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Proudly Said

John Hyland

Proudly Said is about being LGBTQ+ in the UK without compromise.

Hosted by John Hyland (he/they), a Liverpool-born activist and advocate, the show brings real conversations to the forefront. No studios, no scripts - just people, where they’re most at home, speaking in their own words.

Each episode centres voices you don’t hear enough, talking about what it means to live out loud, hold space, and just live.

There’s no performance. Just queer stories, proudly said.

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#70
Thursday · 33 min· Video
Ep 70: Nikias Tomasiello said
🎙️ What’s This Episode About? Nikias Tomasiello is an online personal trainer, certified nutritionist, and trans man who moved from Italy to Portsmouth, then Brighton, then Liverpool, which he and his partner both loved immediately and stayed. Episode 70 of Proudly Said, filmed on a very sweaty day in late July. Nikias joins John to talk about a fitness journey that turned out to be about a lot more than fitness. Growing up in Italy with no awareness that trans men existed, Nikias spent his teens being bullied for his weight, developed anorexia, and only began to understand why when he noticed that his experience of having the condition looked completely different to everyone else around him. It was that realisation, years later, that helped him put the pieces together about who he was. It's an unusually thoughtful route into a conversation about identity, and Nikias tells it with real candour and a very dry sense of humour. The conversation then moves into what Nikias does now and why it matters. Working as an LGBTQ+ focused personal trainer, he talks about the barriers trans and non-binary people face when it comes to fitness: gym anxiety, safety, being handed programmes that don't reflect who you are or what you actually want from your body. He talks about how he approaches things differently, starting with questions rather than assumptions, and the clients whose lives have shifted through the work they've done together, one of whom went from training at home for three years to walking into a gym for the first time. It's a warm, thoughtful conversation about body, identity, and what it means to help people feel at home in themselves. If you're interested in working with Nikias, you can find out more at fittotransformtraining.com and follow him on Instagram @nikias_fittotransform 🗣️ Why Listen? If you’re seeking genuine conversations that reflect the diverse experiences within the LGBTQ+ community, Proudly Said offers a platform for those narratives. 📣 Connect with Us – ProudlySaid.co.uk Subscribe: Stay updated with new episodes. Share: If this resonates with you, share it with others who might find it meaningful. Feedback: We value your thoughts. Reach out with comments or suggestions. Support: Join The Front Row for less than £3 a month, supporting a local queer creator, or buy us a bespoke coffee or three! :)
#69
September 24 · 43 min· Video
Ep 69: Jay Mitchell said
🎙️ What’s This Episode About? Content warning: this episode contains adult themes, explicit discussion of sex work, recreational drug use, online harassment, and mature content throughout. It is intended for audiences aged 18 and over. Jay Mitchell describes himself as Liverpool's number one OnlyFans creator, and in this episode he sits down with John to talk about pretty much everything. They cover how Jay got into content creation, going from a shy lad who only felt comfortable after a few drinks to someone who has built a career being unapologetically himself on camera. Jay talks honestly about the realities of the industry, including what it actually pays versus what people claim it pays, the business of collaboration with other creators, and the constant battle with Instagram's algorithm and shadowbanning. The conversation gets into chemsex and drug use within gay spaces, what consent and safety look like in less regulated corners of the industry, and why Jay prefers the freedom of independent content creation over studio work. They also talk about the growing tension between platforms trying to restrict adult content creators and a community that sees sex work as legitimate work, as well as what viral hate looks like when a post escapes its intended audience and lands in the wrong algorithm. It is funny, frank, and at times surprisingly thoughtful. Jay is exactly as unfiltered as you would hope. Find Jay on Instagram at @jay.mitchellx and on OnlyFans at Jay Mitchell. 🗣️ Why Listen? If you’re seeking genuine conversations that reflect the diverse experiences within the LGBTQ+ community, Proudly Said offers a platform for those narratives. 📣 Connect with Us – ProudlySaid.co.uk Subscribe: Stay updated with new episodes. Share: If this resonates with you, share it with others who might find it meaningful. Feedback: We value your thoughts. Reach out with comments or suggestions. Support: Join The Front Row for less than £3 a month, supporting a local queer creator, or buy us a bespoke coffee or three! :)
#68
September 17 · 34 min· Video
Ep 68: Janethan said
