Ep. 257: San Francisco in the 70s, Harvey Milk & Surviving AIDS — Chuck Forrester's Story

Ep. 257: San Francisco in the 70s, Harvey Milk & Surviving AIDS — Chuck Forrester's Story

What was it like to be gay in San Francisco in the 1970s — when the city was wide open, Harvey Milk was your neighbor, and an entire community was inventing what it meant to be queer? Chuck Forrester lived it. He came out at 28, moved from Wisconsin to the Castro, and found himself in the middle of one of the most extraordinary moments in LGBTQ+ history — one that would soon be transformed forever by the AIDS crisis. In this episode, Chuck shares what it felt like to finally be free, what we lost in the epidemic, and why he spent decades fundraising and fighting for his community — including co-chairing the board of the Human Rights Campaign Fund and raising $3.5 million for the Queer Center at the San Francisco Main Library. He also talks about working as a special assistant to three San Francisco mayors, being a gay dad, and his book Bonding in the Time of Plague — a frank, unapologetic tribute to his generation of gay men. This is living history. And it's essential listening. 📖 Buy Chuck's book Bonding in the Time of Plague on Amazon:https://www.amazon.com/Bonding-Time-Plague-Chuck-Forester/dp/B0H2BQKBCP/ref=sr_1_1?crid=RHYU8UFH1Z39&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.ff6s45NxJL6Kx7d_Y3sl3g.a1eQogOE1q8wtqjKTs-m5Ii7xfOlnLu7OWrz7uBiIL4&dib_tag=se&keywords=Bonding+in+the+Time+of+Plague&qid=1782929360&sprefix=bonding+in+the+time+of+plague%2Caps%2C165&sr=8-1 [https://www.amazon.com/Bonding-Time-Plague-Chuck-Forester/dp/B0H2BQKBCP/ref=sr_1_1?crid=RHYU8UFH1Z39&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.ff6s45NxJL6Kx7d_Y3sl3g.a1eQogOE1q8wtqjKTs-m5Ii7xfOlnLu7OWrz7uBiIL4&dib_tag=se&keywords=Bonding+in+the+Time+of+Plague&qid=1782929360&sprefix=bonding+in+the+time+of+plague%2Caps%2C165&sr=8-1] 🎙️ Subscribe to Everything & Anything…and a Bit Gay wherever you listen to podcasts ⭐ Leave us a review — it means everything 📲 Follow us on Instagram: @TheRealZachRE Podcast song by SIXFOOT 5: https://www.sixfoot5prod.com [https://www.sixfoot5prod.com]  Apple: https://music.apple.com/us/artist/sixfoot-5/1551774977  [https://music.apple.com/us/artist/sixfoot-5/1551774977 ] Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5rHMzoU0G0fLhaBsrQiOOY?si=laSZ5hiKTYubJJyhrzf2JQ [https://open.spotify.com/artist/5rHMzoU0G0fLhaBsrQiOOY?si=laSZ5hiKTYubJJyhrzf2JQ] Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com [https://pcm.adswizz.com] for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Ep. 256: The Gay Bit: Take 13 - Madonna's New Album Is the Song of the Summer

Madonna is BACK — and she's never been better. On this week's Gay Bit, host Zach Randles-Friedman celebrates the release of Confessions on a Dance Floor 2, Madonna's highly anticipated new album dropping just before the Fourth of July weekend. Zach shares his lifelong love affair with Madonna — from hearing her songs as a fifth-grade safety patrol in Miami, to plastering every inch of his bedroom with posters from Spencer Gifts and Teen Beat, to paying $1,500 a ticket to see her live. He talks about her Coachella surprise with Sabrina Carpenter, why Feel So Free is already a certified banger that had an entire bar singing along, and why this album is exactly what Madonna's fans — and her critics — needed to hear. Plus: why Madonna would absolutely love Zach if she ever came on the podcast, and why he would 100% drop his friends Mandy and Jen the second she texted him back. 🎙️ Everything & Anything…and a Bit Gay drops new episodes every week. Subscribe so you never miss a Gay Bit, a guest interview, or a solo monologue that hits a little too close to home. 👍 Like this episode | 💬 Leave a comment with your favorite track on the new album | 🔔 Subscribe for more Podcast song by SIXFOOT 5: https://www.sixfoot5prod.com [https://www.sixfoot5prod.com]  Apple: https://music.apple.com/us/artist/sixfoot-5/1551774977  [https://music.apple.com/us/artist/sixfoot-5/1551774977 ] Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5rHMzoU0G0fLhaBsrQiOOY?si=laSZ5hiKTYubJJyhrzf2JQ [https://open.spotify.com/artist/5rHMzoU0G0fLhaBsrQiOOY?si=laSZ5hiKTYubJJyhrzf2JQ] Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com [https://pcm.adswizz.com] for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Ep. 255: Spiritual Counselor Laura Hoorweg on Life After Death, Mediumship & Soul Contracts

