The 12 Best Queer Podcasts to Listen to During Pride

While queer culture podcasts are welcome all year round, I think Pride Month is a great opportunity to share 12 incredible podcasts that are also created by queer people. These shows aim to give voice to different aspects of the queer experience, explore lesbian bars and asexuality, combat transgender hate, and remind queer people (and everyone else) to love themselves without regret. June is a celebration of all kinds of love and I absolutely love these podcasts.

Free from desire

Thirty-five-year-old Aline has never attracted anyone – neither sexually nor romantically. In their Free From Desire podcast, launched on June 7 and debuted on Tribeca , they tell us how difficult it was to recognize and accept their asexuality and their aromanticism in a society that prefers to emphasize love and sex. This acceptance also allowed them to have a child through artificial insemination. From adolescence to their first infatuation with relationships and sexuality, and before they became single parents, Aline tells us about how different stages of their lives illustrate their experience of asexuality. Throughout the show, Alyn talks to experts, sociologists, and even acquaintances and friends to discuss our society’s attitudes towards sex and our preoccupation with traditional relationships.

Curiosity with Jonathan Van Ness

In Interested, Jonathan Van Ness (of Gay Thrones and A Straight Monster Look ) is curious about…everything. Every week, he invites experts on super-special subjects, from garbage collection to ancient beauty rituals, cheesemaking, and child protection systems. Jonathan is passionate about every topic, and he can’t help but squeal with delight at everything the guests teach him. Even when it comes to serious topics, these conversations are illuminated by Jonathan’s effervescence, his sense of humor and his ability to look at anything and everything through a strange lens. I especially like it when he talks about animals, so check out Lucy Doggy first.

LGBTQ&A

Nominated for Outstanding Podcast at the 2023 GLAAD Awards , LGBTQ&A brings Jeffrey Masters to some of the most interesting and influential LGBTQ+ people in the world; past guests have included Laverne Cox, Janelle Monae and Pete Buttigieg. Their talks will help you brush up on queer history and keep you up to date on how current events are affecting the queer community, providing you with the context you need to understand the issues facing less visible sexual and gender minorities in contemporary American culture.

Queer Families Podcast

On The Queer Family Podcast, queer mom Jamie Kelton hilariously talks to guests about how they formed their families and how they appear in a world that wasn’t necessarily made for them. Each episode is a snapshot of the different ways families can work and thrive, proving that queer families can be as strong as any other. (Kids still throw tantrums and refuse to eat vegetables, no matter who their parents are.) The Queer Family podcast summarizes the new ways people are choosing to start their families in a world made for straight people.

BE trans

BEING Trans feels like a reality show to your ears. Over the course of six episodes, you’ll meet Geoffrey, a transgender man and stand-up comedian who builds a relationship with his partner, Emma; Mariana, a trans woman from Guatemala who, along with her colleague Cadance, tackles difficult issues at a local LGBTQ center; Chloe, who recently moved to Los Angeles and is dating a trans woman for the first time; and Cy, who has been figuring out her relationship and family dynamics with her husband Robert since becoming non-binary and transgender. Geoffrey, Mariana, Chloe and Cy share tiny human moments in their lives – triumphant and difficult – and give you a small glimpse of what it’s like to wake up and go to bed every day as a transgender person.

black fat woman

The BFF podcast (that’s “Black Fat Femme”) gives voice to two leading gay, fat and black cheaters who are determined to prove that everyone has the right to love themselves without apologies, even in a world where loving yourself often feels impossible. John and Jojo feel like friends who will hold your hand and talk to you on days that feel like a struggle. They talk to (and radiate) guests who find joy in unexpected places, and they’ll make you feel radiant too.

TransLash

Today, transgender people face extreme political, social and physical violence on a daily basis, but this does not tell the whole story of the transgender experience. At TransLash, award-winning journalist Imara Jones gives transgender people and their allies a platform to resist. This is a cultural podcast about transgender people: how they live and how they are changing the world. Each episode is a mixture of heavy themes, balanced by moments of joy, equally full of heart and audacity.

Love and luck

Set in contemporary Melbourne, Australia, Love and Fortune is a fictional podcast of a radio play told via voicemail between two men, Jason and Kane, who fall in love even when they discover they have magical powers. This is a positive story in a sea of ​​podcasts that lead to dark and terrible places – an inventive life story that finds great moments around every corner, with carefully crafted sound, nuanced writing and acting that draw you in.

Gay Future

The year is 2062 and North America is under the control of a totalitarian government with insidious gay programs… because everyone is gay. One teenager has the keys to rebellion because he has a dark secret: he’s straight. Clearly, Gay Future is a fictional show, but with its comedic tone and carefully written script, it has an emphasis on sexiness and power that will make you nervous.

cruising

Lesbian bars are disappearing from the world and you can think of Cruise as a temple to their memory. Three queer women, Sarah Gabrielli, Rachel Karp and Jen McGuinith, strap on a Honda SUV to visit bars that stand up to make the longest lesbian bar crawl ever. (You might think this would be intimidating, but there are fewer than 25 left in the US.) The fact that this podcast is even possible tells a story about queer identity today. Does this mean that safe spaces for lesbians are no longer needed, or have they been erased? (Think of Henrietta Hudson, a former lesbian bar in New York City that now calls itself a “homosexual bar built by lesbians”). and the people who fought to create them.

Making gay history

It’s one thing to read about the history of gay rights, and quite another to hear the people who created it talk about it. Making Gay History takes a peek at Eric Marcus’ years-long audio archive of rare interviews that let you hear the voices of people who witnessed and championed the gay rights struggle. Sound is carefully selected and crafted into breathtaking pieces that paint intimate personal portraits.

Gender disclosure

In Gender Reveal , journalist and educator Tak Woodstock tries to answer the question: what the hell is gender anyway? They don’t do it alone. In conversations with poets, drag artists, organizers, comedians and more, they talk about the vast variety of transgender experiences through interviews with a wide range of transgender, non-binary and bi-spiritual people.

We have gay sex

Comedian Ashley Gavin spent 10 years as a serial monogamist, but in We’re Having Gay Sex , she sold her U-Haul and committed to making enough casual hookups to tire a 20 year old and she’s willing to tell us about every tender kiss. (and not only). She also hired her younger queer friends to help her brush up on the latest nuances of queer dating; they should keep her from doing something embarrassing or getting cancelled. Together they interview gay guests from across the spectrum of sexuality about the “gay” sex they had that week.