🎙️ What’s This Episode About? Janethan Jeffery is a Manchester-born musician, content creator and self-described 'spicy Jonathan'. His name is January and Ethan put together, and yes, he has to explain that constantly. He joins John at Brewers in Manchester's Village, recorded on quite possibly the hottest day of the year, with cold drinks that were definitely not helping. Janethan talks about growing up as a quiet, timid kid in Manchester who didn't actually like music until his early teens, joined the glee club mainly to get out of PE, and then became so obsessed with understanding how the voice works that he spent years quietly building a skill nobody knew he was developing. By his own account he wasn't particularly good for a long time, and his Caribbean mum made sure he knew that. He got there in the end. The conversation gets into how Janethan built a following on TikTok through comedy covers of viral British cultural moments, and how that audience then discovered he is also a genuinely serious musician making original music, which people find slightly confusing. He talks about navigating a creative life with autism, the way hyperfocus can disappear you from the world for two weeks while writing a song, and why running a social media account is, for him, one of the hardest things he does. There's also a really enjoyable thread about the state of the music industry, what it actually takes to build a career as an independent queer artist of colour, and what Janethan wants his future to look like. He wants to be on all the stages. He means it. This conversation is a very good sign that he will be. It's chaotic, funny, surprisingly candid, and a great deal of fun from start to finish. Follow Jonathan on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/itsjanethan 🗣️ Why Listen? If you’re seeking genuine conversations that reflect the diverse experiences within the LGBTQ+ community, Proudly Said offers a platform for those narratives. 📣 Connect with Us – ProudlySaid.co.uk Subscribe: Stay updated with new episodes. Share: If this resonates with you, share it with others who might find it meaningful. Feedback: We value your thoughts. Reach out with comments or suggestions. Support: Join The Front Row for less than £3 a month, supporting a local queer creator, or buy us a bespoke coffee or three! :)
#67
September 10 · 34 min· Video
Ep 67: Theo UK Rose said
🎙️ What’s This Episode About? Theo UK Rose is a professional dancer and performer currently touring the UK in The Bodyguard. John catches him in a dressing room at the Liverpool Empire, squeezed in between a matinee and an evening show, which is exactly the kind of chaotic scheduling that makes touring theatre what it is. Theo talks John through how he got here: growing up dancing to the Wiggles, training from the age of 11 at the Hammond in Chester before moving to Laine Theatre Arts in Surrey, and landing his first professional contract before he'd even finished his final year. He is candid about what life on a touring production actually looks like day to day, the logistics of shared accommodation, napping on dressing room floors with a foam roller as a pillow, the strange rhythms of two-show days, and the cast bonds that form when you spend a year living out of a suitcase with the same people across the country. The conversation takes a more honest turn around body image and the pressure that comes with performing in costumes every night, sometimes feeling great in them and sometimes not, and what it takes to fuel a physically demanding show without tipping into patterns that don't serve you. Theo is refreshingly open about it, including the times it has gone wrong. There's also the bigger picture: a growing TikTok following built on just being himself, ambitions around TV work, a future fashion brand he can visualise clearly but hasn't quite figured out yet, and a very firm declaration that he would absolutely do a gay Love Island. He's warm, funny, and genuinely good company, even when the room is 30 degrees and there's another show in two hours. It's an easy, enjoyable conversation about what it really takes to build a career doing what you love, and what keeps it worth doing. 🗣️ Why Listen? If you’re seeking genuine conversations that reflect the diverse experiences within the LGBTQ+ community, Proudly Said offers a platform for those narratives. 📣 Connect with Us – ProudlySaid.co.uk Subscribe: Stay updated with new episodes. Share: If this resonates with you, share it with others who might find it meaningful. Feedback: We value your thoughts. Reach out with comments or suggestions. Support: Join The Front Row for less than £3 a month, supporting a local queer creator, or buy us a bespoke coffee or three! :)
#66
September 3 · 34 min· Video
Ep 66: Dr Christopher Owen said
🎙️ What’s This Episode About? Dr. Christopher Owen is a Canadian-born, Manchester-based liberation coach, consultant, trainer and activist, and the founder of Coliberate. He holds a PhD in intersectional systemic oppression, has worked with organisations including Starbucks EMEA, Hilton Worldwide and Booking.com, and was named a Northern Gamechanger in 2024. He is also, by his own admission, a raging homo from a hockey town with one set of traffic lights and four churches. Recorded at the Molly House in Manchester's Village. Christopher joins John to talk about growing up queer in rural Ontario, where same-sex marriage debates were happening in classrooms when he was eleven years old, and where the messaging from his Christian community left him telling himself, as a teenager, that it was better to be good than to be happy. He traces the journey from that to a PhD in oppression, which, he is at pains to point out, is really fun stuff, and eventually to the founding of Coliberate, which exists to help individuals and organisations figure out not just that change is needed, but how to actually make it. The conversation gets into the real substance of what Christopher does and why: the gap between academic theory and lived experience, the difference between the invisible ways we are harmed and the invisible ways we cause harm, and why so many professionals who want to