forward,
all of a sudden, glee happens and all the you know,
(14:05):
if you want to say, the Ryan Murphy of it all,
like all the phenomenons of drag race and everything start happening,
and the world starts to change, which is a beautiful thing,
but you gotta remember there's a group of actors that
are gay and had to be in the closet and
are still young enough to be in careers, and then
all of a sudden, gay is okay, and it becomes
(14:26):
a thing in the industry where it's like now it's
a huge thing and you're allowed to be out, Well,
then what do all of us do. There's a whole
group of us that were like, hey, hey, guys, you
told us to be in the closet, and so we've
been in the closet our whole lives, and now all
of a sudden, you're saying, hey, it's okay to be gay.
What are we supposed to do? How do we handle that?
How do we navigate that? Do we have to have
(14:47):
an actual coming out? Like I don't. It's such a
complex thing and there's so much to dive into in this,
but it becomes such a horrible feeling of having to
navigate how to do this. Well, I've told everyone I wasn't.
Now I tell everyone I am. And you know, I
think a lot of people, whether you're in the industry
or not, or whether you're in entertainment or in the
(15:09):
limelight or not, you have to navigate those things as well.
Just because I'm doing it on a bigger scale doesn't
mean that other people listening aren't having to do that
as well, Because I'm sure there's people listening that if
you are gay, that have had girl friends, because that's
what they were supposed to do and then all of
a sudden they come out and they have to go
back and tell it. So everyone can hopefully relate to
this feeling if you've been through something like that. But
(15:29):
needless to say, that's you know, it was a very depressing,
very horrible ten years of my life where you were
having everything but also living in misery and living in
the dark on your like internally, but then on the
outside you're standing in the spotlight and getting cameras, you know,
taking pictures of you and you know, being on red carpets,
but yet you were crying inside. So the fact that
(15:51):
we're here now hosting podcast on my heart with my husband,
it's a full journey. Yeah, And I imagine for you, baby, like,
it's got to be such a weird, just like mind
trip of you're in this space where you're getting praised
for everything you're doing, but everything you're doing is hiding
who you really are. So it's got to be such
(16:11):
a hard thing to try to unpack and get past.
It's the hardest thing ever. And no, and the problem is,
no one ever thinks about this group of actors that
were told hey, and and musicians and whoever that we're
in the industry and in the line like no one
has ever told no one ever thinks about them, like, hey,
what about the people that you told no to? And
then all of a sudden it was okay, and you said, yeah,
(16:32):
it's fine. Have you ever thought about how it must
feel for them to have to like navigate what they
want to do now and how they want to handle it,
Because it's a really trippy thing because, like you said, James,
it is they're they're praising you for someone you're not.
So I give it the the equation of being in
a kingdom, right, Like you're a night and you come
back from war and you walk into the gates of
the castle open and everyone's throwing roses at you and
(16:55):
they're like clapping and trumpets are playing and they're celebrating you,
and you're living your your dream has come true, you've
won the war, you're you know, you've got the roles,
you're doing it all. But then they just reach in
and take away your sword and they're like, Okay, you're
you and we're gonna clap for you, but you just
you can't be you can't beat you. So it is
(17:15):
a really trippy feeling. Yeah, I feel like that probably
happened to a lot of people, not even in our industry,
but people just in general. There's a lot of people
that we still have friends now that are a little older,
that can't even feel they can't even be out in
the workplace, but just you know there their everyday nine
to five job. So again I said this earlier, Ray
(17:37):
and our gen zs and younger people, we appreciate you
all so much because you all have been the ones
that have really helped push especially with like social media
and everything of like here we are, it's very we're
here where queer get used to that kind of thing, right,
but it's like it's really happening and and it is
opening doors and changing things for people and things like
making the industry a lot more like and accepting of
(17:59):
us and our beautiful queer family. And it is a journey.
I mean, for me, I was performing in shows in
Vegas and that was all part of my journey. I've
I've always been a performer as well. I think for
a lot of young queer kids performing as we find
that's our outlet, it's our place where if we can't
(18:19):
be ourselves and we can't be our gay selves. We
can be our loud selves. We can be are over
the top selves. We can we can be ourselves in
spandex and leotards and twirl around the stage. Yeah, of course,
and so for me. But I remember being in Vegas
and I get my first show, my very first show
on the Las Vegas strip, and I'm on the billboards
and it's so cool. And then the producer comes up
(18:41):
to me on stage. I have to rehearse some because hey, um,
I need you to lose the ear rings. I'm afraid
that people might know that the lead of my show
is gay. And it's like, oh, oh man, Like, first
of all, like, girl, how old school are you that
you thought ear ring was like? And second of all,
fine if someone was gay or not. Second of all,
(19:02):
have you ever seen how hot James looks with ear rings?
Like sometimes I'm like, oh baby, I'm like, hey, you're
making them every time I been saying I'm clinging to
my youth, because he is clinging to his youth when
he wears his ear rings. He's clinging to his youth. However,
also very hot. So when he puts him out, he
knows I'm going to try to make out with him.
If he wants me to like kiss him or make
out or you know, get a little loving in. I'm
(19:23):
always like, maybe put your earrings in. That is not
the trick. It is absolutely the trick. I'm gonna do
this as soon as we're done filming, and you're gonna
look at camera. No. So, I mean, I I understand
that experience. Maybe, but I'm sure there's so many people
that understand, whether it was in show biz, or whether
it was a workplace, or whether it was in their
family of having that moment. I have specific moments in
(19:45):
my head or where I remember people saying, don't be gay.
You can't be gay, met family members, said, producers, teachers like,
it's crazy. And so to get to where we are now,
it is a beautiful journey, and it is amazing that
we are doing something here to a shout out pride
and how we should all be proud and hopefully encourage
more people to be more proud of themselves. I remember,
(20:06):
but you were the first gay out Chippendale. I was,
So that's something we need to not gloss over because
it's really fun to say that I'm married the head
of the Chippendal's. Um, I mean, here's the funny here's
the funny story. But here's the funny story that you
couldn't write. Like, hey, if you're running the Book of Life,
Aaron Samuel's marries the head Chippendale like it's just like
(20:31):
it's like a gay match made in heaven. I love it.
And also, if you don't know of this, google images.
Google images of James von Chipendals because they're gorgeous, just
saying baby, I'm always mad at him. I'm like, why
didn't I know you when you had that body? Because
I was really in security that you really didn't want
to know. And now we just have our dad bods
(20:53):
and we're happy and we love it. Uh wait, you
guys are you guys are jumping ahead? You're talking like
you just gave us a headline. Ear and says married
a Chipendale. But how did you guys even meet? Because
I'm assuming it's not you want to hear how we met? Yeah? Right, yeah,
well let let me well that all kind of comes
through the Chippendos thing is how we got there. So
let me do this wild little journey to get you there.
(21:13):
So through my whole process will be good. The whole
process of being in Vegas and doing shows there and
and having different moments of out. Uh, I finally got
to oh, my gosh, I was an amazing race. Right,
it's the TV show where team's race around. You don't
need to complain the amazing race for anybody explaining mean
girls to the gay Audi for anybody thirty we do
(21:35):
my love and something like no, no, it's a race
around the world. We try to get a million dollars.
I'm not gonna spoil the m FO you because somebody'll
still be going back to Hulu and watching it and
and thinking that we we're gonna win, So just go
ahead and still root for us. But I was on
there and at the time we actually I think there
was like our publicist for the show I was in
put a clause in the contract to say like that
they couldn't mention my sexuality in the show. And I
(21:57):
was still so scared of it, even though I was
out with all my my friends and my family and
all that, I was just just so scared of like
it being public knowledge that I wouldn't get booked in
these shows, you'll lose your job. And so it was
literally in there, and then I remember getting back and
being like this, this is this is not it, this
is not I can no longer let anybody restrict anything
(22:19):
about what I'm doing. And so I came back. I
talked to the publicists of Shippendale's Michael Caprio, who to
this day I am still indebted to, Thank you, sir.
I know a lot of y'all listening to know him.
He reps a lot of people. Um, But we were like,
why don't we just instead do the first openly gay Shippendale.
People always assumed there was some gay guys and shipendals anyway,
because they're they're always were, So why don't we just
(22:41):
let y'all know that we know that, you know. And
so it used to be called the ultimate girls night Out,
and so I just started saying I would be like, yeah,
but you know a girl you can come to, and
it just became a thing and it stuck and it worked,
and then it just it was one of those things
we were also scared of it. In the minute we
did it, it just opened the doors and it was like,
look at everybody telling their truth and being honest, and
it brought in a whole different audience. To the show.
