Interview with Rikki Bates | Ep #32

Interview with Rikki Bates | Ep #32

Author: Rick Koonce June 16, 2023 Duration: 42:06

Rikki Bates is a rock and roll drummer who has struggled much of her life with gender dysphoria. For years, like many Transgender people, she lived with deep depression, and a lack of adequate employment.  Then, she managed to get gender reassignment surgery which changed her life.  In the process, she also brought about precedent-setting changes in how Transgender health care is provided to people in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.


In this fascinating and wide-ranging interview with PFLAG Cape Cod's Rick Koonce, Rikki describes the bullying she encountered as a kid, the internal psychological confusion that she experienced as a child and adolescent, her struggles with depression as she entered adulthood, and the turn-around in her life that began to occur following gender affirming surgery and personal therapy.  She also reveals the fascinating components of gender-affirming surgery itself, the challenges of dating as a Transwoman, and offers advice to others who may think they are Transgender.


Please click the button to subscribe so you don't miss any episodes and leave a review if your favorite podcast app has that ability. Thank you!


For more information, visit the PFLAG Cape Cod website: https://www.pflagcapecod.org/podcasts.html


© 2020 - 2022 PFLAG Cape Cod


Hosted by Rick Koonce, Profiles in LGBTQ+ Courage: Real Stories of Identity & Acceptance is built around intimate, unscripted conversations that go beyond headlines. This podcast lives in the personal moments-the difficult family dinner, the quiet realization, the supportive friend’s first question. You’ll hear directly from LGBTQ+ individuals, their parents, siblings, and allies, sharing narratives that are less about grand declarations and more about the daily, nuanced journey toward living authentically. The stories encompass coming out, gender transition, and the complex, ongoing search for belonging, offering a raw and moving look at what courage actually sounds like in real time. Produced by Huntington Northstar Productions in partnership with PFLAG Cape Cod, each episode functions as a personal audio journal, focusing on a single portrait where vulnerability and strength are inseparable. Listening feels like being invited into a deeply meaningful, private conversation that highlights our shared humanity. The collective result is a powerful and necessary tapestry of voices that celebrates resilience while honestly examining the challenges within families and communities. Tune in for a series that connects through specificity, where every story adds a vital thread to the broader fabric of human experience.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 56

Profiles in LGBTQ+ Courage: Real Stories of Identity & Acceptance
Podcast Episodes
Interview with Nell Fields | Ep #15 [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 31:13
Nell Fields is a born-again Christian, social justice advocate, and a happily married lesbian who's been with her wife Sarah, a lawyer, for over 20 years. She's also the minister of Waquoit Congregational church in East…
Interview with Deer Sullivan | Ep #14 [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 34:56
Bisexuality... Even among members of the LGBTQ+ community it's a concept and reality that often is not fully understood – or appreciated. As a result, bisexuals sometimes feel marginalized and rejected, even among people…
Interview with Dr. Maureen Osborne | Ep #13 [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 37:59
Dr. Maureen Osborne is a psychologist and gender therapist who has spent over two decades serving the needs of transgender clients. In this fascinating interview with PFLAG Cape Cod's Rick Koonce, Maureen talks, in depth…
Interview with Ali Sands | Ep #12 [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 46:20
Ali Sands is an author and professional speaker who writes and speaks frequently on the topics of love, relationships, intimacy, and gender expression and identity. They're topics she knows a lot about. Married for 23 ye…
Interview with Dirk Correia | Ep #11 [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 33:26
Dirk Correia is a twenty-something transgender male who identifies as nonbinary -- meaning that they don't identify with being either entirely male or female, as society typically understands those terms. As Dirk explain…
Lori Duron | Ep #10 [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 44:54
She calls herself "a fierce Mama bear" when it comes to safeguarding the rights and safety of her two boys. So says Lori Duron, author of Raising My Rainbow, a book that chronicles her family's adventures raising a gende…
Elias Lieberman: Ally | Ep #9 [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 29:16
Rabbi Elias Lieberman has been Rabbi of the Falmouth Jewish Congregation on Cape Cod since 1990. In that time, he's been a steadfast champion of LGBTQ rights, signing on early to support same-sex marriage when it first b…
Joanne Hush: Mother | Ep #8 [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 27:35
You might call Joanne Hush a social pioneer. It's probably not a label she would ascribe to herself. But, Joanne is the mother of a gay son and a lesbian daughter, both of whom came out to her (and her husband Paul) deca…
Alex: Trans Man | Ep #7 [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 28:52
36-year-old Alex Smith knew, from an early age, that he was different. But, as a child, he didn't have the vocabulary to describe his feelings, or the psychological maturity to understand the emotions that stirred in him…
Susan Smith: Parent | Ep #6 [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 34:28
Susan Smith is the mother of a 36-year-old transgender son who she raised with her husband, Roger, on a rural Pennsylvania farm. Back in the 1980s and 90s, sexuality wasn't a topic that even most progressive, open-minded…