do something good feel helpless and don't know where to start. It's a conversation that takes systemic thinking and makes it feel genuinely actionable rather than abstract. There's also the personal story of moving to the UK to do a PhD because a leading expert in his field was based here, building a life in Manchester, working with LGBTQ+ youth and writing a handbook whose profits go entirely back into supporting young queer people, and why he left academia feeling like the institution was more interested in theory than in actually changing anything. Thoughtful, warm, funny at all the right moments, and genuinely one to make you think. It's an unexpectedly joyful conversation about oppression, liberation, and why doing things differently is the only way anything actually changes. Find out more about Dr Christopher Owen at https://coliberate.co.uk 🗣️ Why Listen? If you’re seeking genuine conversations that reflect the diverse experiences within the LGBTQ+ community, Proudly Said offers a platform for those narratives. 📣 Connect with Us – ProudlySaid.co.uk Subscribe: Stay updated with new episodes. Share: If this resonates with you, share it with others who might find it meaningful. Feedback: We value your thoughts. Reach out with comments or suggestions. Support: Join The Front Row for less than £3 a month, supporting a local queer creator, or buy us a bespoke coffee or three! :)
#65
August 27 · 35 min· Video
Ep 65: KY Kelly said
🎙️ What’s This Episode About? KY Kelly is a live vocalist, comedian and drag performer who has spent years building one of the most recognisable presences on the UK cabaret circuit, with residencies across Manchester's Village, gigs up and down the country, and a name that has a very good reason for existing. John catches her at Brewers in Manchester, recorded on one of the hottest days of the year, with a gig at Bar Pop and Via to follow that evening. Very much business as usual. KY traces the whole journey from the beginning: the drag DJ era powered by Virtual DJ and sheer chat, to landing a Sunday service residency at the Eagle that she describes as her drag university, to touring as first cover Hugo in Everybody's Talking About Jamie alongside Kevin Clifton, John Partridge and Darren Day. She talks about what it actually took to get from doing £30 gigs to being the kind of act that venues book without needing to see first, and why treating every room like your living room is still the best tactic she knows. The conversation is also a love letter to the Manchester scene and the venues and queens who gave her a chance when nobody was watching. KY is candid about loyalty, about being a girl of a certain age who has done the working men's clubs and got changed in toilets and knows exactly what all the years of grind were for. She also has a lot of very strong opinions on celebrity casting in musical theatre, which she shares with absolutely no hesitation whatsoever. There is also an album. A recorded one. Finished and ready. And a very funny story involving Twitter, a late night train from London, and some looks from passengers that KY would rather not revisit. It's loud, warm, utterly unfiltered, and the kind of conversation that leaves you feeling like you've had a proper night out before it's even started. Follow KY on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/kykellyofficial/ 🗣️ Why Listen? If you’re seeking genuine conversations that reflect the diverse experiences within the LGBTQ+ community, Proudly Said offers a platform for those narratives. 📣 Connect with Us – ProudlySaid.co.uk Subscribe: Stay updated with new episodes. Share: If this resonates with you, share it with others who might find it meaningful. Feedback: We value your thoughts. Reach out with comments or suggestions. Support: Join The Front Row for less than £3 a month, supporting a local queer creator, or buy us a bespoke coffee or three! :)
#64
August 20 · 34 min· Video
Ep 64: Just Minnie said
🎙️ What’s This Episode About? Minnie is a Welsh-born, Cardiff-raised, Liverpool-adopted drag queen, host, DJ and bingo caller, who goes by Just Minnie, formerly Mini Cooper, before a certain Australian Drag Race contestant made that slightly complicated. Recorded between gigs in her sister Simone's flat, with Dream Boys to follow shortly after. Minnie joins John to cover a lot of ground at pace, beginning with the early Cardiff days: coming out at 20, starting drag almost by accident at a fancy dress night, winning a bottle of Prosecco in a pub competition, and gradually working her way up from doing hen parties in galley kitchens to a decade-plus career across the UK circuit. She talks about what she learned doing Dream Boys shows, why a room full of middle-aged women is her ideal crowd, and the very particular skill of singing an ABBA megamix while small children do cartwheels in front of you at a Haven holiday park at 11pm. The conversation gets into what it means to build a name on the Liverpool scene, move from Cardiff wanting to be known, and then find yourself having to introduce yourself all over again to a new generation of twinks who have absolutely no idea who you are. Minnie is honest about the strange feeling of being slightly disconnected from the scene she helped build, while also being genuinely happier for it, with a day job, a friendship group, and a hiking picture on her Tinder to prove it. There's also the name change, the drag career timeline that spans Wales, the Midlands, a brief 17 days in Gran Canaria, and eventually Liverpool, and a conversation about pride, recognition, and what it looks like when a career settles into something that actually suits your life. It's gloriously chaotic, very funny, and exactly the kind of chat you'd want to be having between gigs on a Saturday night. 🗣️ Why Listen? If you’re seeking genuine conversations that reflect the diverse experiences within the LGBTQ+ community, Proudly Said offers a platform for those narratives. 📣 Connect with Us – ProudlySaid.co.uk Subscribe: Stay updated with new episodes. Share: If this resonates with you, share it with others who might find it meaningful. Feedback: We value your thoughts. Reach out with comments or suggestions. Support: Join The Front Row for less than £3 a month, supporting a local queer creator, or buy us a bespoke coffee or three! :)