(23:02):
It brought in a whole different experience to me as
the performer because I no longer had to like hide
behind this toxic masculinity thing. I could just kind of
be me and if I had a moment on stage
and a wrist flip or whatever, and I showed more
of myself, great and everybody was loving and they were
in on it, like and that actually led to me
getting opportunities and the TV hosting world of doing stuff
because I was finally being myself. This is your lesson, y'all,
(23:23):
be yourself, you start kids stuff, And so I was
hosting different shows. I ended up hosting a show called
Okay TV, which turned into Celebrity Page TV. The first
season of Celebrity Page TV, I am asked to go
into work early because the producer of this segment for
this show Halloween Wars wants me to come in and
do the interview because the guy that played Aaron Samuel
(23:45):
was in Mean Girls is the host of the show
and I'll be interviewing him. And so I tried to
get out of it because I was like, I don't listen.
But my movie was Jawbreaker, it was not Mean Girls.
So I was like, I don't really know that one.
Let somebody else have it, and um, I'll just come
and afterwards and not have to come to work. Early
back in the day, I hosted a show on Food
Network called Halloween Wars, and we were doing press for
(24:08):
it and they gave what my last stop on the
press tour that morning, I just on Access Hollywood and
they're like, Okay, you're gonna go to the Grove and
you're gonna interview with this guy, um, and you're gonna
do a pumpkin carving. I'm like, okay, great, Sure. So
we show up at the grove, I'm I'm with my publicist.
We're in like a black town car because we're like
super fancy, and we're like, I'm in, I'm the host
(24:31):
of the show. You guys need to send a town car.
And so they send a town car and I'm all
fancy and we get to the grove and I'm walking
in and I have to We're trying to find where
we're supposed to go, and lo and behold, it's right
in the middle of the grove, which, if you don't know,
the grove as a shopping mall and outdoor shopping mall
in l A. It's where everyone goes. It's the place
I say, never go on a on a first date
because you will run into your X. It's just it's
(24:52):
just one of those places. And so it's where our
show and so that's where they used to film outdoors
right in the middle of the mall, very classy. And
so we're I'm walking and I look over and I
see this hunk of a man that literally looks like
the Greek gods sculpted the most beautiful human being I've
ever seen. And he was standing there like going over
some papers while they were setting up lights. And I
(25:13):
turned to my publicist and I go, who is that?
And he goes, that's the host of the show. And
I go, what's his name? What's his name? Look it up?
And so we start looking. I'm looking through the email
to try to find his name. He goes, it's James
with a Y. I go, that's silly, and then I
go look at his Instagram. So we go to his
Instagram and when I look at his Instagram, it says
(25:33):
l G B t q I A plus and I'm like,
oh my god, he's gay. I have to go fix
my hair and I run to the bathroom to fix
my hair, no joke, and my publicists like, you were
gonna go on national television without looking in the mirror,
but because the host is hot, you have to fix
your hair. And I'm like, obviously, So Joan shows up
on my set. I'm still this point, I think tried
(25:55):
to get out of doing the interview, actually because I
want to go get some food. And he shows up
and I'm like, wow, this dude is a lot of
First of all, you told your First of all, he
shows up with his assistant, which is not his assistant. Well,
first of all, Mr, I had to have a town car.
First of all, how exhausting. Um, so I was because
my show did not do bougie things like that for me. Right. Um,
(26:17):
My best friend and I Reaves, we lived together at
the time, and so it was always it became a
joke like who is James trying to get out of
interviewing now? Because like these pre taped interviews always a
my going in early. So She's like, who is this
one who are trying to get out of interviewing? And
I'm like, I don't know, Jonathan Bennett. She goes Aaron
Samuel's from Mean Girls, and I'm like yeah, She's like,
you have to do this, And she was actually a
deciding factor of me not bailing on this interview and
(26:40):
having someone else from the show do it, because she
was like, I have to get a video for Instagram
of me asking him what day it is. Now. At
the time, I hadn't seen the movies that didn't make
Now I'm a love So I was like, fine, you
can come, but you have to be my assistant all
day if you want the luxury of getting your Instagram
(27:00):
and if you know, my best friend Reeves has a
lot to ask her to be somebody's assistant for the
day and she was like, fine, whatever, I'll do it.
So I walk out of the bathroom and I look
at his producer and I go, am, I about to
meet my future husband. Her name was Jade and I
and she goes, I think so, So we walk out
and then as I'm walking that statement by the way,
like we're married now, How weird is that? And so
(27:21):
I say when I when I get there, he goes, oh,
my assistant would like to go get you coffee. And
then I get pissed because I'm like your assistant and
I literally turned to my publicist and I go, I
have sixteen shows on Food Network, Cake Wars, Halloween Wars,
Cupcake Wars, Cupcake Wars, Kids, Cupcake Worse Champion, Cupcake Cage Match,
(27:43):
Christmas Wars, Holiday Wars. I have every show on the
network and I don't have an assistant. He this guy's
shooting at the grove and he gets an assistant Like,
I was so upset, but not really but just funny upset.
And then I walk over to him. I see him
and we're both thirteen. Well, first of all, he fell
(28:04):
in love with me right away, so no, no, no, no, no,
no no no. It was love at first sight for John,
was first contact for me. I was already in love
with him from the moment I saw him. I was like, Yep,
that's the man I'm going to like. This guy is
a lot. He will not stop talking. This is my show.
Can we just get him in place, get him miked up,
and let's get started. And right before it happened, we
(28:25):
realized we have a mutual friend in common that every
single gay person knows and has in common, which is
Lance Bass. Because the Gates, we all are friends with Lance,
because he's our leader Lance, if you're listening, you are
our leader. You will always be our president of the Gates.
We love you. So he's definitely president of wee over,
He's president of everything. So he's like, okay, um, so
(28:45):
so yeah, So we realized we have this Like I'm like,
oh my gosh. I had just been snapchatting with him
and his husband, and I was like, we have to
send him a snapchat. Was really just talking to them.
How have you and I never met? If we're both
friends with them? So we go and it's literally like
out of a movie. All they are counting down in
my ear. Okay, we're going in ten nine. Hey, I
(29:05):
pulled the camera out. We go to take the picture
to snapchat over to him. Jonathan leans into me and
his shoulder hits my shoulder and it's like and it
was like, I'm not even kidding you. It was like butterflies.
It was like fireworks. It was everything all at once.
(29:26):
And then they're like three two, and I'm like, uh, now,
you can't stump me. I'm interviewed everybody. You can't stump me.
But this was starting in front of an audience at
the Grove. At Jonathan, I think I had to start
the interview for because he couldn't even talk, and I
was like, okay, well, hey, I'm James Vaughan, Welcome to
(29:46):
Celebrity PAGETV. I'm I'm here with Jonathan Bennett from Food
Networks Halloween War. And the entire interview was that it
was a mess. It was a disaster. We were talking
over each other, we were stepping on each other's sentences.
It was we were flirting the entire time because it
was crazy on camera. I told him, I was like,
will you just make out with me? Already? And like
I knew it was taped and they were going to
(30:07):
edit it out, but I didn't care. I was like,
will you make out with me? Like I knew what
I wanted. I was going for it, and they ended
up editing it out, but like in that moment, we
were both such a mess. And then when it was over,
I looked at him and I was like, can I
get your phone number? And he goes, you better, and
so I got his phone number and then I go, okay,
I'm I got in the car. We're driving home. My
(30:27):
publicist goes, don't call him for three days. You came
on way too strong. I'm like, I got you, fam,
I'm not going to call him for three days, please,
what do you think? I am desperate? And we get
to the house. As soon as he drops me off,
I call him and I would, and I was like,
is it weird if I wanted to come back and
kiss you right now? He goes no. I said good
because I'm already driving. I had jumped in the car,
(30:47):
was driving back to the grove. I walk up. I'm
I see him standing at the Farmer's market. We walk up.
I just I look right at him, and I say,
we should just kiss and see if this is what
we think it is, because if it is, then this
is it that we found our person. So we kissed
right there in the farmers Market parking lot. And it's
literally like out of a movie. It's like the Notebook,
(31:08):
Like all of a sudden, doves start flying out of nowhere.
