Anne-Marie's Podcast – Details, episodes & analysis

Note: This episode contains content about sex and is NSFW. Listener discretion is advised.

‼️SPECIAL FOR COMING OUT & BEYOND LISTENERS! This episode's guest, Maxine Kroll, founder/owner of Provincetown's renowned sex shop & museum, Toys of Eros, is offering 10% off purchases for our listeners! Just use the coupon code COB when completing your order to receive your discount. Shop everything Toys of Eros has to offer at https://toysoferos.com/

Wing Women Weekend | Annual Conference in Provincetown, MA, during Women's Week | https://wingwomenweekend.com/

"Strengthening Love: Building Secure Bonds for Lesbian Couples" https://healthylesbianrelationships.com/

✊🏼Values in Action: Maxine Kroll's Life of Acceptance, Sex-Positivity & Activism

This week on the podcast, host Anne-Marie Zanzal has a conversation with Maxine Kroll, a lesbian and activist who has spent her life creating sanctuary for queer women and fostering acceptance for the LGBTQ+ community. Maxine shares her journey of coming out, stories of activism, and reflects on the critical importance of LGBTQ spaces. From her early experiences in high school to founding Provincetown's sex-positive boutique, Toys of Eros, Maxine discusses the evolution of queer identity and the significance of education to create safety and acceptance for the LGBTQ community. She reflects on the changes in sexual exploration across generations and offers advice for those navigating their first experiences. Anne-Marie and Maxine's conversation highlights the need for continued activism and support for LGBTQ rights in today's political climate.

🔥 What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

🕰️Reflections on the evolution of Provincetown as an LGBTQ+ sanctuary.
💋Discussion on the relationship between communication and pleasure.
🐘A walk down memory lane to early days of Provincetown's annual Women's Week.
👩🏽‍❤️‍💋‍👩🏽Sex-positive conversation about toys, sexual health, and empowering women through education.
🏳️‍🌈 Thoughts about the future of LGBTQ+ rights

💬 Join the Conversation!
💬Have you experienced Provincetown during Women's Week and/or been to Toys of Eros? Do you have thoughts about activism, sex-positive education, or the current state of LGBTQ+ rights? Talk about in the comments!

❤️Join Authentically Us! A supportive community for those coming out later in life to the LGBTQIA+ community. Connect, share, and find guidance on your journey through mutual support groups, workshops, and live Zoom meetups. 💜Sign up today at www.annemariezanzal.com

💠 Visit our website: : [ www.annemariezanzal.com]
💠 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/amzanzal
💠 Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/annemariezanzalcoaching/
💠LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/annemariezanzalpurposefulempowerment/

👍 Like, subscribe, and hit the bell to stay updated on powerful stories from Coming Out & Beyond!

Wing Women Weekend | Annual Conference in Provincetown, MA, during Women's Week | https://wingwomenweekend.com/

"Strengthening Love: Building Secure Bonds for Lesbian Couples"  https://healthylesbianrelationships.com/

📣Dakarai Larriett's Fight for Fairness in Alabama!

This week on the podcast, host Anne-Marie Zanzal sits down with Alabama Senate candidate Dakarai Larriett. Dakarai Larriett is the son of a U.S. Army veteran, a successful entrepreneur, longtime community volunteer, and — above all — a proud Alabama native, deeply committed to serving the citizens of his home state. Dakarai’s passion for public service was ignited during his junior year as an exchange student at Howard University in Washington, DC. His career took him from New York to Texas and Michigan before his heart drew him back to Alabama. Dakarai has dedicated his time and resources to serving the community. In addition to his volunteer work with United Way, Meals On Wheels and the Humane Society, Dakarai leads the board representing the 60 families and businesses located in the Mercantile on Morris, a mixed-use development in downtown Birmingham. Dakarai's story is inspiring and his experiences inform his sense of fairness and justice. After having been falsely arrested, Dakarai has made it his mission to fight against corruption and has set his sights on the U.S. Senate, running as the Democratic candidate in 2026. Dakarai and Anne-Marie talk about his coming out story, his philosophy on servant leadership, his first-hand experience with institutional corruption, and the significance of his faith and personal experiences in shaping his world view.

You can find Dakarai Larriett's website here: https://dakarailarriett.com/

🔥 What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

🚨How Dakarai's false arrest in 2024 ignited a passion for justice and change.

🏳️‍🌈 Understand how Dakarai's coming out was influenced his upbringing in a strict religious environment.

🌎How travelling to over 55 countries has broadened his perspective on global issues.

🌟How Dakarai aims to bridge divides in a polarized political landscape.

