Proudly Said

🎙️ What's This Episode About? Emma Miller McCaffrey is an LGBTQ+ advocate, community volunteer, and one of those people who seems to be involved in approximately everything simultaneously, to her own detriment as John puts it, and entirely for everyone else's benefit. Recorded at home on a Friday afternoon, tired but very much still going. Emma joins John to talk about growing up under Section 28, in a religious household with no language for who she was and no visible role models outside of Elton John and George Michael, and how those experiences became the reason she has spent her adult life making things easier for the people coming after her. She traces a career and voluntary life that has taken in Mermaids, LGBTQ+ education in schools, the LGBT Fund at Consortium, volunteer leadership with Adoption UK's LGBT support group, and most recently joining the board of Comics Youth in Liverpool. There's also a viral proposal story: Emma's partner Ann, a naval officer, getting down on one knee on stage at Liverpool Pride in full number one uniform, Merseyside police flags waving in the background, and some very interesting calls with Navy comms to follow. They got married at St George's Hall registry office and held their reception at HMS Eaglet as the first same-sex couple to do so. The conversation then moves into the heart of the episode: Emma and Anne's journey to become parents. IVF attempts, a blighted ovum that left Emma's body convinced it was pregnant for eight weeks when it wasn't, the decision to adopt, the long process of being approved, finding their daughter Dee on a digital matching platform, and then being within weeks of bringing her home when COVID hit and everything stopped. They finally met Dee in person on a Friday. She was living under their roof by the Wednesday. It's warm, honest, and covers more ground than almost any episode of Proudly Said yet. A conversation about community, chosen paths, and the particular kind of determination that comes from knowing exactly why the work matters. Follow Emma and family on Instagram at @familm_m 🗣️ Why Listen? If you're seeking genuine conversations that reflect the diverse experiences within the LGBTQ+ community, Proudly Said offers a platform for those narratives. 📣 Connect with Us – ProudlySaid.co.uk Subscribe: Stay updated with new episodes. Share: If this resonates with you, share it with others who might find it meaningful. Feedback: We value your thoughts. Reach out with comments or suggestions. Support: Join The Front Row for less than £3 a month, supporting a local queer creator, or buy us a bespoke coffee or three! 🙂

🎙️ What's This Episode About? Rosa Harrison is a Liverpool-based singer, professional vocalist and queer mum to a four-year-old, recorded at home just before a gig, in a flat that John describes as having very much fallen down a rabbit hole into Wonderland. She is exactly as warm, funny and disarmingly honest as that setting suggests. Rosa joins John to talk about her journey as a performer, from open mics and function gigs to finding her own voice as a slow, jazzy acoustic artist who takes songs people know and makes them feel like something entirely her own. They get into the realities of the gigging life, what it takes to balance a creative career with being a parent, and why original music has been calling her back lately, with some Kraken songs waiting to be written, as she puts it. There's also a really candid conversation about identity. Rosa talks openly about navigating the straight to bi to lesbian pipeline, the biphobia she has encountered along the way, and the experience of having her sexuality questioned by the people closest to her even after being clear about who she is. She is thoughtful about it without being precious, and honest about how much her queer friendships have meant to her through all of it. They also cover the Queer Student Awards, where Rosa performed at what turned out to be its final night in its current form, and why that room felt so special. Plus a very good story about singing Pink Pony Club at a lesbian wedding, and a bride's dad who absolutely knew every word. It's warm, genuine, and very easy company for half an hour. Follow Rosa on Instagram at @rosaharrison. 🗣️ Why Listen? If you're seeking genuine conversations that reflect the diverse experiences within the LGBTQ+ community, Proudly Said offers a platform for those narratives. 📣 Connect with Us – ProudlySaid.co.uk Subscribe: Stay updated with new episodes. Share: If this resonates with you, share it with others who might find it meaningful. Feedback: We value your thoughts. Reach out with comments or suggestions. Support: Join The Front Row for less than £3 a month, supporting a local queer creator, or buy us a bespoke coffee or three! 🙂