#63
August 13 · 46 min· Video
Ep 63: Warren Allmark said
🎙️ What’s This Episode About? Warren Allmark is a founding member and chairperson of Chester Pride, a drag artist known as Wanda Why, and the driving force behind the Rainbow Tea Rooms, Chester Pride's own LGBTQ+ community café in the heart of the city. He has tried to leave Chester Pride twice. He has not succeeded. Recorded at the Rainbow Tea Rooms, where a memorial to The Vivienne adds to the atmosphere and a homophobic squatter interrupts briefly. Warren joins John to tell the story of how Chester Pride came to be, from a simple ask by the late landlord of the Liverpool Arms to help book some acts, to 15 years as the last surviving founding member of an organisation he has shepherded through financial difficulty, a cancelled year, and a political landscape that has only grown more hostile. He talks frankly about what it actually costs to put on a Pride event in 2026, why the idea that Pride should always be free has become increasingly disconnected from reality, and what rising artist fees are doing to smaller Prides across the country. The conversation covers a lot of ground: the Gender Blender nightclub nights he ran and eventually walked away from without a second thought, the Rainbow Tea Rooms and why a community café outside the nighttime economy matters more now than when they opened it, and Chester Pride's decision to ban national political parties from marching while keeping the door of the Tea Rooms open for surgeries and accountability. Warren is also candid about the community's internal fractures, the LGB without the T argument, and why he thinks solidarity is not optional right now. There is also a genuinely moving thread about what it means to be part of something for 15 years, to have built something that belongs to a whole community, and to not quite be ready to hand it over yet. Funny, opinionated, completely direct, and very good company. It's an hour that goes past quickly, a conversation about community, pride in all senses, and what it actually takes to keep the lights on. Find out more at https://chesterpride.co.uk 🗣️ Why Listen? If you’re seeking genuine conversations that reflect the diverse experiences within the LGBTQ+ community, Proudly Said offers a platform for those narratives. 📣 Connect with Us – ProudlySaid.co.uk Subscribe: Stay updated with new episodes. Share: If this resonates with you, share it with others who might find it meaningful. Feedback: We value your thoughts. Reach out with comments or suggestions. Support: Join The Front Row for less than £3 a month, supporting a local queer creator, or buy us a bespoke coffee or three! :)
#62
August 6 · 39 min· Video
Ep 62: AJ West said
🎙️ What’s This Episode About? A.J. West is a Sunday Times bestselling author, award-winning former BBC journalist, and, as he puts it himself, the world's foremost queer bookshop historian. He joins John at Liverpool Central Library, just ahead of a sold-out evening with the Proud Readers Book Club, to talk about his new nonfiction book, How Queer Bookshops Changed the World. And they did change the world. AJ makes a compelling case from the off: it was a queer bookseller who organised the first Pride march, another who orchestrated the Stonewall uprising, and it was Gays the Word in London that took on the government and helped change obscenity laws. The rights many people take for granted now were won, in no small part, by people selling books. The conversation covers all of this with genuine warmth and infectious enthusiasm, taking in stories from 1700s London all the way to the queer bookshop renaissance happening right now. But there's also a much more personal story here. AJ talks about growing up bookish and lonely in a football-dominated school that didn't exactly encourage ambition, finding his way into journalism, and the period he spent as a contestant on Big Brother, which he describes with great candour, including the housemate he slept next to who turned out to be Andrew Tate, and what it felt like to come out of that show with his relationship in tabloid headlines and his life in pieces. It was rock bottom that gave him the push to finally write. The conversation ends up somewhere genuinely moving: about chasing dreams when you have nothing to lose, the quiet bravery of people who build spaces for others without ever wanting the credit, and why queer history is still so worth telling. Also, John says "projectory" three times and AJ cannot let it go. It's warm, funny, brilliantly nerdy in all the right ways, and a proper treat of a conversation. Check out AJ's website HERE. 🗣️ Why Listen? If you’re seeking genuine conversations that reflect the diverse experiences within the LGBTQ+ community, Proudly Said offers a platform for those narratives. 📣 Connect with Us – ProudlySaid.co.uk Subscribe: Stay updated with new episodes. Share: If this resonates with you, share it with others who might find it meaningful. Feedback: We value your thoughts. Reach out with comments or suggestions. Support: Join The Front Row for less than £3 a month, supporting a local queer creator, or buy us a bespoke coffee or three! :)
