Paper Brain

In this episode of Paper Brain, I finally come out to my dad. Here's the image I showed him to describe gender fluidity. It doesn't represent the complexity and nuance of gender fluid identity, but when explaining this to someone with Alzheimer's, simpler is better. https://tinyurl.com/ydg2czuo "I'm Bisexual - A Coming Out Song!" was by Dodie Clark, who can be found on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/doddleoddle "Fresh Air" was by Kevin MacLeod: https://incompetech.com/ The final musical piece was Tchaikovsky's 5th Symphony.   To contact Melody Peter Young, please email melodyyourd@gmail.com Like Paper Brain on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/paperbrainpodcast/   I hope you've enjoyed Paper Brain, and I really appreciate you taking the time to listen. Be sure to rate and leave a review on iTunes!

In this episode of Paper Brain, I explore my family's history with Alzheimer's disease, my parents' somewhat rocky relationship, and my own journey towards becoming closer to my dad. My coming out, I think, is the final step on that journey. This episode contains discussions of alcohol abuse. All music in this episode was composed by Kevin MacLeod and can be found at incompetech.com. Like Paper Brain on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/paperbrainpodcast/   A Father's Paper Brain (2014) by Melody Peter Young Your mind is in recycled boxes and taped to our cabin walls on sticky notes, frayed paper faces and ripped pieces of calendars. Your words all jumbled, built of runny dry- erase ink. Birthdays, passwords, piled to mountains, you don’t live in the redwoods anymore. You don’t live in your shoes or your metal-worn hands, you exist in paper: trucks of it, packets, leaves, dangling from corners like the wailing streamers of a New Year’s horn. You live there, prodding eternity with one hand, nudging me with another. Paper curls, ink fades; but your laugh still bursts between my teeth in shaven shards of air.

In this first episode of Paper Brain, I introduce my dad and his disease, and talk with the other members of my immediate family about my gender identity. With Alzheimer's being the way it is, if I'm going to come out to my dad, I need to do it soon. And I want to document the process.

Coming Father’s Day: Paper Brain. A three-episode podcast about family, queer identity, and Alzheimer’s disease. In 2013, I was figuring out my gender identity... and my father had just been diagnosed with early on-set Alzheimer's disease. Now, in Pride Month of 2018, I've finally decided I'm ready to come out to my dad as genderfluid. In this three-episode podcast, I explore my relationship with him, how Alzheimer's has affected him, and what it's like to come out to someone who loves you when they may no longer have the capacity to understand new, nuanced concepts of gender and sexuality. The first of three episodes is coming soon!