Uncloseted Podcast: Investigative Newsroom Focused On The LGBTQ Community

Spencer Macnaughton is not afraid of the lion's den. In fact, he's confident that he can tame the most homophobic lion. In this podcast, Spencer goes head-to-head with these homophobes and challenges their pet and petty theories about a lifestyle in which they seem to know practically nothing about.

 Spencer is the creator/host of Uncloseted with Spencer Macnaughton, which launched on March 25 from Uncloseted Media, a nonprofit investigative newsroom focused on the LGBTQ community. Each week, Spencer digs into the people, money, and power behind the anti-LGBTQ ecosystem in America, and brings in Uncloseted reporters and outside voices to break down original investigations.

A few things that set it apart: It is doing investigative journalism, not commentary. There is no shortage of LGBTQ shows interpreting the news. Spencer's is one of the very few breaking it.

Spencer Macnaughton brings serious credentials. He is a Gracie Award winner and Emmy nominee who has reported and produced for 60 Minutes, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Vice, Vox, Time, NBC News, The Guardian, and Rolling Stone, and he teaches LGBTQ journalism at NYU.

Spencer says: "Minsinformation; Artificial intelligence; Corporate and political interference, and loudmouth influencers who care more about angertainment and less about facts. These are the forces informing the next generation about the LGBTQ community. There is next to no fair, accurate, nonpartisan LGBTQ journalism responding to this crisis."

In the episode with Katy Faust, the leader of a new campaign to overturn gay marriage in the U.S., and smugly espouses her "natural law" theory that only the biological mother and father can raise a child, Mr. Macnaughton, far from arguing with Faust and her smirking attitude, calmly probed her argument. 

 Faust kept hesitating to answer his questions about if her restriction on anyone raising a child other than the biological parents meant that no adoptions, no divorce, no in vitro fertilization, and never removing children from an abusive parent. Her composure seemed to crumble as Mr. McNaughton surgically probed the fallacies and homophobia inherent in her concocted theory. 

 

Other guests so far include Hope Pisoni, Uncloseted reporter, on her Bureau of Prisons investigation about how her conversations with eight incarcerated trans women, led her to the discovery that the Bureau of Prisons is illegally denying them gender-affirming care.

 

 Guest Matt Bernstein, host of A Bit Fruity, discussed why young queer audiences have moved past legacy media and how he became one of the Internet’s most influential queer voices in progressive politics. James Dale, who sued the Boy Scouts in 1992, guested on the show to discuss the new fight Pete Hegseth is sparking over Scouting America

 
Sami and Greg Tacher, a father and son in Colorado, discussed surviving conversion therapy and rebuilding their relationship, and Lucas Pearson, talked about developing a ketamine addiction tied to growing up gay in a conservative Christian home.

Unlike outlets like Fox News, Facebook, The Daily Wire, and the American Family Association, Uncloseted Media is a trusted source that provides audiences with fact-focused, rigorous journalism at a time when the queer community and the freedom of the press are under unprecedented attack. 

Spencer Macnaughton says: "Launching a podcast represents our recognition that packaging our journalism in ways that meet audiences where they’re at is essential. Uncloseted represents all aspects of our mission as a nonprofit newsroom."
 
 When Ear Worthy asked why this podcast was developed, Spencer Mcacnaughton responded: "Far-right influencers are dominating in the podcast ring. The top ten podcasts in the U.S. on Spotify are frequently filled with right-wing perspectives. Nearly a third of news influencers lean right. And right-leaning online shows get nearly five times as many viewers as left-leaning ones."

Mr. Macnaughton continues: "Many of the top podcasts feature hosts who spew anti-LGBTQ language. Joe Rogan, who is number one in the U.S. on Spotify and has over 14 million listeners, has falsely said trans people are 'perverts' who commit the majority of school shootings. Tucker Carlson, number four in the U.S., has claimed that gender-affirming health care allows adults to 'basically molest and abuse children.' And Candace Owens, at number 10, has called homosexuality a 'social contagion' and has blamed gay men for pedophilia in the church."
 
 Since Uncloseted Media launched as a nonprofit news publication in 2024, the vast majority of its reporting has been delivered in writing. To reach audiences where they’re at and to meaningfully fill the gap in accurate and fair LGBTQ storytelling, Uncloseted decided that in need to be in the video and audio space.  

Let's look at the facts. LGBTQ+ individuals are nearly four times more likely to be victims of violent crime than straight people. When defending themselves or surviving in unsafe environments, they may be disproportionately arrested in altercations due to bias, according to the Prison Policy Initiative. Further, same-sex married couples have a median household income of approximately $110,600, which is higher than opposite sex married couples. 

That figure could be much higher but transgender and non-binary people make an estimated 70 cents for every dollar the typical worker makes. Transgender women report earning as little as 60 cents for every dollar, and LGBTQ+ people of color experience severe income gaps, with Black and Latino LGBTQI+ households facing wage deficits of up to $33,690 compared to the overall population, according to the Human Rights Campaign.

What I love about Spencer Macnaughton's Uncloseted is that he battles the forces of homophobia and transphobia with facts, logic, and reasoning, while they resort to vague interpretations of religious texts, a return to a male-dominated, female-submissive societal structure, and crude stereotypes and scare tactics. 

Are these people to deny the great contributions made by Alexander the Great, Emily Dickinson, Pyotr Tchaikovsky, Michelangelo, Oscar Wilde, Josephine Baker, Alan Turing, Sally Ride, and many others?