It starts pouring down rain. Ryan Gosling comes by in
a canoe. There's like ducks, it's like fireworks. It's like
this whole moment where it's just magical. And then we
were like, all right, dinner tonight, yep, and the rest
is history. Yeah, it was very it was very much
that feeling of when he had first rubbed against me
(31:29):
at the start, like there was nothing prior to that.
I didn't Jonathan wasn't really like the type hours after
to Tim and so I was like, didn't think he
was gonna be it. But that was like crazy, insane fireworks.
And then the kiss was that times a hundred, and
we literally just knew like, oh wow, we're like cool,
Let's go to dinner, dinner. Actually with Jonathan showing up
at my place with two hoodies, walked me down to
(31:49):
the beach. You could not have picked a more ideal
date for me to just go to the beach and
talk and do nothing. And that's what it was, and
that's history because here we are married, hosting prodcast us
proud as how to be gay as can be as.
That was really sweet. That was really sweet, and you
guys just got married right like it was like a
(32:10):
month ago. A month ago. We got married at Unico
Resort in Mexico with about a hundred of our closest
friends and it was a wedding for the ages. It
was absolutely the most beautiful week of our lives. We
got to be surrounded by all of our friends and
family for like a whole five days where everyone just
got to get to know each other, and we brought
(32:31):
our families together, our groups of friends together, everyone connected
and and just literally did what we wanted, which was
created one huge, massive family. And we did a whole
bunch of things in our wedding that were new traditions
that we'll get into another episode, but it was just
such a wonderful moment to to bring our families together
and leave as one giant family. And now all of
(32:53):
our groups of friends that didn't know each other are
all calling each other and hanging out, so we literally
became one giant family. So yeah, we call everybody our
chosen family. And that's what this podcast is all about too.
So it's really cool to see our chosen family growing
and bonding and loving with each other, and it's really
it's really just like our chosen family expanding. It's a
beautiful thing. And if you're listening to podcast right now,
(33:14):
you congratulations and welcome. You are now part of our
Chosen family. We want this podcast to be a celebration
of our Chosen family, and that means everyone in the
l g B t q I plus community no matter
how you identify, no matter if you're if you're out,
if you're not out, if you're thinking about coming out,
if you're thinking about that, you that you might want
to be part of the community, whatever that journey is
(33:36):
for you, You're welcome here and you're part of our
family and there is a place for you at our table.
So we were just talking about chosen family, and I
love that. So speaking of chosen family, tell us a
(33:56):
little bit about like some of the family that you're
gonna have on this podcast. Oh my gosh, we have
so many amazing l g B, t q I plus
people that are gonna be joining us on this too,
not only share their journeys, but share their experiences and
celebrate what it is to be proud of who you are.
We we have some comedians, some actors. Let's just say this,
(34:19):
I've called in some favors of some of my closest Well,
let's let's just be honest. You just call your famous
friends that are gay and are like, hey, well you
do my podcast, And I'm pretty much I've convinced most
of them to do it. So we're gonna have an
amazing group of people on here. Yeah, and it's also
gonna be a space for it. Maybe people you don't
necessarily know of that are doing inspiring things that we
(34:41):
want you to hear their story of pride because it
will help give you more pride. And if there's people
that y'all listening would love to have us have on
the show, let us know, because we we want to
bring on those stories that make y'all feel proud to
be a part of this community. And something we're gonna
be doing each week that we're so excited about is
we're gonna be shining are Big Gay Spotlight on members
(35:02):
of the l g B, t q I A plus
community that we think are doing great things, people you
might not know about, or maybe there are people you know,
but each week we're gonna feature someone in our Big
Gay Spotlight. James, you have someone for this week's Spotlight,
don't you? Because I haven't shut up about this walking
around the house all week because I'm so excited and
so proud to Yes, please give me a minute to
brag on one of my friends, l Morrigan Lee, who
(35:26):
is currently starring in her Broadway debut as a female
lead in A Strange Loop on Broadway. Yes, it's the
show everybody's talking about that. I gotta take you way back.
So before I was in Vegas, I was performing at
theme parks. My very first job as a professional singer
was the Paramounts King's Dominion in Virginia and one of
the other performers there was L Morgan Lee. This is
(35:47):
this is the way back. We were kids, y'all. And
you know those people in your life. I'm sure you're
having two baby, where there's that person that first made
you start to go, oh wow, I can be proud
and oh wow, there is power being proud of who
I am. I was not out yet, but baby miss
L Morgan Lee was living her life, living her truth
(36:07):
and fill in rooms with this infectious laughter and this
amazing talent that made me start to just, I think,
dig deeper into myself and learn more about myself and
and figure out how to be proud of myself. And
fast forward. This is somebody that I have always thought
was the most dynamic thing on stage and such an
amazing performer, and was always like, when is it gonna
happen for her? When is it gonna happen? Because it
(36:29):
should and bam, she's she's now starting in a Strange
Loop And it's so con see all these people writing
reviews on how amazing she is to be this fierce
black trans woman who is playing a female lead on
Broadway and her breakout role and getting rave, rave, rave reviews.
I want to cry every time I see them. I'm
so proud of her. Look her up 's go see
(36:49):
her a Strange Loop on Broadway. Get there. I hear
she's getting standing ovations in the middle of the show
almost every song. I mean, and this is the person
that I've known was that and a person that inspired me,
so to know that she has inspired so many other people. Now,
El Morgan Lee, baby, you deserve all of this spotlight.
So so proud of you, and so we just shined
our big gay spotlight on El Morgan Lee. I wish
(37:12):
we had like a thing like we salute you, but
we don't really salute you. We just shine o light
because beautiful we we we we shot, we shine our
light on you. El Morgan Lee. Thank you for all
that you do for the community and for all the
lives that you're changing doing what you're doing. Yeah, are
you crying now? I just got got emotional. James just
(37:34):
got emotional. He's hitting here, he's shaking and he's crying.
I'm just I'm real proud because this this person helped
me learn to be proud of myself, and so I'm
just really proud of her. Speaking of other fun segments
on the show, Great Transition Podcast is also going to
have is different segments on our show that teach us
about l g B, t Q plus history because in
(37:55):
order for us to celebrate who we are right now
and in order for us to celebrate where we're going,
we have to truly know our history to be proud
of how far we've come. So this week in gay history,
we're going to cover something really special. James, do you
want to talk about this because it's really cool. All Right?
For this first one, we're going way back. This actually
(38:15):
dates back to twenty b C and what is believed
to be the very first same sex couple in recorded history.
So this week, in nineteen sixty four, in the ancient
necropolis of Sakara, Egypt, Egyptian archaeologist Ahmed Musa discovered the
burial chambers of Hunom Hotep and Niak Hunum, who were
(38:40):
servants and royal confidence at the palace of King Nio
Sarah during the fifth dynasty of Egyptian pharaohs, so at
the entrance to their joint tomb. In one scene, the
couple is seated on a banquet table that's usually reserved
for married couples. That's seeing along with some of the
hieroglyphics that were used. While the conclusion is that it's
why they believe they were indeed a couple. Also, according
(39:01):
to the hieroglyphics, they were ancient Egyptian world servants. They
were supervisors of the manicurist to the king, and according
to ancient Egyptian customs, the purpose of bearing couples together
was so that they could accompany each other in the afterlife.
Now I gotta say, are very specially thank you, to
be sure as ease for working with me to help
(39:22):
me learn the pronunciations so I could correctly say them.
For this history lesson. Thanks buddy, And that has been
this week in gay history. That's pretty cool, right, I
love it. Same sex couple and recorded history, I mean,
and of course it was the manicurist. He's like, um,
I'm gonna make sure that your nails are right before
you go out to these fancy palace balls. Okay, honey,
we're gonna make sure the nails are on point now.
(39:44):
Because this is podcast and it's all about pride, we
want to know, James, what does pride mean to you?
What has pride mean you? This something we're gonna ask
all of our We're gonna ask all of our guests
the same questions to me, Honestly, it really is just
about finding who you are, which I think it is
always a journey. You continually find out who you are
and learning to love every piece of who you are
(40:06):
and learning to do it loudly, to say this is me,
this is who I am, and know that by saying
this is me and this is who I am, you
are inevitably going to inspire other people to find that
in themselves. So it's a continuous cycle that just keeps
making the pride grow and grow and grow. Why are
you looking to me like that? Well, now you're supposed
to say, what does pride me? I was looking for
(40:30):
a proof of to my answer, But what is pride
me to you? Pride to me means being unapologetically yourself,
plain and simple. What's your favorite thing about being queer? James?