✝️The evolution of Dakarai's faith journey, ultimately leading to the United Methodist Church.

💬 Join the Conversation!

💬What are your biggest perceived challenges in coming out? Let's talk about it in the comments!

❤️Join Authentically Us! A supportive community for those coming out later in life to the LGBTQIA+ community. Connect, share, and find guidance on your journey through mutual support groups, workshops, and live Zoom meetups. 💜Sign up today at www.annemariezanzal.com

💠 Visit our website: : [ www.annemariezanzal.com]

💠 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/amzanzal

💠 Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/annemariezanzalcoaching/

💠LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/annemariezanzalpurposefulempowerment/

👍 Like, subscribe, and hit the bell to stay updated on powerful stories from Coming Out & Beyond!

Wing Women Weekend, October 15-18, 2025, Provincetown, MA - a conference for women/non-binary persons who are new to the LGBTQIA+ community! This conference is all about connection, finding queer community, and having a whole lot of FUN! For the full conference schedule and to sign up, visit https://wingwomenweekend.com/ and use the coupon code PRIDE in June to receive 10% off.

"Maybe I'm Not Straight" and "When the Catalyst Relationship Ends" are do-at-your-own-pace courses for women who are reconsidering their sexual orientation and overcoming the end of their first lesbian relationship. Accessible, information-packed, and easy to do, these courses represent many years worth of experience working with women who come out later in life. Purchase your course and receive your first month subscription to Authentically Us, a safe online space for women who are coming out and beyond, for free! Learn more at https://annemariezanzal.com/courses-from-anne-marie-zanzal/

This week on Coming Out & Beyond: LGBTQIA+ Stories, host Anne-Marie Zanzal interviews Lonay Halloum, a queer relationship coaching and Rapid Transformational Therapy practitioner. Lonay shares his coming out story, the challenges he faced with family acceptance, and the importance of self-acceptance and support systems. he discusses his journey through relationships, hitting rock bottom, and discovering transformative therapy methods that helped him rebuild his self-worth. The conversation emphasizes the significance of understanding both conscious and subconscious mind work in personal growth and healing.

You can find Lonay's website here: https://rainbowjourney.co/

Follow Lonay on Instagram, radiantheartsjourney

❓ What to Expect in This Episode:

🏳️‍🌈An emphasis on the need for a strong support system during the coming out process.

🏳️‍🌈Conversation about changing limiting beliefs and understanding the unconscious mind.

🏳️‍🌈Education on how Rapid Transformational Therapy can address deep-rooted beliefs about self-worth.

🏳️‍🌈Reflections on the ongoing struggle with internalized homophobia in the LGBTQIA community.

✨ Why This Matters:

Self-kindness, self-acceptance, and a strong sense of self-worth are crucial for LGBTQIA individuals, especially through the coming out process. Spending some time to uncover subconscious limiting beliefs and how they impact our emotions and behaviors is part of the process when working on personal growth and healing.

💬 Join the Conversation:

Are you caught up in negative patterns and are on a path to discovering why? Has self-acceptance been a struggle for you? Let's talk about it in the comments.

🔗 Visit our website:

Anne-Marie's : [ annemariezanzal.com]

🔗 Follow us on social media:

💠 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/amzanzal

💠 Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/annemariezanzalcoaching/

💠 Twitter: twitter.com/annemariezanzal

💠LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/annemariezanzalpurposefulempowerment/

👉 Don’t forget to like, share, and subscribe for more inspiring stories and advice on navigating life, love, and everything in between!

John Sovec is a therapist, coach and counselor based in Pasadena, California. He is a nationally recognized expert on creating affirmative support for LGBTQIA+ teens and their families during the coming out process. John is the author of Out: A Parent's Guide to Supporting Your LGBTQIA+ Kid Through Coming Out and Beyond. He is a frequent contributor to numerous publications on providing LGBTQIA+ support, speaks at conferences nationally, and provides training and consultation on LGBTQIA+ competencies for community agencies, schools, and non-profits. He is a nationally recognized expert on creating affirmative support for LGBTQIA+ adolescents with his work featured on The Rikki Lake Show, OWN, FOX, The Advocate, Bravo, LA Talk Radio, The Washington Post, and columns for Huffington Post, Medium, and Good Therapy. John is the host of OutTalk, a monthly web series for OutCare Health.

In this episode of Coming Out & Beyond: LGBTQIA+ Stories, host Anne-Marie Zanzal talks with John Sovec about all of the thoughts, feelings, and considerations families experience when a child comes out as Queer or trans. John helps us understand the sometimes bumpy road to acceptance, gives great advice on how to respond when your kid comes out, and explains the nuanced differences between the experiences of having a child come out as Queer and having a child come out as trans.

