Interview with Ali Sands | Ep #12
Profiles in LGBTQ+ Courage: Real Stories of Identity & Acceptance
Release Date: 03/26/2021
Welcome to Profiles in LGBTQ+ Courage: Real Stories of Identity & Acceptance
Profiles in LGBTQ+ Courage: Real Stories of Identity & Acceptance
Have you ever wondered what courage looks like in the LGBTQ+ community? In my podcast series, Profiles in LGBTQ+ Courage, I share the powerful, authentic stories of individuals and families navigating the complex issues of sexual orientation, gender identity, self acceptance, and human love. From coming out journeys and gender transitions to parents learning how to support their children, these intimate conversations reveal the strength it takes for all of us to live and love authentically. I'm your host, Rick Koonce. With decades of experience as a journalist and interviewer, I'm here to...
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From Cape Cod Roots to State Senate: Julian Cyr’s Story
Profiles in LGBTQ+ Courage: Real Stories of Identity & Acceptance
In this episode of Profiles in LGBTQ+ Courage, I sit down with Massachusetts State Senator Julian Cyr, who represents Cape Cod, Martha’s Vineyard, and Nantucket. Julian shares his powerful journey of growing up as a young gay man on the Outer Cape, finding his voice through activism, and ultimately stepping into leadership to serve his community. We talk about how his early experiences shaped his commitment to public service, the lessons he learned from the AIDS epidemic, and why authenticity is a core value in both politics and personal life. Julian also opens up about the pressing issues...
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Interview with Finn Allen (Wanda Mae) | Ep #45
Profiles in LGBTQ+ Courage: Real Stories of Identity & Acceptance
Finn Allen (formerly Wanda Mae). Wanda Mae was a little girl raised in a household with an alcoholic mother, an abusive father, and two sisters. She never felt “at home” in her female body, even though at an early age she excelled at sports and was a stand-out school athlete. From the age of 4 or 5, Wanda Mae felt like a boy, not a girl. But in her childhood, she didn’t have a lot of time to dwell on all that. And there was nobody to talk to about her shame, discomfort, and confusion. At home, after her father left, Wanda Mae was beaten by her mother and her boyfriend, before...
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Interview with Joan and Rick Francolini | Ep #44
Profiles in LGBTQ+ Courage: Real Stories of Identity & Acceptance
Joan and Rick Francolini are the parents of a bisexual daughter, Renee, who’s about to marry a transgender man. They’re also committed social justice advocates who recently organized the first-ever Lower Cape Pride celebration on Cape Cod. Dubbed, “Unity in Community,” the three-day event, a multi-generational celebration of LGBTQ+ pride, drew hundreds of people to the towns of Orleans and Brewster, Massachusetts in June 2025. Activities included a parade, an LGBTQ+ community resource fair, musical performances, and an exhibit about the history of drag. Also featured was a panel...
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Interview with Roger Smith | Ep #43
Profiles in LGBTQ+ Courage: Real Stories of Identity & Acceptance
The Trump Administration’s explicit animus toward transgender people is a well-documented and very public fact. Starting in his first term and now in his second, President Trump and his Administration have carried out a systematic, years-long effort to roll back protections for LGBTQ+ people. Beginning in January 2025, the Administration issued a series of executive orders specifically targeted at trans people. Trump’s directives include targeting transgender students, banning trans Americans from military service, and giving federal agencies the go ahead to overtly...
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Interview with Susanne Bennett | Ep #42
Profiles in LGBTQ+ Courage: Real Stories of Identity & Acceptance
Susanne Bennett describes herself as a white, queer, cis-gender, able-bodied, and educated elder woman. At 78, this former college professor and retired clinical social worker also describes herself as a questioner, a doubter, and someone who’s always sought to better understand herself as a sexual and spiritual person. These are just a few of the topics Susanne explores in a new memoir, Evolving: Faith, Sexuality and Aging. The book chronicles a life that’s been full of unexpected twists and turns, moments of doubt and uncertainty, followed by hard-won personal clarity --- about the...
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Interview with Lindsey Straus | Ep #41
Profiles in LGBTQ+ Courage: Real Stories of Identity & Acceptance
Lindsey Straus is a 73-year-old trans woman who’s also the biological father of three sons -- triplets -- now in their early 40s. The story of Lindsey’s transition --- from husband, devoted dad, and little league coach to trans woman, social activist, and lay minister at her church in Brewster MA --- is truly inspiring and courageous. But that transitional journey did not come easily or without pain. After more than 20 years of heterosexual marriage, Lindsey decided to transition and become a woman at the age of 50 in 2001. Years of separation and estrangement from her family then...
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Interview with Linda & Gloria Bailey-Davies | Ep #40
Profiles in LGBTQ+ Courage: Real Stories of Identity & Acceptance
In the prolonged, often contentious battle for marriage equality in the United States, it can truly be said that Linda and Gloria Bailey-Davies are pioneers. Together now for over 50 years, the happily married Cape Cod couple, both former therapists, were among the seven couples who were litigants in the Massachusetts same-sex marriage case (Goodrich vs Department of Public Health) that led to the landmark legalization of same-sex marriage in the Bay State in 2004. Victory in that case helped create momentum for the eventual legalization of same-sex marriage throughout the U.S. in June of...
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Interview with Avery & Sarah | Ep #39
Profiles in LGBTQ+ Courage: Real Stories of Identity & Acceptance
Sarah Messeck and Avery Condon are a young couple very much in love. The two met at a Cape Cod Pride event in June 2022 and soon afterwards began dating. Eventually they plan to marry. Sarah, an animal welfare advocate and horse riding enthusiast, identifies as a cisgender woman and uses the pronouns she and her. In the past, she had relationships with people of different genders. Avery, who’s passionate about environmental and social justice issues, and was previously married to a woman, today identifies as transgender and non-binary and uses they and them pronouns. In this fascinating...
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Interview with Dr. Jane Fleishman | Ep #38
Profiles in LGBTQ+ Courage: Real Stories of Identity & Acceptance
Dr. Jane Fleishman is an accomplished sexuality educator, writer, program developer, and researcher. In 2016, at the age of 62, she received her doctorate in Human Sexuality from the Widener University Center for Human Sexuality Studies after a successful career as a consultant for a large public mental health system. In this fascinating interview with PFLAG Cape Cod’s Rick Koonce, Fleishman delves deeply into the challenges LGBTQ+ seniors face as they navigate the passages of advancing age, and must deal with issues of health and wellness, self-esteem, companionship and intimacy, and...
info_outlineAli Sands is an author and professional speaker who writes and speaks frequently on the topics of love, relationships, intimacy, and gender expression and identity. They’re topics she knows a lot about.
Married for 23 years to a straight man, and mother of two children, in 2002 Ali began a relationship with a new partner, who, at the time, inhabited a physically female body, but who soon told Ali that they were, in fact, transgender. Thereafter began an epic 10-year journey, as Ali accompanied her partner, who took the male name “Rhys,” as he embarked on the emotionally and physically painful transition to become a transgender man, a story Ali tells in riveting day-by-day detail in her book, I Know Who You Are but What am I?
As Ali tells PFLAG Cape Cod’s Rick Koonce, in this moving and wide-ranging interview, the journey Ali took with her partner was one that taught her a great deal, not only about love, intimacy, and gender expression, but also about perseverance, courage, her steadfast commitment to the love of her life, and the simultaneous search for her own identity.
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