What's the best part about being queer in your eyes
is that I say it's a superpower. It's a superpower
(40:51):
because you get to be your authentic self. And when
you get that power to be your authentic self in
your queerness, it also pens up the power to be
your authentic self and every other facet of your life,
to be able to say this is me, this is
who I am, and just live loudly and boldly. What
about you, baby, what's your favorite part about being queer?
(41:13):
The best thing about being queer is marrying you, Because
if I was straight, this marriage probably wouldn't have worked
out so well. So I think the best part about
being gay is the fact that I got to find
the love of my life and find my person and
marry them and spend the rest of my life with them.
Thousand percent agree with you on that too, baby. Alright,
(41:36):
So that wraps up the first episode of pridecast here
on I Heart Radio with Jonathan Bennett, and of course
joining me was my lovely husband, James Vaughn. We're gonna
be joining you each week with a different guest talking
about all the things that are gay, l g B,
t Q I plus and all the celebrations that are
our community, so make sure you follow us on Instagram
(41:57):
and everywhere else you follow. Hey, subscribe to this podcast.
You know when a new one drops. I just said
drop some of those people. We're dropping a new one
each week and until then, every moment of every single day,
be proud of who you are and remember you're never
too much and you're always enough. Hello. My name is
(42:26):
Gerald Garth, and I am the vice president of Programs
and Initiatives with Christopher Street West l A Pride. I
would like to warmly welcome you to Podcast, a very
special new podcast produced by I Heart Media, Los Angeles
in partnership with l A Pride. L A Pride is
a five oh one c three nonprofit that is rich
in lgbt Q history. On June seventy, we organized the
(42:50):
world's first permeated parade advocating for gay rights, commemorating the
Stone Wall Rebellion. Over fifty years later, we are continuing
to pave the way in uplift our vibrant community. You'll
hear more about us and our dynamic programming for twenty
twenty two, which includes our Pride in the Park headlined
by Christina Aguilera on Saturday, June eleven, the return of
(43:13):
our legendary parade to Hollywood on Sunday, June twelfth, and
one of our newest programs, Pride Makes a Difference. Stay
tuned for more and welcome to broadcast
This is Pridecast with Jonathan Bennett James on I Heart Radio. Hey,
it's Jonathan Bennett and this is I Heart Radio's Pridecast,
your weekly dose of love, laughter, and hopefully a little
bit of inspiration and a reminder to be proud of
(00:23):
who you are. I am so proud to be gay,
but it took me a while to get here. So
that's why I decided to host this podcast to remind
us all that being l g B, t Q I
plus is something to be proud of all day, every
day right now. And since it's take your husband to
work day, well that turned into take your husband's work week,
(00:46):
which then was just hey, babe, will you host this
podcast with me? Joining me each week on podcast is
my husband James Vaughan. Hi baby, Hi baby, We're doing
a podcast together. This will there be amazing or this
will be the end of us. I don't know one
of the two things are gonna happen. So we'll see.
(01:07):
We'll see how this. We just got married, so it
better be good for us. It's gonna be great. They're like,
what's the honeymoon phase? Like, I'm like, it's podcast. Our
honeymoon phase is podcast. After spending the last ten years
interviewing celebrities on red carpets and on my TV shows,
I decided it was time to take on my hardest task,
yeah baby, and that is keeping you on topic and
limiting your iced coffee consumption during podcast. I love ice coffee.
(01:31):
You guys, and I talk really fast and I talk
a lot, so I mean, I guess it's good that
we're doing a podcast. But just if you need to
go back and play it in like half speech, you
can understand what I'm saying. No one's gonna blame you.
That's why I got my hand on your ice coffee
back here, blocking you from getting anymore. But seriously, we
are doing this because there's not enough celebration of our community.
(01:51):
I think that there's not enough celebration of the work
that's being done. I know, in our lifetimes we've seen
a lot change. We've seen a lot of progress, and
that is so beautiful. But we wanted to create a
space that we can celebrate that. And that's what podcast
is all about. It's about celebrating and building up are
amazing queer community. Yes, we are talking to you, hey, yeah,
And along the way, you're gonna get insight as to
(02:13):
what's going on in our lives. But you're also going
to get insight into our guest lives and also what's
going on in our community. But most importantly, you're gonna
learn about the amazing things are beautiful l G B
t Q I plus community are doing. And let me
tell you right now, they're really big. Ye'll do it.
(02:34):
I know. For me, the journey of getting to a
place of pride was a long one. I mean I
got into the entertainment industry during a time when I
wasn't encouraged to be proud of who I was. It
was actually the opposite, like when I started acting fifteen
thousand years ago, b C. It was, it was actually
it was. It was twenty two a d. When I
(02:55):
started my first audition in New York City and being
a being a person in the entertainment industry and being
a gay man. Needless to say, there was no pride
parade for you when when I started in the industry,
and too and to be where I am now hosting
a podcast about pride with my husband who I just married,
(03:15):
who is a dude. Obviously he's a husband, so he's
a dude, but like to be married to him and
to be living our life so boldly and proudly is
such such such, such such an amazing feeling, and it's
it's been a journey. So we're gonna talk about that journey,
my journey. We're gonna talk about our guest journey, and maybe,
hopefully long they will be able to inspire people that
(03:37):
they'll be able to listen to this podcast and say, wow,
I identify with that or oh, hey, me too, because
the journey to pride is different for each person, and
that's what we're gonna celebrate here on this podcast. And
speaking of people we are proud of proud to have
on this show with us, let's introduce our producers. Raymond.
What's up, buddy? I know Ray is here. Hey, hey guys,
(04:00):
how are you doing? Okay, So here's what happened. They're like, hey,
let's do a podcast and I'm like, okay, great, And
the real story is, I'm like, we're gonna talk a lot.
I ramble, I'm really hyper, James can barely keep tracking me.
What James is gonna be fact checking me? But who's
gonna be keeping us on track? And they said, don't worry,
(04:21):
we have a gen Z leading producer, Raymond, He's gonna
be there to help help you guys along the way,
and you're gonna tell us what the kids are thinking.
Yeah exactly. I'm like, I'm here to be like your Gellman.
You know what I mean. I'm gonna flash a cut cards,
keep you on tasks, make sure you don't go too
off the rails. Not for the kids out there. Gelman.
(04:41):
People listening to this don't know who Gelman are. Gelman
is the producer from what was Regis and Kathy Lee
that turned into Regis and Kelly, that turned into Kelly
and Ryan, Kelly and Michael, Kelly and Michael and then
Kelley Ryan. Gellman's the person like off camera that kind
of they need to check in with when they're saying
the wrongest one. He is the one that's really in charge.
And the best part is because Raymond is, uh, let's
(05:04):
let's just say ten years younger than us, the views
that we have are completely different than the views that
you know, people that are ten years younger than us
and people ten years anger that or ten years older.
Everyone's had a different journey to pride, and that pride
has been is that journey is really different in between
the different generations totally, and I yeah, it's it's it's
completely different. And it's also just like a different experience too,
(05:26):
because like you said, not only you guys older, but
I'm like, I'm half Mexican, have Chinese, and so I
have a different perspective in coming from like those lanes
as a gay man. And but then you know, there's
so many different voices. So we're just trying to be
like inclusive and I'm trying to give you guys just
a third set of eyes. Like everybody's experience is so different,
(05:48):
and you can't just say, oh, your experience looks like this.
You need someone to be to say, hey, that's what
the experience is, because that's how you learn from, right,
Like speaking of an experience that is here's one example
that I love talking about the word queer right there.
For us, my experience growing up is that the word
queer is the worst word you could call someone. Like
(06:08):
I was called queer before I was punched in the
face and shoved me into a locker on the third
floor and call me queer and that was or it
was that you effing queer. So like the word queer
is always associated with me and James, and we've talked
about this. Yes, a mean of the queer happen would
be throwing the football and tell us it to me
and the smear the queer and I'm like, dang, Like
(06:29):
it's it's so much trauma with that word. But then
when you have someone like Raymond. Raymond, you've said multiple
times during our conversations the word queer and that's what
you use as like you're an identification and we're learning
to love it. We are. We are learning to love
it because that's the thing about our community. L g
B t Q I A plus plus plus. I always
say like, the more letters we get, the stronger we get.
