February 6, 2025 • 19 mins
Super Sober Heroes, welcome back! Today, I’m joined once again by my dear friend and co-founder of Here Queer Sober, Phil B! With 7 years, 9 months, and 24 days sober, Phil shares about his whirlwind year—completing his master’s degree in counseling, navigating job offers, moving into his own apartment, and embracing the next chapter of his recovery and career.
We also dive into:
✨ The big life transitions that tested his recovery—and how he stayed grounded
✨ Balancing sobriety & career in addiction counseling
✨ Finding the right meeting routine after so much change
✨ The first-ever Here Queer Sober Conference (coming September 27-29, 2024) and how you can get involved!
Phil reminds us that sobriety isn’t about avoiding life—it’s about showing up fully, embracing change, and creating something meaningful. 🌈💪
Resources & Links:
📍 Register for the Here Queer Sober Conference:
➡️ Find the link pinned in the Here Queer Sober Facebook Group
📧 Email Phil at philip@herequeersober.org
📢 Want to lead a workshop or panel?
🎤 DM me on Instagram @gAyApodcast
📍 Follow Phil & Here Queer Sober:
📲 Instagram: @herequeersober
🎧 Listen now & get ready for part two with Phil coming soon! And as always—stay sober, friends. 💖✨
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Steve (2) (00:00):
Hey there, Super Sober Heroes.
(00:01):
It's your host, Sober Steve, thepodcast guy, here with another
episode of Gay A, the QueerSober Hero Show.
I am here with a friend andfamily of the pod, Phil, and I'm
grateful to have 1, 346 dayssober.
Welcome back, Phil.
Hey, Steve.
Thanks for having me back.
(00:21):
Yeah.
Why don't you share where you'reat with your recovery?
Phil (00:25):
Yeah so as of today, it's 2856 days, which is like seven
years, nine months and 24 days.
Steve (2) (00:34):
time.
Phil (00:35):
Yeah, it's been a little over a year since I was last on
the pod.
been listening faithfully weekin, week out hi everybody.
Steve (2) (00:45):
It is great to have you back.
And we have so much to catch upon because of what has been new
in your life the past year.
Phil (00:52):
All of 2024, I was finishing up my graduate degree.
Getting my license alcohol drugcounselor in the state of
Minnesota writing and defendingbasically the equivalent of a
master's level thesis.
And then, so that's basicallyall of 2024 in a nutshell.
(01:14):
School finished December 14th.
December 15th, I moved into myown apartment, which you can
see, and then was here inMinnesota for Christmas because
there was just too many movingparts to try to head back east
and see my family.
January 19th, I turned 42, whichhitchhikers guide to the galaxy
(01:40):
is the meaning of life.
So between moving and turning 42and graduating and starting a
job, a whole bunch of people inmy life were like.
Hey, you should have a birthdayhousewarming party.
So that happened two weeks agoand I think I'm still recovering
from it because I'm 42, not 22.
(02:03):
But when you and I were kickingaround ideas on the topic and
everything of this episode, it'sabout coming out the other side
and the roughly the lastballpark six months of 2024, I
was trying to do everythingright.
(02:25):
I was trying to at myinternships, be, like, the first
person to volunteer to do thingsbecause they're going to love me
even more, and they're going tooffer me a job, and it's going
to be exactly what I want, andlife is going to be great and
dandy, and all the things didn'texactly happen.
(02:48):
As somebody that I look up to inthe room says, Oh, gee, Phil got
served some humble pie from theuniverse.
Steve (02:56):
And
Phil (02:57):
you know what I did and that's okay.
That's okay.
but I landed on my feet.
I would have loved to have goneback to the East coast for
Christmas, but the week beforeChristmas and right up until
Christmas.
I was doing job interviews, Isent my resume out to 10
(03:18):
different agencies.
Seven of them contacted me forinterviews.
five of them went throughmultiple rounds of interviews,
and then three of them offeredme jobs.
And all of a sudden, I'mliterally sitting on the floor
of my brand new apartmentbecause I have minimal
furniture.
With all my notes spread outgoing, okay, this is what this
(03:41):
company is offering.
This is what this one'soffering.
I just applied the principles of12 step recovery, which has
gotten me to seven years, ninemonths, and 24 days.
