By Jayce Tyler
Mycah Angelou Taylor’s podcast, One Gay at a Time, feels like listening to a good friend talk about anything and everything. Every other Wednesday evening marks the launch of a new episode, in which Taylor dives into topics ranging from their own coming out tale, to the “lavender tax,” to the intersection of Blackness and queerness. Whatever the discussion of the week may be, Taylor both educates and entertains their audience.
In February 2019, Spectrum South featured Taylor, a now 20-year-old University of Houston student, as part of our Transouthern Youth series. Angelou expressed in this interview how they use their substantial Instagram following to promote self-care, self-love, and the idea that you can be happily queer. “To me, visibility is about letting people know that there’s not one way to be non-binary,” they said. “There are kids of color, there are kids who do sports, there are kids who do average kid things and look like everyone else. And I think it’s important that people get to see that, because that’s how it becomes normalized.”
Taylor has now expanded their mission of bringing visibility to the LGBTQ community with the creation of One Gay at a Time, a podcast “by a gay for the gays, but most importantly for the allies.” When asked about the inspiration behind the podcast—which predominantly focuses on education and advice surrounding LGBTQ identity—Taylor responds, “I started [One Gay at a Time] because I saw that there was a gap in the amount of truly accessible and correct information surrounding the LGBTQ community. A lot of young queer youth [were being written off as] “trenders,” and there were many allies who truly didn’t know [everything about LGBTQ identity] and wanted to be educated but were being called bigots for simply asking questions.”
Though Taylor’s current audience is primarily younger LGBTQ individuals, they hope to expand their presence and to reach more parents of queer youth as well. So far, the podcast has dedicated episodes to both allyship and the suicide statistics surrounding LGBTQ youth—two topics crucial for parents to understand. “I typically come up with things to talk about the week of, and it usually corresponds with a current event or just something that has happened recently in my life,” Taylor says. “If neither of those [generate ideas], then I question, ‘What would freshly out me want to know?’ I have a running Word document that has every episode mapped out, and once I pick a topic, I break it down into sections so that I don’t go off on a tangent.”
So who would be Taylor’s ideal guest to have on the podcast? They pick Indya Moore, known for their role of Angel Evangelista in the FX series Pose. “I love their work so immensely, and with them being out and accepted in much of mainstream society, I would love to hear how that journey went and how they feel now,” Taylor explains.
“I see One Gay At A Time becoming a well-recognized podcast that will hopefully let me quit my day job and pursue my passion of education for folks like me,” Taylor shares. “I chose a podcast [format to create a] safe place to answer questions.” “Plus, I have recently become obsessed with my voice now that I am on testosterone,” they laugh.
Keep up with One Gay at a Time by subscribing here and follow Mycah Angelou Taylor’s Instagram for updates.
