Episode 285: Chris Tompkins

Coming Out Pod

Health & Fitness, Sexuality, Comedy, Mental Health

4.9 • 584 Ratings

🗓️ 7 February 2024

⏱️ 74 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

LGBTQ-affirming therapist Chris Tompkins clearly remembers knowing by the age of six that he was gay. So when he was told that his six-year-old nephew was "not old enough" to understand that he had a gay uncle, it started Chris down a path that ultimately led to him a writing a book titled "Raising LGBTQ Allies: A Parent’s Guide to Changing the Messages from the Playground." Chris describes how his religious upbringing made him genuinely believe that if he put all his energy into becoming "the best Christian," he could eventually make himself straight (spoiler alert: he couldn't). A natural storyteller, Chris details several close calls he had during his study abroad in Italy ("I feel like I was trying to come out"), and shares the beautiful story of how he eventually met his first boyfriend through a series of random-but-fateful events. Plus, Chris's record-breaking tour where he came out to a whopping seven family members during a single visit home!

Follow Chris on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook at @aroadtriptolove, and check out his website, aroadtriptolove.com, for info on his book, his work, and much more!

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hey, everybody, welcome to Coming Out Pod.
0:10.1	Okay, today's queer root shoutout is another one where I think whatever,
0:15.4	whatever gender you are attracted to, whatever gender identity presentation, I feel like many can relate to this one.
0:23.6	Shout out to you, if you're a queer root, is the Hanson brothers, famous for Mbop, which hit the
0:31.6	airwaves in 1997. If you are a little too young or a little too old to be familiar with the Hansons,
0:36.5	they were adorable, long-haired blonde boys who confused many queer people because they were sort
0:46.5	of, they were sort of ambiguous in their gender.
0:50.1	Many burgeoning queer women had crushes on the Hansons and then later realized, ah, it's
0:56.3	because they looked like girls.
0:58.0	But yeah, if you're not familiar with the Hanson brothers, do a Google image search.
1:02.7	They were 16, 14, and 11 when that song came out.
1:06.9	God bless them.
1:08.0	They are now probably billionaires.
1:10.4	And if they were your queer awakening, shout out to you.
1:14.4	Folks, I am here today with Chris Tompkins. Hello, Chris. Thank you for being here.
1:20.6	Thank you, Lauren. Thank you for having me.
1:22.3	Oh, my goodness. It is my pleasure. So Chris is an LGBTQ affirming therapist, and he is the author of a book called Raising LGBTQ Allies, A Parents Guide to Changing the Messages from the Playground.
1:37.7	Chris, yeah, is there anything that you would like to tell folks just briefly up top about about you. We'll get into your identity
1:47.7	and all that. Yeah. Yeah. Gosh, I'm an uncle. I have five nieces and nephews that I'm super
1:55.2	close with. Five. Yes, five. Yeah. Yeah. And I'm from Arizona originally and I've been living in Los Angeles for,
2:05.2	oh my gosh, I think it's been 14 years now. Yeah, yeah. And Chris lives in West Hollywood,
2:13.5	aka WeHo. And even if you're not from L.A., you have heard a lot of discussion about WeHo on the
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Coming Out Pod, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Coming Out Pod and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.