I talked about it with people,weighed the pros and cons, and I
even pulled up maps on myMacbook what would the commute
(04:05):
be like from my new apartment tojob my master's program was a
two year program, and it wasvery haphazard and very quick
that all of a sudden I was agraduate student, While you're
in it, you're like, yeah, I'm inschool.
Like life, it is what it is.
(04:25):
And then all of a sudden it'sending.
And it's Oh, I got to figure outemployment.
I got to figure out how to doall the adult things.
And it was overwhelming attimes, and I'm very grateful to
my network and to my sponsor andto my therapist and to my priest
(04:45):
and to everybody that kind oflet me use them as sounding
boards to be like, hey, what doI do or not even what do I do,
but let me just bounce the ideasoff of you because that's how I
process a lot of things isengaging in conversation.
And I do it with multiple peoplefrom different walks of life.
(05:06):
So that I get as full a pictureas possible so that I can make
the best decision for me for nowand for right now, I've just
done three weeks of work and Ilove my job, I can see this
working for a while.
I can see this pushing me tokeep moving in the right
(05:32):
direction.
Steve (2) (05:34):
yeah, I love how it seems like when the stars align,
how everything all clicks intoplace at once because you had
not just the one.
life change or two.
and of course, some are relatedto another.
Like you graduate, it helps youget the job, but like the fact
that your life looks 180 degreesdifferent than possibly did it
even just a month or two ago.
What would you say has been thebiggest adjustment in terms of
(05:55):
how it's impacted or affectedyour sobriety on a day to day
basis?
Phil (06:02):
So because my master's degree is in counseling or the
concentration in addictioncounseling, it's been a very
fine balancing act of I'm there.
I'm working with people that arein treatment, but I got to stop
and take care of my own personalrecovery too.
(06:25):
For me at that time, it wasSchool and eating right and
paying my bills and all theother things.
And if I had like extra energy,I'd pop into a meeting, one of
the things that I've been tryingto do since I'm like back now,
fully on my own, because the twoyears of grad school, I had a
(06:48):
roommate.
And the three years immediatelybefore that were the COVID
years.
I was living with a relative inNew Jersey, so for the past five
years, I've been, I've had somesort of cohabitation, whether it
was a family member or roommate,and it's one of those things
(07:10):
where I've caught myself doingthe, I can kick back, I can
relax, I can not go to ameeting, but I know that I
should, and that's usually whenI go.
And fortunately, Minnesota isgot a lot of recovery, so I'm
(07:35):
still looking for like the groupor which will become my home
group, but I've got at least twomeetings a day that I can hit,
do I hit them weekly?
No.
Am I in daily communication withpeople in recovery?
(07:56):
that support me and I supportthem.
Absolutely.
So yeah, that's how things havechanged.
Steve (2) (08:06):
Yeah.
And I think it's about havingthat balance.
And for me, What I love about mymeeting schedule is I have the
ones I go to weekly, but there'salso my home group that I got
sober and it is 9 p.
m.
every single night So I thinksometimes just even knowing that
you have that kind of solutionor you have that backup plan
helps you go through the daywith a little bit more
confidence.
Phil (08:22):
Absolutely.
Actually Like I mentionedearlier, my birthday was the
other day and for a couple ofweeks ago at this point, Is
somebody in my network here inMinnesota messaged me like a day
or two after on Facebook.
It was like, Hey, happy belatedbirthday.
And I was like, Oh, yeah,thanks.
(08:43):
Cool.
And he's I miss you.
I haven't seen you in a while.
It was we got to get settledinto the new routine and
everything else.
And his birthday was just like,2 days ago, and he was having a
party for his birthday and I wasinvited and it was a mixed
party, and by mixed, gay andstraight and people in recovery
(09:05):
and people not recovery becausethey don't need to be in
recovery.
And, but it was interesting towatch the dynamics of the room
because.
The 12 steppers all like huddletogether and we're like, yeah,
don't be surprised if we seethat one in a meeting, who knows
(09:27):
but it was, and it turned intoan impromptu meeting because
Steve (09:32):
of
Phil (09:32):
the fact that I hadn't seen a lot of those folks.
In a while, and so it was like,Hey let's catch up.
what do you got going on?
And one of the guys, I actuallymet his partner and his partner
is.
in college right now doing thebachelor's level alcohol and
drug counseling that I justfinished my master's level of.