#61
July 30 · 34 min· Video
Ep 61: Skarlett Skandal said
🎙️ What’s This Episode About? Skarlett Skandal is a Carrickfergus-born, Liverpool-made bearded drag queen and DJ, currently making her way back home to Northern Ireland after eight years of nights, stages and dance floors across Merseyside. She calls herself the Bearded Bratz Doll. She is not wrong. Recorded backstage at Heaven prior to Big Gay Cabaret, Skarlett joins John for a conversation that covers a lot of ground at pace, which is exactly what you'd expect from someone who openly credits ADHD for how her brain works. She talks about coming from Carrickfergus, growing up in a mixed Catholic and Protestant household just a month after the Good Friday Agreement was signed, and how Liverpool felt like home from the moment she arrived for university, where she was, by the way, studying zoology. They get into how Skarlett fell into drag during lockdown, built a reputation on the Liverpool scene as one of the few drag queen DJs working the circuit, and why having a niche matters more than ever when the nighttime economy is under pressure and the market is saturated. She talks about reading a room, building community with other queens, and the moment she very reluctantly agreed to become a drag mother to Pumpkin Skandal. There's also the next chapter: a Belfast debut she is equal parts excited and terrified about, a potential future as a literal zookeeper, and the kind of honest, chaotic, very funny chat that happens when two people are clearly just enjoying themselves. It's big energy, total chaos, and genuinely brilliant craic. 🗣️ Why Listen? If you’re seeking genuine conversations that reflect the diverse experiences within the LGBTQ+ community, Proudly Said offers a platform for those narratives. 📣 Connect with Us – ProudlySaid.co.uk Subscribe: Stay updated with new episodes. Share: If this resonates with you, share it with others who might find it meaningful. Feedback: We value your thoughts. Reach out with comments or suggestions. Support: Join The Front Row for less than £3 a month, supporting a local queer creator, or buy us a bespoke coffee or three! :)
#60
July 23 · 35 min· Video
Ep 60: Mac Wynter said
🎙️ What’s This Episode About? Mac Wynter is a musician, animator, freelance illustrator, event organiser, teacher, and the founder of Stripped MCR and QuAC, a UK-based queer arts collective. He also used to go by Mickey Taylor, but Mickey's dead now. He said so himself. Mac joins John ten years after their first on-camera conversation, and wastes no time catching up on a decade of reinvention. From a former career in the adult industry and touring music to going back to university at 29 to study animation, Mac talks about what it looks like to genuinely start over, the skill sets that travel with you whether people respect them or not, and why he still thrives on pressure even when it probably shouldn't work. They get into the creative world's darker side too: the mental health toll of pouring yourself into art, the threat of AI to a generation of animators, and what it means to keep building when the industry keeps shifting under your feet. Mac talks about his children's books, his autism diagnosis, and how working in animation led him back to teaching kids the things he didn't have growing up. There's also the queer arts scene in Manchester, the nudist cabaret niche he somehow spotted and ran with, and a lot of unfinished business he fully intends to come back for. He's chaotic, hilarious, and exactly as much as he was ten years ago, in all the best ways. 🗣️ Why Listen? If you’re seeking genuine conversations that reflect the diverse experiences within the LGBTQ+ community, Proudly Said offers a platform for those narratives. 📣 Connect with Us – ProudlySaid.co.uk Subscribe: Stay updated with new episodes. Share: If this resonates with you, share it with others who might find it meaningful. Feedback: We value your thoughts. Reach out with comments or suggestions. Support: Join The Front Row for less than £3 a month, supporting a local queer creator, or buy us a bespoke coffee or three! :)
#59
July 16 · 34 min· Video
Ep 59: Ruby Boy said
🎙️ What’s This Episode About? Ruby Boy is a Yorkshire-born, Doncaster-raised drag queen, DJ, host and event producer, who relocated to Liverpool in early 2025 and has been quietly building something rather brilliant ever since. Recorded at the Epstein Theatre bar straight after a brunch show, with Proseccos already well underway. Ruby joins John to talk about her journey from selling shots at 18 in Lincoln, through five years of residencies across the Midlands, to arriving in Liverpool and starting from scratch all over again. She's honest about what that actually looks like: cover shifts, patience, travel that costs more than it pays, and the slow work of building a reputation in a city where the gig economy for drag queens is tighter than it looks from the outside. A big part of Ruby's story right now is Big Gay Cabaret, the Liverpool show she co-produces with drag partner Carmen Sutra. What started as filling a gap in the city's cabaret scene has grown into something with real momentum, and Ruby talks about why they built it, how it nearly broke them when 20 competition slots filled in nine hours, and why keeping drag silly is the whole point. There's also the engagement story, which involves Rome, a fight, a ring that hadn't arrived, and a proposal that was equal parts romantic and deeply traumatic. It's exactly as good as it sounds. It's loud, funny, completely unfiltered, and a genuinely warm conversation about building a drag career on your own terms in a city that's becoming home. Make sure to follow their instagram! 🗣️ Why Listen? If you’re seeking genuine conversations that reflect the diverse experiences within the LGBTQ+ community, Proudly Said offers a platform for those narratives. 📣 Connect with Us – ProudlySaid.co.uk Subscribe: Stay updated with new episodes. Share: If this resonates with you, share it with others who might find it meaningful. Feedback: We value your thoughts. Reach out with comments or suggestions. Support: Join The Front Row for less than £3 a month, supporting a local queer creator, or buy us a bespoke coffee or three! :)
