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What’s up y’all of little faith and welcome to the 8th episode of season 2 of TFP.  I’m your hostess, not your Moses, Mat Hayes, and if I’m still giving you episodes, it means that I am still looking for answers.  Today I am sharing a conversation I had with 2 board members of the non profit volunteer organization, Handle With Care, that started here in Los Angeles. Handle With Care provides emergency care packages to the unhoused communities of which they serve and in this episode, you’ll learn about how it came about and how to create a chapter in your city.  I’m honored to call these two guys my good friends for many reasons, but especially because of how much they care for those experience homelessness.  Mark Gamarra is an HR bigwig who has a passion for assisting the unhoused. He works to organize fundraisers, promote initiatives, and create partnerships with local agencies to support the organization’s mission.  Kellan Martz is an affordable housing lawyer and a city commissioner on rent and housing issues and takes pride in being a part of an organization that has now branched out to Portland, Sacramento, and perhaps coming soon to a city near you.  If you’re ever in LA, you can probably catch the 3 of us at Happy Hour at Gym Bar or Hi Tops, so come and look for us on the patio! Welcome to the show y’all!

What’s up y’all of little faith and welcome to the 7th episode of season 2 of TFP.  I’m your hostess, not your Moses, Mat Hayes, and if I’m still giving you episodes, it means that I am still looking for answers.  Today I have got 2 of the Mama Dragons on to talk about what they’re doing for LGBTQ children and their mothers. You may have heard of this amazing organization, but if not, it’s a non profit based in Utah that started as a handful of moms and now serves over 8000 mothers, impacting countless youth.  Mama Dragons' focus is on education programs and safe online spaces where mothers can learn and connect with other Mama Dragons traveling similar paths as they learn accepting and affirming parenting practices that can help prevent LGBTQ youth suicide and self-harming behaviors, depression, and homelessness. Celeste Carolin and Anne Eliason are joining us today to talk about how they got involved with the organization.   Celeste is the executive director of Mama Dragons. She comes from a business and leadership background, and has worked with LGBTQ youth and non-profits for the past decade.  She and her partner, Jamie, live just outside Seattle and have both come from non-accepting religious backgrounds. This fuels Celeste's passion for understanding and serving the intersectionality of faith and parenting LGBTQ children.  Anne is the director of PR and events and came to Mama Dragons after being referred to the organization following her child coming out as trans. From the moment her daughter came out to her, she has been working to help other mothers navigate the waters of supporting and loving their queer children.  We all deserve to have a Mama Dragon in our corner and I’m excited to share this conversation with you.  Welcome to the show Mama Dragons!

What’s up y’all of little faith and welcome to the 6th episode of season 2 of TFP! I’m your hostess, not your Moses, Mat Hayes, and if I’m still giving you episodes, it means that I am still looking for answers! Y’all, today I have a gay icon on the show! In 1985, Steve Pieters was interviewed by Tammy Faye on her evangelical talk show seen around the world, and was recently portrayed in the academy award winning film, “The Eyes Of Tammy Faye,” starring Jessica Chastain and Andrew Garfield.  Steve has been living with HIV/AIDS for over 30 years, literally surviving death. As a gay pastor living with the very disease that most evangelicals weaponized against our community, Steve has done so much to bring healing to the queer community at large.  He truly is one of our generation’s gay pioneers in every sense of the word and honestly, I can’t believe his publicist agreed to set this interview up. I am so honored to introduce you all to this living legend. 

What’s up y’all of little faith and welcome to the 5th episode of season 2 of The Fagnostic Podcast.  I’m your hostess, not your Moses, Mat Hayes. And if I’m still giving you episodes, it means I’m still looking for answers.  Y’all, we are officially in Pride month and I have one of our fiercest allies here with us today.  Malynda Hale is a voice with a voice. Originally from Santa Barbara, she has made her way through town as an incredible vocalist who has become a prominent figure on many of today’s most controversial topics.  From social justice to LGBTQ advocacy, from progressive Christianity to Black Lives Matter, from female empowerment to veganism, and most currently relevant, reproductive choice, she lives a life that is lead by the legacy of Christ as she sees it.  She has an incredible podcast called #weneedtotalk, so when you’re done with this one, go on over to that one and give it a good listen! She has served as worship leader at various churches and also sits on the board of the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice.  While I’ve mostly been an audience member, we do share one credit: Sex Sent Me To the ER.  I am so thankful for voices like hers and I’m honored to have her share her journey and thoughts on the state of the world from a love-lead perspective.  Welcome to the show Malynda Hale!

In honor of Ash Wednesday, and 4/20, surrounded by pagan celebrations of Easter traditions, the seder plate’s reminder of the epoch journey of the Israelites, I have a Moses expert on to talk about his incredibly thought-provoking book, Moses and the Death of Heresy.   J.M.S. Beale is a lifelong student of religion, both academically and in religious communities. His degree is in Comparative Religion, and his focus was on the culture and history of ancient Israel. His dreams of becoming the pastor of a church were dashed when he realized that he could not defend or endorse the use of power in his Christian communities. Since then he has become a devoted ally of the LGBTQ+ community. His book Moses and the Death of Heresy is an exposé of how power is fundamentally attached to violence in the legacy of Moses. The book gives value to the lives that were taken by this ancient aggression, the trauma of the survivors, and gives modern readers a roadmap for how to escape such uses of power in their own spiritual lives.  So buckle up buttercups and get ready to open your mind to the possibility that maybe Moses wasn’t all he’s cracked up to be!

What’s up y’all of little faith and welcome to episode 3 of the 2nd season of TFP.  I’m your host Mat Hayes, and today I have the pleasure of welcoming Andrew Evans to the show.  He’s an author, speaker, and TV host. Let me give you the rundown: He’s completed over 60 assignments for National Geographic, reporting from all 7 continents and over a hundred different countries.  His purposeful journeys to these meaningful destinations include following an 18th century sea captain’s diary to some of the remotest islands of Polynesia, hiking 500 miles across the kingdom of Jordan, and riding public transportation on a 12,000 mile overland trip to Antartica.  He’s a contributor to National Geographic, BBC Travel, The Boston Globe, and The Chicago Tribune. He’s the author of 5 books, including his award winning memoir, The Black Penguin, as well as his bestselling guidebooks to Iceland and Ukraine. We’ll talk a lot about his thoughts on the current war being fought there.  And for the sake of this podcast’s relevance, he’s a gay-identifying, former Mormon!  Get ready for one of the most intellectual conversations I’ve had on this show! Welcome to the podcast, Andrew!

Host @hayesonit speaks with a senior partner from Growing Generations, the largest surrogacy provider in the country, specializing in LGBTQ families. We speak about his intimate memoir, Prayer Warriors and how he helps to keep queer storytelling alive in the South!