(09:57):
And so it was like, it was ameeting, it was a little bit of
networking, it was like theuniverse was just in total
alignment, and the universe wasin total alignment because I was
100% sober.
Steve (2) (10:10):
Yeah, that's awesome.
And with.
All of these changes in yourlife, and you've reached a lot
of goals that you were lookingforward to for so long,
obviously, though, it's not gameover.
So what's next?
What are you working towards nowin terms of goals?
Phil (10:24):
Going to back up to answer that question because my
master's program actually waswhat they call a dual track.
It's an alcohol drug track, butit was also a full mental health
counseling track, which a lot ofstates separate out the two
licenses.
And right now, I'm a licensedalcohol drug counselor.
(10:48):
I can work with anybody in thestate of Minnesota that has an
alcohol addiction or a substanceuse diagnosis.
If they happen to have, anothermental health diagnosis, I can
still work with them.
I can't touch them right now,and the reason why I'm
(11:08):
explaining all that is while Iwas in my final semester of grad
school, Phil got a littleoverzealous and a little bit of
an overachiever, and I actuallytook the Licensed Professional
Clinical Counselor exam now,aside from the education and the
(11:29):
exam You then have to do 4, 000hours of clinical work, which
equivocates to about two and ahalf years of full time work.
Obviously, I wouldn't get mylicense after taking the exam,
but I wanted to get the exam outof the way while I was still in
school mode, taking tests andeverything else.
(11:51):
I missed passing by sevenpoints.
Oh, no.
And at the time, I was kickingand screaming and throwing a
little bit of a diva tempertantrum.
Now, I've got the time for it.
I am waiting for the state totell me when I can actually
(12:13):
schedule the exam, because Ilike a little bit of a deadline
pressure.
If I know that I'm taking theexam on February 28th, I will
back out how many hours per dayI need to be studying so on and
so forth.
So that's the next thing I'mworking towards is that, the
(12:34):
licensed professional andclinical counselor part of, I
like to have a couple of thingsgoing on at the same time and
like I mentioned, I had threejob offers.
The offer that I wound up takingis with an employer that is more
what they call co occurringmental health and substance use.
(12:55):
And my, that other license thatI was just talking about is
actually going to be jobrequirement.
So if I don't pass the exam, myjob probably won't be on the
line.
I'll probably take it again.
But again, I like that littlebit of pressure, but part of the
(13:17):
appeal for that employer wasthey just restructured
everything.
So I'm literally getting in atthe ground floor of this new
mental health addiction servicesline.
With my employer, I'm buildingit up with them We're actually
going to be bringing onpatients.
(13:38):
So I'm at the ground floor.
I get to work with somefantastic people to put a better
program in place.
So I'm working towards thatlicense.
I am also working with a verynear and dear non profit called
(13:58):
Hear Queer Sober, whichactually, that group's
anniversary is coming up in justa couple of days.
Steve (2) (14:09):
It'll be on Thursday the 6th
Phil (14:10):
Yeah, it's right around then.
And the Hear Queer Sober groupis putting together an amazing
conference in New York City forSeptember.
So I'm working with all sorts offun people, you included, on
putting Together thatconference,
Steve (2) (14:31):
What are you most excited about for that
conference that we've beenplanning?
Because there's a lot that weare keeping under wraps.
But what can you share thatyou're excited about?
Phil (14:39):
As a new yorker currently residing in Minnesota, I'm
looking forward to going home.
I am looking forward to Seeingfolks that are part of my
recovery network from literallyaround the globe coming to my
home, New York City for thisconference.
(15:04):
I am looking forward to reallybreaking the ground, and
building up something that isfully inclusive of the entire
LGBTQIA community.
And yes, it is open to everysingle member of the community.
(15:26):
And in light of the more recentpolitical realm, I will say this
till the day I'm dead.
I love you.
I want to see you in New York,and I will do everything I can
to make sure that you are safe,you are taken care of, you are
respected.
Steve (2) (15:46):
I'm very excited for what's to come.
I love, being part of the Yeah.
There's a lot because being thatI've spoiled on the podcast
before I'm working with theprogramming.
So I get to be the one talkingwith the people who are our
keynote speakers and like theworkshops and it's just very
exciting because just everyoneis brimming with excitement.
