New podcast explores racism and consent within the gay community

There is a tendency to think of the gay community as a single entity, and that’s really not accurate, says Dain Evans.
Evans is the creator of a new, or at least relaunching, podcast called Permission. The idea of the podcast is to talk about some of the same stuff we discuss and fight over as a society, but within gay society. Those are things like racism, privilege and consent.

“I noticed that, as gay men, we were uncomfortable about so many things and we don’t know why,” Evans said in an interview. “I want the podcast to allow us to talk openly and honestly about sex in some other capacity besides, ‘Oh dude, this guy I hooked up with last night.'”

The podcast first came out in 2015 but went on a hiatus until last month. In June, Evans reheated Permission with an episode in conversation with leaders of the group Edugaytion, about tolerance within the gay community. Earlier this month, Evans covered the Philadelphia Trans-Health Conference, which he used to discuss, “a new understanding of the trans and non-binary communities.”

Another area Evans is interested in talking about is race.

“As a white gay man we have a tendency of saying, ‘We’re a minority too, we know what you’ve been through.’ We can say, ‘We’ve been through it with you’ but that’s not true,” Evans said. “When a person of color is walking down the street and they’re worried they’re going to get beaten by a cop, they’re not as worried about being able to marry someone of the same gender.”

And so there’s room for discussion.

Evans was raised in a conservative house in Michigan. He thinks this baseline experience has helped him be a listener, tolerant of other people’s ideas.

“I’m happy about the upbringing I had and it allows me to talk about this stuff so much more intelligently,” he explained. “I know how the other side sees it. … When I was younger, I was uncomfortable about all these things. I wouldn’t want to have listened to it. I would have rolled my eyes. But I’ve grown.”