Brian and Judson hookup with Peppermint and talk trading the Pride march for trans health care, Lady Gaga’s Drag Race demands, dating as a trans woman, bringing Black culture to predominantly white spaces and so much more

**Brian Rubin-Sowers** (0:11)
Hi, friends, welcome to Dads And Daddies, a podcast about the lives and times of the LGBTQ plus community in the here and now. I'm Brian Rubin-Sowers, the dad.

**Judson Morrow** (0:20)
And I am Judson Morrow, the daddy.

**Brian Rubin-Sowers** (0:23)
Hi, Judson.

**Judson Morrow** (0:25)
Hey, babe, what's up?

**Brian Rubin-Sowers** (0:27)
Happy Pride.

**Judson Morrow** (0:28)
Oh my God, thank you so much. What a joyous month it's been.

**Brian Rubin-Sowers** (0:31)
At the top of the month or just before, I asked you what your Pride plans were, and I don't think you could come up with any, but you're on your way to Albany Pride.

**Judson Morrow** (0:40)
I am on my way. Yes, our state capital, Albany, New York. I know that because New York was the state that was assigned to me in our fifth-grade state report.
Foreshadowing. Yeah, a very dear friend of mine, who is also my sponsor in 12 Step Recovery, has taken a work contract in Albany, so I am taking the train up to see him this weekend. I think it's gonna be delightful.

**Brian Rubin-Sowers** (1:07)
I'm so excited to hear all about what Albany does for Pride.

**Judson Morrow** (1:11)
I have been to smaller town prides. I think they're great.

**Brian Rubin-Sowers** (1:15)
Oh, they're absolutely great.

**Judson Morrow** (1:16)
Because everybody turns out in one place, and it has less of a police presence than New York City.

**Brian Rubin-Sowers** (1:26)
So at the time, I also did not know what I was doing for Pride because my family and I will be away for what is Pride weekend in New York City.
But I just came back from West Hollywood Pride. Welcome back. Which is not a small Pride.

**Judson Morrow** (1:42)
And yet, it's extremely accessible. I fucking love WeHo Pride.

**Brian Rubin-Sowers** (1:48)
It's kind of incredible. And I grew up in Los Angeles and I came out in Los Angeles, and so I used to go to Pride out there, but it has evolved and grown.
And so over the years, I've always heard about the music festival that it has become and was intimidated by it. But we happen to be out there. It was not planned.
We went because my cousin was getting married and my girls were both flower girls in the ceremony.
And he actually got married on the day of the parade. So we missed that and we also missed, I'm so sad about this, we missed Meg Stalter performing on the Pride stage.

**Judson Morrow** (2:28)
I mean, you're getting married Pride weekend? Like that's homophobic.

**Brian Rubin-Sowers** (2:31)
I know, I know. It's mostly, it's not homophobic, it's just clueless, but.

**Judson Morrow** (2:37)
They're the same thing, actually.

**Brian Rubin-Sowers** (2:39)
I don't know. Anyway, but we did spend a couple nights there. We landed in LA on the Friday night of the weekend and their Pride festival is a full weekend affair.
And so we went straight out there and we saw Ava Max. She was the headliner that night.

**Judson Morrow** (2:56)
Oh, I love her.

**Brian Rubin-Sowers** (2:58)
Which was really, really fun.
And we got to see Eric Williams and his boyfriend Matt Lummis, our dear, dear friends, which was super nice. And then we went back the next day and we saw MNEK. Do you know MNEK?

**Judson Morrow** (3:16)
I don't think so. Should I?

**Brian Rubin-Sowers** (3:20)
He, they are fabulous. They are a British musician, but largely known as a producer. But also an artist in their own right and a black queer very body part. Like he had four male dancers who were, you know, bigger boys and it was so awesome.

**Judson Morrow** (3:46)
We love that.

**Brian Rubin-Sowers** (3:48)
And the music is great and the spirit is great. Right now MNEK is really big for like working on most of Zara Larsen's music. But, I mean, I first knew him because he showed up as a judge on season two of RuPaul's Drag Race UK. And or on I think on season one, he actually coached them through their pop song challenge. Anyway, he's fabulous and so we saw MNEK.
But the highlight of my trip, or at least to West Hollywood Pride, was they have like multiple stages. There's like three or four stages and two of them are run by one music festival and the others are run by just West Hollywood Pride.
And we were at the one that was essentially just DJ after DJ and just a huge club. And we were just like standing on the outskirts and a little bit above just like watching it all. And some very hot guy walks up to me and he says, are you the Dads and Daddies podcast? And I said, I am. And he grabbed both of my arms and he said, thank you. Thank you. And then he disappeared into the night before I could even ask him his name.