#58
July 7 · 28 min
Ep 58: Lizzy Maginness said
🎙️ What’s This Episode About? Lizzy Maginness joins John from the top floor of Gaydio Towers (really the Manchester One buildings, but Gaydio Towers sounds so much better!), looking out across Manchester… and reflecting on a career that’s taken her from rural Lincolnshire to the heart of the UK’s media and LGBTQ+ landscape. Now Commercial Manager at Gaydio, Lizzy shares her journey through some of the country’s biggest radio brands, from early marketing roles to leading major campaigns, live events, and national partnerships. She talks about helping bring Pride into the mainstream spotlight, including her role in building one of the first major media partnerships with Manchester Pride, and what it meant to broadcast those celebrations to audiences across the UK. But this conversation goes far beyond career highlights. Lizzy opens up about coming out later in life, the experience of growing up without visible queer representation, and how moving to Manchester helped shape her understanding of identity. From “Lesbian TikTok” moments to meeting her now wife just weeks after coming out, her story is honest, funny, and quietly powerful. Together, John and Lizzy explore the balance between grassroots and large-scale Pride, the importance of authentic representation in marketing, and what it really means to connect with LGBTQ+ audiences in a way that goes beyond surface-level visibility. It’s a conversation about timing, identity, and finding your place… even if it takes a little longer than expected. 🗣️ Why Listen? If you’re seeking genuine conversations that reflect the diverse experiences within the LGBTQ+ community, Proudly Said offers a platform for those narratives. 📣 Connect with Us – ProudlySaid.co.uk Subscribe: Stay updated with new episodes. Share: If this resonates with you, share it with others who might find it meaningful. Feedback: We value your thoughts. Reach out with comments or suggestions. Support: Join The Front Row for less than £3 a month, supporting a local queer creator, or buy us a bespoke coffee or three! :)
#57
July 2 · 39 min· Video
Ep 57: Dan (Proud Readers Book Club) said
🎙️ What’s This Episode About? Dan Roberts is a Liverpool librarian and the founder of the Proud Readers Book Club, an LGBTQ+ reading group that meets monthly in the Hornby Reading Room at Liverpool Central Library. In less than a year it has grown from a nerve-wracking first night where Dan wasn't sure anyone would show up, to a thriving community of 25 to 30 members and a shortlisting for a national Libraries Connected Award. Filmed in the stunning Oak Room at Central Library, Dan joins John to talk about how the book club came to be, why it quickly became about much more than books, and what it means to create a space where queer people can show up as themselves without performing for anyone. They get into the reading list, from Oscar Wilde to contemporary queer fiction, and why being pushed outside your comfort zone is half the point. The conversation also covers the bigger picture of what Dan is building: partnerships with Homotopia Festival, the LGBT Foundation, and upcoming outreach workshops across Liverpool and Manchester. The Proud Readers Book Club is quietly becoming a serious force for queer culture and community in the city. There's also a very honest and very funny thread running through it all about the pressure queer people feel to be performative, why Dan's ideal weekend involves Miss Marple and two dogs, and why he is absolutely, unapologetically a Golden Girl at heart. It's warm, funny, and quietly inspiring, a conversation about the power of creating something from nothing and watching it become exactly what your community needed. 🗣️ Why Listen? If you’re seeking genuine conversations that reflect the diverse experiences within the LGBTQ+ community, Proudly Said offers a platform for those narratives. 📣 Connect with Us – ProudlySaid.co.uk Subscribe: Stay updated with new episodes. Share: If this resonates with you, share it with others who might find it meaningful. Feedback: We value your thoughts. Reach out with comments or suggestions. Support: Join The Front Row for less than £3 a month, supporting a local queer creator, or buy us a bespoke coffee or three! :)
#56
June 25 · 38 min· Video
Ep 56: Kyle Clarke said