(16:07):
There's something about beingpart of the first that also
everyone loves.
Phil (16:12):
You know what?
I hate to say this, but becauseit's this podcast, I know I can
say it, and we're in a scenario,don't edit this out.
A lot of my college buddies arecisgender heterosexuals, and
they love me no matter what.
But they're always like, why aregay guys always hitting on me?
(16:33):
I'm like, why do you hit onvirgin women?
Pop and Jerry's, just we get todo.
Something amazing.
Yeah, where it's no this is foreverybody.
This is not.
And the other part about this isthat it's not just for the
entire community.
It's for all of the differentrecovery communities within the
(16:56):
rainbow family.
So you don't have to be 12 step.
If you're doing a recoveryDharma thing, rock on, bring it
to us.
If you're doing smart recovery,anything, if you're just sober
Steve (17:11):
and
Phil (17:11):
you want to connect with other sober people.
Steve (2) (17:17):
Yeah, that's what I love about programming is that
when Logan was like, yes, youcan have one track of panels
that are all 12 step based butthen you have a step free where
people, if they're not 12 stepprogram affiliate, they can go
in and know that they won't hearsteps, traditions, capital G,
God, and it'll be more aboutjust living a sober.
Life and what that looks likeand getting people that have
less traditional ones that canreally share.
(17:40):
So I'm very excited for that.
Phil (17:43):
yeah, it's a big lift such a fantastic team in place.
I was actually really lovinglast week's episode Holland is a
dear friend.
He's also my barber and, I waslistening to the podcast while I
was making breakfast.
You were just coming out myphone and It was almost like the
(18:05):
two of you were sitting here atmy kitchen counter this
conversation.
It was fantastic.
Steve (2) (18:11):
I love bringing us all together and it's going to
be an awesome conference.
When is it?
Phil (18:16):
September 27th to the 29th.
Steve (2) (18:19):
All right.
I can say it's this year now.
Phil (18:21):
Yeah,
Steve (2) (18:22):
exactly.
Phil (18:23):
It's just under nine months away.
Steve (2) (18:26):
if you're interested in getting involved, how can you
register?
Phil (18:29):
You could find the Here Queer Sober Facebook group.
The registration link is pinnedin the Facebook group.
You can also send an email tophilip at hearqueersober.
org and I will be more thanhappy to send you a link to the
registration website.
Steve (2) (18:49):
I'll link over to all that in the show notes.
And if you want to get involvedin a workshop or a panel, hit me
up at Gay A Podcast like youalways can.
And Phil, we have plenty more totalk about because we have AI
made a list of questions for us.
So listeners, make sure youcheck the show notes for all the
Hear Queer Sober information andthen check out the episode and
(19:14):
we'll talk to you real soon.
Thanks, Steve.
Hey there, Super Sober Heroes.
(00:01):
It's your host, Sober Steve, thepodcast guy, here with another
episode of Gay A, the QueerSober Hero Show.
I am here with a friend andfamily of the pod, Phil, and I'm
grateful to have 1, 346 dayssober.
Welcome back, Phil.
Hey, Steve.
Thanks for having me back.
(00:21):
Yeah.
Why don't you share where you'reat with your recovery?
Phil (00:25):
Yeah so as of today, it's 2856 days, which is like seven
years, nine months and 24 days.
Steve (2) (00:34):
time.
Phil (00:35):
Yeah, it's been a little over a year since I was last on
the pod.
been listening faithfully weekin, week out hi everybody.
Steve (2) (00:45):
It is great to have you back.
And we have so much to catch upon because of what has been new
in your life the past year.
Phil (00:52):
All of 2024, I was finishing up my graduate degree.
Getting my license alcohol drugcounselor in the state of
Minnesota writing and defendingbasically the equivalent of a
master's level thesis.
And then, so that's basicallyall of 2024 in a nutshell.
(01:14):
School finished December 14th.
December 15th, I moved into myown apartment, which you can
see, and then was here inMinnesota for Christmas because
there was just too many movingparts to try to head back east
and see my family.
January 19th, I turned 42, whichhitchhikers guide to the galaxy
(01:40):
is the meaning of life.
So between moving and turning 42and graduating and starting a
job, a whole bunch of people inmy life were like.