🎙️ What's This Episode About? Jonathan Rippon is a queer musical comedian, singer, songwriter and former BBC television producer, who appeared on Britain's Got Talent in 2025 performing an original song called First Time in Blackpool, earned three yeses from the panel, and has been building something rather brilliant ever since. Recorded at Clockwise offices in Liverpool with a view of the Albert Dock, during Liverpool Pride weekend, having already done karaoke at Cooper's Townhouse that morning and a set at Hot Water Comedy Club the Sunday before. He is very much at home in this city. Jonathan joins John to trace a career that has run on two parallel tracks for most of his life: television production on one side, from winning a competition to appear on Number 73 as an 11-year-old to producing The Saturday Show for BBC One, and performance on the other, beginning as a choral scholar at King's College Cambridge, singing at venues including the Sydney Opera House and the Royal Albert Hall, and more recently combining his voice with stand-up comedy and original musical songs. Three years into that combination, things are moving quickly. He talks about what BGT actually looks like from the inside, the editing decision that accidentally turned a perfectly innocent lyric about an Anton deck chair into something considerably less family friendly, and how the audition became a launchpad for everything that's followed: a manager, a growing live schedule, his own comedy night JR's Secret Sauce at the Top Secret Comedy Club in London, and a monthly queer comedy night at the Birdcage Bar in Brighton. He also talks about a viral cycling video that got five million views and earned him a free Swiss bike, which was not on the original career plan. There's also an extended and very joyful conversation about Kylie, including the story of meeting her in a BBC corridor, a pen running out at exactly the wrong moment, and Kylie getting down on her knees to empty her handbag to find another one. It became a song. Of course it did. It's warm, funny, and full of the kind of enthusiasm that makes you want to go and buy a ticket to something immediately. Find out more about Jonathan at jonathanrippon.co.uk. 🗣️ Why Listen? If you're seeking genuine conversations that reflect the diverse experiences within the LGBTQ+ community, Proudly Said offers a platform for those narratives. 📣 Connect with Us – ProudlySaid.co.uk Subscribe: Stay updated with new episodes. Share: If this resonates with you, share it with others who might find it meaningful. Feedback: We value your thoughts. Reach out with comments or suggestions. Support: Join The Front Row for less than £3 a month, supporting a local queer creator, or buy us a bespoke coffee or three! 🙂

🎙️ What’s This Episode About? Nikias Tomasiello is an online personal trainer, certified nutritionist, and trans man who moved from Italy to Portsmouth, then Brighton, then Liverpool, which he and his partner both loved immediately and stayed. Episode 70 of Proudly Said, filmed on a very sweaty day in late July. Nikias joins John to talk about a fitness journey that turned out to be about a lot more than fitness. Growing up in Italy with no awareness that trans men existed, Nikias spent his teens being bullied for his weight, developed anorexia, and only began to understand why when he noticed that his experience of having the condition looked completely different to everyone else around him. It was that realisation, years later, that helped him put the pieces together about who he was. It's an unusually thoughtful route into a conversation about identity, and Nikias tells it with real candour and a very dry sense of humour. The conversation then moves into what Nikias does now and why it matters. Working as an LGBTQ+ focused personal trainer, he talks about the barriers trans and non-binary people face when it comes to fitness: gym anxiety, safety, being handed programmes that don't reflect who you are or what you actually want from your body. He talks about how he approaches things differently, starting with questions rather than assumptions, and the clients whose lives have shifted through the work they've done together, one of whom went from training at home for three years to walking into a gym for the first time. It's a warm, thoughtful conversation about body, identity, and what it means to help people feel at home in themselves. If you're interested in working with Nikias, you can find out more at fittotransformtraining.com and follow him on Instagram @nikias_fittotransform 🗣️ Why Listen? If you’re seeking genuine conversations that reflect the diverse experiences within the LGBTQ+ community, Proudly Said offers a platform for those narratives. 📣 Connect with Us – ProudlySaid.co.uk Subscribe: Stay updated with new episodes. Share: If this resonates with you, share it with others who might find it meaningful. Feedback: We value your thoughts. Reach out with comments or suggestions. Support: Join The Front Row for less than £3 a month, supporting a local queer creator, or buy us a bespoke coffee or three! :)

🎙️ What’s This Episode About? Content warning: this episode contains adult themes, explicit discussion of sex work, recreational drug use, online harassment, and mature content throughout. It is intended for audiences aged 18 and over. Jay Mitchell describes himself as Liverpool's number one OnlyFans creator, and in this episode he sits down with John to talk about pretty much everything. They cover how Jay got into content creation, going from a shy lad who only felt comfortable after a few drinks to someone who has built a career being unapologetically himself on camera. Jay talks honestly about the realities of the industry, including what it actually pays versus what people claim it pays, the business of collaboration with other creators, and the constant battle with Instagram's algorithm and shadowbanning. The conversation gets into chemsex and drug use within gay spaces, what consent and safety look like in less regulated corners of the industry, and why Jay prefers the freedom of independent content creation over studio work. They also talk about the growing tension between platforms trying to restrict adult content creators and a community that sees sex work as legitimate work, as well as what viral hate looks like when a post escapes its intended audience and lands in the wrong algorithm. It is funny, frank, and at times surprisingly thoughtful. Jay is exactly as unfiltered as you would hope. Find Jay on Instagram at @jay.mitchellx and on OnlyFans at Jay Mitchell. 🗣️ Why Listen? If you’re seeking genuine conversations that reflect the diverse experiences within the LGBTQ+ community, Proudly Said offers a platform for those narratives. 📣 Connect with Us – ProudlySaid.co.uk Subscribe: Stay updated with new episodes. Share: If this resonates with you, share it with others who might find it meaningful. Feedback: We value your thoughts. Reach out with comments or suggestions. Support: Join The Front Row for less than £3 a month, supporting a local queer creator, or buy us a bespoke coffee or three! :)