🎙️ What’s This Episode About? Kyle Clarke is a talent manager, producer, and the founder of DFIU Events, a drag and entertainment events company that has been putting on shows across the UK for five years. Kyle joins John to tell the story of how DFIU came to be: born in lockdown, built on relationships forged through interviewing RuPaul's Drag Race queens online, and grown into a touring events business with genuine industry clout. He talks about what it actually takes to run shows, the logistics, the contracts, the stress behind the sequins, and why the nighttime economy is in a more fragile state than audiences realise. They get into the realities of the drag events world: last-minute ticket buying culture, the financial risks promoters carry, and what it means to rebuild audience trust in an industry that's taken knocks. Kyle is candid about the hard moments too, including the times he's had to cancel shows and why protecting the business is what keeps it going. There's also the personal story: a wee gay boy from North Belfast, now two years into life in Manchester, with a coming-out story that wasn't his to control and a family that surprised him. Kyle reflects on identity, ambition, and what it means to build something on your own terms, with the chaos, the laughs, and the receipts to prove it. It's sharp, funny, and refreshingly no-nonsense, a conversation about what it really takes to put queer joy on a stage and keep it there. 🗣️ Why Listen? If you’re seeking genuine conversations that reflect the diverse experiences within the LGBTQ+ community, Proudly Said offers a platform for those narratives. 📣 Connect with Us – ProudlySaid.co.uk Subscribe: Stay updated with new episodes. Share: If this resonates with you, share it with others who might find it meaningful. Feedback: We value your thoughts. Reach out with comments or suggestions. Support: Join The Front Row for less than £3 a month, supporting a local queer creator, or buy us a bespoke coffee or three! :)
#55
June 18 · 44 min· Video
Ep 55: Jeneen Lilith said
🎙️ What’s This Episode About? Jeneen Lilith is a former nurse, queer activist, artist, and the mum of Luna, a transgender teenager known within Liverpool's LGBTQ+ community. John has known them both for ten years, and this conversation has been a long time coming. Jeneen joins John to talk honestly about what it has meant to raise a trans child, from the fear and paralysis of those first early days, knowing nobody in the trans community and not knowing how to help her daughter, through to the joy, the fight, and the version of herself she found along the way. She talks about the people who gave her hope when she needed it most, and how she now finds herself being that person for other families starting the same journey. They cover the political reality of being a trans parent right now, the protest song Jeneen wrote and performed at a Liverpool demonstration in response to the Supreme Court's ruling on trans rights, and what it means to channel anger into something that connects people rather than just exhausts them. Jeneen is candid about the complexity of her own position, holding cis privilege while being utterly woven into her daughter's lived experience. There's also a deeply personal thread running through it all: how supporting Luna led Jeneen to question everything she had assumed about her own identity, and the unexpected but entirely her own conclusion she arrived at. Warm, sharp, funny, and at times genuinely moving, it's a conversation about love as an act of courage. 🗣️ Why Listen? If you’re seeking genuine conversations that reflect the diverse experiences within the LGBTQ+ community, Proudly Said offers a platform for those narratives. 📣 Connect with Us – ProudlySaid.co.uk Subscribe: Stay updated with new episodes. Share: If this resonates with you, share it with others who might find it meaningful. Feedback: We value your thoughts. Reach out with comments or suggestions. Support: Join The Front Row for less than £3 a month, supporting a local queer creator, or buy us a bespoke coffee or three! :)
#54
June 11 · 31 min· Video
Ep 54: Jodi Fox said
🎙️ What’s This Episode About? Jodi Fox is a creative director, brand consultant, trustee of The Proud Trust, and founder of Studio Zenko, but more than that, she’s someone who understands how identity, creativity and leadership can all shape one another. In this episode, Jodi joins John at The Proud Place in Manchester for a conversation about the power of queer spaces, the importance of giving young LGBTQ+ people the support she never had growing up, and why organisations like The Proud Trust matter so much right now. They talk about Jodi’s journey as a trans woman, from knowing from a young age that something felt different, to not coming out until later in life, and what changed when she finally allowed herself to live more openly. She reflects on confidence, visibility, privilege, and the reality of navigating both personal and professional life while transitioning. Alongside that, they dive into her creative career - from years spent working with major brands in fashion, retail and advertising, to launching Studio Zenko and shifting towards more purpose-led work with charities, ethical businesses and organisations trying to make a real difference. It’s a thoughtful conversation about creativity as expression, branding as storytelling, and what happens when you stop just making things look good and start making them mean something too. It’s reflective, warm and quietly powerful — a conversation about finding your people, backing yourself, and using your skills to help build something better for those coming next. 🗣️ Why Listen? If you’re seeking genuine conversations that reflect the diverse experiences within the LGBTQ+ community, Proudly Said offers a platform for those narratives. 📣 Connect with Us – ProudlySaid.co.uk Subscribe: Stay updated with new episodes. Share: If this resonates with you, share it with others who might find it meaningful. Feedback: We value your thoughts. Reach out with comments or suggestions. Support: Join The Front Row for less than £3 a month, supporting a local queer creator, or buy us a bespoke coffee or three! :)
#53
June 4 · 39 min· Video
Ep 53: Naya Thorn said
