From The Advocate magazine, this is LGBTQNA.

I'm Jeffrey Masters, and today I'm talking to Fran Tarado.

Fran's a writer, an editor.

He's one of the co-hosts with the podcast, Food for Thought.

And we have a really interesting discussion about growing up in a super religious family, how coming

out forced him to question and reckon with all of the beliefs he had about life, how that

forced him to deal with what he calls this big, god-shaped hole in his body. So we talk about

that, as well as pushing the envelope of his masculinity, and then we also talk about love and sex. So that is

coming up. Now, if you enjoyed the conversation and think, wow, they be so fun to see live,

well, Fran and I are doing a live show in New Orleans for Southern Decadence. That is their big

pride festival. We're doing another big queer pod fest on September 1st. That's the Saturday at the

Ace Hotel. There's a link in the show notes. And if you're going to be in New Orleans, I hope you can make it.

All right, let's get to the interview. Without further ado, here's Fran.

Let's begin with your gender.

Where else do we begin?

I don't know, actually.

Truly, there are no other places.

Yeah, and I want to do that because I think there is a lacking of historical gender norms that is encompassed in your masculinity.

And I think we demand trans and non-binary people for them to talk about their gender

and gender in general a lot.

And yet it's something that all of us have a relationship to.

And so for you, a queer cisgender man, can you talk about how you experience your own gender?

...