June (or JUNlPER)

If I didn't believe that, then what's the point of any of this?

And I want to give people space to reflect and grow and maybe see themselves in you.

And at the same time, many of the listeners of the show are queer.

And the turn that this country has taken on queer issues over the last few years is not a thought exercise for us, especially those of us who live in red states, especially those of us who are kids who don't have like legal autonomy.

It's a lived experience with consequences.

And those listeners are going to have varied reactions to what you say.

And I hope that you understand that.

And I think that you do.

And we're definitely going to get into some of those posts and where you were when you made them.

Because like I said, I really am interested ultimately in like understanding how to get people out of this mindset, whether they're making money off of it or not.

But first, I want to start at the beginning.

As we do on this podcast, we always start with a little early life.

Could you tell us about where you grew up, what your family was like?

Did you have like conservative parents or religious parents?

Is that is that where this starts?

I mean, it strikes me because, like, so many young people who are isolated for any number of reasons resort to the Internet.

To find community.

Like, I...

I had more than 200 people in the town that I grew up in in New Jersey, but because I was gay and because I knew that I was gay so young, like, and I don't know if this is relatable to you, June, but, like, I took to, like, gay parts of the internet really early.

Like, I was on Tumblr, and I was also in, like, provocative, you know, like, where did Tumblr take you to, like, eating disorder and self-harm blogs?