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Hello Monday with Jessi Hempel

Jessi Hempel on the power of coming out

Hello Monday with Jessi Hempel

LinkedIn

Careers, Business

4.71.1K Ratings

🗓️ 9 February 2022

⏱️ 54 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

This week marks the start of June, and with it, Pride month in the US. To celebrate, we're sharing a very special episode featuring Hello Monday’s own Jessi Hempel as the guest. In this episode, guest host Leah Smart interviews Jessi about her memoir, The Family Outing. From the guest chair, Jessi shares what she’s learned about identity, the bonds of family, and what gifts await on the other side of the courage to live out loud. Follow Jessi Hempel on LinkedIn and order her debut memoir here.  Follow Leah Smart here and check out In the Arena here. Join the Hello Monday community: Subscribe to the Hello Monday newsletter, and join us on the LinkedIn News page each week for Hello Monday Office Hours, Wednesdays at 3p ET.

Transcript

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0:00.0

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0:03.6

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0:07.2

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0:10.8

experience the all-new, all-electric eSprinter. Visit mbvans.com for details.

0:18.1

LinkedIn News

0:23.8

Hey, it's Jesse. So I came out to my parents in the car.

0:30.4

I was in the back seat on my way home from college.

0:33.2

My dad was driving his hands on the wheel at 10 and 2.

0:37.0

My mom was sitting in the passenger's side and I remember that she just,

0:40.6

she started to cry, cry, cry, cry. And then she said, hey, you know,

0:46.0

I think your cousin Charlie's gay because he's really emotional.

0:50.2

My cousin Charlie was 11 at the time. But then she said, hey, Jesse, I love you so much.

0:56.8

And I wasn't expecting this and I don't know how to react but we're going to figure it out.

1:03.2

Well, my father said nothing. The next morning he comes into the kitchen and I'm eating

1:09.6

the cereal we ate a lot in the 90s called grape nuts. Maybe you remember it.

1:14.4

And my dad pours himself a bowl and he says, hey, you know, I thought I was gay once too.

1:20.9

And I looked at him and my jaw dropped. And I said, really dad, what did you do?

1:26.0

And he paused and he said, well, you know, I'm married your mom.

1:32.4

And then he walked out the door, took his briefcase, went to work.

1:37.7

Well, I was floored. It was the first moment that I realized that my dad who had until then just

1:43.6

been a lawyer living in the suburbs raising three kids with my mother. Perhaps was another person

1:49.9

as well. Not long after I came out of the closet as gay, my father came out as gay.

...

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