(06:51):
We are a squad, we are a team. We are
a mafia watch out. So you gotta learn to I
guess kind of for us, we just we saw people
love thing the word queer, and we realized that it
was people taking ownership and getting that word back, and
that's when we started to actually change our relationship with
the word and realize, oh, it's it's not the thing
(07:11):
that caused us all this trauma and pain and the
word we were hearing as we were getting beat up
but it instead is coming from a place of power
now and it's this is us. This is all part
of our team and our squads. So and Raymond, you
use that word. Is that a word you use to identify? Yeah?
I would say that, like people ask and they're like, well,
how do you identify, And I would say queer And
then to me it means To me, it means one thing,
(07:31):
and to some people it means something completely different. But
I think that, like, there's power in that word, um,
because you know, I grew up with I mean, I'm
obviously younger, but it was definitely a word that my
dad and his generation used derogative, like in a derogative way.
But now for me, I'm like, no, there's empowerment behind it. Ah.
And I love that because literally, you, Raymond, you and
(07:55):
people like you that are using that word as an
empowering word has been changed us and made us start
to use it as an empowering word word and feeling
empowered when we use it. Now. I love to say
that I'm a member of the queer community, and I
love when people ask me I say that I'm queer,
and it's because of you, ray Min, It's because of
your generation, and because of the work that you guys
(08:16):
are doing, you are able to empower us and it
is so so wonderful. So I can't wait for this podcast.
I think we're gonna talk about so many amazing things
and so many great topics that are just going to
really connect with people. And we're going to celebrate the
community because there are enough podcasts out there of people
throwing teeth, throwing shade, ripping the each other down in
(08:37):
the community, and that's not what we're gonna be doing
at podcast. There is enough hate out in the world.
We are only gonna build you up here and we're
only going to talk about how great it is to
be gay. So hey, thanks to all yeah younger kids
that made us proud of the word queer. Yeah, I
appreciate you. And speaking of being proud guys, like, why
(09:05):
don't you tell me more? I mean, Jonathan, you kind
of touched on it a little bit that like when
you first entered the business, it wasn't you know, it
wasn't like a celebration to be gay, So like, tell
us a little bit more about that journey to how
you got to where you are now. Literally so proud
and like literally the host of Pridecast. I am the
host of Pridecast on I Heart Radio. That sounds. That
(09:26):
sounds and feels good to say. Um, yeah, you know what.
Here's the thing. Growing up, you know, in Ohio, I
didn't have many pride parades in general. But what happened
was when I moved to New York City. I was
nineteen years old and I was finally out in New
York and I went to we ust to do this
place called Tiger Heat, which was like eighteen and over,
(09:48):
and you could go when they would play all the
pop music of the time, which was two thousand, so
it was like Brittany in sync when all of them
were on the top of their game. You'd go there
and you'd dance, and it was so good to be gay.
It felt so good, like, oh my gosh, I can
be myself. And I remember just feeling the sense of
awe being at this at this club. And I booked
(10:10):
all my children the soap opera where I was playing
Kelly Rippa's brother, and I was at the at Tiger
Heat on Thursday night and I was dancing and the
next day the head of ABC, which is uh it
was I think it's all my Children publicity. The head
of All My Children Publicity, I think his name is Mike.
(10:30):
He called me into his office and I thought I
thought I was going in. I'm like, oh my gosh,
I'm gonna be on on Regis and Kelly like this.
I have my big moment. I'm happy, like, oh did
I get the cover of people? I'm the new hot
guy and all my children. I'm the new like young
like thing on the show. They got me some big publicity.
He calls me in. I'm like, I'm ready for my
(10:52):
close up? What are we doing? And he goes, were
you at Tiger Heat? And I said, yeah, it's so
much fun. Have you been? Oh my god, they played
Britney Spears. They play and seeing it's so much fun.
He's like, you know you can't go there, right, And
I was like why. He goes, well, you can't be gay.
You're the you're the young hot guy on the show.
Now like you can't do that, And in that moment,
(11:12):
your whole world is rocked. Right, your whole world comes
crashing down on you. Because what has happened is since
the time I was two years old, I've dreamed about
being an actor, There's never been another job I wanted
in my whole life. And then I moved to New
York and I make it, you know, like the you're
(11:35):
literally your dreams come true and when I'm and when
your dreams come true and it's the only thing you've
ever wanted, you will do anything to make sure that
dream is sustained and that dream and that you keep
having your living your dream. Right, So when they tell
you that you can't be gay, your whole world crashes
down because you realize, oh, I will sa sacrifice anything
(11:57):
to keep this dream alive, Like I I need this dream.
So what you do? You go into the closet and
this this I was out one minute and in the
closet the next. And they even gave me a fake
girlfriend and I had to go to like premieres with
a fake girlfriend and lie to everyone. And it was
just the most awful feeling in the world. And that
(12:18):
carried throughout the first probably ten years of my career
because it was a different time. Back then. It was
we didn't have we had will and Grace was just starting.
Glee didn't exist. I always say, b G before Glee,
before Glee, and before it was cool to be gay,
like it wasn't cool to be gay, and if there
were characters on TV, you only saw them as caricatures,
(12:40):
not actual people with feelings and heart. And so you
go in the closet, and my whole first ten years
of my career you just live in this like state
of misery where it's like if everyone, if anyone finds
out about you, you're gonna lose it all everything you've
worked for, all the dreams you do, mean girls you're
playing Lindsay Lope and love interest, like everything that you
(13:02):
know is gonna be thrown away because they're gonna find
out that you're gay. And if they find out you're gay,
the girls won't want to go see your movies. And
when the girls won't want to go see your movies,
you won't have any box office poll. And we don't
have any box office poll. You fail. Like that's literally
what is told to you by every single person in
the industry. There wasn't ever a single person. And I
(13:23):
mean this, unless I can barely, I can't remember one.
If there is one out there and you're listening, feel
free to text me and say, hey, I didn't say that,
but I don't remember a single person that ever said no,
just live your truth, go be gay, like it's fine,
not a single person, because it was a different time.
And I don't fault any of these people. I don't
fault any of the people that you work with, any
people that are around you, because what they're saying was
(13:45):
true in a way, because it's all the industry new right.
So I'm not mad at it. I'm not like there's
no vengeance like, it's no, that's they were doing what
they thought they needed to do to protect me, to
keep me working. So it's a very mixed bag of
feeling things with this whole thing. So, you know, fast forward,
all of a sudden, glee happens and all the you know,
(14:05):
if you want to say, the Ryan Murphy of it all,
like all the phenomenons of drag race and everything start happening,
and the world starts to change, which is a beautiful thing,
but you gotta remember there's a group of actors that
are gay and had to be in the closet and
are still young enough to be in careers, and then
all of a sudden, gay is okay, and it becomes
(14:26):
a thing in the industry where it's like now it's
a huge thing and you're allowed to be out, Well,
then what do all of us do. There's a whole
group of us that were like, hey, hey, guys, you
told us to be in the closet, and so we've
been in the closet our whole lives, and now all
of a sudden, you're saying, hey, it's okay to be gay.
What are we supposed to do? How do we handle that?
How do we navigate that? Do we have to have
(14:47):
an actual coming out? Like I don't. It's such a
complex thing and there's so much to dive into in this,
but it becomes such a horrible feeling of having to
navigate how to do this. Well, I've told everyone I wasn't.
Now I tell everyone I am. And you know, I
think a lot of people, whether you're in the industry
or not, or whether you're in entertainment or in the
(15:09):
limelight or not, you have to navigate those things as well.
Just because I'm doing it on a bigger scale doesn't
mean that other people listening aren't having to do that
as well, Because I'm sure there's people listening that if
you are gay, that have had girl friends, because that's
what they were supposed to do and then all of
a sudden they come out and they have to go
back and tell it. So everyone can hopefully relate to
this feeling if you've been through something like that. But
(15:29):
needless to say, that's you know, it was a very depressing,
very horrible ten years of my life where you were
having everything but also living in misery and living in
the dark on your like internally, but then on the
outside you're standing in the spotlight and getting cameras, you know,
taking pictures of you and you know, being on red carpets,
but yet you were crying inside. So the fact that
(15:51):
we're here now hosting podcast on my heart with my husband,
it's a full journey. Yeah, And I imagine for you, baby, like,
it's got to be such a weird, just like mind
trip of you're in this space where you're getting praised
for everything you're doing, but everything you're doing is hiding
who you really are. So it's got to be such
(16:11):
a hard thing to try to unpack and get past.
