GERLEMEN Podcast Aims To Help Gay Men Move From Oppression To Celebration

The Gay Liberation Movement was thriving on the East and West Coasts in the 1970s, but LGBTQ activist and author Mike Gerle's experience during that time growing up in the rural Western United States in Wyoming, Nebraska, and Idaho, was much different. He was encountering oppression and shame, not only due to his last name (pronounced 'Girly') but for his own sexual orientation.

Throughout the 80s and 90s, after initially moving to San Diego with hopes of becoming a professional ballet dancer, Gerle, an AIDS survivor, experienced the wrath of the epidemic as it claimed the lives of countless men close to him. Gerle, along with his generation, all came to be impacted by the effect of community trauma in a major way.

Now 54, on the trailhead of his elderhood, Gerle, a recently retired employee of West Hollywood City Hall, feels the deep-seated responsibility to share what he has learned along his hero's journey, from an 11-year-old gay Mormon boy to International Mister Leather, with his brothers of all ages.

His latest platform, GerleMen - Celebrating Our Greatness, a podcast which launches April 3, aims to help move the consciousness of gay men from oppression to celebration by owning one's individual dignity. Gerle believes knowing your story of 'otherness' is a hero's journey, an odyssey from oppression to celebration that has prepared each gay man for greatness.

Through his regular podcast, Gerle will share intensely personal, authentic, open and honest interviews with a bevy of unique guests ranging from fellow experts, authors, community leaders, artists, and others who have all leveraged their inimitable gifts to move from shame and tolerance to becoming thriving members of society empowered by their orientation or 'otherness.'

The podcast, and larger site and blog (www.GerleMen.com), will be designed to help both gay men and anyone self-identified as 'the other' to own their personal dignity, strengthen their connection to their chosen families, and thrive in society. It is truly the 'hero's journey.'

"As I have moved into the role of an elder within my greater gay male community, I feel a profound responsibility to take all that I have learned over the last few decades on my own hero's journey, and to impart some of that understanding and experience cultivated with my younger gay brethren."

"Through my GerleMen Podcast, I seek to help the next generation of men answer the call to brotherhood, to laughter, to spiritual connection, sex, healthy bodies, enlightened minds, and heart-centered connection, and understand that it is their own hero's journey that has prepared them for greatness. We all fear, we all fail, and we all grow anyway."

To subscribe to the GerleMen - Celebrating Our Greatness Podcast, visit iTunes https://apple.co/2yvWYyv. The GerleMen Podcast is also available through Spotify, Stitcher, and other platforms. 

To learn more and find out news on upcoming guests, subscribe to the newsletter by visiting the official website, www.GerleMen.com.