🎙️ What’s This Episode About? To mark the start of Pride Month, John sits down with Liverpool drag artist Naya Thorn for a conversation that feels honest, grounded, and very real about where she’s at. Naya talks about how drag first came into her world, being around the Liverpool scene, the performers she looked up to, and slowly figuring out what her own version of drag looks like - which takes time, experience, and working it out as you go. They chat about balancing drag with everyday life, the reality of money, gigs, and what it actually takes to keep going creatively when it’s not always glamorous. Naya’s really open about not rushing things, not forcing a version of success, and allowing herself to grow into it properly. There’s also a lot of humour in this one, from side tangents to very blunt takes on the scene, performance, and the fact that… not everyone needs to be doing drag. It’s a conversation about finding your pace, backing yourself, and figuring it out without pretending you’ve got it all sorted. 🗣️ Why Listen? If you’re seeking genuine conversations that reflect the diverse experiences within the LGBTQ+ community, Proudly Said offers a platform for those narratives. 📣 Connect with Us – ProudlySaid.co.uk Subscribe: Stay updated with new episodes. Share: If this resonates with you, share it with others who might find it meaningful. Feedback: We value your thoughts. Reach out with comments or suggestions. Support: Join The Front Row for less than £3 a month, supporting a local queer creator, or buy us a bespoke coffee or three! :)
#52
May 28 · 41 min· Video
Ep 52: Mario Kyriacou said
🎙️ What’s This Episode About? Mario Kyriacou, the man behind the iconic Cheer Up pop party, joins John for a conversation that goes far beyond the dancefloor. We get into the story behind one of the UK’s most recognisable LGBTQ+ club nights, from its roots in pure pop nostalgia to becoming a full-scale celebration of queer joy, community, and connection. Mario shares how Cheer Up grew into a space where people can escape, express themselves, and feel part of something bigger, whether that’s through a Kylie anthem or a packed-out Pride crowd. But there’s another side to Mario’s story. Before the parties, there was the work. Mario reflects on his time connected to organisations like Liverpool’s Armistead Centre and Sahir House, and the role those spaces have played in supporting LGBTQ+ people through some of the most challenging moments in the community’s history. It’s a reminder that behind the glitter and pop perfection, there’s a deep-rooted understanding of care, responsibility, and showing up for others. The conversation moves between past and present, from the realities of LGBTQ+ support services to the evolution of queer nightlife, and what it means to create spaces that are both fun and meaningful. There’s laughter, nostalgia, and a real appreciation for how far things have come, alongside an honest look at what still needs to change. It’s a conversation about joy, legacy, and the people who build the spaces we often take for granted. 🗣️ Why Listen? If you’re seeking genuine conversations that reflect the diverse experiences within the LGBTQ+ community, Proudly Said offers a platform for those narratives. 📣 Connect with Us – ProudlySaid.co.uk Subscribe: Stay updated with new episodes. Share: If this resonates with you, share it with others who might find it meaningful. Feedback: We value your thoughts. Reach out with comments or suggestions. Support: Join The Front Row for less than £3 a month, supporting a local queer creator, or buy us a bespoke coffee or three! :)
#51
May 21 · 37 min· Video
Ep 51: Alena (The Pole Loft) said
🎙️ What’s This Episode About? Alena is the owner of The Pole Loft, a Liverpool-based studio built on inclusivity, confidence and creating space for people to move, express and reconnect with themselves. Alena joins John to talk about her journey from the Czech Republic to Liverpool, and how her path into pole fitness began. What started as a personal exploration soon grew into something much bigger: a passion for creating a space where people feel safe, supported and empowered, no matter their experience or background. They chat about the realities of building a business from the ground up, the misconceptions around pole, and why creating an environment that is built on trust and community is just as important as the physical side of the work. Alena also reflects on the responsibility that comes with holding space for others, and how The Pole Loft has become more than just a studio, but a place where people can grow in confidence, find connection, and challenge themselves in new ways. Looking ahead, the conversation turns to what’s next: expanding the space, reaching more people, and continuing to evolve a community that puts wellbeing, inclusivity and joy at its centre. It’s thoughtful, grounding and quietly powerful — a conversation about movement, identity, and building something that truly makes people feel at home. Follow The Pole Loft on Instagram, and check out their website! 🗣️ Why Listen? If you’re seeking genuine conversations that reflect the diverse experiences within the LGBTQ+ community, Proudly Said offers a platform for those narratives. 📣 Connect with Us – ProudlySaid.co.uk Subscribe: Stay updated with new episodes. Share: If this resonates with you, share it with others who might find it meaningful. Feedback: We value your thoughts. Reach out with comments or suggestions. Support: Join The Front Row for less than £3 a month, supporting a local queer creator, or buy us a bespoke coffee or three! :)

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