It's the hardest thing ever. And no, and the problem is,
no one ever thinks about this group of actors that
were told hey, and and musicians and whoever that we're
in the industry and in the line like no one
has ever told no one ever thinks about them, like, hey,
what about the people that you told no to? And
then all of a sudden it was okay, and you said, yeah,
(16:32):
it's fine. Have you ever thought about how it must
feel for them to have to like navigate what they
want to do now and how they want to handle it,
Because it's a really trippy thing because, like you said, James,
it is they're they're praising you for someone you're not.
So I give it the the equation of being in
a kingdom, right, Like you're a night and you come
back from war and you walk into the gates of
the castle open and everyone's throwing roses at you and
(16:55):
they're like clapping and trumpets are playing and they're celebrating you,
and you're living your your dream has come true, you've
won the war, you're you know, you've got the roles,
you're doing it all. But then they just reach in
and take away your sword and they're like, Okay, you're
you and we're gonna clap for you, but you just
you can't be you can't beat you. So it is
(17:15):
a really trippy feeling. Yeah, I feel like that probably
happened to a lot of people, not even in our industry,
but people just in general. There's a lot of people
that we still have friends now that are a little older,
that can't even feel they can't even be out in
the workplace, but just you know there their everyday nine
to five job. So again I said this earlier, Ray
(17:37):
and our gen zs and younger people, we appreciate you
all so much because you all have been the ones
that have really helped push especially with like social media
and everything of like here we are, it's very we're
here where queer get used to that kind of thing, right,
but it's like it's really happening and and it is
opening doors and changing things for people and things like
making the industry a lot more like and accepting of
(17:59):
us and our beautiful queer family. And it is a journey.
I mean, for me, I was performing in shows in
Vegas and that was all part of my journey. I've
I've always been a performer as well. I think for
a lot of young queer kids performing as we find
that's our outlet, it's our place where if we can't
(18:19):
be ourselves and we can't be our gay selves. We
can be our loud selves. We can be are over
the top selves. We can we can be ourselves in
spandex and leotards and twirl around the stage. Yeah, of course,
and so for me. But I remember being in Vegas
and I get my first show, my very first show
on the Las Vegas strip, and I'm on the billboards
and it's so cool. And then the producer comes up
(18:41):
to me on stage. I have to rehearse some because hey, um,
I need you to lose the ear rings. I'm afraid
that people might know that the lead of my show
is gay. And it's like, oh, oh man, Like, first
of all, like, girl, how old school are you that
you thought ear ring was like? And second of all,
fine if someone was gay or not. Second of all,
(19:02):
have you ever seen how hot James looks with ear rings?
Like sometimes I'm like, oh baby, I'm like, hey, you're
making them every time I been saying I'm clinging to
my youth, because he is clinging to his youth when
he wears his ear rings. He's clinging to his youth. However,
also very hot. So when he puts him out, he
knows I'm going to try to make out with him.
If he wants me to like kiss him or make
out or you know, get a little loving in. I'm
(19:23):
always like, maybe put your earrings in. That is not
the trick. It is absolutely the trick. I'm gonna do
this as soon as we're done filming, and you're gonna
look at camera. No. So, I mean, I I understand
that experience. Maybe, but I'm sure there's so many people
that understand, whether it was in show biz, or whether
it was a workplace, or whether it was in their
family of having that moment. I have specific moments in
(19:45):
my head or where I remember people saying, don't be gay.
You can't be gay, met family members, said, producers, teachers like,
it's crazy. And so to get to where we are now,
it is a beautiful journey, and it is amazing that
we are doing something here to a shout out pride
and how we should all be proud and hopefully encourage
more people to be more proud of themselves. I remember,
(20:06):
but you were the first gay out Chippendale. I was,
So that's something we need to not gloss over because
it's really fun to say that I'm married the head
of the Chippendal's. Um, I mean, here's the funny here's
the funny story. But here's the funny story that you
couldn't write. Like, hey, if you're running the Book of Life,
Aaron Samuel's marries the head Chippendale like it's just like
(20:31):
it's like a gay match made in heaven. I love it.
And also, if you don't know of this, google images.
Google images of James von Chipendals because they're gorgeous, just
saying baby, I'm always mad at him. I'm like, why
didn't I know you when you had that body? Because
I was really in security that you really didn't want
to know. And now we just have our dad bods
(20:53):
and we're happy and we love it. Uh wait, you
guys are you guys are jumping ahead? You're talking like
you just gave us a headline. Ear and says married
a Chipendale. But how did you guys even meet? Because
I'm assuming it's not you want to hear how we met? Yeah? Right, yeah,
well let let me well that all kind of comes
through the Chippendos thing is how we got there. So
let me do this wild little journey to get you there.
(21:13):
So through my whole process will be good. The whole
process of being in Vegas and doing shows there and
and having different moments of out. Uh, I finally got
to oh, my gosh, I was an amazing race. Right,
it's the TV show where team's race around. You don't
need to complain the amazing race for anybody explaining mean
girls to the gay Audi for anybody thirty we do
(21:35):
my love and something like no, no, it's a race
around the world. We try to get a million dollars.
I'm not gonna spoil the m FO you because somebody'll
still be going back to Hulu and watching it and
and thinking that we we're gonna win, So just go
ahead and still root for us. But I was on
there and at the time we actually I think there
was like our publicist for the show I was in
put a clause in the contract to say like that
they couldn't mention my sexuality in the show. And I
(21:57):
was still so scared of it, even though I was
out with all my my friends and my family and
all that, I was just just so scared of like
it being public knowledge that I wouldn't get booked in
these shows, you'll lose your job. And so it was
literally in there, and then I remember getting back and
being like this, this is this is not it, this
is not I can no longer let anybody restrict anything
(22:19):
about what I'm doing. And so I came back. I
talked to the publicists of Shippendale's Michael Caprio, who to
this day I am still indebted to, Thank you, sir.
I know a lot of y'all listening to know him.
He reps a lot of people. Um, But we were like,
why don't we just instead do the first openly gay Shippendale.
People always assumed there was some gay guys and shipendals anyway,
because they're they're always were, So why don't we just
(22:41):
let y'all know that we know that, you know. And
so it used to be called the ultimate girls night Out,
and so I just started saying I would be like, yeah,
but you know a girl you can come to, and
it just became a thing and it stuck and it worked,
and then it just it was one of those things
we were also scared of it. In the minute we
did it, it just opened the doors and it was like,
look at everybody telling their truth and being honest, and
it brought in a whole different audience. To the show.
(23:02):
It brought in a whole different experience to me as
the performer because I no longer had to like hide
behind this toxic masculinity thing. I could just kind of
be me and if I had a moment on stage
and a wrist flip or whatever, and I showed more
of myself, great and everybody was loving and they were
in on it, like and that actually led to me
getting opportunities and the TV hosting world of doing stuff
because I was finally being myself. This is your lesson, y'all,
(23:23):
be yourself, you start kids stuff, And so I was
hosting different shows. I ended up hosting a show called
Okay TV, which turned into Celebrity Page TV. The first
season of Celebrity Page TV, I am asked to go
into work early because the producer of this segment for
this show Halloween Wars wants me to come in and
do the interview because the guy that played Aaron Samuel
(23:45):
was in Mean Girls is the host of the show
and I'll be interviewing him. And so I tried to
get out of it because I was like, I don't listen.
But my movie was Jawbreaker, it was not Mean Girls.
So I was like, I don't really know that one.
Let somebody else have it, and um, I'll just come
and afterwards and not have to come to work. Early
back in the day, I hosted a show on Food
Network called Halloween Wars, and we were doing press for
(24:08):
it and they gave what my last stop on the
press tour that morning, I just on Access Hollywood and
they're like, Okay, you're gonna go to the Grove and
you're gonna interview with this guy, um, and you're gonna
do a pumpkin carving. I'm like, okay, great, Sure. So
we show up at the grove, I'm I'm with my publicist.
We're in like a black town car because we're like
super fancy, and we're like, I'm in, I'm the host
(24:31):
of the show. You guys need to send a town car.
And so they send a town car and I'm all
fancy and we get to the grove and I'm walking
in and I have to We're trying to find where
we're supposed to go, and lo and behold, it's right
in the middle of the grove, which, if you don't know,
the grove as a shopping mall and outdoor shopping mall
in l A. It's where everyone goes. It's the place
I say, never go on a on a first date
because you will run into your X. It's just it's
(24:52):
just one of those places. And so it's where our
show and so that's where they used to film outdoors
right in the middle of the mall, very classy. And
so we're I'm walking and I look over and I
see this hunk of a man that literally looks like
the Greek gods sculpted the most beautiful human being I've
ever seen. And he was standing there like going over
some papers while they were setting up lights. And I
(25:13):
turned to my publicist and I go, who is that?