Hey, you should have a birthdayhousewarming party.
So that happened two weeks agoand I think I'm still recovering
from it because I'm 42, not 22.
(02:03):
But when you and I were kickingaround ideas on the topic and
everything of this episode, it'sabout coming out the other side
and the roughly the lastballpark six months of 2024, I
was trying to do everythingright.
(02:25):
I was trying to at myinternships, be, like, the first
person to volunteer to do thingsbecause they're going to love me
even more, and they're going tooffer me a job, and it's going
to be exactly what I want, andlife is going to be great and
dandy, and all the things didn'texactly happen.
(02:48):
As somebody that I look up to inthe room says, Oh, gee, Phil got
served some humble pie from theuniverse.
Steve (02:56):
And
Phil (02:57):
you know what I did and that's okay.
That's okay.
but I landed on my feet.
I would have loved to have goneback to the East coast for
Christmas, but the week beforeChristmas and right up until
Christmas.
I was doing job interviews, Isent my resume out to 10
(03:18):
different agencies.
Seven of them contacted me forinterviews.
five of them went throughmultiple rounds of interviews,
and then three of them offeredme jobs.
And all of a sudden, I'mliterally sitting on the floor
of my brand new apartmentbecause I have minimal
furniture.
With all my notes spread outgoing, okay, this is what this
(03:41):
company is offering.
This is what this one'soffering.
I just applied the principles of12 step recovery, which has
gotten me to seven years, ninemonths, and 24 days.
I talked about it with people,weighed the pros and cons, and I
even pulled up maps on myMacbook what would the commute
(04:05):
be like from my new apartment tojob my master's program was a
two year program, and it wasvery haphazard and very quick
that all of a sudden I was agraduate student, While you're
in it, you're like, yeah, I'm inschool.
Like life, it is what it is.
(04:25):
And then all of a sudden it'sending.
And it's Oh, I got to figure outemployment.
I got to figure out how to doall the adult things.
And it was overwhelming attimes, and I'm very grateful to
my network and to my sponsor andto my therapist and to my priest
(04:45):
and to everybody that kind oflet me use them as sounding
boards to be like, hey, what doI do or not even what do I do,
but let me just bounce the ideasoff of you because that's how I
process a lot of things isengaging in conversation.
And I do it with multiple peoplefrom different walks of life.
(05:06):
So that I get as full a pictureas possible so that I can make
the best decision for me for nowand for right now, I've just
done three weeks of work and Ilove my job, I can see this
working for a while.
I can see this pushing me tokeep moving in the right
(05:32):
direction.
Steve (2) (05:34):
yeah, I love how it seems like when the stars align,
how everything all clicks intoplace at once because you had
not just the one.
life change or two.
and of course, some are relatedto another.
Like you graduate, it helps youget the job, but like the fact
that your life looks 180 degreesdifferent than possibly did it
even just a month or two ago.
What would you say has been thebiggest adjustment in terms of
(05:55):
how it's impacted or affectedyour sobriety on a day to day
basis?
Phil (06:02):
So because my master's degree is in counseling or the
concentration in addictioncounseling, it's been a very
fine balancing act of I'm there.
I'm working with people that arein treatment, but I got to stop
and take care of my own personalrecovery too.
(06:25):
For me at that time, it wasSchool and eating right and
paying my bills and all theother things.
And if I had like extra energy,I'd pop into a meeting, one of
the things that I've been tryingto do since I'm like back now,
fully on my own, because the twoyears of grad school, I had a
(06:48):
roommate.
And the three years immediatelybefore that were the COVID
years.
I was living with a relative inNew Jersey, so for the past five
years, I've been, I've had somesort of cohabitation, whether it
was a family member or roommate,and it's one of those things
(07:10):
where I've caught myself doingthe, I can kick back, I can
relax, I can not go to ameeting, but I know that I
should, and that's usually whenI go.
And fortunately, Minnesota isgot a lot of recovery, so I'm
(07:35):
still looking for like the groupor which will become my home
group, but I've got at least twomeetings a day that I can hit,
do I hit them weekly?
No.
Am I in daily communication withpeople in recovery?
(07:56):
that support me and I supportthem.
Absolutely.
So yeah, that's how things havechanged.
Steve (2) (08:06):
Yeah.
And I think it's about havingthat balance.