You can learn more about John Sovec and the good work that he does at www.JohnSovec.com and www.GayTeenTherapy.com.

You can purchase John's book, Out: A Parent's Guide to Supporting Your LGBTQIA+ Kid Through Coming Out and Beyond, here: https://www.amazon.ca/Out-Parents-Supporting-LGBTQIA-Through/dp/1839974249/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3LA72EGXF...

A coming out song that John loves is Cher's 'Believe.' You can listen to it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZXRV4MezEw

You can follow John on Instagram: @JohnSovectherapy or on Twitter, @JohnSovec

This week on Coming Out & Beyond: LGBTQIA+ Stories, we have our first ever man as a guest! Mike Iamele has a remarkable coming out later in life story. Mike thought he was straight his entire life. But a life-changing illness forced him to challenge that notion head-on when he fell in love with his male caretaker. And the two of them went on a years-long journey to explore sexuality and fluidity to figure out if the relationship could work.

When he chose to blog about his relationship, he had no idea that 100,000 people would share the post overnight, and he’d wake up to millions of people talking about his sex life. Or that his story would be made into an off-Broadway musical today.

For most of the past decade, Mike has helped hundreds of people to explore their own sexuality, identity, and purpose by mapping their experiences and understanding who they are inside and outside of labels.

Tune in as host Anne-Marie Zanzal digs into some important topics with Mike Iamele, including internalized homophobia, holding boundaries, being open to big life changes, and, of course, his incredible coming out story.

You tune in to this podcast on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, and on Anne-Marie's website, www.annemariezanzal.com. 

Find Mike Iamele online and learn more about his coaching program for Gay, Bi, Trans and Queer men at https://mikeiamele.com/

Follow Mike Iamele on Instagram: www.instagram.com/mikeiamele

To learn more about the musical based on Mike's life, visit www.straightforwardmusical.com

Mike's coming out song is Life by The Avett Brothers, and you can listen to it here: https://youtu.be/ZWgmtmIiomI

A book that has greatly helped Mike is Louise L. Hay's "You Can Heal Your Life": https://www.amazon.ca/You-Can-Heal-Your-Life/dp/0937611018

This week on the Coming Out & Beyond podcast we're back with part 2 of our interview with Rev. Leela Sinha. Leela is a genderqueer, spiritually grounded, Queer-as-fuck entrepreneur and principal at the Intensives Institute, an organization dedicated to executive leadership and development.

In part 2 of this special episode, Anne-Marie and Leela talk about Leela's experience growing up atheist and in the UU, what it was like having a call to ministry, and expand on the language and constructs surrounding gender. It is a fascinating episode, not-to-be-missed for anyone who is interested in gender and trans issues.

Learn more about The Intensives Institute at www.intensivesinstitute.com

Rev. Leela Sinha is a genderqueer, Queer-as-fuck entrepreneur. Ze is intense, spiritually grounded, real, funny, compassionate, and mostly interested in creating a better world with more pleasure and less pain. To that end, Leela coaches and consults to uplift intense people (if you're told you're "too much" that means you!) and creates leadership, companies, and systems where the bottom line is robust and everyone's needs get met.

In this special 2-part episode, Anne-Marie and Leela take a fascinating meander through subjects such as the profound impact of Leela's upbringing in the Unitarian church, the contrasting messages they received surrounding sexuality during their formative years (Anne-Marie was raised Catholic, while Leela learned about sexuality through the Unitarian "About Your Sexuality" (AYS) program), the early 2000's reclamation of the word "Queer" and the shifting climate surrounding that word today, how language around gender has changed the coming out trans experience over time, how the experience of coming out and living as a member of the LGBTQIA+ community differs regionally in the United States, how Leela both lost and gained a community after cutting hir hair and much, much more. Their deep dive into topics surrounding Queer, trans and lesbian experiences as they relate to history, culture and religion continues in a part 2 episode, to be released on July 7th, 2023.