And he goes, that's the host of the show. And
I go, what's his name? What's his name? Look it up?
And so we start looking. I'm looking through the email
to try to find his name. He goes, it's James
with a Y. I go, that's silly, and then I
go look at his Instagram. So we go to his
Instagram and when I look at his Instagram, it says
(25:33):
l G B t q I A plus and I'm like,
oh my god, he's gay. I have to go fix
my hair and I run to the bathroom to fix
my hair, no joke, and my publicists like, you were
gonna go on national television without looking in the mirror,
but because the host is hot, you have to fix
your hair. And I'm like, obviously, So Joan shows up
on my set. I'm still this point, I think tried
(25:55):
to get out of doing the interview, actually because I
want to go get some food. And he shows up
and I'm like, wow, this dude is a lot of
First of all, you told your First of all, he
shows up with his assistant, which is not his assistant. Well,
first of all, Mr, I had to have a town car.
First of all, how exhausting. Um, so I was because
my show did not do bougie things like that for me. Right. Um,
(26:17):
My best friend and I Reaves, we lived together at
the time, and so it was always it became a
joke like who is James trying to get out of
interviewing now? Because like these pre taped interviews always a
my going in early. So She's like, who is this
one who are trying to get out of interviewing? And
I'm like, I don't know, Jonathan Bennett. She goes Aaron
Samuel's from Mean Girls, and I'm like yeah, She's like,
you have to do this, And she was actually a
deciding factor of me not bailing on this interview and
(26:40):
having someone else from the show do it, because she
was like, I have to get a video for Instagram
of me asking him what day it is. Now. At
the time, I hadn't seen the movies that didn't make
Now I'm a love So I was like, fine, you
can come, but you have to be my assistant all
day if you want the luxury of getting your Instagram
(27:00):
and if you know, my best friend Reeves has a
lot to ask her to be somebody's assistant for the
day and she was like, fine, whatever, I'll do it.
So I walk out of the bathroom and I look
at his producer and I go, am, I about to
meet my future husband. Her name was Jade and I
and she goes, I think so, So we walk out
and then as I'm walking that statement by the way,
like we're married now, How weird is that? And so
(27:21):
I say when I when I get there, he goes, oh,
my assistant would like to go get you coffee. And
then I get pissed because I'm like your assistant and
I literally turned to my publicist and I go, I
have sixteen shows on Food Network, Cake Wars, Halloween Wars,
Cupcake Wars, Cupcake Wars, Kids, Cupcake Worse Champion, Cupcake Cage Match,
(27:43):
Christmas Wars, Holiday Wars. I have every show on the
network and I don't have an assistant. He this guy's
shooting at the grove and he gets an assistant Like,
I was so upset, but not really but just funny upset.
And then I walk over to him. I see him
and we're both thirteen. Well, first of all, he fell
(28:04):
in love with me right away, so no, no, no, no, no,
no no no. It was love at first sight for John,
was first contact for me. I was already in love
with him from the moment I saw him. I was like, Yep,
that's the man I'm going to like. This guy is
a lot. He will not stop talking. This is my show.
Can we just get him in place, get him miked up,
and let's get started. And right before it happened, we
(28:25):
realized we have a mutual friend in common that every
single gay person knows and has in common, which is
Lance Bass. Because the Gates, we all are friends with Lance,
because he's our leader Lance, if you're listening, you are
our leader. You will always be our president of the Gates.
We love you. So he's definitely president of wee over,
He's president of everything. So he's like, okay, um, so
(28:45):
so yeah, So we realized we have this Like I'm like,
oh my gosh. I had just been snapchatting with him
and his husband, and I was like, we have to
send him a snapchat. Was really just talking to them.
How have you and I never met? If we're both
friends with them? So we go and it's literally like
out of a movie. All they are counting down in
my ear. Okay, we're going in ten nine. Hey, I
(29:05):
pulled the camera out. We go to take the picture
to snapchat over to him. Jonathan leans into me and
his shoulder hits my shoulder and it's like and it
was like, I'm not even kidding you. It was like butterflies.
It was like fireworks. It was everything all at once.
(29:26):
And then they're like three two, and I'm like, uh, now,
you can't stump me. I'm interviewed everybody. You can't stump me.
But this was starting in front of an audience at
the Grove. At Jonathan, I think I had to start
the interview for because he couldn't even talk, and I
was like, okay, well, hey, I'm James Vaughan, Welcome to
(29:46):
Celebrity PAGETV. I'm I'm here with Jonathan Bennett from Food
Networks Halloween War. And the entire interview was that it
was a mess. It was a disaster. We were talking
over each other, we were stepping on each other's sentences.
It was we were flirting the entire time because it
was crazy on camera. I told him, I was like,
will you just make out with me? Already? And like
I knew it was taped and they were going to
(30:07):
edit it out, but I didn't care. I was like,
will you make out with me? Like I knew what
I wanted. I was going for it, and they ended
up editing it out, but like in that moment, we
were both such a mess. And then when it was over,
I looked at him and I was like, can I
get your phone number? And he goes, you better, and
so I got his phone number and then I go, okay,
I'm I got in the car. We're driving home. My
(30:27):
publicist goes, don't call him for three days. You came
on way too strong. I'm like, I got you, fam,
I'm not going to call him for three days, please,
what do you think? I am desperate? And we get
to the house. As soon as he drops me off,
I call him and I would, and I was like,
is it weird if I wanted to come back and
kiss you right now? He goes no. I said good
because I'm already driving. I had jumped in the car,
(30:47):
was driving back to the grove. I walk up. I'm
I see him standing at the Farmer's market. We walk up.
I just I look right at him, and I say,
we should just kiss and see if this is what
we think it is, because if it is, then this
is it that we found our person. So we kissed
right there in the farmers Market parking lot. And it's
literally like out of a movie. It's like the Notebook,
(31:08):
Like all of a sudden, doves start flying out of nowhere.
It starts pouring down rain. Ryan Gosling comes by in
a canoe. There's like ducks, it's like fireworks. It's like
this whole moment where it's just magical. And then we
were like, all right, dinner tonight, yep, and the rest
is history. Yeah, it was very it was very much
that feeling of when he had first rubbed against me
(31:29):
at the start, like there was nothing prior to that.
I didn't Jonathan wasn't really like the type hours after
to Tim and so I was like, didn't think he
was gonna be it. But that was like crazy, insane fireworks.
And then the kiss was that times a hundred, and
we literally just knew like, oh wow, we're like cool,
Let's go to dinner, dinner. Actually with Jonathan showing up
at my place with two hoodies, walked me down to
(31:49):
the beach. You could not have picked a more ideal
date for me to just go to the beach and
talk and do nothing. And that's what it was, and
that's history because here we are married, hosting prodcast us
proud as how to be gay as can be as.
That was really sweet. That was really sweet, and you
guys just got married right like it was like a
(32:10):
month ago. A month ago. We got married at Unico
Resort in Mexico with about a hundred of our closest
friends and it was a wedding for the ages. It
was absolutely the most beautiful week of our lives. We
got to be surrounded by all of our friends and
family for like a whole five days where everyone just
got to get to know each other, and we brought
(32:31):
our families together, our groups of friends together, everyone connected
and and just literally did what we wanted, which was
created one huge, massive family. And we did a whole
bunch of things in our wedding that were new traditions
that we'll get into another episode, but it was just
such a wonderful moment to to bring our families together
and leave as one giant family. And now all of
(32:53):
our groups of friends that didn't know each other are
all calling each other and hanging out, so we literally
became one giant family. So yeah, we call everybody our
chosen family. And that's what this podcast is all about too.
So it's really cool to see our chosen family growing
and bonding and loving with each other, and it's really
it's really just like our chosen family expanding. It's a
beautiful thing. And if you're listening to podcast right now,
(33:14):
you congratulations and welcome. You are now part of our
Chosen family. We want this podcast to be a celebration
of our Chosen family, and that means everyone in the
l g B t q I plus community no matter
how you identify, no matter if you're if you're out,
if you're not out, if you're thinking about coming out,
if you're thinking about that, you that you might want
to be part of the community, whatever that journey is
(33:36):
for you, You're welcome here and you're part of our
family and there is a place for you at our table.