And for me, What I love about mymeeting schedule is I have the
ones I go to weekly, but there'salso my home group that I got
sober and it is 9 p.
m.
every single night So I thinksometimes just even knowing that
you have that kind of solutionor you have that backup plan
helps you go through the daywith a little bit more
confidence.
Phil (08:22):
Absolutely.
Actually Like I mentionedearlier, my birthday was the
other day and for a couple ofweeks ago at this point, Is
somebody in my network here inMinnesota messaged me like a day
or two after on Facebook.
It was like, Hey, happy belatedbirthday.
And I was like, Oh, yeah,thanks.
(08:43):
Cool.
And he's I miss you.
I haven't seen you in a while.
It was we got to get settledinto the new routine and
everything else.
And his birthday was just like,2 days ago, and he was having a
party for his birthday and I wasinvited and it was a mixed
party, and by mixed, gay andstraight and people in recovery
(09:05):
and people not recovery becausethey don't need to be in
recovery.
And, but it was interesting towatch the dynamics of the room
because.
The 12 steppers all like huddletogether and we're like, yeah,
don't be surprised if we seethat one in a meeting, who knows
(09:27):
but it was, and it turned intoan impromptu meeting because
Steve (09:32):
of
Phil (09:32):
the fact that I hadn't seen a lot of those folks.
In a while, and so it was like,Hey let's catch up.
what do you got going on?
And one of the guys, I actuallymet his partner and his partner
is.
in college right now doing thebachelor's level alcohol and
drug counseling that I justfinished my master's level of.
(09:57):
And so it was like, it was ameeting, it was a little bit of
networking, it was like theuniverse was just in total
alignment, and the universe wasin total alignment because I was
100% sober.
Steve (2) (10:10):
Yeah, that's awesome.
And with.
All of these changes in yourlife, and you've reached a lot
of goals that you were lookingforward to for so long,
obviously, though, it's not gameover.
So what's next?
What are you working towards nowin terms of goals?
Phil (10:24):
Going to back up to answer that question because my
master's program actually waswhat they call a dual track.
It's an alcohol drug track, butit was also a full mental health
counseling track, which a lot ofstates separate out the two
licenses.
And right now, I'm a licensedalcohol drug counselor.
(10:48):
I can work with anybody in thestate of Minnesota that has an
alcohol addiction or a substanceuse diagnosis.
If they happen to have, anothermental health diagnosis, I can
still work with them.
I can't touch them right now,and the reason why I'm
(11:08):
explaining all that is while Iwas in my final semester of grad
school, Phil got a littleoverzealous and a little bit of
an overachiever, and I actuallytook the Licensed Professional
Clinical Counselor exam now,aside from the education and the
(11:29):
exam You then have to do 4, 000hours of clinical work, which
equivocates to about two and ahalf years of full time work.
Obviously, I wouldn't get mylicense after taking the exam,
but I wanted to get the exam outof the way while I was still in
school mode, taking tests andeverything else.
(11:51):
I missed passing by sevenpoints.
Oh, no.
And at the time, I was kickingand screaming and throwing a
little bit of a diva tempertantrum.
Now, I've got the time for it.
I am waiting for the state totell me when I can actually
(12:13):
schedule the exam, because Ilike a little bit of a deadline
pressure.
If I know that I'm taking theexam on February 28th, I will
back out how many hours per dayI need to be studying so on and
so forth.
So that's the next thing I'mworking towards is that, the
(12:34):
licensed professional andclinical counselor part of, I
like to have a couple of thingsgoing on at the same time and
like I mentioned, I had threejob offers.
The offer that I wound up takingis with an employer that is more
what they call co occurringmental health and substance use.
(12:55):
And my, that other license thatI was just talking about is
actually going to be jobrequirement.
So if I don't pass the exam, myjob probably won't be on the
line.
I'll probably take it again.
But again, I like that littlebit of pressure, but part of the
(13:17):
appeal for that employer wasthey just restructured
everything.
So I'm literally getting in atthe ground floor of this new
mental health addiction servicesline.
With my employer, I'm buildingit up with them We're actually
going to be bringing onpatients.
(13:38):
So I'm at the ground floor.
I get to work with somefantastic people to put a better
program in place.
So I'm working towards thatlicense.
