NEPA SCENE PODCAST: Episode 36 – Living and being accepted as a transgender woman in NEPA
Professionally recorded every Monday at The Stude in TwentyFiveEight Studios in Scranton and released exclusively on nepascene.com every Tuesday, the NEPA Scene Podcast is a free supplement to the website, expanding on the arts and entertainment stories covered on the site and going beyond them to discuss other news and entertainment topics.
Each week, the unedited and uncensored podcast features Rich Howells, NEPA Scene founder and editor; Mark Dennebaum, president and owner of TwentyFiveEight Studios; and Lauren Quirolgico, commercial and content strategist at Lavelle Strategy Group and editor at TwentyFiveEight. Every episode streams on iTunes, SoundCloud, Stitcher, and nepascene.com.
In Episode 36, our special guest is Dee Culp, the author of NEPA Scene’s weekly column on local LGBTQ issues, Living Your Truth. After briefly talking about last week’s NEPA PrideFest and its move to Pittston this year, we delve into a deeply personal discussion with Dee about being a transgender woman and the hurdles she’s had to overcome, starting with a difficult childhood and moving through depression, school, finding a career, and dating while wrestling with her sexuality and gender identity. She recalls coming out to friends, family, and even her boss, and what it was like meeting other transgender people from the area, who are more common than people realize. She explains how her life has changed since she’s come out, why she started embracing activism and writing Living Your Truth, and she shares the touching story of her mother’s surprising reaction.
In The Last Word segment, we react to the comments on Dee’s article on the recent incident at Kildare’s Irish Pub in Scranton, where a woman was allegedly asked to leave after she used the women’s restroom because she was mistaken for a man, and we discuss the meaning of the term “cisgender,” which confused some readers.
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Photo by Mark Dennebaum/TwentyFiveEight Studios