So we were just talking about chosen family, and I
love that. So speaking of chosen family, tell us a
(33:56):
little bit about like some of the family that you're
gonna have on this podcast. Oh my gosh, we have
so many amazing l g B, t q I plus
people that are gonna be joining us on this too,
not only share their journeys, but share their experiences and
celebrate what it is to be proud of who you are.
We we have some comedians, some actors. Let's just say this,
(34:19):
I've called in some favors of some of my closest Well,
let's let's just be honest. You just call your famous
friends that are gay and are like, hey, well you
do my podcast, And I'm pretty much I've convinced most
of them to do it. So we're gonna have an
amazing group of people on here. Yeah, and it's also
gonna be a space for it. Maybe people you don't
necessarily know of that are doing inspiring things that we
(34:41):
want you to hear their story of pride because it
will help give you more pride. And if there's people
that y'all listening would love to have us have on
the show, let us know, because we we want to
bring on those stories that make y'all feel proud to
be a part of this community. And something we're gonna
be doing each week that we're so excited about is
we're gonna be shining are Big Gay Spotlight on members
(35:02):
of the l g B, t q I A plus
community that we think are doing great things, people you
might not know about, or maybe there are people you know,
but each week we're gonna feature someone in our Big
Gay Spotlight. James, you have someone for this week's Spotlight,
don't you? Because I haven't shut up about this walking
around the house all week because I'm so excited and
so proud to Yes, please give me a minute to
brag on one of my friends, l Morrigan Lee, who
(35:26):
is currently starring in her Broadway debut as a female
lead in A Strange Loop on Broadway. Yes, it's the
show everybody's talking about that. I gotta take you way back.
So before I was in Vegas, I was performing at
theme parks. My very first job as a professional singer
was the Paramounts King's Dominion in Virginia and one of
the other performers there was L Morgan Lee. This is
(35:47):
this is the way back. We were kids, y'all. And
you know those people in your life. I'm sure you're
having two baby, where there's that person that first made
you start to go, oh wow, I can be proud
and oh wow, there is power being proud of who
I am. I was not out yet, but baby miss
L Morgan Lee was living her life, living her truth
(36:07):
and fill in rooms with this infectious laughter and this
amazing talent that made me start to just, I think,
dig deeper into myself and learn more about myself and
and figure out how to be proud of myself. And
fast forward. This is somebody that I have always thought
was the most dynamic thing on stage and such an
amazing performer, and was always like, when is it gonna
happen for her? When is it gonna happen? Because it
(36:29):
should and bam, she's she's now starting in a Strange
Loop And it's so con see all these people writing
reviews on how amazing she is to be this fierce
black trans woman who is playing a female lead on
Broadway and her breakout role and getting rave, rave, rave reviews.
I want to cry every time I see them. I'm
so proud of her. Look her up 's go see
(36:49):
her a Strange Loop on Broadway. Get there. I hear
she's getting standing ovations in the middle of the show
almost every song. I mean, and this is the person
that I've known was that and a person that inspired me,
so to know that she has inspired so many other people. Now,
El Morgan Lee, baby, you deserve all of this spotlight.
So so proud of you, and so we just shined
our big gay spotlight on El Morgan Lee. I wish
(37:12):
we had like a thing like we salute you, but
we don't really salute you. We just shine o light
because beautiful we we we we shot, we shine our
light on you. El Morgan Lee. Thank you for all
that you do for the community and for all the
lives that you're changing doing what you're doing. Yeah, are
you crying now? I just got got emotional. James just
(37:34):
got emotional. He's hitting here, he's shaking and he's crying.
I'm just I'm real proud because this this person helped
me learn to be proud of myself, and so I'm
just really proud of her. Speaking of other fun segments
on the show, Great Transition Podcast is also going to
have is different segments on our show that teach us
about l g B, t Q plus history because in
(37:55):
order for us to celebrate who we are right now
and in order for us to celebrate where we're going,
we have to truly know our history to be proud
of how far we've come. So this week in gay history,
we're going to cover something really special. James, do you
want to talk about this because it's really cool. All Right?
For this first one, we're going way back. This actually
(38:15):
dates back to twenty b C and what is believed
to be the very first same sex couple in recorded history.
So this week, in nineteen sixty four, in the ancient
necropolis of Sakara, Egypt, Egyptian archaeologist Ahmed Musa discovered the
burial chambers of Hunom Hotep and Niak Hunum, who were
(38:40):
servants and royal confidence at the palace of King Nio
Sarah during the fifth dynasty of Egyptian pharaohs, so at
the entrance to their joint tomb. In one scene, the
couple is seated on a banquet table that's usually reserved
for married couples. That's seeing along with some of the
hieroglyphics that were used. While the conclusion is that it's
why they believe they were indeed a couple. Also, according
(39:01):
to the hieroglyphics, they were ancient Egyptian world servants. They
were supervisors of the manicurist to the king, and according
to ancient Egyptian customs, the purpose of bearing couples together
was so that they could accompany each other in the afterlife.
Now I gotta say, are very specially thank you, to
be sure as ease for working with me to help
(39:22):
me learn the pronunciations so I could correctly say them.
For this history lesson. Thanks buddy, And that has been
this week in gay history. That's pretty cool, right, I
love it. Same sex couple and recorded history, I mean,
and of course it was the manicurist. He's like, um,
I'm gonna make sure that your nails are right before
you go out to these fancy palace balls. Okay, honey,
we're gonna make sure the nails are on point now.
(39:44):
Because this is podcast and it's all about pride, we
want to know, James, what does pride mean to you?
What has pride mean you? This something we're gonna ask
all of our We're gonna ask all of our guests
the same questions to me, Honestly, it really is just
about finding who you are, which I think it is
always a journey. You continually find out who you are
and learning to love every piece of who you are
(40:06):
and learning to do it loudly, to say this is me,
this is who I am, and know that by saying
this is me and this is who I am, you
are inevitably going to inspire other people to find that
in themselves. So it's a continuous cycle that just keeps
making the pride grow and grow and grow. Why are
you looking to me like that? Well, now you're supposed
to say, what does pride me? I was looking for
(40:30):
a proof of to my answer, But what is pride
me to you? Pride to me means being unapologetically yourself,
plain and simple. What's your favorite thing about being queer? James?
What's the best part about being queer in your eyes
is that I say it's a superpower. It's a superpower
(40:51):
because you get to be your authentic self. And when
you get that power to be your authentic self in
your queerness, it also pens up the power to be
your authentic self and every other facet of your life,
to be able to say this is me, this is
who I am, and just live loudly and boldly. What
about you, baby, what's your favorite part about being queer?
(41:13):
The best thing about being queer is marrying you, Because
if I was straight, this marriage probably wouldn't have worked
out so well. So I think the best part about
being gay is the fact that I got to find
the love of my life and find my person and
marry them and spend the rest of my life with them.
Thousand percent agree with you on that too, baby. Alright,
(41:36):
So that wraps up the first episode of pridecast here
on I Heart Radio with Jonathan Bennett, and of course
joining me was my lovely husband, James Vaughn. We're gonna
be joining you each week with a different guest talking
about all the things that are gay, l g B,
t Q I plus and all the celebrations that are
our community, so make sure you follow us on Instagram
(41:57):
and everywhere else you follow. Hey, subscribe to this podcast.
You know when a new one drops. I just said
drop some of those people. We're dropping a new one
each week and until then, every moment of every single day,
be proud of who you are and remember you're never
too much and you're always enough. Hello. My name is
(42:26):
Gerald Garth, and I am the vice president of Programs
and Initiatives with Christopher Street West l A Pride. I
would like to warmly welcome you to Podcast, a very
special new podcast produced by I Heart Media, Los Angeles
in partnership with l A Pride. L A Pride is
a five oh one c three nonprofit that is rich
in lgbt Q history. On June seventy, we organized the
(42:50):
world's first permeated parade advocating for gay rights, commemorating the
Stone Wall Rebellion. Over fifty years later, we are continuing
to pave the way in uplift our vibrant community. You'll
hear more about us and our dynamic programming for twenty
twenty two, which includes our Pride in the Park headlined
by Christina Aguilera on Saturday, June eleven, the return of
(43:13):
our legendary parade to Hollywood on Sunday, June twelfth, and
one of our newest programs, Pride Makes a Difference. Stay
tuned for more and welcome to broadcast
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