I am also working with a verynear and dear non profit called
(13:58):
Hear Queer Sober, whichactually, that group's
anniversary is coming up in justa couple of days.
Steve (2) (14:09):
It'll be on Thursday the 6th
Phil (14:10):
Yeah, it's right around then.
And the Hear Queer Sober groupis putting together an amazing
conference in New York City forSeptember.
So I'm working with all sorts offun people, you included, on
putting Together thatconference,
Steve (2) (14:31):
What are you most excited about for that
conference that we've beenplanning?
Because there's a lot that weare keeping under wraps.
But what can you share thatyou're excited about?
Phil (14:39):
As a new yorker currently residing in Minnesota, I'm
looking forward to going home.
I am looking forward to Seeingfolks that are part of my
recovery network from literallyaround the globe coming to my
home, New York City for thisconference.
(15:04):
I am looking forward to reallybreaking the ground, and
building up something that isfully inclusive of the entire
LGBTQIA community.
And yes, it is open to everysingle member of the community.
(15:26):
And in light of the more recentpolitical realm, I will say this
till the day I'm dead.
I love you.
I want to see you in New York,and I will do everything I can
to make sure that you are safe,you are taken care of, you are
respected.
Steve (2) (15:46):
I'm very excited for what's to come.
I love, being part of the Yeah.
There's a lot because being thatI've spoiled on the podcast
before I'm working with theprogramming.
So I get to be the one talkingwith the people who are our
keynote speakers and like theworkshops and it's just very
exciting because just everyoneis brimming with excitement.
(16:07):
There's something about beingpart of the first that also
everyone loves.
Phil (16:12):
You know what?
I hate to say this, but becauseit's this podcast, I know I can
say it, and we're in a scenario,don't edit this out.
A lot of my college buddies arecisgender heterosexuals, and
they love me no matter what.
But they're always like, why aregay guys always hitting on me?
(16:33):
I'm like, why do you hit onvirgin women?
Pop and Jerry's, just we get todo.
Something amazing.
Yeah, where it's no this is foreverybody.
This is not.
And the other part about this isthat it's not just for the
entire community.
It's for all of the differentrecovery communities within the
(16:56):
rainbow family.
So you don't have to be 12 step.
If you're doing a recoveryDharma thing, rock on, bring it
to us.
If you're doing smart recovery,anything, if you're just sober
Steve (17:11):
and
Phil (17:11):
you want to connect with other sober people.
Steve (2) (17:17):
Yeah, that's what I love about programming is that
when Logan was like, yes, youcan have one track of panels
that are all 12 step based butthen you have a step free where
people, if they're not 12 stepprogram affiliate, they can go
in and know that they won't hearsteps, traditions, capital G,
God, and it'll be more aboutjust living a sober.
Life and what that looks likeand getting people that have
less traditional ones that canreally share.
(17:40):
So I'm very excited for that.
Phil (17:43):
yeah, it's a big lift such a fantastic team in place.
I was actually really lovinglast week's episode Holland is a
dear friend.
He's also my barber and, I waslistening to the podcast while I
was making breakfast.
You were just coming out myphone and It was almost like the
(18:05):
two of you were sitting here atmy kitchen counter this
conversation.
It was fantastic.
Steve (2) (18:11):
I love bringing us all together and it's going to
be an awesome conference.
When is it?
Phil (18:16):
September 27th to the 29th.
Steve (2) (18:19):
All right.
I can say it's this year now.
Phil (18:21):
Yeah,
Steve (2) (18:22):
exactly.
Phil (18:23):
It's just under nine months away.
Steve (2) (18:26):
if you're interested in getting involved, how can you
register?
Phil (18:29):
You could find the Here Queer Sober Facebook group.
The registration link is pinnedin the Facebook group.
You can also send an email tophilip at hearqueersober.
org and I will be more thanhappy to send you a link to the
registration website.
Steve (2) (18:49):
I'll link over to all that in the show notes.
And if you want to get involvedin a workshop or a panel, hit me
up at Gay A Podcast like youalways can.
And Phil, we have plenty more totalk about because we have AI
made a list of questions for us.
So listeners, make sure youcheck the show notes for all the
Hear Queer Sober information andthen check out the episode and
(19:14):
we'll talk to you real soon.
Thanks, Steve.
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