What happens when we die? Can our loved ones really reach us from the other side? Spiritual counselor and intuitive coach Laura Hoorweg joins Zach for a wide-ranging, mind-expanding conversation about life after death, mediumship, soul families, and what it truly means to evolve as a soul. Laura shares her extraordinary out-of-body experience at 15 that changed everything she believed about life and death — plus the car accident she believes was prevented by an actual angel. She breaks down the difference between psychics and mediums, why mediumship is a gift you're born with (not something you can be taught), and how she uses her abilities to help people heal from grief and rebuild their lives. They also get into: forest bathing and wilderness as spiritual connection, why Earth is the only planet of free will, reincarnation and soul contracts, what really happens when we pass over, and why there is no hell. 💻 Connect with Laura: 🌐 www.spiritspeaks2.me [https://www.spiritspeaks2.me/] 📧 laurahoorwig@gmail.com 📬 Subscribe so you don't miss Part 2 with Laura — coming soon! 👍 If this episode resonated with you, leave a review, share it with someone who needs it, and hit subscribe. It truly makes a difference. Podcast song by SIXFOOT 5: https://www.sixfoot5prod.com [https://www.sixfoot5prod.com]  Apple: https://music.apple.com/us/artist/sixfoot-5/1551774977  [https://music.apple.com/us/artist/sixfoot-5/1551774977 ] Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5rHMzoU0G0fLhaBsrQiOOY?si=laSZ5hiKTYubJJyhrzf2JQ [https://open.spotify.com/artist/5rHMzoU0G0fLhaBsrQiOOY?si=laSZ5hiKTYubJJyhrzf2JQ] Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com [https://pcm.adswizz.com] for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Ep. 254- This is Everything: Orange Convicted Felon's War on American LGBTQ+

We're flipping the table today. No guests. No interview. Just Zach, a microphone, and a very long list of verified, documented, reported facts — because an informed community is a powerful community, and silence is complicity. In this solo episode, Zach walks through the full record of what the orange convicted felon has done since January 20th, 2025. Not opinion. Not rant. Everything cited from news organizations, congressional records, nonpartisan watchdogs, and in many cases, his own words. In this episode: * The promises vs. the receipts — prices, gas, energy costs, and "no new wars" * Who this man actually is — the Access Hollywood tape, E. Jean Carroll, 34 felony counts, two impeachments * The legislative war on trans Americans — 598 bills in 2025, 796 under consideration in 2026, and what's really happening in federal prisons * ICE raids, civilian deaths, and 75,000 people with zero criminal record deported * Venezuela, Iran, and the two wars he started after promising peace * The Epstein files — what was released, what was withheld, and the questions we deserve to ask out loud * Gaza, $12 billion in weapons, and what "peace" actually looks like * The defunding of PBS and NPR — 58 years of public broadcasting, gone * Freedom 250 and the only person who said yes: Vanilla Ice This episode is not the kind Zach usually makes. He prefers inspiring interviews and uplifting conversations. But this has been building — and sometimes you have to put it all on the table so the community can see the full picture in one place. If this episode moved you, share it. Send it to someone who keeps saying "it's not that bad." Podcast song by SIXFOOT 5: https://www.sixfoot5prod.com [https://www.sixfoot5prod.com]  Apple: https://music.apple.com/us/artist/sixfoot-5/1551774977  [https://music.apple.com/us/artist/sixfoot-5/1551774977 ] Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5rHMzoU0G0fLhaBsrQiOOY?si=laSZ5hiKTYubJJyhrzf2JQ [https://open.spotify.com/artist/5rHMzoU0G0fLhaBsrQiOOY?si=laSZ5hiKTYubJJyhrzf2JQ] Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com [https://pcm.adswizz.com] for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Ep. 253: This is Everything: Ridiculous Conversations

