Michael Arceneaux On Love, Liquid Courage And Letting Go

Death, Sex & Money

Slate Podcasts

Business, Health & Fitness, Society & Culture, Careers, Relationships, Sexuality

4.6 • 7.6K Ratings

🗓️ 7 August 2019

⏱️ 25 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The writer talks about how alcohol has helped him let go of his inhibitions and embrace his sexuality—after growing up in a house where drinking often led to violence. In our last episode, we asked you about what you do when you're trying to cut back on drinking—and the desire for a drink hits. What do you do instead? Record a voice memo and send it in to [email protected]. Sign up for our newsletter at deathsexmoney.org/newsletter, and every Wednesday we'll send you podcast listening recommendations, listener letters from our inbox and updates from the show. Follow our show on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram @deathsexmoney. Got a story to share? Email us any time at [email protected]. Support Death, Sex & Money today at deathsexmoney.org/donate.

Transcript

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0:00.0	I'm usually a happy drunk but I clearly had a relapse of like rage and all that stuff and so I had to really sit myself down and be like you got to get your shit together. This is death, sex, and money.
0:17.0	Hey, Dad, can I borrow some money?
0:19.0	The show from WNYC about the things we think about a lot.
0:22.8	We never had sex.
0:24.8	And need to talk about more.
0:26.5	You know, I don't know why people are so down on funerals.
0:30.5	I'm Anna Sale.
0:41.0	When writer Michael Arseno was six years old, his uncle Daniel died of complications from AIDS. So that was when I was introduced to what AIDS meant and what, by extension, I was introduced
0:45.6	the word Faggot.
0:46.6	Where did you hear the word Faggot?
0:48.7	At home, it was a drunken rant from my dad after the funeral.
0:53.0	Around that same time, Michael was starting to figure out that he was gay.
0:57.0	He didn't tell anyone.
0:59.0	You know, this is 1990, in the early 90s. My only points of references are my uncle Daniel Dine.
1:06.2	Men on film in a living color which was the effeminate gay male stereotype so
1:11.6	they were to be mocked at.
1:14.0	And then movies like Philadelphia, where again you die of AIDS.
1:17.9	So it wasn't, that's all I had.
1:22.2	So imagine, and I grew Catholics Catholic so I was screwed up to say the least.
1:30.3	Michael's religious upbringing and later conflicts with his parents about his sexuality
1:35.2	inspired the title of his first book.
1:37.6	It's called I Can't Date Jesus Love, Sex, Family, Race, and other reasons I've put my faith in Beyoncé.
	...

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