UNCLOSETED with Spencer Macnaughton

The debate over trans athletes has reached a fever pitch. Riley Gaines, a former collegiate swimmer who tied for fifth place with a trans swimmer in 2022, has become a star in the world of conservative politics. Former NBA players Enes Kanter Freedom and Royce White recently announced their intentions to enter the WNBA draft and “expose” the league’s lack of policy for transgender players. And less than two months out from the November midterms, trans athletes are shaping up to be an issue on voters’ minds as they head to the polls. All of this noise has created little room for thoughtful conversation. We wanted to change that. In this episode of “UNCLOSETED with Spencer Macnaughton,” we sit down with three of the leading researchers and scientists in this field to get an evidence-based understanding of what we know—and don’t know—about the physiological differences between cis and trans women and girls in sports. “UNCLOSETED with Spencer Macnaughton” is a new podcast by Uncloseted Media, an investigative LGBTQ-focused nonprofit news publication. Follow and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. YouTube // Spotify // Apple Subscribe to our YouTube channel. Read our full investigations on Substack. Find us on Instagram. Host: Spencer Macnaughton Editor: Laury Peyssonnerie Reporting: Bella Sayegh Social producer/Design: Sophie Holland Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On July 4, 2025, a protest outside of the Prairieland Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention facility near Dallas, Texas, escalated as some protestors broke off and committed acts of vandalism. The protest had started hours earlier as a noise demonstration where activists set off fireworks and used other noise makers to alert detainees in the facility that they supported them. But when law enforcement arrived to respond to the vandals, a police officer was shot nonfatally in the neck area. Authorities later charged protester Champagne Song for the shooting. Meagan Morris, who says she was a half-mile away playing Pokémon in her car when she heard the gunshots, was soon after stopped by police and taken into custody. Three months later, the Trump administration accused her and eight other defendants—three of whom, including Morris, are trans—of being “Antifa terrorists” and “Antifa Cell operatives.” Morris and her codefendants were eventually sentenced in part for providing material support for terrorists in what the Department of Justice called “the first sentencing of defendants affiliated with Antifa,” a name which refers to a decentralized movement based on militant opposition to fascism. The sentencing comes after Trump signed an executive order declaring antifa, short for anti-fascism, as a terrorist organization, despite no such unified organization existing. And in May, the administration’s counterterrorism strategy listed “radically pro-transgender” groups as a national security threat. Morris was sentenced to 50 years in prison, which has caused legal experts concern. They noted that her sentence is unusually harsh, more than double the longest sentence for a Jan. 6 rioter, and that it could set a precedent for strict crackdowns on freedom of speech and assembly. After speaking to Morris’ codefendant and girlfriend, Autumn Hill, we wanted to hear from Morris. In this episode of “UNCLOSETED with Spencer Macnaughton,” she’s calling in from Johnson County Jail in Texas, where she is currently serving her sentence. “UNCLOSETED with Spencer Macnaughton” is a new podcast by Uncloseted Media, an investigative LGBTQ-focused nonprofit news publication. Follow and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. YouTube // Spotify // Apple Subscribe to our YouTube channel. Read our full investigations on Substack. Find us on Instagram. Host: Spencer Macnaughton Editor: Laury Peyssonnerie Reporting: Hope Pisoni and Sophie Holland Social producer/Design: Sophie Holland Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Tristan Schukraft started his first business when he was 21, selling Razor scooters out of his pickup truck to help finance his idea for an e-ticketing platform for the airline industry. Now, he boasts a portfolio of 68 businesses, which he says have led him to become a “billionaire.” Schukraft has become widely known as the “CEO of Everything Gay.” He is the CEO of MISTR, a major LGBTQ telehealth platform expanding access to PrEP and STI testing, and he owns Tryst Hospitality, a family of luxury gay hotels with destinations in iconic LGBTQ destinations like San Juan and Puerto Vallarta. And last year, after Schukraft spent $17 million to buy much of the Fire Island Pines’ commercial district, The Wall Street Journal magazine ran a story titled “The Man Who Bought Fire Island.” In this episode of “UNCLOSETED with Spencer Macnaughton,” we sit down with Schukraft to talk about the importance of preserving queer institutions and ending the HIV epidemic. We also discuss the controversies and difficulties in managing so many LGBTQ-focused businesses as well as five—yes, five—boyfriends. Disclaimer: MISTR, Schukraft’s telehealth platform that offers free online access to PrEP, DoxyPEP, STI testing, Hepatitis C testing and treatment and long-term HIV care across the U.S., supports some of Uncloseted Media’s healthcare coverage. MISTR did not have any editorial input into the content of this story. “UNCLOSETED with Spencer Macnaughton” is a new podcast by Uncloseted Media, an investigative LGBTQ-focused nonprofit news publication. Follow and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. YouTube // Spotify // Apple Subscribe to our YouTube channel. Read our full investigations on Substack. Find us on Instagram. Host: Spencer Macnaughton Editor: Laury Peyssonnerie Audio Production Intern: Bella Sayegh Social producer/Design: Sophie Holland Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Dr. Demetre Daskalakis is one of the foremost LGBTQ health professionals in the U.S. In November 2020, the waning months of Trump’s first term, he was appointed director of the Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Through part of his tenure with the Biden administration, he also served as the deputy response coordinator for mpox at the White House as well as the director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases. While he continued a lot of this work after Biden left office, he didn’t last long under Trump 2.0. In August 2025, Daskalakis resigned from the CDC over the direction that health policy had taken under Trump and Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. In his resignation letter, which garnered widespread attention, he said he was “unable to serve in an environment that treats CDC as a tool to generate policies and materials that do not reflect scientific reality and are designed to hurt rather than to improve the public’s health.” He cited changes to the CDC’s immunization schedule, a lack of scientific communication from HHS leadership and the growing influence of anti-vaccine sentiments in the department. A year after his resignation, we wanted to hear from Daskalakis, who is now serving as chief medical officer of the Callen-Lorde Community Health Center, an LGBTQ health clinic in New York City. In this episode of “UNCLOSETED with Spencer Macnaughton,” Daskalakis speaks about his time working for the Trump administration, the erosion of scientific rigor under RFK Jr. and the troubling future for HIV and LGBTQ healthcare in the U.S. “UNCLOSETED with Spencer Macnaughton” is a new podcast by Uncloseted Media, an investigative LGBTQ-focused nonprofit news publication. Subscribe to our YouTube channel. Read our full investigations on Substack. Find us on Instagram. Host: Spencer Macnaughton Social producer/Design: Sophie Holland Editor: Laury Peyssonnerie Audio Production Intern: Bella Sayegh Additional reporting: Hope Pisoni Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Taylor Snider tells Uncloseted Media about a sexual encounter with the late senator, how she was threatened to remain silent, and what it says about anti-LGBTQ politics on Capitol Hill.