📋 SHOW NOTES Everything & Anything…and a Bit Gay Episode: The Questions That Exhaust Us There's a particular kind of tired that comes not from overworking or overextending — but from decades of explaining your existence to people who feel entitled to interrogate it. In this solo This Is Everything episode, Zach Randles-Friedman names that feeling out loud: exhaustion. And then he does something more interesting than venting about it — he unpacks it. Zach walks through some of the most common (and most maddening) questions and phrases that follow LGBTQ+ people through life, not just to dismiss them, but to sit with what they actually reveal — about the people who say them, about the culture that produces them, and about the extraordinary amount of labor our community has long performed just to be seen. In this episode, Zach covers: * "Why isn't there a straight pride?" — The history matters. Stonewall wasn't a party. It was a survival riot led by trans women of color who had nowhere else to go. Pride was chosen deliberately because society demanded shame. Straight people have never had to build a movement to reclaim their dignity — and that's not an insult, it's just the truth. * "I'm fine with gay people, I just don't want it shoved in my face." — Zach breaks down the quiet cruelty in this one: the entire architecture of public life was built around straight love — every movie, every commercial, every magazine — and no one ever asked him if that was shoved in his face. He made room for their story his whole life. All we're asking is: can you make room for ours? * The bachelorette party problem. — Why do straight people flood gay bars seeking safety, then perform hyper-masculinity to prove they don't belong there? Zach unpacks the dynamic with empathy and a little exasperation. * "I'm gay, but I don't need to make it my whole personality." — This one comes from inside the house, and it's the hardest to sit with. Zach shares a personal story about a close friend who slowly disappeared into an acceptable, contained version of himself — and what it cost him. There is no correct amount of gay. There is no right way to express it. But if your self-expression includes looking down on people who are more visible or more flamboyant, that's internalized shame — and it doesn't disappear when you come out. It just changes clothes. * "You don't look gay." — Not a compliment. Not an insult. A window into someone's imagination built with incomplete information. Zach reflects on how deeply he once absorbed the idea that "passing" was protection — and what it cost him to unlearn it. * "When did you decide to be gay?" — We don't decide. We discover. And usually long before we have the language for it. But Zach goes further: even if it were a choice, so what? The premise that choice would make love less legitimate is the thing worth challenging. * "Pride has gotten too corporate." — Rainbow capitalism is real, and worth calling out. But Zach remembers when no company would touch the LGBTQ+ community at all — when being associated with anything gay was brand poison. The fact that companies now want to be associated with pride is a reflection of cultural power. Just hold them accountable for what they're doing the other 11 months. * "The community was better before all these new labels." — Translation: things were simpler when fewer people felt included. Every new label represents someone who spent years feeling like they didn't exist and finally found a word for themselves. That's not a problem. That's the whole point. Zach closes with something clear and hard-won: after nearly three decades with Andrew, after a lifetime in this community, the people worth explaining yourself to are already trying to understand. They come to the conversation with something open in them. The others? You don't owe them your exhaustion. You owe yourself your energy, your joy, and your pride — not the kind that disappears on July 1st with the merchandise, but the kind that's quiet, certain, and lives in you every single day.   Podcast song by SIXFOOT 5: https://www.sixfoot5prod.com [https://www.sixfoot5prod.com]  Apple: https://music.apple.com/us/artist/sixfoot-5/1551774977  [https://music.apple.com/us/artist/sixfoot-5/1551774977 ] Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5rHMzoU0G0fLhaBsrQiOOY?si=laSZ5hiKTYubJJyhrzf2JQ [https://open.spotify.com/artist/5rHMzoU0G0fLhaBsrQiOOY?si=laSZ5hiKTYubJJyhrzf2JQ] Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com [https://pcm.adswizz.com] for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.