Coming Out with Lauren & Nicole

by Lauren Flans, Nicole Pacent · · ·

Lauren is gay! Nicole is bi! Coming Out with Lauren & Nicole is a weekly podcast where pals Lauren Flans and Nicole Pacent have queer folks from all walks of life tell the tales of how they came out to friends, family, and the world at large. Because who doesn't love a coming out story?! #comingoutpod

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Amazin LeThi was left in an orphanage in Saigon and raised by a white family in Sydney, only to suffer abhorrent racism and bullying. On top of this, she genuinely believed she was "the only Asian LGBTQ kid in the world," because she had literally...
English author Diana Souhami was born in 1940, and began her career at a time when she couldn't even put the word "lesbian" in a book title. Today, she's written multiple biographies about queer women, and her latest one is, in fact, called "No...
We talk to filmmaker Jessica Ellis, whose female-led coming of age movie "What Lies West" premieres May 11th! Jessica describes "continually interrogating" herself about her own bisexuality, and talks about queer people shading her on Twitter with...
Episode 143: Chloe Davis April 14, 2021
We GEEK OUT about language with Chloe Davis, who literally wrote the queer dictionary! "The Queens' English, The LGBTQIA+ Dictionary of Lingo and Colloquial Phrases" was compiled by Chloe over the course of fifteen years(!), and helped her to...
We get our spirits lifted by disability/mental health/body positivity advocate Claire Raymond, who is A LITERAL RAY OF SUNSHINE! Claire went through so many traumatic surgeries in high school that she already had a difficult time relating to her...
Episode 141: Kevin Stea March 31, 2021
There's "baptism by fire," and then there's "going to your first gay club ever with Madonna." But that's exactly what happened to dancer/choreographer Kevin Stea! At only twenty years old, Kevin was cast in the world-famous Blond Ambition Tour. He...
Only three months into 2021, we've already broken our country's record for the highest number of anti-transgender bills in history; many of which are aimed at trans youth. To discuss the specifics of the anti-trans legislation that our community is...
Episode 139: Gina Young March 17, 2021
NICOLE IS BACK, Y'ALL!!! And to celebrate, we've brought on a guest who's near and dear to our hearts: writer, director, and queer-space-creator Gina Young, who has been referred to *multiple* times on the pod as "L.A.'s Lesbian Godfather." Gina tells...
Episode 138: Tien Tran March 10, 2021
Lauren is joined by Dyking Out's Carolyn Bergier for a conversation with the PAINFULLY charming and charismatic Tien Tran (Work in Progress)! Tien had a Vietnamese-American *and* Roman-Catholic upbringing, so she truly believed she was "saving herself...
It's a hilariously off the rails episode of the podcast when Lauren and Mav Viola talk to actor/writer Carrie Brennan, whose film BLOCK is an incredibly autobiographical retelling of her own coming out experience! Despite having gay role models within...
If Rivkah Reyes (they/them) looks familiar to you, it's probably because they played Katie, the *epically* cool bass player in School of Rock. But now they're all grown up, and A GODDAMNED DELIGHT! Rivkah identifies as fluid "across the board," and...
Lauren and Episode 104's Makeda Declet have THE THRILL OF THEIR LIVES talking to former WNBA player Crystal Robinson, the pod's first professional athlete! Crystal grew up in Oklahoma in a racially segregated town of only 425 people, yet still had the...
Episode 134: Guy Branum Feb. 10, 2021
Comedian and writer Guy Branum (Chelsea Lately; The Mindy Project) grew up in a conservative farm town with a family that liberally used the "F" word (the slur; not the cuss), and came of age in the 1980s during peak AIDS panic. WHAT A START! Guy...
Episode 133: PJ Hase Feb. 3, 2021
Lauren and guest co-host Mandahla Rose have a conversation with 21-year-old PJ Hase that could have gone on for HOURS! PJ identifies as both asexual and aromantic, and tells us about being in a friend group that "tried on labels...like trying on...
Episode 132: Alayna Joy Jan. 27, 2021
We have an amazing conversation with the ABSOLUTELY DELIGHTFUL Alayna Joy! Alayna grew up in a half Lutheran/half Mennonite family in "the Canadian Bible Belt," and amassed a large following on YouTube making bisexual-focused LGBTQ content. But then...
Cole Giannone uses they/them pronouns, and identifies as a combination of queer, trans non-binary, and transmasc. However, back when they were in high school (and well before all of these terms were commonplace), Cole was Nicole's first girlfriend!...
Episode 130: Enny Owl Jan. 13, 2021
British indie folk singer songwriter Enny Owl used to pray that the girl she had a crush on wouldn't come to class, because she believed that the butterflies she felt around her were sinful. Today, she identifies as "a queer pi" (because she's torn...
We're kicking off 2021 with a huge guest: Alex Blue Davis of She-Ra and Grey's Anatomy! Alex always identified as male, but when he lost his dad at a very young age, he shut down, and decided to just be what everyone thought he was. Alex shares how an...
It's our end-of-the-year MAILBAG EPISODE! We take on questions about finding and connecting with queer culture and community, navigating the waters of being bi+ in a hetero-presenting relationship, and having doubts about your identity post-coming...
Episode 127: Emily Goss Dec. 16, 2020
Emily Goss (Dating in Place; Season of Love; Snapshots) has played a multitude of queer roles, and yet it's only very recently that she felt comfortable enough to start identifying as bisexual. She talks about the childhood event that made her retreat...