Leela's coming out song is In or Out by Ani DiFranco. You can listen to it here: https://open.spotify.com/track/57RddpbPMFxeR20eonC0gH?si=98cbf96c72db48d4

Leela hosts PowerPivot, a business podcast showcasing the best ideas out there for changing the way we work (and live) for the better.  https://open.spotify.com/show/6Q1oG5PtdIOWdW2HswVK4l

The PowerPivot podcast is an extension of Leela's coaching/consulting business, The Intensives Institute. The Intensives Institute exists to encourage and develop intensives – that's people are strong-minded, innovative thinkers – to develop in leadership and executive roles. You can learn more about The Intensives Institute here: https://intensivesinstitute.com/

Some of Leela's reading recommendations are:

Stone Butch Blues by Leslie Feinberg

Exhibitionism for the Shy by Carol Queen

The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood by Howard Pyle

Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren

Womanspirit Rising: A Feminist Reader in Religion by Carol P. Christ and Judith Plaskow

Saving Paradise: How Christianity Traded Love of This World for Crucifixion and Empire by Rebecca Ann Parker and Rita Nakashima

This week on Coming Out & Beyond: LGBTQIA+ Stories, host Anne-Marie Zanzal welcomes certified parent and life coach Dr. Lulu

Dr. Lulu is Queer, Nigerian-born, a pediatrician, mom of a transgender daughter, and TEDx speaker. Her work centers on coaching parents of Queer children, helping families overcome the shame and fear that often comes with learning a child is Queer. Dr. Lulu's mission is youth suicide prevention particularly amongst LGBTQIA+ youth. She is a bestselling author of 7 books, including "How to Teach Your Children About Racism” and other books in the nonfiction genre. Her next book: “Invited In, How to Become the Parent Your LGBTQ+ Child Needs”, is due out summer 2023.

In this episode, Dr. Lulu shares with Anne-Marie her coming out (or "letting in") story, the common concerns of parents who learn that their child is Queer, underscores the unique perils that threaten black transgender women, discusses the roots of and harm caused by internalized homophobia, and talks about how she helps clients change their mindset, moving from a place of fear to acceptance.

A song that resonates with Dr. Lulu today is Who's That Girl by Eve: https://youtu.be/8N9PL3Iz3xc

Some books that Dr. Lulu recommends are:

Beyond the Gender Binary by Alok Vaid Menon https://www.amazon.ca/Beyond-Gender-Binary-Alok-Vaid-Menon/dp/0593094654

Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill https://www.amazon.ca/Think-Grow-Rich-1937/dp/B07Q5B3FVF/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=Think+and+Grow+Rich+by+...

Healing Back Pain by John E. Sarno, MD https://www.amazon.ca/Healing-Back-Pain/dp/B071L5C7S5/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1PRNGHPEC89MO&keywords=Healing...

You can find Dr. Lulu on Instagram, YouTube and Twitter as @drlulutalkradio, on Facebook as Moma Trician, and on LinkedIn as Uchenna "Dr. Lulu" Umeh.

This week on Coming Out & Beyond: LGBTQIA+ Stories, host Anne-Marie Zanzal chats with Lynda Spann and Lisa Yaeger about the nuances of lesbian relationships.

As therapists and creator/facilitators of the Lesbian Couples Institute, Lynda and Lisa have tapped into the lesbian couples counseling niche after recognizing there was a need for lesbian-specific therapy services. As lesbians and a couple of 18 years, Lynda and Lisa blend their professional experiences as therapists and life experiences as members of the LGBTQIA+ community to serve lesbian couples in a way that few therapists can. In this episode, Anne-Marie, Lynda, and Lisa explore some common themes that arise in lesbian relationships and address common challenges lesbian couples experience.

You can find The Lesbian Couples Institute online here: https://lesbiancouplesinstitute.com/

on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WomenCouplesInstitute/

This week on Coming Out & Beyond: LGBTQIA+ Stories, host Anne-Marie Zanzal digs deep into the topic of co-dependency with special guests Carla Romo and Sherry Gaba.

Carla, a certified Life and Dating & Relationship Coach, and Sherry, LCSW & coach, are experts in the area of relationships and co-dependency. As hosts of The Love Fix, a podcast dedicated to dating, healing from codependency, and toxic relationships, Carla and Sherry bring a wealth of insight and wisdom to this week's episode. Anne-Marie, Carla, and Sherry explore themes surrounding codependency, including why people fall into co-dependent relationships, how to recognize codependency in yourself and others, challenge old tropes about lesbian relationships and codependency, and how to start on a journey of recovery from codependency. Carla and Sherry's 30 year age difference brings an array of perspectives to the conversation.

You can find Carla and Sherry's podcast, The Love Fix, at www.thelovefix.com, or wherever you normally tune in to your favorite podcasts. You can also find the relationship quiz Carla and Sherry refer to at thelovefix.com.

You can find Carla Romo's book, "Contagious Love" and Sherry Gaba's book "Love Smacked" on Amazon.