Trandescendant

Reed Erickson used his fortune to quietly build the foundation of transgender healthcare in America. The first gender clinic at Johns Hopkins Hospital existed because of his funding. So do many of the medical pathways trans people still rely on today. He was eccentric, generous, problematic, and absolutely essential. Joe and Rya kick off Pride Month by getting to know an ancestor of the transgender community. Sometimes family is a ...

At some time in your life, you've probably tried to convince someone that LGBTQ+ people deserve respect and equality. You presented facts, you raised your voice, and you walked away more frustrated than when you started. It's so easy to assume the worst about people who disagree. What if there was a better way? If you've ever wanted to reach someone on the other side of the LGBTQ+ conversation but didn't know ho...

You probably know the words "Where you go, I will go." Maybe you've heard them at a wedding. What most people don't realize is that this famous wedding vow was spoken in the Bible between two women, and the book it comes from is queer in ways most readers miss. Joe and Rya walk through the story of Ruth and Naomi and find one of the most quietly affirming stories in scripture for anyone who has ever built family...

You love your family. But love alone does not protect a relationship from the patterns that tear families apart. Research shows that four specific toxic patterns can predict whether a relationship will survive or fall apart, and most people never see them coming. The good news is that once you can name them you can stop them. Joe and Rya walk through each of these four patterns and share practical ways to interrupt the cycle before...

What does it actually take to hold a family together across a divide most people would call too wide? After over three years of conversations with parents, children, pastors, priests, scientists, scholars, and LGBTQ+ people from across the spectrum, Joe and Rya keep coming back to the same simple thing that saved their own relationship in its hardest moment. Whether you're a parent whose child just came out, an LGBTQ+ person t...

What if the voice telling you you're not good enough isn't even yours? Professional figure skater, Stef Vachon came out at 18 and thought the hard part was over. But years of bullying had already buried themselves so deep that freedom didn't feel like freedom. He walked away from his greatest passion and spent decades lost in anxiety, carrying shame that was never his to carry. Joe and Rya sit down with the host of t...

You probably imagine the worst when you think about LGBTQ+ life in a small town. Rya lives in a Midwestern town of 1,300 people where she knows her neighbors knows their dog by name. Most people there just don't care that she's trans. They've got their own lives. But the real trade-offs are loneliness, few local resources, and feeling like the only queer person for miles. Joe and Rya share practical ways allies can m...

"Being gay is unnatural." If you've ever had someone throw that line at you in a conversation about LGBTQ+ people, you know how hard it is to respond in the moment. Do you have the facts to tell them why they are wrong? Dr. Pete Gasper, a veterinary scientist with over 20 years in biomedical research, reviewed the most current research and came back with an answer that leaves no room for doubt. Whether you're de...

In 1863, San Francisco made it a crime to wear clothing "not belonging to your sex," with a fine of up to $500. That and other laws gave police the power to arrest drag queens and anyone who didn't look "right." And while the specific statutes have mostly been struck down, the same logic lives on in bathroom bills and restrictions on legal gender recognition. After 163 years, why does the state still thinks...

If you've ever been told the Bible has no place for people like you, you're not alone. For many who don't fit neatly into male or female categories, scripture has been used as a weapon of exclusion. But what if that's not the whole story? Joe and Rya explore the biblical category of eunuch, people who broke gender rules and became some of scripture's most celebrated heroes. The arc they find moves from &quo...

There is a stone between you and someone you love. Maybe one of you placed it there out of fear that faith has no room for who the other is becoming. Or maybe the stone was placed by silence, weeks and months where the real conversation never happened and you both learned to live on opposite sides. The good news is that the stone was never meant to stay. Acceptance rarely happens one small rolled-away moment at a time. We look for ...

You love your child. You're trying to protect them. But what if the way you are treating the relationship is the very thing driving them away. Most parents who lose their relationship with their LGBTQ child never saw it coming because everything they did felt like good parenting at the time. Joe and Rya unpack the difference between influence and control, and why one builds trust while the other quietly destroys it. If you&apo...

When you think of LGBTQ-friendly places, small towns probably aren't the first thing that comes to mind. But what if the stereotype is wrong? Across America, towns with populations under 6,000 are becoming more and more welcoming. Joe and Rya share surprising stories of small town acceptance that counter the narrative we've been told. In this episode, they bring us positive stories of affirmation where we would least expe...

What happens when a state passes a law designed not to protect anyone, but to attack people who already exist? Kansas just showed us. And if you think it stops there, you're not paying attention. If you or someone you love are love are trans, or if you believe that cruelty shouldn't be passed off as policy, this is the one you need to hear. It's worse than you think, and it's not stopping at Kansas.

Stay informed...

You've been meaning to find a therapist. But every time you think about it, the questions pile up: Can I trust them? Can I afford it? How do I know if I've found the right person? It's enough to make you put it off another month. Another year. You deserve someone who won't treat your identity as a problem to solve and won't leave you feeling worse than when you walked in. If you've been stuck in that &...

"God made them male and female." It's one of the first verses people reach for when they want to argue that being transgender goes against God's design. Rya spent two decades not knowing how to reconcile her gender struggles with what the Bible says... until she learned she didn't have to choose between them. In this episode, she and Joe look at what scholars actually say about Genesis 1,  not to twist the ...

Maybe you're having a hard time accepting a loved one who came out. Maybe you're the one who came out. Either way, the relationship feels stuck and you're both waiting for the other person to make it better. It's too easy for us to fall into a pattern of silence, thinking we will keep the relationship from getting worse. But here's good news. We don't have to resolve everything to stay connected. We do...

So much of what we've been told about "the gay agenda" is overblown. Most LGBTQ+ people aren't asking for you to change who you are. But here's the hard truth that loving families need to hear: good intentions don't cancel harm caused You can love your child deeply and still be hurting them. Joe and Rya speak directly to parents and family members who say "I love you, but I can't support this...