Episode 189: Morgan Bassichis
Gender Reveal
Tuck Woodstock
4.7 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 18 August 2025
⏱️ 61 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Tuck and Ozzy chat with comedian, organizer, and writer Morgan Bassichis (they/them). Topics include:
- Whether a comedy show is a good use of time in this Political Moment
- Lessons from Lavender Hill commune and The Faggots & Their Friends...
- Why "Free Palestine" is directly relevant us as trans & queer people
- Why are there so many trans Jews, btw?
- Plus: Personalized bar mitzvah boxers, the Gay Who Cried Wolf, voting gay people back into the closet, and an erotic sexual relationship with a ghost?
This Week in Gender: The 2025 Gender Census is open! Plus, new books by Denne Michele Norris, Lee Lai, Gretchen Felker-Martin, Hal Schrieve, Rose Dommu, Grace Byron, Zefyr Lisowski, and LittlePuss.
Find Morgan in Can I Be Frank? and at morganbassichis.com.
Preorder Sex Change and the City today!
Submit a piece of Theymail: Today's messages were from J Warren and et al. Scholars
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Find transcripts and starter packs at genderpodcast.com. We're also on Instagram @gendereveal.
Senior Producer: Ozzy Llinas Goodman
Logo: Ira M. Leigh
Music: Breakmaster Cylinder
Additional music: "Little or Nothing" by Blue Dot Sessions
Sponsors: DeleteMe (code: TUCK20)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to Gender Reveal, a podcast where we hopefully get a little bit closer to understanding what the hell gender is. |
| 0:22.4 | I'm your host and resident gender detective, Tuck Woodstock. |
| 0:33.9 | Hey, everyone. I hope you've all been hanging in there. |
| 0:36.8 | This week on the show, I am so, so thrilled to share my and Ozzie's conversation with Morgan Bassacus. |
| 0:43.0 | Morgan is a longtime organizer and performer. You might have seen them at an action with JVP or in one of their many live shows. |
| 0:50.5 | If you are familiar with the 1977 book, The Faggots and Their Friends Between Revolutions by |
| 0:54.8 | Larry Mitchell, you might also know that Morgan wrote the introduction to the 2019 edition |
| 0:59.1 | of that book and also stage a musical based off the book in 2017. |
| 1:04.2 | Most recently, Morgan is the creator of Can I Be Frank, a one-person show that is currently |
| 1:08.8 | running at the Soho Playhouse in Manhattan. |
| 1:16.1 | The show is in conversation with the work of Frank Maya, who was one of the first out gay comedians on network television. The show is directed by Sam Pinkleton, who also directed |
| 1:21.1 | Josh Sharps' Tadda, and a little play by the name of O'Mary. I give you all that context |
| 1:27.1 | now because almost none of it is |
| 1:29.0 | explained in the interview itself, which is classic us. But we do talk a lot about the making of |
| 1:34.8 | Can I Be Frank and the ideas behind it, as well as the experience of being directed by Sam Pinkleton. |
| 1:40.8 | Like he would text me at midnight and I'd be like, that word has to go. That joke is just not funny enough. And you're like, oh my God. He'd be like, that's a six gay joke. |
| 1:48.8 | We also talk about everything from Bar Mitzvah Boxer Shorts and Queer Communes to Morgan's hopes and strategies as an organizer and why canonizing our queer ancestors is actually counterproductive. |
| 1:59.6 | All these people who made important contributions were shitty, beautiful people, just like we are |
| 2:05.3 | shitty, beautiful people. |
| 2:06.6 | But before we get to all that, I have huge news, which is that sex change in the city is |
| 2:11.1 | available for pre-order now. |
| 2:13.2 | This is the second Girl Dad Press anthology, the spiritual sequel to the award-winning |
... |
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